12/3/25

I have just concluded my second-ever visit to Savannah. For years before I had ever visited, I had had a romantic idea of what the city would look and feel like. I couldn’t wait to experience it. When I finally did get to go for the first time, in spring of 2022, I was not disappointed. I spent several days soaking in the feel of all those amazing parks with their live oak and magnolia trees draped in Spanish moss. I was sad when it was time to leave.

So I was pretty excited to be able to visit again!

This time the weather was cooler, and my first and third/final day were overcast, a bit windy, and not too warm, with highs around 55F (13C). But the middle day hit the sweet spot, with a high of 71 degrees (22C) and sunny, balmy skies.

As before, I spent most of my time enjoying the many parks in town, primarily the large, central Forsyth Park, but also a number of the 16(!) smaller parks north of Forsyth and south of the tourist-popular river district. I hope these photos can provide a general sense of the feeling of being there, though I really don’t think they do the atmosphere full justice.

One day, I was out and about and saw on Google Maps a small park called “Neighborhood Cat Garden.” Wow!! Of course I hastened over to experience it. Sure enough, in what appeared to be someone’s front yard was a sort of plaza with a sign saying that the cats were adoptable, and asking for donations of cat food and money… and about a half dozen cats lounging and walking around the area. Most of them were quite friendly, coming up to rub against me.

A couple other passersby on their bikes saw me snuggling with the cats and pulled over themselves. It turns out they were also visiting town for just a few days, from their new home in Albany, New York… where they had recently moved after two years in downtown Portland! What a small world. The cats enjoyed them too.

Another day, I visited Bonaventure Cemetery, which was massive and very photogenic.

I stayed two of my four nights with Robert, my Warmshowers host from my first time in Savannah in 2022. He had moved to a new house, but it was fun to see him again, and I even attended a musical performance of his—he was on stage with about a dozen other local musicians for a benefit concert. As I pedaled up to the venue, I heard the strains of Take Me Home, Country Roads, by John Denver, which was delightful and poignant: that is the first song I ever remember being aware of by title and artist, at about age 3 or 4. (We lived near the Shenandoah River.)

Robert also helped me with an Amtrak snafu: They misplaced my baggage (my de-wheeled bike trailer with my suitcase in it with all my clothes) for about six hours, which—since those hours were 9:30 pm to 3:30 am—resulted in my being without those things for about 24 hours. This cascaded into my also needing to take a Lyft to my hotel, then to Robert’s place in the morning, when I had intended to bike all of that distance. (The one silver lining? When we arrived that night around 9:30, the temperature was 39F/4C, so it was a relief to take a 10-minute car ride rather than a half-hour bike ride.) These Lyfts cost me more than $30, though, which I could ill afford.

The next day, I spent an hour and a half(!!) on the phone with Amtrak customer service, trying to get a reiumbursement plus some sort of voucher for the inconvenience. Eventually, the agent agreed to issue me a $40 voucher. I was certainly underwhelmed by this, but still grateful to have the Lyft cost covered, and more importantly, to have received everything back intact.

Robert—bless his heart—drove me in his truck after the concert (probably close to midnight) to pick it all up. I am so grateful to the Warmshowers community, and to all the kind people I encounter in my travels.

I was also happy to meet up socially with three different folks in my three days in town.

The first was Lisa, a woman I had met in 2022 during my travels in Durham, NC. She and her friend Tamara are fellow progressive rock fans, and at that time we all met up for a lovely dinner before they attended a Steve Hackett concert in Durham.

This time, I had hoped to meet up with them both in the Raleigh/Durham area, but my Thanksgiving visit with my aunt and uncle—sandwiched between my stops in Charleston and Savannah—ended up lasting only two full days, so there was no time for a get-together. But as it happened, Lisa and her mother (who lives in Mt. Pleasant, the Charleston suburb where I had just done a weeklong cat sit) were visiting Savannah for one day, to see the Christmas boats on the river.

