Have Fun, Will Travel
As I write this, I am on a plane headed for Barcelona. Well, actually the first of three planes. A combination of flying out of Kansas City, economy, and destination will add up to the fact that from the time we boarded at KCI until touchdown in Spain, it will be eighteen hours.
I love to travel. Pretty much like everything about it, and the things that are a pain, I have no trouble dealing with. Security….fine, small seats…fine, screaming babies….sort of fine. I love hotels…and motels. Fancy ones, shabby ones, and everything in between. Just give me the most rudimentary gym, a bed, and a TV, and I am cool. Give me a suite, and a bathroom with a television built right into the mirror, hell even better.
I like exciting destinations like London or Venice or Maui, or places like Hot Springs, South Dakota, Mattoon, Illinois, or Valentine, Nebraska. I like the open road and the open sea, mountaintops and river valleys, or quaint little downtowns, even somewhat depressed ones.
Perhaps this is somewhat of a result of the fact that up through about thirty years of age, I traveled VERY little. We had a big family with young kids bunched closely together in age, making major excursions challenging logistically and financially. Growing up in New England, the extent of our wanderlust had to be trips to the beach, which was cool, but hardly actually traveling. We had a few nice years at the same cabin in New Hampshire, which was close to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, mornings at the lake, afternoons body surfing and building sand castles, which was lots of fun, but didn’t actually fit the description of a trip. The day that I left for college was the first time I ever set foot out of New England.
But the last twenty-five years or so, I have traveled extensively. Lots for business, some for pleasure, all a kick. For business, almost two straight decades at the Final Four, a few Super Bowls, two World Series, lots of training camps and spring trainings from Baseball City, Florida to River Falls, Wisconsin, to Surprise, Arizona, and a whole lot more.
There is almost all good to that. Travel work on the radio is long hours, but it is almost always at very nice hotels, and mostly in interesting cities. The Final Fours are a good test case for what should and shouldn’t be. If I was the head of the NCAA, it would be simple, a three-city rotation of San Antonio, New Orleans, and Indianapolis. Ditch Atlanta…big time, Dallas doesn’t care, Minneapolis is OK, Phoenix, not so much.
San Antonio and New Orleans are rather obvious, Indianapolis might surprise you. Of course, the main reason Indy got into the rotation is because the NCAA offices are there, but they really know how to do it. The city is ultra-condensed, convenient, you can pretty much walk everywhere, and there is more to do than you might think. They often have the Big 10 Tournament there, so everything runs seamlessly.
I mentioned the hotel gym. For a long, long time that was nice, but not a necessity. That’s because I was a daily runner until just a few years ago. That was so convenient, and a very easy way to discover any new community you arrived in. It came in especially handy during my seven years as the voice of UMKC basketball. The ‘Roos played in many smaller college towns, and a six, or seven-mile run could tell you what you needed to know to make your short stay pleasurable, or in the case of a burg like Valparaiso, Indiana, bearable. Let’s put it this way, the Walmart, and the morning run through the local cemetery, were the highlights there.
Running in New York City is one of my favorite things. I still always run there every day when I go, even though my knees and back disagree with it. I only ran in Central Park once, just to say I did it, because that is what most people do. Nope, I love running the sidewalks in and around Times Square. They are busy, but they are plenty wide, and dodging pedestrians is a gloriously fun game. I often scoff at fellow runners who stop at red lights. All you have to do is just always cross on the green light, and adjust from there. No stopping allowed.
One of my favorite trips was in 2010 when I covered the Ryder Cup. I only had one day’s work, and we created a ten-day trip around it. London, to Wales for the golf, Paris, and Venice. The last two stops produced the kind of goofy running stories that are fun to retell. In Paris on the final day of our stay there, I went out and decided on a different route than I had been taking, and summarily got lost. We were staying out away from the center city, near the landmark high point of Sacre Couer monument. I knew the way to our condo was a straight shot from the monument towards downtown, but I had to climb about a thousand steps to get high enough to get my bearings. I limped my way back just in time to rush to the airport to head for Venice.
