Each year the IPW travel convention reception is a lively welcome, with themed performances, food and drink plus more food and drink. Did I mention food and drink? This year's host, (Fort) Lauderdale served up cultural and culinary samples using its lauditory 3,122 hours of annual sunshine as a backdrop. Let the show begin! A local artist painted an intriguing body of work to fit the landscape

White boy dancing, by Susan Webb, at the opening night beach party of IPW (travel convention) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Go Gary!

It's cute as a biscuit. This 400 square foot community-refurbished 1915 gas station proudly takes its place on the National Register of Historic Places. My friend Steve and I popped in while exploring some old Route 66 touch points not far from Los Angeles, California. The spunky little gem in all its 1930s canary yellow glory is now a free museum, open Thur. - Fri. 10-4. Designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style popular at the time, its restoration won a California Pres

If Route 66 begins in Chicago, Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles is where it ends 2,448 miles west as measured along the original highway. The initial terminus is actually in downtown Los Angeles, but the pier has glam. Executive Director and official Pier historian James Harris took me on a tour one typically busy day, from the 1916 Loof Hippodrome with its third generation carrousel to the mural at the end of 'America's last great pleasure pier.' Santa Monica Pier Rote 66 End

Neon signs are as much a part of Route 66 as cars and peculiar motels. If you’ve ever wanted to know what goes on behind those signs, here’s a unique experience. The ACE Sign Company provides free guided tours M-F 10-2 at their Springfield, Illinois headquarters museum. It's all part of 'Route 66ing.' Get my full 5-day trip through Illinois https://www.travelingmitch.com/mostrecent/illinois-route-66-attractions Scanning some neon in the ACE Sign Company museum.

Looking back at Day 3 of my Route 66 tour through Illinois. Roll out the carpet! The American Giants (open air) Museum in Atlanta (Illinois!) is a quirky stop. We arrived as a jumbo viking was being hoisted into place. Bill Thomas of the Atlanta Betterment Fund gave me a backgrounder on the viking. Texaco also had 300 giants manufactured in the 1960s, then ordered them destroyed due to fallout from both the dealers and public. Dealers were required to move them from station t

A new roadside mural by Robert Ryan celebrates the 100th birthday of Route 66

Images © Gary Crallé 2026

I couldn't decide whether the name Gozo was more Lord of the Rings or Harry Potterish. Curiosity made me go. Gozo is the second largest island in the Maltese archipelago. Being isolated from Malta itself by a ribbon of water, it moves to a more relaxing pace. To get there from Sliema in the south of Malta we hopped aboard bus 222 for the 1-hour ride northward along the coast. A 25-minute ferry ride deposited us on Gozo, and from the harbour a bus took us to the town of Victor

March 19th would turn out to be a special day. It was the Feast of St. Joseph, a religious festival held annually in the town of Rabat, not far from Valletta. Waiting for a municipal bus to get there was hopeless, so we shared an uber with (yet another!) Canadian couple, Ed and Fay, who had been waiting at the same bus stop in Sliema. In Rabat we followed the crowd along St. Joseph Street from the Basilica where St. Paul stayed for 3 months in 60 AD after being shipwrecked, a

It did not begin well. The fellow at the U-Save car rental desk in Valletta (Malta's capital city) told us 'No car for you!' due to age and insurance restrictions, even though our package deal included a car. Someone at Yes Getaways had not done proper diligence. That's when we met fellow Canadians Tamara and Dwight from British Columbia who had coincidentally bought the same package tour. They kindly offered us a lift to our shared hotel, the Lady Todd. We quickly learned th

Lis and I dubbed ourselves a couple of Maltese Falcons, having spontaneously signed onto an 8-day YES Getaways trip to Malta . Delta / Air Canada flew us from Toronto to New York. Air France took us to Paris. In conversation aboard AF I happened to mention to a flight attendant that it was 26 years to the day (St Patrick's) that Lis and I got to know each other on a return flight from the Galapagos Islands. Shortly afterward, a certificate and miniature liqueurs arrived at

Here's a fascinating backgrounder on the origins of and interpretations of American Thanksgiving by Thomas Tweed as published in THE CONVERSATION. https://bit.ly/4o0dkT0

2025 Nov. 11 Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Georgetown cenotaph. A few years ago I listened as a veteran commented to a group of school children about war and bullies. "Don't let anyone push you around." Always smart advice. #RoyalCanadianLegion #haltonhills #remembranceday

Tour boats churn past the Konstanz harbour entrance, Lake Constance, Germany. From our family visit in Schwäbisch-Gmünd we drove south to...

We made sure our road trip through the southern half of Germany included a visit with extended family members Katrin, Stanislaus and...

As one of the oldest cities in northern Europe (and arguably, Germany) Worms is probably best known as the site of Martin Luther's...

A New York Times story talks about Cleveland, Ohio as the birthplace of Superman, but fails to mention, as Global News points out in 10 fun facts about Superman's Canadian ties "The Superman character was co-created by Canadian artist Joseph Shuster. Born in Toronto, he is a cousin of Wayne Shuster, one-half of the beloved Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. Joseph, who passed away in 1992 at the age of 78, said Metropolis was modelled on Toronto and the Daily Planet was i

Upon extricating ourselves from a rabbit hole stairwell in Cochem, next day we continued down the Mosel to Trier. Painted stairwell...

Cochem is one of those gems on the Mosel River. For travellers, the river is all about leisure. Our satisfying day trip by car from...