7:43 AM and two miles from work. I'm waiting at a red light, ready to clip in to my pedals and turn left as soon as the light turns green. A car pulls up beside me, but I ignore it in favor of the traffic light. A familiar voice catches my ear though, "Hey man, whassup?" I turn to see my coworker Leon sitting in his car. I smile and return his greeting, "Just trying to get to work...Ya know, I betcha I'll beat you into the office." Leon chuckles and says, "You might be able to." "Yup, especially since you've [View Full Entry]

---

---

Tomorrow night I will be sleeping in Manhattan as I prepare for the Republican National Convention. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I've felt led to be there. I've often regretted not being in Philadelphia for the Republican National Convention in 2000. I'm certain that I would feel far more regret if I did not head up to New York for this year's convention. I hope to be able to post some of the photographs I shoot next week on my website: WesCheney.com . I'm not going to New York to commit acts of civil disobedience or an [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today I drove home from Ashburn, Virginia to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Riding solo gives you plenty of time to think, listen to music, eat junk and get bored.  In the town of Breezewood (Pennsylvania?), I encountered a huge swarm of cicadas.  I got out of my car to get some gas and I literally stepped on dozens of these dead creatures.  Their were hundreds of them aimlessly swarming the sky and two of them even made it into my car.  I had to roll up the windows and suffer the heat. There was a semi that was flipped over just south [View Full Entry]

---

---

Dave and I fixed my car this morning (fuel leak) and then decided to take a bike ride to a town called Leesburg.  There was a really nice trail that we took.  7.5 miles to Leesburg.  When we got to Leesburg, we stopped for a sandwich at the really cool italian deli called Pruccio's or something.  The owner was very italian and a really nice guy.  Then we rode our bikes back to Dave's house in Ashburn.  I mowed Dave's lawn.  This is the first time that I used a lawnmower.  Can you believe that?  We had chili dogs for dinner [View Full Entry]

---

---

Today I drove from my buddy Dave's house in Ashburn to Colonial Beach, Virginia.  The drive took a couple of hours and it was nice to finally see some water (the ocean) in the state of Virginia.  It seems to me that in all of Virginia there is not a single lake.  Hundreds of trees and mountains, but no lakes. Anyway, I took my honda civic to an auto shop in Colonial Park to be dyno tuned.  My engine fared quite well and I was pleased with the results.  The backroads were a joy to drive on my way back to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Mike, Dave and I went to Shenendoah National Park today to go for a hike to a waterfall.  The hike was about 3.5 miles and the view of the waterfall was less than perfect.  We thought that we could get a better view further down the path, so we travelled another .7 miles down the path only to find no view of the falls at all.  This made for a long uphill hike back to the car.  We were drenched in sweat by the time we reached the top.  Still a fun trip.  Good views and good conversation. We went back [View Full Entry]

---

---

My first summer trip is a trip out to Virginia to visit my old college roommate and good buddy Dave and his new house. It just so happens that my other college roommate and long time buddy Mike is staying with my buddy Dave right now in Virginia....a reunion of sorts. We usually get together quite often, even though we all live in different areas. I got into Virginia really late on Friday night and after a short walk through Dave's new house, we all hit the sack. Woke up to some really crappy weather, so we were stuck in the [View Full Entry]

---

---

My travels in the world have brought me to the Catholic Worker house in Norfolk, Virginia, where I have joined a group of like-minded Christians seeking to do the works of charity and justice in our local community. Last month I moved the last of my belongings out of my apartment and officially changed my residence to the Sedako Sesaki Hospitality House of the Norfolk Catholic Worker at 1321 West 38th Street. For over fifteen years the Norfolk Catholic Worker has run a soup kitchen, feeding the hungry on the streets three times a week, and so it was that I [View Full Entry]

---

---

5:30 AM and most everything is quiet at the Sadako Sasaki House of Hospitality in Norfolk, also known as the "Norfolk Catholic Worker House." The birds outside are rustling as the sky warms into view, and a diesel locomotive idles less than a mile away. Calvin the cat is eating his breakfast, and I can hear Victor's soft footsteps upstairs as he prepares for another day of teaching school. I've just finished my breakfast and a couple of pages of William Stafford's collected writings, and now I'm focusing on updating my Friends as to my new adventures at the Norfolk Catholic [View Full Entry]

---

---

While at the adventure travel expo in NYC I came across a really cheap whale watching package in Virginia Beach. It included two nights at the hotel, breakfasts, one dinner and one lunch, tickets to a whale watching tour and admission to the aquarium and marine science center and an imax movie all for less than $150. We were sick of the cold and the snow so Kevin and I decided to make the trip down. We drove and it was a long ride from NJ. As we got closer it began to get warmer and warmer- when we left we [View Full Entry]

---

---