highway fun, highway blues in pennsylvania

We always spend the last night of our US Thanksgiving trip at the home of my brother and sister-in-law in central New Jersey (near the city of New Brunswick, for those who know the state). We stay up late talking and drinking wine with some combination of friends - who happen to be siblings, nieces, nephews, and their respective partners - then wake up early to hit the road. The drive takes us through a part of New Jersey to Pennsylvania, through the Delaware Water Gap, up through the Poconos to New York State, then straight up through New York, emerging at the New York State Thruway at Syracuse.

We usually stop for a late breakfast near Scranton. (You may know the name from "The Office". It is indeed a real town in Pennsylvania.) But on this trip, we got horribly lost after leaving my brother's home - trying to correct a simple wrong turn just got worse and worse, and we wasted nearly two hours of drive-time. Because of this, we didn't want to take an hour for breakfast at a crowded Denny's, but we don't eat fast food. We especially gave up eating fast food on car trips many years ago. Driving around trying to find a supermarket would be more time-consuming than Denny's. On the way down, we stop at Whole Foods in Oakville for their amazing salad bar, but this is not an affluent area where we're likely to find one of those. What to do?

Through this dilemma, we discovered Sheetz, my new favourite pit-stop. Sheetz is a chain of gas stations and convenience stores in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and northeastern Ohio. What makes it special is fresh, fast food made to order. You order by touch-screen from a menu that includes the usual less-than-healthy but yummy items like burgers, breakfast sandwiches, shakes and plenty of fried things, but also salads and wraps with a good variety of ingredients. Any fast-er food franchise where you control exactly what you order - such as Subway or Blimpie - is already a much healthier option.

I see how the touch-screen order system is designed to encourage you to order more food, as you see all kinds of options that you might not otherwise think of, from double meat or dressing to fried things on the side. But the choices are extensive, there are many healthy options, and it's very inexpensive. I was way impressed. Here's Sheetz in their own words, and here's a map of where you find them.

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Despite Sheetz, Allan and I will be in no hurry to drive through Pennsylvania again. Driving through the Poconos area on a winding two-lane highway, we were cruising along in the right lane, doing no more than five miles an hour over the speed limit. After discovering what two speeding tickets will do to your car insurance, we are determined to never get another speeding ticket again. It takes us a bit longer to get places, but we don't care: we don't speed. Thus imagine our surprise when a state trooper with lights flashing pulled up behind us.

The officer informed us that there is a law in Pennsylvania that requires motorists passing emergency vehicles to move to the left lane if possible. This trooper was parked in a turn-off with his lights flashing - although no emergency was taking place - waiting for cars to not pull over, so he could ticket them. And, we suspect, waiting specifically for cars with out of state plates.

We were doing 70 mph (the limit was 65) in the right lane, and when we saw him, slowed a bit. To our left, cars were zipping by at top speeds, on a road filled with curves. It was far safer to simply drive slowly without changing lanes - especially because we could see there was no actual emergency, merely a police car with lights flashing, no other vehicle present - than it would be to move into the faster lane. Of course we didn't argue with the state trooper, as that can only result in a greater fine.

When he went back to his car to check license and registration, I assumed we would be issued a warning. I was wrong. He ticketed us. He said the fine can range from $25 to $250, and he generously gave us the minimum. As we drove away, I read the citation. Twenty-five dollars? Not quite. The citation includes:
- Fine: $25
- EMS: $10
- Mcare: $30.00
- Costs: $34.50
- JCP/ATJ: $10

I had to look up that last one: it's the cost of checking your information via computer from the cop car. Grand total for the ticket: $109.50.

In the fine print, it says that in order to contest the ticket without cost, you must appear in person. If you plead not-guilty by mail, you are required to send the full amount of the ticket plus a $7.00 processing fee, to be held as "collateral". If you are found not guilty, the money will be returned.

I don't know if being found non-guilty comes before or after pigs fly and hell freezes over, but obviously out-of-state drivers are unlikely to be aware of this lane-changing law, and are probably unable to contest a ticket in person. So the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has state troopers faking an emergency, likely waiting for out-of-state plates to pass, in order to fund the state's EMS, Medicare and mobile toys. Do I even have to tell you we're not paying this?

As an additional irritant, the trooper asked us where we were coming from, why we were traveling, and where we were going. Why is a state trooper asking us those questions? He's not working for federal border control or customs. If we have a valid license and registration, and are using the highway in a lawful manner, what the hell business is it of Pennsylvania's where we are going and why? Yet if we had politely answered, "We are not required to tell you that," things would have gotten much worse. That is an abuse of power.

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in which we cross the border without incident

Was it a fluke? Has the harassment order been rescinded? Was the border guard at Lewiston just having a bad - or good - day? We don't know. We only know that we crossed the border from Canada to the US without being detained. No surrendering of keys, no armed escort into the station, no pointless waiting, no pointless questions.

There was a lot of traffic at the crossing, and after waiting almost an hour to get to the booth, I was dreading another long wait inside. Plus I was quite nervous about having Tala with us during this ordeal.

And then... nothing. The usual questions about reason for visit, length of stay, and such, and we were on our way. Once safely out of range, we whooped and shouted. Then I promptly started texting like mad.

Thanks for all your good wishes. It's been a long day, but a good one. I have some posts percolating and free time on the way, so you might hear from me.

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annual u.s. thanksgiving road trip

We're off - all three of us! Tala is joining us this year. I'm not looking forward to finding out how the border goons deal with dogs. But once we're on the other side, it will be great.

This trip marks one year since our border troubles began, after I used my passport for something concerning a war resister a few months earlier. Having been detained four times in the past year, I'm wondering if there's a sunset provision on the harassment, or if it will go on as long as my friend is AWOL, or perhaps forever.

Allan has now crossed twice without me, and breezed through with no problem. Nice to know I'm special.

