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Vagabonding America

Do You Have a Pen: Kansas

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Kansas state flag.
Kansas state flag.

Kansas looks just like Iowa without the cool big ass truck stop.  It’s corn.  I texted a friend from St.  Paul,  Minnesota and showed her a picture of me in a traffic jam behind a tractor and she reminded me that before we met,  she was from a town of fifteen hundred so it’s nothing new to her and me being from Indiana,  I see it frequently,  but it’s still annoying,  especially when it’s right next to an interstate. 

In Kansas City I had to take the bus out because there is,  sadly,  nothing else cost-efficient to get home.  I assumed the bus station wouldn’t be in a bad area like most because my vision of Kansas City was that of a nice clean city where there is no crime, people don’t lock their doors, and the city that closes everything at 7PM.  Nope!  It was by the homeless shelter and mission and it was in the bad part of town—like usual.  I was hungry and went on my phone to find restaurants nearby.  Most restaurants were already closed and if I wasn’t waiting on a bus,  I wouldn’t have been there after dark either.  I was walking towards one spot and as I walked,  I could tell it was not the place I wanted to be walking around and I would have to walk back to the bus station after dark.  Then as I was walking,  I saw some gang markings on the sidewalk and a condom on the ground.  Nope!  I don’t know what happened there and I really don’t want to know,  but I turned around and ate bus station food. 

My friend Robert went there one time and had some time to kill before leaving and found this barbecue restaurant that he bragged about.  He really enjoyed it.  He told me it was the epitome of Kansas City style barbecue.  We ended up having a trip there one time and had extra time to kill and we were both hungry so we went there.  Like a proud father,   he wanted to show me his discovery.  And—I hated it.  I didn’t mean to hate it.  I felt like I stabbed him because he really liked it and we generally have similar tastes but I couldn’t bring myself to like it.  They use too much vinegar. I get the whole tangy verses sweet thing, but the tang almost made me throw up.  It was like a sweet and sour sauce that forgot any form of sweet.  The food stayed down,  but it didn’t want to.  The copious amounts of  “tangy”  just didn’t set well with me.  It was tantamount to feeling parched and the water was in the hot trunk of your car.  The food was necessary,  but unsoothing at the same time.  I love Barbecue and I really wanted to like this place and they had great reviews,  so I chalk it up to being me,  not them.  I’m sure they are doing just fine and the line out the door would suggest as much,  but I just don’t have the pallet for their food.  Just like a relationship between two awesome people,  it doesn’t always work out for no other reason than personal preferences. 

So to sum up Kansas,  farmlands,  ghetto,  and some barbecue I don’t really like.  Did I forget anything? 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: San Antonio

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

San Antonio

San Antonio city flag.
San Antonio city flag.

San Antonio has the look and feel of the French Quarter in New Orleans,  but with Mexican influences instead of French,  if that makes any sense.  Like New Orleans,  it’s a mix of old and new world downtown.  The fist place I had to go after leaving my hotel was The Alamo.  After a long line,  I finally made it inside and it was underwhelming,  but with only a caveat as a reason.  My parents were both history buffs and they loved the history of The Alamo.  Growing up,  I heard all about it and remember what they told me.  Mother loved westerns so we even watched a few movies that featured it.  You expect larger than life events to be larger than life.  In the end, it was an inconspicuous two hundred year old church that has been preserved.  The church was built as most churches of the time would have been in areas of lesser income,  still ornate for the time,  but no cathedral.  Speaking to an Uber driver named Jesus later,  he said to check out some of the other missions in town,  as they are more impressive.  Though not a strategic enough battle to have made a difference,  the incident at The Alamo had deep emotional meaning and those who died there,  were heroes of Texas,  near patron saints of Texas liberation, and that served as a battle cry for the rest of the conflict before Texas became independent of Mexico.  It is just physically small in comparison to the size of the meaning behind the church. 

Moving on,  you will come across the riverwalk,  a really cool design.  According to maps and brochures published,  the riverwalk area is roughly fifteen miles long.  I wasn’t walking fifteen miles,  but I did walk some of it on a cool,  but humid day and it was really awesome to see all of the riverfront restaurants,  parks,  and shops.  If you go up to the street level,  it’s even more of the same.  I was suggested by an Uber driver to check out The Pearl,  which is a restaurant,  but a part of town became known by that name too.  According to the Uber driver,  it was a restaurant,  then a cooking school.  Students didn’t always leave upon graduation and some started restaurants in the same area.  Driving past the area,  it was the epitome of gentrification.  That’s a word that a lot of people don’t like because it usually means property values go up and reduce affordable housing in areas.  I don’t like the term because it usually means I don’t want to be there after nightfall.  Driving through,  it wasn’t the most savory of places,  but it also looked like a foodie’s wet dream of little something restaurants and bistros. 

I took the Amtrak out of San Antonio and when I got near the train station,  I discovered another part of the downtown area to fall in love with.  San Antonio is truly an amazing city that I need explore further. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Arkansas

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Arkansas

Arkansas State Flag
Arkansas State Flag

Arkansas is a strange state and I’ve mostly traveled it from West Memphis,  which is east on Interstate 40 to Little Rock,  then Interstate 30 to Texarkana at the Texas border. 

Arkansas makes me believe a study should be done between the wearing of short Daisy Dukes and corollate that to unwed pregnancies.  When I say short,  I mean cut off so short that the pockets hang out on the outer side and one lip hangs out of both sides of the inner seem.  I see short short short shorts and nineteen year old pregnant women everywhere I go there.  Maybe there really isn’t much else to do for that age group.  I particularly enjoy antiquing,  much to the chagrin and questioning of many of my friends and I find Arkansas to be great for that,  especially in and around Little Rock. 

Some of my worst few nights traveling were in Arkansas.  It was hot and humid and I was trying to sleep in the back of a truck.  As I lay there in a hammock,  my ankles start burning like there were matches on them.  I heard a lone mosquito in my ear but just one buzzing so I wrongly discounted mosquitoes.  I got up after about ninety minutes of feeling like I rolled in insulation and kept going.  I got sleepy again and had the same issue so I closed all windows and vents on the truck and sweated.  Later I just drove another hundred miles into Texas where I was so tired that I had to stop and then it was fine.  I was covered in mosquito bites.  They couldn’t bite through both my hammock and my clothes,  but they could bite bare skin through the hammock where the bottom of my shirt lifted up.  My next attempt was similar and after that I tried staying in West Memphis,  Arkansas.  I had a brilliant plan that just popped up by chance.  As I pulled in,  I heard bats squawking.  Great!  Bats eat mosquitoes so they will keep those at bay and I won’t be eaten alive.  The problem with that flawed logic is that bats won’t go in those numbers in a place where the food source isn’t plentiful so—there were mosquitoes to spare—a lot of mosquitoes to spare....  I ended up with a small nine dollar can of Deep Woods Off from the truck stop and that actually helped a lot. 

I’m not a huge fan of the thick southern accent so that gets irritating and I can barely understand some people there,  but that aside,  Arkansas really isn’t bad and the former Governor has my name and there’s a town near Little Rock with my last name,  so it’s not all that bad of a place to visit.  

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Idaho

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Idaho

Idaho State Flag
Idaho State Flag

Idaho is a desert.  With all of our potatoes coming from there,  I never thought it would be a desert.  I mean the entire state isn’t one,  but going Northwest from Utah towards Oregon is pretty baron,  but a pretty baron.  You drive through a flat brown desert and off in the distance on both sides of you are these gigantic mountains that eventually close in on you.  It really is cool,  regardless of the extreme heat and no air conditioning one time and 102 degree temperatures.  I went through $30 in Gatorade that day and still got to a point where I stopped sweating and started shivering.  Not good!  Finally I found a place with air conditioning and felt a lot better.  I called Robert to complain about the heat and his response was,  “Do you know how Death Valley got its name?  It’s 116 where I’m driving right now.”  OK.  Well—whatever.  Maybe he had a point,  but it was still really hot where America’s potatoes come from and I was taken aback. 

