One of the beauties of travel is that it gives you something to talk about – and I don’t just mean with other travelers. Last Saturday morning I skipped out of the travel bloggers conference and went to have breakfast at the Counter Café.
The counter was packed with customers. After a few minutes I was seated at a communal table with an attractive young couple, Air Force pilots who had come to Austin for a fun weekend. After breakfast they were going rock climbing.
Unversed in rocks, or planes, I asked where they were from originally. The young man had been born in Duluth but then moved to Salt Lake City as a child. I told him of my interview, in the Minnesota State Capitol, with Governor Jesse Ventura (hoping he would know the name) and then of my visit to Utah before the Winter Olympics. He said he had been one of the children recruited to ice skate during the opening ceremonies.
The woman was from Colorado Springs, and I told of my tour of the Air Force Academy, her alma mater. Her background was Greek, she said, her family from an island I probably never heard of.
“What’s the name?” I asked her.
“Kalymnos,” she said.
“I’ve been there. It’s the island of sponge divers.”
“Yes. Some of my family moved to Tarpon Springs, Florida.”
“I’ve written about Tarpon Springs.”
“You probably know my family.”
