Happy New Year!

Refelcting on 2024, how could I have improved this blog? Cycle to more exotic places? Make this blog more relevant to current events? Or maybe a combination of both?

Okay, nothing much happens in Syria, Virginia. Yes, I will try in 2025 to enhance your reader experience, but the best part of this blog for me has been connecting with so many of you. Indeed, a single phone call last year affirmed why I started this blog. After not speaking with the oldest reader of this blog, 95 year old Rosemary (the mom of my childhood friends Andreas and Markus), in probably 35 years, she called on my birthday to sing me “Happy Birthday”. Priceless!

I’m thankful for all of my 2024 connections. Just a few examples — lunches with three of my retired law partners who each helped shape my career; on the other end of the spectrum, dinners with three elementary school friends I had not seen in years; and a lot in the middle, including lunch with the daughter of my dad’s former boss who coincidentally worked at Kelley Drye 30+ years ago (and who tactfully claimed to have forgotten when I embarrassed my dad and myself as a teenager by showing up at his work event unshaven and in a ratty t-shirt — just one of a number of cringe-worthy teenage moments I wish I could re-write).

But 2024 also provided a reminder that life is short and of the need to embrace friends and experiences while you can. My good friend and college buddy Ned Brown lost his battle with cancer in October. Four of us shared a dorm suite sophomore through senior years and the memories last a lifetime. Creative, zany, off-beat sense of humor — anyone reading this blog who knew Ned will agree that he was a unique guy with a huge heart:

That Halloween picture captures his essence. After getting his Masters in hotel management,. Ned managed hotels in progressively more exotic places — Hawaii, Samoa, the Four Seasons in the Serengeti, Tanzania and the Nature Conservancy research center on Palmyra Island in the South Pacific. Here he is hard at work in Tanzania:

And here he is at the remote beach in western Mexico where he and his wife Pepe spent the first year of Covid living in an RV:

The boundaries on Ned’s comfort zone were very wide. His default was to embrace new experiences many of us avoid due to a “that’s a little bit out there” or “I’m too old for that” reflex. Ned and Pepe also traveled the world and were a walking book about travel on the cheap, locals style.

When Ned passed away, there was an outpouring of grief on his Facebook page from friends all over the world. Pepe posted the following:

Okay, not everyone can or wants to live like Ned. And he did have a few advantages for his lifestyle — no tuition to pay and, living in hotels, no room or board expenses most of his working life. But you get the point. Life is short and experiences with friends are lasting.

I know that there is just a little bit of Ned in all of us. May each of us channel our inner Ned in 2025. I wish every one of you a happy and healthy New Year and hope that we stay connected. Many (well maybe some, or even just a few) of you will be happy to know that Mary and I will be “still pedaling” this year. We have two cycle trips planned for 2025. Our first is in late March to Big Bend National Park. I look forward to all of you coming along for the ride.