After the kids were out of their teens, we decided to start traveling on our own again to places we’d never seen. I originally wanted to plan a Scotland and Ireland trip, but decided to spend our time to focus on Ireland. The people there were as friendly as expected, the rolling hills as green as expected, the weather as unpredictable as expected. What we didn’t expect was the excellent food, after being raised to expect everyone there eating boiled corned beef, boiled cabbage, and boiled potatoes. Friday, Sept 13: Kilkenny Flew into London, then a took a flight to Dublin. We picked up the rental car at the airport…

Apr 21, Thursday: Just got back from a 24-hour place called Daisy Dukes on Chartres St. where I had an alligator po’ boy and it was everything that I thought it would be. Super tired from this morning’s travel, I vowed to stay away from the bars for now. Strolled back to my hotel, the French Market Inn, on Decatur St. near the steamboat dock through the drizzle and sidestepping the drunks sleeping in the doorways. That’s New Orleans for me—off the track, wet, stinking in a sweet spicy way and chunks of the sidewalk covered with plywood and scaffolding holding up facades and everything off kilter and kind of…

6/17 Saturday My son Ken and I made the eight-hour drive from Chicago to Memphis via I-57->I-55->I-40, stopping at the El Toro restaurant in Arcola, IL where I couldn’t resist the “Boss Burrito” with chicken and steak inside, shrimp and cream creole sauce outside.  Then one last gas fill in West Memphis, AR.  We arrived at six, settled in at the Hampton Inn near Beale Street and then walked to Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken but there were 20 people waiting, so we went down Pontotoc St. to Pearl’s Oyster House for oysters, crab cakes and fried fish, washed down with Yuengling on tap. Walked up and down Beale St.…