–MUSCATINE, Iowa– The Muscatine Journal was available in the lobby of our hotel this morning.  It’s the paper that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote for in his early life as a writer.  His older brother Orion Clemens was a part-owner of the newspaper actually.  Clemens wrote rhapsodically about the sunsets of Muscatine and claimed they…

                      TAMPA — CHICAGO –HIGHLAND PARK, IL — MUSCATINE, Iowa   “I’m so up-sided”     (as three year old Julia Virgilio used to say) The final hours of packing for a ten day trip are always hectic.  Of course we were “up-sided” about the…

In the mornings on last year’s Route 66 Trip sometimes some of us would go get coffees  and deliver them to the other sixtahs in their hotel rooms.  One morning Trudi had marked my styrofoam cup with only “Good M.” as the pen’s ink ran out before she could write “Good Morning” in its entirety….

  Oh no you didn’t. Yes we did.  We had to.   We had it on good authority that the movie was funny and also a bit raunchy…but it was called “Girls Trip” for goodness sake.  We had to.  We gathered to see the movie “Girls Trip” a few weeks ago prior to the storms….

If you’ve been watching the news and you have had your power restored since Hurricane Irma made her presence felt, you know that we’ve had a crash course in what’s really important down here in Bradenton, Florida.  We’ve experienced every little bit of all of it this week.  After Hurricane Harvey left immeasurable devastation in…