Guest Patrol

Original Medicare may or not cover you if you have an emergency while traveling. Before you travel in or outside the U.S. it’s important to learn how you are covered.

As a member of a generation commonly referred to as a “Baby Boomer,” I have grown up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time. Things might have been tough at different stages in my life but I had faith. With a bit of hard work and determination, payday would eventually come in the form of being able to travel and see the world for myself. It seems I am not the only one with these dreams because according to industry sources, Baby Boomers spend $157 billion each year on travel. With children educated, mortgages nearly paid off and retirement looming on the horizon, we are cashed up and have travel dreams – “our bucket list”- to fulfill.

What exactly is a heurigen? It’s Austria’s answer to a beer garden - only with wine. A heurigen is one of the best places to sample regional wines and delicious simple home-made cuisine and true “Gemütlichkeit ” - warmth and coziness. Heuriger means “this year” and heurigens began when Emperor Joseph II allowed vintners to sell their new wine directly to customers without any taxes. Families set up tables in their vineyards, gardens and cellars, and hung a wreath made of straw or evergreens as a signal that they were open and ready to serve their family wines.

As people head to the airports and beaches for summer vacation, they’ll be online and connected like never before. For good or ill, the explosion in smartphones and other devices means that the summer vacation isn’t as disconnected as it once was.

Susie and Beau have new friends in South Florida - Miss Roxie, a blond tea cup Yorkie and her long time companion Miss April Kirkwood. They are bringing new insights to the Pet Patrol.

Hello, I’m Lynn Cahoon, author of The Tourist Trap Mysteries and a frequent solo traveler.  My husband, you’ll hear me call him the cowboy on my posts, doesn’t love traveling as much as I do, so he minds the fort while I wander. 

At any rate, the official Launch of “Blackberry Pie Murder” was at Powell’s Cedar Creek Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon. This is a really cool bookstore and… can you say a really big bookstore? It is almost 3,500 square feet of pure delight: filled with half-a-MILLION books and Book accessories, and if that weren’t enough, many other strange and wonderful things that you never KNEW that you needed, but for which you have been desperately searching for YEARS.

Yeeeeehaw!

Austin, Texas-    What can you say about a town that has a Nightclub sign stating: “3 Floors, 2 Patios, Fireplace, COME DRINK”, and another on a deserted parking lot wall proclaiming, “Music saved my Black-Hearted Soul”? The latter was adorned with a graphic of Joan Jett – she of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts fame (the maiden faire who starred in oh-so-many of my adolescent, late-night fantasies).

There are certainly not many times in life, if ever, that you are looking forward to taking yourself to jail.  But in this case, that is exactly what a happy group of 5 did on a beautiful Sunday in August.  After many, many, many, weekends of rain, Rod, Kathy, Chuck, Chris, and Jeff gathered for a long and beautiful motorcycle ride to a small Brandenburg, KY, jailhouse.

Blog #2 : The Pre Launch Party

(Yes, I know… I know, this should have been the first blog I wrote for BoomerTravelPatrol.com; but hey… nobody said I was the writer in the family)

Anyway, here we go!

Held at the beautiful “Grand Ballroom” at the Canoga Park Elks Lodge # 2190 in Canoga Park Ca, this preview party was just way too much fun. A very homey and friendly small-town feel meet and great, the party was the perfect kick-off for the “Blackberry Pie Murder”- the #17 in the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series- for Hannah Swensen, (Joanne Fluke’s cookie-baking, coffee-shop-owning, murder-solving title character) and all of her “Hannah-Maniacs” and “Fans O’ Hannah” from all over the country.

“One” should, (and by “One”, I mean John Fluke - as in John Fluke should… Strike that… I mean John Fluke REALLY should) have learned by now to be careful what “One” wishes for; especially, when said Authors’ latest book in her Cozy Mystery series (from the beloved Hannah Swensen Mysteries series,) entitled “BlackBerry Pie Murder”, has just hit #7 on the New York Times Best-Seller list - with a bullet- and she gets it in her head to go on a 21 city North American tour, dragging “One” with her!

While on a family emergency trip to Beaumont, Texas, we had the fortune of finding the Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen which was at the same exit as our hotel.  Pappadeaux’s is a small chain based out of Houston, Texas.  The restaurant concept was founded by the Pappas brothers who have created a group of different small restaurant chains that serve seafood, Italian cuisine, Mexican cuisine, steaks, BBQ and burgers. They had their start in Houston in 1967 with the opening of The Brisket House in Houston.

