Stories

Travel, food and wine, life, health, and the occasional sermon on perspective. Here is the latest – the rest, with other categories, is below.

The Latest

Pilgrim Journal – Not Every Day Is Fabulous

Everything is wonderful, inspiring, and fabulous…until you wake up on the wrong side of the world and it suddenly isn’t.

The Theory Of The Witness Wine

When my mother told me I would have to use math when I grew up, this is exactly what I was hoping she meant. The Math: A normal wine bottle contains 750ml of wine, or a little over 25 ounces. Our extraordinary math skills tell us that is equal to five glasses of wine,...

Our 53 (now 72) Most Significant Travel Accomplishments So Far

In an attempt to remember what we have done and how lucky we are, we decided to keep a list of where we’ve been and what we’ve done. This is in no way exhaustive, but some of it was exhausting.

Notes On Failure – As We Start Pilgriming

I don’t want to fail at this. It’s funny, I think I have reached a place in my life, through experience as well as through elements of privilege (money and health, etc) where the outside world is not what challenges me any more. It’s all inside We’ve chosen our first...

Photo Journal – Camino del Norte

Photo Journal – A look back at our first thru-hike on the Alta Via 1 in the Italian Dolomites then up into Austria.

Useless Travel Blog – Cabo San Lucas

“No Bad Days” my ass. Save yourself  TL/DR - Cabo San Lucas sucks. Below is all you need to know. Our travel blogging disclaimer Fifteen or twenty years ago, Cabo San Lucas was cool. It had more of a chill hippie vibe. But now, unless all you want to do is fish (there...

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...

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...

Wino Journal

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

At least there are no screaming kids kicking my seat

At least there are no screaming kids kicking my seat

Because of a mix of Covid travel measures and early retirement plans that have been f****d, life as it relates to our living situation and plans for the future have become something we really don’t recognize.

Adventure

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

Yet Another Useless Travel Blog – Zadar

Yet Another Useless Travel Blog – Zadar

We just ended our time living in Zadar, Croatia for 2 months, and as I sit down to write about it, I honestly can’t remember a single thing about it beyond vague memories and fleeting mental images. So here you go…

read more
The Ins and Outs of Oak

The Ins and Outs of Oak

Oak, to a winemaker, is like salt and pepper to the master chef. It’s not the main ingredient, but it matters more than you think. Used right, you get a product of exceptional flavor and quality. Used incorrectly and you are switching to beer. Of the top 100 wines in...

read more
The Theory Of The Witness Wine

The Theory Of The Witness Wine

When my mother told me I would have to use math when I grew up, this is exactly what I was hoping she meant. The Math: A normal wine bottle contains 750ml of wine, or a little over 25 ounces. Our extraordinary math skills tell us that is equal to five glasses of wine,...

read more

More Stories

Another Useless Travel Blog – Rovinj

Another Useless Travel Blog – Rovinj

Make no mistake, I would hang out in Rovinj any day, and for a quick weekend on the beach or week at a resort, it’s top notch. It’s a really cool town to wander through. The history is incredible, the food is more than okay, and there is no way to not have a good time.

read more
On Youth, Passports, and Consulates

On Youth, Passports, and Consulates

Yeah, we had to visit a consulate to check a passport, but more noteworthy part was the encounter with the other American tourists while waiting in the secure seating area outside the consulate functional area, namely two lovely and young American girls.

read more
Pilgrim Life – Are we conditioned to pick the easy path

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.

read more
Notes On Failure – As We Start Pilgriming

Notes On Failure – As We Start Pilgriming

I don’t want to fail at this. It’s funny, I think I have reached a place in my life, through experience as well as through elements of privilege (money and health, etc) where the outside world is not what challenges me any more. It’s all inside We’ve chosen our first...

read more

Subscribe To Our Wandering Email Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest updates, pictures, stories, and random thoughts from a couple of shepherds on a pilgrimage to nowhere.

Cheers! Clink.