Ask any kid in the United States about Old North Church, and they will likely respond “one if by land, two if by sea”. Thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the church is forever defined by the lanterns hung in the steeple on April 18th, 1775 to signal the British were moving to attack the colonial supply stores at Concord. The church still exists with an active congregation. During the festival they give tours of areas not normally open to the public. Today I finally made it. 'Our guide started with the story behind the lanterns. In the late 1700s Old North Church was a surprising place for revolutionary fervor. A large percentage of the congregation were involved in maritime ... read more

This year became a very strange one for me travel wise. After my nearly year long voyage of discovery, I was pretty burned out. I still had no desire to go anywhere, and can’t afford it in any case. This was a new situation for me, and one I hope never becomes too comfortable. Thankfully, I didn’t need to go very far to find something worthwhile this year. One of the truisms of travel is that people will fly thousands of miles to discover something they would completely ignore at home; This year I finally made up for that a bit. Every year the week leading up to July 4th, Boston hosts a huge festival called Harborfest celebrating American Independence and the city’s rather outsized role in it. Despite living here for decades, I’ve never been. ... read more

How do I summarize a trip of a lifetime in a few minutes? Since I’ve been back, many people I’ve met have wanted to know exactly that. It can’t be done; the range of experience and sights was just too varied. In the end, I wrote up a bunch of lists. The second half is below, with post references where appropriate. See the previous blog for the first half. Most Unexpected Surprises: 1. The incredible diversity of the United States. This country has an unbelievable variety of cultures, people, cities, landscapes, and histories; all of which manage to coexist, however uneasily. 2. How friendly people are in most of the country. Parts of the US have a reputation of being intolerant of people obviously from elsewhere. I found the exact opposite, friendly people willing to engage ... read more

After nine months away, being back feels really strange. Home has an odd duality, so familiar I can navigate with my eyes closed yet also very different to how I remember it. T.S. Eliot once stated that someone really can’t know their home until they go away, and it’s certainly true for me. I finally decided how to handle these feelings, with one last day of exploration. Like most Massachusetts kids, we learned about the start of the Revolution: Paul Revere’s ride, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and so forth. In grade school, we visited most of those sites. I haven’t been back since. One of the ironies of travel is many people seek out thin... read more

Today, the rain was still falling, for the third day straight. That mattered less than it would have earlier, because I only want to see the pavement on the way home. I’ve seen the hills of Tennessee before, when they were covered in beautiful green trees. Now they are bare, and brown. Today was a long soggy grind of a drive. On this Interstate, I had to deal with the big negative of driving away from Memphis. I had to deal with it before, or course, but then I was on a voyage of discovery (see ). Now, it’s just one more thing to deal with. Memphis has the remarkable property of being within a two day drive of all but five major cities in the United States (the exceptions? Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Anchorage, and Honolulu). ... read more