Posts by Hank

LA/XC-5 DAYS FOUR, FIVE, AND SIX: POSTING FROM GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO Three-day mileage from Des Moines, IA, to Grand Junction, CO: 990.8 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 2,221.6 Road Music: Monday: CNN, MSNBC, and FOX to pre-game for Round One of Hillary vs. Donald; my “Deep Themes in Country Music” play…

LA/XC-5 DAY TWO AND THREE: POSTING FROM DES MOINES, IOWA Two-day mileage from Austintown (suburb of Youngstown), OH to Des Moines, IA: 770.4 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 1,230.6 Road Music:  Saturday: Sirius Cycle (stuck with “The Spectrum” for awhile — enjoyed the wide range, everything from Florence +…

LA/XC-5 DAY ONE: POSTING FROM AUSTINTOWN, OH Today’s mileage: 460.2 Total LA/XC-5 mileage: 460.2 (duh) Road Music:  Sirius Cycle (one-time-only explanation:  I tend to start my road days with the news — especially during this freaky, weird, and scary, but enormously entertaining election season —…

* * *COUNTDOWN: 6 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Once again, oldest son Matt will be hitching a ride for a short stretch on my just-around-the-corner (starts in less than one week from today!) Beagle Man cross-country-road-trip-with-dog.  As you might recall, Matt joined me and Kemba on our northern return…

* * *COUNTDOWN: 28 DAYS TO LA/XC-5 * * * Poor Kemba’s been coping with adversity this whole summer. All my dog wants out of life is to fetch the purple squeaky rubber ball that I chuck into the ocean for him.  But when he swims for it, retrieves it, and drops it at my feet, beautfully, like a good…

Last summer, Kemba’s first birthday celebration on #hermanbeach in Amagansett was a relatively low-key affair.  Kept under wraps until the afternoon of the party, and even then only signaled by a small copy-paper sign taped to the Beagle Man’s surfboard*, there were just seven humans and two dogs…

    Photos by beach buddy Scott Rudin

Got back from a quicky late-night bite at the Grey Goose.  I’d been gone for maybe 45 minutes.  Kemba greeted me, of course, at the playroom door, all in a lather.  God forbid I’d get back from even the shortest trip without dropping everything to play with him. “Come on, Handsome, let’s go out in…

The outlook wasn’t sunny over Winslow Park that day; But the parking lot was all but full, and Kemba still had to play. And then when Patricia kicked the ball and Kemba went to get it, Bullet snatched it clean from out his jaws; you’ve got to give him credit. So my dog turned to Jamie, appealing f…

Was talking last Friday to one of my Hartford writing students — a hardcore dog lover who also happens to be a big-time fan of this blog.  She knows pretty much all there is to know about the LA/XC series, my annual cross-country road trips from Westport to Los Angeles to bring Ricky (originally)…