The only two places of significance I have found besides a restaurant in Boise called Chuck-a-Rama are Lookout Pass,  which may technically be in be partially in Montana and Coeur d’Alene.  Lookout Pass is a mountain pass you drive up into from Montana,  but by the time you hit Idaho,  if its going to snow,  it will be snowing there.  It was horrible and it’s where I realized my hatred of mountain passes.  Even in the summer,  its a lot of twists and turns in big trucks not exactly with the best road performance tuned suspensions and in the winter,  it’s a snow and ice covered hell and snow accumulates fast.  To no surprise,  there is a ski recreation area on Lookout Pass.  Chuck-a-Rama is part of a chain of all you can eat buffet restaurants in Utah and Idaho.  Though really good and something that has become a personal tradition,  I think they are equal to Golden Corral. 

Coeur d’Alene is one of the most amazing places I have been to and I try to make a point of stopping there on my way to Seattle whenever I am through.  Coeur d’Alene is like Vale,  a year-round resort.  They have a gorgeous mountain lake that in the daytime of summer has the sunlight shimmering on a perfect clean glass top.  I have also had the distinct pleasure of driving through under a full moon and its beauty almost brings a tear to your eye under that glow.  The town itself tries to be quaint,  but is anything but with big box stores,  high end boutiques everywhere,  and Tesla charging stations.  It’s a place I would love to spend a few days and explore in-depth instead of a sporadic night here and there.  Personal research has shown it to be economically one of the fastest growing cities under a population of one hundred thousand in the United States.

Idaho is a state that shocked the hell out of me with its uniqueness.  Like Utah,  it was a state I never cared about,  but after being there,  I really liked it.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Oregon

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Oregon state flag.
Oregon state flag.

Oregon

This may be the most beautiful ugly state or ugliest beautiful state in the United States.  Let me explain.  It’s half high rolling arid dessert and half green forests and farmlands.  Everything is mixed and you drive through multiple climates. 

You’ll notice the West coast earthy smell of organic fertilizers throughout the state and if you’re not from there,  you will realize that it must be too hard to pump gas on your own because the clerks have to do it for you in most places.  It was one hundred percent,  but in 2018,  the state legislature relaxed some of the full-service requirements,  much to the chagrin of many residents,  one being quoted in the news by saying,  “How can we be expected to handle something that complex and dangerous?”  This doesn’t give me a lot of faith in the average Oregonian if they are afraid of doing something the rest of us have done since at least age sixteen.  

Portland is representative of the rest of the state’s beautiful ugliness as well.  The Pacific Northwest doesn’t get hard freezes so it’s become a homeless haven in what is one of the most beautiful cities in the country.  I really love Portland,  but they also allow motorhomes to just park in parallel spots on the side of the streets and people can freely live there so long as it’s not a metered parking spot.  It creates a blight throughout the beautiful city.  One oddity is that it’s not on the ocean at all,  but a river—which is the port.  From the name,  I figured it’d be a oceanic port,  but it’s not.  The port is on a river then the river goes to the ocean so you’re not having a legitimate beach day in city limits.  My time spent in Portland is,  unfortunately,  limited for such a beautiful city,  but as expected,  they do have several hipster colonies throughout so if you can stomach the man bun craze,  you’ll find great brew houses and restaurants with amazing food.  Driving in a car in the city is easy,  but a larger truck becomes nightmarish. 

Portland International Airport  (PDX)  is one of my favorites when I can get a good price.  Normally if I need to go to Portland or Seattle,  I will book a redeye flight at either Portland International or SEA-TAC  (SEA)  in Seattle.  The Amtrak between the two cities is inexpensive so it makes a nice,  easy exodus to get back to Chicago or anywhere else you need to go.

Portland is actually on my shortlist of cities I could see myself moving to if I had a desire to fully move from the area I live now,  despite the many people I have met there.  I have seen more blue hair on twenty-something hipsters there than eighty-somethings in nursing homes.  How the hell do you hold a professional job with blue hair or even go through an interview successfully?  Whatever!  I saw the TV show Portlandia years back and I hated it.  I can’t imaging any real people acting like that.  Well fuck me running,  they really do.  It was like the 1990’s took a wrong turn there and went into a much weirder place the the rest of us went.  Aside from the people that populate Portland,  however,  I really love the city itself. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Virginia

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Virginia state flag.
Virginia state flag.

Virginia

Virginia is one of the states that I’m not really sure what to say about.  It’s a state I have driven through a few times,  but isn’t on my normal routes and I always just drive through without stopping for much. 

I can say that one of my worst trips ever was through there coming up from Atlanta and heading up to New Hampshire.  In Virginia,  I was on Interstate 85 and starting about thirty miles south of Richmond I hit traffic.  Following that route north sucked.  Richmond is busy,  but not horrible,  but keeping up,  I hit Alexandria,  Baltimore,  Washington D.C,  Philadelphia,  Newark,  New York City,  and Boston.  Going up the East Coast,  Richmond marks the start of the hellacious traffic you will encounter and your travel time—just double what it says. 

Aside from heavy traffic starting there while going north,  it’s difficult to talk about,  which is ironic for me,  given my love of antiques and historic places,  both of which being well-represented in Virginia. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Montana

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Montana

Montana state flag.
Montana state flag.

Montana Is one of the weirdest states I’ve been through and still like—a little.  First of all,  I think the entire state smells like the county fair,  and not in a good way.  Once you get over that,  you realize it’s over seven hundred miles wide so you don’t just drive through the state without some sleep somewhere,  especially if you are traveling west from the Chicago area like I usually do,  because you have to go through three hundred and fifty miles of North Dakota or South Dakota before you get there.  I sometimes hate Montana and sometimes I love it.  Maybe love or hatred for each trip depends on my mood or what I saw when I was there each time. 

 

Great Falls

I got stuck in Great Falls one time for three days because of a work  “mistake,”  which was compounded by another one and then some miscommunication from a client who didn’t know some state laws and I had to try navigating all of that.  Anyway,  my reason for being there didn’t make me very happy,  so I gave the city a poor shake.  It’s actually kind of cool,  though getting there from east or west sucks.  It was a rainy and dreary few days and I hated the conditions,  but I was in a Best Western so I went down to the pool,  hot tub,  and sauna when I got depressed.  I was happy they had a Fuddrucker’s in town,  one of my favorite places to eat anywhere.  The city has all the city amenities you expect and it’s a resort town.  I think they were just having a bad week because when I left the client said I should get going as soon as possible since some roads were getting closed from washouts.  They were right.  I basically drove an hour from town to have to take a side road back to the interstate that goes through.  Had I gone that way,  it would have only added forty miles to my trip,  so instead I did over one hundred by driving around the hilly countryside in May.  Either way,  based on that trip,  if the hotel I stayed at does an inclusive New Years Eve Party,  I’d love to ring in the New Year there.  In fact,  that is on my personal bucket list to go there with a group of friends for a New Years Eve celebration.  It seems like a great place for something like that.

 

Livingston

Livingston is my favorite city in Montana and one of my favorite cities anywhere,  which is strange.  It just seems like a small town feel with all the conveniences of a larger city.  I make the half joke that I could write a book there while looking off at the mountains for inspiration,  similarly to Portland,  Maine.  They have a strange vibe of middle-aged hipsters that I find weirdly cool. 

