Santa Cruz

Road trip. Graduation. Amsterdam. Canada. Wedding. Graduation.
Try packing for that!
Santa Cruz to Rye Patch

Easy driving from Santa Cruz to Rye Patch State Park on the Humboldt river.
Rural roads to the Spiral Jetty

Long day to the Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. Sculptor died in his early 30s. Kick over a trail cairn for him sometime. Vagabonds in the camping spot. We found a better one.
Utah to Wyoming

Great Salt Lake. Promentory Utah and the Golden Spike. Then on the road to Devil's Tower. Beam me up Scotty!
The Devil's Tower to the Badlands

Wet and rainy hiking before heading out to wet and rainy Sage Creek in the Badlands. Camper battery gave up the ghost. Picked up a new one at Cabela's in Rapid City along the way.
More Badlands

Moved camp to near the Visitor's Center. Nice slippery hike through the eroded topography. Native American tacos for lunch. Archeological dig uncovered a precursor hippo to canines. Pretty cool.
Badlands to Duluth

Long day to a Minnesota campground and on to John and Kim's. Nice time in Duluth. Out to Tavern on the Hill for dinner. Boys are growing up.
On to LaCrosse, On to Hampshire

Nice few days relaxing at Eagle Crest. Fine food in West Salem. Picked up Grace and headed to Massachusetts where we met Sophie in the Hartford airport.
Graduation Day!

What a time celebrating Augie!
Nice few days in New England

Nice time with Alison at the Bnb. Lots of good food and ice cream. Lunch with Kim, Susan, and Joan. A rush to the airport to make it back to LaCrosse. (never LSE again, always MSP!)
La Crosse, United States

Llama time at Will and Beth's. We missed the shearing which was quite an endeavor, but it was nice hanging out anyway. As usual the food and company were great.
Sunset over the Mississippi.
NancyRead more
La Crosse to O'Hare

All packed up. Bikes boxed and ready. Camper in storage. Ready to go! O'Hare to Heathrow to Schiphol.
The guys at Coolee Bicycles in Onalaska boxed up our bikes. Figuring out logistics for gettingRead more
Amsterdam Intro

We made it. Easy flight. Quick through customs. Harrie picked us up. We set up a home swap on Home Exchange with Harrie and Birgitt. It's right in the center of Amsterdam near the Anne Frank museum.Read more
Wannegem in the Flemish Ardennes

We packed up our bikes and took the train to Gent. From there we pedaled the 40 kilometers or so to a home we'd rented for a week in Wannegem Belgium. Our friends Manu and Katelijn secured the placeRead more
Side trips to West Flanders

While relaxing in Wannegem has certainly been pleasant, Nancy and I felt the need to move. We took daily bike rides through the countryside and a couple of side trips to western Flanders.
A couple ofRead more
Good friends, good food, and ice cream.

Good friends, good food, and ice cream!
What more to say?
Well, just a bit. At dinner the other night Manu was describing a novelist who had left the church as 'a failed priest' when a light wentRead more
The Flemish Ardennes to Gent

Nancy and I have returned to Gent for the weekend. We had coffee with Manu and Katelijn before cycling up the Schelde River into Gent/Gand/Ghent.
If you would like to experience cycling along a canalRead more
Cycling Gent to Antwerp/IC to Amsterdam

We set off cycling from Ghent to Amsterdam at 8:30 this morning. Stopped for a bite at a canalside café and made it to Antwerp by 3:00pm. 76km is currently our record for a fully loaded ride. We wereRead more
Amsterdam Arrival

We arrived at our new digs, and what a nice place to have landed! Harry and Birgitt are happily ensconced in our house in Santa Cruz thanks in large part to Augie's steadfast and thoughtfulRead more
First Ride to the Polders

Our first ride! A 50 kilometer loop to the polders south of the city. It took us about 20 minutes to thread our way through the city throngs to find some solitude and nature. We made our way throughRead more
First Ride Nord

Our first ride north. Everyone kept telling us to ride north from Amsterdam to quickly get to the agrarian settings, canals, and little villages. Boy were they steering us right. One kilometer northRead more
Loop to Naarden

Nancy and I rode a nice 60k loop to the southeast of the city today. We wound our way through the polders to Naarden, an old fortress city. The city was on of three that we passed through thatRead more
We Settle in and Augie Arrives

We made it to Quaker Meeting last Sunday. A quiet affair with eight in attendance. Most were Nederlanders, one was from Ohio via San Francisco. This was quite different from Meeting in Brussels whereRead more
One Fun Morning...

We heard the weather was changing from cold and gray to sunny and warm so we hit the road. Augie rode my bike and I got a spin on Harrie's city bike. We rode north through the area above AmsterdamRead more
A Following Wife & Son in Big City Tour

5.5 miles of same...