After a break of five years, Terris Christian, John Bauer, Jim Stallings, and I once again spent a week together. Terris, John, and Jim are computer professionals I met decades ago at the start of the personal computer era, circa 1984, when I bought my first computer. We met monthly at someone’s house (there were other geek friends) and I was a computer nerd wannabe. I tried but never made the transition from family physician to computer professional and have…
After two years of pandemic cancellations, the Spring Horizon’s Unlimited Traveller’s Meeting for 2022 in Virginia took place from Thursday, April 21 through Sunday April 24 at the Holiday Lake 4-H Club Camp in Appomattox, VA. I attended HU in 2018 the month I retired and again in 2019. This event included presentations on traveling around the world, safety, planning, equipment, and the “Farkle Walk”, a one hour walk around as various owners described the accessories, additional, and modifications they…
On my trip out West this winter, after visiting the Petrified Forest (photo above), I decided to visit a few Route 66 locations. As you know Route 66 gained legend as the “Mother Road”, the “Main Street of America”. Part of the original US Highway System from Chicago to LA, it was featured in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, rhythm and blues song Get Your Kicks on Route 66 (first recorded by Nat King Cole and one of…
Rick Steves is a well-known name in the travel industry. For more than 30 years, he has produced hundreds of popular European travel videos for PBS (all available to watch for free on his website or on his YouTube channel), dozens of highly respected travel books and organized guided tours of Europe. Rick Steves focuses only on Europe and spends seven months out of the year traveling and researching his favorite places. His company tours are active, that is, you…
How do you fit a bed into a minivan?
I attended the 2019 Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in Quartzite, Arizona from Wednesday, January 9, 2019, to Sunday, January 20th. This is the largest gathering of nomads in the world, people who live in their vehicles. Many choose to be homeless while others had this lifestyle thrust upon them, living in vehicles as small as a Prius to 40-foot school buses. I saw retired Fed Ex trucks, mail trucks, ambulances, Class A, B, and C RVs, home built boxes on truck…
Another bucket list item In a previous post, I talked about buying a 2001 BMW R1100RT in Texas with the intention of riding it back to Virginia. Hurricane Florence and then Tropical Storm Gordon delayed that trip for two weeks so I rode 1,000 miles on hot Texas Roads getting used to the bike. One training trip was a good example of an unusual America Road Side attraction. A What? US Roadside attractions are giant, turn-your-head, what was that, weird…
We just returned from a lovely stroll through the Cotswolds, English countryside designated as “an area of outstanding natural beauty”. With rolling hills, “wolds”, it is the second largest protected landscape in England (in case you are wondering, the Lake District is the largest). Also, in case you were wondering, a “cot” is a sheep enclosure. So the Cotswolds are a land of “sheep enclosures on rolling hillsides”. Inhabited since the bronze age, the area made its fortune and reputation…
Horizon’s Unlimited is an International Organization of adventure travelers, people who take off and travel around the world, mostly on motorcycles. While they have events all over the world, the Spring HU East Coast Meeting was in Appomattox Virginia from Thursday, April 26th to Sunday, April 29th. Not being a world traveler, nor an adventurous, rugged motorcycle type, I thought “I want to spend time with these characters!” These guys were only 75 miles away, so I loaded up my 1991…
Cruiser’s University is a boating education program for sailors and power boaters held at the US Naval Academy twice a year during the Annapolis Spring and Fall Sailboat Shows. This past Thursday, April 19th through Sunday, April 22nd, I spent four days attending four 90 minutes classes each day, selected from over 50 classes taught by very knowledgeable, experienced sailors. America’s Great Loop? What? Two years ago, I met a physician at a cocktail party and we started discussing…