For my birthday this November I asked my husband for a trip to Niagara Falls, Canada.  Although we’ve traveled extensively during our married life, have lived in 8 states, we’d never been to the falls.  We enjoy driving because we can take our time and think it’s a fun way to learn about our country.  So, even though we could have driven the 600 plus miles in one day, we stopped overnight in Cleveland, Ohio.  

“Kiawah should have been a poem,” someone wrote years ago, and how true those words are. Our first trip to Kiawah, May 1980, came about because of a friend’s recommendation. “What a funny name,” I said. He explained, “It’s named for the Indian tribe that lived there during the 1600s. In 1699, a so-called pirate named George Raynor was granted the land and after that, the island was handed down through two different families for the next 250 years. It was purchased again in 1951 then, sold to a real estate developer. You won’t believe how beautiful it is,” he promised.

Home Exchanging or Home Swapping is when you agree to swap homes and often cars, with someone; you stay in their home and they stay in yours, and no money changes hands. 

We can't cover everything, but with your help we can certainly try. Our latest guest patrol contributors are Jeff Unger who will be covering motorcycle travel and Sandy Gladfelter, a widely published author.

My Grandpa Cliff used to tease my Grandma with one particular phrase and this one a real gem from Minnesota farm country, that he enjoyed sharing with folks when he was mildly amused by something my Grandma had done or said and he was trying to tease her. He would say, “I suppose, she’s just a Few Clowns short of a Circus”.

In 2005 I had the unique opportunity to travel to the nation of Ghana in West Africa. I had been invited by my good friend and colleague, Dr. Godfried Williams, to be the keynote speaker at an information technology conference in the capital city of Accra. The conference was the 1^st International Conference on Advances in Information and Communication Engineering held in August 2005 at the behest of the Ghanaian government. My topic was “Bridging the Digital Divide:  Linking and Closing the Gap between Advanced and Developing Economies.”

Rod, Kathy, Charlie, Patsy, Chuck, and Jeff enjoyed a perfect (beyond perfect actually) October day driving through the southern Indiana countryside to the past hangouts of the Chicago Mobs, Presidents, Actors, Actresses, and the wealthy.  The weather was unseasonably warm, starting in the upper 60’s and ending, believe it or not, over 90 degrees.  There wasn’t a cloud in sight. 

A great crowd gathered for the anticipated ride to Elk Creek Winery.  Rod, Kathy, Chuck, Chris, Kyle, and Jeff all met at Thornton’s on a beautiful day with expectations of a nice ride.  It had been a while since so many had gathered and while everyone was anxious to get rolling it was hard to limit the catch-up conversations.  After more than a few minutes of chatting the group headed out on what turned out to be a spectacular day.

According to AAA, 34.8 million travelers will journey at least 50 miles from home this upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend. Prolonged sitting on long flights and car rides can lead to the development of blood clots in the lower legs, which cause spider and varicose veins. Being proactive is always better than treating a problem after it has already happened. Here are some tips to help prevent the problems in the first place: 

This was my opportunity NOT to see another tourist for the next four hours! The sun was low in the eastern sky and all I could hear was the clip-clop of my horse’s feet, as I rode along the dusty tracks on the outskirts of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Not many tourists equate riding horses in Asia to their typical holiday pleasure, but for me, after 2 days of conquering the temples of Angkor it was the perfect way to connect with the rural people of Cambodia - people who are just like me:  farmers. Horse riding is also a very quiet experience, a time when it is easy to gather thoughts and take in the sights, sounds and smells.

Being on the 19^th (Penthouse) floor; the water seems hotter, the maid service faster and even the soap seems frothier than the norm. After traveling to the hotel in style via Media Escort, we were treated to express check- in and rapidly whisked up to our rooms, where the management had laid out a welcoming spread of cheese, crackers and Willamette Valley Pinot Gris for our favorite author-who also happens to be my mom- Joanne Fluke. 

It’s been said that the number one leisure activity for the baby boom generation is travel, and, being a boomer, I can attest to the allure that travel holds.  Journeying is invigorating, fun, relaxing, and romantic and it can bring history alive in a way nothing else does.