Country Counting

I’m Terry and I love to travel.

The trip that changed my life

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My buddy Tracy Bachmann recently asked me what trip changed my life. With all this stay-at- home business, it seemed the right time to reminisce about the trip that got me started on a lifetime of travel.

My family was in Pennsylvania visiting relatives one summer when my Aunt Tommy (my Mom’s only sister) and Uncle Joe invited my sister, Carla, and me on our very first big trip.

It took us all of two seconds to say, “Yes. We will do it and yes, we want to go. And wow, wow, wow this is wonderful. Thank you.”

Aunt Tommy said, “If you and Carla can save up enough money to pay for your airplane tickets to get here, Uncle Joe and I will take you to New York City for a weekend.”

I can remember looking at Carla and we were both beaming with excitement and happiness, we could hardly control ourselves.

Our parents were thrilled for us and we all thanked Aunt Tommy and Uncle Joe for the invitation and in no time, Carla and I had saved the money for the trip. I was a junior in college and Carla was a freshman, so we babysat, did odd jobs and scraped together the $200 to buy our airplane tickets.

I don’t remember the exact month we went, but it was cool and blustery, so it was probably the fall or early spring.  Aunt Tommy and Uncle Joe met us at the Philadelphia airport and from there we hopped on the train to go into New York.

TV, Broadway and off-Broadway shows are an integral part of the NYC experience.

We settled in at the hotel and I can remember standing in the hotel, looking out the window and Carla and I couldn’t get the smiles off our faces. We were so excited we could hardly stand still.

Aunt Tommy and Uncle Joe had bought tickets to see two Broadway shows and also the Merv Griffin television show. We saw 1776 – the first run of it, thank you very much. Dear World, with Angela Lansbury was the second show we saw. Who knew we were seeing such an iconic actress and 1776, which would have a revival in 1997 and another scheduled for 2021.

Aunt Tommy asked us what we wanted to do and we told her “go to Tiffany’s and Greenwich Village.” Aunt Tommy and Uncle Joe had been to NYC many times, but had never been to Greenwich Village, which at that time was considered a bit of a risky, hippie area. As we wandered through the streets, Aunt Tommy had a firm grip on her purse and instructed us to do likewise. At Tiffany’s the only thing I could afford to buy was a gold-plated toothpick!

I don’t know how he got us in, but Uncle Joe took us to the New York Playboy Club. It was dark, sophisticated and thrilling. And those bunny costumes were something else. Carla and I felt so grown up and worldly, just being there.

To this day, that trip has held a very special place in my heart. I will always remember the generosity of Aunt Tommy and Uncle Joe. What an amazing gift to give to a relative.

Inside the Concorde on display at the New York City docks. Ken and I flew in this exact plane across the pond when the Concorde was still flying with tickets I bought on Ebay. What a deal and what an incredible experience.

And that’s why to this day, Ken and I enjoy taking niece Kelly on trips. Her first trip with us was, of course, to New York City. We saw Broadway shows, went to the ballet, ate in Little Italy and visited museums. One of our favorite later trips to New York we dubbed the “transportation trip.” We kept track of every mode of transportation we experienced: airplane, taxi, bus, Central Park carriage, helicopter, boat, escalator (yeah, that counts!), bicycle taxi, elevator and subway.

One of the most emotional trips to NYC was in December for my birthday, right after Sept. 11. We flew in over the city and out my window I spotted ground zero. I gasped as I saw it and passengers on the other side of the plane rushed over to look out the windows. New Yorkers greeted us with thanks for coming back to the city and a walk by ground zero was hauntingly silent. That trip reminded me of how special NYC was to me and how important it was to patronize those places that have suffered from tragedy. We had celebrated Ken’s birthday at the Top of the World Trade Center years before and it seemed unreal that it was no longer there.

Celebrating my pre-birthday party in New York with co-birthday pal Lora Douglas, Beth Davis and Emily Pritchett.

I have celebrated numerous birthdays in NYC (many with co-birthday friend Lora), including my 60th and 65/retirement. We have stayed in every part of the city, in hotels and in apartments. We’ve seen many Broadway shows, off-Broadway shows and visited many museums — but nowhere near every one of the 150+ in the city.

On another birthday trip with Lora, we experienced the immediacy of news. Lora had headed to the Garment district to pick up sewing and quilting supplies, while I went to my favorite designer clothing outlet. On the way walking back to the hotel, Ken (who was not with us) called me and said there had been an explosion at the Marriot Marquis hotel, where we were staying. He said the hotel was blocked off and I couldn’t get in.