 

Missoula

Missoula is just your basic city without any suburban area.  Once your out of the city,  you’re out of any urban area.  I have a friend and Brother Master Mason living there who is a foodie,  so he has given me numerous suggestions on places to eat while there,  which I have never had the time to adhere to.  So with that,  I’ve stopped through a few times,  but I’m always in a hurry. 

 

Miles City

This is a small crappy town,  but it’s also the place I first tried and loved Taco John’s.  So I sort of fell in love there,  thus it holds a special place in my heart.  The only thing about Taco John’s that it off is their use of potatoes.  Most Mexican food isn’t served with tots or any other potato. 

 

Billings

I just try to get through the area.  From the interstate,  you can count six oil refineries.  The city seems to have no real niceties to it. 

 

Bozeman

Bozeman is a great city if you can get to it,  which is weird in and of itself.  You see the signs on the highway for the different places to eat or get gas and once you get off the interstate,  you have to drive a good fifteen minutes to the Fuddrucker’s for lunch instead of them and similar places being built near the interstate.  Nope.  You drive all the way through the middle of town to get to where you need to be.  The interstate exits are mostly residential areas and businesses are past them.  From what I gather,  the interstate was built after the city grew,  so the interstate is on the wrong side of town and the area where an interstate should be wasn’t conducive to building one. 

On my way down the side roads they call U.S.  highways to Great Falls,  I stopped in a gas station to take a leak and walk around.  The wind was horrible that I needed to walk around the store and I saw a book that was titled How to Survive in Grizzly Country.  This was on a spinner rack of books all dedicated to grizzly bears.  Shit!  Time to leave!  Headed to Great Falls,  I had to leave the comfort of the interstate and go down a two-lane road that was in disrepair for something like three hundred miles.  That’s where I realized the state doesn’t care about its roads and the roads themselves seem schizophrenic.  Schizophrenic?  Yes.  For instance,  that three hundred mile stretch seemed like five different contractors built five different large sections of the road where most states have a more uniform road structure in the state on the same type of road.  Montana is also a state that doesn't salt or salt much and uses sand on the roads instead.  All the way through Montana,  it is impossible to not see beautiful views of gorgeous,  snow-capped mountains. 

My first experience with a mountain pass was in Montana and Idaho.  I went up it in Montana and down in Idaho.  In Montana,  they had a sign requiring chains on all vehicles towing trailers and by the time I made it through to Idaho,  I heard the sign was reading,  “chains or studs for all vehicles.”  Earlier I was in a gas station fifty miles before Lookout Pass and they just received a fax reading to expect two to four feet of snow over the next forty-eight hours on the pass.  These were the worst conditions I had driven through in my life at that point.  Ironically,  the next day,  that position was downgraded to the second worst conditions I had ever driven through once I was in the middle of Washington. 

Because of its vastness,  Montana feels like it takes forever to get through and it really does,  but it’s hard not to be impressed by the natural beauty.  The drawbacks are that everyone there thinks they are a cowboy.  Maybe not everyone,  but a lot of people.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Indiana

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

I live in Indiana so this is the hardest state for me to talk about.  It’s funny that the closer the state is,  the less I know about it because it’s what I see daily and for me to chronicle my events that happened in Indiana would be nothing short of an autobiography that omitted family vacations and my job as a transport driver.  I will talk about some of the things the state has to offer that Impress or surprise me the most.  One of the fun Hoosier facts is that we are connected.  Though not many companies have access rights for distribution,  Indiana has fiber optic lines buried next to every state road and U.S.  highway in the state.  We are honestly almost as wired in as California,  but it’s underutilized.  Then Governor Mike Pence once called Indiana the  “Silicon Prairie.”  My father worked with a man who had a blind friend who lived in Ohio near the state lines.  The two would meet once a month and go to lunch.  Dad’s friend would drive and the blind friend would always know when they got to Indiana because of how bad the roads were.  Despite tax increases for repairs,  that fact has persisted for the last forty years that I am aware of.  Some independent report came out that we are top five road systems for comfort in the country and I call bullshit because I drive on these roads and they really are not good at all.  With all the driving I do,  I call them in the bottom ten percent of the country.

Dead center in Indiana is Indianapolis and I have a love-hate relationship with that city.  Driving through or around it during rush hour sucks,  but west is worse.  Interstate 465,  the beltway around the city is convenient,  but if you take it west,  there is an area of long-term road damage that will bounce about any vehicle out of their lane and it’s just damaged area after damaged area.  I caution everyone to add the extra miles and just go eastbound unless you absolutely have to go westbound on the road.  While in Indy,  please check out the beautiful skyline.  Indy is on my bucket list of places to spend a New Years Eve based on the skyline of the downtown.  Beyond the old and new mixes of architecture are the Scottish Rite Cathedral tours and our amazing State House.  While in Indy,  go eat at Shipero’s Deli.  As I write this and mention them,  I am drooling just thinking about their pastrami and Swiss on rye.  You will pay for it and there are no bargains,  but the food is so good.  “Yummers”  is the best word I can use to describe their food.

I live in La Porte,  Indiana and next to me is Michigan City.  From Michigan City west to the Illinois state line is The Region,  an area of the state with its own independent feel.  Some refer to it as  “Chicago lite”  also,  but Michigan City has earned the moniker of  “Little Gary,”  referring to Gary,  Indiana,  a city of massive dilapidation where the entire city itself is almost pure blight.  A recent report called Gary  “the most miserable city in America.”  Other areas are better or worse,  but we are all along Lake Michigan.  The lake has served for the ups and downs of the area.  In Gary and Hammond,  the close proximity to Lake Michigan was the reason the steal mills were built,  but the area suffered massive job losses when the American steal industry reduced its output.  The rest of the lakefront focused largely on tourism and that market has worked,  though not great since tourism-based jobs don’t pay as well so there’s more people that stayed employed,  but lower paying jobs.  With that,  it’s a unique mix of rural and urban coexisting together.  It’s nothing to be stuck in a traffic jam caused by a semi truck,  a freight train,  and a tractor all on the same drive to work in the morning.  Michigan City hosts one of the largest outdoor outlet shopping malls in the country called Prime Outlets and there is Blue Chip Casino.  Blue Chip is the eastern most of five Indiana casinos along the shores of Lake Michigan.  Washington Park in Michigan City is and always has been a favorite spot of mine.  It has events throughout the summer and when there aren’t any events, there is plenty of space for a well-deserved beach day.  La Porte,  though it too has its own problems,  is a picturesque town with The Avenues,  a few streets off the main streets lined with 150 year old Victorian homes,  a growing historic downtown area,  and more than a handful of lakes through city limits.

Fort Wayne is a decent sized town and a lot cleaner than I expected when I was there last.  It’s normally off my beaten path.  If you’re up north near The Region,  there is also South Bend,  which is the home of Notre Dame and they are loose with their restrictions of walking around campus,  which I do sometimes when I need to clear my head.  It’s very peaceful and relaxing.  That’s what she was on campus and trying to clear her head and think about.  Lafayette and West Lafayette are in a beautiful area and West Lafayette is home of the main campus for Purdue University,  my favorite university,  though I am partial since my bachelors degree is from a satellite of Purdue in Hammond.  Southern Indiana actually gets beautiful with great hills and scenery,  proving that there is more than corn in Indiana. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Washington, D.C.

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. city flag.
Washington, D.C. city flag.

Busy!  Washington D.C.  is a constant hustle.  Everything is moving and the traffic sucks as bad as any of the worst places I’ve driven through and people drive like idiots there.  You will be cut off while driving through there,  but the idiot drivers are pretty much that area only.  Once you get away from the city into Maryland,  even.  Baltimore,  it’s not so bad. 