I met up with them at their hotel, which happened to have a beautiful collection of enormous geodes on display in the lobby. Lisa’s mother snapped a photo of us in front of one of the largest ones.

Then I met a woman from the Savannah Vegans Facebook group. Monique and I took a nice walk in Forsyth Park, and she gave me some good tips on where to find tasty vegan pastries in town.

The following day, I met up with another local, Steve—a recent transplant from Asheville, NC—whom I had met in another Facebook group. We chatted over coffee and a walk, and then took a bike ride the following day on a nice 3-mile car free bike path.

So, my time in Savannah was very full and rich. I even spent several hours on that warm day just sitting by myself in the benches in several of those beautiful parks, simply savoring the experience of the place.

Now I’m in Gainesville, Florida—my first time! I arrived this afternoon by bus from Orlando, where I had taken the train from Savannah yesterday. Tomorrow I begin my week (or possibly a bit more) of volunteering at Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, home to 200 monkeys! I suspect I am in for a unique adventure.

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11/25/25

As promised, here are the photos from the amazing excursion my Servas host Stacy and her daughter took me on the other day, to a state historic park called Charles Towne Landing. The Lowcountry botanical aesthetic was on full display, with live oaks and Spanish moss in abundance, among other wonders. I had been looking forward to experiencing these sorts of views in this area, and this park did not disappoint. What did surprise and delight me, though, was how autumnal some of the trees were. The reflections in the pond were like nothing I had seen; it felt like entering another world.

We strolled the park from mid-afternoon until the light began to fade, and the views kept pace. What a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Meanwhile, I thoroughly enjoyed my two-night stay with Stacy (pictured in the tree above.) She has been a Servas traveler and host for decades, and has traveled extensively in Europe—especially France—and other places around the globe. She is a French and Montessori teacher, but perhaps the most amazing thing about her life at the moment is that she shares her home with eleven cats(!!) This all happened in the course of the past year, when her three rescue cats were joined by two more… both of whom turned out to be pregnant with three kittens each.

We had actually discussed the possibility of my staying to sit for the cats over the holiday weekend after my Servas visit, so that Stacy could take a well-earned vacation after painstakingly nurturing these six young cats since their kittenhoods, six and eight months ago. Unfortunately, although I found myself smitten by their adorableness, after witnessing just how challenging it is to care for all these cats (including an unexpected medical issue as well as navigating a recent coyote in the neighborhood) I regretfully declined. But here are a few photos, so that you can all experience the cuteness.

I’m writing this post from the small Selma, North Carolina train station, waiting to transfer from the Amtrak Palmetto train that brought me here from Charleston this morning to the Carolinian train to Cary, outside of Raleigh, where my aunt and uncle will receive me at the station to spend the holiday weekend with them.

Thank you all, as always, for following along on my adventures. It multiplies my enjoyment of traveling when I can share it with all of you.

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11/24/25

This is the first of two posts I will make about the Charleston area. This one will cover my first week in this area, which I spent mostly in the suburb of Mount Pleasant. The second will cover my amazing trip to a beautiful place called Charles Towne Landing. (And a lot of cats!) Right now, I’m in a hotel near the train station, preparing to embark in the morning for points north, visiting my aunt and uncle near Raleigh, North Carolina.

First things first.

I arrived from Washington, DC to the Amtrak station in North Charleston in the late evening of Friday, November 14th. I had a rather harrowing bike ride to my hotel in the dark, crossing a few freeways and major roads with very minimal bicycle infrastructure.

When I arrived at the hotel, though, it was much swankier than my usual fleabag-type cheapest-place-in-town motels. This was because I had found a good deal on Google Maps for the Crowne Plaza. When I rolled into the lobby, I felt woefully underdressed in my travel-ragamuffin attire and mile-worn rig. But the woman at the front desk—with her meticulously manicured nails and hair—was very friendly and welcoming, which I appreciated. I was excited when I arrived to my “fancy” room, and decided to continue the splurge by getting a cocktail at the hotel bar downstairs. I was also hoping to find some locals there to chat with.