At that point, I looked up into the sky and saw a bunch of helicopters circling around and said, yeah, something is going on. I quickly called Lora to relay the news, to which she said, “Well, that’s a bunch of bull. I just walked in the hotel and I’m fine.”

 In the meantime, Ken had tried to call Kelly, who was on her way to meet us in NYC. Not getting her by phone (she was in the air flying), he called my sister, Michele, to tell her about the explosion. By the time I got Ken back on the phone to explain everything was fine, there was no explosion and the hotel was open – he had stirred up a fury of anxiety.

Ken called Michele back, explained that all was OK and we all took a deep breath!

When my business PROiNk, celebrated its 20th anniversary, I took the entire team to NYC for a weekend of shows, museums and creative inspiration. We made the trip again for our 30th anniversary.

During Carla’s last stages of terminal breast cancer, she requested a trip to NYC. The entire family was there and Ken coordinated hired cars so Carla wouldn’t have to walk far, as she was fairly weak at that point. We saw all her requested Broadway shows, ate some wonderful meals and ended with a drive to Pennsylvania where we celebrated Mom’s 80th birthday. It would be the last time most of our relatives saw Carla and Mom, as Carla died two months later and Mom died the following year.

On one trip to NYC at Christmas, Ken and I got so sick with the flu that we could barely get out of bed. We were staying at the historic Algonquin Hotel and called for room service. We were told, there is no room service today. It’s Christmas. Hungry and weak, we stumbled out of bed, went to 21 for lunch and found ourselves seated next to the famous Rip Torn. Still feeling yucky, we decided a movie would be a good low-energy thing to do. We sat enjoying the show until a poor homeless fellow wandered in and sat beside us, forcing us to move because of his foul smell.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is a must-see. Here we are with sister, Michele, brother-in-law, Lynn and niece, Kelly.

New York is like no other place on earth. I love its grit, its dirt, the wealth beside poverty. It is the fashion center of the world, where you can buy absolutely anything. Broadway and the theatres are bursting with music and talent. Just walking the streets is energizing and inspiring. The museums are world-class and there are fabulous restaurants on every corner. Christmas is a magical time to be there, with the lights and decorations.

On my last trip to New York, I took Tracy and Stella Bachmann and of course, Franny, the fur coat my dear sister, Michele, left to me. Sure does keep you warm!

We had planned a trip to NYC in April to celebrate Ken’s birthday, but alas, the pandemic had a different idea.

These days our trips to New York include lots of restaurant experiences, curated by Kelly. She has become a bigger foodie than I am and she has a knack for finding great little spots. Kelly and I coordinate shows and we usually throw in a museum or three to visit.

Our family is down to the four of us: me, Ken, Kelly and brother-in-law Lynn. Luckily, we all love NYC as much as Aunt Tommy and Uncle Joe did. Thanks to them for giving us the gift of NY more than 50 years ago. It is a treasure I will always cherish. And I can’t wait to get back there…soon.

How to get around high season hotel rates

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I should have figured this one out ages ago, but better late than never. I was trying to book a hotel in Asheville recently for a visit in mid-October. If you are a North Carolina fan, you know that fall is high season in that area, as everyone wants to see the leaves change and get a bit of cooler weather after our hot summer.

I had my eye on a pottery show near Asheville and kept finding $499 a night and higher rates at the hotels we typically book. I tried every discount available (senior, AAA, government rate) and checked all the competing hotel sites. No go.

Then I got an email from Marriott, reminding me about my Marriott points. Gee, I thought, maybe I have enough to book a room in Asheville.

I quickly found out that indeed I did and I was able to get a room at one of my favorite spots for FREE. Yes, free. After booking three nights in Asheville, I saved a whopping $1500.

Lesson learned. Book with points during high season and be sure to enroll in hotel loyalty programs. They can save you big $$ and make you feel so smart – all at the same time!

Happy travels.

How to visit Southern Africa in luxury and not break the bank

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Game drive in Botswana

Kelly and I have been planning a trip to Southern Africa for two years. We wanted to see the dunes in Namibia, go on safari in Botswana (I have loved the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series for ages), see Victoria Falls (see both sides in Zimbabwe and Zambia) and visit South Africa and Lesotho and Swaziland (since we are country counters).

When I originally reached out to my favorite travel agent for help, she came back with a quote of $47,000 for two weeks. After I picked myself off the floor, I realized I needed to get on the internet and figure out the trip by myself (which I normally do anyway).