My main experiences in Washington D.C.  thus far,  have been Union Station.  Most train stations with that name are beautiful,  but they go above and beyond.  Marble everything unless it’s hardwood in the main areas.  It’s a huge transportation hub in the middle of the city.  It’s also a mall and decent restaurants too.  You can tell,  from just casual observation,  that a lot of actual work gets done at the train station by the well dressed people meeting there.  It’s a place deals get done in between trains and on layovers.  Stepping out across the street towards the U.S.  Postal Museum,  you will be harassed by bums so be prepared.  Also,  watch the traffic lights when you are walking.  Cars will hit you there if you step where you shouldn’t and drivers are more aggressive than New York City.  When the light turns green,  the motorists will just go,  regardless of if you are in the crosswalk or not. 

My friend Ryan and I want to take the train out there sometime and get a couple rooms to do a Smithsonian Museum tour and take in the many free museums and federal building tours the city has to offer.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: North Dakota

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

North Dakota

North Dakota state flag.
North Dakota state flag.

It started out when I got to Fargo and took a nap,  then woke up to snow—a lot of snow.  I asked the girl about the storm and it’s size and she looked it up on her phone and asked if I was going East or West.  I told her I was headed West.  She then responded,  “Oh geez!  Yur screwed,”  in that uniquely North Dakotan accent  (watch the movie Fargo if you don't know what I'm talking about).  Then there was that laugh they do,  which is nearly a giggle.  I asked how big the storm was and she said  “it’s North Dakota.”  She showed me a map on her phone and it really was the entire state and about 100 miles into Montana.  Apparently there was a convergence of three different winter storm fronts over the state and that did not make for fun driving.  I never knew they named Winter storms,  but it was named Winter Storm Quinn.

 

 There was a thirty mile per hour cross wind and most places were expecting five to nine inches of snow out of the storm.  When I woke up from my nap in Fargo and pulled to a gas pump,  all the pumps facing North were covered in snow and ice while the South-facing pumps were clear,  but you had to stand on the cold side of the truck as the wind blew at you since I was on the North side of the truck.  So I stepped down into two inches of slush to get my gas.  After I left I continued Westm and many times thought it was a mistake.  The wind was blowing about thirty miles per hour with gusts up to about fifty.  I was driving anywhere between thirty and forty,  but closer to thirty,  so about half the speed limit at best. 

 

Onward to Bismark!  That's where I stopped for lunch at a HuHot,  which has become one of my favorite places when I can find them.  I asked the hostess how the if the state usually does a good job plowing and she said,  "Not really!  We're really behind the times with that.  They wait till its about half over till they get out there."  Crap!  Nothing she said was any different than what I was noticing,  but I was hopeful.  That hope was crushed twenty minutes later when I hit a snow drift in the middle of the interstate and nearly went off the road.

 

Finally I got to Beach,  North Dakota,  which is the last city in North Dakota headed west on Interstate 94 and it was anything but a beach.  Yep!  It sucked as bad as the rest of the state.  At least it was a flat state so the interstate didn't twist and turn around.

 

Years back,  North Dakota was the only state with a declining population.  They had more people moving from there than the aggregate of people moving there and being born.  They were the only state in the Union with a declining population and I fully understand why.  I also have no reason to believe that trend has changed.  It was a wasteland of cold that felt like there would never be happiness in the world again.  Your mood truly starts to change in an environment like that and not for the better.  It was miserable.  I would like to go back in the summer and see the things I missed,  one place being the Enchanted Highway.  Stopping in those temperatures and that wind to see steel sculptures was not going to happen on this trip. 

Upon a Spring return,  I had the opportunity to see Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It’s about fifty miles from the Western edge of the state and gorgeous.  That last fifty miles has landscape more akin to Montana than he rest of the state.  Teddy Roosevelt first went to the Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt buffalo before they were all gone and had a life changing experience while there.  He fell in love with the ideas of conservation of the wilderness for the protection of these animals.  This experience is what turned him into the archetype conservationist outdoorsman and he never looked back.  The rugged landscape and the wildlife were abundant and he saw the need to preserve through management instead of open slaughter.  In 1901 Roosevelt was elected President of the United States and he used his executive power to establish the United States Forestry Service  (USFS),  which established one hundred and fifty national forests,  fifty-one federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks, and eighteen national monuments. Two hundred and thirty million acres of land was now protected.  It is fitting that this national park that is named after him in the North Dakotan Badlands. 

The last fifty miles of North Dakota are gorgeous,  but you have to get there first.  I said they look like Montana,  but if you’re driving,  that last fifty miles is just like the next eight hundred through Montana.  Though beautiful,  it does get old after a while.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: California

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

California

California State Flag
California State Flag

I can’t say California is my favorite state,  but I really love it there and it’s really high up there on my list of favorites.  There are so many negatives to California that are outweighed by the positives and with that,   I can’t say it’s not my favorite state either.   I truly love it.  Forget the politics for a moment and the high costs of living,  just go for a drive through the state and you will see different ecosystems throughout.  You can drive an hour from L.A.  and be literally in the middle of the desert and there is no one around.

I’ve only been to Riverside one time and that was on Black Friday.  It’s hard for someone living close to Chicago to imagine the annual ceremony of getting ready for Christmas and the tree lighting being a big deal there,  but we were stuck in a traffic jam just trying to leave town.  In retrospect,  I wish I had the chance to go to it.  It was a huge deal there and not the slightest chance of snow. 

San Diego had a different vibe all together than I expected.  I really thought it would just be a slightly smaller version of L. A.  and I was wrong.  I loved it,  not as much as L. A,  but still a lot.  It was warm but not oppressively hot with a nice breeze blowing off the ocean.  They have a great public transportation system that I have yet to use in favor of my beloved Uber.  Palm trees and relaxation are abound in San Diego.  Usually I will take the Amtrak up to L. A.  to fly out because it’s normally cheaper,  but sometimes you can find great rates out of San Diego,  but they are typically carrier specific instead of across the board,  so I can’t always get the best rate on American Airlines,  which is what will prompt me to take the train north.

Palm Springs is one of the best places.   I assume everyone already guessed that,  but it really is special.  Out in the desert,  it’s truly an oasis.  It was March or April when I was there and 105 degrees.  You just stood there and baked and it felt strangely good.  The mountains in the background are so beautiful.  My friend Robert ended up spending a couple days there and I went on to L. A.  without him on a trip so he lucked out in my estimation.  The bad part of town still had broken beer bottles on the ground,  but Heineken and Becks,  not MGD.  Instead of empty pop bottles on the ground,  it was Perrier water bottles.  They had like a thousand little shops to explore,  some in old historic buildings and some were brand new construction all elbow to elbow along the main street with fantastic restaurants strewn among them,  seemingly randomly. 

Barstow is another weird one for me.  I know I should hate Barstow,  but I really like it,  regardless of the constant wind.  It’s this trashy little desert town full of old houses that have fallen into disrepair and trailer parks that have fallen into further disrepair.  They have a homeless problem like so many other places that far south,  but when I stop at the truck stop,  I can walk to Del Taco,  In-N-Out Burger,  Habit Burger,  Fatburger  (my new favorite),  and a sushi place.  In fact,  the sushi place is in a small strip mall named The Asian Market,  that has nothing but asian-focused stores and restaurants.  I usually eat when I get there before I go to sleep and then again elsewhere before I leave.  I try to arrange it so I arrive early enough to be able to do two means there because everything is so accessible.  All my favorite junk food is in one place just for me.  Barstow is also the home of Del Taco,  so it’s really cool to be there.  If you’ve never had Del Taco,  you would never eat Taco Bell again if they were an option for you.  They are that good.  One of my bucket list items is to do the XXXL Burger Challenge at the Barstow Fatburger because that’s where I first tried the brand and...YUMMERS!!!  One of my goals is to spend a day exploring Barstow and it’s a two-for goal for me since I want to explore the old Route 66 and I believe Barstow embodies the old route for California,  from the old and outdated to the modern. 

