A few News Items

A few random news items:

Mike and Jen are moving! After a decade or so in Birmingham, Mike has taken a position with a big insurance company in Lynchburg, Va., and they'll be moving over the course of the summer. Mike is an actuary--which means he manipulates numbers in a way that somehow ends up in the creation of insurance products. Really geeky stuff. As much as they love Birmingham, Mike says that the deal was just too good to pass up. Teri and I will miss them, but we'll really miss having our neice and nephew close at hand.

Thanks to Kathy who submitted a couple of links on packing techniques. You can find them added to the list on the right side of this blog. If you come across any links you think might be fun or useful, please pass them on.

On the subject of links, if you haven't looked at the YouTube links that top the list, what are you waiting for? They link to two short (less than 10 minute) and wonderful videos that will give you an idea of what's in store for us.

Last thing on links: Check out the official France tourism website. If you poke around you'll find a link to order brochures for free or close to it. I ordered a couple of the brochures and just received a 2008 France Guide (it's about 100 pages in a glossy magazine format) and we also received a nice map of Paris.

Colleen is planning her work with a special needs children's camp that she supports every year. The camp takes place in June, so she wanted to know exactly when we'll be going on our Marjorie trip. Here's what I told her:

I can't give you exact dates yet because I can't book the flights yet--you have to be something like 300 days out to do that. The only thing I'm positive of is that we get on the boat on June 14th and we get off the boat on June 20th. My idea is to have three days in Paris before we get on the boat and have the boat guys take us directly to the airport to return home. But if airfares are crazy lower one day earlier or one day later on either end or the timing doesn't make sense for them to dump us at the airport for the flight home, I might shuffle things up a bit. But our days on the barge are set and aren't going to change So . . . TENTATIVELY . . . you're looking at leaving the Birmingham around noon on June 10th and landing back in Birmingham around 10 p.m. on the 20th. I'm giving you these dates based on what I want to do and when international flights usually leave for Paris from the US and when they usually get back. Flights to Paris usually leave around 5 p.m. from Atlanta or Houston or New York and arrive in Paris around 7:30 a.m. the next day. On the return side they usually leave early to mid-afternoon and get to the US about an hour or two after they take off (with all the time zone changes). To be safe, I'd block out a window between June 9th and 24th, 2009.

Become an author! Don't forget that you can comment on any item in the blog at the bottom of each post and I've set this thing up so that any of you can create your own posts on the blog. Feel free to step up and author a post any time you like on any subject related to France or travel or whatever.

Hey gang, our group needs a name and I'm wide open to suggestions! You're a creative group. How about some ideas?

Finally, and this really has nothing to do with the trip, but my garden is starting to produce veggies like crazy, and I wanted to brag a little. We've already had the first green peppers, squash, zucchini, green beans and yellow squash. And tonight we'll eat the very first of about a bazillion tomatoes on my vines. I'm a week or so away from picking the first eggplant. My peach tree is pretty much a bust this year (the tree dropped almost all of its fruit not long after it formed this spring), but we'll be picking blackberries, blueberries and figs in the next few weeks.

It's weird how much better fruits and veggies taste when they come from your own garden. Some of it is psychological, I'm sure, but most of it is that truly fresh and ripe veggies just taste better.

I'm sure a lot of what we'll eat on our trip will be acquired at street markets like this one. Every village and town in France has at least one market day every week, and they're a lot of fun to visit. Also, since much of this produce is grown locally, I guarantee it will taste so much better than veggies that have been trucked from hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Jeff is on the way home!

As I write this, Jeff Erwin, our travel companion and official head of security, is making his way home from Iraq! He's already out of the country and somewhere between there and here right now. He'll be landing in Montgomery sometime Sunday. Now there's a Memorial Day to remember for Cathleen, who is no doubt getting very, very excited right about now!

Jeff reports that it has been "without a doubt a life changing and very rewarding tour." I can't wait to pop a cold one with him as we cruise the lake on his pontoon yacht and find out what he means by that. There will be a "welcome home" party for Jeff in mid-June. I guess Cathleen wants him all to herself until then.

He's going to hear this a lot, I suppose, but I want to thank our good friend for his service to our country. I'm proud of him and so happy to know that he's coming back to us safe and sound having done his duty and served with distinction.

To that end, I do want to share two pictures of our warrior in action in Iraq. Seems like the boys at the air base built a little golf course to pass the time when they had a few down moments. Here's a shot of Jeff teeing off.

The second shot shows Jeff with his foursome at the "pro shop". It's just like any other golf outing except for the bulletproof vests and sidearms that pass for fashion in Iraq. Oh and there's no beer waiting for them at the 19th hole after completing this course.

