Return from the Void

As I mentioned last post, I have been in and out of town. While my travels aren't yet over, I have managed to find some time to resume posting.

My most recent trip took me to New Hampshire (via Connecticut) for a friend's wedding. I arrived in town Thursday afternoon and went out to dinner with my brother and his family. On the way we noticed this New England super hero:

Our collective amazement was summed up when my nephew said something along the lines of, "He's riding naked". His lack of clothing aside, he was also riding on a very busy street. I'm not one to argue that as a cyclist he doesn't have a claim to the road as well, but I know that I wouldn't ride there. Maybe by not putting myself in a situation where I'm surrounded by crazy drivers on their way home from work makes me less of a champion of cyclists' rights, but I'd rather take up that battle with something other than my life.

The following morning after picking another out-of-town guest up at the airport, we headed north to NH. I've been to Vermont a good amount and I always just assumed NH was the same (I went to NH as a young buck and don't remember much about it except smacking my shin against the family mini-van's doorway). In the end my assumption held true for the geography, but not so much the people. Ok, it held true for them as well - dirty hippies. The scenery was beautiful:

And the businesses were creative:

The wedding was nice, though I had to struggle through it with what I thought was food poisoning. Turns out the constant departures from my bed to the bathroom were caused by some bug that hit my brother's family and coworkers. In my weakened state I must have picked up another bug because I was down for about four days versus the 8-12 hours everyone else was affected.

Upon my return to Kansas, preparations were made for my 'Dirty Thirty' celebration:

I gathered from my in-laws that the 'Dirty Thirty' was supposed to be a night of drunken abandon. Unfortunately, the sickness I endured was still messing with my stomach and as soon as I drank one beer I felt full and bloated. That did not bode well for the Saturday evening beer-tasting at the Carnegie Arts Center we attended. There were some really good beers there, but again each sip filled me up and I was unable to take full advantage of the offerings. To round out the birfday weekend, a few friends took Penny and me to the new IHOP for breakfast. We were deflated to learn that the grand opening was set for this morning; we were a day early.

So to sum it up the last few weeks started with sickness and ended with sadness, but I guess it could have been worse.