In Barstow one early afternoon,  I met a man of about twenty-five years old at the Dennys in a truck stop.  It’s not the most illustrious setting,  a truck stop in Barstow,  but it was fitting.  He was homeless and talking to me,  but unlike many,  didn’t ask me for money.  I come across differently to different people,  but a lot of people find me easy to talk to and open up.  I guess he just needed someone to talk to and while I hopefully will never fully understand what he was going through,  I somewhat understood where he was coming from.  He seemed to take it in stride.  Unlike many,  he did not ask me for any money,  which is good,  because I never really carry cash on me and though not happy about his circumstances at the time,  he remained positive.  He saw some people leave and said  “this is my chance”  and he grabbed a clean roll of silverware from the hostess stand and went to the table,  sat down,  and finished off their meals that they left.  He never complained about his circumstances or anything.  He just did what he had to do.  It made me reflect on my own life and how appreciative I am for what all I have,  which by wealth standards isn’t high,  but money comes and goes.  I am appreciative of my friends and personal support network more after talking to him than before.  He needed someone to just hear his story and though I never realized it beforehand,  I guess I needed to hear it to know how truly blessed I am for my network of friends and family.  He gave me a strange personal awakening.  Had he not scarfed down those plates,  I would have bought him lunch on my debit card to continue the conversation,  but I wouldn’t want to make someone sing for their supper and we both got what we needed,  though mine took much longer to process. 

Taking Interstate 5 North or California 58 West towards Bakersfield isn’t a long trip,  but I got pinned down on 58 one time for a bad storm.  First it was wind starting about twenty miles before Barstow,  which isn’t uncommon,  then the wind got heavier and picked up sand.  By the time I got to the top of the mountain pass,  there was snow mixed in with the sand.  That mix gave way to just snow blowing sideways.  I stopped in a truck stop to wait it out.  I didn’t come to California to freeze my ass off.  I’m only twenty-three miles from Bakersfield now and stuck.  Bakersfield is at the end of a long downhill slope,  so I checked the storm and my altitude on my phone and I’m really not sure what to do.  I just drove fifty or sixty miles in the storm,  but do I have another twenty in me to come down and I’m really not even sure coming down in altitude will help me much?  Screw it!  I started driving I made it three miles and...calm.  I went just low enough I could see the storm above me,  but I was no longer affected by it.  Just three more miles was all it took.  I never would have know how close I was if I didn’t just push forward.  There may be a metaphor for life or success somewhere in that. 

Moving north from Bakersfield is the Grapevine and the Central Valley.  It smells horrible if you’re not used to it.  It’s just a mixture of dirt,  pesticides,  fertilizer,  and cow shit.  The drive is actually beautiful,  but long and on both sides in the distance you will see mountains,  hence your being in a valley,  but the mountains are so far apart,  it’s hard to actually realize that you’re in a valley.  It’s a unique culture there of farmers that I never thought existed.  It’s almost a colony of the Midwest more than part of California,  where the county fair is the big event in the summer.  The state that has Silicone Valley and Hollywood seems like an unlikely candidate to have this type of agrarian lifestyle,  but here it is. 

Up north is the Bay Area.  Driving there you go through Silicone Valley and on both sides of the interstate you see the who’s who of international websites and apps on the tops of basic,  nondescript office buildings.  That drive is impressive.  In Oakland,  I got stuck waiting five hours for my bus one time.  I was flying out of L.A.  and sat a late bus so I could sleep there.  Oakland has a solution to their homeless problem.  The bus and train station have no restroom.  So I waited while freezing for hours outside and had to pee.  I had an option of twenty dollars to get to the San Francisco International Airport  (SFO)  or just find a place by the bus station.  One look at Oakland and your ok with unzipping and letting it fly.  The city reminded me a lot of a giant toilet so it was cool.  New Jersey is the only other place I have no problem pissing on.

San Francisco is just different.  The prices on everything are just higher,  more in line with New York City.  I really love the area.  I was stricken by the tent cities there,  as with L.A.  It’s not something I expected to be quite so visible,  but they are right there in the open for anyone to see driving past.  The public transit system is expensive compared to everywhere I have traveled.   Just to get from Oakland’s main train station to San Francisco International Airport  (SFO)  is around ten dollars.  Fisherman’s Wharf is a real site to behold and if you are in the Bay Area,  I highly recommend going there.  The restaurant options,  however are expensive,  but I had the best New England clam chowder in my life on Fisherman’s Wharf,  a thing I have been searching for.  I did pay $17 for it by the time I got it,  but it was worth it.  The restaurant was a pretentious place with the waiters wearing the standard black and white,  but with the addition of a black necktie. On the menu,  it called the clam chowder  “award winning,”  and I just assumed those were nothing more than words.  I was absolutely wrong.  This was far more than cheap words of advertising and I may have giggled a bit upon my first bite.  

I’m not sure why California is my favorite state.  Every time I drive through,  there is just this magical feeling that covers me and I just feel and act so much better and more relaxed.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Rhode Island

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Rhode Island state flag.
Rhode Island state flag.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island quickly became a favorite state when I was there early in 2018.  It was just so clean and relaxed.  The people I met there were not the normal East Coasters that were in a rush for everything.  They wave you through a stop sign and things like that. 

Providence was the epitome of cleanliness.  I had to take a bus to New York City because the Providence Theodore Francis Airport  (PVD)  is expensive to fly out of.  Anyone who knows me or has read what I’ve written thus far knows I hate buses and riding the bus,  as well as bus stations,  but the bus station in Providence is between the newspaper building and an Omni Hotel.  My biggest complaint,  as I found out at the bus station,  is that there are no restaurants open for breakfast within walking distance.  That’s a bad sign to me,  or so I though when the clerk at the bus station told me that.  I stepped outside rather depressed and gazed around.  I looked at the Omni and had a thought,  “Omni is a full-service hotel!”  I went in the hotel and asked if non guests could eat in the dining room,  knowing the answer already,  but it is polite to ask.  I was directed on how to get to the dining room.  It was dead so I had fantastic service,  although I am rather certain I would have had equally good of service if they had been busy,  so much so that I ignored the fact that I paid  $27 for an order of French toast,  a side of sausage,  and a glass of Coke.  Best French toast ever!!!  They had caramelized bananas on it and still served warm maple syrup,  which I used though it wasn’t really needed.  I was full and happy.  From there,  I got on the bus,  which was rather comfortable though I cant remember what bus carrier I was on  (since I said  “comfortable,”  we know it was not Greyhound),  then I fell asleep all the way to New York City.  It was glorious sleep in a comfortable seat,  and a driver that didn’t get road rage and knew where he was going  (again, not Greyhound). 

