After 8 hours to Rome and another 4 to Cairo, a friendly brown-skinned man met us to take us to baggage claim, looked incredulous when we told him we didn’t need such a stop, led us through passport control, into a van, and to our hotel. Shortly after, the guide […]
It was Saturday, April 6 when we woke up in Rome, and my kind bride had scheduled the most fitting activity I could possibly engage in at that moment in that place: gladiator training followed by a trip to the Coliseum. Why? Because Monday, April 6, 2009 was the first […]
We arrived by train in Florence and navigated the throngs of tourists toward our AirBnb, a unit requiring climbing several flights of wooden stairs with steep rises. Its exterior doorway opened onto a sidewalk maybe 6” wide before a curbed one-way street where Italian men liked to exceed 40 mph, […]
On Tuesday the 5th of July, I walked a mile in the rain to Hertz and rented what was supposed to be an automatic Audi but ended up being a manual shift Kia. So, my first experience driving on the left side of the road would be with a stick […]
On Monday, we began our second day in Scotland with hopes of touring the Palace of Holyroodhouse, but the Queen was there, meaning no tours were to be conducted. So, we walked to Edinburgh Castle and saw the prisons where (eventual) American POWs were kept during our Revolutionary War. Did […]
Last week, we completed our much-anticipated walk from the Irish Sea to the North Sea along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England, and it was the second life experience (the first one being going to war) I’ve had which I can now describe with the phrase, “I probably wouldn’t choose to […]
Last week, I saw 2 acts I’ve wanted to see live for 30 years in back to back shows: Prince and Duran Duran. A week later, we learned Prince died and that his Atlanta shows were his last live performances. (photo from Amiee Stubbs, who was 2 rows in front […]
When we got hitched 10 years ago, my bride gave me a copy of a book entitled “1000 Places to See Before You Die” with a nice inscription in the front that referenced wanting to visit a bunch of them together. So, any time I know I’m going to a […]
Sometimes a man needs to hop on a plane to attend a party with over 6 million people. Science and psychology tell us this is the best way to spend our discretionary funds, but I’d do it even if they didn’t. The idea for last week’s trip was actually hatched […]
When I posted something about wanting folks to join me at the Atlanta BBQ festival on Facebook a couple months ago, and Doug (who lives in Ann Arbor) expressed interest in coming down, I thought for sure he was kidding. Turns out, he wasn’t, because a few hours before the […]