Melissa's Car Fire

 Warning, there are some rough pictures in this post.  These are being posted after a family discussion.  On January 27, Melissa and a friend of hers came to our house for pizza with Stacey and me.  As they were about to leave, she lit a cigarette and flames burst in the car.  They were trapped briefly as they struggled to get out, and came running into the house screaming, "Help, my face is on fire!" Both their faces were bright red and I could smell burning flesh right away. Melissa crouched on the kitchen floor, screaming in pain. As I was talking to 911, I glanced out the window and saw flames inside the car.  I told 911 the car is on fire and that we need fire trucks and an ambulance for my daughter.  I vainly tried to put the fire out with a fire extinguisher, but the whole car was engulfed quickly. I backed away as various things popped and exploded in the car. The fire chief later described what I was hearing.  The loudest explosion was the air compressor blowing the air bag out into the street. The car alarm blasted away.  The first fire fighters arrived within minutes and took over.  I showed them where Melissa was in the kitchen.  Once I knew she was in good hands, I paused to take this photo and the brief video.

Melissa in the ambulance.  I had been on the phone with Mary, her mom, who wanted to know how badly she was burned.  I figured the easiest way would be to show her.

These pictures were taken after the fire was put out.  The cause is under investigation and we are not publicly speculating. We appreciate your patience in this investigation...

Melissa took these selfies over the course of a few days in the hospital.  With second degree burns, her face swelled up as expected.  The swelling has gone down considerably.  She is expected to return to normal with a few scars, but she has a long road ahead of her.

She lost her purse, all of its contents, her glasses, and $700 cash rent money in the fire.  Her friends were nice enough to set up a GoFund me account.  We very much appreciate that.

Finally, just a few more photos of debris from the car, which is completely replaceable.

Rear view mirror

Something plastic that melted

She threw her coat on the ground while escaping the burning car.  This is all that remains.

Road Trip Across the USA During Covid Outbreak

 by Paul Pakusch

With more time off in the summer of 2020 than I've ever had in my adult life, I was anxious to go on a trip. The restrictions placed because of the Covid situation meant that I should choose an area where the infection rate was low. I had a window of about 2 1/2 weeks to complete this trip before other responsibilities meant I needed to be home. My wife, Stacey did not have as much time off from work so she gave me the blessing to go by myself.New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo had started putting some states on a quarantine list; if you were coming to New York from one of those states, you were supposed to quarantine yourself for two weeks upon return.I wanted to avoid those states.

For the westward part of the trip, none of the states along the northern border of the U.S.A. were on the list. They included Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming. They all had low rates of Covid infections, so I felt confident that I could travel by myself and not be infected. I wasn't planning on interacting with people much; I only wanted to enjoy scenery.

I began my drive west on Sunday, July 5.I drove along I-90 through western New York, through Pennsylvania and Ohio. I made two short stops to visit family and friends along the way; in both cases, we practiced social distancing procedures. Once I got past Detroit, I turned north along I-75 with my first stop being Mackinac Island after sleeping overnight at a rest stop.No automobiles are allowed on Mackinac Island. I took a ferry boat to the island, rented a bicycle and spent a few hours riding around.

Next, I headed west across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a popular tourist area filled with forests, small lakes, tiny villages and campgrounds. I stopped frequently to enjoy scenery and take pictures.This began the pattern for the rest of my journey. I drove through some heavy rains from passing thunderstorms. I stayed at a campground on Lake Michegamme the second night and continued my journey across upper Wisconsin and into Minnesota the next day.In Warba, MN, I found a very narrow portion of the Mississippi River and stopped to take photos.It would widen out further south.

I spent the night at a rustic campground near Waubun, MN, where more storms passed through during the overnight hours.I was happy to be camping in my minivan and not a tent.I had put the seats down and laid a mattress in the back. It was as comfortable as any bed back home.I had space along the side of the mattress to place small suitcases, which became my "dresser" for this journey.A cooler with ice was by the side door, for easy access either inside or outside the van.

I continued west into North Dakota with its miles and miles of flat farmland.I had seen this many times from an airliner while crossing the country, but this was the first time I'd seen it from ground level.I was getting exactly what I wanted from this trip:Scenic views of the U.S.A. on a journey by myself.The Painted Canyon in North Dakota gave me my first views of a changing landscape carved by millions of years of wind and water.This area had once been at the bottom of a swamp, much like Florida.At the petrified forest, the shape of tree parts had been preserved by a process of mineralization that turned them into solid stone.