My biggest regret about Rhode Island is not having the time to try the seafood there yet.  To this day,  I have not had great New England Clam Chowder in New England  (Halifax,  Nova Scotia doesn’t count and it wasn’t that great the one place I tried there).  Providence makes my short list of places I would consider moving to,  as does damn near every suburb and small town i have seen in Rhode Island.  That says a lot with it being a colder state,  but the seafaring relaxed atmosphere is just invigorating. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Maine

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

This is one of those states we forget about.  On one trip to Halifax,  Nova Scotia I drove through it on my way home and discovered its beauty—somewhat.  It is actually really beautiful,  but coming home from that vacation I had not been in Maine before.  When I left the U.S,  I left through Michigan and I went around Maine so I wouldn’t have to come back into the U.S. through the border and then leave again to cross back into Canada.  I decided to just drive through the U.S.  on my way home and bring a totally different route.  There is that old saying that you,   “can’t see the forest through the trees,”  and that is entirely true of Maine.  The forest seems never ending up north and once you get away from a major city,  it’s just you and the trees even on the interstate.  It’s pretty desolate and you’re alone like you would be in the dessert.  The night sky is free of light pollution and you can see the stars.  Gorgeous!  The air is fresh and clean and you have a rejuvenated feeling wash over you while you’re there.

Much more recently,  I went there again.  I  (re)loved it!  It was just as beautiful and this time I stopped for more than just some gas for my car.  I delivered at a place near the Bangor International Airport  (BGR)  and took a taxi to the bus station.  Yes I prefer to fly and yes,  I’m taking a bus to Boston.  Flights out of Bangor to Chicago were  $600 on American Airlines and flights out of Boston Logan  (BOS)  were  $70.  Add a  $25 bus ticket there and it was still less than  $100 instead of  $600.  I had time for lunch and I found a weird little diner owned by some obvious Elvis fans that had half of a menu dedicated to Americana;  the other half was seafood.  I wasn’t in Maine to get a cheeseburger.  I had some seafood sample meal.  They had to apologize because one of the fresh catches wasn’t available,  not because they ran out,  but because the boat hadn’t docked yet.  They did bring me shrimp that were perfectly firm,  scallops that exploited in my mouth when I bit into them,  and clam strips the size of my fingers.  As a seafood lover,  I was in heaven. 

I have been into Maine a couple other times and I have always loved it.  Expect the weather to be a little on the cool side because it’s pretty far north and in the Atlantic,  getting some cool breezes off the ocean. 

Portland,  Maine was awesome too.  While there I saw a festive on the bay front in this awesome little waterfront town by the boardwalk.  There were tents and booze and smiles.  Everything just seemed clean and fun.  It may be the near antithesis of New Orleans.  I say  “near anthesis”  because the booze flowed freely with reckless abandon in New Orleans or Portland.  Either way,  you just get a feeling that you want to sit in your study and look out the window to serenity as you write your new novel.  That’s the kind of area Portland,  Maine is. 

I can’t wait till I go back to Maine the next time!  It’s one of my favorite states and I could live for a while in Portland,  Maine easily.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Louisiana

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Louisiana state flag.
Louisiana state flag.

This was the last state I had to visit to hit my lower forty-eight state bucket list and I went near it,  but never made it into the state several times.  Finally I did.  In fact,  scratching that off my bucket list was the catalyst for this entire book. I wasn’t sure if I would like it,  and I absolutely loved it there.  It quickly became one of the states I would consider moving to.

Traveling down Interstate 55,  I first hit the Louisiana Welcome Center and it may have been one of the cleanest rest areas I have ever been in.  I stopped to pick up a state map for Robert,  who is collecting them for each state now.  The center was closed,  so I just took a leak and left.  I was headed to New Orleans  and it’s not a long state to drive through from North to South.  While going down the interstate it was dark,  but I was under a full moon so I could still see.  The humidity created a haze in the air and the temperature was high enough to need air conditioning in the middle of the night,  so the windshield kept fogging over and getting moisture on the inside.  Driving farther South,  I got to the swamps by Lake Pontchartrain and could see fan boats in the water with spotlights coming from them.  They were hunting.  Knowing the number of alligators down there,  I saw these exits off the interstate into what seems to me to be nowhere.  There are these houses you can see on these small roads off the exits.  It’s like a lane with houses on both sides and the back side of the houses was swamp or rivers through the swamps.  I would love to see the area up close sometime—in the daylight.  I have images in my head of large reptiles pulling my screaming body into the water at night in the middle of nowhere,  never to be found again.  Yeah.  I have a lot of phobias.  Sometimes my phobias develop their own phobias.  I had no idea what to expect from the swamps there.  As I drove through,  I could smell them.  It smelled like peat moss.  Hell,  I grew up in a peat bog in Indiana.  That’s nothing new to me,  but in Indiana,  eventually you get out of it and usually,  fairly quickly.  In Louisiana,  you just keep going through them. 

I officially made it to New Orleans—almost.  I spent the night in Saint Rose then took an Uber to the airport where I caught the bus into town.  The bus was  $1.25 and the Uber all the way in would have been  $25.  Two Ubers would cost a lot of Cajun food I wouldn’t be able to eat.  As soon as I got off the bus,  I realized that the area wasn’t the greatest.  It was was an apparent fact on the bus still as I saw the areas we were driving through,  but I didn’t expect the area adjacent to the famed French Quarter to be so blighted.  While walking towards the French Quarter,  I found a bar called Cajun Mike’s.  I went in and had a drink because it was  9AM and the Saints had a home game so I wasn’t alone.  I was hungry and asked the bartender when they would be serving food and he said at ten,  but he’d try hurrying the cook up a little to get him ready early.  At 9:30,  I was able to order and got an oyster po’ boy and a bowl of jambalaya,  both things I have had in other places,  but never as good as I had here in the city that invented them.   After my bourbon and Cajun food breakfast,  I left and found the French Quarter a couple blocks away.  It was already getting warmer and warmer that morning so I was sweating pretty much from the start.  I walked the streets a bit to check the area out and was surprised.  I have seen pictures and I never realized just how narrow the streets are.  I always assumed they were wider,  but the streets are all one-way with parking on the side.  I had no clue.  I popped up the map on my phone and found directions to The Old Absinthe House.  This was also a bucket list item for me so I was excited.  I finally made it!  After a few minutes of looking over the absinthe menu,  I ordered the Mata Hari.  The bartender presented it as a show to compensate for the  $18 cost,  or so I assume.  First she poured a shot or so into a rocks glass.  Then she put the absinthe spoon across the top,  placed a sugar cube on the spoon,  and then put a straw in the absinthe to get a little bit and she dribbled it on the sugar cube—then lit it on fire to caramelize the sugar a little bit.  I can’t say that it added any flavor to the drink,  but it looked so cool to see your drink on fire before she added the water to the absinthe.  I started sipping and I was so happy.  The next time I am there,  I will have to get video of the preparation of a glass.  The bar has business cards pinned and stapled to the wall and has a dirty,  open-air feel to it with some loud music that’s non offensive and everyone seemed to like.  In Murrells Inlet,  South Carolina  (part of there known as the Grand Strand)  is a bar called Flo’s Place,  which I am guessing the Old Absinthe House served as inspiration for.  I will be back!  After there,  I went walking again.  I found Hustler’s Barely Legal and went in.  They had a good special.  It was  $7 to get in,  but you can get a drink for your admission and at the time I was there,  they had an in-bar deal also that all drinks were automatically upgraded to doubles so I had a double Makers Mark for the cost of admission.  I sat down and waited...and waited and waited.  No girls were on stage.  The host apologized to me and said a girl would be out shortly.  An hour later, a girl came out.  Let me emphasis the word  “a.”  Yes,  there was just one for now.  I finally left.  I get that it was slow,  but the place opens at 11AM and it takes till 1PM to get a girl on stage,  but they still keep charging admission.  At least it was air conditioned. 

