Although Memorial Day is a a bit of a somber holiday, to most Americans the long weekend at the end of May is less about death and patriotism and more about celebrating the beginning of summer; about cookouts, parties, fishing trips and other family fun.
For us, last weekend was all bout bonding with our new [...]

… took a lot of energy. This was not a bad year for me, but it did wear me out a bit. The first half was dominated by our trip to Togo and Ghana. It took a lot of preparation to get ready. The trip itself was great, but quite exhausting. Work turned a bit [...]

We’re back at home. After 3 weeks in Ghana and Togo, we undertook the last leg of our trip on Friday – from Accra via New York back home to Durham. The guy who’d rented us his Bimmer came to pick us up at 6 AM and took us to Kotoka Int’l Airport. Like so [...]

For almost two weeks Laura and I and the kids have been back to Yikpa – the village in Togo where Laura and I met all these years ago. Our visit is going very well. Our reception was just amazing! We had almost two days of celebration, including a formal welcome with a sacrifice of [...]

We made it! We arrived in Accra, Ghana, yesterday at 8AM. Uncle E.K. picked us up and drove us to the house we’re staying in while we’re in Accra. It’s HOT – no rains yet (that’s a problem for the farmers!) but the house does have A/C. We use the cooling sparingly because we need to [...]

Yovo is going back to the village! In a week from now, we will be on our most exciting, most anticipated family trip yet, back to Yikpa – the village where Laura and I met all these years ago.
Next weekend, we’ll fly directly from New York to Accra. In Accra we’ll be staying at a [...]

So, as I said earlier, the camera I set up at Brightleaf caught several trucks crashing into the railroad trestle across the street. A couple of weeks ago I got an email from TV producer who was interested in my videos. First I was suspicious – but after a few Google searches he looked legit. [...]

Once a year, the good people at Foothills Brewery brew their Sexual Chocolate Stout, and this weekend they began making the ‘09 edition available at the brew pub in Winston Salem. To their loyal customers, known as “Footheads”, this is special day, indeed. Foothills brewery does not usually bottle any beer – so its beers [...]

2008 was a pretty good year for us. We stayed healthy, sane (more or less) and employed. Jacob and Julia grew a lot. We had a great family vacation in the mountains of North Carolina and we did a couple of short trips to the beach. Both kids changed schools. Jacob and I started learning [...]

… apparently is now the Hydroptère – and again, right after breaking the speed record, they broke the boat.
Alain Thébault now claims to have reached 61 knots (70 MPH/113KMH) with his 6-ton sailing hydrofoil yacht before it flipped upside down! No one on the team was seriously injured, but the boat looks like it’s in [...]

Looks like the Australian Paul Larsen broke the 50-knots-per-hour speed sailing record, and then he broke his boat. So far only a couple of kite surfers broke 50 knots. Larsen claims that in his latest attempt at setting a new speed record his sailboat reached a peak speed of 52.22 knots (60.09 MpH – 96.71KMpH) [...]

This is an amazing new sailing record:
At 23:35 GMT 51 year old sailor Francis Joyon sailed across the start finish line near Brest in France aboard his his 30 metre trimaran IDEC to set a new solo round the world of 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds.
That takes 14 days, 44 minutes [...]

Looks like I’ll be retiring my trusted Simonelli bike sooner rather than later. Last week I was preparing the bike for a ride to work, when I noticed that the frame is damaged. Those fat off-road tires I like, wore a hole in the frame! The side of the tire was rubbing slightly against the [...]

The Moon from inside the eye of Hurricane Felix, shot by Randy Bynon during a hurricane hunter mission. Amazing photo – click on the thumbnail to see the large version on the Wunderground site.

Out of 538 vehicles at the start (264 bikes, 189 cars, 85 trucks ) 300 made it to the finish line today. Stephane Peterhansel won the cars category in his Mitsubishi, Cyril Despres won the bikes on a KTM, and Hans Stacey won the trucks category with his MAN.
Tragically, this rally also cost the lives [...]

In Salina, Kansas, at 2:49 pm ET Steve Fossett made aviation history when he touched down in his Global Flyer after a 25,000-mile (40,234 kilometer) around-the-globe voyage that took 67 hours and two minutes.

Right now, Fossett is flying over Morocco, at an altitude of 45,478ft (speed: 369 knots) in his bid to fly aroound the globe solo and non-stop.
Flight Tracker

Steve Fossett took off in his Global Flyer for his attempt to fly around the globe, solo and non-stop. Track his progress at the Global Flyer Flight Tracker.

… in 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes and 33 seconds, that is. Ellen MacArthur just broke the non-stop singlehanded round the world record set just a year ago by Francis Joyon. She crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, after sailing her 75 foot trimaran B&Q solo around the world.
Ellen sailed 27,348 miles [...]

The Vendeé Globe is drawing to a close after the first three sailors reached Les Sables d’Olonne. It took the winner, Vinent Riou on PRB, 87 days 10 hours 47 minutes and 55 seconds to finish the 23680 miles around the world, solo, at an average theoretical speed along the course of 11.28 [...]