Over my Frangelico on the rocks, I did find one very chatty woman, and she recommended that during my cat sit in Mount Pleasant I visit a local bar called Red’s Ice House, right on the canal near Shem Creek. She told me that around Happy Hour each day, you could often see dolphins! Never having seen a dolphin in my life, I filed away this information.

The next morning, I took my time to bicycle to Mount Pleasant, which would have taken about an hour if I had done it all in one stretch. I moseyed about some of the parks in North Charleston first, knowing I probably wouldn’t have another chance to do so during my stay.

At one such pretty place, called Riverside Park, imagine my surprise when a man walked by me and my rig, seeming to take in the Brompton, and sat down on the next bench. Soon after, as I started to put on my helmet to leave, he struck up a conversation, commenting on the bike… and that is when I found out that he is also a traveling pet sitter (mostly dogs) and had also recently taken the train across the country from Oregon(!!)

What are the odds? More travel magic. (Shoutout to Aaron, if you’re reading this!)

We exchanged contact info, and the following evening, we met up at Red’s to see if we could see any dolphins. Almost as soon as we sat down, I did see one for a brief splash, although unfortunately that was to be my only sighting. But there were also many pelicans, and we watched them skim majestically across the water as the sun began to set.

I had walked along the boardwalk across the canal at Shem Creek earlier that afternoon, when I had taken a few photos of the pelicans.

Jumping backwards in time, though, after I met Aaron in the park, I did pedal south to meet my soon-to-be Servas host, Stacy, in downtown Charleston. I got to chat with her and meet some of her 11 cats(!) and then just before sunset, I headed across the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which is a very long span to bike across! The crossing took me about twenty minutes. Fortunately, it has a nice bike and pedestrian path on the south side, which reminded me of the one on the Golden Gate Bridge. And I was there just in time to get a nice shot of the sun going down.

Then I arrived at my cat sit, and met the two cuties who would keep me company for the next week, Marie and Sophie.

Despite their young ages (both roughly a year old) these two were very mature, and stayed both calm and snuggly for my whole time there. They were a delight. Sophie even slept right up near my head each night, and never awakened me before I woke up naturally.

One day during that sit, I trekked back across the bridge to check out downtown Charleston, which was very picturesque. I visited “Rainbow Row” and the French Quarter, including Waterfront Park.

There is a pineapple fountain in that park!

On my last day in Mount Pleasant, I biked down to the beach at Sullivan’s Island, passing some more classic Lowcountry scenery, including an extra beautiful dusk scene across the canal for one last time.

Next up: stunning scenery from my time with Stacy and her daughter at Charles Towne Landing.

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11/18/25

Hello from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina! I’m sitting for two cute kitties here in the Charleston area. Of course I’ll be posting about this soon, but now I need to catch up and share my time with my parents in the house where I grew up just outside of Waterford, Virginia.

I’ll mostly tell the story in pictures. I spent about a week and a half with great company, reminiscing about childhood memories, and once again marveling at how a beautiful fall season seems to have been following me across the country.

When I arrived at the homestead, most leaves had already fallen from the trees surrounding the house, but some beautiful ones remained. By the end of my stay, after several sunny but very windy days, those were gone too.

But one day, my mom and I took a walk for just about a mile, out to the edge of our field and into the neighboring lane, and we were stunned to encounter a full autumn wonderland!

We ran into some “new” neighbors, and had a nice conversation. We even found some hickory nuts(!) and snacked on them back home after finding heavy enough implements to crack the shells.

The sky clouded up on our walk back, which led to some beautiful views as a few raindrops started to fall.

It was great to see my folks—it had been two years since I had seen them in person, back on Vancouver Island. I’m hoping I can make it back again to Waterford in April, before I return to Portland for the season.