As I headed into Montana, I thought about how I'm enjoying the awesome scenery of our great country as the picture changes from flat to canyon, to mountain to valley, to river to lake to barren to grasslands to trees and more.

Idaho was on the New York quarantine list, so I turned south before reaching it. There are some amazing canyons along route 191 as you head to West Yellowstone, where I entered Yellowstone National Park.I took the time to enjoy some of the thermal activity around the park.There are many geysers.Old Faithful is not the biggest geyser nor the most regular, but it is the biggest regular geyser, which is why it gets the most attention.I set up my camera on a tripod to make a video recording of an eruption, which occurred within 10 minutes of the forecast time.

Once I was done at Yellowstone, I was hoping to find a nearby campground to spend the night. Everything was booked. During this pandemic, many tourists were travelling in their trailers and RV's.I headed out of the south entrance, hoping to find a roadside rest area, but everything was marked, "No overnight camping."With stops for photos along the way until it got dark, I finally reached Dubois, Wyoming and checked into a motel for the night.The next morning, I was blown away by the scenery I had been driving through in the dark.I kept thinking about how you can never get a photo that truly shows the magnificent scenery of areas like this, no matter how good the photo is.

Next destination was Thermopolis, Wyoming.I had to drive through the Winding Rivers Canyon to get there.This was some of the most spectacular scenery of the whole trip, and I find myself at a loss of words as to how to describe it.Once in Thermopolis, I got some laundry washed at a laundromat and spent several hours enjoying water from the hot springs at a water park.I spent another night in a hotel.

At the suggestion of several friends who were following my adventures on Facebook, I decided to head back south the next day to see a bit of Denver, Colorado and visit some family members.Again, social distancing procedures applied.We took the opportunity to visit Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which is a popular spot for many bands.It is open to the public when no events are scheduled and you can walk around its vast spaces.

My next destination was a KOA campground next to Devil's Tower, Wyoming, made popular because of its prominence in the 1977 film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It is a designated national monument and is a spectacular sight.As the sun slowly slipped into the west, my camping site was truly in its shadow.The campground plays the movie every night at 8:00. It was a surreal treat to be watching the movie while the real Devil's Tower was in sight, right behind the large TV screen.

The next day I drove to Mt. Rushmore to see the President's faces that had been blasted into the rock.There's a nice path that winds around the area, so I took the opportunity to do a bit of hiking and photography from many angles.Another night at a campground, and then I visited the similar but much larger monument still being blasted out of a mountain for Crazy Horse.I say "blasted" because these are not carvings.The skilled artists and workers who created them did so with dynamite.The rock is too hard to "carve."

The Badlands of South Dakota would be my final major destination. I spent several hours driving along the scenic route of the Badlands.I saw prairie dogs digging their holes and playing, saw a mother longhorn goat with her kids, and I encountered a bison walking past my van at one point.

I had been paying attention to reports of how Covid was spreading across the U.S.A. and I didn't want to be in a state that would go on New York's mandatory quarantine list. I wasn't doing much socializing; I was spending an average of 10-12 hours a day by myself in my air-conditioned mini-van. My fuel, ice and rest stops were as quick as possible, with a mask where needed or required, and interaction with cashiers and hotel personnel was done with plexiglass between us. If anything, I had already been pretty much in isolation through the majority of this journey. By this point, I was in South Dakota, a good 22 hours of driving distance from home. I had already seen the major attractions that I wanted to see. My plan had been a leisurely drive back; I wanted to drive a few hours each day and stop at campsites along the way home. Three states that were in my path had been added to the list of states required for quarantine in New York: Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio. Up to this point, I hadn't been in any states that were on the list.I didn't know if more would be added, so I decided it was time to curtail the trip and head home the next morning.The rule was that someone driving, like me, was supposed to go onto a website, fill out a form as to where you had been, and then self-quarantine for two weeks.Exceptions included people who were just driving through and spending less than 24 hours.I decided to split my 22 hours of driving time into two days.I would get through those three states as quickly as possible, a few hours each at the most with minimal rest stops, and spend the night in a state that's not on the list.That ended up being Indiana.

