2026-09-14 03:05:00
Over the Edge of the World by Laurence Bergreen
Rating: ***
This is the story of Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe, sourced mostly from several first hand accounts that survive from the 1500s. Working on a ship back then was never a great job, but the 80-90% fatality rate on this trip is extreme even by those standards. 5 ships and 260 men resulted in 1 ship of about 20 mutineers bailing before the one remaining ship limped into port with about 25 near-dead sailors on board. But not Magellan, as he was killed by an angry tribe in the Philippines after he torched a village over some perceived slight.
The first half is fascinating, and then it gets a little repetitive once they get through what we all call the Strait of Magellan. Find an island, barter with the natives, piss them off, and flee for their lives. It's a mistake they made over and over again. That said, none of us should discredit the absolutely insane achievement they pulled off, circumnavigating the globe without a map.
Platform Decay by Martha Wells
Rating: ***
Book whatever in the Murderbot series. It's been a few years since the last one, so when the book just dived into the story without any backstory, it took me a while to get into the groove. But ultimately it's another fun adventure with my favorite almost human.
Never Stuff Your Dog by Alan Alda
Rating: ***
He wrote this at 70, and although overall enjoyable, it felt a little thin. Given the impact MAS*H had on both his life and the culture in general, I think he could do a book this size just on MASH, instead of giving it one thin chapter in an overall surface-level look at his life.
On the Hippie Trail by Rick Steves.
Rating: ***
I did this as an audiobook at the gym. Rick and a friend did the Hippie Trail (Istanbul to Katmandu) in 1979 when they graduated college. He found his journals from that trip during COVID, and this book is the result. It was the last year of the Hippie Trail, as turmoil in the Middle East made it impossible after that. It's entertaining, although it's difficult to imagine a world as separated and cut off as the Middle East was in 1979. This is literally an experience you cannot have today and can probably never have.
London Falling by Patrick Radden
Rating: ****
By the author of Say Nothing, the best book written about "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland, this narrative non-fiction uses the suspicious death of a 19-year-old in London to dig into the Russian oligarchs that established themselves there after the fall of the USSR and the entire culture of conspicuous consumption that they flaunted. How that impacted a 19-year-old middle-class kid that lied his way into that circle and then probably killed himself jumping from a balcony, avoiding the fallout from his deceit being uncovered, is a central conceit of the story. It's just as compulsive reading as Say Nothing, although maybe not quite as personally impactful to this American of Irish descent.
Up On Cove Mountain by Earl Swift
Rating: ****
Earl through-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1990, spending some time with two hikers who were brutally murdered in an AT shelter in PA a few days after he had been with them. The killer never supplied a motive, and it's weighed on Earl's mind ever since. In 2024 he decided to hike the trail again, hoping to gain clarity into the murder and also to explore how doing it in his 60s is different from in his 30s. What results is an entertaining trail journal of both hikes, wrapped around a true crime story about the murders. He never gets any real answers on the murders. Sometimes bad stuff happens to good people, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.
2026-09-08 04:28:00
Trip: 62
Nights: 203-205
For Labor Day weekend we returned to Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV. This is my 4th trip to Davis in the last 15 odd years. I really love the Canaan Valley region of West Virginia. It's a little oasis of reasonableness in a state that is one of only 4 that Trump is still polling positively in.
We drove most of the way on Friday in rain, watching radar and timing our arrival purposely in a 1-hour window when we could get camp set up before the next deluge. As much as I hate my phone sometimes, that is something I simply could not have done 10+ years ago. So we did get camp set up without getting wet, the spent the night playing cards and board games in the camper as the thunder boomed most of the night. We had cell service (something I did not have on any of my previous visits), so I streamed the Red Sox win over the Orioles. We woke up to more of the same on Saturday morning, with the rain finally stopping around noon.
We headed out at noon to visit Thomas, WV, a small town that has seen better days. However, recently the hippies and liberals have moved in, and the downtown (about 1 city block) is now a series of art galleries and shops run by folks with a very pronounced left lean. It was fun; every shopkeeper we chatted with was very pleasant, and we contributed to the local economy by purchasing some original art for the house. And beer. It rained on and off all afternoon, so we passed the afternoon wandering in and out of the shops before visiting the Mountain State Brewing, where I had a disappointing IPA. I expect NEIPA's to be lacking in hops, but when your self-described "hoppy" IPA lacks hops, you are not doing it right. After dinner at a pub in Davis, where I had another disappointing beer (they had beer cooler issues, and the Devil's Backbone lager was borderline too warm), we hit Stumptown Ales, and they did not disappoint. After an excellent red ale and porter there, we headed back to the campsite for board games and an early bedtime because we are old.
Oh, and my book of choice for bedtime reading? Another non-fiction book related to a murder on the Appalachian Trail. I'm not planning this, really. We were 75+ miles from the AT, so maybe not as questionable as our July 4 trip when I spent the day on the AT, then read about an AT murder at the campground.
On Sunday we finally got good weather. It was 70F (20ish C) and sunny after the morning fog burned off. We went birding in the morning, then after lunch went to view the namesake waterfall for the park. I had another hike planned, but I wasn't feeling it, so we returned to the campground, where I spent 2+ glorious hours streaming baseball (another Red Sox win!) while I read in the dappled sun streaming through the tree canopy. After dinner I got a campfire going, and we hung out around the campfire before retiring to the camper. I looked up real estate prices in the area, and apparently being a liberal oasis in a red state is excellent for property values. That, and being within 10 miles of a premier ski resort probably doesn't hurt either. We visited Snowshoe ski resort last summer, and I was having the same thoughts I had last year. I don't ski, so investing in a ski property that might make me bank during ski season when I wouldn't be there anyway might not be the worst idea I've had recently. If my career ever stabilizes again, I might look into it.
