Backpacks And A Wine Key

Wandering winos on a pilgrimage to nowhere searching for a glass that is more than half full.

Stories

Travel, food and wine, life, health, and the occasional sermon on perspective. Here is the latest – read the rest here.

The Latest

CDS Day 1 – Failure, Food, and A Rainy Day Playlist

Please note, typed with my thumbs so be kind…bad grammar and misspellings are a certainty! It was a day of failure. See, I look at failure differently. Failure for me on this pilgrimage started with taking a bus on the very first leg from SJPDP to Roncesvalles due to...

Random thoughts and mostly useless observations on the Camino de Santiago

Here are only a few of my observations and random thoughts – with some explanation if I feel like it – on our experience walking the Camino de Santiago.

I Fucking Hate Travel Blogging – A Disclaimer

I'll make this brief and simply attach it to everything I write. I fucking hate travel blogging. I’m not good at it and I’m not trying to be good at it. I’m not a travel agent. I’m not a tour guide. I’m not TripAdvisor and I have no interest in developing itineraries...

Not that there is anything wrong with that

I have many gay friends. I always have. Gay friends are cool...because they are your friends, right? I guess I'm lucky. I was raised, by and large, to be non-judgmental. My parents didn't really bring up the whole race, creed, sex thing. I have never even thought...

Paris Café Culture

A not-so wise man once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around for a while, you could miss it.” Nowhere is that advice more needed than here in America. Nowhere is that advice more honored than in Paris. Paris is a busy, bustling city of over...

The Basics Of Smelling Wine

Do you have cats? Have you ever smelled raw clay kitty litter? How about putting your face right down into a somewhat used litter box filled with clay kitty litter? Do it. Then take a big, deep whiff and register what you smell. Chances are, you smell clay, dust, cat...

Mostly useless observations and snap judgements on Croatia

Below is a running list of observations as we cruise through Croatia. Needless to say, these are not well thought out or researched, just shit that comes up. In no particular order, and keep checking back for more.   The country is clean (except the tagging and...

Pilgrim Life – Are we conditioned to pick the easy path

I want to be a person that, for no reason at all, will sometimes take the harder path without there needing to be a benefit. I want to seek the longer path. But, what’s maybe more important is I want to consciously brake the conditioning that makes me always take the easier way, the path of least resistance, simply by default. I want to think about it. I want to at least consider taking the harder path sometimes without it feeling like I’m breaking some hard wired rule.

Wino Journal

Stories, logs, and blogs on moving on from a life of work and routine.

Notes On The Feeling Of Freedom

Notes On The Feeling Of Freedom

When I was 18, I left the house to go to college. I took with me all I owned, a duffel bag full of clothes, a guitar, and my bed to set up in my first apartment. For the next few years I lived in the moment. Now I’m over 50, done working, and have spent the last year roaming the world. I’ve gone from having nothing to having everything, and then intentionally back to nothing again.

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Adventure

Stories, logs, and blogs on our pilgrim journeys as we grab our backpacks (and a wine key) and walk through Italy, Scotland, Spain, and the great wine regions of the world – including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Argentina, to name a few.

Urban Food Adventure London

Urban Food Adventure London

It’s been over 20 years since we strolled through London. First time was for touristy stuff, this time…pretty much just to eat. How priorities change over the years.

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Paris Café Culture

Paris Café Culture

A not-so wise man once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around for a while, you could miss it.” Nowhere is that advice more needed than here in America. Nowhere is that advice more honored than in Paris. Paris is a busy, bustling city of over...

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Finally a real wine rating system

Finally a real wine rating system

The thing I hate most about wine ratings is the thing that makes them what they are. Wine ratings are subjective. They are one person’s judgement of quality and don’t take into account what really matters – how much you drink, what you can afford, when to drink them,...

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