I am SO, SO, SO excited!  Mrs. B told me that to welcome me and Beagle Man home from LA/XC-4, and to celebrate the completion of Beagle Man’s series of four cross-country road trips, and to congratulate Robby on his college graduation, she’s throwing a big backyard barbecue FOR ALL THE DOGS I KNOW!  It’s gonna be Thursday, May 21, 5:30-8:30, at 7 Devon Road.  What an awesome way to start the Memorial Day weekend!  And guys:  We have a big fenced-in area,...

LA/XC-4 DAY THIRTY-ONE:  POSTING FROM WESTPORT, CT GREETINGS FROM CONNECTICUT!LA/XC-42015 Last-day mileage from Port Clinton, OH to Westport, Ct:  571 Total LA/XC-4 mileage:  8,710 Road Music:  Sirius cycle; Spurs-Clippers; Gretchen Wilson (Here For the Party); Little Big Town (Tornado, Pain Killer); Mets-Yanks Weather leaving Port Clinton Sunday morning: 55 gorgeous, cloudless degrees Weather arriving Westport Sunday night / Monday morning:  50 degrees, and dark (it’s...

When I’m not writing for Beagle Man, I’m writing for brands. So here’s a summary of my trip in the form of a Best Western commercial. Best Western Hotels/“Hank and Kemba”  :30  WE OPEN ON A MAN AND HIS DOG WALKING INTO THE LOBBY OF A BEST WESTERN. WE HEAR HIS VOICE FROM OFF-CAMERA. VO: Every year Kemba and I drive across country.  MAN WALKS UP TO THE DESK. A SMILING ATTENDANT IS WAITING. Man: Hi, I’m Hank Herman, I called about a room.  ATTENDANT...

GREETINGS FROM OHIO!LA/XC-42015 LA/XC-4 DAYS TWENTY-NINE AND THIRTY:  POSTING FROM PORT CLINTON, OHIO Two-day mileage from Kenosha, WI to Port Clinton, OH:  481 Total LA/XC-4 mileage:  8,139 Road Music:  “Sweet Home Alabama” endlessly, to see if it still deserves #1 on Hank Herman’s 300 Favorite Songs of All Time, the revised edition, coming out this summer (I think it still does); “Free Bird,” just for that killer instrumental; Grace and Kemba: the...

GREETINGS FROM WISCONSIN!LA/XC-42015 LA/XC-4 DAYS TWENTY-TWO THROUGH TWENTY-EIGHT:  POSTING FROM KENOSHA, WI Seven-day mileage from Mount Shasta, CA to Kenosha, WI:  2,761 Total LA/XC-4 mileage:  7,659 Road Music:  Sirius cycle; NBA “red zone” (e.g., listening to the ends of all the playoff games); LA/XC-4 playlist (The Band Perry, Lee Brice, Tom Petty, et al); Hank’s 300 Favorite Songs of All Time playlist — and the NY Mets, who are now on an 11-game winning...

Help me out here.  I really do want to play by the rules . . . but what are the rules?  As far as I can tell, they keep changing.  Last It’s what I do . . . Monday, down at Huntington Beach in California (seems like a long time ago!), Beagle Man sent me charging into the ocean after tennis balls.  Said he loved it.  Said watching me swim through the waves was his favorite thing in the world.  Said we’d do it for hours every day out at Montauk this summer — wherever that...

 There was this Looney Tunes cartoon when I was little: This old man’s walking down the street, when he comes across a dancing frog in a top hat singing “Hello! Ma Baby.” He can’t believe his eyes! But when he tries to show his discovery to literally anyone else on the planet, the frog just sits there and ribbits. So instead of realizing the fame and dollar signs floating around his head, the man is left to question his own sanity.  When I hear Beagle...

For the first half of my life, everything I knew about music I learned from the back seat of my dad’s car. Dire Straits (Brothers in Arms), Bryan Adams (Cuts Like a Knife, Reckless), Tom Petty (Full Moon Fever, Wildflowers, Greatest Hits), John Mellencamp (then “Cougar”) (American Fool), John Fogerty (Centerfield), Billy Joel (Storm Front), Don Henley (The End of the Innocence), Bruce Springsteen (Everything), Rolling Stones (Everything) Now I’m not what anyone would call a music...

GREETINGS FROM MOUNT SHASTA!LA/XC-42015 LA/XC-4 DAYS EIGHTEEN, NINETEEN, TWENTY, AND TWENTY-ONE:  POSTING FROM MOUNT SHASTA, CA Westbound mileage to L.A.: 3,602 Mileage while in L.A. area:  524 Three-day mileage from Santa Monica to Mount Shasta:  772 Total LA/XC-4 mileage:  4,898 My favorite road in America Road Music:  Tuesday —  Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” (get it?), as I start the northward trek up Highway 1;  LA/XC-4 playlist (a mix I put together...

LA/XC-4 DAYS FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN, AND SEVENTEEN:  POSTING FROM SANTA MONICA GREETINGS FROM SANTA YNEZ!LA/XC-42015 Yesterday Carol, Kemba, and I drove up the PCH to visit our good friends, former-Westporters Susan and Rick.  (Carol flew into L.A. Thursday for a long-weekend visit; as I’m sure you know by now, this whole cross-country road trip thing is not her style.)  Susan and Rick have re-established themselves on a ranch in Santa Ynez, a little north of Santa Rancho...