Traveling Fool

I’ve been planning my trip to Easter Island and Punta Arenas for about a year. I hadn’t given much thought to my time in Santiago. I really thought I would be too tired to do much, but I guess the benefit of only a two hour time difference is I wasn’t too exhausted. I couldn’t check into the hotel until three so I had about four hours to wander around. Lucky for me Sky Costanera was a five minute walk. Sky Costanera is the tallest building in South America and has some amazing views of the Andes, Cerra San Cristóbal and all over Santiago. I just walked to Cenco Costanera which is a massive shopping center, went to the lower level, bought my ticket and ten minutes later was heading up to the 61st floor and then the 62nd floor which was open on the top. I love my tall buildings, and I loved it that it was not crowded at all. There is a restaurant and a little gift shop, but not a lot else.  A view of San Cristobal On day two I took the hop on hop off bus which was an easy way to navi...

I've been driving home to Cleveland by myself for over 15 years, and with only some slight variations, it's been the same drive I94 to I90/I80. It's fine, it gets me from Minnesota to Ohio and back again, but this spring/summer I really wanted to mix it up and just do some different things. It's a challenge because most of the time, I just want to get home and that's the basically straight line noted above, so going off piste is going to add time, maybe money to the journey. But you only live once, and since I only have to answer to myself, I made a few different journeys. In April I came home via Springfield, Illinois, the one-time home and final resting place of Abraham Lincoln. There are a couple of things to do in Springfield that are Lincoln-related, but I could only muster the energy and patience to stop by the tomb. It is in Oak Ridge Cemetery, which has rolling hills and was beautifully peaceful on the Saturday I visited. The tomb is free to visit, and it...