Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush will be watching the Super Bowl on a cloud up there shouting ‘One more win for the Gipper’.
Ronnie’s most famous acting role, other than as the 40th President of the USA, was as Notre Dame great George ‘The Gipper’ Gipp in the 1940 film Knucke Rockne, All American.
And like all the best method actors he even took it into his own life off the screen, adopting the persona in his political campaigning.
As we mark Reagan’s birthday today (he would have been 110) we can look forward too to the Super Bowl tomorrow too.
It features the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
And while nobody is saying Ronnie was a Patrick Mahomes nor Tom Brady, he had some American football acumen having turned out as a lineman for Eureka College in his native Illinois.
And like both he boasted Irish heritage.
Ronald Reagan’s Irish heritage remembered in his Library
The Great Communicator made California his home, of course.
Just like Ronnie himself, the keepers of the Reagan flame are charm personified as I soon discovered at the American Travel fair, IPW.
And like the best friends they always stay in touch.
The good folk at the Library have put on a virtual event which does justice to the Great Man, livestreamed on YouTube at 12.30pm Pacific/3.30pm Eastern.
Portrait of the Great Man
The commemoration includes brief remarks, a three-volley salute, musical entertainment, and the laying of the Presidential Wreath on President Reagan’s gravesite.
A word or two from Ronnie
Of course as it should be Ronnie, his life, achievements (and remember he oversaw an economic boom and helped end the Cold War), and words are to the fore.
His old office: A replica of the Oval Office
True to the wit of the man, the Library has adapted a famous story from his life to mark the 110th in their spiel for the Big Day.
‘President Reagan would have joked that it is the 71st anniversary of his 39th birthday. As President Reagan quipped on his 73rd birthday ”Even though this is the 34th anniversary of my 39th birthday, those numbers don’t faze me at all. I believe Moses was 80 when God first commissioned him for public service. And I also remember something that Thomas Jefferson once said. He said, ”We should never judge a President by his age, only by his works.” And ever since he told me that, I’ve stopped worrying.’
And someone else who fills out the seat of office
Ronnie’s distinguished Vice President and a future President himself, George HW Bush spoke emotionally at the Republic Convention in honour of his great friend in 2004.
He’s up there somewhere
When he exorted the audience by saying ‘this time we can truly win one for the Gipper.’
George HW Bush passed away a couple of years ago when I was in his adopted state of Florida.
I saw then the affection then in which he, and ex-Presidents, are held there and across the country.
So tomorrow, whoever wins, let’s here the clarion call: ‘Just one more win for the Gipper.’
And the last word is from Donald, a bit of a scoop from your favourite Travel blog.
While the rest of the world has been trying to talk to the Big Mouth we got him… well, we are old pals.
And Donald has a message for the world: ‘I love you all and I want you all to come and see me again soon in America.’
The Happiest Place on Earth is now also the Safest on Earth with reservations, social distancing, alternate rollercoast carts and new hospitality measures.
While Mickey, Minnie, Donald and the Gang aren’t about to let the virus turn their smile into a smell.
And are dancing, waving and welcoming us all in their own inimitable way.
Watch this space for new Disney features coming along soon.
I had all planned to take a whizz around the Florida Keys before the other Donald closed America off in March but hope to put that right when I get the chance.
And it’s those areas with natural distancing like the Keys and island nations (and yes a lesson here to the UK and Ireland too) who have an advantage.
Sail away in Croatia
Water wonderland
And when you’ve got 1200 islands then there’s ‘one for everyone in the audience.’
As they like to say in the world’s longest-running TV chat show, Ireland’s The Late Late Show, or whatever the Croatian equivalent is.
But here is a country which, as a Balkans state, dealt better than the rest of Europe with the virus.
And which is perfectly placed to host the tourist’s new requirements during and post-Covid.
One area is in small boat holidays and yachting around the islands, another adventure in the Great Outdoors.
Kayak attack: In Croatia
My go-to people in Ireland for Croatia are Croatia Tours, and I went on pilgrimage with them to neighbouring Bosnia & Herzegovina where I started out on the road to Dubrovnik.
They have a seven-days Rivers by the Sea package, making the most of where the area where the Krka River enters the Adriatic, on June 26 £1255pp.
Where you’ll get to sea kayak, cycle, canoe, rock climb, hike and raft.
The Tuscan Islands
And Firenze too
We’ll also be spreading our wings more next year even when we do visit our favourite cities.
And that’ll help hotspots like Firenze breathe as we explore greater Tuscany, its adventure trails, cycling opportunities and thermal waters.
And its seven islands, chief among them Elba, the first island of exile for Napoleon, and Montecristo, it of Alexandre Dumas’ Count.
Able was I ere I saw Elba.
As every schoolchild, well, at least those of certain age and lexical bent, will tell you.
And Tuscany was, and is, ere able to thrive in ‘il novo normal’.
And, of course, the Caribbean
Daddy’s Little Girl, as all our little girls do these days, is wont to show me amusing things she finds on the internetty thing.
And one we both find funny is a Jamaican tour guide who extols the benefits of inhaling the island’s plants.
I grab every chance to hook up with my Caribbean friends, Barbados,Tobago, Anguilla (heck, all of them) albeit these days over Zoom, if only to hope that I can draw some sun out from the screen.
And as usual their warmth came flowing us out as they reminded us that in their island their neighbourliness has helped them through this crisis and referred in passing to London where ‘people don’t know their neighbours but had been getting to know each other this year.’
Los Filipinos
For those of us too who in the second half of the century of years some of us are blessed to live, our cultural touchpoint for the Phillipines is the Thrilla in Manila, the nation’s capital which hosted Ali-Frazier III.
And of course the Philippines are knockout and our old friends at G Adventures are all over it.
Manila is on the island of Luzon, one of 7,641 in the archipelago.
And you’ll not be surprised to learn then that out of 7,641 islands that it should have boasted the world’s most beautiful island, courtesy of Conde Nast Traveler in 2016.
The exotically-named Atty. Maria Anthonette C.Velasco-Allones, the Tourism Promotions Board’s COO has an equally lyrical way about her.
As she described her islands and what they have to offer.
‘When the dark night is over and the sun rises, wake up in the Philippines.
Food should be fun and taken out of the hands of foodies… and chefs.
I’m writing this while eating my Swedish ‘vacuum cleaners’ or dammsugare for fika. These are named after the tube-shaped vacuum cleaners of the Fifties.
I had been given them in my godispase, or goody bag.
Clean sweep
Let’s break bread
The godispase had come courtesy of the Stena Estrid, Swedish ferry cruise company‘s http://www.stenaline.ie.