Here's what Jeff had to say about his golf experience: "We had a little break in the action this last Sunday and the company grade officers put together a little golf tournament. We had about 30 or so teams competing. It was a 4 person alternating shot same ball rule. Team Comm tied for 3rd place with a 28 (9 holes) with the tie breaker being a closest to the pin tee shot. We were beat by about 6 feet. It was with out a doubt the most fun I’ve had here at the FOB. The secret to the 28 was the string rule. You could buy up to 15 feet of string and use what ever you need on a hole to complete it and that shot did not count. So using a little math we thought instead of using a lot only once or twice we used it on short putts on 8 of the 9 holes cutting 8 strokes. As you can see from the picture why the PGA has sanctioned the links at Kirkuk the most dangerous golf course in the world. It is located at our ammo dump which was the Iraqi ammo dump before the hostile takeover. There was a huge amount of ordnance cleared to make room for the course."

Welcome home Jeff! Your safe return is an answer to many, many prayers. See you soon buddy.

Fashion Statement

Since, eight of the 11 of you have responded to the poll, so I know you're out there.

In the next few days Teri is going to add a post for the ladies on her thoughts on what to wear and what to pack based on conversations she's had with several of you. I thought I'd beat her to the punch and start with a few thoughts of my own.

First of all, don't worry about us blending in--we won't. A group of eleven Americans will stick out like sore thumbs wherever we go. Even when we break off and go in smaller groups the French will know that we're not "locals" right away.

French people, especially French women, are born with an innate fashion sense that eludes most Americans. But even if we can't capture that "look", they do appreciate any effort when we try to look something more than slovenly. You'll find that the same ethic will hold true when you make your sad little attempts to speak French to the natives.

On this particular trip, I'm sure we'll be casual most of the time, but there will be times, particularly in the evenings when we'll want to be a little snazzier than normal. I have a feeling that we may eat at one or two fancy schmancy restaurants on the trip. That means that the guys should probably bring a jacket and tie for those few occasions. The rest of the time, I'm sure we'll be casual. I'll leave it to Teri to advise the ladies.

As far as packing goes. Here are my tips based on many years of both business and leisure travel.

1. This isn't my original thought, but it really rings true. Bring twice as much money and half as many clothes as you were planning on and you'll be fine. Even if you run out of clothes, I promise that there will be a laundromat somewhere along the way. There always is. Be brave and pack light.


2. Remember that if you can get it here, you can find the equivalent item there. One time Teri and I were in Italy for several days without our luggage (thank you Delta) and we survived just fine after a quick trip to an Italian department store and drug store. I have to admi that little ordeal was harder on Teri than on me.


3. I also learned the hard way on that trip to Italy that it makes a whole lot of sense to carry on a change of comfortable clothes (or at least a fresh change of socks and underwear) and the bare minimum "necessities" to keep you happy while you wait for your lost luggage to appear.


4. Leave room in your suitcase or bring an empty suitcase since you're likely to bring back more than you left with. Rule 2 also applies in this case. Teri and I have bought suitcases twice on trips to cart home our treasures.


5. Make a packing checklist. I do this every time. I have one that I use over and over and adapt for the type of trip I'm taking (Vietnam for two weeks, Spain for one week, whatever). If you want a copy of my checklist, let me know and I'll share it with you.


6. Check the weather. The 10 day forecast for Paris shows highs in the mid-to-upper 70s and lows in the 50s with a 60% chance of rain on three of those days. When we get to June 10th (exactly a year out), I'll check again. A lightweight anorak is one of the best things you can pack. Teri and I bought anoraks at Old Navy for just a few bucks at least 10 years ago and they have served us well many, many times. I always say that there's no such thing as bad weather, only unprepared tourists. It has been my experience that if feels cooler in France than at home, so pack accordingly. You may even want to pack a light sweater for the evenings on deck.


7. I always photocopy the front and back of our credit cards (the back has the emergency phone number to call) and the front page of our passports "just in case" and we keep it somewhere separate from where we keep the passports and credit cards. We've never had to use this, but if your passport is lost or stolen, having a photocopy will make it much easier to get a replacement from the American embassy.


8. Since there's going to be 11 of us, there's no point in everyone bringing the exact same travel guides--we can share. I'm sure Steve and I will be bringing the Frommer's guide (our company publishes that one, so we get it for free). I also highly recommend Rick Steve's guides and the D&K guides (they're the beautiful visual ones). Let's talk about who is bringing which guides.

Okay those are my thoughts. What are yours?

Next time: Are the French rude?

The adventure begins . . .

Hi fellow travelers,

Welcome to our adventure. Can you believe that our little excursion together is less than 13 months away? But, I've learned from previous travels, that a whole lot of the fun is in the dreaming and scheming.

Since it's almost certain that there won't come a time in advance of our trip when all of us are able to gather as an entire group, I've decided to set up a blog where we can plan together, dream together, and generally have a little fun. I'll also use this spot to give you information about things like flight arrangements/changes, hotel information, etc.

Let's kick this thing off with a bit of low impact blogging. I don't want to frighten you away too soon. So, how about responding to the little poll on the right side of the screen? Oh, and feel free to peruse my profile for grins and giggles.

Next time, we'll kick it up a notch and ask you to blog-in with a brief autobiography to share with the others in the group.

Hank