It’s now come down to this. It’s happened before…it was bound to happen again.

I am so ready to go back. I was getting through it for a while but it’s catching up with me now. I got out my Rick Steves’ Europe DVDs last night and started binge-watching travel videos. The fun continued tonight. I still have one more DVD to watch tomorrow.

I still think he has a lot of good information for not only the first-timer but for return visitors as well. His book “Europe through the Back Door” was such a helpful guide on the “how-tos” and his three-part video series called “European Travel Skills” was also very helpful that first trip. Ironically, the first few days of my first trip over was a few of the cities he showed in that video. “Travel as a Political Act” is good too.

I was considering going back to Europe this Fall/Winter for a change of pace from January/February and catch a couple of concerts not touring the States. I still am not hanging out in big crowds like that yet; it’d be a big enough struggle for me to be in a plane that long to get there, but at least the air is filtered well and I’d be okay with a mask on for that long (did it last year). Plus, I saw that the natural gas supply for Europe has been stopped and who knows if/when it’ll be restored. Could make for a cold vacation (but even worse for the people who live in those areas; I am hoping for nothing but the best for you). But, in better travel news, it’s looking like some of the delays and cancellations could be easing up. Looks like I have to put it off a bit longer.

Speaking of those delays, those pictures of thousands of bags and suitcases in an airport were exactly the reason you only do carry-on, and preferably it’s a backpack. I don’t check bags for that very reason shown in the pictures. Watching Rick’s videos you learn (among other things) to not pack for every scenario and only do carry-on bags. A top-quality travel backpack is money well-spent. And it’s very freeing and so much fun!

I harvested my first tomato this morning! A day or two on the window sill and it’ll be “Get in my belly!”. It’s looking like the hornworms met their match for now and the plants they ate are finally starting to fill out and have fruit. The peppers are going wild; looks like close to two dozen habaneros, plus some sweet peppers and bell peppers. I think the really hot peppers have a few in there as well but I didn’t poke around much. I don’t want any more of those pesky chiggers chomping on me. I finally got over the last ones yesterday but still have red bumps all over from them.

If it looks like it’ll be a decent crop of everything and there’s enough to make it worthwhile, I might think about canning a few jars to see how it goes. Something new to try doing in the kitchen. I’ll be giving a few of those habaneros away but I wanna fire-roast some and make salsa. I’ll have to figure out a method to roast them up. Actually, I have a fish basket for the grill. I could torch them in that with my propane weed torch.

And…that’s a wrap for this post.