Venice is likely my favorite place I have visited, although I could come up with a top ten easily. It is so unique with the canals, fine restaurants, galleries, and quaint shops. The main square is fantastic, interesting by day, vibrant by night. What isn’t unique are the courtyards that surround the many chapels. They are all actually quite cool, and feature bistros and other fun features. But they pretty much all look the same, so again, they presented a logistical running challenge.
I realized this the first day, so I decided to make sure and take the same route each time. Until, again, the final day when I decided to branch out, and again, a mistake. I kept going from one courtyard to the next, trying to find a landmark steeple, but I got Groundhog Day-ed by that. A saving different landmark did the trick again. I knew my way back “home” from the main square, so I headed there, and then back, about tripling the distance I intended to run.
My wife is a wonderful traveling companion. she loves the walking, exploring, and yes, purchasing, that goes along with an excursion. And she especially loves cuisine. I have a very good memory for almost everything, but I am a distant second to her in culinary reverie. She will often ask me if I remember the little breakfast place in North London, the “garbage salad” in Chicago, or the tapas spot in Puerto Vallarta. Unless there is another connection like me passing out from heat stroke at one spot in Puerto Vallarta, I just shake my head at the specific dining memory. One specific one I actually do remember was the same trip in Paris, when we literally walked all day around the city, and then enjoyed what seemed like the greatest ice cream on the planet. It likely was good, but perhaps the circumstance made the dish.
On this trip, I will have my own specific dining delight to look forward to, and it’s a mighty simple one. We are, after a few days in Barcelona, going back to the same area of Southern France that we spent time last year. It is in wine country, and is dotted by tiny villages with delightful small cafes. Lunch is basically my only meal, and I treasure it. Last year, one day I saw a fish soup listed on the menu, and ordered it. It came, and I was taken aback when I saw a bowlful of simple broth. No bits of shrimp or any other seafood visible. I dubiously tasted it. Best soup I have ever had. The next day in another village, I saw it listed again. I couldn’t believe it, but it was even better. The simplest pleasures can be illuminated by the fact that I am royally fired up for the simple soup.
I have experienced so many places and times that I have had the good fortune to enjoy on the road, that I don’t have a bucket list of things I feel I have to check. As a wildly avid golfer, I haven’t played in Scotland, and would love to, but if it never happens I won’t be disappointed. Australia sounds cool, twenty-five hours flying there doesn’t.
Maui was my fiftieth birthday present, and I would love to go back. London is one of my favorite cities in the world, and my daughter just completed college there, so multiple visits were enjoyed. We have good friends who allow us to access their condominium just off of Times Square, so we get to go often. The Broadway theater is one of my favorite things, and I have had the luxury of indulging in it more than I deserve. I covered the 2015 baseball playoffs in Toronto, a place I had only been for about 18 hours once before. I would like to go back. It is, with London, the most international city I have been in. I have heard that Quebec is really a great place to go.
I love the beach, and just about anything will work there, as long as there are waves to bodysurf. My knees now preclude skiing so while I very much enjoyed that back in the day, at least I know I did it. Asia, for whatever reason, doesn’t call my name. I’m pretty much good with letting Jayne make the call, and I know we will have a great time.
For sports, I think I would like to do the Ryder Cup again. It is in Italy in 2023, that sounds cool. I would love to do Wimbledon some time. Certainly a Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium watching Arsenal. Maybe a Grand Prix race. It’s all good.
And, of course, any time I can replicate the style of trip I took in driving to Black Hills in 2015 after radiation treatment, the template for my book “Leaving Cancer for the Circus” I am all in. I took that trip in solitude then, but my wife and I did a similar version in 2017. Same idea, no plan until the day of, no interstates, little towns and big vistas. Count me excited.
This trip is something new, Spain, and something now familiar, Southern France. I will take you along with me in several little blogs as I go. Big deals like Van Gogh art projected on cave walls, and little things like fish soup, and a glass of wine, as a chicken runs around gobbling in a tiny café.
Have fun, will travel