The two days driving home were uneventful.As I had for most of the trip, I spent most of my hours listening to Sirius radio music, comedy and talk shows, and some of the 3,800 songs I have loaded onto my van's hard drive.I visited no museums or other indoor attractions; everything I wanted to see was outside and scenic.Other than ice, I bought no groceries or ate at any restaurants.I had purchased enough bulk food to store in boxes or keep cold in my cooler.I had two large packages of bottled water that kept me plenty hydrated.It truly was a scenic trip of as near-isolation as I could get while travelling more than halfway across the country and back.

Jenny

I was inspired to write about Jenny based on the caption I wrote for a picture I posted of Jenny and me on my Facebook page today. The caption read, "We have been through a lot together." Jenny is a grand old lady who came into our lives on January 1, 2005.  That makes her 16 years old, or 112 in dog or cat years.

Shortly before that, we had been without a cat for a couple years when I was helping my sister with a phone line in her house.  I was face down on the floor, doing some wiring, when her cat came up to me and started sniffing my face.  At that point, I knew I  missed having a cat in my house.  So, on New Year's Day, off we went looking for a pet store that was open.

I already knew the name.  Previously, naming a pet was always a family activity, but this time, since I was the one that wanted a cat, the honor went to me.  Being an aviation fanatic, I decided on the name "Jenny" since it was the nickname of a popular World War I training airplane.  All we need to do was find Jenny in the pet store.

Jenny adopted us.  While checking out the different kittens, Jenny was the one who had a hypnotic stare.  She would gaze into our eyes and not look away.  Her spell was successfully cast upon us and we obediently chauffeured her to her new home.

Garnering the interest that a pet always inherits from a new family, Jenny became the frequent subject of our daughters' art and photography pursuits, as well as a new playmate for our rambunctious Chocolate Lab, Fudge.

At full size, she is a small cat.  She is solid gray with a black nose. She has a delicate way of dabbing her nose as she sniffs around. She doesn't show much interest in being held or cuddled, but she will race to the door to see who is there, just as a dog does.  When she sits, she elegantly wraps her tail around her base, as if she were a statue to be idolized.

As I said, Jenny and I have been through a lot together.  In July, 2006, my wife, Mary, unexpectedly collapsed from a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. (A full description is here)  As I was on the phone with 911 and trying desperately to save her life, I have a vivid memory of being aware that Fudge and Jenny were on the other side of the living room, watching the scene.  In the 10 days that followed, not knowing if Mary would survive or be left a vegetable, both Fudge and Jenny were my solace when I came home from visiting her in the hospital.  We lived in a townhouse at the time, so I spent time with Fudge in the dog yard, and Jenny would always hang out in the living room with me or crawl around on my bed.

Mary beat the odds of a 5% survival rate, for which she received some media attention over the next few years.  On one such occasion, the Democrat and Chronicle wrote a story in which they wanted a photo of the two of us sitting in our living room.  Unbeknownst to us, Jenny managed to steal the scene by capturing the photographer's attention off to the side.  Imagine our surprise and laughter when we opened up the newspaper to see this picture!

Sadly, Fudged passed away not too long after this, but another daughter's dog, a hyper Rat Terrier named Peanut, came to live with us. The prim and proper Jenny now had a newly charged up bundle of energy to reckon with.

In February of 2008, my daughter, Melissa was home alone with Jenny and Peanut when the townhouse next door caught on fire. (A full description is here)  All three of them were safely moved to the apartment complex's community room while the fire was put out.  I left work early to get home because of this.  I'll never forget seeing Jenny explore the entire community room; she was on the floor, on tables, walking across the kitchen counter, and up on top of the cupboards. Ultimately, the kitchen next door was destroyed and we received only smoke damage, but the lingering smell was horrendous.  It was determined that we needed to temporarily move out.  The first couple of nights were in a nearby hotel.  Jenny and Peanut took to running around the hotel room like a couple of little kids excited about being on vacation.

As I said, Jenny was never a very cuddly cat, but we did notice a change in her demeanor once, after being out of town for a week and a half.  We figure she missed us; she started hanging around us more than usual, and seemed a lot more willing to have us pet her. Peanut and Jenny's address has changed multiple times, as we had gone from one apartment to another over several years.  In 2015, we bought a house again.  Jenny and Peanut, had a much bigger area to play and explore.

In January 2016, big changes happened.  Mary decided to end our marriage, so she moved out. The reasons are between us, but suffice to say, we have three grown daughters, great guys in their lives, a grandchild, a step-grandchild, and another grandchild on the way.  So, even though we are not together anymore, we still get along fine.