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Bright Orange UFO Travels Toward Witnesses Over Anclote Florida

Date: November 2000

Time: 9:00 p.m.

Location of Sighting: Anclote, Florida.
Number of witnesses: 2
Number of Objects: 1
Shape of Objects: Oval.

Full Description of Event/Sighting: My husband and I were traveling down Anclote Rd., which is a road that runs along the Gulf of Mexico near the Anclote Power Station, on our way to go fishing and I saw out of the passenger's side window a bright orange streak across the sky over the water.

It did not seem odd at first as I assumed it was a meteor; however, when I told my husband about it, the light stopped in the sky and hovered and then shot across the sky again as fast as a shooting star. I knew then this was not a meteor or a plane. My husband stopped the car and we got out to see it better and just as we got out the object stopped in the air, it started coming towards our car.

I yelled at him to get back in the car and as soon as we did, which only took a few seconds, it had vanished from the sky. I looked around and in that area it is only low lying brush, so we could see for miles, there was nothing in the sky anymore. The odd thing also was when it was hovering over the water and coming towards us there was no sound at all.

If you have seen anything like this in the same area please be kind enough to contact Brian Vike at: sighting@telus.net with the details of your sighting. All personal information is kept confidential.

Sightings.com website: http://www.sightings.com/

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yosemite national park, day two

On Wednesday morning we had another fire in the wood stove and picked up an early coffee and tea while we waited for breakfast in the lodge. Allan was sick by this time, and not having a good time. (Fortunately it turned out to be his worst day.)

On this day we went in the opposite direction, north on the Tioga Road into the High Sierra country, part of the Sierra Nevada range. The Sequoias and El Capitan are spectacular, but it's the high country of Yosemite that appeals to me the most. I love the rocky terrain spotted with fir trees, the glacial lakes, the sweeping views. This Wikipedia entry on Tuolumne Meadows has some good photographs of the area.

On the way there, we stopped at Olmsted Point, named for both senior and junior Olmsteds, who both had a hand in preserving and guiding Yosemite. This seems great to me, since Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., the godfather of landscape architecture, is best known for New York City's Central Park. Olmsted Point offers a view of Half Dome from the "other" side, opposite from what you see in the Valley, and surrounded by the High Sierra terrain. Here are some photos from Olmsted Point until we can get our photos up.

The area was crowded with people, cars, buses and RVs. It's annoying - but it's also wonderful that so many people are out enjoying this very special place. It was only a short walk to a quiet, spectacular view that we seemed to have all to ourselves.

From there we continued on the Tioga Road to Tuolumne Meadow, and asked at the visitors centre for suitable hikes, which is what almost everyone at the visitors centre is doing. The hike we chose began near the stables, so we checked to see if there had been any cancellations, but they were still fully booked. On our first trip here in 1988, riding in the High Sierra was one of the most memorable experiences for me; I'm so glad I did it then, since it was not to be repeated.

We hiked up Dog Lake, a steeper hike than I would have wanted (which only means it wasn't flat!), but it was shady and much cooler than our hike in Mariposa Grove. I still had to stop frequently, but it was much easier. The little lake was beautiful and still. There were many other people on this hike, too. Massive amounts of people are enjoying Yosemite. It's good, and it's annoying.

We hiked back to the parking lot and picnic area, where people were speaking many different languages and there were a few people with visible disabilities, which I thought was very cool. We also saw signs warning about food left in cars, and directing people to use bear boxes, day or night, even in crowded conditions. Our food had been in our car. So we dodged a very serious bullet there. A bear can open a car like a sardine can. A rented car. Without insurance.

The importance of bear safety goes way beyond your car, though, however awful that prospect is. A bear that learns to eat food from human areas often becomes dangerous, and ends up being put down. So when you leave food in your car - like we did - you not only endanger yourselves and other people, you may contribute to the death of a wild animal. I'm not pleased that we slipped up, but it does show how easy it is to do.

From my notes, I see that on the way up to Tuolumne Meadows, we talked about the bear incident and decided that a bear had probably been at our tent. I also see that in the morning, I found a piece of fruit in my backpack, the backpack that had been in the cabin. Yeesh!

On the way back, we stopped again at Olmsted Point, because Half Dome looks so different depending on the time of day. This time it looked more solid and heavy, less shiny, more massive.

Back at White Wolf, we showered and changed and had dinner at the lodge, another very nice meal, and chatted with some folks from the Bay Area.

Every night we were there, I spent a little time staring up at the night sky. A dark sky studded with stars is a very special thing to me, something I seldom see. The other special thing was not having internet or cell phone access for three days. I loved it.

In the morning, we packed up and drove to Oakland, stopping for lunch at a picnic spot, missing our Freeway exit (the signage sucks), getting lost, then grabbing one last In-N-Out meal outside the airport. I chatted with you from the airport; it was a long trip home (Yosemite to Oakland to New York to Buffalo to Mississauga) but uneventful.

Two years, two destinations planned for us because of family weddings. I don't know if we'll be able to afford a trip next year, but the next time we travel, we'd like to choose the destination ourselves!

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yosemite national park, day one

We had an uncomfortable night - we hadn't made a fire, and didn't have a flashlight, and Allan was getting sick. But we had an excellent breakfast, then stopped in at the Crane Flat, the store and gas station for the Yosemite high country, for a flashlight.

We spent five days in Yosemite on our first big trip together in 1988, so I wasn't sure if we were going to do the "greatest hits" tour. But 1988 is a long time ago, and chances are we'll never be back, and those are greatest hits for a reason. We also wanted to stop at a visitor's centre to see about horseback riding, so we decided to drive into the Valley, about an hour away.

Yosemite Valley is amazing and horrible: the views are amazing, the crowds are horrible. From the Valley floor, you look up at enormous sheer granite cliffs and waterfalls, and have spectacular views. The most famous of these are Half Dome and El Capitan, and there are many others. Every vista point is full of cars and RVs, and with good reason.