On our way out of town, I made my customary stop at the adorable post office from my childhood, right in the heart of the historic village of Waterford.

My parents dropped me off in the northern Virginia suburb of Reston, where I stayed a night with my Portland friend Michelle and her two adorable dogs, Gretta and Peanut. It was cool to catch up!

The next morning, I had a short but lovely bike ride to the Reston Metro station.

There I loaded my rig on a train to Washington, DC’s Union Station again. (Isn’t the DC subway cool-looking?)

Now I’m here in South Carolina, and it’s going to be 77 degrees today (25C)! I plan to bike across the bridge to check out Charleston proper. Pics in the next post!

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11/11/25

This will be a short post, mostly photos. I’m here in Virginia, about to wrap up a lovely week and a half with my parents. (Photos from this beautiful place in the next post!)

But for now, please enjoy these views from Chicago to Washington.

Here in the east, Amtrak switches from the beautiful double-decker Superliner trains of the west to the single-level Viewliners. This is because of old rail tunnels here in the east that cannot accommodate the height of the Superliners.

Understandable, but sad for me, because Viewliners lack the wonderful sightseer lounge car. They do have a lounge car, but seating is much more limited, making it much more difficult to strike up a conversation. The Viewliners also don’t have luggage racks in the sleeper accommodations, so for the first time ever (not sure how I avoided this in my year of travels, since I did take several Viewliners) I ended up having to scrunch my bike into my little roomette with me! Fortunately there was a strap to attach luggage to the wall, so I didn’t have to worry (too much) about it crashing over and falling onto me during the night. (I did check the trailer into the baggage car–no way that would have fit into the roomette!)

Lastly, some Viewliner cars—including this one—have a toilet and sink right in the roomette. This can be more convenient than traipsing down the hall for these amenities, but I don’t really like having that plumbing right next to my seat or bed.

One bright spot: I found the dining car on this train to be more “fancy” and cool than the more modern and streamlined ones on the Superliners. I enjoyed my evening meal and conversation in this dining car.

And I still got lots of lovely views from my seat in the roomette. We boarded in the evening in Chicago, and arrived in DC in the early afternoon.

I love the architecture both inside and out of the DC Union Station. I think it may be the most beautiful Amtrak station in the country.

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11/6/25

Hello from Waterford, Virginia! I am here for about a week with my parents, looking forward to (very low-key) celebrating my birthday the day after tomorrow, on the 8th.

I’ll be sharing photos soon from the scenic train ride here from Chicago, and of course some photos of the homestead here, as well.

But I’m behind on documenting my travels, so today, I’m sharing the splendor of Warrenville, Illinois, about 30 miles (50 km) west of Chicago.

I had visited Warrenville once before, in 2022 during my year of travels. My Warrenville friend Gill had introduced me to her friend Terri, and Terri’s husband Jim, who graciously hosted me for nearly a week back then. This time I was on a bit of a deadline to head east, then south, trying to outrun the chilly fall weather in various regions. So I just stayed for three nights and two full days.

When I was here that first time—in summertime—I found myself enchanted by all the nature preserves surrounding this small city of 15,000. There are beautifully graded and maintained bike baths running through them all. I was doubly impressed when Terri told me that many of these nature preserves had previously been garbage dumps, in decades past. One would never guess it now.

This year, I arrived into town—and later, exited—by way of these paths. I landed in Naperville on the Amtrak Southwest Chief train from Galesburg in the afternoon, which was perfect timing to catch the sunlight through the trees as I pedaled about seven miles (11 km) north to their home. Seeing the paths in the fall season added a new layer of magic to them, and the air temperature was quite pleasant.

The next day, I climbed into the van of my friend Gill and her husband Jeremy, who live nearby, to once again visit the Morton Arboretum, outside of town. The arboretum had some cool displays, including beautiful autumn veggies and an artist’s installation of large sculptures of native animals.

