Blogs from United States, North America - page 13

Hi all! So, I woke up in a very bad mood on Saturday morning - not helped by the fact it was grey and raining! I was cheered up, however, when Barbara and Steve offered me a bagel - it was a chocolate marble one from a local bagel store, and it was totally amazing. My faith was restored and I set off for the long drive to Boston. I got to Alewife subway station, and parked up and took the train to Park St., Boston. There, it was raining too, but undeterred, I started to walk the Freedom Trail. There's an app for the iPhone for it. Basically, it's this red line on the pavements that you follow and it takes you around all the historic sites in Boston - the app tells you more ... read more

Breath taking day spent in Yosemite National Park. Between the ragging streams, magnificent waterfalls and giant granite rocks it was hard to decide what we all liked best. We hiked about 2.5 miles throughout areas of interest in the park. My new knee got a good work out today and held up just fine. The walking stick I bought came in handy on the steep graded trails. We returned to camp just in time to watch the evening dance competitions going on in the Pow Wow... read more

DAY 19: MAY 10, 2013 Me and my pal, Mark Thobe, joined the army on the buddy system. It meant we could be assigned to the same basic training company. We were joined at the hip though and ended up in the same squad. We went off together for advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood as heavy equipment operators. We weren’t supposed to be together anymore but we ended up in the same squad again. We were having breakfast one morning at a table with Lomax Wesley. He was a good old boy from Alabama. We sat down and started in putting milk and brown sugar in our mush. We thought it was Cream o’ Wheat. Lomax was astonished. He said, “what are you fellas doin’ to them grits. That ain’t the way you ... read more

Despite my best intentions to write once a week, nine days have elapsed since last I sat with you all to tell my tale. At last, here I am on a Friday afternoon, having gotten off work an hour early today. So, my friends, the tale continues… I have now made it through two full weeks of training, and am ready to take off the training wheels, which run in circles inside the brain in this context, and move around more. The trainings have been wonderful; packed with info, relevancy, humor, and bonding, but nonetheless, we have been sitting in the same folding chairs for ten days, and being the breed of people that are drawn to the Alaska wilderness to share our passion of it with the public, I think we are all raring to ... read more

DAY 17: MAY 8, 2013 West Virginia is designed to be traveled north to south; east to west it is bitch kitty. The eastern part of the state is far more scenic. I have stopped tonight after a drive of 220.4 miles at the Greenbrier Lodge in Marlinville, WV. It is slap on the bank of the Greenbrier River and the river is at an alarmingly high stage. Bill would like it here if we don’t all topple over in our sleep and drown in muddy water. They have good eats downstairs and there is a four piece hillbilly string band keeping things lively. I had a dish of their “West Virginia Original” for supper. It was grilled kielbasa, potatoes, onions, green peppers and mushrooms. I hope to survive long enough to cook it ... read more