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Well, I didn’t get too far today. The plan was to get from Fort Lauderdale to Kirishima, southern Japan. Instead I got as far as Houston. My United flight from Houston to Tokyo was repeatedly delayed: something about a problem under the floor, eventually traced to a cargo door.I retreated to the KLM club where… Continue reading An Unplanned Night in Houston

It’s time to leave a world of beaches for travel with a bit of fiber in it. This weekend, in Naples, Florida, I got reunited with my hiking boots and walking shoes and mailed the lesser stuff back home. I’m on my way to Kirishima, southern Japan. I’ll connect to a flight in Houston Tuesday… Continue reading From Beaches to Volcanoes

My urban hiking this weekend in Naples, Florida, included quiet side streets lined with posh homes. As I walked, I thought about the logistics of maintaining multiple homes, and the burden of mortgages. When hiking through farmland I avoid getting between cow and calves. In this spirit, I was walking on the street so I… Continue reading Pleading the Fifth in Naples, Florida

I don’t do water activities. I’ll dangle my feet over the edge of the shallow end of a hotel swimming pool while sipping something with a little cocktail umbrella poking out. Preferably a beer. But that is as far as I go. My partner, Dwight, does do water activities, including SCUBA. I’ll never do that,… Continue reading Why I Like SCUBA Diving

Tomorrow I leave Savannah for Miami, the end of the line on Amtrak. A journey from a world constrained by history to a place that is still inventing itself. For tourists, Charleston and Savannah are about colonial times and early independence through the end of the civil war. A white history with selective amnesia. Miami… Continue reading Iron Road to the Capital of Latin America

 Woolworth’s lunch counter (Smithsonian) I tried to build a coherent picture of my seatmate as I rode Amtrak from Cleveland to New York. The obvious stuff: 40-ish, black, heavyset, financially on the edge. I got the financial bit as he talked on the phone about his imminent move to a smaller apartment. He clicked away at… Continue reading The Other

This week I ride the rails south from New York City towards an America that is, in some ways, a foreign country to me. Each night I’ll sleep in a hotel, pausing in Washington, DC, and Charleston, SC. In Savannah, GA, a friend will join me for a couple days. This will be the first… Continue reading Iron Road to Dixie

A family sits around a breakfast table in a Cleveland Holiday Inn Express talking about family things. The teenager shrugs as Mom announces she’s going to redecorate his bedroom. The conversation pauses for a basketball segment on the local Fox affiliate. A rack of USA Todays announces the next war. I can’t say Americans are… Continue reading Breakfast Rooms