I got a kick out of noticing how color-coordinated I was with the squirrel!

The snail stole the show with its vibrant rainbow coloration. (Both Gill and I identify strongly with rainbows and their colors, so it seemed extra poignant to pose in front of it.)

Terri has volunteered in cat rescue and fostering for many years. I was happy to see that she was fostering two cats during my stay—Angelo and Sasha. Both of them greeted me enthusiastically shortly after I entered their bedroom.

On my third and final morning, I embarked on my bicycle journey to Chicago’s Union Station. The route was to take me 34 miles (55 km) and I hadn’t biked more than about half of that in one day for many months, possibly even years. The route was almost entirely flat, but I secretly worried I might be pretty out of shape, and hoped I would be able to make the journey OK without struggling. Terri generously offered to come and rescue me if I were to get stuck in any way, but fortunately, I biked it all easily, and was thoroughly glad to have undertaken such a scenic ride, along the Illinois Prairie Path. I had made the ride in reverse when I visited them in 2022, but in the fall everything looked totally different.

At one point, I realized I would need a restroom stop. I found a trail map at a resting point with a bench, and it showed that there was a public restroom just about three blocks later.

I searched for it—heading left off the trail onto a neighborhood street—but couldn’t see any sign of it. A suburban father was removing the cobweb decorations from his house since Halloween was over, and I asked him if he knew where the restroom was. He did not, but he very graciously offered that I could use his.

He held back the large dog, and pointed me to the bathroom while his young children looked on.

Upon opening the bathroom door, I was startled and delighted to see a framed image of King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King album cover on the wall.

What are the odds? You never know when and where you might encounter a fellow prog fan. All part of the magic of the journey…

Thus refreshed, I continued my trek toward Chicago.

It remained a beautiful ride until I got into the city, at which point there was a several-mile stretch that felt dicey, along a busy road whose drivers seemed quite unconcerned with the safety of a bicyclist, perhaps especially a slow cyclist towing a wide trailer. Fortunately, the last segment of the ride was calmer, on downtown city streets but somehow with calmer traffic.

The total ride—including a few short breaks—took me almost exactly five hours. Out of an abundance of caution, I had allotted myself seven and a half hours. Therefore, I had about three rather unremarkable hours to sit and chill in the first-class lounge at Union Station. I was surprised and pleased to notice that my legs and body didn’t particularly feel tired, though I also noticed that my mind did feel a bit overextended and sleepy. I dozed off and on until it was time to board just after 6:00 pm.

Photos from that overnight journey from Chicago to Washington, DC in the next post!

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After that lovely experience in Galesburg’s Stoney Lake Park, I prepared myself for a potentially ho-hum day in Quincy, to the southwest of Galesburg, about an hour and a half on the train. This was the first segment of track on this trip that was new to me, and part of my effort to complete the entire Amtrak map. (I expect the whole endeavor will take me several years.) But I didn’t know whether I would actually enjoy each leg of the journey.

I was so pleasantly surprised!

Leaving my trailer and its contents at the hotel, I headed back to the train station in the morning, enjoying the sunshine, crisp autumn leaves, and several blocks of red-brick street paving.

The train ride was beautiful! Much more scenic than I had feared. I took many more photos than this, but you can get the gist from these.

As soon as I got to the station in Quincy, I looked on the map and spied what looked like an extensive bike trail less than a mile from the station. I pedaled toward it, and sure enough, a beautiful wonderland awaited me! The trail stretches for nearly three miles (nearly five kilometers) most of it paved. I marveled at the skies, leaves, and creek, and learned some things about “hobos” as well.

When I emerged from the forest onto the road south to town, I found my way to the one place in town that was listed on HappyCow as vegan-friendly enough to have vegan waffle fries. I enjoyed a double order of said fries, along with a seasonal drink special called the Drunk Ghost martini ($6!) It was a glassful of effervescent coconutty goodness.

