I finished reading this book for the second time while I was on my last trip, and when I say I read it a second time, I mean it was so fascinating that when it was done, I turned right around and read it again. It’s City Of Thieves, by David Benioff and it’s about [...]

We’ve just gotten back from an 18-day trip in Japan and probably the best way for me to be able to describe it is to say this: remember back when you were 4? And everything was new and unfamiliar and exciting? Japan was kind of like that. I walked around like a 4-year old, saying [...]

Yes, I know it’s “back IN the saddle” but that seems a bit weird when getting back ON the motorcycle — at least, to me it does. But now that the temperature had dropped below 90 multiple times, I finally had to grit my teeth and get on the bike. This wasn’t as bad as [...]

I wasn’t always like this. What I usually did, when presented with some opportunity, was waffle, citing reasons like money, or being tired, or the inconvenience, or I’d “think about it”, and think about it so long that the opportunity would pass. But then when my friend Lori died, all of a sudden I got [...]

You know how you’re in the car, driving along and your spouse doesn’t follow your directions? Or you’re the one driving, and your spouse doesn’t know how to read a map and you get lost AGAIN?  Or you’re both so busy getting pissed off at each other that you miss the exit? Now add in [...]

As I posted before, I spent the last couple of months training for a 12-hour adventure race. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a team event of 2 or 4 people, and it has the “standard” events of trekking in the woods orienteering (you can’t use a GPS, only a compass), mountain biking, [...]

(Read Part 1 and Part 2) I was so whipped the next day that I didn’t even consider getting on my bike. Besides, the seal on the van was broken – now it wasn’t so hard to climb in! Good thing – I slept on the back seat of the van until lunch, got out, [...]

(Read Part 1) Let’s just say that riding with PAC Tour and riding those kinds of distances day after day after day is an ENTIRELY different animal from a weekend, or even weeklong trip. And when it says “average” miles of 135 a day, that means that there are days longer and shorter, and Day [...]

Four years ago, I rode my bicycle across the US. In 26 days. That meant an average of 135 miles a day, no rest days. When I think back on it now, it seems like the craziest thing I’ve ever done, and it damn well might be. How did I end up on a trip [...]