"...and there's nothing I can do about it now..." -- Willie Nelson

 It's Willie's 90th birthday these days, so worth noting. Not that he wrote my life, but he's written at least part of all of ours. If you like his music or not, that truth remains.

I deliberately stopped writing this blog because it became too much. My intention had been to make an entry every couple of days or maybe weekly to catch folks up on this adventure but fact is so many things were going on at so many levels that I just quit. Couldn't do it justice. Posting photos on Facebook is much faster and easier and actually gives a better day-to-day description of what we're doing.

Besides that, our experiences have deepened as we've stayed in various places and I don't mean just in terms of what we're seeing and who we've met. We're in our fifth Airbnb in ten months and we've learned a lot about the integrity of certain hosts, about unspoken concerns and what to ask before we agree to a contract. You'd think things would be pretty much standard across the board and in some ways they are. But they can also be radically different.

A friend advised me awhile back to be careful about what I say in our reviews, since the hosts also do their own reviews about tenants. Fair's fair I guess, but ultimately it's a business contract that works both ways. Plus our time Out Here has made us far more aware of various issues we'll face when we return to the US after the first of the year. There is a lot we miss, like Mexican food. But there is also a lot we will no longer tolerate, since there's so much "the land of the free" has forgotten and is now much better exemplified in countries we helped save from fascism and other issues. The US tolerates in its own backyard what it used to literally shoot and kill in Normandy or the islands in the South Pacific. But that's for another post.

...so if you want to follow what we're doing day-to-day and see pretty pictures, Facebook is the better option. This blog will be turning more toward observations about what works and what doesn't -- not just in overseas travel but also about other matters. In short, I am taking back the space. It'll be a series of posts over time but the good thing about where we are just now (physically) will allow for that.  Our days will be slower with fewer distractions for the next couple of months.

These won't be bitch sessions. It's spring and each week gets warmer with more flowers and greener trees and the wine is excellent and I meet more nice folks every day. It's just that things will be less busy -- less Paris and more France.

Things will take awhile to develop.

"...sometimes it's heaven and sometimes it's hell. Sometimes you don't even know...."