Travel – From The Bach Row

Where Were You on December 8, 1980?

Decades have passed since the violent death of John Lennon.
Many baby boomers remember where they were when they heard about the JFK assassination. For my generation, we have a few traumatic events as well. Elvis, 9/11 John Lennon and perhaps the passing of George Harrison (November 29, 2001).

Just like when I heard about Elvis’ disappearance and 9/11, my mind took a snapshot of exactly where I was, who I was with, and where I was standing. For me, these were life-changing traumatic events that stuck with me.

For the George Harrison news, the radio alarm just went off on November 30th. The DJ said: “And then there were two”, that was all that needed to be said for me to know that George had died. Continue reading “Where Were You on December 8, 1980?”

On The Road Again: Route 66 Chicago to Winslow

While the October/November weather was still holding, we decided to take another road trip in the Challenger; Chicago to Winslow, Arizona via the historic Route 66. A few years ago we drove Route 66 from Vegas to Flagstaff and I wanted to drive more of this historic road before it completely disappeared.
There are plenty of sights to see during this 15-day round-trip drive. We also made a detour off the route to visit a couple of National Parks and Monuments. You know, since, we were so close.
We didn’t stay on RT 66 the entire time because Interstate 40 runs parallel to it quite frequently. I-40 replaced much of RT 66 and in many cases runs parallel to the original road as a frontage road.
Our goal during planning was to drive about 400 miles every day and stop along the way at things that interested us or were suggested by the guidebooks and maps that we were following.
I put a list of the resources that we used at the end of this blog. Continue reading “On The Road Again: Route 66 Chicago to Winslow”

The Ultimate Southeast Road Trip Part 2: A Few More Airbnb’s

We recently completed an 18-day, 3,451-mile tour of a bunch of Southeastern states. While the first week was planned very well, the second and third week’s plans were more fluid and flexible. We camped a few nights, used some Hilton points at a couple of hotels and booked three separate Airbnb places.

Continue reading “The Ultimate Southeast Road Trip Part 2: A Few More Airbnb’s”

Taking The Fear Out of Booking an Airbnb

For years, we’ve been using VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) to book houses and condos during vacations. During my years of business travel, the last thing I really wanted to do on vacation was to stay in another hotel. The beauty of VRBO was that once we picked a city destination, like Livingston, MT, VRBO.com became our first stop to see the housing choices that were available to us. Continue reading “Taking The Fear Out of Booking an Airbnb”