where have you been

 my blue eyed son (Dylan)

that's a long answer.

I have been to Australia and Diego Garcia and a lot of places in between.....some thanks to my adventurous spirit but mainly thanks to my uncle Sam and the Unites States Navy.

I have been to Israel and Spain,  and Sicily, Turkey and Greece....some for an extended period of time and others for a shot of Raki and a brief hello.

I've been to Venice and Rome and Naples and Trieste.....i was up and down the French Riviera for the Summer of 1988......Cannes, St Tropez, and from Marseille to Monaco....i drank in the finest Hotels in Nice and in a roadside farmhouse outside of Toulon.

I crossed the Atlantic on Guided Destroyer and sailed through the Med, The Rock of Gibraltar, the Straits of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf...I was part of a Battle Group that crossed Khadaffy's line of Death and lived to tell about it. I sailed from the North Atlantic to the Coast of South America and everywhere in between......but i never crossed the equator and became a shellback...but i did live in Pascagoula Mississippi and was in drydock in the Ingalls shipyard...famous for the alien abduction of 1973  

I spent a night in the Nairobi Hilton and thought i was Ernest Hemmingway on the eve of a Hunt.

I ve been to the Hemmingway House in Key West and the birthplace of Jack Kerouac in Lowell Mass.

Ive been to Golden Gate Park and the Haight-Ashbury and i stood on the steps of the Grateful Dead House......

Ive been to Neal Cassady's favorite bar on the outskirts of Denver and i rode the rails from NY to LA and through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico. I drank a beer on the Santa Monica pier and stared off into the end of the World.

Ive been to Wrigley and Fenway , to Shea and Yankee Stadium pre 1975...ive been to Coors Field and Dodger Stadium, Camden Yards and the Old Vet in Philly.....I saw the Nats at RFK and the White Sox at the New Commiskey, and although i never saw the Jays, i did see Doug Flutie throw 6 TD's in the Skydome against the Argonauts.

I saw the HABS in the Forum and the Maple Leafs in their beloved Garden..I saw the Whalers before they left Hartford and i hope to see them someday soon in Raleigh.... .I had season tix in the blue Seats for a decade..I saw the  Bruins in  Boston on quite a few occasions...some in the Old Gahden and some in the New one...., the BlackHawks in the newly opened United Center but I never been to Detroit.......but I did see St Francis in the New Dorp bubble that Nicky Fotiu helped build and i am eternally grateful I did.

I saw Navy play at Annapolis and the Black Knights play at West Point from the Bar in the Michie Room...I saw the two teams play each other multiple times in multiple stadiums including the 100th anniversary game at the Vet.....I saw Notre Dame at South Bend and attended the Worlds Largest Cocktail Party in Jacksonville and the Florida-Georgia game. I saw Harvard vs Yale from New Haven and Penn St, USC, Fla State and others at the Kickoff classics at Giants Stadium.

I saw the Reggie Jackson hit 3 homers to win the World Series and the Lombardi trophy awarded in Tampa. I saw Mark Messier Raise the Stanley Cup over his head and lay to rest a 54 year old curse, but first i saw Stephane Matteau make sure he got that opportunity ( at 4;24 of double OT on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend 5/27/94).

Ive been to the Kentucky Derby, The Preakness and multiple Belmont Stakes.....The Wood, Travis and the Florida Derby and I was at the Breeders Cup in my Hometown Track in 2007.

ive seen more concerts than the brain can recall but some highlights were the Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan and the Clash , Neil Young and David Allan Coe, Hot Tuna and CSNY, The Band after Robbie and the Wailers after Bob....Charlie Daniels, Willie Nelson, Marshall Tucker and the Outlaws, but sadly Skynyrd long after Ronnie....Simon & Garfunkel at Shea and Central Park, Jackson Browne , Tom Petty, The Eagles and all the No Nukes participants , and i was at the 30th anniversary concert for Bob Dylan ......but perhaps my finest blessing was the 100 + times i was in an arena to see Jerry Garcia with the Dead or solo and i am grateful i was able to attend a few shows with my wife at MSG less than 2 years before his departure...we saw the Grateful Dead and the JGB and i am sure glad we did.

I packed a lot into 59 years.....and i am sure i have omitted a lot.......just wanted to put some of it down in black and white before early onset dementia sets in....Cheers