Guest Patrol

In March, I had the amazing opportunity to attend a business retreat with Virgin Mobile & Airlines founder Richard Branson on his private island in the Caribbean, Necker Island. At the retreat, the entrepreneur attendees shared valuable business lessons and made strong connections through our relevant career and life experience. A genuine connection that I made was with my roommate, Etienne Pretorius, a native of South Africa. Our relationship would lead me to an amazing journey to South Africa.

No one has ever explained to me why the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end when I listen to a choir in full voice, but, what I do know is that it’s a ‘good to be alive’ feeling all the same.

So, imagine combining the resounding sounds of 70 choirs of all ages and many nationalities with the magisterial natural beauty of Cornwall, the UK’s westernmost county. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? 

So best book your flights and tickets and head for the 2015 Cornwall International Male Voice Choral Festival.

When’s the last time you got lost? I mean truly let go from the day-to-day grind and unable to be located from the contemporary chaos? In the never-ending, take-no-prisoners, 24/7 plugged in, forever-online world we live in, when is the last time you stopped to enjoy the actual world around you? Honestly?  When was the last time you appreciated life’s simple outdoor pleasures like jumping in a lake in the summer heat, inhaling the cool mountain air, feeling the salty ocean mist hit your face, gazing up at the stars on a still night, or feeling the wind hit your face on the Great Plains? It’s time to stop staring down the proverbial barrel of your computer screen and put a few miles in the rear-view. Work will always be there, it's time to make some memories and enjoy what life has to offer outside of the status quo.  

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.”

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”.

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.

In order to enjoy traveling, we need to stay fit and healthy, so Peggy Buchanan from Santa Barbara, California keeps us on track during Healthy Aging Month.

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. 

A system for reducing your cell phone charges while traveling in Europe.

“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.

A few years ago, I realized that purely being a tourist had lost its appeal for me. I wanted more out of my travels; where I could ‘give back’ to the country I was visiting.  I had a dormant desire to connect with people at a grass roots level and contribute in some way to help those in the disadvantaged countries I often travel.

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.  

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.

Southern states are popular retirement destinations for active adults, but traveling to the colder-weather states can add some adventure to the winter months. Here are our picks for must-see travels this winter. 

“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!

The potato has moved from the side of the plate to its center.  Potatopia, a restaurant that exalts the humble potato, adds a fresh, new option to Manhattan’s dining scene.  This potato-centric concept launched in 2011 when founder Allen Dikker opened the restaurant’s first outpost in Edison, New Jersey, offers a customizable menu featuring nine different potato styles, premium toppings and house-made sauces.

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.

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.

Our friends at 55places.com will be sharing Retirement Communities with us in the coming months. This month, we will be exploring Florida. Isn't it great to be a Boomer?

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984, Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal, offers some of the best wildlife viewing in Asia. The park, which is situated approximately 150km southwest of Kathmandu, is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, Sloth Bear, Clouded Leopard, Striped Hyena, One-Horned Indian Rhino, wild boar, deer, monkey, Gharial (crocodile), over 450 species of birdlife and can all been seen in their natural habitat. 

Personal safety experts share tips that can help protect stressed out travelers.

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).

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.

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.