Recently, I had the surprising and very scary need to call 911 while staying at the Swissotel in Chicago on a business trip. On the fifth and final morning of my trip, things got really weird when I awoke for my 5 am trip to the gym.  Feeling odd, I headed to my bathroom. Without further warning, my bathroom and everything else started spinning.  Or maybe I was spinning.  Unstable and unsure of my condition, I slid to the floor and sat, propped against a wall between the shower and toilet.  Gaining determination after nearly an hour in this position, I dragged myself – face down – to the base of the nightstand and reached for my mobile phone.

“We’re going to break down the door,” someone yelled.  “OK!,” I yelled back.  They didn’t.

Here are five things I learned in the next 40 minutes:

1. Using SIRI for a 911 Call Works – In Downtown Chicago.  Normally, I am not a SIRI user.  But she came through that morning.  I couldn’t focus my eyes, but I was able to reach up for the phone, pulled it to the floor, hold the home button, and ask SIRI to dial 911.  YES, it worked.  “Chicago 911,” the female voice said.  “What’s your emergency?”  I explained, then a bit of semi-panicked discussion ensued since I knew the name and general location of the hotel, but not the street address.  Fortunately, I remembered my room number. That combination proved enough to get the ambulance dispatched.  Thank you SIRI and all responsible for developing voice recognition.
2. Say “OK” to Breaking Down the Door.  I rarely use the manual security latch on hotel doors, but I had done so on my return to the hotel the previous night.  When emergency crews arrived, I heard them at the door, unable to get in.  “Sir, you have to unlock the door,” they yelled. “I can’t get there,” I yelled back.  After what seemed an eternity, someone yelled, “We’re going to break down the door.”  “OK,” I yelled back.  They didn’t.  Hotel security arrived in time, opened the door with a key, then applied a special security technique to force the door open. (I won’t share the details, but once you see it done, you realize how worthless the latch is.)
3. You Have to Put on Your Boxers to Ride in the Ambulance. To this point, I’ve left out some critical details. When I awoke at about 5 am and sat up in my bed, I felt slightly dizzy. Since I had an early day, I undressed and headed toward the shower.  I never made it, as a full-force case of vertigo set in.  I ended up on the floor in the bathroom, totally naked. When the paramedics entered the room, only my location had changed. One of the paramedics found my clothes, and instructed, “Sir, you have to put on your boxers.”  He added, “We all have OUR boxers on.” Once that was accomplished, they wrapped me in a hotel bath robe and rolled me to the elevator, through the lobby, and into the ambulance.
4. EMTs Prefer Sirens to Humming.  I held my eyes shut tightly to minimize the spinning feeling.  After a few minutes, I also found that humming to myself helped to calm me.  So I hummed.  Sort of like a meditation, “Hmmmmmmmmm.” While I found it soothing, apparently paramedics find this disconcerting.  Or maybe they just prefer the sounds of sirens.  Regardless, I was instructed – firmly – to stop.
5. Emergency Rooms Are Really Scary.  Honestly, I knew this from previous emergency experiences for myself and my family. But this was the first time I had arrived by ambulance, alone, away from home, wearing only boxers and a bathrobe. Because of my disorientation and other symptoms, the emergency doctor informed me that I was going to go through a stroke and heart attack protocol. He warned: “There will be lots of people around and we’ll be doing quite a few procedures.” Suffice it to say that he was a master of understatement.  What no one told me was WHERE I had been taken.  And because of my disorientation, I failed to ask.  About three hours later, when I was finally finished with testing and emergency procedures, I asked a nurse. “You’ve been admitted to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago.”

On discharge, the doctors advised that I shouldn’t travel by air.  So my wife, son and I drove the 700-mile journey from Chicago back to our home in Georgia over two days, always able to stop if my condition reoccurred. We had to cancel an Alaskan cruise which was scheduled less than 10 days later.

“Sir, you have to put on your boxers,” one of the paramedics ordered.  “We all have OUR boxers on.”

Over the next few weeks, I was able to return to mostly-normal activities. We did have to cancel an Alaskan cruise because I was unable to return to air travel quickly.  After 8 weeks, there were still some movements and positions that started the world spinning again, including a small water slide I tried on a long-weekend get-away.

Now, just over 3 months hence, I’m back to near-normal, though I haven’t worked up the courage to pull out the Six Flags season passes and try any motion rides.  Nor have I been able to return to long-distance bicycle riding, though I plan to do so in time to accomplish my annual “Ride-my-age-on-my-birthday” outing.  Look for future posts for updates on those adventures.

Hello new friends and old, and welcome to OurTravelCafe.Com.

