“After an eight year wait for the right moment (for her) and a couple of years (for me), the various intersecting pieces aligned: weather, wind, calendars, waiting list invitation. We were gonna ride in a hot air balloon! As we had long-since learned, this is a spur of the moment thing.”
“After some hot August days in Ljubljana, we drove our rental car northwest to the serious terrain of the Julian Alps. On the way, we passed through the iconic town of Bled. Virtually every tourist book includes photographs of Bled because it is one truly “must-see” place…”
“Slovenia: what a pleasant surprise! More than a decade ago, a writing professor waxed eloquent about Slovenia as being one of those special, quiet places in the world. It has been in my sights ever since, and the chance to go there finally came in August 2026… But where is Slovenia?”
“In a first-ever re-post of someone else’s blog, I offer this message from Iain Allen, proprietor of the adventure travel company Tropical Ice (Kenya). I have traveled with Iain on the Great Walk of Africa (he invented it), and in Japan and India, too. I reprint these sage words with his permission…”
“With the sky as my ceiling, I am happiest, because it means I am outdoors, immersed in the day. The air is fresh. I can hear the birdsong and frogs, feel the breeze, smell the earth. When the clouds are backdropped by blue—that’s my favorite. But honestly, even rainy days with their hovering drippy clouds are fine, too.”
“James O. Page was a true icon, a person who did more than anyone to ignite the modern emergency medical service (EMS). Even 22 years after his death, he persists in the hearts and minds of many in the emergency services, a legend who died too young.”
“What better way to recuperate from a rigorous 35-mile hike than a few days on a Greek island? We thought that sounded like a good plan… It was a pleasant ninety minutes through wooded, mountainous terrain downhill to the seaside city of Igoumenitsa. There, we boarded the Kerkyra ferry to the famous island of Corfu.”
“A random travel article came across my desk a while ago about hiking in Greece. Hmmm....I thought, isn’t Greece all about the islands? The article referred to the Vikos Gorge, said to be the deepest (in proportion to its width) in the world, and how the Zagori region in the Pindus mountains of northwestern Greece is untouristed and in pristine condition…”
March 19, 1995 — June 23, 2026
“The incomparable and much-loved Jake was humanely laid to rest on June 23, 2026. At age 31, we could see that the end was drawing near, but he had good days right up until the end. Maybe he somehow knew a “date with destiny” had been set for the next week, and decided to take himself out on his own terms…”
“In 2015, I had the good fortune to walk forty-two miles across the Peruvian landscape for six days... But I want to write about the food. It’s not often you encounter truly unique and interesting foods like quinoa and coca and guinea pigs. Peru has them all—plus chocolate and amazing coffee, for the record.”
“It was December 1973 when I first heard the term “Emergency Medical Technician.” In that moment, I snapped my fingers, pointed into the air and proclaimed, “THAT’s what I want to do.” It took until 1977 to be in one place long enough to earn that basic EMT certification… But as soon as I earned my EMT, I headed straight for the ambulance world.”
“Surely everyone is familiar with the beautiful exotic name of “Marrakech.” The word was cemented by musical history’s 1969 hit tune from Crosby, Stills & Nash, “Marrakesh Express.” I felt compelled to blast my fellow minibus passengers with that ode to the hippy trail the morning in February 2026 when we headed west over the Atlas mountains toward that fabled city…”
“After two splendid days in the desert, our journey around Morocco resumed… our merry band of travelers forged ahead to new adventures along the southeastern flanks of the Atlas Mountains.”
“The most captivating thing to anticipate about Morocco was that we’d be in the Sahara Desert. My sense of excitement exploded imagining seeing for real the iconic scenes of dunes, and camels, and their handlers out there. Finally: I would get there for myself! I intended to drink it all in, every last dry drop of it. “
“Flowers in bloom stop me in my tracks. They demand that I absorb myself in their uncomplicated beauty. Appreciating—really focusing on—these simple natural offerings is to me a worthy practice, a necessary if momentary pause on both good days and bad.”
“Our day in Fés, Morocco, barely scratched the surface of this ancient place… Located in hilly terrain northwest of the Atlas Mountain range, Fés was a natural stopover early in our circumnavigation of those beautiful mountains.”
“Oh, those Romans! They really got around the Mediterranean in ancient times. That included northern Morocco’s city of Volubilis (population 20,000)… Even before the Romans arrived, Volubilis was a thriving Berber (Amazigh) settlement… At one point, Volubilis served as the capital city of the Kingdom of Mauritania under King Juba II…”
“The name “Casablanca” is familiar nowadays, but the place actually started out as the ancient city of Anfa. When the Portuguese arrived in 1468 and blew Anfa to ruins and later built a military fortress there in 1515, they called the village that grew up around it "Casa Branca" (Portuguese for "white house)…”
“Seventeen days is too little time to make a person expert about a place, but it’s more than enough to have made me fall in love with this northwestern corner of continental Africa. That lyrical name — Morocco! — piqued my curiosity for decades… Our initial plans took several of us north from Casablanca for three days to the “blue city” of Chefchaouen”
“Tucked in the northeastern corner of Italy on terrain hotly contested in World War I and again in World War II, the Dolomite Mountains march gloriously southeast toward the Adriatic Sea. These mountains don’t jut so much as carve a serrated skyline with jagged knife-edged drama…”
