Magazine and newspaper articles
Escape from New York
Topics: motorcycling, travel
Originally published in American Motorcyclist magazine
I love New York. Really. But sometimes, like when the dozing cabbie is about to squeeze me into a guardrail and the oil temperature gauge is approaching critical, it's time to escape even the greatest city. A tale of a Ducati ride to the upper Delaware valley, just 60 miles from Times Square but a world away.
Keeping it Alive: Stayin' Safe Motorcycle Training rolls on
Topics: motorcycling, motorcycle training and safety
Originally published in Rider magazine
Lawrence Grodsky's old friends carry on the motorcycle training program he founded, proving that you can have fun on a motorcycle while stayin' safe.
The uninhabited land
Topics: motorcycling, travel
Originally published in American Motorcyclist magazine
Spanish explorers took one look at what is today Big Bend National Park, labeled it la tierra despoblada (the uninhabited land) and declared it inhospitable. For a traveler today, its grand beauty outweighs its harsh environment.
From Yuca to High Tech
To mark its 25th anniversary in 2000, the Puerto Rico newsweekly Caribbean Business hired me to produce a different kind of history of the past thousand years, focusing on the economy of the island and how people earned a living over the centuries. While certainly not a comprehensive history, the resulting 30,000-word section, which I wrote entirely, provides snapshots of Puerto Rico's development at selected moments in time.
- 1000: The Taíno civilization begins to flourish
- 1500: European conquest
- 1600: British for a while and other battles
- 1700: The age of pirates and privateers
- 1800: A dormant colony awakens
- 1900: Rough start with the U.S.
- 1910: The dawn of King Sugar
- 1920: The new regime — the Jones Act
- 1930: Desperate years
- 1940: Bread, land and liberty
- 1950: The turning point
- 1960: Turning toward modernity
- 1970: A new Puerto Rico
- 1975-2000: An economy matures
Circling the head of the wolf
Topics: motorcycling, travel
Originally published in Lake Superior magazine
When you sign up for the Wolf's Head Circle the Lake Tour around Lake Superior, you become, for a few days, part of a moving community.
Slow way around
Topics: motorcycling, motorcycle charity ride
Originally published in Backroads magazine
A unique brand of camaraderie develops when a hard-core group of riders gathers each year for the Lake Erie Loop, a one-day charity ride around Lake Erie on motorcycles particularly ill-suited to the task.
Following yonder star
Topics: culture, tradition
Originally published in Florida magazine, the Sunday magazine of the Orlando Sentinel
Nowhere is the tradition of Three Kings Day more beloved than in Puerto Rico. But many Puerto Ricans, both on the island and in the states, worry that a more commercialized Christmas will drown out this ancient, Bible-based holiday tradition.
In search of an identity
Topics: Puerto Rico, history, economy
Originally published in Hispanic Business magazine
In the late 1990s, Hispanic Business magazine asked me to write about Puerto Rico's efforts to create a new economic model for the island. The amazing part today is how much of this story remains true.