We stopped frequently for photo ops and made our way to the visitors centre. One thing this did was validate our decision not to stay in Curry Village! The horseback riding in the high country was fully booked, a disappointment to me, but it freed up time and money, both in short supply on this trip.

Next we drove to Mariposa Grove, home to the largest stand of Giant Sequoia trees in the world. It was a long drive, made longer and slower by road construction, and the last portion had to be done by shuttle bus, as the number of cars allowed into each section of the Park is limited (thank goodness). Some of the Sequoias in Mariposa Grove are more than 2,000 years old, making them some of the oldest living organisms on the planet. These trees are not only tall - 210 feet or 64 meters - they are enormously wide: 92 feet or 28 meters in diameter at the base, with branches some six or seven feet or two meters in diameter.

I must admit that I did not feel the same awe and wonder I did when we saw these trees in 1988, partly because of the crowds, and partly because I was more prepared. (I also visited Yosemite as a child in about 1970 or 1971.) But it was still very cool to see the trees.

There are two groves in Mariposa, Upper and Lower. After seeing the Lower Grove, we hiked up to the Upper, but I had a really hard time. It was very hot, and Sequoias aren't shade trees; the forest is striped with shade but not shady. I have a hard time in the heat, and neither of us are in prime shape for uphill hiking. I had to stop frequently and a few times thought I would turn back, but didn't.

When we reached the Upper Grove, our efforts were rewarded: a deer was walking around by the roadside, right near us, completely unafraid. At one point, I held my breath while it walked within ten feet of me, checking me out with its huge, radar-tower ears and black liquid eyes. We saw two more deers near the spectacular trees, then reluctantly headed downhill. On our way to the shuttle bus, we saw two bucks with big antlers bounding off through the trees. No matter how many times I have seen deer in the wild, I love it every single time.

We drove back to White Wolf, at the complete other end of the Park, but this time without construction. That night was our bear paranoia experience. The evening was much more comfortable than our first night, since we had a flashlight and made a fire.

The temperature range was dramatic: about 7 C / 45 F in the morning, quickly rising to 65-70 F / 18-21 C in the high country, topping out at 95-105 F / 35-40 C in mid-day, and back down again at night. It's very dry, so it's much more bearable than Toronto or New York in similar temperatures, but it's still much too hot for me. On the other hand, I wore shorts and a light jacket in the morning, while most people were bundled up in winter jackets.

We experienced the same kind of extreme temperature range driving to Yosemite as well. San Francisco is famous for its chilly summers (love it!), and as you drive east, the temperature steadily rises to a typically hot, dry California summer.

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sonoma county to first night in yosemite [travel journal continued]

In my last travel-journal entry, we had our last night in Sonoma County and were getting ready to drive to Yosemite.

We hit the road early, driving down to the Bay Area, then east to Yosemite. As we drove in and out of the Bay Area, the sky was frequently dotted with hawks, soaring and gliding over the vineyards. Little critters come to eat the grapes, and the hawks come to eat the critters. I love birds of prey (part of my thing for carnivorous animals) and it was beautiful to see so many hawks.

We stopped in the town of Tracy to do laundry, buy some food - and eat more In-N-Out! There was an In-N-Out billboard on the highway, which is why we chose the town for our pit stop. [Idea for phone app: In-N-Out locator.]

Past Tracy, it was all farmland, both cattle grazing on ranches and seemingly endless orchards. There are many farm stands selling corn, berries, peaches, almonds and "ice cold melons".

The drive in and out of Yosemite National Park is a long approach, up a winding road into mountains and through some tiny historic towns. Once you hit the park entrance, it's many more miles to wherever you're staying - which is part of the point. As I've mentioned, if you visit Yosemite or any other large US National Park, you want to plan ahead to be able to stay in the park, or persist in trying to get a spot through a last-minute cancellation. If not, you'll spend many boring, frustrating hours driving back and forth each day. The Park is huge, requiring hours of driving to see things anyway. You don't to spend all day driving.

Within Yosemite itself, there are expensive luxury accommodations, campsites and a few things in between. Most visitors stay in Curry Village, almost a city itself - crowded, noisy and annoying. We would have done that if we had to, but I called frequently to check on cancellations, and was finally rewarded with a spot in the White Wolf area. We had a "tent cabin," which is a large tent with a cement floor; each tent sleeps four on cots. It includes linens, towels, a wood stove (with wood, kindling, lighter fluid and matches), candles, and a few folding chairs. There's no electricity and you use community showers and toilets in the centre of the camp.

There's a lodge building that serves as office, store and restaurant. The store sells a little of everything, with no markup: two beers, chips and coffee were $7.00. At the lodge, you can have an all-you-can-eat hot breakfast buffet for less than $10.00 per person. At dinner, you share tables with other people and are served by eager and well-meaning, if a bit over-matched, camp staff. Dinner is also all-you-can-eat: fresh salad, soup, entree, vegetable, potatoes, dessert for under $20. The setting is very pretty, not at all institutional. The food was very good and a great value.

That's the plus side of the tent-cabin thing. On the negative side, the biggest drawback is negotiating the vissicitudes of the bear box, as I explained here. You don't have a private bathroom, but I don't find that a big deal for a few days. The showers are designed for drought conditions, to dissuade you from taking an indulgently long shower - a drawback when you return sweaty and dusty from hiking. But the real inconvenience was keeping our toiletries in a bear box that was difficult to lock and unlock.

However, given the choices, I would choose White Wolf every time. I don't camp, and I no longer apologize for that (although I am beyond tired of people who enjoy camping laughing at me, as if the desire to go camping bespeaks some natural superiority). I have only been real tent camping twice in my life, and I absolutely hated it. I don't need luxury, but I need to sleep in a bed, not on the ground, and I need a hot shower. White Wolf let us avoid massive crowds, was affordable, was in a beautiful secluded setting - and gave me the bed and the shower.

