Category: Blogs

From Arches to Goblins to Canyonlands: Utah

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, U.S.A., USA Roadtrips

(Please note: Photo captions can be viewed by clicking on each individual photo!)

After my first three weeks on the road, I’d managed to see and visit with a total of almost 30 people. As wonderful as it had been to spend time with so many good friends and family, I was now looking forward to a much quieter second half of my trip as I headed west to wander deserts, mountains, and forests and be alone with my thoughts. Leaving Memphis on a Sunday morning, I had two rather long days of driving ahead of me to get out west where I planned to focus my time. The first day I drove to Oklahoma City, and the next day to Albuquerque, New Mexico, each about a 550-mile journey.

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From Massachusetts to Virginia, Florida, and Tennessee: And That Was Only the Beginning!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, U.S.A., USA Roadtrips

It had been almost a year since I’d taken any significant trips, so the combination of my itchy feet and the prospect of taking my new car on its first road trip, caused me to decide that it was time to hit the road again. Unlike the days when I was living in California and made a couple of cross- country trips each year to visit friends and family back east, these days my time is pretty much my own, so I can just meander and go where I want without being on any type of schedule. When I learned that my friend Joanne had planned to take her 93-year old mother, Norma on a road trip to Florida to visit relatives, I suggested we coordinate our plans to rendezvous first in Virginia Beach, then in Florida where we’d celebrate Norma’s 94th birthday together.

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Happy New Year!

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs

As I welcomed in 2024 watching a truly impressive fireworks display over downtown Providence, Rhode Island, I decided that one of my New Year’s resolutions needed to be paying more attention to this website and creating some new blog posts for the new year. As I’ve shared in earlier posts, during the last few months of 2023 I was preoccupied with finally getting my book published and trying to promote it.

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A Long-Awaited Return to Iceland

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Europe, Iceland

My first trip to Iceland was in June of 2008, and it was among my most favorite travel destinations. The scenery was other-worldly, the peace and quiet appealed to me, and the food, though expensive, was top-notch. Unfortunately, my travels over the years never seemed to bring me back to Iceland, but as I began to plan a European getaway for this fall, the new Icelandic airline called Play offered fares so low that it made my trip entire trip feasible. Since all of Play’s flights pass through Reykjavik, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to revisit Iceland for a few days after visiting Italy and London.

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Taking the Voyage with ABBA

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Music

I just returned from my first trip to Europe in several years. My primary destination was Italy, but given how easy it is to “hop” around Europe fairly cheaply once you’re across the Atlantic, I decided that while I was in “the neighborhood”, I simply had to go to London to see ABBA’s innovative concert/show/spectacle, and so I planned a two night stop-over in London for that purpose.

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A Beautiful Reunion with an Old Friend: Italy

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Europe, Italy

Thanks to the gigantic monkey wrench that COVID threw into all of our lives, I haven’t traveled abroad since the summer of 2019. To some, this may not seem like such a big deal, but for me, who was once described by Diletta, my former Italian teacher, as someone who “goes to Europe the way some people go to the grocery store,” this hiatus from international travel was a huge change in my life. Ambiguous and ever-changing COVID restrictions that varied from country to country, uncertainty about the economy and my own finances, and the threat of a larger war developing in Europe all made me wonder whether I would ever get back to Europe, and especially to my beloved Italy again.

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Ain’t No Mountain High Enough: Climbing New Hampshire’s Middle Sugarloaf Peak

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, U.S.A.

Autumn. It’s that time of year again when New England achieves its highest level of “New Englandness.” The days begin to shorten, the air has a slight, but noticeable chill in the early mornings, the leaves start turning to a palette of all of my favorite shades of red, orange and yellow, and the smell of cider donuts and “pumpkin spice everything” assails the nostrils. I’ve always loved fall, and in my humble, native New Englander opinion, there is no better place to be in late September and early October.

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Who Says You Can’t Go Home?

by mattathomeintheworld, posted in Blogs, Psychology of Travel

One of my favorite songs has always been Bon Jovi’s Who Says You Can’t Go Home. I can relate to the lyrics, which talk about coming full circle in life: from wanting to break away from your hometown to explore the world, but ultimately realizing that home is where you really want or need to be. As so often happens with music, this song has taken on new significance for me over the last few months.

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