Category: Travel

Blind at the Beach

My family and I were at the public beach in Panama City. I was on an inflatable raft and had made my way out to a sandbar. While I was there, I saw my mom come out to the sandbar too. I thought it was odd that she was there without an inflatable raft. Any other time I had seen here on the sandbar, she was on a raft. As she approached I shouted to her saying “How did you get out here?” She seemed confused and didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. She asked what I said as she got closer. I asked the question again and she replied that she swam out there. That’s when I realized that this was not my mom. It didn’t sound like her. I am very nearsighted and didn’t have any glasses. But as she got closer I realized that she didn’t really look that much like my mom. She was nice lady and I ended up talking to her for a while but I would never have said anything to her if I knew it was someone else.

Florida Travel Vacation

First Florida Vacation

My sister and I were both in elementary school when we took our first Florida vacation. I’m not sure how old we were. Panama City was our destination. We packed the family station wagon with a tent and traveled all day. I’m not sure how early we started our trip and I think we got lost on the way there, but it was very late and we had not arrived. Everyone in the car had fallen asleep except for my dad and he finally got to a point where he could not stay awake any longer. He finally pulled the car over to the side of the road not really knowing where we were.

Kids Travel Vacation

Highland Manor Winery

Our family was on vacation visiting an area of Middle Tennessee where we lived for about three years. This was about a year or two after we had moved back to West Tennessee and our kids were still really young. At the time our youngest daughter, Mary, was probably about 4 years old. When we lived in that area, we had discovered a winery called Highland Manor. It is the oldest winery in Tennessee. We found a couple of their wines that we really liked and planned to stop there any time we were in the area.

China Travel

Chinese Airport Security

Back in 2006, I was traveling for business in China. I had been in a city called Xiamen for a week and was traveling back to Hong Kong before coming back to the US. This was one of the last legs of a two week trip through Asia. I had gone through several different security checks during the trip. One of the things that was different from security in the US is that everyone was screened with the wand style metal detectors. They would also hold these wands against your body as they moved it up and down your body. This would be done to everyone regardless of age. It was also done in addition to going through a walk-through metal detector. In the US, you would probably get an apology from the security person if they even touched you with the wand. In China, it was the way things were done.

Restaurants Travel

Eating At Subway

I have a cousin that is several years younger than me. He was probably a pre-teen when my wife and moved back to our hometown. My wife was the news editor for the county’s weekly newspaper and covered everything including wrecks, fires, government meetings and sports. We would go to most of the high school basketball games. My cousin enjoyed basketball and we invited to go with us to one of the games in a nearby town. Our plan was to leave early enough to eat somewhere in the town where the game was being played.

Restaurants Travel

Eating With My Family After The Show

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date February 10, 2017
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In my previous post, I talked about a recent trip to see Gilbert Gottfried in Nashville. I didn’t mention that my wife and kids went with me to this show. Because my youngest daughter was traveling back to school after the show, we were staying in Nashville for the evening. We decided to grab a bite to eat after the show. I had seen a Shoney’s restaurant near our hotel and we decided to eat there.

Travel

Meeting Gilbert Gottfried

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date February 4, 2017
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For several years now I have listened to podcasts. Late in 2015, I started listening to Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast. I would highly recommend this show to anyone interested in old show business stories but isn’t offended by off-color language and humor. Any of my travel time in 2016 that I usually devote to listening to podcasts was devoted to going back and checking out every episode that has been released. I started out by listening to the first episode and continued in chronological order. I have become a big Gilbert Gottfried fan and as soon as I found out he would be playing at a club in Nashville in January of 2107, I knew I would have to go.

Christmas Travel

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date December 15, 2016
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In my previous blog post, I talked about Christmas traditions. I mentioned going to my grandfather’s house on Christmas Eve. I didn’t make it to his house for this event the last year he was alive. It wasn’t for lack of trying.

Travel

Public Restrooms Are Experiments In Technology And Organization

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date April 28, 2016
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Several years ago, I was travelling for business and I didn’t feel very good. I was driving back home and was in the car by myself. I think I had eaten something during the trip that did not sit well with my stomach. I didn’t really feel sick. I wasn’t having to make any emergency stops on the road either. But there was a point where I needed to pull over for a restroom break. I pulled over at an exit that had one convenience store. The store looked like it had been there for some time. The store was old enough that the doors to the restrooms where on the outside of the store. I was thankful that I didn’t have to go inside the store to get a key for the men’s room.

Travel Vietnam

Feeling Refreshed in Vietnam

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date September 24, 2015
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We spent most of the last day of my recent trip to Vietnam sightseeing. We were in Ho Chi Minh City which was formerly Saigon. We were going to spend time in the downtown area checking out museums and looking at historic areas. Before we left our hotel, one of our hosts told us what he usually does when he has a flight later in the day like the one we had. He would leave his luggage at the hotel with the concierge and return a couple of hours before his flight left. He would then go to the spa at the hotel for a shower to get refreshed from a day out in the city. Since we were in a tropical zone during the rainy season where there was extremely high humidity, this sounded like a good idea. The night we had arrived in Vietnam, the humidity was smothering at 11 in the evening when we exited the airport. It didn’t get much better any time we were there except immediately after a rainstorm. A shower should be refreshing alternative to just getting on the plane like I normally do during international travel.