Our first night, we found we were woefully unprepared for the campground experience. This was a complicated trip for which to prepare - city, wedding, park - and it was inevitable that some things would slip through the cracks. What's more, the campground web page could have been more helpful; a list of essential items to pack would have been good. We were unprepared for cold nights and mornings (which is fine for me, but most people would have been very uncomfortable), and most importantly, we didn't bring a flashlight. The tent cabins don't have electricity and the generators for the washroom lights turn off overnight.

That night, we had dinner at the lodge, which was really nice. We sat next to a Dutch couple and talked about the differences between the Netherlands, Canada and the US. They understood the whole picture - how we want Canada to be more like the Netherlands and less like the US. They had been in New York, San Francisco, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. By coincidence, there were other Dutch people at the table, a guy who is living and working in San Diego and his friends who were visiting him. (Surfer dudes, road trip to Vegas, whoo-hoo!)

After dinner, we picked our way back through the dark to the tent and used the car headlights to find our things!

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in which a bear learns i have ptsd

Yosemite National Park and the surrounding area are full of bears. Bears and people are an uneasy mix, at best. Many years ago when we were in Denali National Park, in Alaska, the Park's visitor education instilled in me a very healthy fear of bears. The ranger said, "Bears are mostly vegetarian. But the thing about bears is that they are highly intelligent, and every bear is unique, has its own personality. A bear who is mostly vegetarian could wake up one day and think, 'I have a taste for meat'. And you're meat."

Then there are the highly dangerous bears. Bears who have been injured and are in pain. Bears who have learned that human campsites are food sources. And, most dangerous of all, mother bears who believe their cubs are threatened.

In Denali, we learned about proper response to a nearby bear. You are to stand still, not run, because if you run, you will look like prey, and you will not be able to outrun this massive animal. You're supposed to stand your ground, make yourself look big by waving your arms around, and make a lot of noise. When you hike through a bear territory, you're always supposed to make noise. There we were in the quiet solitude of the tundra, talking loudly and jingling our "bear bells" to announce our presence! We felt silly, but in summer the cubs are out, and you do not want to surprise their mama!

In Yosemite, signs on all the roads remind you that Speeding Kills Bears. (I love the design of the sign.) As we entered the park, a sign told us that 27 bears were killed on the Yosemite roads in 2009. Given the pressures all wild animals are under, with habitat destruction and poaching, that bears should be killed by cars in a national park seems so awful to me. So the Park does heavy bear education, especially at the campsites and lodges.

We stayed in a "tent cabin" in the White Wolf area (more on this in the next post). Like all outdoor accommodations, the tent cabin came with a "bear box," which is a misnomer. It is an anti-bear box: a metal box with a complicated hook-and-eye and pin closure in which to store food.

The problem is that "food," to a bear, includes many things that humans do not consider food, such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste and water bottles, either empty or full. Storing food in the bear box, removing it only to eat, is no big deal. But having to store all your toiletries - unlocking the box, removing what you need, relocking the box, using what you need, then unlocking the box, returning the item, and relocking the box - with each open and close a difficult procedure - every time you need something - is very inconvenient. As much as we tried to think of everything at once and coordinate our bear-box activity, we ended up opening and closing the box with great frequency.

The closure on our box was warped, misshapen and rusty. The first time I opened it, I ripped the skin on one finger, sending blood running down my hand and arm. The first time Allan opened it, the exact same thing happened to him in the same spot on his hand. After that, I had the brilliant idea of using a washcloth as you would a glove. This spared our hands no end of abuse, but opening and closing this bear box was still a royal pain in the butt.

On Tuesday evening, our second night in Yosemite, we decided not to eat dinner at the lodge (again, more on that in the next post), to give ourselves more time out for the day, and also to use more of the food we had with us. We sat on folding chairs outside our tent cabin, using the tree stump table for our candle, wine and food. We were sitting about six feet away from our cabin door; the bear box was on the side of the cabin, about 15-20 feet away from us. Because we were so nearby, we had closed the bear box but not locked it.

We were eating and talking as the light faded and the dusk sky grew darker. We heard a noise - a clamoring of metal. I jumped up, grabbed the flashlight, and shined it towards the bear box. We both saw - or thought we saw? - a rounded shape, brown, in front of the box. I jumped back in alarm, and when I re-shined the light on the same place, the shape was gone.

Making plenty of noise, we walked over to the box. The door was wide open. The contents were undisturbed - but we had all the food at the stump table; only travel bags of toiletries were in the box. Maybe we hadn't seen the shape. Maybe the door to the bear box had swung open.

We calmed down finished our dinner. Deconstructing the incident, we decided the door to the bear box had swung open. Then, about an hour or so later, someone else staying at the site told us a bear had been seen in the camp "about 45 minutes earlier".

Let me tell you, I was afraid. My old PTSD hypervigilance kicked in. When Allan went to use the washroom, I lit two candles, held the flashlight and sang to myself to make noise. That night, I was really scared, despite knowing full well that a bear will not enter a food-free tent just to snack on humans. The PTSD was mild, nothing horrible. Mostly it was interesting to me to see that it could be triggered that way.

The next day, driving around, we realized there almost certainly had been a bear at the box. There was no wind, and the metal door of the box would not have swung open by itself. And we both saw the same shape. As there wasn't great food in the box, the little commotion we made must have scared it off.

To wmtc readers who go camping and are outdoorsy, I'm sure this story is commonplace, even silly. But to this non-camper, it was a little too exciting!

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meet matt green. he's just walkin'.

Allan told me about a man who is living out my oldest dream. His name is Matt Green, and he's walking across the United States.

Here's why, the short answer.

Many people ask me the following questions when they hear about my walk: Am I raising money for a cause? Am I trying to set a record? Am I running from the law? My answer: I’m just doing it for the hell of it. Or, more precisely, I’m doing it for its own sake, for the value inherent in the act itself. Hence the name of this website: I’m just walkin’.

