One of the goals of my “expedition” earlier this summer was to reconnect with friends from Penn State – more specifically, fellow alumni of the PSU AFROTC Drill Team. I missed two of the nine on my list – one due to illness, and one because I couldn’t get in touch with him. But I visited with the other seven, and in the course of one dinner (it must have been the… Read More

I took a ride on my bicycle today – it seemed like a good thing to do. I knew I’d have some time to kill while waiting for my truck to be serviced, and I hadn’t ridden since before my big expedition, so I loaded the bike in the truck last night and wore my cycling togs to the stealership this morning. They told me it would be a couple of hours… Read More

Sometimes, when I’m cruising along in the truck and listening to my iPod, a song will come on that transports me to another place and time. Most frequently, the song reminds me of a time with Toni – and that seems to happen not just with songs I specifically associate with her (like the ones we used in our wedding), but also with random songs that make me think of her. Occasionally, though,… Read More

I’m cute. At least, that’s what one young man told me last night, right before he hit on me. Wait, what? [Yeah, that was my reaction, too.] Here’s the story: I stopped for dinner in Rancho Cucamonga (or someplace nearby – I don’t know for sure) last night on the way home from Sacramento / Roseville. After I finished my meal, I got back on the I-210 freeway toward home. After a… Read More

See? I told you to stay tuned, didn’t I? I received an email last week letting me know that I could come up to Roseville, CA, *this* week and collect the transfer cases I had taken to O’Briens 4 Wheel West back in January. The proprietor, Jack O’Brien, and I go back a long way, to when I first sent my Jeep’s transfer case to him about 10 years ago to put… Read More

Friday, August 8: My 36th day on the road and a five-hour drive HOME! Knowing that I didn’t have too far to go, I didn’t bother to set my alarm in El Paso. I simply got up when I woke up and left the motel about 11 AM (MDT). I got my third and final “lost hour” back when I crossed the Arizona state line, and (as I posted on Facebook) arrived… Read More

It’s funny – sometimes I think I’ll have nothing to say in a blog entry, so I start cogitating and ruminating and come up with some ideas – and then life happens (as I recounted in my previous entry, “Westward ho, the wagons!”) and I have an overabundance of stuff. Well, once I’ve thought of it, I hate not to use it, so you get a bonus entry for August 7. 1…. Read More

Late entry for August 7 – I’m catching up! I may have mentioned this before – I printed out a set of MapQuest instructions for each day’s drive. Some days I did fine; others, not so much. Some of the directions didn’t make any sense when I looked at them, as they had me making several turns just to get back on the same piece of road I had been on originally…. Read More

Late Entry for August 6. This day’s drive was super-short – at least by my standards for the trip – only 175 miles. I opted to avoid the Interstates as much as possible, and instead drove from Austin to Weatherford via some Texas and US routes that took me through some really nice towns. I didn’t have my camera out for the first town I went through. It was a shame, too,… Read More

Late entry for August 5. I think I’m getting *entirely* too familiar with Interstate 10. I knew I had a long drive ahead of me, so I left the Stalker family farm about 9 AM (EDT). I was counting on the time change to give me a little bit of flexibility on my drive to Austin (about 850 miles), but it still took for-EV-er. At least I got one of my missing… Read More