This is my first blog, and I call it Spanning the Globe. After a lifetime of working, painting and just living, I am now traveling and using reference material from the trips to paint my present images. This is an extremely exciting endeavor for me as I get to live my trips twice!
My daughter, Dianna, and I just returned from Germany and biking the Main with my group, the Tampa Bay Snow Skiers and Boarders. Besides skiing with them in the winter, we now see each other on summer trips called Bike and Barges. These 35-50 kilometer day trips take us along bike paths beside various rivers in Europe. We get “bum breaks” by stopping at enchanting places like old apple groves, Roman aqueducts, small stone churches and delightful medieval villages. The afternoon finds us back on the barge settling in with ice cold cocktails in hand, and circling each other with laughter about the day’s adventures and mishaps. In the evening, after a delicious dinner, exhausted bikers pour into their beds in our 2 persons-to-a-room. These barges are really wonderfully charming river boats outfitted for bikes holding about 24-34 guests. The crew consists of a knowledgable captain, competent cooks and a guide you want to adopt and take home!