Seniors Stop In Loja

This is a stop for an enjoyable time in Loja, Spain with a population of just over 21,000. Seniors travelers will find Loja 55 kilometers at the western limit of the province of Granada.

Washed by water from many different rivers and streams, the town has important historic monuments, with palaces, churches, convents, gardens and stately houses. It is surrounded by the so-called Sierra de Lojas, of which the highest peak, Sierra Gorda, stands 1,671 meters above sea-level.

Loja was an old Moorish town, originally known as Medina Lawsa, it was taken by the Christians in 1486 and named “flower among thorns” by the catholic Queen Isabella.

Seniors Visit An Old Moorish Stronghold

Jo Williams notes that Loja is in a “narrow valley dominated by the barren limestone massif of the Sierra de Loja. This small town – divided in two by the Genil river – is situated on the western edge of the fertile plain of Granada, with its undulating countryside of olive groves and cereal fields”.

Occupying what was historically an important strategic position, Loja acted as a defensive centre under the Moors, who exploited the town’s geographical location to guard the plain. Its military significance as a Moorish stronghold can be seen today in the remnants of walls and a tower of the former Islamic Alcazaba (citadel).

Loja also has several interesting churches, the best of which is the 16th-century Iglesia de San Gabriel, designed by Diego de Siloé, which has many fine Renaissance architectural features. Built over the site of an old mosque, the Iglesia de Santa María de la Encarnación has an elegant belfry.

Senior visitors can enjoy Loja‘s fountains and natural springs, such as its 25-spout fountain Fuente de la Mora or fountain of the Moorish maiden, and another named Fuente Santa, renowned for the medicinal properties of its waters.

Seniors Enjoy Cycle Touring And Caving

The Antigua Casa de Cabildos is a beautiful example of the civil architecture of the 16th century. It is located on the Plaza de la Constitucion and currently houses the public library. The Alcazaba and Caserón de los Alcaides Cristianos is a 10th century fortified area on a hill in the heart of Loja.

The surrounding area is ideal for cycle touring and adventure sports such as caving and paragliding, not forgetting fishing at the Riofrío intensive preserve.

Check out the Barceló La Bobadilla, a 1,000 acres private estate resort with 60 rooms and 4 suites. This major resort is in a countryside setting in traditional Andalusian style. Senior visitors will be surrounded with 800 acres of olives trees and oak trees. Sounds good. Google it and dine in typical southern Spainish cuisine in La Finca (the Farm) Restaurant.

Senior visitors will also find Flamenco dancing in Loja that many find highly enjoyable. So set your sites (GPS) for Loja and enjoy this Andalusian prize. -jeb

Seniors Stop In Cairo

 Cairo (pronounced “Cayroe”)  is a city in Grady County, Georgia with a population of just over 9,600. And guess what seniors, it was named after Cairo, Egypt. Although Cairo is nicknamed the “Syrup City”, it has no relationship with the Karo brand of syrup.

Rather, Cairo earned its nickname by producing cane syrup from the early 1900s through the late 1990s. Of the several companies that produced cane syrup, Roddenbery’s was the best known.

Reflecting this “syrup” heritage, the Cairo High School football team is nicknamed the Syrupmakers. That is certainly an original name. Maybe their teams just “cream” the opponents. The school’s female athletic teams are named “Syrup Maids,” often shortened to “Maids,” while the male athletes are often dubbed “Makers.”

 Senior Hunters and Fishermen Take Note…

Cairo is close to great hunting, fishing, and points of historical interest for senior outdoor lovers. The local industrial base continues to grow with manufacturing, service, and healthcare companies anchoring a strong economy.

The area is home to a host of local festivals, including Calvary’s Mule Day, Whigham’s Rattlesnake Roundup, Cairo’s own Antique Car Rally, and several competitive recreational programs.

The Cairo Antique Auto Museum also features antique cars from every decade of the 1900s, along with Matchbox cars, antique bicycles and other collectibles.

Remember Jackie Robinson, a Baseball Hall of Fame member and the first person to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball? He was born in Cairo.

Seniors Enjoy Cairo’s Festivals

Cairo offers several unique festivals, parks and recreation programs, a movie theater, an antique car museum, a public library, a county museum and history center, downtown shopping, and locally owned restaurants. Urban planners call this “livability.” Longtime residents just call it “home.”