And doesn't it figure, the long answer begins with a quote from John Steinbeck.

This makes me so envious, it hurts. Really. Deep-down. For me it is, quite literally, the road not traveled.

But I'm happy there are people who do this kind of thing.

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greetings from the oakland airport

We are hiding in a dark corner of the Oakland, California airport, tucked away from crowds and the unwelcome noise of CNN. Our flight - the redeye - is delayed a couple of hours, but it hardly matters, since we had a four-hour layover in JFK anyway.

Starting this morning in Yosemite, it's a two-day journey home: drive from Yosemite to Oakland, wait in airport, fly from Oakland to New York, wait in airport, fly from New York to Buffalo, drive from Buffalo, home. A long day, but we have lots of books and the internet to amuse us, plus each other. The only catch is I don't sleep on planes. Ever never. Flying home from Peru a few years ago, I double-dosed myself with sleeping pills, and was still wide awake the whole way home. Oh well.

I have a few blog posts waiting in a notebook and will slowly but surely get them up. I've got all the war resisters news and same-sex marriage news which you've all undoubtedly heard by now, but I'll put that up, too.

On the way to California I read Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided, and now I'm reading This Book Is Overdue!, about the awesomeness of librarians.

We miss Tala and Cody!

That is all.

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sonoma county to yosemite national park

We've spent the last two days eating, drinking, talking, laughing, hugging, dancing, drinking, talking, drinking, hugging and laughing. All amid the rolling, vineyard hills and under perfect blue skies. Good times.

The wedding was beautiful - outdoors, with a vineyard as a backdrop. My niece-in-law is an artist and designed the wedding after the work of the artist Alophonse Mucha, especially "The Four Seasons". My nephew is very spiritual, so there was a mix of religious and spiritual traditions along with the basics of a Jewish wedding. Taken together, it was a beautiful mix.

I will note that the officiator - a female cantor - ended the ceremony with a view to the day when all people can marry if they choose. We were very pleased to hear that; I'm sure the plug wasn't lost on anyone there. My nephew is also an ordained officiator and married same-sex couples the moment the equal marriage law (now rescinded) went into effect.

The party was great, if a bit chaotic. Some friends of the couple's lent the grounds of their beautiful home for the event, so we were outdoors, under tents, drinking copious amounts of local wine, dancing and enjoying each other's company. Two weddings, two years in a row, has us all spoiled.

Yesterday, the day after the wedding, we headed back to the same site to meet up with my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces and nephews other than the newlyweds. We were going to do some exploring in the area, but ended up just enjoying a leisurely meal together, which was undoubtedly better. There's no end of wineries to tour and cute little towns to poke around, but at this point that's really of limited interest to me. I was happier just to hang out with people I love who I seldom see.

After that, Allan and I called my mom and went over to her hotel to hang out for a few hours. This was a surprise for her - I didn't want to plan it in advance in case it didn't work out - and made her very happy. Everyone I spoke to at the wedding was kvelling over my mom, her great energy and spirit, kickin' at age 79.

This morning we leave our little farm-side cottage and drive to Yosemite National Park. I won't have internet access there, so I'll keep a journal on paper. I'll have plenty of time to catch up as we wait for flights in Oakland and JFK. I'm not looking forward to the return trip - the redeye to JFK, then a four-hour layover, then a flight to Buffalo and the drive home from there. Not ideal for someone like me who can't sleep on planes, ever. On the other hand, I've done it before and lived to tell the tale, so I don't want to wind myself up over it.

Now, Yosemite awaits! I'm very excited about it. See you all on Thursday night.

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windsor, sonoma county, california

Yesterday was a travel day, a short distance that took a long time.

If the Oakland Airport wants to be a viable alternative to San Francisco, they have to fix their rental car problem. And PS, don't ever rent from Payless out here. But after the BART to the "Air BART" (bus link between airport and BART), to the insane rental car shuttle, and almost to a second, nonexistent shuttle for Payless, we finally did get a car from National. If Payless wants to try and charge us for the reservation we didn't keep, bring it on.

We immediately drove to the nearest In-N-Out, which we had seen from the Air BART bus, and Allan had his first In-N-Out experience. By that time it was late and we were very hungry, and ate copious amounts of cheeseburgers and fries. I've already noted this on previous California posts, but it's amusing that there's a "double double" here, too. As we would say in a Joy of Sox gamethred: In-N-Out Double Double > Tim Hortons' Double Double.

After a few wrong turns, we joined a slow parade of traffic crawling northward from San Francisco, to the town of Windsor in Sonoma County. This is the heart of wine country, very near the hip, happening town of Healdsburg which everyone tells us to check out.

The cottage is so sweet - just perfect. It's a bed-and-breakfast cottage, so our hosts have stocked it with everything we need for breakfast. Last year in New Mexico, as soon as we put down our bags after a very long day of travel, we had to head out to a store for basics like coffee, tea and cereal. This is easier and more convenient.

We were late for the rehearsal dinner, but by coincidence it was being held at a golf club right down the road from where we're staying, so we were able to relax for a bit before getting ready for the party. Like last year, the best part of this trip is seeing our nieces and nephews, sibs and sibs-in-law, and some extended family (not necessarily related to us). We have a lot to catch up on with a lot of people, and it's great just to be around them.

Cue take 4,573 of how freaking amazing it is to enjoy family gatherings now. After half a lifetime of approaching these things with anxiety and dread, I now look forward to them with joy and excitement. And people think death and divorce are bad things! They've done wonders for us.

Our cottage are adjacent to a farm. We hear baby goats bleating and horses whinnying - and this morning we actually woke up to a rooster crowing. (Then went right back to sleep.) Next to the porch, there's a plum tree laden with ripe fruit. It's beautiful and quiet, and hearing the animals talk is so peaceful.

The wedding is this afternoon, so I'm not sure what, if anything, we'll do besides that.

