Globetrottin'

Remember that topographical globe sitting atop the bookshelf in the library at your grade school? That magical, mysterious sphere. I would hold up my index finger, close my eyes, dream of some far away tropical land, and give that globe a BIG spin. Where my finger "landed" is where I wished to be. Sometimes I'd end up in the middle of the Pacific and a buddy, Nelson, bursting my bubble, would announce, " Ha, ha, you're on Gilligan's Island". With another spin, my finger would catch on the bumpy ridges of the Himalays. Cool, I'm on Mt Everest. I liked that game.

Last week I saw the same globe at a thrift shop. I wanted it. Knowing I couldn't have it, something magical draws me to it. I hold my finger up against it and dream of my next sandy destination. Eyes closed, I spin that blue, green, brown beach ball. With eager anticipation, I open my eyes only to find out that again, I'm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Until the invention of the magic carpet, we are a lot closer now more than ever, to travel to far away places that we've always dreamed of. Yes, like Aladdin and Jasmine in Arabia, it's a whole new world. No matter how exotic.

 In just a week, I'll be traveling to Europe non-stop from Portland in just over nine hours. It takes me longer to drive to see my Mom in Sacramento. With the current innovation boom, our globe is shrinking.

Take out your favorite e-gadget. Now google, t-r-a-v-e-l. Look! Millions of travel options right there at your fingertips. So many in fact, it's impossible to keep track of all of them. Bookmark your favorites. Add the app to your e-gadget. Use them. Boy is this fun: travelocity, kayak, Tripit. Okay, that's enough. But wait, I forgot my favorite, GOOGLE EARTH. Just like that giant globe in the school library, you can now dream about your next getaway with this electronic globe.

Go ahead, give that glorious google globe a BIG spin, hold a finger up to your touch screen, close your eyes, and make your wish for a happy landing. And by all means, don't let the Nelson's of this world burst your bubble.

Dreams do come true...Coming Soon in 3-D.

Weird Portland Keep?

Portland prides itself on its weirdness. You see it all over town- KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD stickers boasting the city's penchant for its oddities. Some stickers word play on this slogan: KEEP PORTLAND WIRED, KEEP PORTLAND BEERED.

The other day I saw a bumper sticker that said, KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD. What, Austin Texas? C'mon man, Austin, no way! Now I've never been to Austin but it can't possibly be weirder than Portland, could it? Does Austin have the urban iditarod? Ride MAX in your underwear day? The naked bike ride? No, no, and no! I'll bet they don't even have Voodoo donuts.

Some time ago, I was in a local pub and ordered a beer. The bartender tossed down a coaster and lay on top a perfect pint. With my first sip, I noticed the cardboard coaster was the size of a postcard. Sure enough, I flipped it over and there was that unmistakable square in the corner reserved for a postal stamp. On the front was a picture of some guy precariously standing on a bicycle, giving the thumbs-up, three bottles of beer in the basket. Then the words- A Feat of Balance. Cool, a free postcard! Michigan Bob is gonna like this one.

Probably a week or so later, I got the very same postcard in the mail. What the ...? Whoa. Now this is weird. Same dude standing atop a bike, thumbs-up, three bottles of beer in the basket. The note on the back said, "I'm buyin' the next round." That's all.

It wasn't Michigan Bobs writing. He always prints, this was cursive. Maybe it was from my brother, he travels all over. Wait, no, he doesn't drink. I scratched at the beer circle the glass had made on the card and smelled it as if I could detect the brand of beer. Nope, just smelled like your average postcard.

Around the border of the card, more clues. Something about the goofy name of the street I live on, and signing off, Ace Himilgan( from Iceland). Ace? Hmmm... the only Ace I know is Ace Ventura- Pet Detective. Himilgen, yea that sounds Icelandic, but I don' t ever remember meeting an Icelander. I don't even know anyone who has been to Iceland. Combine the names, see if someone is pulling a fast one. Acehimilgen? Gobbledygook. Pretty weird.

The stamp was a shelter mutt from the Humane Society. Could that be a clue? Well, I've got a dog. Yea well, so does just about everyone else in Portland.

I could not put it together. So strange how I would send off a postcard and a week later get the same postcard back from what could perhaps be some stalker. Okay, I get it! Maybe this was just some random act of weirdness.

Just as I was giving up on who the culprit might be, I looked a little closer at the postmark. Squinting my eyes to make out the slightly faded ink blot, with a puzzled grin, in postal font, I read Austin,TX...WEIRD??

Casey's Paddle

... Maybe Canoe Bay. Maybe someday, when I'm back in that neighborhood. 

Sometimes you're tossed the short end of the paddle...

    Life isn’t fair. My friend Casey passed away last week after a long battle with cancer...               

        Steve(Casey) tossed me a paddle and asked, “stern or bow?”. Yea, I’d been on a canoe before plenty of times, on flat water not white water so I certainly wasn’t going to know the difference between stern or bow. Puzzled, I answered, “ I’ll take the front.”
       
        That was about 12 years ago. Since then I’ve been on 5 or 6 canoe trips with Casey, Gleason, and dozens of other crewmen seeking the wilderness and “river time”. Casey loved being on the river. Every rock, riffle, or rapid proved a bit challenging along the course of the river. Then there was the slow, flat water. Time to reflect and get to know each other. A time to get to know Casey, his family, his story.
       
