Author Archives: markw32

Part 1 Not to toot my own baritone, but I’m pretty well prepared for this trip. Consider exhibits A-F: A) slip on shoes. A must for moving about the cabin and then getting back to your seat, taking your shoes off, and tucking in, like a young willow ptarmigan, to a rom com. B) a […]

Part 1 I left The General in La Push. He was pissed. He ran after the car when he realized what was going on, swearing, and then at the last second stopped short and smoothed his hand through his hair like he’d never been running in the first place. Like it was his idea. Something […]

Part 1 My good God, I’ve struck metaphysical gold. I’m at the Poulsbo Library in Poulsbo, Washington, and the reason I’m here is because I’m on my way out to the coast to pick up The Fish, which has just been repaired by Bauer Surfboards in Port Angeles, and from there to La Push to […]

Part 1 Panchita’s limp is fixed and so everything should be right in the world. And indeed it pretty much is. This morning I woke up at 6:16am to text friends and tell them I wouldn’t be going surfing. Now, why on Earth would I do that? Why would I pass up an opportunity to […]

I spoke with Panchita today, and she was furious. “You left me out here in the cold to die,” she said. “Panchita, you don’t fit in the boat.” This made her doubly furious, one because I’d called her Panchita (her full name is Francisca Rivera Casas Sobrepuentes and if it were up to her I’d […]

Just as many of you probably did this morning, I woke up and asked myself the question: what would it be like to spend an entire morning at the U-Bookstore? So then of course I set out to do it. I piled into my ’97 Subaru Outback, also known as Francisca, or Panchita (though she […]

We pull into the railyard between Emeryville, California, and Oakland and stoicism is taken to new levels. I quickly check how much it would be to rent a car from SFO to LAX. A hundred bucks. Plus gas. But that’s not what I’m here to do. I’m here to ride this damn train. Last night […]

In an effort to fight the stereotype that train service in the US is awful, I have decided to embark on a 35+ hour scenic jaunt down to Los Angeles from Seattle on the Amtrak Coastal Starlight. It is 9:38am. The train is scheduled to leave at 9:45am. I’m already drinking my first coffee. There’s […]

There’s a guy looking at porn behind me in the library. If he didn’t look semi-dangerous (and he doesn’t), I would probably say something. But I mean, come on, the guy is obviously lonely as fuck. Who am I to screw up his afternoon. And it’s not like we’re in the children’s section. Could a […]