ANNOYED BY POP-UPS?

You can avoid this one by signing up ;)

Get Reid's recent blog posts sent to your inbox.

* indicates required

THANKS FOR
HELPING AN
OLD GUY OUT!

Shake My Head

The day the laughter died

mike o callaghan pat tillman memorial bridge

Photo Credit: Trip.com    We were having breakfast in our hotel in Boulder City, prior to our visit to the Hoover Dam. Across from us sat a table of what, until January 6, I would have jovially called “good old boys.” One was dressed in a county sheriff’s uniform, and the others spoke as if […]

READ MORE

Travel

Another roadside attraction

Ugo Rondinone's Day-glo painted Seven Magic Mountains

Photo Credit: Carol Madigan    I’d like to say that this kind of homage to the ridiculous can only be found in America. But the first one of these that I saw was in Liverpool, UK in 2019, and the only reason I saw that one was because Carol had seen this other one just […]

READ MORE

Travel

What happens in Vegas

hopefully doesn’t happen anywhere else    A .50 caliber machine gun can fire between 450 and 1300 rounds per minute to a maximum range of more than 8000 yards. When the bullet impacts bone, the bone explodes in shards that themselves travel at the speed of a low-velocity bullet. In other words, when you’re hit […]

READ MORE

Relationships

This really happened

Photo by Reid Champagne    Carol asked the Mesa, AZ Verizon representative whether, because we’d forgotten the Samsung charger back at home, getting a new charger cable would be covered under our device insurance. I’m not kidding. I asked her to repeat what she actually asked, and she confirmed her question both times.    Although […]

READ MORE

Shake My Head

Awakening

emergency room

   Carol and I had a “gentleman’s” (and the quotation marks may become more self-explanatory as the blog goes on) bet that I could not pull this story off in a socially acceptable way. So if you’re reading this, I’ve pulled it off, at least as far as Carol might be concerned.    So here […]

READ MORE

Travel

Road trip 2021

chicago cubs spring training 2021

Photo Credit: Carol Madigan Omg!  I just looked at the date. The game is tomorrow!! We need to drive today!!    The frantic message came from Carol, while picking up the little Baileys three pack for our Spring Training road trip that we’d both programmed into our evidently derelict brains as beginning Tuesday morning. Her […]

READ MORE

Daytripping

Sandman

sandman

Photo by Carol Madigan    The forecast was a good one for someone like me heading for the beach. A ninety percent chance of rain meant an extended happy hour, and when the other ten percent unfolded, at least the beach sand would be wet and firm for walking.    For me, sand is a […]

READ MORE

Relationships

The quill and the arrow

quill and arrow

Photo credit: Carol Madigan    Carol dug up one of our first written exchanges, courtesy of my fledgling widower travel blog showing up on her Facebook timeline. It would be a little more than two months before we actually met face to face, but by that time we’d already exchanged the L word. While it […]

READ MORE

Shake My Head

Growing pains

reid champagne napping

Photo Credit © Lovisa Photo    At times I’ll be sitting in an almost perfect state of complete inactivity, and a sharp shooting pain will come out of nowhere. It could be the side of my head, a knee joint, thigh muscle, finger or toe, or my hair (I may be exaggerating that one). It’ll […]

READ MORE

Daytripping

La la land

santa monica pier photo credit Carol Madigan

   What if you make a trip to some place, and it’s a total disappointment? Does it still count as travel?    Of course it does. You get blown away by the Grand Canyon, and rightfully so. But what about a strip mining or a Super Fund site? Aren’t you blown away by that scene […]

READ MORE