The city is clean and dirty at the same time.  You don’t feel in any danger there during the daytime while in the French Quarter,  but you are also able to not feel bad about flicking a cigarette butt on the ground.  By  2PM things started picking up more and I was walking around checking out the architecture.  The buildings there are gorgeous.  New Orleans,  on my first visit,  made the list of cities I would strongly consider moving to.  As the crowd picked up,  it became more and more beautiful.  I was walking near the water and had to find a gift shop to buy a Panama hat.  It was around a hundred degrees and really humid.  I am not used to those conditions and was sweating miserably.  I needed to cover my bald ass head or risk a bad sunburn.  Washington Square was amazing and the eclectic mix of people there was electric.  It was people selling art and shoppers of all walks of life walking around the area deciding what to buy or just window shopping.  Little shops in the French Quarter include everything from antique shops with stuff I can’t afford to stores selling everything Voodoo.  You can take everything from Ghost tours to fan boat tours and arrange them all right down in the French Quarter.  Finally,  before I left,  I found a twenty-four hour place named Deja Vu Restaurant  (not to be mistaken with the strip club chain).  That’s where I had the seafood gumbo.  Again,  it was the best I ever had and I don’t mean it was just a little bit better than others.  When I was done that night,  I went back stuffed and couldn’t move because I was so full. 

Another time I hit Baton Rouge and yet another time,  Lafayette.  I really enjoyed both of those cities as well.  Lafayette is laid back and comfortable,  while Baton Rouge has a hustle about it,  which is expected since it’s the state capital.  Baton Rouge is also home to LSU,  or Louisiana State University (Go Tigers).  It’s one of the most beautiful college campuses I have ever seen in my life.  The Spanish moss hanging off the old oak trees really sets it off.  When I travel down there,  the best way to get home is to fly.  I have been there a few times since the original draft of this book and I discovered a secret.  American Airlines has a cheap flight from between. $50 and  $70 to Chicago every Monday through Thursday at 6:30AM. I couldn’t make that flight if I wanted to when I first get there since the places I go generally open at  7AM.  The next cheapest flight is just north of  $300.  If I am anywhere but New Orleans,  I take a bus to the city and price around one or two in the afternoon.  I found a Best Western Premier Property named the Blake Hotel that runs about  $85 with tax most days.  So fantastic hotel four blocks from the French Quarter,  plus Uber to the airport,  and my flight all cost less combined than half of the later flight prices.  Darn!  I guess I better enjoy the city for the evening.

I loved what I’ve seen of Louisiana and New Orleans may be one of the most impressive and amazing place I’ve ever been and I absolutely plan and can’t wait to go back. I am already planning on a vacation down there because I loved the area so much. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Vermont

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Vermont state flag.
Vermont state flag.

Vermont

Oh sweet,  sweet,  forgettable Vermont! 

One time in my life I was the innkeeper of a bed & breakfast in Vermont.  My wife loved wearing these sweaters that showed off her rack and we had these three idiot handymen there and—ok—maybe that was CBS’  Newhart.  I’ll be honest with everyone here.  I truly don’t remember Vermont.  I know I drove through it and—that’s it.  I must explore more the next time I go that direction.  Basically,  I drove through and that was good enough to add a state to my list and check it off.  I hear there is some awesome antiquing there and a relaxing atmosphere,  though heavily wooded.  I have a good friend that is a chef and for the last few years has gone there to cook at a resort a friend of his owns,  but I lack first-hand recollection of Vermont entirely.  I can’t wait for my next opportunity to go there.  I almost feel as though I should wait to go there again before I publish this book,  but I’m not going to.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: The Rio Grande Valley

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

The Rio Grande Valley

Pharr city flag. Pharr is in the RGV near McAllen.
Pharr city flag. Pharr is in the RGV near McAllen.

I had to go to McAllen, Texas—and I loved it.  It’s not a place I anticipated liking at all and my perception was completely changed once I got there.  I entered Texas just below Texarkana,  Arkansas and drove the state roads south.  There is an Interstate 69 corridor but that interstate is under construction.  It is in tact for roughly 70 miles with Houston in the middle of that stretch and it’s a fantastic road,  though any road going top to bottom would have been fantastic to me after driving five hours on state roads and U.S. highways that don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere.  I have been in Houston one other time but briefly and it remains a city I want to explore in depth at some point because it is beautiful from what I have seen.  I believe you can tell a lot about a major city by it’s downtown skyline and Houston’s is amazing.  Moving South,  I hit the Corpus Christi area and there were these quaint little restaurants attached to gas stations  (gas stations in that area seem to have a restaurant or bait shop attached to them).  I was mad I had just eaten because fresh seafood would have really hit the spot over a Golden Corral. 

Finally I hit McAllen after sixteen days of driving through Texas  (it may not have actually been that long)  and I fell in love with  “The Valley.”  Edinburg and McAllen are awesome!  I loved McAllen almost as soon as I had a chance to walk around in its downtown area. It has most of the things I love about Los Angeles except the ocean and the cost of living is manageable.  Like El Paso,  it has a huge Mexican population and a vibrant downtown area because of it.  My Uber driver dropped me off at the bus station and told me there was a Subway Restaurant inside.  I had three hours till my bus and I smelled good food.  I walked into a little place and seated myself.  I ordered some tacos and a Coke.  The owner asked if I wanted a Mexican Coke or a regular Coke.  Please!  I would have just eaten at Subway if I wanted  “regular Coke.”  The place was called La Mordidad and I will be back there.  I had three pork tacos and a Coke for $7.  When he told me the price I laughed in his face with excitement.  That’s it?  He got a nice tip.  The food was so good that I left a five star review and and wrote out a review on their Facebook page while still in the restaurant.  It may be the best Mexican food I’ve ever had.  I had a few personal interactions with people in the area.  Some didn’t speak English at all and my limited English compounded by the volume of the music being played where I was made accurate communication nearly impossible but everyone was gracious and appreciated that I at least made an attempt at Spanish.  I figure my Spanish sucks but it’s better than their English.

One thing about my travels is that I’ve learned to find cheaper transportation.  McAllen to Chicago was just shy of  $600 on American Airlines but Greyhound to Dallas was  $35 and Dallas to Chicago on American was $53. So add the extra  $30 Uber and I still saved some  $480.  Smaller airports are just too expensive but the bus can get you places cheaper,  but you’ll be stuck on a bus with the thought  “this bus smells like corn chips and farts and I’m the only one not on meth at the bus station.”

Harlingen is another town in the RGV area that I loved with an old downtown area and some fantastic antiquing options.  When I travel,  I will sometimes plan my day around eating and a place with local shops is usually top of my list of areas to eat in.  It’s rare for me to just order a pizza in my hotel room,  especially if I have authentic Mexican food as an option.  I have,  many times,  gone to a restaurant to stave off the initial hunger and ordered something lite as more of a snack when I first get there.  Afterwards,  I will go walking around downtown.  Harlingen has some of the most amazing antique shops I have found with an interesting addition to what I am used to—records.  If you want old vinyl,  Southern Texas is the place to find it.  The one shop had eight thousand records in stock while an employee at another was telling me the owner of that shop just purchased twenty thousand records at an estate sale in Pennsylvania.  The shops seem to compete for record sales.  It is amazing and I highly recommend the Rio Grande Valley,  specifically Harlingen,  for audiophiles to buy vintage records.  Another shop had around ten thousand pieces on stock.  The shop with twenty thousand pieces indicated that the owner cycled stuff in and out on a regular basis to see what sold and what was popular at the time.  They had the old school milk crates of records on tables set up and it really sent you back in time to thumbing through new releases for the newest Sex Pistols or Black Sabbath album. 

