I am up at 4:00 a.m. this morning getting in the “mood” for travel. Later today, I will fly to Atlanta and onward to Rome, so I’ve got a long travel day ahead of me. Some years ago, I began the ritual of getting up extra early on travel days to help beat the jet lag the following day in Europe. For me, this seems to help, I sleep better on the flight over and am not quite so dazed my first day in Europe.

Saturday, my tour group arrives in Rome and we will make our way up through Tuscany, into Provence, and ultimately to Barcelona. A nice route connection the three countries. I’ll be blogging and posting on Facebook along the way, so keep up with me as the tour progresses.

I am doing some experimenting with my newly trimmed arsenal of electronic gadgets. I’ve got an iPad and my iPhone and that’s it! So, I’ll be learning along the way to use the new features and apps. It’s tough leaving my trusty Dell laptop sitting in my office, but it will also feel good carrying a lighter load.