July, 2026 | Musings of an Aging Nobody

The Travel Writer

July 24, 2026 curtisc27@gmail.com Comments 1 comment

I just finished reading “On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer” by Rick Steves. Kim bought it for me, I think Kim saw “Hippie” in the title and thought I would like it.

I did.

The book is the recent edited and now published version of the journal that the then 23-year-old kept on his 1978 trip traveling the “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu which ultimately established Steves as a travel writer and in the travel business.

A travel writer…

This book has inspired me.

I have decided I want to be a travel writer.

Yup, I finally know what I want to do when I grow up.

A travel writer.

Right about now I am guessing some of you are thinking outloud to yourselves “something doesn’t make sense here.”
And you want to jump in and say,
“But Curt, you don’t go anywhere!”
“You don’t travel!”

Okay I recognize that that could be a problem.
As a travel writer, one does need to travel.

I suppose I could make it up.
Pretend that I traveled and get my information from the internet.
But that wouldn’t be right.
That would either make me a Fiction Writer…
Or a bullshitter.
Neither of which I want to be known as.

But this traveling thing is definitely a problem.
This is the same guy who just recently needed his eleven-year-old grandson Christian from Florida to help him get to Washington D.C. on the Metro.

To be fair however, I have traveled to Western PA and written about that.

And I have gone to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and written about that.

And I have gone to New Jersey and written about that.

Doesn’t that make me a travel writer?
Are there other places?

Well maybe for now I will just travel up to the kitchen and pour myself a glass of wine.
Then I might just take a hike out to the deck and enjoy the soothing sounds of the Koi pond waterfalls as I take in the beauty of the banana trees, the tall grasses, and the palm trees in my back yard, all the while communing with the local wildlife.

And contemplate my next adventure, planning out what my very own “Hippie Trail” might look like.

And thinking, I may have just traveled it.

Postscript:

Apparently in the 60’s and 70’s, maybe influenced greatly by the Beatles’ time in India in 1968, when the Beatles traveled to Rishikesh to study Transcendental Meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the “Hippie Trail” was established. Many, in the then counterculture, made the trip from Europe to Asia traveling through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and maybe further.

Their quest, to escape Western materialism and spiritual growth.
To find peace and love.

However, peace and love ended in 1979 when Iran experienced a revolution and Russia entered Afghanistan. That was the end of the Hippie Trail.

It was a quick read and entertaining. If you relate to that era you might like it too.

“We watched the English news which seems to be more of a daily reminder that instability reigns all over this corner of the earth. You can’t put a price tag on the value of being an American. Stability. I really wouldn’t want it any other way. I am spoiled.”
(From Rick Steves’ On the Hippie Trail, 1978)

Still Alive and Well

July 16, 2026 curtisc27@gmail.com Comments 1 comment

I’m still alive and well
I’m still alive and well
Every now and then it’s kind of hard to tell
But I’m still alive and well
(from Still Alive and Well, written by Rick Derringer, performed by Johnny Winter 1973)

In 2019 I wrote something I called Feet Faddish in which I told of the time Cameron told me that when I am not alive anymore, he wants my truck.
I reminded him of that not too long ago. He didn’t seem to remember but of course he was only nine at the time he said that to me. And besides, now that he is sixteen and getting his driver’s license in the Fall, he already has a new set of wheels lined up and doesn’t need my truck.

Thankfully.

I am not done using it.

Nope I am still alive and well.

But apparently, I was close though.

Recently my sister-in-law Kate ran into someone that Kim and I knew from the past. He told Kate that he was sorry to hear about Curt.
Not sure where that story originated, and I know every now and then it’s kind of hard to tell, but I am most definitely, at least for the moment, still alive and well.

I heard a good sermon last Sunday about mourning.
It was from the Beatitudes and specifically Matthew 5:4.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

I believe that.

I believe we have experienced that.

When I heard the pastor read that scripture, I wrote the word HELD on the notes I was taking and shared it with Kim who has firsthand experience.

But “those who mourn” doesn’t only mean mourning in a grieving way, it could also refer to those who mourn a situation they are struggling with, maybe feelings of unworthiness or helplessness; failure; or loss in another way.

Feelings we may all struggle with from time to time.

This morning I came across a file on my computer. It was an essay written by Donny titled Struggles and Decisions. It was a writing interpreting Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken.”

In the essay Donny writes “I believe Frost is trying to show a relationship between the struggles and decisions made throughout life.”
Frost writes “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” Donny wrote, “by saying this he is showing how hard some decisions may be, because you never know what the final outcome might be” and “that a man comes to a point in his life where he has to make a choice of what he is going to do to better himself.”

In the sermon I listened to on Sunday, Pastor Micah used Job, a man who had everything and then loses it, as an example of someone who struggled. Job struggled with God’s fairness after his experience. In the end Job makes peace with God “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5)

Donny didn’t experience Job’s loss, but I am sure he had some struggles. He wrote in his essay about taking the path less traveled and avoiding some of the less desirable situations, others he knew that were close to him chose, that seemed more traveled and more destructive.
In choosing the path less traveled he was avoiding problems others he knew had faced, and rising above.

But I also think, outside of what he discussed in this essay, Donny’s need to make that trip that summer, that he didn’t return from, was fulfilling a need he was struggling with. He had some unfinished business he had to tend to in his heart. And I think it’s fair to say he found his answer.

And ultimately, in his mourning, in his struggle, Donny received Divine comfort.

