First Stop, Huntington Beach, aka Surf City

I tossed and turned last night, having dreams that I forgot to blog, or missed a flight, or some other figment of my imagination as I contemplate the nine days of travel ahead of me. Like so many other times, the nervous nellie in me makes packing, planning and actually leaving my businesses fraught with anxiety, but once aloft, it melts away and I focus on where I'm going and what I will be doing.

First stop will be Huntington Beach, known in all its promotional literature as Surf City. I will meet Wendy Haase tonight, and get a chance to settle in to my little motel on the Pacific Coast Highway. This city is where my friend Peter Heller learned to surf in preparation for his eight-month journey to Mexico to write a book.

I have a meeting with an adventure writer who will knock on my door at my hotel at 8 am tomorrow. Then I take a tour of the city with a local guide and later, it's time to go surfing and try to stay on the board.

April Will be Packed with Air Miles and New Travel Adventures

Outside a giant woodpecker is chomping suet at Cindy's feeder. He is so big he can barely fit on the feeder, as he gulps down big bites of fat. It is still frustratingly cold, hovering at 35 degrees, and we are about to go out and do our Saturday chores.

Mine today involves picking up a bed from a guy in Springfield who listed it on Craig's list. My old friend Joe is out of the hospital and living at my cousin Steve's house. He lost most of the few items he did own when he had to vacate the apartment he was living in. So my good deed of the day is to take the cafe truck and haul this bed up to Sunderland for Joe.

I am thinking about April, it will be a fun and travel-filled month. On the 3rd I fly to Los Angeles where I will be picked up by the Huntington Beach tourism folks, then a stay at a funky little motel right on the Pacific Coast highway. It's right near the city's claim to fame, the surfing beach. I will take a surfing lesson there and get a tour of the city with Wendy Haase, who runs the CVB. I've followed Wendy throughout her various positions, first traveling to Milwaukee, then to Sonoma, and now to her current post in Surf City.

Then on April 4 I fly to Melbourne Australia for a week in this city on the bottom of the island continent. I've got lots of people lined up to meet me, and will take in the sights, post lots of blogs, and learn the best things to know about this city that has been compared to Boston, in look and in size.

I am back for a few weeks then on April 21 will fly to Veracruz on Mexico's Pacific coast. This will be an adventure trip, with activities like river rafting, zip-lining and hiking in the rugged mountains overlooking the Pacific. This will be my first-ever trip to Mexico, and the reading I've been doing has prepared me to love it there. I hope so anyway.