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

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 Need A Personal User Agreement

Sadly, we seem to have become a society that can no longer communicate. We are stressed, angry, scared, and we are definitely polarized - about stupid stuff, too. It seems no one can have a conversation lasting longer than 3 minutes (or 4 response posts on any of the...

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...

Travel Blog – Travel is Work

Travel can sometimes feel like work. Vacation isn’t work, but travel sometimes can be. And it can be stressful and straining. Vacations are about relaxing and sitting, playing golf or tennis or maybe swimming in the ocean or sunning yourself on the beach. Travel...

Photo Journal – Croatia

A look back at 2 months living in Croatia

How To Wine and Cheese

The best way to demonstrate the beauty of wine and cheese is to invite some friends and throw a wine-and-cheese tasting. Now, most people do this all backwards. They read about mixing cheeses from cows, sheep and goats and adding a selection that ranges from soft to hard, new world to old and fresh to aged.

Bye America – We hardly knew ya

America, in its form today, really isn’t that old and, thus, much easier to explain the sudden and rapid movement backwards. Technologically advanced, connected, “socially tolerant” and legally protected multi-cultural, multi-gender, multi-race America really has only come about in the last generation.

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.

Wino Journal

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

Early Retirement Ideal vs Real

Early Retirement Ideal vs Real

What I want my days in pandemic-time self-imposed Mexican exile (Mexile?) to look like, versus what they actually end up being.

Leaving 55 in 2020

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...

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.

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
No substitutions, please.

No substitutions, please.

Hi.  Yes, I’m ready to order.  I’d like your double-cut pork chop with apple sauce, but instead of the braised cabbage, I’d like steamed broccoli.  And, rather than the shredded potatoes, may I have a house salad with ranch dressing on the side?...

read more
How To Wine and Cheese

How To Wine and Cheese

The best way to demonstrate the beauty of wine and cheese is to invite some friends and throw a wine-and-cheese tasting. Now, most people do this all backwards. They read about mixing cheeses from cows, sheep and goats and adding a selection that ranges from soft to hard, new world to old and fresh to aged.

read more

More Stories

Useless Travel Blog – Cabo San Lucas

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...

read more
I Fucking Hate Travel Blogging – A Disclaimer

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...

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.