If you read my blog, you know I started with free round trip business class tickets that I booked via United Airlines. I have two United credit cards that I use for EVERYTHING! I charge my house insurance, car insurance, travel, anything that will allow me to use a credit card. Ken does the same. So between us, we rack up a lot of points every year. I may not get the best connections (see my last post), but I can get us there. My rule is if the flight is more than six hours, I go for business class. If less, I can endure economy.

The history of apartheid is similar to our civil rights struggles. This is a former sign used to keep the races apart.

We flew into Johannesburg and then out of Cape Town. Here’s what we did for four weeks for about a third of what my travel agent quoted me for two weeks. Not including shopping, of course — which is fabulous!

I knew we would be tired after our trip and didn’t know a lot about areas of Johannesburg so I opted for a tried and true hotel chain — Four Seasons. It was a bit of a splurge at $300 per night, but I wanted us to be comfortable and have a nice place as a base. It was a beautiful hotel, complete with amazing gardens and located in what Kelly called the “Beverly Hills” of Jo-berg. From there we were able to use Uber to get around the city for super cheap (average ride ran $2-3) and saw all the sites: the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill, a free city walking tour, the local Sunday market and a number of good restaurants. Food is very inexpensive in South Africa and we enjoyed many meals at what seemed super-cheap prices. Fine dining for two at about $50 and many quick meals for $15-20 for both of us.

After 5 days in Jo-berg, we flew to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, for a four-night visit at a farm near the famous dunes. We spent a night in Windhoek, walked around the city center, found some cute shops and stayed in a German hotel that was very Fawlty Towers-like!

The camp zebras had been rescued from the wild after being found injured. I fell in love with Francine, who knew how to open the door at the lodge and beg for food. I fell in love with her!

The farm sent a car and driver that took us for the 5-hour drive to We Kebi, a delightful 10-cottage lodge that is home to more than 2,000 animals. We found out that few Americans visit Namibia. Most visitors are from Europe and they tend to do self-drives around the country. We were happy to be driven and not have any worries about vehicles, break-downs or finding our way. Some roads are paved, but the last hour to the lodge was on a dirt road.

When we drove up to reception, we were met by zebra, eland and warthogs. Wow! We were over the moon.

This was our cottage at WeKebi. A private bedroom and bath, complete with air conditioning.

Our stay there was nowhere near some of the crazy prices I found on the web: $2000-3000 per night! We paid less than $500 for four nights which included breakfast and dinner.

Food was good. We had a hot breakfast of eggs and bacon, fruit, yogurt and toast. Dinner was some type of game (oryx, steel bak and eland) with potato and one vegetable. Dessert was also served. The lodge had a limited bar. No bourbon for me, but they had wine, gin and scotch — for the European guests.

The dunes are so beautiful it is hard to describe. A true once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Activities were extra and we opted for a full-day drive to see the dunes at Sossusvlei, a two-hour visit to see the cats at a neighboring lodge and a two-hour game drive around the 200,000-plus acre farm. The additional charge for the activities was about $400. We fell in love with Namibia, the people and the desert landscape. The dunes are a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a definite must-see.

When we returned to Windhoek, I had booked us in the Protea Hotel. Ugh. Don’t stay there. It was inexpensive and clean, but sorely in need of remodeling. The bathroom was so small, you could barely get in it. Suffice to say, one night was enough.

Victoria Falls can be seen from the Zambia side or the Zimbabwe side. Amazing.

We next flew to Victoria Falls on Air Namibia. (All our other internal flights were on South African Airlines.) When we arrived in Victoria Falls, we were met by a car and driver from our hotel, the Victoria Falls Hotel, an early 1900s colonial style 5-star hotel. I had done some homework on where to stay to see the falls and there were only two options up to my standards. The Victoria Falls Hotel is on the Zimbabwe side of the falls. The Royal Livingston is on the Zambia side and was about $200 more per night, so I opted for the less expensive option — still not cheap at $400 a night (including breakfast). Because tourists are a captive audience in Victoria Falls, prices tend to be on the high side. Meals were more along the lines of typical US prices, rather than the low prices we had seen in South Africa.

Victoria Falls is magnificent — well worth the trip. The town is small, chock full of souvenir shops — most not that great. We hired a driver to escort us through customs and drive us to the Zambian side of the falls and had a delightful afternoon walking along the falls and taking zillions of photos. The next day, we easily walked to the Zimbabwe side of the falls at sunrise and had a different — but also spectacular — view of the falls, complete with a heavy mist from the water. We were told we would get wet on the Zimbabwe side, but we didn’t. I think that is mostly to get folks to buy or rent rain gear.