But a long-time marriage coming to an end does not happen without a lot of emotions going awry.  For much of 2016 and 2017, I was on the wildest emotional roller coaster ride of my life.  I hit stratospheric heights and ocean-deep lows.  While I was alone in my new house, which I came to dub, "The Lonely House," I had Peanut and Jenny.  The first couple of weeks, I would just get in my car and drive aimlessly with Peanut.  Jenny would hang out in the room with Peanut and me whenever I was home. I bought a guitar and started lessons to give me something to do.  Peanut and Jenny were my audience.

At first, my singular goal was to keep the house and keep the two pets.  As winter became spring, and spring became summer, I took my first tepid steps into dating, something I hadn't done in over 34 years.  Melissa and her family moved in with me, but by early 2017, I had decided I needed to put all responsibility behind me and get a fresh start by selling the house and paying off all my debts.  Sadly, the pets would not come with me.

Melissa found a new place to live and Jenny went with her.  Melissa has always loved Jenny; at least I can still visit Jenny whenever I want.  I still feel very attached to her.  We found a wonderful, loving family for Peanut, who has other canine playmates, and she is very happy these days. I miss her, but she has constant companionship now, so she is better off than being alone a lot.

I think most of my friends know what happened since 2017.  Once I met Stacey, my wild emotional roller coaster ride gradually settled down and we are now happily married.  It was a package deal, though.  I now have Mitten and Oreo in my life, too!

My Thoughts on the Current Status of Covid 19

My thoughts on the current status of Covid 19.

These are my opinions.  If you're interested in what I have to say, keep reading. If you have a thoughtful response, post it. If you're only here to argue with me, move on.

First of all, everyone in my family appears to be unaffected, so that's good news for us.  I do have some friends who have been diagnosed with Covid 19.  At last report, they appear to be healing.  My prayers are with those who have the virus, and the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones.

We are dealing with a virus that, in its current form, has never been around before.  How do you handle it?  How do you keep it from spreading?  There are no easy answers, but everyone has an opinion.  Who should we listen to?  I prefer to listen to the person(s) who have a combination of the most experience in immunology, the best data available, knowledge of previous pandemics, and the ability and authority to set policies.  Are these policies they've come up with the right policies?  Who knows.  But nothing will work if people don't cooperate to give these policies a chance.  It's a previously-unknown virus, and policies will need to be adjusted as we learn more about the virus. People need to be patient.

For those who post random YouTube clips of  "experts" to back up their claims about why the quarantines should be ended, or if they even should have happened: We all want the quarantine to end and for social distancing rules to be relaxed.  But as I said, there are a lot of different factors to consider and the government leaders we currently have in place, along with medical experts that advise them, are the ones who evaluate all the data and set the policies.  Will they work?  I don't know.  Give them a chance.  Having said that, I pray that the government leaders we currently have in place are taking the advice of their advisors and making wise choices.

I have no patience for the people who are out protesting the policies, especially those who are making this about their "rights." What "rights" do they think they are losing?  We are in a crisis situation and the authorities are trying to resolve it.  Besides, it's not just the United States, this is affecting the entire world.  I don't want to hear your government conspiracy theories.

The folks carrying guns around at these demonstrations look like clowns.  I'm sorry; I'm a supporter of the 2nd amendment as it was intended by our forefathers, and I'm usually ambiguous in what I say about gun owners' rights.  But if you're at a social-distancing protest to show off your guns, not only do you look silly, but you're diminishing your own credibility regarding gun owners' rights.

More than anything else, I am bothered by the growing violence by some of those who are protesting the social distance rules.  There have been reports of enforcement personnel being pushed and shot.  There is NO reason to take it out on these people; they are doing the job that was assigned to them.

Kudos to the front line workers.  It shows who are the true "essential" people are in our society and they should be paid accordingly.  I could go on and on about people who make millions in other lines of work, but I'm sure you get my drift.

Stay healthy, stay safe, and thank you for reading this.

How We're Coping

Stacey and I have pretty much been alone together since this quarantine went into effect. That doesn't mean we've been hermits. We've both been keeping quite busy, but at a nice, relaxing pace. Both of us are used to being alone.  In our younger years, we each spent a lot of time by ourselves for various reasons, so we know how to stay occupied now.  Still, it doesn't help the fact that today we are more or less forced to be isolated from physical contact with other people, including family and friends.  We stay in touch through phone calls, Facebook, through Facetime, and through Zoom.