We know for sure that his “ears had heard of you.”

And now we know that “his eyes have seen you” as well.

And that’s our blessing, that’s our comfort.

I suppose like Job we could struggle with God’s fairness too.

But blessed are we who mourn, for we have the comfort of knowing Donny is blessed to be with and able to see Jesus.

That is comforting.

We are held.

And we know who holds Donny.

Who is still alive and well, in our hearts.

Postscript:
This Sunday it will be twenty-four years since Donny’s accident.

And we miss him.

May I Have More Fruit Please?

July 10, 2026 curtisc27@gmail.com Comments 1 comment

“May I have more fruit please?

That question, those six words, will be forever burned into my brain.

Whenever I see a blueberry or a strawberry, I will imagine hearing that question playing in my head.

“May I have more fruit please?”

It’s Friday July 10 and the end of a week of returning to my normal retirement routine.

The month of June is always one of celebration in my house.

And this year’s festivities started early, as I previously mentioned in “Souvenirs” with that visit from my brother Gary the last weeks of May and our trip to Jersey the last weekend of May.

The Northern Virginia fam got together early in June for Hayley’s birthday.

I spent the anniversary of my dad’s passing with my mom on the 15th.

But then the two weeks leading up to the Fourth of July were maybe the most memorable.

Because that’s when the fruit hit the fan.

Alexa, Namaan, Hayley, and Malcolm had been planning a trip to Norway for the last year.

As a result Kim and I were tasked with taking care of Ethan and Christian while they were away.

So, on June 20th the kids arrived from Florida. That evening we celebrated Father’s Day with the whole clan at Hayley and Malcolm’s. The next day I dropped the four of them off at the airport.

And that was the beginning of Camp Mimi and Pop Pop.

Though Kim worked Monday and Tuesday, on Monday I took the boys to the movies to see Toy Story 5 that started, of course, with a trip to the snack bar.
It featured Sheriff Jessie with the message that too much technology in children’s hands has replaced real toys and real play.
A good message in my opinion.

On Tuesday I was forced to face my Metro riding anxiety with a train ride into D.C. to tour the Museum of American History.
Boy, the Museum of American History has sure changed since the last time I visited forty- five years ago.
It was a great time, with of course, the visit ending at the Gift Shop.

This was my text feed with Kim:

Me: On the train
Me: I’m nauseous
Her: Why nauseous
Me: Motion
Me: Lunch was $81
Her: Dig Deep

On Wednesday, now with Cameron too, we packed up the car and headed to the Eastern Shore.

Cameron, Christian, Ethan, Kim, and me.

And for the next week we fished, crabbed, kayaked, rode bikes and scooters and golf carts, had Nerf gun wars, hung out with neighbors, and in our down time, used our technology.

We ate fish and crabs and lots of fruit.

And for what might turn out to be a once in a lifetime event, I got to spend my 70th birthday with all three of my grandsons.

And since all five of us had birthdays in June or July, we made a cake and had a birthday party for all of us.

Though Cameron had to dip out on us early unfortunately, we continued to have fun.

We experienced a “Strawberry Moon” which was something I probably won’t experience again in my lifetime.

We visited the Harriet Tubman Museum, which ended with a visit to the Gift Shop.

We visited the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the Welcome Center, which also ended with a visit to the Gift Shop.

And we fished and crabbed and kayaked some more until we had to go home on Tuesday.

Once back home, I endured another ride on the Metro into D.C. and the National Mall to visit the Great American State Fair.
I hadn’t planned on that one, but I got a “Pop Pop, this is a once in a lifetime experience!” from Christian.
Okay I couldn’t argue with that. And it was fun, hot, but fun, and that also ended with a visit to the Gift Shop.

On Thursday we went back to the movies, but first to the snack bar, to see Minions & Monsters that had just been released.
I was never a big fan of the Minions movies, but I liked this one.

On Thursday evening the kids returned from Norway and on Saturday they returned to Florida.

Saturday evening Kim and I, tired but content with our Camp Mimi and Pop Pop, went out to dinner to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary, an activity that didn’t fit into the camp schedule on July 1st.

It was an awesome two weeks, time spent and memories that I will always cherish.

Fruit?

Oh yeah, fruit.

Christian is a fruit eating machine. He consumes mass quantities of blueberries and strawberries.

MASS QUANTITIES.

And each serving began with,

“May I have some more fruit please?

So what was the moral of the story?

• Sometimes, as a Pop Pop, you got to “dig deep” and just enjoy the moment.

• Sometimes you need to listen to Sheriff Jessie and put down the technology to play with Nerf guns (toys), fish, crab, kayak, etc. and be a kid.

• You can’t pass up those once in a lifetime opportunities, or those that don’t happen but every thirty years.

• Sometimes even riding the Metro is not so bad.

• And even Minion movies can leave an impact on you.

• And most important, even though I have been having a little fun with Christian’s fruit jones, he is right, and in fact, Kim and I have this week filled the refrigerator with fruit and are changing our eating habits. From now on if one of asks the question, “do you need anything from the store?” The answer will be “may I have more fruit please?”

Postscript:

One very cool thing for me that happened while the kids were in Norway, was that they got to share some time with my cousin Bjorg and her son Geir and family, and spend a dinner and evening at Geir’s home outside of Oslo.

And to my wife of now 26 years…God Only Knows…

And finally, root for Norway!

ROW!