The entire area is safe. We felt comfortable walking around town and had dinner and lunch there — a nice way to try out some of the unusual offerings.

We left Victoria Falls and our next stop was a safari lodge in Botswana, close to Chobe National Park.

We were picked up at our hotel in Victoria Falls by a driver in a van and driven to the border, where we off-loaded, walked through immigration in Zimbabwe, went to a different van and were driven to the Botswana immigration office. We went through formalities there and then exited with our luggage, having to wade our shoes in a disinfectant bath at the border. In the second van, we were driven to the Kasane, Botswana airport, where a third van picked us up and drove us to our safari camp, Chobe Elephant Camp. It all sounds a bit complex, but was done with very little fanfare and great efficiency.

We were so close to so many animals: elephant, zebras, giraffe, hippopotamus and lions! Wow.

Chobe Elephant Camp has 10 cottages and a main lodge where we ate meals and gathered for daily instructions. We were introduced to our guide, Jeremy, who drove us for the three days we were there. We were paired with a couple from Chicago and went on an evening game drive the day we arrived. The next day we had an early-morning game drive and then a boat ride along the river. Our final day, we had a morning and evening game drive with lunch at the lodge and time for a little down-time.

The people at the lodge were fantastic. Jeremy was sweet, kind and so knowledgeable about the animals, birds and landscape, that I don’t know that I will ever remember all he taught us. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffe, impala, buffalo, many gorgeous birds and a pride of about ten lion munching on an elephant they had killed. It was amazing. We were able to get so close to the animals it was surreal. Since we were in a national park, the animals are used to the game vehicles and for the most part are not too timid. Of course, we could not get out of the safari trucks unless we were at a predetermined “stretch” point.

Food was quite good at the lodge. Before heading out for our game drives at 7 am, we had a light breakfast. Fruit, juice, yogurt, toast, muffins and cheese/ham. About 9:30 in the morning, we stopped for hot tea and cookies. Lunch was four to five cold salads and meats. Sundowners were served on the game drive, with one or two appetizers, as we watched the sun set over the park. Dinner was excellent. First a soup was served and then we went to the buffet line for a meat, starch and two vegetables. Everything was delicious.

When we left Chobe Elephant Lodge, we did the reverse driving scheme and headed to the Victoria Falls airport, where we flew for our final stop to Cape Town.

We arrived yesterday and so far love the city. Shopping has been first rate and we are back to inexpensive meals and Uber rides. We are staying at the Mount Nelson Hotel, another colonial hotel from the late 1800s.

Stay tuned for final thoughts on Cape Town in a few days. For now, we’re loving being at the bottom of the earth!

Is a 50-hour flight worth it for free?

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Everyone in my family knows I will do anything for a free airline ticket — especially for a business class ticket. Well, I may have met my match.

Kelly and I arrived yesterday in South Africa using my United Airlines points to score two free business class tickets. It took me an entire weekend to find the tickets and the connections were — well, not the greatest. But, I figured what the heck.

I left Gainesville for what was supposed to be a 7 am flight to Atlanta, which turned into an 8:30 flight after I got up at 5:30 am. Ok, no worries. I arrived in Atlanta, made it to the gate and met Kelly there. We boarded our flight for Newark with no problems and arrived there, flagged down a black Suburban, which took us to JFK airport. I had researched prices and figured anything under $150 was a good deal. We were good to go there.

Our next leg was from JFK to Cairo. We settled into our business class seats and had a fairly decent dinner and then stretched out in our almost-flat seats for a night’s rest. We arrived in Cairo, deplaned and found our guide who would spend the day with us touring two Egyptian museums. (My free tickets included a luxurious 12-hour layover in Cairo.)

After a day of touring, we arrived at the Cairo airport only to find that our flight was delayed two hours, until 1:15 am. OK, no worries, we figured. We got on the plane finally and passed up dinner in favor of sleep. We settled in for the night and awoke an hour before landing — or so we thought.

The flight steward then announced that the Johannesburg airport had bad visibility and we were going to divert to Durban. Ok, that shouldn’t be too bad?

After sitting in the plane at Durban for three hours, we were finally informed we were flying to Jo-berg. A mere 50 hours after leaving Gainesville, we finally arrived.

Was it worth it? I’m still trying to decide. Stay tuned for more about South Africa, which so far looks spectacular!