Editor’s Note (and Disclaimer): Like Socotra House LLC commentator Arrias, Marlow is a real human being and not just another manifestation of my alternate personalities. The Quacks have put me back on meds and all that seems to be just fine. I have been a car nut all my life, starting with my first speeding […]

Today’s email inbox contained the above best wishes from one of the medical community’s specialists who have attended my needs. With the ongoing health care follies inside our nation’s imperial city, it should have made me a bit uncomfortable. Surprisingly, I am not yet uncomfortable despite turning 68 today. In snake terms, I have shed […]

I had thought about entitling today’s piece with some combination of the words spring, forward and suck but decided against it. As expected, we woke up later than normal to discover a dreary and surprisingly cold and windy morning too late to dress for services, so instead went to the local coffee shop on Forsyth […]

the big cities we have left behind fatten, grow old, increasingly coarsen, they become poisoned, and parts of them and their people wither survivors often think of the old days when the nights and days jumped like they never had before that even when they slept they gave off light, electricity and soothing rollicking sounds […]

The riders traveled far away from big urban cities in order to putt to and through small and middle sized towns. As the years passed and the miles ridden soared, more and more of these places appeared to be shattered or shadows of their former selves. These towns were places where the promise of American […]

Suburbs like back country places cannot exist without roads. Country roads were and remain about connections while suburban ones are about isolated islands of safety and quiet away from the perceived peril and noise of the inner urban city. For many motorcycle riders, suburban roads lead to boring houses with boring lawns and a boring […]

Exiting Alabama Jack’s, they crossed the Card Sound toll bridge and entered the Florida Keys, where the sun shines white all day and the stars shine white all night. There were only three hours and 116 miles remaining until corner #4. The miles and minutes melted away swiftly as the riders fell into hazy blue […]

Instead of tracking straight down the eighteen mile stretch to the Keys northern end of US 1, Marlow detoured them one last time off the beaten path just south of Florida City onto state route Alt 905. It winds through the glades and salt flats to a rustic place out in the mangroves. In troubled […]

As Augustus awoke, his dream’s music — an anthemic, long ago, blues tune — faded into Marlow’s snoring and then into the great green lake O’s soft wave action caused by a tall dark storm brewing to the north. But the song kept on in the background. Augustus quickly downed a complimentary cup of dishwater […]

As they exited the burnt wasteland, they were only minutes from Lake O’s north shore. At its northernmost tip, they detoured up onto the US Army Corps of Engineers built earthen rim, also known as the Herbert Hoover Dike. They were relieved to see that Lake O’s water level had returned to normal since its […]