"Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island. Discuss…” This indelible line, uttered by Linda Richman on her show Coffee Talk runs through my head every single time I hear the state's name. Coffee Talk, or more accurately “Cawfee Tawk” was, of course, a skit on Saturday Night Live with Mike Meyers as Linda Richman. The skit was such a hit they did it 17 times with different guest hosts doing horrendous Long Island accents. This was during the second heyday of SNL in the mid-

After a pitstop in Ithaca, I started northeast on my three-state run to close out New England. First up was Vermont. I had been to Vermont a handful of times before, but only for work retreats. I worked for six and a half years for a Boston-based software company. Once a year we would get the company together in Vermont for a week-long retreat. I'd fly into Burlington, grab dinner with the team, then we'd drive about an hour into the country. We’d stay at a place with a summ

By the time I finished my week in VIRGINIA, I had been separated from my former partner for two years and without a HOME for a year and a half. Sure, I’d had extended stays with family and in Costa Rica, but that’s not the same. I’d gotten accustomed to the feeling of being unmoored, but it was starting to wear on me. After completing state #50, I was going be soul-tired and the best thing for me at that point would be to go home, not start looking for one. That meant decidi

As I loaded Pierogi and headed east, I was happy to see Branson MISSOURI receding in my rearview. It was about 900 miles to my next destination, Roanoke, Virginia, so I split the driving across two days and the halfway point was Nashville. I hadn’t really enjoyed Nashville when I stopped there for a night on my way to Memphis during my TENNESSEE week. Maybe I hit it on a bad night the first time, or maybe I hadn’t been in the right mood. Nashville is such a popular spot, I f

I had a religious experience in Missouri, but not in the way that phrase is usually used. I’d been driving since Chicago so I stopped in St. Louis for the evening, just over the border from Illinois. Just outside my hotel was the St. Louis Wheel - one of those giant ferris wheels like the London Eye or the High Roller in Las Vegas. I’d never been up on one of those, so I figured why not? Dusk was settling into night by the time I boarded the wheel, which flashed colorful des

Like so many others, for the last few weeks I’ve been consumed by World Cup fever. And, for the first time in ages, I've felt like the United States was truly UNITED with the rest of the world. The World Cup was the wonderful 250th birthday present we didn’t know we needed, but unfortunately it ended for the US team in a way the country probably deserved. photo credit: SF Bay Area FWC '26 I’m not a huge sports fan. When I was a student, and for years after, I was a diehard U