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san francisco, day two

On Thursday I amazed myself by sleeping until 9:00 a.m., something I very rarely do on Eastern time, and never when my body thinks that means noon. Two consecutive nights of very little sleep plus a dark room and an extremely comfy bed worked wonders. By the time we finished breakfast, blogged and organized our day, the morning was over. But hey, it's vacation.

First thing, we headed down to the Ferry Building Market, new since the last time I was in San Francisco. The Ferry Building is a San Francisco landmark, more than 100 years old and the survivor of many earthquakes, including "the" quake of 1906. It's been lovingly and impeccably restored (and made accessible), and is now home to a beautiful market, along with commuter and travel ferries to dozens of towns across the Bay. We love markets and like to see them wherever we go, so this beautiful building right on the water was a must.

Three days a week there is a farmers' market and street food outside, which we saw briefly. We mostly wandered around inside, browsing through the permanent shops and restaurants. They're all independent and locally-based, but somewhat high-end, which is very easy to do out here. A shop selling only varieties of olive oil or organic mushrooms is not something you see in Toronto or New York, but it's not uncommon here. We had some delicious sandwiches from Boccalone - "tasty salty pig parts" - and gelato, and browsed through a nice bookstore.

Outside, from a huge array of tables, I found a pair of earrings, delicate hand-painting on shells. I told the artist I would link to her website, but at the moment her domain seems to be up for grabs. Rosa Moore and her husband Joso Vidal do beautiful work, and in case the site comes back, it's Clearlight Jewelry dot-com.

My Ice Hotel keychain died a few months ago, and yesterday I replaced it with a keychain made from a Susan B. Anthony dollar, showing that radical woman smoking a pipe. The artist creates figure-ground art by cutting out the backgrounds of coins, to leave only a face, or a buffalo, an eagle, and such. He's cut out several figures in such a way that has them smoking pipes - George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, for example. He said if I didn't want Susan B. Anthony to be a smoker, he could remove the pipe for me. But the pipe is great. I like to think if our hero Anthony had wanted to smoke a pipe, she damn well would have.

Leaving the area, we ran into some young canvassers from Equality California, wearing great t-shirts with the bright EQ CA logo. We let an enthusiastic young man named Oscar give us his whole pitch, proudly telling him we are from Canada, where we have full marriage equality. California activists, working towards a ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8 in 2012, are raising money to open more local offices throughout the state. We made a donation, wished them luck and got directions to our next stop.

On the streetcar, an incredibly friendly driver - an Ellen DeGeneres lookalike - directed us to a better bus route, and dropped us at the appropriate stop at no charge. When we said we were going to City Lights, she mentioned Vesuvio next door. She also asked where we were having dinner, and tipped us off on $1 oysters and half-price beers at Hog City Oyster bar, at the Ferry Building Market. It seems I exclaim, "These friendly Californians!" at least three times a day. I love New Yorkers and I will never badmouth my own breed. But I never understood why people find Easterners unfriendly until I spent time in California and the Pacific Northwest. I used to think the difference was urban versus rural, but SoCal, the Bay Area and Seattle are plenty dense, yet people are still incredibly friendly compared to New Yorkers, Bostonians, and others in the east. And whereas Canadians are extremely nice and friendly, they are still (stereotypically speaking) reserved, compared with the openness and warmth I feel here.

We took the bus up to North Beach, the old Italian neighbourhood that is still chock full of Italian restaurants and cafes. Maybe it's me, but I think the area still has a very authentic feel, despite the tourist interest. Our destination, though, wasn't Little Italy, but City Lights. City Lights is a landmark bookstore and publisher, founded by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was the home and hangout for Beat Generation writers, and perhaps most famous for publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl".

But City Lights is no museum. It is still a vibrant bookstore, still publishing fiction, nonfiction and especially important political work, and still fanning the flames of free expression. There's an entire room of poetry upstairs - in which I confess I never get past Whitman and Ginsburg - and a whole floor of revolutionary politics downstairs. We love this place and go whenever we're here. Not least among my reasons for loving City Lights is my love for Allen Ginsberg - writer, New Yorker, early out queer, compassionate humanist, and literary descendant of another writing hero of mine, Walt Whitman.

City Lights has recently published The Bomb, a short monograph by Howard Zinn, taken from some of his earlier writings plus an new introduction Howard finished just a month before he died. It is a concise and painfully true treatise against war. It felt good to buy this from people who were so recently working with and publishing Howard Zinn. I also bought Hungry Planet: What The World Eats, which I blogged about when it was making the rounds in newspapers and magazines. The book is extraordinary: NPR feature about the project, website for What The World Eats, reviews on Amazon.

Allan also bought a 'zine - an actual old-fashioned, ink-on-paper 'zine - published by a woman in New York: The East Village Inky. He also found a cool magazine called Rejected Quarterly, dedicated to publishing fiction, poetry and art that other publishers have rejected, along with the rejection letters themselves. The inside cover says: "All fiction submissions must be accompanied by at least five rejection slips"!

I left Allan to continue browsing, and went across the alley to Vesuvio, a legendary cafe/bar/club/hangout of Beat fame. Although it's a famous spot that every tourist sticks their head into, it's also a thriving neighbourhood hangout. I came in expecting to have a coffee but ended up with a Guinness instead. Hey, it's vacation!

After Allan reappeared, we took the bus back to our hotel for the afternoon wine reception, then walked down to the Museum of Modern Art, or SF MOMA, half price on Thursday nights. Most of the museum is currently taken up with the newly acquired Fisher Collection, which had some limited interest to us. It seems like a nice museum and I'm glad we went - but also glad we went for half price.

Back at the hotel, Allan was having horrible foot pain, an ongoing issue that is worsening. I was so lucky to have solve my foot pain with orthotics two years ago, but his new orthotics are not yet doing the trick. We had more wine and tapas at the bar downstairs. The hotel's restaurant, Postrio, is top-notch, but the real attraction was only needing the elevator to get home.

