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

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.

How to throw a sensory wine tasting

The whole idea behind a sensory wine tasting is to explore sights, aromas, and flavors of wine beyond just the simple look, smell and sip of casual wine drinking. In sensory tastings, the goal is to actually compare and contrast what you experience in the wine with...

Another useless attempt at travel blogging – San Jose Del Cabo

TL/DR: San Jose Del Cabo is way different than Cabo San Lucas. Chill vibes, cheap drinks, lots of Canadians and really good food.

Revista Mexico – Our Ongoing Journal Of Our Experiences On The Move

A couple years ago - and let’s be serious, even one year ago - we would not have thought we’d be living in Mexico trying to wait out a global pandemic before heading off on our planned post-work journey. TL/DR - life is unexpected, and planning is for suckers. Anyway,...

Twenty Four Hours in Travel Hell

6:00am (10:00pm DT or Denver Time) We wake up in the Aklesia B&B in the Colosseum district of Rome to the sound of the iPhone alarm going off on the side of the bed.  Snooze?  Nah.  Gotta get up, shower and hit the Metro station.  I reach in to my backpack to find...

Minimalists’ guide to collecting wine

Sorry, but for a post about minimalism, this is going to be surprisingly long… I’ve been working on this minimalism thing for a while now. You know, simplify – own less and make sure your possessions don’t own you? It seemed easy and exciting at first, and has been a...

Photo Journal – Via Francigena

A look back at 2 months living and walking 800km on the Camino de Santiago from France through Spain.

Leaving 55 in 2020

2020 will probably be one of the, if not the, most significant years of my life. This was the year I had been waiting for; the year I was planning to retire.  What a year it’s been.  2020 kicked off with me suffering from and recovering from a pretty severe...

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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Photography

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