We've been getting a lot of work done around the house.  We bought it last year and are still trying to get our belongings organized.  Two separate near-lifetimes of accumulation adds up to a lot of stuff, even though we both disposed of a lot of stuff before we met.  Our house is small, so we've been creative about how to store what we want to keep.

We've been staying physically active.  It's not only healthy for your body, but also your mental well-being.  Physical activity releases endorphins, which are chemicals produced naturally by the nervous system to cope with pain or stress.  They are often called "feel-good" chemicals because they can act as a pain reliever and happiness booster.  This is why runners get a "runner's high" and why dancers enjoy dancing.  Stacey and I often dance in our living room in the evening, we take daily walks, I ride my bike, and we are doing yard work together.

Sitting around is the worst thing you can do, especially if you're watching endless hours of Covid news coverage.  Sitting makes your body tired because it senses you're trying to sleep. The lack of activity makes you bored, and your body isn't releasing any endorphins.  Watching the news makes you stressed out because you can't control what's going on.  The culmination of this is that you get depressed.  

Stacey watches a little bit of news a day just to keep up on what's going on.  Then she turns the TV off or watches something she enjoys.  I haven't watched any news at all; I get my news from Reuters.com, which is a source that the majority of the news outlets in the world use.  I especially don't watch Trump's daily rambles.  He makes me extremely angry. I don't feel I'm going to get any worthwhile information from him anyways, so why let myself get angry?  I read the summaries of what I need to know.  

We do watch TV shows and movies that we enjoy.  We've seen some Netflix series, some movies, some Disney Plus, and Stacey keeps up on her shows.  I've been organizing computer files, pictures and videos.  We take our daily walks, my bike ride, we play board games, we dance in our living room, we sing to YouTube karaoke videos, we've been cleaning together, doing yard work, organizing our stuff, and staying in touch with people.

We're all in this together, and we all need to do what we can to stay healthy.

Bored?

by Paul Pakusch

Watching my fellow U.S. citizens deal with shortages and boredom reminds me of the "normal" living conditions I've seen in my travels.  For example, when Stacey and I made a pit stop at a government building during an excursion on our honeymoon to Cuba last year, a state employee charged her 25 centavos for a few squares of toilet paper on her way  into the rest room.  She offered me none, and there was none to be seen in the men's room.  Tourists are often advised to bring their own toilet paper when staying at a hotel in Cuba.  This is the norm.

Then there's this:

No matter what your politics, it's a reminder to us Americans that we take many things for granted. We don't know the true meaning of "desperate."

First and foremost, take care of yourself.  If you're sick, obviously get help.  Otherwise, follow the rules about sanitizing yourself, your family and your environment.

If you're bored and stuck at home during this quarantine era, there are plenty of things you can find for yourself to do.  The obvious is to sit and watch TV, whether it's movies, talk shows, catching up on soaps, or binge-watching your favorite Netflix series.  But you can only take that for so long.  Eventually, sitting on the couch is going to bring you down and you'll feel depressed.

I'm taking this as an opportunity to get projects done around the house.  I've often heard retirees say, "There isn't enough time in the day to be retired."  For so many of them, they've waited years to be rid of the obligation of spending 8+ hours a day at work and get to the tasks and social activities they've always desired.  I feel that way; even though I now have 24 hours a day to do as I wish, I still feel like I don't have enough time to get to all the projects I want to get done around the house.  We bought it a year ago, and while we've come a long way in making it "ours," there's still much to be done.

We are blessed.  The internet is a  modern tool that no other generation in history had to give us news from around the world in seconds.  If lonely, we can easily stay in touch with such programs as Skype, Facebook Time, Google Hangouts, Viber, WebEx, Jami, Talky and WeChat.  Many of these can be set up for multiple users so you can have group conversations.

Here are some more ideas for how to use your time:

Learn a craft; there are thousands of YouTube videos that teach you how to do things.  Same with learning a music instrument; I've seen music teachers offer free lessons via live chat.

Take up drawing or painting.

Find karaoke videos on YouTube and sing along.  No one is around to hear how badly you sing, so sing away!

Rearrange furniture, your cupboards, or your home office files.

Clean out your garage.

Rake your yard; it's spring!

Take a walk; ride your bike.