Today, Friday, we go back to the Oakland Airport to pick up our rental car, then drive up to the cottage in Sonoma County. The rehearsal dinner is tonight. The only other thing on the agenda today is In-N-Out. Allan was exceedingly jealous of my In-N-Out fests on my last two trips to visit friends in California, so now he'll find out what all the fuss is about.

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san francisco, day one

If you're new around these parts, here's a quick note of explanation. I've kept a travel journal for every trip I've taken since 1982. Since 2006, with my trip to Peru, I began keeping these journals online, on this blog. I write it almost exactly as I would if I were writing for myself. So be warned!

* * * *

Tuesday was a long travel day, from Buffalo to JFK to Oakland and into San Francisco. Our four hour wait in JFK extended to five, then close to an hour wait on the plane for takeoff. We took public transit from the Oakland Airport into town. If you go to San Francisco, you should always check fares to Oakland. It's usually less expensive and always much easier.

So by the time we got into Oakland, with the time change working against us, we were tired and bedraggled. Imagine our surprise when the front-desk clerk told us he had no record of our reservation!

The hotel was completely booked, not one unreserved room, and Hotels.com - did you know that is an offshoot of Expedia.com? - had oversold them by 15 rooms. In chatting with him about it, we learned that this has been happening a lot. Recently when the San Francisco Marathon was on, the hotel had to send 50 people in cabs to a hotel in a nearby city. It's been something of a nightmare to them, but this person could not have been more gracious and unflappable.

He said he'd book us a room at a hotel around the corner, at their expense, and then there were plenty of rooms for the next two nights. But that hotel was oversold, too, as was the second one he called. Finally, the poor guy made what must have been a scary decision - there were six rooms that were reserved but for which guests hadn't shown up yet, so he gave us one of those.

There is nothing quite like sinking into a clean, fresh bed after a long day of travel. We were so tired and very relieved.

We're staying at The Prescott, a bit more luxurious than usual for us, but the online deal was very good - although of course that only works if the reservation service actually books the room! The front-desk clerk upgraded us to include breakfast (not always done in the nicer hotels) and an afternoon wine reception.

* * * *

Since we've been in San Francisco several times, we've done all the big tourist attractions, at least the ones that interest us. We just want to hit a few favourite spots, do a couple of new things, and soak up the atmosphere. San Francisco is a really special place. It's so beautiful, the houses rising on the hills, the Bay, the views, the bridges. It also has an energy and an excitement found in very few US cities.

We had a brief breakfast in the hotel, then took a bus to the Chestnut Street area, a fun neighbourhood not far from the Bay. The bus goes through Chinatown and North Beach, another cool SF neighbourhood, and provides a nice little tour. Time zone difference being what it is, by the time we got to Chestnut Street, we were hungry again, and stopped at a great cafe for coffee and breakfast burritos. Chestnut Street has been infiltrated by Starbucks and Gap, but for the most part it still has an independent feel.

From there we walked to the Bay, cutting through a piece of The Presidio to the Golden Gate Promenade or Crissy Field. This is a walking and bike path right on the bay, with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. If you walk the entire path, you can visit the historic fort at the base of the bridge. If I recall correctly, this fort was almost torn down when the Golden Gate Bridge was built, but preservationists were successful, and the bridge was designed to go over it. (On the Fort Point website you can get the whole story and see how the bridge now shelters the fort.) On our first trip to San Francisco together in 1988 (which was my third or fourth time here), Allan and I hiked down to the fort. We were fascinated with the Golden Gate Bridge and learned everything we could about it.

This time we strolled along the Bay, enjoying the perfect weather and the incredible view. Along with the cyclists and walkers, there were dozens of dogs romping on the sand and playing in the surf. Some were with their owners who were walking on the beach, but there were also many dogwalkers with six, eight or twelve dogs each. It seemed an ideal place for both dogs and people, such a beautiful and relaxing setting.

We're not taking photos here in San Francisco, as we already have hundreds of photos of these areas. But a Google image search will give you an idea.

We took the bus back to the hotel, had some tapas and wine at the bar, and headed to the ballpark. I really like the "new" (now ten years old) park in San Francisco, sadly named AT&T Park, but beautifully designed and situated on the East Bay overlooking the Oakland Bay Bridge. We've been to this park once before, and had also been to Candlestick, where the Giants used to play.

We met a friend from Joy of Sox, and a friend of his, for the game. It was a wild one: the Giants were up 9-2 after six innings, blew the entire lead, but came back to win 10-9 in ten innings. Unfortunately for us, I neglected to consider our seat locations and didn't use sunscreen. We sat in the blazing sun for eight innings and now have strangely-patterned sunburns.

After the game, our SF friend brought us to a great Chinese restaurant, very different than the Chinese food I eat in Toronto, and a real treat. Then we went to their neighbourhood bar hangout.

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new monument discovered at stonehenge

A team of archaeologists from the UK and Austria have discovered a major monument located less than a kilometre from Stonehenge. While there are standing stones, stone circles and henges throughout the UK and Ireland, it is very rare for such a large, impressive monument to be unearthed. That is was discovered less than one kilometre away from the most iconic of all stone circles is quite amazing.

History is set to be rewritten after an archaeology team led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria discovered a major ceremonial monument less than one kilometre away from the iconic Stonehenge.

The incredible find has been hailed by Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University’s IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, as one of the most significant yet for those researching the UK’s most important prehistoric structure.

The new henge was uncovered this week, just two weeks into a three-year international study that forms part of the multi-million Euro international Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project.

The project aims to map 14 square kilometres of the Stonehenge Landscape using the latest geophysical imaging techniques, to recreate visually the iconic prehistoric monument and its surroundings and transform how we understand this unique landscape and its monuments.

“This finding is remarkable,” Professor Gaffney said. “It will completely change the way we think about the landscape around Stonehenge.

