Perseverance and a Sense of Humor

2 March 2024

The best-laid plans of women travelers can always awry. Or, as one lady described it: shit happens.

I appreciated having a Leap Year in 2024. It gave me an extra day in February. Flying to Delhi, I would be in transit for what amounted to 3 days. Flights were booked, bag packed, and I felt ready to depart for India.

(more…)

Musings From My Flight Deck

October 2022

I fly through Frankfurt at least a couple times a year. I like it less and less. Landing Turkish Airways from Istanbul, we deplaned from the rear. Not good when I am seated in row 5. Why? The Police are doing a Passport check at the ramp. Normal procedure for Istanbul arrivals? Seems to be.

Ride a bus to terminal and transfer to Z gates. More security. What a mess. Long lines and cranky workers. I have a backpack, I take liquids out, my phone out. Not good enough.

(more…)

Clearing Customs in Covid

26 September 2021

Travel is muscle memory. At least it was.  Much has changed because of Covid. I can’t utilize all the little perks of travel that once made the experience faster, easier and more pleasant. However, as I wrote earlier, travel may not be as easy but all the protections and requirements put in place are definitely worth the effort. 

One no longer travels without: 

(more…)

Living in the Age Of Masks

15 September 2021

Training through Germany

I love the tradition of dining on the sidewalks and in plazas. Weather here is perfect for outside seating. Dining in the fresh air and surrounded by the ongoing activity of local life gives me time to ruminate and people watch. It is always a pleasant, passive pastime.

Masks are no longer just for Halloween.

(more…)

Just Getting There – Almost Post-Covid

8 September 2021

I have to admit travel planning is NOT what it used to be. And being a solo traveler, I might be getting too old for this worry. I am used to 50 years of getting on a plane and going wherever and whenever I wanted. I always knew my independent trips were numbered at some point, but Covid was not what I expected would be the fly in the ointment. Even less did I think the situation would be worsened because a gaggle of nationalistic fascist would threaten the freedoms of the United States of America.

(more…)

2020 COMBO SMACK FROM HELL

If the grand entrance of Covid-19 in the early weeks of 2020 didn’t prove Robert Burns correct, that “the best laid schemes o’mice an’ men often go awry,” I don’t know what would. Covid would initiate the longest expanse of nontravel I have experienced in decades. Being socially responsible and just NOT wanting to let something like a virus take me, I have remained home. My Travel Calendar has never been this blank. My computer has taken a beating but my genealogy research has soared.

(more…)