Travel Tips

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…

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…

I hate these things…but they are better than the alternative

Travel Tip #41….Never ever (ever) let a ticket go to waste / and Travel Tip #53…Go to the travel clinic

Y’all remember I was supposed to go to Ghana last December? It was for a Minnesota college. I was going to photograph a student travel and study program there, but it was cancelled due to uncertainty about the Ebola situation in West Africa. So there was an unused ticket. Sitting in my desk drawer. Taunting…

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…

Travel Tip #62…Find the Babies

It’s spring. Warm breezes, new life, fresh beginnings and all that. Let’s not forget cute fuzzy critters. Go find them. Last Monday we stopped by a roadside stand in Western Wisconsin that was selling baby goats. Kids, I guess. It was the same Amish stand where we accidentally bought a bunny last spring. This time…

The falls on the Big Sioux River

Travel tip #138…think about it

Sometimes the whole world suddenly makes a little more sense. Like a few years back when I shot an assignment in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and I realized for the first time that it was named for the waterfalls. On the Big Sioux River. Well, of course. It’s not that I didn’t believe it before….

Travel tip #39…make a move

28 years ago I met Jen Beck. She played piano in a traveling show choir and I played trumpet. Two years ago I saw Jen again while passing through Dallas. She was on the tail end of a corporate life and planning to retire. She is a couple years younger than me. One year ago…