Category Archives: Travel

New York: Buildings

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Ammi Simon: Tour Guide

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Next week I’ll be in New York for a few days. I don’t have much planned. Just walking around, soaking up the atmosphere. I’ve hired a guide for my first day. Ammiel has lived in New York City since 1960. He attended The High School of Music and Art and has performed as an actor and musician at Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall. I found him on ToursbyLocals.com. Ammi has promised to show me the New York that only New Yorkers see.

Bisbee, Arizona. Mayberry on Acid

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I left Tucson bright and early Sunday morning and headed south for Bisbee, AZ, home of Bisbo Nian (not his real name) and his charming partner Taylor. I “met” Bisbo on Google+. Like me, he’s a J-Walk Ranger (see previous post) and lives in Bisbee, AZ, a couple of hours south of Tucson. Southern Arizona is spectacularly beautiful county. Wide, sweeping vistas punctuated with mountains that change color throughout the day.

southern-arizona
Bisbee is a old mining town, retrofitted with aging hippies, artists and assorted free spirits. (The Wikipedia entry will give you a better feel for the place than I can.)

When I called Bisbo to let him know I’d arrived,he was at the local airport trying to get his vintage biplane — and himself– air-worthy. He’s a pilot for Southwest Airlines but hadn’t flown his biplane for a while and wanted to refresh his memory on the thing before taking me up for tour of Bisbee. Fortunately the winds were just gusty enough to keep that from happening.

Some local wag once described Bisbee as “Mayberry On Acid” which perfectly captures the charm of the place. I felt like I was with Sheriff Taylor on our walking tour. Bisbo seemed to know everyone and everyone knew him. It was all I could do not to whistle that song.
Bisbo-Taylor

Bisbo’s Reason for Living, Taylor, joined us and we had lunch at a great vegan restaurant. After lunch Bisbo showed me one big-ass hole in the ground…
hole
…and then we piled back into his VW microbus and headed for the border where I got to see The Fence. I won’t get all political here but I agree with Bisbo and Taylor that the wall is a stupid idea on lots of levels.
fence
Then it was back to Bisbee for a tour of B & T’s charming home where I met their two cats, saw some of Taylor’s paintings and art, and Bisbo’s handiwork with power tools (They’re remodeling their home). Very impressive.

We finished the day back at the Copper Queen Hotel (where I was staying) for a musical jam session (Bisbo plays the banjo).

The trip back to Phoenix the next morning included a breathtaking sunrise over the mountains (a photo wouldn’t have done it justice).

I don’t usually take trips that include renting a car ’cause I’m not fond of long road trips. But the trip to Bisbee was worth it. And all the more so thanks to the hospitality of Bisbo and Taylor. Here’s a short video montage of my visit.

Walkin’ the J-Walk

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The first mission of the 2014 Soldier of Fortune Tour took us to sunny Arizona. It was 32 degrees and snowing when I left St. Louis… 90 when we landed in Phoenix where I rented a car and headed for Tucson to meet John Walkenbach (known to one and all as J-Walk).

jWalk-Steve

I first heard of John Walkenbach some years ago when I clicked a link somewhere and found myself on the J-Walk Blog. I was immediately hooked. John was a prolific blogger with a taste for the bizarre. And always funny. And he had a huge following.

I didn’t know much about John until I spotted him on Google+ shortly after that service launched. There, too, he posted frequently and got lots of comments. Apparently many of the readers of his blog had followed him to Google+ and I found myself adding people from his circles to mine.

After I retired (12/31/12) and started talking about taking some trips, John invited me to visit him. Last Friday I hopped on a plane and flew to Phoenix, rented a car, and headed for Tucson. (It was 30 degrees and snowing when I left St. Louis and 90 when I got to Arizona) The scenery on the drive to John’s home was pretty exotic for a boy from the midwest.

cactus

I knew he and his partner Pamn had nice digs from photos John had shared but I fear I went a little Gomer Pyle as they showed me around. I leave it to John to share more, except to say there were guitars and banjos everywhere you looked. Gonna be a hell of a yard sale when John goes to that big hoedown in the sky. The view from their patio (?) was… well, it was a goddamn vista is what it was.

sunset

John took me to a great vegetarian restaurant for lunch, followed by a jam session with some of his old time music pals.

Back at Rancho Walkenbach, Pamn had prepared the best vegetarian meal I have ever eaten.

John let me ask endless questions about his past; how he started writing books; his music… I think he has a PhD in Experimental Psychology! That can’t be right.

It was a great day spent with two interesting people who get a gold star for hospitality.

San Francisco Weekend

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This might be the best trip I ever took. Three days in San Francisco. Mostly in the North Beach section where I stayed in a wonderful B&B. My pal Jamie Nelson (a native) showed me around the first day and I just drifted around after that. I had been to SF before but never got far from downtown or the tourist spots. This trip was mostly spent in the neighborhood.

San Francisco

I think I’ve finally learned how to travel (for me): No more than 3 days on the ground; two days for getting there and back; no flight longer than 3 hours.

The race to build a better business class

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Probably my heightened awareness, but I’m seeing stories like this every time I log on. Airlines are racing to find a way to make business class seats more appealing. I found this NYT story especially interesting (and informative).

Lufthansa has a new business-class seat that can be yours for about $5,000 if you are traveling round trip from Frankfurt to New York. (Yeah, I think I’d pay that assuming I have the money)

Why so expensive? The story does a good job of explaining that, including:

“Each seat is hand-made and cost as much as a luxury car to produce. Business. First Class seats can cost between $250K and $500K.”