Destination

El Moro
The view from San Critobal
Worn stairs
More worn stairs
Don’t get caught outside the castle walls at dusk
Sometimes the cruise ship passengers help the composition
Ponce de Leon’s tomb
Worn stairs version 3.0
The entry to El Moro
Playing with light
Cannon balls
Dropped my water bottle from the tippy top of this ramp

Travel tip # 101…Find the old stuff

In my neighborhood, old things are from the 1960s. Anything more ancient than that has likely been abandoned, bulldozed, and built over. I’ve squinted over Kansas prairies to view the shallow depressions left by pioneer wagon trains. I’ve wandered New England cemeteries to find the oldest graves. I have roamed the back corners of the Badlands,…

Travel Tip #173…Eat

A guy’s gotta eat. I don’t mind traveling alone. In fact it often leads to interesting situations that wouldn’t happen if you were with a travel buddy. But every once in a while you wind up feeling like the weirdo by yourself in a restaurant while everybody else is hanging with their friends. On my…

Travel Tip #92…Look Down

How many photos of cobblestones can you take? Maybe just one more. In Cuba I was enamored with the cars. I couldn’t get enough of them, and when I thought maybe I had reached my fill, another beauty came around the corner. I don’t even like cars. When my son was 12, his friend could…

Rio Chagres
Green leafy things #1
There is a 1-way bridge into Gamboa
Motmot bird
Green leafy things #2
Mateo’s Gamboa B&B
Tamarin monkey
Bird
Leaf-cutter ants
Green leafy things #3
Dinner on the deck at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort
Agouti
Follow the yellow wood bridge
Another bird
Midwestern migratory photo guy (Photus clickious)

Travel Tip #64…Go Green

When I photograph nature, I like to stay close to it. If I wanted all the comforts of home, I would stay there. So when I had the choice to sleep in a big ol’ fancy lodge in Gamboa, Panama, or Mateo’s humble little B&B, it was an easy choice. Not to mention, I spent…

not a lot of extra room in the locks
big ol’ beefy tugs help steer the big ships toward the locks
fees for passage are partially determined by water displacement, so the ships all empty their ballast before passing through
large crowds gather to watch ships pass through the locks
towing locomotives actually pull ships through the locks
crews are currently widening the canal passage at Gamboa
cargo container ships
Panama built a new bridge over the canal a decade ago
if it were me, I’d feel a little intimidated
crew changing boat after delivering new sailors at Gamboa
gates open to let a ship pass through to the next stage at the Miraflores locks complex

Travel tip # 119…Get in the Zone

How’s your history? Here’s what I understand about the Panama Canal… Sometime in the early 1900s the US wanted to connect its Atlantic and Pacific fleets. At the time, Panama was a part of Columbia. So we asked them if we could dig a canal. They said no. We said “Pretty please?” and they said…

Travel tip #79…make pit stops

Life is…of course…about the journey. But sometimes life is about ticking off the friggin’ miles….driving fast over the flat and boring stuff and getting to the end goal with a few extra minutes to spare. Then again…when your travel buddy (who will go by the fictitious initials of KP) is not a fan of the…

Travel tip # 142…Jumpstart your season

Dear Branson, I’m sorry I said some snarky things last week. I was going through a rough patch…you see…I had just returned from a few days in…ummm…Branson. Oh dear…that didn’t come out right…I’m doing it again… What I meant to say is that when I left Minnesota, spring was making a reluctant appearance. The snow…

we called this guy BFC
who doesn’t love a wax museum?
…and John Wayne??
I didn’t go in…
…but I hummed the song while I shot the photo
I didn’t go in here, either
I feel like that’s a lot of words for a marquee
I did shop at the Classy Flea
this guy guards my kind of golf course
My kind of golf is popular in Branson
it was closed
the faded Kirby VanBurch is for sale
hats
this may be evidence of a mass exodus

Travel tip #79…Get Yer Kitsch On

I just came back from Branson. Missouri. Say it with your teeth gently clenched and just barely move your lips. “Muh-Zuhr-Uh. It’s fun. The list of places I don’t want to go on this earth is very short, but Branson has always placed high on it. My daughter’s show choir was scheduled to perform there…

Woodford Reserve
a bottle of the brown gold
making the mash
maturing bourbon
big copper cookers
barrels waiting to be racked
sample room
more at Woodford Reserve
Buffalo Trace
bars to keep the bourbon in
Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon
Buffal Trace’s 6 millionth barrel ages on the property in its own little warehouse
some of the selection at OKBB
Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar
Old Kentucky Bourbon Bar
OKBB in the historic streets of Covington

Travel tip #192…Mingle with spirits

In a sad twist of fate, I stopped drinking bourbon the day before visiting a historic distillery in Kentucky. In all honesty, I had only started the night before that. 90% of the world’s bourbon is produced in Kentucky. Aged at least four years in oak barrels, the distilled spirit can only earn its name…