All my life, I’ve been a tireless traveler.  Perhaps that comes from my parents, who once-a-year packed us kids into a car for a driving vacation somewhere in the Deep South or surrounding states. Our first vacation that I remember was a road trip from Louisiana to the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.  My parents still have the blurry and jerky 8mm silent video from a borrowed movie camera and a few black-and-white prints, including one where I was fascinated by a caged black bear.

Or maybe it’s job related, as for the past 25+ years I’ve traveled frequently and distantly, literally around-the-world on one particular trip, and by miles many times over according to my airline records. By current count, I’ve been to 33 countries and 47 US states on business or vacations, and I’m eager to visit at least an equal number in the not-to-distant future.

I’m also a dedicated restaurant patron and over-qualified eater.  Again, that’s likely traceable to my parents, as each Sunday we had an after-church lunch at a local restaurant.  My career choices definitely expanded that, as most of my professional career has been in marketing for restaurant equipment companies, with many of the world’s largest and many of the finest restaurants as customers.  At one point, I had a group of demonstration chefs reporting to me, and thus was a fortunate participant in a number global culinary exhibitions.  Plus, my company was a sponsor of the Bocuse de Or global culinary competition, which, of course, required my personal attention!

The fusion of those two passions are the inspiration of OurTravelCafe.Com.  My hope is to share a menu of travel experiences that reflect my personal journeys.  As I’m fortunate to have a global network of friends in the communications, restaurant and travel industries, I’m hopeful they will contribute as “guest chefs” to this travel and culinary gumbo.

Beyond that, OurTravelCafe.Com generally is written from my personal perspective — that of a 50-70-year old, upper-middle-class Southern American Baby Boomer traveling for work and fun.  These days, my best trips include my wife and our adopted teenage son, and occasionally our grown children, their families and our grand children.  My wife and I enjoy active travel, so you can expect lots of references to hiking, biking, exploring historical and natural sites and similar activities.  We also like to cruise, though we prefer to plan-our-own port activities rather than taking the standard cruise line offered excursions.  When we travel on our own, we enjoy walking tours of city centers and driving excursions through the countryside, always keeping an eye open for local markets featuring local cuisine, merchants and goods.

We’re not budget travelers though we do enjoy a good bargain — especially my wife.  Neither are we high-end, luxury aficionados, but you will occasionally find some attention devoted to that segment when we are lucky enough to splurge.  Thus while you might find an occasional tip on travel bargains and deals or visit to high-end luxury properties, usually I’ll focus on the destinations and activities rather than cost.

We also love road trips through our (new) home state of Georgia, and along our path as we visit family and friends. Though we like cities, museums, arts and such, we also love to find quaint, quiet and quirky spots in small towns and out-of-the-way destinations that let us escape the distractions of everyday life. We often take day trips from our base near Acworth, GA, in the foothills northwest of Atlanta. Occasionally, we’ll wander around more of Georgia on overnight and weekend excursions that most often include parks, hiking, biking or boating. On a very rare occasion, we may even write about experiments in camping, though for years my idea of camping has been staying overnight at a Holiday Inn without room service.

On our family vacations and other travel, we tend to make extended visits to remote destinations, with the belief that if it takes a long time to get there, you should spend sufficient time to explore. Some of our recent trips have included cruises with ground extensions in the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Scandinavian areas; a self-guided city and train adventure into Bavaria, Munich and Vienna; and a month-long cruise, train and driving exploration of Alaska, Vancouver, Oregon and Washington. Upcoming in 2018 we’re planning a week in the Northeast from Boston to Maine, then an African safari in 2019. There’s lots more on our future “to-do” list (as I refuse to think of exploration as a “check-it-off-the-bucket-list” activity).

One more thought. As more of us aging baby boomers are focused on activities, exercise and health, I’ll also include some general fitness observations or health details in my posts.  I am a devoted user of Garmin’s VivoActive HR fitness watch and tracker.  I try to ride 50 miles per week on a bicycle or the equivalent of that at my local gym on exercise bikes. My outdoors riding speed on flat ground is 15-18 mph, and I’ll average 20 mph on the LifeCycle upright bike at my local gym set on a random program at level 11.  So, if I do something more on the strenuous side, I’ll likely include some of the data and readings provided to help readers evaluate how certain activities might affect them.

Rather than going on here, I invite you to look around.  We’ve organized the site as a menu, and hope you find that convenient.  We would also love your feedback on the articles, topics, style and anything else.  I hope you enjoy OurTravelCafe.com, and that you will come back frequently to check out our ever-changing menu of travel experiences.

E-Mail:  Contact@OurTravelCafe.com