One time I went on a date with a woman who expressed a principled distaste for travel. She argued that obsession over it betrayed a kind of shallow escapism, an avoidant dereliction of our duty to cultivate a secure home life, to properly root ourselves in a community and establish meaning in that space. As …
Continue reading GOTH 2025 Part V: Searching for Connection at Bars and Baseball Games
The Sleeping Giant hike, majestic though it was, had exposed the limits of my near-middle-aged athletic prowess. I woke up the next day with a stiff back and throbbing pain in my calves. I decided to give my lower body muscles a break; thankfully there were several attractions in town that required but a minimal …
Continue reading GOTH 2025 Part IV: The Indoor Life of Thunder Bay
I love the outdoors, yet I make a terrible outdoorsman. Raised in a big city by big city people, I never properly learned how to hunt, fish, snowboard, kayak, handglide, jet-ski, or any of the other things you see in life insurance commercials where the narrator asserts, “HERE’S TO THOSE WHO LIVE WITHOUT FEAR OF …
Continue reading GOTH 2025 Part III: Prostituting Mother Nature for Therapeutic Ends
The first person I called when I got to Thunder Bay was my brother. He asked me what I thought of the place. I paused for a moment, then blurted out, “Not gonna lie… it’s little bit scuzzy.” My cursory research on T-Bay had hinted that this might be the case. Reddit forums and local …
“Have you been to Canada before?” I babbled something about the time I went to Hamilton back in 2018 (or was it 2019?) because a short film I wrote had somehow slipped its way into the city’s film festival. “What are you doing in Thunder Bay?” I babbled something about hiking and exploring, failing in …
Greetings, fellow ghostlings! It's been a long time, eh? I am pleased to announce that one again I am reviving this silly old blog to reflect on a road trip I recently took to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Now unlike my usual entries, this trip is already over and thus I don't be providing daily updates. …
Day 28 Starting Point: Casper, WY Destination: Madison, WI Miles Driven: 944 Toward the end of my stay in Casper I had a decision to make. My journey was coming to an end, I could feel it. I could have stayed longer but the voice within told me it was time to come home. The …
Continue reading GOTH 2023 PART XVIII: I Came, I Saw, I Came Back Home
I’ve seldom met a historical museum I didn’t like, so when numerous sources both personal and online suggested I check out Casper’s National Historic Trails Interpretive Center I was all game. The Center pays homage to four different pioneer trails that crossed the American West in the mid-19th century: the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, …
Continue reading GOTH Part XVII: The Friendly Ghost Visits Casper (Part II)
Near downtown Casper After spending an afternoon in Wallace, I crashed in the tiny town of Anaconda, Montana. This town had no significance for me, it was just a midway point between Spokane and Casper, Wyoming, where I planned to spend significant time. I didn’t spend enough time there to get a feel for the …
Continue reading GOTH Part XVI: The Friendly Ghost Visits Casper (Part 1)
Thanks to Atlas Obscura I found this adorable Little Free Library carved into an actual tree in a quiet Coeur d'Alene neighborhood. On my last day in Spokane Lydia took me on a scenic drive around Lake Coeur d’Alene. Located about an hour East, this picturesque, jaggedly-constructed body of water (to me its shape resembles …
Continue reading GOTH 2023 Part XV: Searching for Magnets in the Huckleberry Empire
Ghost on the Highway 