What’s in store for us today?

I’ve joked about the T-shirt-iness of the downtown stretch of Estes Park. Surely, the shop owners have set up racks of Rocky Mountain-loving wear daring you to plunk down your 20 bucks and call it your own. What tourist town doesn’t? Truth be known, on the grand scale of Where I’ve Been, this destination for…

A whole lot of mentoring will be goin’ on

The members of the Syracuse Sunshine Rotary Club are getting fired up. It’s not the biggest organization going, this 20-or-so-member philanthropic club. But, oh, they have big dreams for a festival they’ve cooked up for Aug. 15 at Kellish Hill Farms in Manlius, just a bit to the southeast of the city. It’s a music…

Three-Day Quote Challenge: Harry Bosch

Knock-knock, said Susanne Valenti’s post. Who’s there, I replied. Why, it’s the Three-Day Quote Challenge … Or something like that. You can find the new blogger in the WordPress universe here. Orange you glad you nominated me, Susanne? In my second time through the quote game, I decided to go with words uttered in novels…

Feeling at home in the blue cottage

First-timers that we were, my dear wife Karen, daughter Elisabeth, boyfriend George Three and I did not know what to expect out of anything in Estes Park. When we pulled the rented SUV into the short, weed-filled driveway of the blue cottage with the white 330 on Virginia Drive a little before check-in time that…

Three-Day Quote Challenge: Leo King

My call of action for the Three-Day Quote Challenge came from Susanne Valenti. Make sure to check out the new blogger on the WordPress block. Thank you, Susanne. I’m going with quotes from literary characters from novelists dear to my heart. Relatable souls. In day two I dip into the lexicon of the protagnist of…

Three-Day Quote Challenge: Frank Bascombe

Susanne Valenti tapped me on the shoulder yesterday for the Three-Day Quote Challenge. She’s a new blogger on the WordPress block, and I liked what what I clicked over and saw. Why yes, and thank you, Susanne. The last time around this quote game, I chose lyrics from a few of my favorite songs. To…

And the valley below

We could not let me dear wife Karen’e five-day Family Reunion in Estes Park go by without heading the rented SUV back up the mountain to that pull-off on Route 36 with the big rock sign and panoramic view. Yet the two times we drove past the majestic point going back down toward the village…

No Vacation from the National Lampoon-style humor

If you lived through the 1980s, you know it. If you sat through the 2000s, you know it. That wink-wink through lasviousness and lewdness paired with physical awkwardnes that made the National Lampoon’s … movies featuring Chevy Chase as patriarch Clark Griswold so darn popular in that first decade. That silly-man, try-too-hard demeanor that made…