Time

WILMINGTON, Del. – Time is both relative and absolute. When my flight from Los Angeles landed in suburban Baltimore at 7:00 this morning, it was 4:00 a.m. in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was also 5:00 a.m. in Whitefish, Montana; 6:00 a.m. at Wrigley Field in Chicago; and 12:00 p.m. at the Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground [...]

Urbanist hell

LOS ANGELES – Three signs that the trip is almost over: – The view out the window of my hotel room at LAX includes another hotel, multiple surface parking lots and an air cargo loading center. – I slept in an actual bed last night for the first time in a week. – I’m in [...]

Baying

SAN JOSE, California – The sun is out here in the Bay Area, but I can’t help opening this post with a tinge of melancholy. California is the last of 17 states and my native District of Columbia that I’ve traveled through over the last seven days. While there are still 12 hours to go [...]

Sound and happiness, signifying a lot

TACOMA, Wash. – I didn’t blog yesterday for two reasons. First, I spent most of the day fixing incorrect timestamps on the photos I took in Chicago, because I forgot to reset the time zone. It may seem trivial, but you’ll notice that the photoset of the trip is presented in chronological order. Since I’m [...]

Words

COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. – I really don’t have much to say tonight, because I’ve spent the whole day either taking pictures or reading. So go check out my Flickr page to see the pictures I took today and on previous days of the trip. You’ll find shots from just about everywhere I’ve been, and new [...]

Blame Canada

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – When I was debating whether to blog this trip, I had a hunch that a time would come when I just wouldn’t want to write. I think this night was the first such time. I feel that mainly because I don’t want to bore you with too many words that are [...]

Brick, ivy, oak and sand

When I headed out this morning, I figured that my first destination would be the highlight of the day: a guided tour of Wrigley Field. As has happened to millions of other baseball fans over the years, I fell in love with the place when I visited it for the first time last season. The [...]

Geese in the city

CHICAGO – Yesterday was pretty crazy, but a lot of fun. After arriving in Chicago, I went off in search of a three-day subway pass. You would think this would be easy to find in the city’s biggest train station, but there was no indication that passes were sold there. So I walked a few [...]

Day 2

CHICAGO – Greetings from the South Side, home to the largest rail traffic choke point in the United States. I woke up this morning at around 6:30, having fallen asleep in Cincinnati at around 1:00. That was far later than I wanted to be awake, but I got in a groove writing the last blog [...]

Close of play on Day 1

CINCINNATI – I was born and raised a city kid, and I suspect I’ll continue to be one for a long time. But after traveling through West Virginia for the second year in a row and making my first ever trip through southwest Virginia, I can’t help being attracted to the spectacular landscapes of Appalachia. [...]