After this repast, I crossed the street to the park on the river and enjoyed the view of the suspension bridge.

Then it was time to head back to the train station, along the same trail in a later light.

When I got back to the station, I found both it and the parking lot next door bathed in magical light.

Back aboard the train, the sky and clouds and light continued to impress me.

Sadly, I discovered too late that a high school friend lives right between Galesburg and Quincy, in Macomb—the one other stop on this Amtrak Carl Sandburg train segment. A visit will have to wait for another time, but this tidbit was a reminder of how small a world we all inhabit.

The train returned to Galesburg after dark, and my bike ride back to the hotel began with a festive nighttime downtown street scene.

I am thoroughly enjoying my travels.

Next up: Warrenville, Illinois!

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After that amazing experience in Boulder, I imagined that no other city experience could come close. In terms of all the wonderful human connections, that may have turned out to be true, but in terms of natural splendor, I was pleasantly surprised by autumn’s glory in another new-to-me city, the town of Galesburg, Illinois (population just under 30,000).

I enjoyed a pleasant overnight train ride from Denver—after unfortunately getting soaked in an unexpected rainstorm right on the way to the train station—and arrived in Galesburg in the late morning of October 28th.

I hadn’t been able to find any Servas or other hosts in this area, so I booked a hotel just north of town for two nights, since the following day I was to take the train to Quincy for a day trip with my bike.

After arriving on the train, I walked across the street and enjoyed a healthy snack of tabouli at Cornucopia Natural Market and Deli, an all-vegetarian, locally owned natural foods store. From the deli, I called the hotel to see if they could receive me early, since it was now noon and my check-in time was scheduled for 3:00. I was happy to hear that they could accommodate that. I headed out on my bike in pleasant mid-50s weather… but within the 30 minutes it took me to get there, I got soaked in another sudden rainstorm.

Admittedly I was not thrilled to be so drenched, especially because when the woman who checked me into the hotel caught sight of my rig, she made me wait another half hour for them to prepare another room for me, so that my bike wouldn’t sully their carpets.

Eventually, however, I got into the room and dried out my clothes (thank goodness for fast-drying synthetics!) and within an hour, the rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds. This was my one daylight opportunity to experience Galesburg, and I could see on the map that there was a nature park nearby.

I pedaled out toward it, finding myself mostly in rather drab, open-prairie surroundings. But as I neared Lake Storey Park, the scenery changed dramatically. I entered a magical October wooded wonderland!

Here are the photos from that several-mile ride through the park. What a thoroughly satisfying excursion.

Next up: another beautiful bike path in Quincy!

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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!

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10/29/25

Wow.

Boulder had been on my list of cities to visit for close to 20 years.

I finally made it there, and I had one of the most perfect experiences of a city in my life.

The weather was perfect. (Not before nor after my time there! But consistently during it. Warm and sunny.)

The people were amazing. I stayed with two Servas couples (shoutout to Leslie & Sam and Erin & Eric!) and also met up with a Servas “day host” (shoutout to Alan!) all of whom were incredibly warm and welcoming. In fact, Erin and Eric hosted an impromptu dinner party the night I arrived, and invited Leslie and Sam, my previous hosts, whom they had not met. We all had a wonderful time and great conversation, and one of the other dinner guests is now seriously considering joining Servas.

Also, Alan is now in the process of organizing a local Boulder-area Servas hosts meetup! I love to see all this networking, and I love that I got to be a part of it by raving to each host(s) about the others. I hope that Servas hosts/members in other cities can also find ways to get together amongst each other. They are always such interesting people, but often meet only the guests they host, and/or the hosts they stay with as guests in other locations.

