Travel Blog
Summer travels: Culture – the good and the bad – in Boston.
Read MoreI have entered, for the first time in my life, the Atlantic time zone, having arrived in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Wednesday morning. The trip was uneventful. I spent so much time and energy packing my bike in one box and my panniers in another – making sure that the weights and dimensions were not…
Read MoreI spent the past weekend at a ranch, fifteen kilometres south-east of Spences Bridge, that belongs to a couple of gentleman farmers of my acquaintance. The ranch, a small orchard operation, is a peach-shaped property near a sharp bend in the Nicola River, a tributary of the Thompson, which in turn feeds the Fraser, the…
Read MoreI’ve just returned from a quick trip to San Francisco, a week by the bay, where I was satisfyingly warmed by the California sun after months of (relative) freezing in Vancouver. Either I’m getting old and soft, or spending much of last winter in Costa Rica has removed my usual winter hardiness. Or both. Whatever.…
Read More“Why does Scrooge love Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Because every buck is dear to him”. — Unknown As is well known among those who have long felt an inexplicable desire to suffer my company during the darker months, I am not an enthusiast of the holiday in which we are currently immersed. I don’t erect…
Read MoreFor the past week, I have been suffering from flu-like conditions that I apparently picked up secondhand from the current consort of my roommate. Such misery! My throat feels like ground glass when I cough or sneeze – not an infrequent occurrence – and I have plenty of aches of the head, neck, shoulders and,…
Read MoreThe nudist gathering finished up, mercifully, with one sunny, warm day on which to actually remove one’s clothes comfortably. Though the overall event wasn’t really my scene, fundamentally, I had some fun and met some good people. Among these was Paul, who most people considered my body double though we didn’t think we looked like…
Read MoreI spent the better part of the night freezing and huddled in the foetal position beneath the thin gruel of my $48 linens, enhanced by the meager weight of all my clothes (how many could I have brought to a nudist camp?). The wind was howling and banging doors and windows. I was somewhat surprised…
Read MoreThis morning, I picked up a charter bus outside of Fordham University in Manhattan, next to Lincoln Centre. Rather than observe the view or converse with the other ten passengers, I was able to finish my novel on the two and a half hour ride. The novel was Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow. It was…
Read MoreAfter almost three weeks at Easton, I’m back on the road again. However, I’m not on the road as originally planned. The other day, I took a test ride to the local town of Greenwich (that the locals pronounce “GREEN-witch”), not a particularly hilly route, and I did it with no luggage. The round trip…
Read More