        We’d get to a good pullout and Casey became Mr. Efficient: coolers, dry bags, wood, fire, bedding(forget a tent, Casey loved sleeping under the stars). Once we had fire and a couple?? beers, it was story time. Most of the stories were provided by Gleason but we all had a great time sharing our river tidbits.
       
        When it was Casey’s night to cook, boy,we were all in for a treat. Dang, did he bring it? Cloth napkins, red wine, and a basketball size roll of aluminum foil. Yep, all year long he would rinse and recycle foil just for this occasion.He’d triple wrap a huge hunk of meat or fish, potatoes, green beans, and bread. Just when you think he’d run out of foil, he’d cover the brownies in the dutch oven and put all of this over the hot coals.
       
        But wait, there’s more! After dinner and dessert were cooking, as if he were the Iron Chef, he’d whip out appetizers. Man, there would be a  spread of cheeses,hummus( with all the fixin’s), even smoked salmon with red onions and capers. Now you can see why we all looked forward to Casey’s night to cook. And the stories and song continued into the night.
       
        Normally Casey was the first one up. The fire would be blazing before he even peed. One by one we all got up, shook out the cobwebs, and were greeted with an espresso. Casey was so proud of his tiny one-cup, one-flame camp espresso gadget and took this time to get us ready for the river.
       
        When Casey moved to Portland, we’d get together once in a while with Gleason and the guys for what I affectionately call “ale bonding”. We’d engage in the typical banter over a couple?? of beers: sports, family, the next canoe trip.  Sometimes Casey and I would make a beer wager on a game. Last October he took his beloved Buffalo Bills over my faithful Forty-niners. The wager- a beer. Just a pint!! You see, for me this wasn’t about the beer or the football, it was another chance to see Casey.
           
        Boy, the next canoe trip, I’m sure gonna miss Casey’s paddle on “river time”.   

50 and Counting

Last year, 2012, was a milestone year for Hali and me. We both turned 50!! The half century mark- WOW!! What a milestone. Maybe what is more incredible is that we've been together since milepost 16. So long, in fact,  our names run together as almost celebrity, HaliWoody. That's cool. Most importantly, however, is that we are very compatible together, especially when traveling.

A couple years ago my sister gave me the book " 1000 Places To See Before You DIE" by Patricia Shultz. I flipped through it, " wish- listing" the places I have yet to see. Crap! I thought I was pretty well traveled but she had been, it seemed, everywhere. Either I live to 150, or I start at chapter one of this book, pack my bags, and get going.

So I turned 50 and where did we go? No, not the Ice Hotel in Sweden, as Ms. Shultz would recommend. You're on the right track... getting warmer... warmer... warmer. Yep, we were in the "frozen tundra" of Lambeau Field last September. The Holy Grail of Football!! To top it off, the Packers were playing the  Forty-Niners. Check that one off our, I mean "my",  bucket list.

Was Lambeau Field even mentioned in "... Before You Die" as her traveler's life list? Nope. Canoe Bay Wisconsin was. Hey, she didn't even mention the Wisconsin Dells and that's where we went roller skating on our honeymoon. For a couple from the West Coast, that sure was romantic.

That's my point. YOU write your own book. No sense traveling around the world to a place you have no interest in. You've got to be kidding, Skeleton Coast, Namibia. Something just doesn't sound right there. Luckily, she survived.  Yea, maybe the Ice Hotel in Sweden. Maybe Canoe Bay. Maybe someday, when I'm back in that neighborhood. Right now though, I'm focused on Ireland. Yes,  the  "emerald isle" has been on our list for a long time.  Ready to embrace the hospitality from the people known to have the "gift of gab". We'll kiss the Blarney Stone- before we turn 51. Sailte!!

April Fool's

Retire oversea for $700 a month? Hali brought home this clipping and right off the bat I thought, no way!! That's $23 and some change per day. So it got me thinking,  that $700 refers to monthly expenses for 1 person. If I double it, could 2 live on $1400 a month? Yes, probably.

I took out a notebook and jotted down our monthly expenses: newspaper, heat, water, insurance, etc. I had a full page of our expenses not including property taxes or mortgage. Imagine what the total was? Somewhere between $1200-$1400. Without these expenses, we'd have $50 a day in our pockets. 

On our first trip to Europe in 1985, I brought 2 guidebooks. Travel guru Rick Steves' Europe Through The Back Door and Europe on $5 a Day. At that time Rick Steves was a little known travel writer from Seattle with just Back Door, should I say, under his (money) belt. But I was fascinated by his travel savvy.  Now he has his entire Europe guidebook empire which I refer to for European insights but I'm pretty sure he's no longer staying in hostels. That's why Europe on $5 a Day came in handy. It was written by broke college students willing to take a room in a convent. Our budget allowed for something in between both travel philosophies. That year we did 3 months in Europe for about $50 a day including rail passes. If we did it then, we certainly could do it today.

From the time I saw that clipping until today, our strategy for the end game was inspired. Stay tuned.