TRAIL TUNES: Sail away

I’m no sailor. Wish I was.

Born cursed with land legs and a stomach that doesn’t like waves, I get in a boat on even the most tranquil of lakes and find myself draped over the side trying to keep lunch down.

I am, however, subject to the trade winds in my mind. When the winter weather breaks into a short burst of spring like a firecracker, my imagination cruises to the places my memory keeps as forever summer – Manuel Antonio in Costa Rica, New Jersey’s Ocean City, Samana in the Dominican Republic, Duval Street in Key West and so on.

I know I shouldn’t because winter lasts a long time, but I’m helpless whenever those guilty pleasure memories invade my thoughts.

There’s the guilty pleasure in music, too. While I try to stay in sync with the latest indie rock – harder and harder the older I get; how many twenty-year-olds can I listen to whine about life now that I’m happily married?  - I drift from time to time to artists and tunes which are cringe-worthy to anyone else.

And since today, Jan. 21, is the glorious anniversary of when in a Cincinnati hospital I made my entrance into this world, I’m going to pick a TRAIL TUNES that marks one of those guilty pleasures. Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” was part of the singer’s astounding 1979 success (Grammys and a bestselling album), and yeah, one of my favorite guilty pleasure songs. I’m not ashamed. I’m somewhere tropical in my mind today.

Guilty pleasure songs bring a little smile to any trip, a few laughs and if you’re traveling solo one heck of a singing performance in your car. Don’t hide from yours. Crank it.

Tagged as: Christopher Cross, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Duval Street, Florida, Key West, Manuel Antonio, New Jersey, Ocean City, Samana