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

Travel Tips – Save yourself some pain and travel light

Ah, the travel season is upon us once again. For some reason (probably related to something dumb, like jobs and kids and school) we tend to take off to faraway lands and exotic destinations just when the weather here turns from blustery to absolutely beautiful. Vive...

The Last Day

The day arrived like any other day. Since we sold our home and car and moved downtown, we now woke at 6:30 with plenty of time to roll out of bed, brush my teeth, and still be online by 7am. But that day was different. That day was my last day. Even though I knew...

2023 Year In Pictures And A Few Words

A look not so quick back at our last trip around the sun with some not so random images along with random thoughts and pretty useless observations.

What makes a house a home

Questions on what it means to actually live somewhere.

My new theory on the popularity of pro football

I have a new theory about professional football. I think the popularity of NFL football is now being completely supported by the gambling trends of weekly and yearly Fantasy Football leagues. It's a new theory, and I'm just developing it now, but it feel right....

Photo Journal – Mexico

A photographic journey and small sample of images from our pandemic life in Mexico

Walking Notes – Losing track of everything I think is true

A stream of consciousness project of turning on the speech-to-text feature on my phone and having it record whatever I say as I take my morning walk – with very little editing and even less proper punctuation.

Travel Blog – Oktoberfest and Munich

The day started out like so many others in my past. I woke to the sound of the phone alarm clock sounding at 7am (still 11pm at home and in the heart of your hero, having been in country only a day or so now) and had to resist the urge to throw the damn thing...

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.

read more

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.

read more
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...

read more
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,...

read more

Subscribe to our email journal and follow along...

* indicates required

Photography

Professional And Personal Photography On Travel, Adventure, Outdoors, Food, Wine, and Life.