“People have tended to think that as Stonehenge reached its peak it was the paramount monument, existing in splendid isolation.

“This discovery is completely new and extremely important in how we understand Stonehenge and its landscape.”

The new “henge-like” Late Neolithic monument is believed to be contemporaneous to Stonehenge and appears to be on the same orientation as the World Heritage Site monument. It comprises a segmented ditch with opposed north-east/south-west entrances that are associated with internal pits that are up to one metre in diameter and could have held a free-standing, timber structure.

Oh man, I love this stuff. I've been to Stonehenge a few times, including when you were still able to walk among the stones. (It's good to be old.) We've also visited Avebury and other neolithic sites in the UK.

The best neolithic sites we've seen were in Ireland - Newgrange and others in the Boyne valley. Newgrange is a passage tomb and a solstice site, much older than Stonehenge, and you can walk inside. But standing stones and stone circles are everywhere in Ireland. We would pull off the road to check out a stone circle now in someone's front yard.

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california bound

We're off today, first to spend the night with friends in Buffalo, then on Tuesday flying west. We'll be in San Francisco two days, then head up to Sonoma County for the weekend for wedding festivities, then down to Yosemite National Park for three days.

I wasn't very happy about this trip, being the second consecutive year we've had our destinations determined by weddings. It's not that we don't want to be there; we're close with our nephews and nieces and wouldn't miss their weddings for the world. But this is not the trip I would choose this year, and I can't afford two vacations. (I actually can't afford any.) At least I had never been to New Mexico, so last year's trip had that excitement. I've been to California many times.

So I was generally feeling grumpy about this vacation, until last week, when I started getting excited about it.

San Francisco - the second best city in the US - is one of my favourite places. For me the cool thing about going someplace you've been many times is how it frees your exploration. When we return to a city for the second or third (or more) time, we've already done all the big tourist sights. We'll just pick a few things to do, go at a leisurely pace, soak up the vibe.

This year on the San Francisco agenda: a Giants game with a friend from JoS, a walk on the esplanade to see the bay and the bridge we love so much, the Ferry Building Market (new to us), dim sum, and San Francisco MOMA (I have never been). And if possible, our usual pilgrimage to City Lights Books.

And when I thought of going to northern California, I immediately thought: Yosemite. Yosemite is a place where the word "awesome" applies in its forgotten meaning, a place of awe and wonder. Allan and I were there on our first big trip together, in 1988. I was also there as a child, probably in 1970.

This time, instead of staying in the Valley, the more typical and popular place to stay, I snagged us a spot in the White Wolf area, a more remote location. (To give an idea, there are accommodations for hundreds in the Valley, and less than 50 in White Wolf.) We'll be staying in a tent cabin, the closest we come to camping. Washrooms and meals are in a common area. I'm excited about staying in this area. I'm hoping there is still horseback riding in the High Sierra country.

Yosemite has a huge range of accommodation options, from backcountry camping passes to luxurious lodges. If you ever go, I highly recommend planning ahead so you can stay within the Park itself. If you don't, you will spend hours driving in and out of the Park every day, much of that in traffic. This is important in any US National Park, but in Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, it's essential.

In between San Francisco and Yosemite is the real reason for the trip, our nephew's wedding in Sonoma County. J is my oldest nephew, born on my 20th birthday, and I'm so happy for him and C. It's also another opportunity to see my mom, siblings, nephews and nieces, and some amazing friends of my brother and sister-in-law's.

Sonoma County is wine country, so we might do a winery tour. Some friends of the couple run a tour company of small, artisinal wineries, and are giving a half-price discount to wedding guests. We've never done a winery tour before, always preferring to explore on our own. But there are hundreds of wineries in the area, and it's way more fun if you don't have to drive. So we might work that in.

For the wedding, we're staying in one of these cottages.

Hey, this sounds like fun! Why wasn't I looking forward to this trip? I know. My insanely strong desire to see new places, combined with the sense of time ticking away and not going to those places. But putting that aside, this will be a great trip.

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we move to canadian passports

Look what came in the mail while we were in Stratford!

Whoo-hoo! This is very exciting.

We're going to California at the end of this month, flying out of Buffalo. I've heard many different opinions on whether or not our troubles at the border will continue now that we are traveling on a Canadian passport. No one seems to know for sure. But we shall soon find out!

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when there's no baseball, there's shakespeare

Today we are off to Stratford, Ontario for two Shakespeare productions and two nights in a bed-and-breakfast. We did this last year during the baseball All Star break, and I liked it so much, I thought it should be an annual tradition.

We're staying at Across The Bridge B&B, owned by two great US ex-pats. Last year they contacted me through this blog and we stayed there as their guests, amazingly enough. Now we are regular customers - and friends.

I have met the best people through wmtc. In fact, before I got back into activism and met people through the War Resisters Support Campaign and the peace movement, everyone I knew in Canada, I had met through this blog. So while I might write more about wmtc's persistent trolls, the real payoff from wmtc has been an amazing network of friends.

We've met great friends through Allan's blog, too, and there's a small subset of folks who read both, or at least read Joy of Sox and are not strangers to wmtc. One of those is a Canadian Red Sox fan living in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, and we're meeting him and his partner tonight for dinner in Stratford.

These are the kinds of things that make me really appreciate my life.

Tomorrow we may drive over to St. Jacobs, the Mennonite community outside K-W, known for its glassworks, quilting and a great farmer's market. (Also known for outlet shopping, but we will avoid that.) I've actually been planning on going to St. Jacobs on one of my mother's visits, as she's mad for handcrafts of all kinds, especially glass and textiles. This might be a preview, then I'll do more in-depth exploring with my mom later in the summer.

Tonight we're seeing As You Like It, and tomorrow night, Christopher Plummer in The Tempest. This is my theatre fix for the year! Plus a break from political and social concerns, which I could really use right now.

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