A Weekend by the Water

 

Monday, August 13, 2012 – A Weekend by the Water

Good news!  I found a way to escape for a few days by the water.  The water I’m referring to wasn’t the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, or the Potomac River.  It definitely wasn’t the bathtub, either.  I spent much of the weekend beside the Mediterranean Sea, in the company of my dear friend Joel, AKA The Idiot.  You’ll understand that somewhat unusual moniker shortly. (ESOL students, please note:  AKA = also known as; moniker is just a fancy word for nickname.) 

Joel, whom Elliott and I have known since we all lived in the South of France in the 1980s, decided to mark his fiftieth birthday by embarking on a major travel project:  a walk around the entire perimeter of the Mediterranean, a trip he dubbed his MedTrek.  His life-long interest in the Homeric tales of ancient Greece (remember The Iliad and The Odyssey?) partially inspired this ambitious undertaking in which he would try to follow the path of Odysseus.  A journalist by profession, Joel also decided to write about his adventures.  And he (or someone) came up with the perfect title for his chronicle:  The Idiot and the Odyssey.  You can check out Joel's blog, Follow the Idiot, for up-to-date reports from the trek.

Joel’s MedTrek officially began in 1998, when he set out on a counter-clockwise course from the South of France.  Fourteen years later, there is still no end in sight for the seaside schlep.  (Note to ESOL students:  schlep is a Yiddish word for trek or hike.)  However, somewhere along the line, Joel thought it was time to turn his blog into a book, also entitled The Idiot and The Odyssey.  Since I’ve done a lot of writing myself, I offered to take a look at an early draft of the manuscript.  As you can see from the photo below, the book was eventually published, leading Joel to interrupt his trek in order to devote his time to a lengthy promotional tour. 

All set for my weekend trek along the Med, accompanied by The Idiot

Brief commercial message:  More than a mere travelogue of fascinating sights and towns along the Mediterranean coast, Joel Stratte-McClure’s The Idiot and the Odyssey contains wildly entertaining anecdotes and enlightening references to Homer (naturally) and Thich Nhat Hanh (Joel has been a student of Buddhism for years).  There is plentiful self-reflection, with parallels drawn between Odysseus’ wanderings and Joel’s life story. The Idiot and the Odyssey is available through Amazon.   End of commercial message. 

Joel eventually resumed his MedTreking, this time taking a clockwise route that began in Italy.  On several occasions, he asked Elliott and me to join him for part of the walk.  As tempting as the invitation was, we had to decline.  But I was delighted when he asked me to do some editing of his follow-up book not long ago.  It gave me a chance to participate in the MedTrek without even lacing up my hiking boots.

And that’s how I managed to escape this past weekend.  With Joel as my guide, I MedTrekked along the stunning coast of Italy.  In fact, I was so enthusiastic that I walked all the way from the outskirts of Rome to Calabria, located at the tip of the boot.  And I managed to send back five chapters with my comments and commas (don’t they teach punctuation anymore?) flagged in red.  No wonder I’m exhausted.

After a trek of several hundred kilometers over the sand and rocks, it was a relief to be on our neighbors’ grassy front lawn for a late Sunday afternoon happy hour.  Despite the mostly cloudy skies, I set my new sunhat on my head and trekked over to Bud and Pam’s for the impromptu gathering.  I brought along Elliott, my favorite quinoa/black bean/corn chips, a jar of salsa, and half a bottle of heart-healthy red wine.  By the way, my latest Wine of the Week selection is Rex Goliath Merlot, which I found at Wegman’s for $4.99.  As a certified wine expert, I’d describe this wine as … yummy.