Tag: National-Geographic/Lindblad

Plan B, and local wineries

November 7th, 2025

The cat photo is related to the Government Shutdown and the FAA ordered flight cancellations. Really. I’ll get to that in a bit. I like the picture and the cat, so I thought I’d start off with something pleasant instead of a weird, AI generated image. This is a real, purring, meowing cat.

I started today off focused on setting up my Plan B for the flight to Los Angeles on the 16th. I began checking airports, including Sacramento, to see how many and which flights had been cancelled so far. Today was day one, where 4% of flights in forty airports, would be canceled. The percentage would then increase for the next few days to 10%. Yikes! At any rate, I found a few sites that listed cancellations, so I knew where to look later on in the week. I also checked the Delta Airlines site and sure enough, they already had posted the cancelled flights, and had a link to a page which described the options if your flight was cancelled. Based on what I had read so far, the cancellation notifications would cover the following two days. So theoretically, I would be notified on Friday morning if my 9AM flight on Sunday was cancelled. Woo hoo. Plenty of time to drive my trusty Subaru to LA. I could leave on Saturday, take a leisurely drive to LA, have a nice dinner at the hotel, lounge around Sunday morning before taking the hotel shuttle to the airport. I would leave some extra clothes in the car so I could take my time driving back home when I return from the trip. A great plan.

So all of that considered, I was feeling pretty good – many of the news shows I watched on TV recommended that all travelers should have a solid Plan B in case their flight was cancelled. Mine was set in concrete. But then I received an e-mail from Lindblad Travel with my final itinerary for the trip and….Oh crap!….my return flight goes through Atlanta, not LAX. My concrete plan just disintegrated. Back to square one. Time to panic!

Now I had to seriously think about some of the other awful options, other than just hoping for the best (the flight is not cancelled, option 1). Is Greyhound actually a viable option (#2). Amtrak. Nope – too many train switches. I checked some sites which promote ride sharing (as in people looking for riders). That was too much like being back in college, checking a bulletin board for students with cars looking for riders to pay for gas. I was really grasping at straws. So rather than wasting any more time and getting more frustrated, I decided that option one was the best for now, and then get out of the house for a while. Here’s where that cat comes into play.

One of the few really good things about living in the Sacramento Valley is the proximity to some great wineries. The Sierra Foothills AVA (American Viticultural Area) covers a wide region, including Plymouth and Fiddletown in Amador County, as well as the Eldorado Hills. Plymouth is a pleasant, 30 minute drive from where I live, and there are a number of excellent and beautiful wineries along the roads which wind through the hills. It reminds me a lot of what Sonoma County/Russian River and Paso Robles were like years ago.

Jan and I started exploring the Plymouth area in Amador County soon after we moved here. Not that we were that interested in wine (sarcasm….we still belonged to 8 wineries, and had about 25 cases of wine). We wound up joining four winery clubs initially, and loved to visit the area. One winery in particular, Easton/Terre Rouge, was our favorite – the tasting room was relatively small, filled with comfortable seating (like a nice living room). They also had a small area filled with beautiful plates, serving dishes, and assorted kitchen and entertaining paraphernalia, mostly created by local artists. Jan loved this place – a few of our kitchen cabinets are filled with items she purchased from there. Over time, we became regulars at the tasting room – it was a nice place to spend a few hours, chatting with the staff and other club members. When Jan needed to just chill out from the misiery of what she was going through, we headed out to the winery. Towards the end, this was our go to place – even after she could not communicate well, she enjoyed curling up on the couch with a glass of wine, and the winery cat (yes, the one in the photograph) curled up next to her.

So today, now that I was totally stressed out, I really needed to chill out somewhere – I’ve been so looking forward to the Antarctica trip, and the shutdown induced travel issues had significantly increased my cortisol levels. A winery day seemed to be in order. I needed a couple of bottles of quaffable wines anyway.

November is a great time of the year to visit any of the California wine regions – no traffic, relatively few tourists, so you get to spend time chatting with the winery staff and learn more about the wines, wineries and history of the area. Today, I spent over an hour sipping some nice wines, and chatting with one of the tasting room hosts who remembered Jan. It was nice just talking about my travels, about cancer (she was a survivor), and of course wine. For me, it was the first time I was able to spend time at the winery without melting down. And I also spent some quality time with the winery cat.

So how is this related to my government shutdown woes? While I was chatting with the host (I’m not really sure what to call the folks who work at the winery), I mentioned my travel problems related to the shutdown, and my lack of options for getting to LA. She thought about it for all of 3 seconds, and then said (drum roll):

“Why don’t you rent a car?”

Duh. Double Duh. I just started laughing. I spent all this time in the morning, stressing out and seriously considering taking a Greyhound bus to LA, when the most obvious, simple solution somehow escaped me. I guess that’s pretty typical for me – always find the most complex solution to a problem.

So, that’s the rest of the story in terms of my travel crisis. If my flight is canceled, I can rent a car locally and drive to LAX, dump the car there, and stay overnight at the Hilton as I had originally planned. No more worries. I can even head down early to visit my cousins and just relax for a day.

So now I was feeling pretty good again, and did not feel like heading home just yet. Well, I was surrounded by wineries, so I might as well make one more stop. I had to drive right by Vino Noceto, another great winery which specializes in Sangiovese, to get on the main road. Jan and I usually stopped there whenever we visited Easton, so I figured that I might as well stop there and pick up a bottle or two.

