Category: Travel
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Parrotheads & Motorcycles
No other musician has influenced my life more than Jimmy Buffett. As such, I’m taking a break from travel blogging to reflect on and share a bit of his influence in my life. My parents and many in the extended family were all parrot heads. Even from an early age, Jimmy Buffett’s music was always…
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Coming Home
I was surprised at how quickly a month passed. It was finally time to come home. Part of me was ready to be in my own bed. Part of me wanted to keep traveling. At some point, I needed to return home. I’d rather end on a high note while I’m still enjoying my time…
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Doing Brrrrrrrrrap!
I enjoyed the ride yesterday amongst the Sawtooth Mountains. Today is a different adventure. While yesterday was riding a bike I knew, today was a bike I’ve always wanted to ride but never got the opportunity (or courage) to ride the big red beast. It was also on the short list of motorcycles to replace…
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Into the Storm
Yesterday was fantastic. There is no other way to describe traveling through this beautiful part of the country. Today’s ride is around the northern and western side of the Sawtooth Mountains along Idaho 21. When I turned onto the highway, I instantly wanted to stop to capture these beautiful, rocky mountains. I’m equally impressed how…
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Sawing Teeth
As a young kid, I would flip through my parent’s Atlas and Gazetteer for hours looking at all kinds of places. I often looked at Idaho, envisioning it as a mountain paradise filled with mountains all around the state. Moreover, I remember being in college, thinking I was going to graduate with a computer science…
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Boise by Foot
Sarah was right. It was too long since I’d seen Andy. The past few days have been wonderful seeing him, his wife, and his now nearly grown children. Great friendships can pick up right where they left off. Andy is one of those people in my life. I am super thankful for him and his…
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537 miles for Potatoes
Today would be a different kind of driving I had not yet done on this trip. The main goal of today is distance. I wanted to get from Olympia, Washington, to Boise, Idaho. It’s about 540 miles of driving, wholly composed of high-speed freeway. The all-out freeway is not an electric car’s best path to…
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Serendipitous Olympia
I rolled into town right about dinnertime last night and met Atom for the first time face-to-face. We’d known each other in the Bay Area in somewhat distant circles but never connected face-to-face in the big metropolis. We’d exchange hellos online every few months to years, but we never met up for whatever reason. Simply…
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The Bridge to Terabithia
Starting a vacation without plans means being agile throughout your trip. In professional circles, I call this my vacation backlog. The backlog contains all of the things I could potentially ever do with some consideration of constraining factors like time and cost, but I know there is no way I can do everything in the…
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The Ends of the Earth
The time on my trip seemed to be flying by. I felt a bit of twinge as I crossed into the United States knowing that I was on the southbound leg of my journey. I felt like I was going home. I wasn’t, however, ready to fully commit that I was over the hill on…
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An Adventure to Live
I’m starting to get to the center as to why I am even here – a thousand miles north of home and nearly 2000 miles into this trip. I’m refining my journey. I started by just driving north and having no plans or direction other than getting to Canada. About 20 years ago as a…
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Caught by Smoke
After being chased around by fires for three weeks, the smoke finally caught up with me. Remember, I had no real destination or itinerary for this trip. Each day, I looked at the weather, reached out to my community, and scoured the local area for opportunities. The winds shifted from the east, so now all…
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Locks Which Grant Access
Over the past few days, I’ve highlighted numerous challenges with borders. Let’s take another look. What if borders opened access and provided opportunities? Some friends and I in Seattle had the opportunity to see the Ballard Locks, the border between Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Let’s take a look at the geography: Lake Washington is…
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Insulin in Canada
To stay healthy, I require a continuous drip of insulin to manage my type one diabetes. The price of insulin in the United States has received a lot of press these days. However, unless you live on insulin, it’s hard to really understand how broken our system is. As a type one diabetic, I try…
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Returning to America
As I am nearing the end of my time in Canada, I’m getting the hang of crossing the border. When I first started regularly traveling to Canada, border crossings were often long, complicated, and slow. One of the best pieces of advice Randy had for me was to enroll in NEXUS. NEXUS is Canada’s version…
