Hello, Rainbows. Let’s Chat a Minute.
Welcome to LGBTQ+ Month. I love the awareness this brings to communities that are still misunderstood and marginalized, and quite frankly would love to see the day when people can simply be their true selves without fearing for their safety.
I had the pleasure of being in a few places around the world last month that embraced people and diversity. It was comforting to feel it around me. See it in the faces and places I explored. Witness it as I roamed streets and villages, having great conversations with the entire spectrum of humanity.
A Busy, Busy April
Before I get into that, a look at April. There were cycling rides and events like CicLAvia, wher ~5 miles of roadway are shut down for human-power movement and celebration.
It was also a month of working numerous golf tournaments as a rules official. Numerous days of hiking and hiking trail restoration, thanks to the bursts of heavy rain that hit the area during winter.
There were also museum visits, which I really enjoy. One in particular was the Getty Villa that overlooks the coast near Malibu. It replicates an Italian villa that was buried by a volcanic eruption, and holds many Greek, Roman, and Etrucian antiquities. I found it useful in preparation for my May trip that would include Greece.
Towards the end of April, I received a final review copy of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s The Big Book of Quickies, which contains my story Double Fantasy. The book can be preordered from Bookshop and Amazon, and is available starting on July 9th.
Writing this submission benefitted me in numerous ways. I can get really long-winded in my storytelling, and the criteria of 1000-1200 words challenged me to pack in the right emotions and sensations in under half of my typical output. The other was submitting to one of the premier erotica editors. Having my story accepted was a real thrill.
A May to Lament
And then came May, and a 3 1/2 week trip to multiple destinations around Europe that I’d never been to. Doing this trip was a COVID-delayed celebration, and as such, we really went all out with the travel and accomodations. I had intended to leave my laptop home, to avoid the temptation of using it. At the end, I chose to bring it along, which proved beneficial for a lot of unfortunate reasons.
The itinerary began with six days in the England regions of Cornwall, Devon, and Oxfordshire, followed by a few days in Athens. Then it was ten days of adult-only Virgin cruising around the northeast Mediterranean, with stops in Santorini, Bodrum, Mykonos, Crete, Dubrovnik, Kotor and Corfu. The trip home included four days in Barcelona.
The England and Athens segments went great. The cruise ship segment went horribly wrong, with a total of three days lost to quarantine for gastroenteritis, and more days nursing my travel partner who was severely weakened by the sickness and couldn’t even leave the cabin until day seven.
We’d booked a lavish, generously spacious “Rock Star” suite, complete with a sexy shower, balcony with hammock, eight bottles of alcohol, and an assortment of mixers and such, to host parties in. Instead, the drinks were given away, the late night parties and mixers missed, and multiple shore excursions canceled. Then, during Barcelona, we both picked up bronchitis or something like it that took a week to shake free from. We still made it out to a night of flamenco and guitar at Palau de la Musica Catalana, Sagrada Familia, and Montserrat, but nightlife plans were mostly scuttled.
We’ll see how much trip insurance covers, but it can’t replaced the missed opportunities and fun times.
In summary: I would redo the itinerary in a heartbeat, but not the high-end version we planned. I was pleased at how accepting and open our destinations were, and will treasure my walks through history along narrow, winding paths and ancient relics. Some of the connections made could last a long time. All were memorable.