I was greeted when I entered the tasting room by a beautiful, well mannered Golden Retriever, and I became her new, very best friend as long as I continued to play with her. Her owner also happened to be the owner of the winery. I somehow managed to maintain a conversation with him while simultaneously sampling wine and scratching my new best friend. The owner twisted my arm enough to try a few more wines than I had planned, and absolutely forced me to buy one of each. I somehow managed to limit my wine acquisition to less than a case, and leave without the Golden Retriever in my back seat. Although I did bring a small dog’s worth of hair along on my pants legs. The joy of playing with Golden Retrievers.

All told, I managed to limit my wine purchases to 10 bottles, all quaffables (as opposed to vintage wines to cellar for way too long before drinking). Once you hit a certain age (mine, not the wines), it no longer makes sense to purchase a lot of really expensive wines that you may never drink. I pretty much stick to wines that are drinkable within a few years. Or days. Hours.

And so ends this long tale. I now have a lot of new wine, and a reasonable plan for getting to Antarctica. I’m guessing that unless the idiots in Congress come to their senses and get the government functioning again, I will be driving to LA next week to catch my flight to Santiago. I’d prefer to fly to LA, but with my luck (or lack thereof), I’m certain that flights to LA will be trimmed once they reach the 10% cancellation threshold.

Hopefully, my next post will have photographs of giant waves crashing over the bow of the ship. And maybe some penguins too.

Sorry, I know, I’m getting carried away with AI imaging. It’s my latest obsession. I’ll get over it pretty soon.

November 8, 2025
Traveling Solo

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessmen slowly get stoned
Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it’s better than drinkin’ alone

Billy Joel, Piano Man

I wrote an entry in my grief journal a couple of weeks ago, describing my experiences and thoughts on traveling alone. I’ve been thinking about that since then and decided to expand a bit on the topic, and post it in the blog this time around.

I have recently read through a few other blogs about traveling solo, and for the most part, the authors are doing this as a life-style choice, not as the result of the loss of their spouse. These blogs are chock full of interesting travel stories, tips on places to go as a single – all happy stories about fulfilling dreams of traveling the world with the freedom of being unencumbered with jobs or relationships. Life is good – you can do what you want, go where you want, and make new friends if you want. Freedom is the key word.

Solo traveling for widowers is a different ballgame – it is not a choice, but more of a necessity for surviving a world turned upside down. Once you get through the initial shock of losing your spouse, you are faced with the enormous challenge of learning to live life as one, not as a couple. Travel beckons as an escape, a means of finding some direction in what has suddenly become an empty life. It is a poor substitute for a vibrant life filled with the joy of sharing new experiences with your partner, and for introverts like myself, it requires some significant personality changes. And then there is the dreaded “can I join you” moment at meals onboard a cruise ship.

Solo traveler nightmare –
may I join you for dinner?

But for me at least, I enjoy the new experiences and adventures, which fill some of that void. Do I feel a sense of freedom going it alone? No, not at all and doubt if I ever will. I’d prefer to have my soul mate with me. But sometimes, as I did this last trip to Alaska, I find moments of incredible peace and tranquility, sitting by myself and taking in the incredible beauty surrounding me. Those moments make it all worthwhile.

On a related and more positive note, there was an article in the Washington Post today about travel companies finally starting to encourage solo travelers. It’s about time! With the exception of Road Scholars, most every travel/expedition company adds a single traveler “surcharge” or penalty which in most cases, can be many thousands of dollars. I understand, sort of, the justification for doing this – most of the cabins on cruise ships are configured for two occupants, and the published trip prices are based on double occupancy. The surcharge is an attempt to make up the difference for a single occupant. Some of the companies do offer single travelers the opportunity to double up with another solo – and in some cases, if they do not find an appropriate room mate (I assume based on gender), you do not have to pay the surcharge. Sharing a small state room, and even smaller bathroom, with someone other than my spouse does not work for me. I cannot even imagine sharing a tiny cabin on the National Geographic/Lindblad ships with another guy, and even worse, a complete stranger. Too weird for me at least. (See note below on an exception to my rule).

I think the travel companies, especially the high-end ones like National Geographic/Lindblad, Ponant, Paul Gauguin, etc., figure that most solo travelers are willing to pay the surcharge, and the majority of solo travelers wind up booking with a close friend or family member. So why bother making special arrangements for a small population. From my limited experience to date, I have been the only single guy on all but one of the trips. There have been a number of widows on each trip, all of whom traveled with someone close (daughters, parents, friends). According to the article, that demographic seems to be changing, so maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised in the future to see an invoice without that extra charge. I’m not holding my breath for that.

I mentioned there was an exception to my rule of sharing quarters with a complete stranger. Next February I am scheduled on a Natural Habitat trip to photograph the huge brown bears on Kodiak Island. There are only 8 passengers on this trip, sharing cramped quarters on a converted fishing trawler. I’ll be sharing an extremely small space in a half a modified shipping container – bunk beds, a sink, and a shared bathroom for four. It’s more like camping on a boat. I can survive four nights of that…I hope. I’ll be worried enough about surviving the bears.

September 24, 2025