Being on the road is great until you return and find your desk buried and everything needing to be done yesterday. My recent travels to North Carolina and Pennsylvania to cover both the Charlotte Spring AutoFair and Spring Carlisle, respectively, really recharged my battery. After a long winter, there's nothing like going to shows and reconnecting with the old car hobby in-person.

    One of the many benefits of attending shows is meeting and talking with hobbyists. Everyone has opinions, but better, everyone has stories. I hear a lot of stories about hobbyists' collector cars, and I enjoy those immensely. Hearing how others have found cars in barns or salvage yards and returned them to the road are my favorite. I hope to be that lucky someday, after I hang up my camera and reporter notebook and take up restoration full-time.

    Every once in a while, I meet a hobbyist who has a story with a unique slant. Such was the case this trip, and I feel compelled to share it. This gentleman, whom I'll refer to as Joe for reasons of anonymity that will become obvious, falls into the category of rogue adventurer. While most retirees winter in Arizona or Florida, he choses to winter in eastern Mexico. He claims the cost of living "down there" is vastly cheaper than setting up a winter residence in the United States. Aside from the usual precautions of not drinking Mexican tap water (bottled water is prevalent and cheap, according to Joe), he spends his days golfing, fishing, hiking in 80-degree weather, much as he would if he were in either Arizona or Florida. He also says the automotive landscape is quite interesting in Mexico, as he sees old cars being used as daily drivers.

    Being a lifelong old car enthusiast, Joe has heard all the stories about the prevalence of interesting vintage cars in Cuba. He says he regularly makes the $99 round trip flight from Mexico to Cuba to see first-hand what the automotive culture is like, and sample Cuban hospitality. Joe claims that staying in the hotels and dining in restaurants near the major cities is no different than any other country, and American currency is most welcome both in Mexico and Cuba.

    It appears that Joe has found a gray area in the rules to overcome travel restrictions to Cuba, and is able to sate his curiousity about car cultures in foreign countries that most of us may never experience, due to politics or fear of the unknown. He's also smoking the finest Cuban cigars on a regular basis, and to that I tip my hat to him.