Write a blog, read other people's blogs.  Write your autobiography!

Organize your photos or computer files.

Look up Jane Fonda's or Richard Simmons' workout videos and exercise.

Play music and dance like no one is watching.

Play board games with your family.  Especially get those games out that have been collecting dust for years.

Read a book; many can be downloaded for free from the library.

Get your spring cleaning done.

Or the best advice of all:  Read all the posts in my blog!  Ha ha!

A Summary of My Life's Travel (so far)

by Paul Pakusch

Travel Writer and Agent
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I have always been thrilled by travel.  My mother once told me that, as a toddler and a young child, I would get out of breath, being so excited about travelling somewhere.  My parents loved the Adirondack Mountains, so much of my early life travel was to places such as Lake Placid, Lake George, and the Thousand Islands area.  We visited parks such as Storytown, Land of Make Believe, Gaslight Village, the North Pole, and of course, Santa's Workshop.  As my sisters and I got a little older, our family made visits to some places in Canada, including Lumina Resort in Muskoka, and Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.

A big travel phase of my life was when I was a member of the Greece Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps from 1972-1976.  Every summer, we would be away almost every weekend for Drum and Bugle Corps competitions.  I usually sat in the front seat of our bus, took in the sights as we traveled, and followed along on maps.  Maps were free from gas stations in those days.  Some notable cities and towns I remember competing in were Fulton, Oswego, Watkins Glen, Warren PA, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City, Marion OH, and Butler PA.

While in high school, I was active in WGMC radio when it was more of a community/student run station than it is now.  I was chosen to be a part of a delegation at the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System on three occasions.  We met in Washington DC, New York City, and Boston.

After I met my first wife, Mary in 1981, we got married in 1984 and honeymooned in Cocoa FL.  We visited Disney World (my first time there) and Kennedy Space Center.  Through our years together, and many with our three daughters, our travels took us to Toronto, Niagara Falls, Seattle, Florida, Vancouver BC for the World's Fair in 1986, Las Vegas, New York City, Philadelphia, and Europe.

For many years, my mother organized weekend trips every Columbus Day to a destination within a day's drive for her adult children and our families.  She paid for the hotel.  All my two sisters and I had to do was get our families there for a weekend of swimming in the hotel's pool and some sightseeing in the area we visited.

I worked in the control room at WHEC TV 10 for 32 years.  I spent about 25 of those years as an officer in NABET-CWA, the union representing control room workers and news photographers at that station and WROC TV 8.  Union business and conventions took me to places around New York State, as well as Florida, Kansas City, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Boston.  While these were work-oriented trips, I always managed to get in some sightseeing at the end of the day.

In 2004, I fell head-over-heels in love with cruising.  So much that I decided to become a part-time home-based travel agent, specializing in cruises. I took an online travel agent course and signed up as an independent contractor with a travel agency.  A year later, I ended my independent contractor status and set up my own agency.  I'd been on hiatus for 8 years when I decided to reactivate my status in 2019.

Until 2015, I sailed with Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Celebrity, and a Rhine River cruise on Avalon Waterways. Mary and I parted ways in January 2016 and I became a solo traveler for two years.  My life-long goal was to travel the world.  Being newly single, I accelerated my travel activities with multiple cruises each year and added Norwegian Cruise Line to my list.  I did Mexican/Caribbean cruises, a Mediterranean cruise and a Baltic Sea cruise.

Once I was ready for the dating scene again, the one promise I made to myself was that whoever I met needed to either travel with me or not hold me back if she didn't want to go.  I met Stacey in 2017 and she is as avid a traveler as I am! Our first trip together was a month-long land/sea cruise to Europe and the North Sea.  For our honeymoon, we booked two weeks on MSC, a back-to-back cruise that included Havana, Cuba.  To date, we've also been to New York City, Disney World, and a second trip to London because I was sick and in the hospital the first time we were there.

The enthusiasm I had for travel as a young child is just as strong as it always was.  Here are all the countries I've visited in my life so far:  United States (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Belize, Bahamas, Jamaica, Haiti, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Grand Cayman, Cuba, Curacao, Martinique, St. Kitts, Turks & Caicos, France, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Norway, Iceland,  Scotland, and the Vatican (yes, it is a country unto itself).

I may edit and revise this post as my travels continue.  You can find further details about some of my trips elsewhere in my blog.

Paul Pakusch

Travel Writer and Agent
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