After years of working 70 hours a week at jobs I detested, I felt like the proverbial "hole in the donut" - solid on the outside, but empty on the inside. Searching for meaning in my life, I abandoned my successful but unsatisfying career and set out on a six-month solo backpacking trip around the world to pursue my true passions of travel, writing, and photography. My blog features stories about the destinations I visit, people I meet, the crazy things...Read more here....
Plunging an amazing 411 feet, Upper Whitewater Falls in southwest North Carolina is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies. Located in a fairly rugged, little-visited area, the upper falls are easily accessible via a short paved path bordered by wildflowers, moss-covered boulders, and dense forest.
Upper Whitewater Falls in Sapphire, North Carolina
Tiny wildflowers border the path through dense forest
More wildflowers
After five weeks on the road it was time to head home, but not before one last day of hiking. From the North Carolina mountain town of Cashiers, I mapped a route past Gorges State Park, which opened to the public this past May. Located atop the Blue Ridge Escarpment, this newest North Carolina park is the source of five mountain streams that gradually descend toward the South Carolina border, where they suddenly plunge over spectacular falls and rush through steep-walled gorges.
With only one afternoon at my disposal I decided on a duo of one-mile round-trip hikes. The first, marked “strenuous,” descended sharply to a wooden platform overhanging Bearwalow Creek, where Upper Bearwallow Falls dropped 200 feet into the gorge. Pretty – but a bit anticlimactic after others I have seen around Transylvania County. And almost not worth the straight-up, half-mile ascent that had me gasping for air.
Upper Bearwallow Falls in North Carolina's new Gorges State Park
After catching my breath I crossed the parking lot to access the “moderate” Bearwallow Valley Overlook trail. I eyeballed the spongy, leaf-littered path Continue reading
A Rotten Person Travels The Caribbean, by Gary Buslik
A Rotten Person Travels The Caribbean by Gary Buslik, is an hysterically funny, make you choke on laughter, make tears run down your cheeks, novel about a lifetime of Caribbean travel.
I actually met Gary Buslik – briefly – at a gathering of travel bloggers. For some unknown reason, he decided that I would be a perfect candidate to review his travel narrative. I receive many such requests; sadly most of them turn out to be poorly written novels full of bad grammar and misspellings that leave me wondering what the point was. Not so with Buslik’s effort. From the moment I opened the front cover, I couldn’t put it down. I read most of it in a day, sitting in my favorite coffee shop while willfully ignoring the other patrons, who stared at me each time I laughed out loud – which was often.
Buslik’s singularly cynical life view – he is not kidding when he calls himself a rotten person – translates into some of the funniest stories I have ever read. While I don’t doubt for a moment that the stories are true (I believe he actually peed on Idi Amin and has discovered the secret of chicken rectums), but after reading chapters describing trips taken with his wife I need convincing that he’s been married to the same woman for more than 20 years. Whether his wife is mythical or just has a lot thicker skin than I do, their marital travels (and fights over potential trips) result in some gut-splitting situations.
If you want a good read that is guaranteed to make you laugh, buy A Rotten Person Travels The Caribbean (see link to Amazon.com below), but do not – I repeat DO NOT – try to read it while drinking coffee or you’ll be snorting java through your nostrils.
Buy Buslik’s book at Amazon.com
Posted in Travel writing | 
A Rotten Person Travels The Caribbean, Books, Gary Buslik, Humor, reading, Travel, writing | 
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The meaning of the term “skyscraper” has changed dramatically over the centuries. Originally a nautical term referring to a tall mast or main sail on a sailing ship, the word was first used to describe buildings when the ten-story steel-framed Home Insurance Building was constructed in Chicago in 1885. Although later demolished, the structure forever marked Chicago as the birthplace of the skyscraper. Chicago today has an unrivaled collection of skyscrapers that makes the city a premiere destination in the world for the study of architecture.
Chicago Model City display in the lobby of the Architecture Foundation documents the history of architecture in the city
Chief among the city’s spectacular skyscrapers is the Chicago Board of Trade Building, which anchors the southern end of the downtown financial district on LaSalle Street and is the world’s oldest futures and options exchange. Built to provide a centralized location where buyers and sellers could meet, negotiate, and enter into contracts to buy and sell commodities produced in the Midwest, farmers flocked to the CBOT with samples of their wheat, corn, and soybean crops. Over time, the function of the exchange evolved into one of buying and selling forward contracts for commodities. Today, more than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading from the floor of the open exchange.
Art deco designed Chicago Board of Trade Building anchors the south end of the LaSalle Street financial district
Growing up in Chicago, I had always wanted to tour the Board of Trade building and watch the commodity traders in the “pit” but, like most locals who never visit the attractions in their own back yard, I just never got around to it. I moved away and forgot about CBOT until recently, when I returned to the city for a conference scheduled to be held in the Loop. In years past, anyone could visit the Chicago Board of Trade, but since 9/11, security concerns have necessitated limiting access to the facility. Fortunately, tours are still available through the Chicago Architecture Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public interest and education in architecture and design. The CBOT is one of 16 “Lunchtime Tours” of historic buildings available through the Foundation. In this instance, the timing was perfect; not only would I learn the history of the skyscraper and see its unique architectural details up close, at the conclusion of the tour I would have an opportunity to witness live commodities trading in the pit from an overhead observation gallery.
I arrived early and strolled around the massive granite tower to kill time. Courtyards on two sides of the building provided seating for harried traders clad in the bright blue, red, or gold jackets of their particular brokerage houses. They rushed in and out of revolving doors for quick breaks, gulping coffee while talking on cell phones and puffing furiously on cigarettes, generating a billowing cloud of smoke. Wading through the billowing smoke, I was reminded that not so long ago I was living the same kind of harried and stressed-out life and I gave silent thanks that this part of my life is over. Continue reading
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