Me, I’d love to take in the Pow-Wow festival in July that is sponsored by the Lower Muscogee Creek Tribe. Now the Rattlesnake Roundup in January…I’lll leave that up to you. In any case senior visitors will discover why Cairo is called Georgia’s Hospitality City.

A satellite campus of Southwest Georgia Technical College, later Southern Regional Technical College, opened in Cairo in 2006.

Read up on the founding of the city, its history and its many folks who played an important role in its foundation. The Grady County Museum and History Center on N. Broad Street would also be a great place to learn more about Cairo.

Senior travelers, set your GPS for Cairo that is located in southwest Georgia, thirty miles north of Tallahassee, Florida. Enjoy your visit. -jeb

Seniors Seek Adventure On The Red Island

 Years back this senior had a friend whose father was a missionary in Madagascar, a Magical Country.   She learned the dominant local language and that always impressed me being a language teacher myself.  She also learned French, the “official language”. There are several native tongues amongst the almost 23 million inhabitants on the island. Seniors, get your coffee and enjoy Madagascar with me today.

Madagascar is located some 250 miles (400 km) off the southeast coast of Africa. Madagascar’s population is primarily related not to African peoples but rather to those of Indonesia, more than 3,000 miles to the east.

The Malagasy peoples, moreover, do not consider themselves to be Africans, but, because of the continuing bond with France that resulted from former colonial rule, the island developed political, economic, and cultural links with the French-speaking countries of western Africa. The local currency is called ariary (3186.75  to a dollar). Have fun with that one.

Madagascar is home to thousands of animal species – like lemurs – found nowhere else, plus rain-forests, beaches and reefs. Near the busy capital, Antananarivo, is Ambohimanga, a hillside complex of royal palaces and burial grounds, as well as the “Avenue of the Baobabs,” a dirt road lined by awesome massive centuries-old trees.

 Seniors Fascinated By Uniqueness Of The Island

The island is a land like no other in that there are so many species that are only indigenous to the island. This island, roughly the size of Texas or France, is home to more than 250,000 species of which 70% are found nowhere else on the globe.

Madagascar’s long isolation from the neighboring continents has resulted in this unique mix of plants and animals. This has led some ecologists to refer to Madagascar as the “eighth continent”. Of the 10,000 plants native to Madagascar, 90% are found nowhere else in the world. Madagascar’s varied fauna and flora are endangered by human activity, as a third of its native vegetation has disappeared since the 1970s.

Lonely Planet notes: lemurs, baobabs, rainforest, desert, trekking and diving…Madagascar is a dream destination for outdoor lovers. The remarkable fauna and flora is matched by epic landscapes of an incredible diversity: you can go from rainforest to desert in just 300km.

Seniors Enjoy Kaleidoscope Of Nature And Culture

Few places on Earth offer such an intense kaleidoscope of nature. There are sandstone canyons, limestone karsts, mountains, fertile hills cascading with terraced rice paddies, forests of every kind – rain, dry, spiny – and a laterite-rich soil that gave the country its nickname of ‘Red Island’.

Wikipedia notes that the first people arrived in Madagascar between 350 BC and 550 AD from Borneo on outrigger canoes. These Austronesian first settlers were joined around 1000 AD by Bantu migrants crossing the Mozambique Channel.

Other groups such as Arabs, Indians, and Chinese continued to settle on Madagascar over time, each one making lasting contributions to Malagasy cultural life. The Malagasy way of thinking includes a mixture of cultures, as well as their appearance and fashion style.

This island is on my personal “travel bucket list,” and I hope that you put it on yours as well. Who knows, maybe you will run into me there too. Enjoy your visit. -jeb

Seniors Like Greenough

Seems like this Travel Editor just can’t get enough of Montana. Located about 30 minutes east of Missoula is Greenough.  Seniors head back to Montana to a wide-spread ranching community located in the beautiful, lush Blackfoot Valley.

Greenough is home to various attractions and activities, including floating or fishing the Blackfoot River, exploring Garnet Ghost Town and visiting the area’s luxury resort, with each offering their own type of distinct Western Montana experience.

Senior visitors can be introduced to a  “glamping experience”.  Glamping or “glamorous camping” pairs destinations with the intimacy of camping and the world of luxury travel. Glamping is quickly becoming the ultimate travel experience and is at its peak at the Resort at Paws Up  which is set deep in this scenic Montana wonderland.