The drive home on Sunday was uneventful. And now a short 4-day work week, in which I will probably do 5+ days of work.
2026-08-31 00:02:00
Slow morning - only 14 species. The highlight was a Great Blue flying into the pond right over our heads as we were finishing up.
2026-08-24 06:05:00
Trip 61
Nights: 200-202
Every year I watch the Little League World Series. Every year, during the series, I tell my wife that we should attend the following year. 12 months later, I watch the next LLWS and tell my wife... This has been going on for years, maybe even decades at this point.
I finally broke the cycle. Earlier this year a friend mentioned that he had been selected (again) to umpire at the LLWS. Somebody causing me to think about it before August is what I needed, I guess. I booked a campsite and blocked out the time, so we actually made it this year.
The drive up on Thursday was rough. We were in heavy rain the last several hours. Luckily it was mostly stopped when we arrived at camp. After dinner we played games and went to bed early as I was wiped from the drive.
We planned to get up early on Saturday to bird, but when the alarm went off neither of us was feeling it, so we stayed in bed. We got to the LLWS around 10 AM. We caught the final 3 innings of the Great Lakes vs. Southwest game. Nevada won on a walk off hit in the bottom of the sixth. Also, we were sitting directly behind Jessica Mendoza.
Then after ballpark food for lunch we went to Curacao vs. Japan because my friend who supplied the VIP seats was umpiring the game. Japan is usually a very strong team but they looked totally over matched as 2 Curacao pitchers no hit the Japanese team.
Then we hung out with my friend while watching the Texas - Washington game. Texas was down 1 run in the bottom of the 6th and loaded the bases with nobody out. But two force outs at home and a line out to CF gave the victory to Washington. My friend was umpiring the Pennsylvania vs. NJ game at 7 PM. A huge crowd was expected for that game so we decided to skip it and head back to the camper.
On the way home we stopped at a Sheetz for gas and as I pulled into the gas pump I looked to my right and a couple of gas pumps over I saw a horse. After asking out loud what the hell a horse was doing at a gas pump we saw it was pulling a Amish or Mennonite family in a buggy and they had just filled up a bunch of plastic gas jugs.
On Saturday morning we visited downtown Williamsport, which was mostly dead. We did find the famous public art installation featured kids playing baseball while Cy Young, Jackie Robinson, and George W Bush.
Yes you read that right. No I can't explain it. I'll assume a large charitable donation was involved as W is a big time baseball fan.
We also visited the site of the original Little League, where the whole thing started.
Our first game of the day was noted baseball powerhouses Canada vs. Australia. AUS looked over matched at the start but the game stuck at 1-0 until late when Canada added some insurance to win 4-0. That was a losers bracket game so the tournament is over for AUS.
Our second game was New England vs Great Lakes, MA vs OH. It was a blowout with Great Lakes winning 10-0 in 4 innings when the mercy rule was invoked. Although it was the least competitive game we saw all weekend, it was the one that most looked like my Little League experience. I was on the losing end of a lot of mercy rule blowouts.
After that we went out for dinner with the friend umpiring the World Series. We had a fabulous seafood dinner at a riverside restaurant right on the Susquehanna River. We had to drive back to the campground after dark, mostly via two lane, hilly and curvy roads with 6 foot high corn growing right up the shoulder. It was very scenic in the AM, it was a little nerve-wracking in the dark. It started to rain just as we pulled into the campsite and then we got several hours (at least) of a serious thunderstorm with very heavy rain. It was still going strong at about 12:15AM when I put my book down and went to sleep.
On the way out this morning we passed a guy riding a horse down PA 192. Then at the nearest gas station where I stopped to top off the tank and get coffee I had to prepay for my gas and their pumps didn't have credit card readers. They did make a decent cup of gas station coffee though.
I will say that having the VIP seating behind home plate made this a very different experience than the general public. We had better seats than the parents. The General public was lining up at 12PM for the 3 PM game, and staking out spots on the hill behind the outfield before that. We mozied in 30 minutes before game time and had our pick of premium seats under the grandstand right behind home plate.
Some other thoughts from the weekend.
There are no kids named Bob, Tom, Mike, or Chris playing baseball. It's all Finn, Zach, Dylan, Caiden, Boone, Xander, etc. Those are all real examples from one team.
Japanese parents bring it as a cheering section. I don't speak Japanese, but it sounded like they had a custom cheer for each kid, ala EPL football supporters.
It's a weird mix of baseball in its purest form (kids in Little League) and the crass commercialism that comes with ESPN broadcasting every game.
The skill level, both physical and mental, displayed by these 10-13 year old kids is astounding. Over and over again they made the made difficult plays look easy, and even more impressively in some ways, they made MLB quality decisions in the heat of the moment. I realize a lot of that is year round coaching and playing, baseball camps, travel teams, private hitting and pitching coaches, etc. But still, even with all of that you'd expect an 11-year to blow it way more often than these kids do.
Based on the teams I saw play, Curacao looks like the Intl champion, and they look capable of taking down the US team.
2026-08-16 23:44:00
My best bird photo from this morning is a dragonfly (Eastern Pondhawk, I think).
Least Sandpiper
Green Heron
Red-headed Woodpecker. It's a juvenile, so its head is not actually red yet.