In Pharr I went to a couple different places.  I needed a car wash and I was hungry.  Fortunately the carwash was next to a Mexican restaurant.  Because of where I live,  I do hear Spanish on a regular basis and as I said earlier,  I can speak a little,  but there was a perceived difference.  At home,  Spanish speakers at restaurants usually speak English fluently and I look like someone who wouldn’t speak anything but English so there is never a question that I speak English only and they always come up speaking to me in English.  Both places I went in Pharr,  they started speaking to me in Spanish.  My next assumption was that they didn’t speak English,  so I tried going back to my limited broken Spanish just to hear them switch to near perfect English.  They are largely bilingual down there!  From the perspective of an average American from the North I was stunned. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Maryland

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Maryland state flag.
Maryland state flag.

Maryland Is easily forgettable unless you are near the more populated areas like Annapolis or Baltimore.  The main thing that stands out from Maryland is the green.  It is green everywhere,  more than the coastal area of Washington State.  Other than that,  Maryland reminds me of Delaware.  I didn’t write much about Delaware—for a reason.  Come up from the South and I will warn to add like ten hours to your trip.  With all the cities you drive through,   traffic starts pretty far away from the D.C.  and Baltimore areas. 

Shortly after the realization on the news about how bad Baltimore is,  I went there with my friend Robert for work.  We decided to go for lunch and found a great little seafood place.  While sitting there,  I asked why everyone thought it was so bad.  I didn’t see the rampant crime and homelessness the media kept portraying.  Could the news be lying to me?  These are questions I posed over lunch.  Finally Robert said,  “I don’t think CNN was getting footage for those stories from the yacht club.”  I really had no argument,  but I did have some great food in a safe place.

If you are into history or antiques,  Maryland is a state for you,  It’s full of sleepy little hallows and is a pickers paradise.  Beyond that,  the state is mostly flat and near the coastal areas,  the tiny towns and small marinas are a everywhere.  The town skylines consist mostly of church steeples.  It’s a state I want to spend more time in,  but mostly just to relax.  Most times I want to spend time someplace,  it’s for a reason of for a few reasons and I want to do stuff.  In Maryland,  I want to go to lunch and then dinner and go to bed at a decent time,  all while breathing in the salt air.  I want to spend time there doing nothing at all.

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Delaware

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Delaware

Delaware State Flag
Delaware State Flag

Delaware is great!  You have a mix of old and new.  You can drive through and see ultra modern buildings as corporate headquarters and a mile later see a working farm with a 250 year old barn made out of rocks and mortar.  Any history buff would absolutely love Delaware.  I had no adventures or mishaps there.  No one tried stealing my iPhone or getting into a fight with me and I never saw any homeless.  It’s really nice.  My worst issue was a four hour wait for my Greyhound bus out of Delaware where my bus showed up and wouldn’t let me on so I missed my connection bus and Greyhound didn’t seem to care,  but that’s more of a Greyhound issue than and Delaware issue.

Delaware is actually difficult to talk about because of how little happened to me there.  One shining star was Dover.  I’ve been to a lot of state capitals and Dover may be the nicest and the epitome of New England.  Lone most of New England,   the seafood was amazing!  

Driving through in the early morning can be foggy and remind someone of accounts of the Scottish moors and with as beautiful as the state is,  I would suggest waiting till daylight so you can appreciate it better anyway.  The grass is as green as people say Ireland is and I would assume that it has something to do with the moisture and due from the daily fog.  Also, be careful of suicidal deer.  They are EVERYWHERE!!!

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Wisconsin

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin state flag.
Wisconsin state flag.

Wisconsin,  the Dairy State,  is farmland and I didn’t realize it.  Through a drive to Minneapolis from Chicago,  it’s mostly all farms except the area of the Wisconsin Dells.  Rolling hills and signs for sausage and cheese shops.  There is literally cheese everywhere.  The jokes were all real! 

The Dells are interesting and I’m not even sure what a Dell is,  but they have like six exits off the interstate for them.  It’s a strange trashy and still nice tourist area popular for family with small kids with a bunch of water parks.  Basically,  imagine the group most likely to piss in the pool and those all go to the Dells  (think about that the next time you go there).  They also have things for adults to do as well like bars and a gentlemen’s club.  In fact,  there is one I want to go to there named Chubby’s.  While I totally get the innuendo,  I still imagine  (realizing Wisconsin is the fattest state)  plus-sized girls seductively eating cheese dipped in more cheese for dollar bills on stage.  I’m eighty percent sure that’s not what happens there,  but it’s my imagination,  damn it!  Though I said I am  80%  sure that’s not what happens there,  there is that  20%  that wouldn’t be shocked one bit.  Also,  while there,  check out the Paul Bunyan Restaurant. 

Aside from the Dells,  the state is rather boring with just small farm towns and scattered cheese and sausage stores along the way outside of Madison or the other more major cities.  Add in a few Indiana casinos and you got yourself a state! 

 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

Do You Have a Pen: Ohio

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I wrote another book, but it's about travel this time! This one is pretty big, actually, with close to 60 chapters. The book, Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air, can be pre ordered or, depending on when you see this, purchased by clicking the link HERE. A new chapter will post daily and then the book will be available for immediate purchase.

I also released the rough drafts of the book chapter by chapter on my website and you can read what I wrote and get the gist of the chapters. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the book. There is enough information between the blog postings and the resources pages found HERE that the rest of the book might just be fluff.

With that said, the blog is a very first draft, mostly notes, of the final book. It’s out of order and a tad messy. This gives you a peek inside my writing process where I do the technical, eclectic part first and the voice tends to change depending on the topic I am discussing and the research I did for the chapter. Paraphrasing from common knowledge sources in the first draft gives it that eclectic look and feel. So please, enjoy my scattered brain and typos in this draft of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air.

The book itself its a much easier format to read plus adds a lot more of me into it as it goes on with real world, easy to grasp examples where I could put them and honestly, I would truly appreciate your purchase.

Ohio

This is generally a pass-through state for me with three notable exceptions. 

The Big Boy restaurant chain is headquartered in Cincinnati.  Big Boy brings back huge amounts of nostalgia from my childhood and I can’t go past one without stopping to eat.  I love the food and the feeling of my childhood mixed with a rich history of Americana. 

Last is the United Dairy Farmers gas stations.  I know it’s a stupid ass name for a gas station,  but I love the inside of them.  They have an ice cream counter that can make a chocolate malt for me any time they are open and they don’t even look at me weird when I order it.  They have the best gas station sandwiches I’ve had anywhere along with the best chocolate milk out of a plastic bottle I’ve tasted.  For some reason when I travel,  I crave chocolate milk on occasion. 

Down in the Southeast corner of Ohio near the Ohio river by the West Virginia border is one of my absolute favorite areas,  despite my general dislike of driving through the mountains.  It has an old-world workingman’s charm to the area mixed with a touch of Appalachian hillbilly for added character. 

Ohio is generally boring and flat throughout most of the state except for the major cities.  In Dayton,  I remember my parents taking me to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Museum.  We did not get a tour of the vivisection room used when the survivors from the 1947 Roswell,  New Mexico incident were brought there and you just know it’s been preserved.  The skyline of Cincinnati is gorgeous and I actually love the downtown area.  Another gem is Columbus and their downtown near the university.  They built a shopping mall near some old historic buildings and incorporated them into the design,  and then built some new fake old buildings,  some of which are attached to the mall,  giving it a modernly desired look of old buildings. 

On a flat map,  Ohio looks huge,  but it’s really not that big,  especially when compared to Pennsylvania next door,  but it is a place deserving of exploration. 

Thank you for reading this little piece of Do You Have a Pen: My Time Spent on the Road, on the Rails, and in the Air. If you received any value from what you read, I ask you to please consider purchasing this book by clicking HERE. Thank you for everything!

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