Seniors Meet The Kingfishers

Greenough was named in honor of T.L. Greenough and his wife, Tennessee, and preserved, for 100 years, as a place where kingfishers scout for trout from atop creekside picnic tables and toddlers get their first taste of wilderness in thickets of willow and reed grass.

Over 37 acres on either side of Rattlesnake Creek, nature has its way, flooding the cottonwood bottomland (and sometimes Monroe Street), harboring the occasional off-course bear (or two or three), offering respite from the workaday world within a few blocks of that world.

Seniors Visit Wolf Keep Wildlife Sanctuary

A major attraction to senior visitors is the Wolf Keep Wildlife Sanctuary. The Wolf Keep, dedicated to the preservation and study of the wolf, is located right off of mile marker 11 on Highway 200, sixteen miles from Missoula. The Sanctuary is a nonprofit facility located near the famous Blackfoot River (of ‘A River Runs Through It’ fame).

Beginning in 1996 with Carl Bock’s purchase of twelve wooded acres, it has evolved into a scenic and secure home for a pack of gray and arctic wolves. The enclosures cover ten acres. The main enclosure where the pack spends most of their time is a large, forested six-acre hillside. Ever see a pack of wolves up close? You will here.

For campers, Greenough Lake Campground is within walking distance of its namesake, and is located just off the scenic Beartooth Highway. The area is a popular location for fishing, hiking and scenic driving. Donated to the city by the Greenough family, this park, covering 42 acres, is located just up the Rattlesnake.

Seniors, bring along your fly-fishing rod and try your luck in Greenough Lake. It will prove to be lots of fun.  Enjoy your visit to Greenough. -jeb

Seniors Enjoy Waxhaw

I recently read in a local newspaper that Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaw, North Carolina.  Sounded like a good spot to check out and I was sure right on this one. Waxhaw dates back to 1889 and the local motto reads…”Proud of Our Past..Passionate About Our Future.”  The town website is an excellent means for seniors to explore Waxhaw (pop. 11,300). You can see some great videos of events and highlights of the city. It is an excellent website, and I view dozens of these each  month.

Waxhaw is located in Union County 20 miles south of Charlotte in the historic region called the Waxhaws and named after the indigenous Native American tribe that lived there prior to colonial settlement.

Waxhaw is in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, which is a wooded area with rolling hills. This region is where gold was first discovered in the United States. The Howie Gold Mine is not far from the city limits.

TripAdvisor has their listing of Things to Do in Waxhaw that includes Cane Creek Park, the JAARS Museum of the Alphabet and of course a Museum dedicated to the Waxhaws and Andrew Jackson.

 Seniors Find Possible Birthplace Of Andrew Jackson

Originally called the Wysacky, the community was settled by European-Americans in the mid-eighteenth century. Most settlers were of German and Scots-Irish origin. Settlers became subsistence farmers and were known for being independent.

Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States, was born nearby in 1767. I discovered that there seems to be some disagreement as to which of the Carolinas was his birthplace because of the proximity of the border. I chose Waxhaw, however it looks like I might be wrong…

Tag along on “A Trail of History of Waxhaw” and senior history buffs can learn how it got its fame.

Waxhaw is home JAARS Center, is a non-profit that helps organizations around the world get practical, day-to-day support for Bible translation. Almost 600 people work at the JAARS headquarters as trainers, pilots, software developers, managers, boat captains, and more—people who’ve served all over the world.

 Seniors Enjoy Antiquing In Waxhaw

Waxhaw has evolved as an antique and fine dining center. Its Small Town Main Street committee is working on an integrated approach to developing and marketing the historic center of town. Waxhaw currently has dozens of specialty shops and dining restaurants that tempt the palates of senior visitors.

I know where I would start exploring the town and it would be The Waxhaw Historic District, a national historic district that encompasses over 90 buildings in the central business district.  Take a short visit of Downtown Waxhaw and get a feel for this inviting city.

Seniors, set your GPS for the Piedmont Region of North Carolina and plan to spend some quality time in Waxhaw. The historic district is reason enough for an extended visit, let alone all the scenery, the hospitality of the locals and of course, great North Carolina food.  Enjoy your visit. -jeb