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Hitting a goal at Kitsilano Pool
Many years ago, I took up the practice of swimming. Since then, I’ve had a goal to swim 1 mile in a pool. As I approached that goal, I’d usually overdo it and strain something, setting me back another couple of weeks and get shy of that goal. Over the years, I’ve developed a rhythm…
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Point Roberts: A Geographic Anomaly
Today was my first day on my own in Canada. Randy went back to work (it is Monday, after all), and I had the day free (as I’m on vacation 😀). What was on tap for today? Going back to the United States of course! I’ve always been a big fan of Americana – in…
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Hike of opportunity: Mamquam Falls
Fortunately, Randy found a good friend who was willing to make the drive from Vancouver up to Whistler to rescue us. The Rivian left town yesterday, and due to the regulations of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), we couldn’t ride with the tow truck driver, which is commonplace here in the States. Passenger…
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Sightings of Winter in Whistler
One of the special items on this trip was celebrating our anniversary in person. Randy booked a few days at the Nita Lake Lodge just outside of Whistler, BC. The lodge was amazing. It sits right next to a lake and has alpine cabin architecture and decor all the throughout the property. I don’t think…
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Trainwreck turned Trainwreck
Trail info at All Trails Randy and I celebrated our anniversary on “BC Day,” a holiday unlike those celebrated south of the border. BC Day is a provincial-level holiday “focused on recognizing and celebrating the unique culture and achievements of British Columbia and providing a long weekend during the summer months for the citizens of…
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Entering Canada
With three good days in Seattle, it’s time to continue north to Canada. There’s always a bit of anticipation in crossing the Canadian border, despite the fact that it’s been a regular part of my life for the last few years. This approach is my first time crossing the land border to see my partner.…
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Seattle
This post is different than just about every post on my blog. I don’t have any pictures to describe such an intensely intimate experience. I don’t think littering this blog with pictures of everybody I saw would do the kindness of Seattle justice. I saw so many people from so many parts of my life.…
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Death by Scooter, Part Two
About six years ago, I was on a business trip to Austin. That evening, everyone was going out for dinner. It was a short Lyft ride from the hotel or a reasonably long walk. I decided to split the difference with an Uber Scooter. I scanned the QR code and then was off and running. The…
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The Big Volcano
I’m learning a pattern. Many of the national parks in this area have several entrances, none of which connect, and each has exciting things to see. It makes it hard to traverse the park, so the approach needs to commit to one area in doing that area well. Paradise was the popular entrance with the…
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Multnomah Falls
I aim to hit at least “one” interesting thing each day on the drive. First, route planning. I struggle with how much preplanning to do. Since I don’t know the area, each morning it does take a considerable amount of planning to know where to go, charge, and what to do when I’m there. Evening…
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Crater Lake: Elevation Matters
Welcome to Oregon! One of the big things I’m excited about learning on this trip is how to drive my EV. Effective drivers know how to maximize the battery’s usage, consumption, and range. I don’t want to continually start to charge, but I don’t want to get stranded, either. Because I don’t know the roads…
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Autumn Through the Kitchen Window
One of the joys I love most about traveling to Vancouver is that the weather is so often radically different. I love enjoying what makes each season special a bit longer. In the morning as I’m making breakfast I’ve come to love the window of Randy’s apartment looking out over the West End. It’s a…
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The Gateway Arch
I love traveling to cities with well-known landmarks. St. Louis is no exception. The last time I was in Missouri was about 10 years ago on my cross-country motorcycle trip. I only touched the extreme southwest corner of the state which doesn’t give me any sort of Missouri credibility. When traveling, I always try to…
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Finding a new I-580
I’m settling into week three (and I know I’m behind on two blogs) but I wanted to quickly capture the essence of my evening. It’s different living in a small town. I’ve never spent a considerable amount of time in a place with less than 4 million people. Reno is the big city in these…
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Kingsbury Grade Run
Now with the motorcycle safely in the garage and most of my gear up here (minus my heated vest), it’s time to go riding. I know at home I tend to like to have my heated vest once the temperature drops below 60°. Given that the air is considerably drier up here I’m thinking I’ll…