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

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...

The Retirement Road Less Traveled

We were talking to a friend the other day. She wants to retire, quit work and do other things. We talk at length of the ins and outs of life changes, what we want, what she wants, what it took for us, decisions, challenges, ups and downs, hopes and dreams. Options. We...

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.

Wanderlust Watch List – Americans Abroad

The greatest joy of traveling to foreign lands is affording yourself the opportunity to simply view and engage in different cultures, eat different foods, listen to different languages, stand out in a crowd, or do your best to fit in. That said, as glorious the...

Pilgrim Journal – Chamonix

Well, we are on our way. The road to Rome has officially - unofficially started in Chamonix, France. Why Chamonix? Well, we are starting our official Via Francigena pilgrim walk in Lausanne, Switzerland, and we didn’t want to take the trip from Spain to Lausanne all...

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.

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...

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...

Wino Journal

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

The Retirement Road Less Traveled

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...

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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.