Author of Teaming Up to Travel Again, is Weezie Glascock, an independent leisure travel consultant with 35 years in the travel business. She poses here in Rome with her daughter, Ginny Mabry, a travel agent and partner.
I began my career in travel 35 years ago as a leisure travel planner at Lucas Travel. The year was 1979 and Lee Kinard ruled the airwaves as the Good Morning Show “host with the most” on WFMY-TV.
Lee Kinard, Ed. D.,TV pioneer and Hall of Fame award-winning broadcaster,
is well remembered for his travelogues on WFMY-TV.
Our partnership began when his travelogues became the most watched segments of his popular morning show.
I worked with him to make them a living experience for thousands of viewers throughout North Carolina. On our first trip in 1982, a huge group celebrated the program’s 25th anniversary with tours to Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. The junkets mirrored Lee’s audience: families with children, young marrieds, indefatigable travelers, veterans, and retirees.
Our decision to reprise a group travel series, like the one in the 1980-90s, occurred after a chance meeting at a civic event recently where Lee was speaking. We decided “We were not done taking folks to see historic cities, fascinating countries, and the natural marvels of our own continent.”
During my extensive professional career in the travel industry I have focused on service, experiencing (not just sightseeing) and convenience. Lee and I worked to make our adventures less stressful through planning, overnighting at 4-Star hotels, allowing free time for personal jaunts and scheduling events that enabled our guests to bond and share the culture of the local scene. We “voyaged” across the Baltic from Helsinki to Stockholm, enjoyed the sun coast of Spain and visited magical sites in Segovia, Toledo, Granada and Madrid. One of our most popular adventures was a train ride across Switzerland and an evening walk to see the moon rise over the majestic Matterhorn.
Our forthcoming “Living History” excursions are designed to immerse travelers in the culture and age of an event. As a historian, Lee is familiar with every inch of the Normandy invasion beaches while I have documented Jefferson’s travels in France and Hemingway’s hangouts in Paris. Our partnership will provide travelers with excursions to the Great Tetons and other romantic vistas in the American Northwest and Southwest. We are determined to introduce the majesty of the Canadian Rockies; if Lee gets his way, we will wind our way through quaint New England villages to the plains of Nova Scotia. His literary interest also forshadows expeditions to England’s Lake District and his love for flowers to Keukenhof Gardens in Holland.
“There is no denying that the world of the 21st century is different from the last,” says Lee, “but our determination to escort friends to new and exciting places is based on our belief that travel is as familiar as the experience of the body; as a source of reference, a ground of symbols and metaphors and a resource of signification, it is an extremely healthy diversion. And when it is done right, it is a heck of a lot of fun.” We hope you will join us.
For more information…
Want to join A Living History Trip April 6-14, 2015, with Lee Kinard?
Find all of the details at www.livinghistorytrips.com or
call Weezie Glascock, Cultural Travel Experiences, at 336-275-1010.
