Travel tips

Glorious Grecian Gluten

 in Gratitude / Greece / travel / Travel tips  tagged Athens / baklava / European gluten / European river cruise / gluten free / Greece / Italy / rash / Santorini / tour guide / travel by

I wanted to scratch my skin off to make the itching stop. Even prescription meds couldn’t calm my rash. When I finally got in to see the dermatologist, she could offer only a list of possible allergens. Eliminating the allergens did nothing to help. After years of suffering, a friend suggested that I go gluten free. I bit the bullet and found blessed relief. Before I learned how to avoid the pitfalls, I learned that taking chances wasn’t worth the indulgence. The rash from even a small serving of glutenous food can bring a month of misery. So, when a […]

Critter Fix

 in camping / Colorado / Travel tips / Wildlife/animals  tagged camping / mice / pests / prevention / Rodents / Travel tips / Tucson Mountain Park by

Inches from my head was a critter scratching, skittering, gnawing, hellbent on creeping me out and doing a fine job of it. I wondered if it was looking for a secret passage through the propane tanks, storming the storage compartment under our bed, or using the headboard as a jungle gym. Wherever the intruder was, it was not the nature I’d come to commune with. Other pests we’ve picked up  over the years have been more considerate-except that mouse that built a nest on our pickup’s engine and started a family overnight. The festive looking light strings I noticed under […]

Enough Already?

 in China / Travel tips  tagged China / churches / European churches / Jiuzhaigou National Park / mountains / travel / waterfalls by

A fellow traveler to China’s Himalayan foothills explained his disinterest: “I’ve seen mountains.” That was ten years ago, and I’m still horrified. Why did the man, who’d surely seen most everything there is to see, bother to wake each morning? As a native Coloradan and avid camper/traveler/hiker, I’ve seen some mountains. Many of them over and over, again and again. They still wow me with their wiles. The mere rumor of a waterfall sucks me in like a riptide. Before I toured China’s Jiuzhaigou National Park, I may have seen a thousand falls, but I’d never seen one that moved […]

A Gift from the Orient 2

 in China / Travel tips  tagged China / Chinese customs / Jiuzhaigou / pocket knife / souvenir / travel by

We needed souvenirs for ranching men, and what better than knives? But Chinese gift-shopkeepers carried no knives. A knife, given as a gift, would signify the giver’s wish to cut off the friendship. We walked the length of the Jiuzhaigou shopping street, asking for knives at each shop.  No one had a knife, but when we walked past those same shops on our way back to the hotel, the sellers met us on the sidewalk to offer knives of all kinds.  This one isn’t sturdy enough for ranch work, or much of anything else, and we were skeptical of the […]

Where To Hear Tunes

 in Snowbirding / Texas / Travel tips  tagged Bronson / Las Vegas / Live music / Nashville / Texas / travel by

What city is the live music capital of the US? Austin? Really? How does Austin out croon Nashville, Branson, and Vegas? Willy, Waylon, and the Boys I guess. Luckenbach is right down the road.

Where to Go, Go to Guys 2

 in Travel tips / Uncategorized / Wildlife/animals  tagged antelope / eclipse / maintenance workers / Thermopolis / travel advice / Wyoming by

We asked half a dozen professional Themopolisians where we should go to watch the eclipse, but much as they tried, we got little help.  In the nick of time I pointed out the town’s road maintenance yard and reminded Steve that an Alaskan road maintenance guy had given great advice in another situation. Sure enough, he sent us to a perfect hillside overlooking the valley, no one around but a few horses, a herd of antelope, and a couple of highly compatible locals.  When totality commenced we could hear people cheering up and down the valley.  How could we have […]

Distressing Detector

 in camping / Travel tips  tagged camp trailer / fire alarm / hearing loss / smoke detector / travel by

Most of my elderly relatives lost their hearing, but I never heard of any of my predecessors getting burned.  So when our camp trailer’s smoke detector shrieked without reason once again, I was more concerned with preventing further cochlear damage than preserving the detector.  Steve entertained our friends, who were camped next door, with a dramatic rendition of that incident, and Linda asked him to send me over to fix their detector too. Some years later, that infamous detector still seems to be working, it just doesn’t attach to the ceiling anymore.  Steve noticed today that it is 10 years old, and the ones in our house are […]

Dog Gone 2

 in Snowbirding / Travel tips / Wildlife/animals  tagged Blue Grass music / Cherokee Alabama / coon dog cemetery / Deep South / Labor Day festival / Liars Contest / travel by

In search of attractions to add to our Deep South itinerary, I came across a coon dog cemetery.  I like dogs and cemetery strolls, but I think it’s enough to know that this coon dog cemetery exists. If you’re thinking of adding it to your list, Labor Day might be the time to go.  An annual festival includes Bluegrass music, hickory smoked barbecue, decorated graves, and a Liars Contest telling tall tales.  No, really, it’s true!

Painreliever Puzzle

 in Alaska / Snowbirding / Travel tips  tagged Alaska / back pain / motion sickness / pain reliever / puzzle / sudoku / Travel tip by

When we drove the Alaskan Highway, my back protested the long hours in the truck.  I tried pillows and cushions and giving Steve heck, some of which helped, but not enough.  Then I happened on another sort of remedy–Sudoku.  Puzzles do an amazing job of muting discomforts of all kinds, and for some reason, staring at them doesn’t make me carsick. They are somewhat addictive, and I miss miles of scenery, but I see a lot more than I would staying home with a bad back.

Driven to Distraction 2

 in camping / Travel tips  tagged GPS / road trip / travel by

The man is losing it. I’ve gotten used to Steve firing up our GPS, Faith, to drive to places that he could find in his sleep. I concentrate on my puzzles and block out her prattling every name ever assigned to each highway. When he ignores her pleas to “turn around when possible,” I console myself: better her than me. But for our trip to Newfoundland, Steve decided that we would listen to Faith and the truck’s built-in GPS’ in tandem.  A month-long duet of “route recalculation” and “turn around when possible?” Yes, absolutely, a second opinion would double our chances of finding the best route for our 8,000 mile journey. Great, […]