I am honored to be among the new group of Moderators for TheTravelzine.

I live in Carlisle, Massachusetts with my wife, Jan. We have a house on Cape Cod and an apartment in La Massana, Andorra.

I own a 30 foot sloop, Earendil; Jan has an 18 foot power boat named Tapas.

After our children were grown, Jan and I started to travel more. We were encourage by two friends from the U.S. who we travel with quite often and two other friends from England, extensive travelers, who showed us just how reasonably priced it can be. With each adventure, we get four distinct thrills. The first is the planning. Since we plan our own trips, TheTravelzine is an invaluable resource. Don and Linda's Travelogue to Portugal was our bible on our last trip. The second is on the journey itself and seeing the places that you researched for months. The third is to return and bore our friends to death which is easier now that PowerPoint has replaced the traditional slide show (we can send it home with them on a CD). ;-) The fourth is being able to help others with knowledge of places that we have visited.

We tend to be Eurocentric in our travel, but in 1999 I did drive across the Amazon from Manaus to La Paz. Jan and her friends are in the midst of booking accommodations, etc. for a Girls' Road Trip from Vienna to Andorra this June while I am going skiing in Andorra in March. After that it looks as though the next trip is going to be a tour of northern England and Scotland. Long range planning suggests that a castle rental in Provence may be just the ticket for 6 to 8 couples in 2004.

Glad to be aboard. Tom in Carlisle.