Bucket List | Travel | Vignettes
Train travel is a 19th century answer to a 21st century challenge: Get off the treadmill and out of the rat race, conveniently, relatively cheaply and with little fuss. It lasts for only a few days but it is delicious. By BOB FOULKES Airplanes are frenetic, providing me a few hours of inflight sanctuary after... read more
By BOB FOULKES I like adventures because they take me out of my comfort zone, and they force me into a challenge that mixes fear with hope. My latest adventure is an eight-day trek called the Tour de Mont Blanc, an iconic 135-km trail through France, Italy and Switzerland around the Mont Blanc massif... read more
Bucket List | Health & Fitness | Sports & Leisure | Travel
By BOB FOULKES I got hooked on adventure during an eight-day Outward Bound trek in the wilds of British Columbia north of Whistler. Since then I have completed a 77-km struggle along the Westcoast Trail on Vancouver Island, the 53-kilometre Chilkoot Trail in B.C., made famous by the Klondike Gold rush, and the 154-kilometre West... read more
By BOB FOULKES In the mid 1970s, when I was 25, I had a dream job: executive assistant to Judd Buchanan, Canada’s Minister of Indian and Northern affairs. He was responsible for Canada’s national parks, the territories north of the 60th parallel and the many duties prescribed by the Indian Affairs Act and other issues relating... read more
Bucket List | Family | Sports & Leisure | Travel | Vignettes | Wheels
By BOB FOULKES There comes a time for every guy to — literally and metaphorically — put his son in the driver’s seat. I love road trips. Men in a car, a full tank of gas, the open road, driving music, roadside diners, no eye contact and no schedule. It is a formula celebrated... read more
By JOHN BECHTOLD In a world increasingly populated by iPhones, iPads and the like, those allegedly in the know predict that the wristwatch has run out of time, destined for the trash heap of history. They underestimate the stubborn endurance of male vanity and the lifelessness of an unadorned wrist. I have a fatal attraction... read more
By BOB FOULKES Last year, I rewarded myself for surviving the Tour de Mont Blanc, with a few days of R&R in Lyon. It was an apt choice, offering gastronomic indulgence and do-nothing hedonism after a tough eight day trek in the Alps. Lyon is France’s third largest city and has a reputation for gastronomy;... read more
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.” — Mark Twain By BOB FOULKES My latest adventure came at what is now recognized as a historically tumultuous time in the Middle East, when Islamic totalitarian regimes were falling like trailer parks in a tornado. When we leave for Morocco, the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt... read more
By BOB FOULKES The Grand Canyon is one of the natural wonders of the world on most people’s lists, not least for the reason that it’s been daring people to do strange things for hundreds of years. In 1540 a reconnaissance under the command of Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, a subordinate of Francisco Vasquez de... read more