You know what we gotta do? Get outta Memphis. How about a little travel trifecta? Tri-hell-yeah! Heyyyy… take it easy, no cussin’.

First leg: Madison, Wisconsin! Back to the city Jennifer and I called home for two years for a Craig and Teri Robideau’s wedding, and a friend / restaurant wait staff reunion-fest! By 10am on Friday, we were eating a cheese platter on the capitol square, and soaking up the greatness that is Madison. By noon, we were having lunch with the old work crew, catching up on all that is exactly the same from the day I left, and by 2pm we were having drinks on the Terrace. It’s Madison on hyperdrive! Farmer’s market on Saturday morning? Yes. Breakfast with Bobbie Harte? Yes. Wedding and reception? Yes, and it was pretty fun. A smaller crowd, and the family was being a little shy, so there was a moment with just Jennifer and I rocking out the dance floor while the aunts and uncles looked on… that guy! Post reception comedy club with the old school East Side crew? Yes. Sunday morning, Madison… what do you do? You go to Sardine for four hours, right? Right.
Gregg & Zhora, the Sardine crew (Kaila, Sunshine, and new girl), all provided for a great and relaxing way to close the weekend out. So, all we’ve gotta do now is get back to the airport and head home... which would all be much easier if the flight wasn’t cancelled. United, never fail to fail on that connector to Chicago! Quick overnight in a hotel near the airport, and we were back in Memphis by 10am. Home, shower, repack… leg #2 starts at 12:30.

Second leg: Europe! All of it! Well, a good portion of it. I took off from Memphis pretty quickly, and was off to Milan, Italy for about 10 hours. I went through ATL to get there, and was in by 9am Tuesday. Meetings started at about 10am, and we went through how the Italy business is going… va bene! Back to the airport, and time to go to the UK that afternoon. But wait! There’s a volcano, and just like last year’s Umdkrelkdfjjflksjdlkfj volcano in Iceland that crippled air traffic across Europe for a month, this lil’ fella was closing airports in the UK already. After landing in Brussels, and having plenty of time to make the next flight, my colleague and I said, “No way are we flying up there and getting stuck in the UK for the next month.” We’ll make a call in the morning, now time for a hotel. Well… when the European Union is meeting, and their headquarters is Brussels, and there is a volcano disrupting air traffic… guess what is hard to find? A frigging hotel room in Brussels. After an hour of calling every hotel in Brussels, we were able to find a hotel… at a cool $450 a night. Sheisse! Next morning, volcano decided to take it easy, and we were off to the UK, only an hour late for the meeting. We land in Birmingham, and as I head out from the gate area, a woman from the UK census comes up to ask if she can survey me as a traveler entering the UK. “Sure.” First question: How long will you be visiting the UK? “8 hours.” … “Oh, okay, that’s all, thank you.” Checkmate. How’s the UK business doing? Jolly good, guvnah! Back to the airport! Off to Germany! One country for two nights in a row? Impossible! No worries, it was two different hotels. How’s the German business doing? Groß! Now fly home!

Third leg: Hot Springs, Arkansas! Wait, what? Hot Springs… Arkansas? Yup. We were off to a Memorial Day weekend away with Jennifer’s parents in the ‘resort’ town of Hot Springs, Arkansas. We had a place on Lake Hamilton out on Long Island at the Wharf Resort. What is there to do in Hot Springs? Well… there are plenty of activities that talk about how great Hot Springs was in the 1920’s and 30’s, including the awkward “Gangster Museum of America!” I won’t even go into it, but this picture is far and away the highlight. There is golf… and I shot under a 100 for the first time… so yes, my personal achievement was completed in Hot Springs, Arkansas. And of course, there are the actualy "Hot Springs" for which the town is named. The springs feed a series of baths that were very popular in the 1800's and early 1900's, and they are still open today. So, as you go through the center of the town, there is one main avenue, where you have these gorgeous historic bath houses on one side, and places like the Gangster Museum of America! on the other side; a yin for every yang. We toured one of the bath houses that is kept 'as is' from it's historical heyday, and, yes, got into the baths of the Quapaw bathhouse, and... after 30 minutes... it cured my gout. In all, it was good to get away, fun to be with the ‘rents, and check the box of what many people in Memphis have done in the past… “spend a weekend in Hot Springs.”

And that is the travel trifecta. 10 days, 10,000 miles, shooting under 100, good times.