"In this a journey is like marriage; the certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."‐ John Steinbeck "Like so many things in life, a trip often starts out as a series of uneasy compromises."- Me As the date of departure quickly approaches, I find myself with too many options; do I go solo on the motorcycle? Do I take a dog on the motorcycle? Or do I do the "sensible" thing…

Vini, Vici, Velcro: I came, I saw, I stuck around. There have been many iterations of what makes up the collective term "the Casa del Whackos". While it has been around in spirit for decades, the term was officially coined when Charlie Bravo joined the crew of Mom's cadre of Finnish Spitz, St Echo the Vomitus and of course, Max E. Million. A short time after Charlie came along, Stevie Mae allowed herself to be…

Day One Nama and I awoke this morning in the middle of what officially is known as No man's land; we car camped last night at a remote cemetery in the panhandle of Oklahoma. It appears that neither Texas nor Kansas have ever cared that much for this area, and I can see why; even now, highway 412 is one of the loneliest stretches of road I have encountered. This orphan rectangle of land was…

It is said that "he who seeks to be understood must first seek to understand"; if you in any way expect to be able to wrap your head around even a fraction of of the insane events that marked Nama's last day on earth, you need to be able to envision the place where the deal went down. The actual town of Gateway, Colorado is a just a dot on the map, so close to…

The average length of a Charlie Bravo post is 700-800 words; that has never been in any way planned, that's just how it seems to have worked out over the last nine years. I've been told by many that the posts are too long for the Book of Face, but I have little to no say in the matter, as the words come and go as they please. So, how do I tell the tale…

Charlie and I went for a ride last night. But it wasn't just any ride; it was the first ride she's taken in the sidecar without another dog, be it MacDuff or Nama, also occupying the Charkstream on the back of the motorcycle. One of the first things I did upon returning from Colorado was to remove the dog chariot from the old Nighthawk; I did not need the constant reminder that the dog(s) that…

Dad here; t's been a week since I returned from Colorado, and tonight that I finally got around to cleaning the CR-V's interior windows. Procrastination? Not this time. Laziness? Nope, not that either. Regret? Now we're getting closer, as it was Nama's slobbery nose trails that I couldn't bring myself to Windex away. Even though I knew that it desperately needed to be done, actually doing it felt like I was somehow erasing her memory.…