I figured I’d start with a preamble of my solo world travels.

There were several (or more) stories I could tell (about my career shenanigans before settling here in “the swamp”)……………..but like anything in repetition……………it’ll probably get boring.

So I’ll space them out…

I’ll post about different more current fiascos in between…

(Mostly it’s a cover for either my ADD or my boredom with the subject, or multiple distractions (isn’t that just another definition for ADD?), or just geriatric/and/or/not so geriatric bad memory.)

There now…………………..that’s sort of a disclaimer, isn’t it?

 

Like I’ve said before———I’ve been around the proverbial “block” a few times.

In quite a few countries.

 

On a couple or more continents……………actually all of them (except the really cold one).

 

But I’m here to say……………………….there’s no place like home……………………..even when it’s a dead-end road in a swamp…

 

 

 

Usually my travels from home to wherever I was scheduled to go were completely on my own…

In the back of my closet, I’ve still got the heavy-duty luggage carriers on wheels that could transport a small pachyderm…………………..I wish my massage table could have collected frequent flyer miles too…

But once I got to the tournament city, there were loads of people I knew……………..players, staff, sponsors, carriage drivers (I’m not making this up), bobbies, familiar bomb dogs…

Quite often afterwards I would know where I had been by the obligatory tee shirts we were given at each venue.

And there was jet lag……………..aaahhh, yes……………there was jet lag……………profound jet lag…

 

I found it akin to looking out your armpit after waking up from an all night bender with your face in an over-filled ashtray.

 

In that era of flying there was smoking and non-smoking sections on a plane…………………..really what difference did it make if you were a non-smoker sitting in 14A when 15A was the start of the smoking section…

 

I found going right was a little easier than going left…

 

But trips to Australia…………..they always get a special exempt…………..right or left made no difference whatsoever…………….that trip was brutal.

 

 

(I’m here to say that I’m fairly sure the toilets in Australia DO NOT swirl backwards when flushed…………….I’ve checked by tossing in Goldfish crackers………….)

 

Oh, and trips to Japan……………….they’d sometimes go over the North Pole to get there………….go figure…?…

 

Here’s a plus to air travel in earlier times (1980’s and 90’s)……………I’ve got matching metal silverware from a whole bunch of different airlines……………great for picnics……………I think I’ve already let it slip that I’m fairly good as a petty larcenist.

When I started on the tour, I had just had my first major re-construction surgery on my first knee.

I needed a cane……….so at my first opportunity when I was in New York City, I went to a cane/walking stick store……….not just any store…

 

It was called Uncle Sam’s Umbrellas & Canes on 57th. Street across from Carnegie Hall.

*****Uncle Sam’s Umbrella & Cane Shop*****

It was a very, very old shop……….

……….and I found the perfect cane for my travels…………….an ash (or is it oak) cane with a heavy, solid brass lion head’s top……………really heavy.

That cane has been everywhere with me.  It’s truncheon-qualities can’t be missed…………….additionally with my fencing background it could double as an epee in a pinch (however I didn’t have Marcus with me in the dining car on the Blue Train—–he was back in my couchette).

……………..and my cane has a name too, it’s Marcus………….Marcus Aurelius.

At that time in air travel I could take Marcus with me on any plane without any questions asked.

I would stow him behind my heels at my feet…

Marcus helped me with stability for my recuperating knee (along with one of the first Lenox Hill De-Rotation braces)…………and later I continued traveling with Marcus just for the security that he offered as a very stylish club at the ready…

 

Marcus is relaxing right now in the umbrella stand by the front door, ready to be called into action at a moment’s notice.

 

Marcus has mileage too.