Chicago to Portland – Epilogue – Road Trippin’

Interstate driving in the United States gives you a wonderful feeling of freedom. You rarely meet any significant traffic and it is possible to feel, at once, powerful and dominating in whatever giant vehicle you may be driving, yet small and insignificant against the vast, imposing, landscape. It is a baffling paradox in so many […]

Chicago to Portland – Day 5 – Home Stretch

Wed 12th August 2015 Day 4 Missoula, MT to Portland, OR 16 Hours – 547 Miles – 4 States MT+ID+WA+OR Arriving early in Missoula last night afforded us the luxury of time to find a good dinner. Our hotel was on the edge of town and we didn’t fancy a drive through the streets in the […]

Chicago to Portland – Day 4 – Early Start

Wed 12th August 2015 Day 4 Gillette, WY to Missoula, MT 13 Hours – 579 Miles – 2 States WY+MT We were up and out and buying coffee by 6am and on the road; our own private highway. during the first hour of our drive we encountered only a handful of cars. It was as if […]

The Cathedral of Junk – Austin, TX

Just south of the city of Austin, tucked away on a side street is something that you don’t see every day. As you walk from the street into the back yard of Vince Hannemann’s property a strange structure comes into view. A structure which wouldn’t look out of place in a sic-fi movie or alien planet. Vince […]

Blue Man Group Tour 2015 – Warren, OH

City: Warren, OH Distance travelled: 548 miles Theatre: Packard Music Hall Seats: 2418 After our last show in Nashville we managed to squeeze in a quick drink before jumping on the bus and heading to Ohio. This was my first bus journey on tour and it felt surprisingly like being back on the ship, particularly the […]

Gone to Carolina – Day 2 DC to the Meadows of Dan – Behold, Foamhenge

Wednesday 23rd April 2014 Day 2 Washington DC to Meadows of Dan, 5 hours – 240 miles – 2 States DC, VA We hit the road grabbed breakfast on the way. Today we were heading to the Blue Ridge Parkway, a beautiful road through the hills and the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. It never really dawned […]

Gone to Carolina – Day 1 NYC to DC – The day a turkey exploded

Tuesday 22nd April 2014 Day 1 New York, NY to Washington DC 5 hours – 240 miles – 4 States NY+NJ+PA+MD Today was a long day. after getting up at the crack of dawn I boarded a plane at Heathrow to take me to New York City. However, I was not to spend much time […]

Go West (and South) Day 1

A friend in need is a friend indeed…and if you get a great road trip out of it as well, that is a bonus. My friend Kristen Studard (K-Stud to her friends and anyone else she can persuade to call her that) told me some months ago that she was going to pack up […]

‘Beer and Back Again’ – Motown

[contd from ‘Prologue‘] I was up and on the road early to make the hour-long journey East to Detroit. I have always heard a lot about the city from my friends that once lived there or had been there and I have to say that it has not always been that complimentary. On this trip I […]

‘Beer’ and Back Again – Prologue

Prologue This is a story of how I drove from Chicago to the East Coast and back with a case of beer made by my friends, to share with my friends and tales of the ‘stuff what I saw’ along the way. It was clear that I had underestimated the size of the United States. […]