Grandkid Road Trip 2026 Jun25

 

Grandkid Road Trip 2026 Jun 24

 

Grandkid Road Trip 2026 Jun23

 

Grandkid Road Trip 2026 Jun 22

 

Grandkid Road Trip 2026 June 21

 

Grandkid Road Trip 2026 - June20

 The Grand-Kid 2026 Road Trip officially began today in Abingdon, Virginia, where I met up with my daughter, Dawn, and my two youngest grandchildren, Katharyne and Whit. This, like every great expedition begins with a carefully crafted plan, and the experienced grandparent knows that the plan will survive only as a shadow of what we actually end up doing.

Our first destination was the Barter Theatre, one of the true cultural treasures of Appalachia. The timing seemed appropriate. We had barely assembled our traveling party before finding ourselves seated for a performance of Guys and Dolls, a musical featuring gamblers, hustlers, and romantics. 

The Barter Theatre owes its existence to one of the more creative business plans in American history. During the depths of the Great Depression, actor Robert Porterfield returned to his native Virginia with a simple observation: people in the mountains might not have much cash, but they still had chickens, eggs, vegetables, and country hams. In 1933 he opened the theater and invited patrons to pay for admission with farm goods. His famous slogan was, “With vegetables you cannot sell, you can buy a good laugh.”

Thus the Barter Theatre was born.

Imagine explaining that business model to a modern MBA program. “Our revenue projections indicate strong growth in sweet potatoes, two dozen eggs, and a suspiciously large number of hams.” Yet somehow it worked. Local farmers received entertainment, actors received food, and the theater survived. In an era when many institutions were collapsing, this one quite literally ran on barter.

The production of Guys and Dolls was excellent. The cast delivered enough energy to light a small city, and the audience responded in kind. Watching a Broadway classic in a historic theater founded on the exchange of produce for tickets felt like a uniquely American experience—equal parts entrepreneurship, optimism, and refusal to quit.

I found myself thinking that this trip is really about the same thing. We are not crossing mountains in covered wagons, nor are we paying for admission with livestock. But we are investing something valuable: time together. Ten days from now, the mileage will be forgotten, many of the meals will blur together, and I may not remember every road we traveled. What I will remember is sharing the journey with Katharyne, and Whit.

That seems like a pretty fair trade - a good barter.

Alaskan Uncruise; Juneau, Mt. Roberts, Tracy’s King Crabs. June 21, 2025

 Still working on Eastern time zone time (and maybe a little Portugal’s time) I found myself walking around Juneau at 4:30 in the morning.  I actually woke up at 3:30am local time and as it is the summer solstice it was daylight.  I enjoyed my wonderings through this Capital City of only 31,000 residents.  When I made it down to the docks I saw that there were no less than 4 mega cruise ships in the harbor and realized that when all those people wake up the nature of this town was going to change.

Later in the morning Sandy and I made it to the Rookery Diner and enjoyed a great breakfast surrounded by both cruisers and locals.  

Around noon we took the tram to the top of Mt. Roberts where we walked some gentle trails.  Along the way we saw totem poles, beautiful scenery and several bald eagles.  

Then it was back down the mountain and to the far side of town where there was a solstice celebration attended almost entirely by locals plus us two Ohioans.  Directly next to the festival was Tracy’s King Crab Shack No. 2 where we enjoyed the sweet meat of those crustaceans dipped in tons of melted butter.  But for the price, I could have eaten my weight in them.

Then, at exactly 10:07pm, the official setting of the sun, Sandy and I lifted a flask to the longest day of the year.  Officially18 hours sixteen minutes long but when considering the elongated dawns and dusks it is truly an endless day.