If you’ve ever taken a trip beyond the end of your block, you know some degree of planning is required. The magnitude of planning is exponentially increased when four different languages, four different currencies, and multiple weeks are involved. When planning a trip like this, there are two primary strategies. Identify a tour that meets your interests and needs. Pay once, pack, show up. (Despite internet deals, I still maintain travel agents are the best resource for this.) Plan it Continue Reading
It’s time to go home
While enjoying the pool today and then drying in the warm Arizona sun, I took one look at my hands and said “yep, it’s time to go home.” After too much sun, I get a reaction that brings out the most unattractive wart-like bumps, thankfully, just on my hands. Not blisters, but every bit as ugly. And I’ve always said, when you start to look like the native species, it’s time to pack it up. So tomorrow, my lizard-looking hands will grab the steering wheel and begin the trek back to Michigan. In Continue Reading
Twenty-two hundred miles later…
Is the news stressing you? Gray skies got you down? Maybe depressed because your team bowed out of March Madness early and your arch-rival is still dancing? I’ve got the perfect solution. Gas up the car, pack a couple weeks’ worth of clean underwear, charge your phone, grab a cooler. It’s time for a road trip. Don’t worry about a plan – just check the weather and let the highway spill out in front of you, away from the storms. Stop planning dinner around the news and wondering if you need to Continue Reading
Traverse City Travels
This past week, Kathy and I took a two-night trip to Traverse City (TC). If we had driven past the Cops and Doughnuts Bakery in Clare, skipped the Elm Creek Quilt Shop in Farwell, and waved as we drove past the Clam Lake Beer Co. in Cadillac, we’d have arrived in just over three hours (from Lansing.) Our trip took slightly longer, because as I like to say, it’s as much about the journey as it is the destination. TC sits at the base of the Grand Traverse Bay which spills into Lake Michigan. Continue Reading