Back at the beginning of March 2020, it was becoming apparent that the new coronavirus would cause major disruptions in Continue Reading
A Trip to the Accursed and the Damned
Okay, as far as I know, Princeton, New Jersey isn’t really accursed. But after reading by Joyce Carol Oates, I Continue Reading
Touring the Catskills, by BMW, by Foot—and by Biplane?
Driving through the Catskills Mountains in New York is always fun, with a great selection of interesting roads, unending beautiful scenery, and lots of history to explore. This particular trip was well out of the ordinary, however. I somehow ended up hundreds of feet higher than my car’s location at least twice, and I also stayed overnight in Miss Kitty’s Saloon. And then there was the abduction of Trudy Truelove… But as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The National Road (or, A Typical Tour of Defeat, Surrender, Scandal, and Murder)
After a long, wintertime layoff from touring, it was time to put aside the income taxes and get the valiant BMW 335i convertible back out on the road. My goal was to visit some new spots along the original National Road in western Maryland and southwestern Pennsylvania—and to break an automobile hill-climb record that has stood for 105 years. Along the way, I found a Half-King, a Half-Brother, and the usual amount of scandal, murder, and mayhem. What more could I ask for?
Lost Mansions, Rivers, and Heroes: A BMW Tour of Northern Virginia
Being long overdue for another BMW road trip, I eagerly set off in late September for a tour of Virginia’s mansions, a search for a lost river, and to ponder the nature of yesterday’s heroes. As one of the oldest colonies, Virginia has a wealth of history—much of it in plain sight, but some of it lost in the hills and valleys.
What Used To Be: A BMW Tour of the Delaware River’s Lost and Forgotten
You all know the old joke, right? “Why does New York have all the lawyers and New Jersey all the toxic waste sites? Because New Jersey got first choice.” Well, New Jersey gets a bum rap; it actually has at least several scenic or historic places that are perfect for exploration…
Okay, all joking aside, it actually has hundreds or even thousands of such places, and I managed to find quite a number of them.
Third’s the Charm: The Ultimate Driving Machine and a Belated Search for Pennsylvania Fall Colors
Only an idiot would look for Fall Colors on the first day of Spring. And certainly no BMW owners are idiots. So what was I doing on March 22, 2017 driving through acres of snow in Pennsylvania looking for Fall Colors??
Heroes, Villains, and Cottages by the Sea: New England by BMW
Nothing eats up miles faster than a turbocharged BMW. Not everyone would agree with this statement, but, to quote Mark Twain, “The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.”
On this trip, I was looking for the “cottages” of the rich and famous. It took 3 hours to get to Haskell, New Jersey—and shortly thereafter, I was on foot and hopelessly lost in the woods.
A Tale of Vengeance (Visiting Ohio’s Indian Battlegrounds, by BMW)
“Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.” In the late 1700s, neither the American Indians nor the colonial settlers paid the slightest attention to this well-known scripture. I thought of it often as my best friend Buzz and I toured Ohio, searching for the locations of once-great Native American villages and finding the many areas where brutal depredations were traded between the warring parties. Vengeance was repeatedly sought—and found—by both groups.