Travel As A Political Act

My buddy Kevin and I went to see Rick Steves last evening at the WTTW studios in Chicago. The Missus donates all the time so there's at least something decent on television. As a thank you gift she got two tickets to see Rick Steves, the guy who travels all over the world, films the travels and then shows them on public television for all of us poor schmucks who can't afford to go to those places.

The talk was shorter than the time required to get there and home again but was well worth the drive. The topic was Travel As A Political Act. I was expecting more of a instructional talk - pack light, money belt - sort of thing rather than the politics of travel, but I really enjoyed the presentation. He's a very good public speaker. Passionate about his subject, well prepared and uses humor well to keep the mood light when discussing some fairly touchy subjects.

The nice folks at WTTW put out a little spread for us prior to the presentation - even had grilled eggplant sandwiches for us vegetarians, Probably should have expected that from public television people. Seems the politics tend to run toward the left a bit with public television and NPR. But that's OK. We'd all be a little poorer without them. And even though you have to put up with the pledge drives, still don't have all the damn commercials and you get some really good programming.

All in all a great night. Got out of the house, saw a great presentation and spent some time catching up with Kevin.