By the way, if you are reading this, and enjoy either hosting travelers and/or staying with local hosts when you travel, I highly encourage you to consider joining Servas. You can read more about it at the link, but it is an international peace-and-justice nonprofit founded in Europe in 1949, in the wake of WWII, with the explicit mission of helping people to get to know each other—especially across international borders—with the goal of preventing future wars. The joining process includes an application, letters of reference, and an in-person interview, and yearly dues of $33 (US—I assume it is comparable in other countries). The hosts I have met have been consistently warm, passionate about life, interesting and fun to talk with, and well traveled.

Another thing I loved about Boulder was its bike-friendliness! Of course Portland is also well known for that, but the way the two cities approach it is different. Much of Portland’s bicycle infrastructure consists of bike lanes along streets and roads. In Boulder, almost all of it is on wide, usually paved, car-free paths. One can get almost anywhere in town by bike within about 20 minutes, and with very minimal interaction with auto traffic. Like Denver, there were many scenic creekside underpasses, which always delighted me with the sunlight and splendor of nature’s color on the far side as I rode through.

And in general, the scenery in Boulder took my breath away. I missed the aspens (too late in the season) but yellow trees were everywhere, both in town and on the couple of excursions I took on the edges of town.

I’ll walk you through the photos:

The cover photo is one of the most dramatic pics from the day I was stopped on my bike in a park, looking at the map on my phone to decide where to go, when a cyclist who introduced himself as Leslie pulled up and said, “Oh, a Brompton!” (This would become quite a theme. Not only does Leslie’s wife own a Brompton, but so does my Servas day host Alan—pic to follow later in this blog! And when Alan and I met up for our bike ride at a coffee shop, another Brompton rider happened to pull up at just that moment. Later, after that ride, as I was heading back to Erin and Eric’s place, a man rolled by me on the bike path next to the creek, pedaling a pedicab with two elderly ladies in front as passengers. When he rolled by my bike, he paused and asked, “Is that a Brompton?” Turns out he has one too. The funniest/most interesting part was, each time I talked about the bike with one of these various folks, they claimed they rarely if ever see Bromptons in Boulder!)

Anyway, when Leslie found me in the park, we got to talking. First, he suggested I someday visit Reston, Virginia, where he grew up, since it was a planned city and he said the bike paths there are many and beautiful, winding through lots of wooded areas. Some of you will know—although of course he did not until I told him—that I also grew up near Reston (that’s where my orthodontist was) and I will be visiting the area within a few weeks! In fact, the niece of my friend Ron, with whom I had lunch in Denver, is my “Portland” friend Michelle, who now lives in Reston! I’m looking forward to seeing her when I’m in the area… and now I know to also factor in some time to ride the bike paths! (Last time I did so was in 2019, when I biked through Reston on the 45-mile Washington & Old Dominion [W&OD] bike path, also with Michelle’s help—read that blog post if you want to hear about more amazing serendipities!)

Leslie then suggested that I explore a particular bike path on the southern edge of Boulder. He started explaining how I could get there, but although I tried to be polite, smiling and nodding, inwardly my eyes were glazing over because I knew I’d never be able to remember his instructions. We kept talking, though, and finally he said, “Why don’t I just lead you there? It’s not far from where I’m going. Follow me!”

That was one of the early indicators of Boulder magic. He biked me for about five or ten minutes—thankfully, because indeed, I would not have figured out that route on my own—and dropped me off at the start of a well-graded gravel path that snaked a few miles through stunning grassland, with lovely turning trees along the creek and the ubiquitous yet breathtaking mountains in the backdrop.

The next few photos are from my initial ride from the bus stop in downtown Boulder to Leslie and Sam’s house on the east edge of town. I could hardly believe my eyes as I pedaled in that afternoon light. (Oh, and it is worth mentioning that the bus from Denver to Boulder—a comfortable coach with plenty of room underneath for my rig, and a driver willing to help me load and unload it—cost only $2.75 each way! The one-way ride was nearly an hour. A similar journey from Portland to Salem, via a similar bus provided by Amtrak, costs me $10 each way.)

