Thank You Mario! But Our Princess Is In Another Castle!

Today was fun. And the fact that I worried about that possibility made the joy infinitely more pure. When I woke my left knee was aching. This started sometime on Tuesday’s 17 mile hike, going downhill. If you haven’t hiked before, I should explain that the downhill sections are much harder on our knees. And […]

A Cheese Sandwich Is Terrible When You’re Thirsty

I wasn’t the only hiker on the trail today. Actually, I wasn’t yesterday either. The first half of yesterday I was alone, but for the second half there were two other hikers heading my direction. I passed them up and was left wondering what time they got to town, given that I barely made it […]

In The Place of Myth and Legend

The sign stood waiting to alert me, its letters spelling out its caution in 2 languages. “Warning! Flammable Area” This was at the bottom of the Mount Chimaera flame field. As I had started my morning on the opposite side of the mountain, I had entered the field from above, so the sign showed up […]

In Which I Don’t Recognize My Limitations

The driver pulled to the side of the road by an old faded sign with flaking paint. I pulled my backpack from the car and pointed, asking “that way?” Yes he said, that was the way. Then he pulled off and left me there alone as I shouldered my pack and started going. I signed […]

In Which I Have To Sit Down

I had to sit down for this one, and that’s something I rarely do in museums, even though I’ve been told that I should. But I was absolutely enraptured by the graceful, gossamer Statue of a Dancing Woman from Perge. She holds the plaited folds of her marble dress and lashes them about as the […]

Traveling In A Pandemic

The euphoria hit me after I passed the ID checkpoint and got clearance to enter security at JFK. The pace of my heartbeat quickened and my breathing paused. I was about to do something I haven’t been able to do since January. I was about to travel. I mean, really, seriously TRAVEL. I was about […]