Gualter’s grip
The Hollywood Pub sits less than a city block from the Pacific Ocean in Vina del Mar, Chile. It’s a cramped, shotgun building with orange highlights and iconic Tinsel Town photos on the wall....
Category: Travel
When Tony comes to town: Greenville, SC
‘Deep dish is pizza like Olive Garden is Italian’ –Anthony Bourdain on Chicago pie I don’t think I’ve made any secret about my admiration for Anthony Bourdain. His ability to mix snark with cerebral...
Adventures in customer service (Part 2) — Delta Airlines
If you missed it, here’s Part 1 Do not pass Go, do not collect $200 If you had sat through Lakeview Terrance on a 10-hour flight, you would’ve probably been a little absentminded, too....
Northern man
(Atlanta, GA)–About 12 hours ago, there were four of us in the speeding van. A rock music photographer turned poker shooter sat in front of me in the middle seat. Beside him was a...
Addled
(Vina del Mar, Chile)–It’s 6am and a dog is barking. There is no reason I can figure that a stray mutt would be outside my hotel window, but there he is. Valparaiso sits on...
From chilly to Chile
(Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport)–There will come a time, I’m sure, when someone will ask, “So where were you when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States?” I will answer, “San Jose, Costa Rica.”...
Bahamian rhapsody
(Nassau, Bahamas)–My cab driver from Paradise Island drove a coffee can with wheels and a squeaky horn. He careened around the corners in the Bahamian slums and drove like I was late for the...
Double dipping, as explained by Joe Henfield
(Paradise Island, Bahamas) — You have to imagine the thick Bahamian accent and a guy who looks a little like Jim Brown. That’s Joe Henfield, a private limo driver in Nassau. He doesn’t have...
Plugged in
I’ve been home since Tuesday. My bags are not unpacked. This and the fact my wife did the laundry before we left for home makes packing for my flight tomorrow a lot easier. It’s...
Rear cover in Mexico
I yelled a phrase that can be reduced to a three letter acronym and I wouldn’t say in front of my mother. I said it loud enough that it actually made my head hurt...
Where’s my passport?
(Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico)— Several years ago, I established the 80-20 rule in regard to what I write publicly about the behind-the-scenes parts of my work. Eighty percent never gets written. Twenty percent is written...
State of the Otis at 35
(Houston, TX)–I think I actually said “Wha?” out loud when my alarm went off at 5am today. I think I actually used a Scooby Doo voice. I was kicked out of a dream where...
Road head
His hair was cut in a 1985 five-inch spike and not in a cool way. He was watching a show about a serial killer on the Discovery Channel. I don’t remember his name and...
Riding bitch in a Honda Karma
“You’re inviting some bad karma,” my wife said before she shut up. That I had already picked up a speeding ticket and sat in stop-and-go traffic for a few hours didn’t seem to factor...