The next few photos depict some of the sights I saw in town. The first was the Dushanbe Teahouse. I’ll let the photo and hyperlink fill you in on the amazing details if you’re curious, but it is a beautiful landmark in downtown Boulder, gifted to the city by people in their sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. There at the teahouse, I met up with Elizabeth, a local friend of my Portland friend Cheri, and we had a deep and delightful conversation (an in-person magical meeting!) as we enjoyed our meal at an outdoor table next to the creek.

I took the next photo on the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder (“CU”) right in the center of town. What an absolutely gorgeous campus. I could scarcely believe my eyes when I found this peaceful bench on which to rest and gaze upon this bridge and reflection.

Next up is a fun one: the Mork and Mindy house! It is listed on Google Maps as a landmark, so I decided to swing by and see it. I hadn’t remembered the house looking like that on the series, but when I checked the credits on YouTube, sure enough, that was it!

At another point, I visited the local cat café, Purrfect Pause! They have adopted out more than 600 cats since their founding in May 2022, and the café has capacity for up to 20 cats at a time. There were ten when I arrived, and I enjoyed meeting and interacting with all of them. In the interest of limiting the flood of photos in this post, I am keeping it to two, showing four cats, but you can trust that all the others were equally adorable.

When I met up with Alan at the coffee shop on the pedestrian Pearl Street Mall, he took me for a beautiful ride into the Boulder Canyon Trail, on the west edge of town. We stopped short of scaling the peak, but the scenery along the trail was incredible.

The next couple of photos are from local parks where I walked or biked; I loved the early-day sun on the uphill one, and the late-day light on the other.

In closing, I wanted to share two photos from a sunset excursion Leslie generously insisted on taking me to—by car, thankfully, because, oof, what an elevation!—a spectacular viewpoint called Lost Gulch Lookout. It was the perfect way to close out my incredibly perfect experience of a new city.

If you ever get a chance to go to Boulder, do it!  

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10/26/25

Hello! I’m writing to you from Boulder, Colorado. My first time here, and it has been absolutely incredible! I’ll make a post about Boulder soon, but meanwhile, I’ve been having such an amazing time that I realized I hadn’t yet posted about my breathtaking train ride from Truckee to Denver, nor a few scenic shots from my two days so far in Denver. (I’ll have one more day there tomorrow, before I depart on the train for Illinois.)

So, here is a brief photo essay of that train trip. We went through Nevada, Utah, and the Colorado Rockies. I had some great conversations, as usual, in the lounge and dining car, while watching the natural wonders go by.

In Denver, I spent two nights with wonderful Servas hosts Kellie and John, who live in a cohousing community called Hearthstone. I got to meet a number of their neighbors—human, feline, and canine—and even got to attend one of their regular community meals in the common house.

I had a bit of drama when I dropped my phone and shattered the screen on my way to their place (oof! $150 and some stress as I feared the phone’s “guts” might have been affected too) but was able to get a speedy repair just a block away from the beautiful Sloan Lake Park, so while I waited that hour, I pedaled around the park and rested on some scenic benches. Here are some of the photos I took on my second lap, after retrieving the repaired phone.

Although I seem to have missed the seasonal window for aspens (so glad I got that chance in Lake Tahoe!) Denver did not disappoint with many glorious yellow trees. Here is one of the best.

While in Denver I got a chance to meet up with my friend Ron for lunch at longstanding vegetarian spot City O’ City, and afterward, on my way to Union Station to catch my bus to Boulder, I got to experience the beautiful bike paths along the river, with gorgeous color and light bursting forth from underpass after underpass. I’ve been so blessed with beautiful weather here in Colorado.

Stay tuned for Boulder pics!

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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a free, no-strings one-hour phone or video call with me!

Want to be notified of future blog posts? Use the green “sign up” button to subscribe!

Want to support my vision financially? I am in a continual process of manifesting $50,000 per year in lieu of a “salary” for the unconventional work I do in the world. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons, contributors, and godfunders!)