Based on a true story! Mostly.

My wife builds things in her spare time. Although she built the goat tower pictured above before our last vacation, I did not have great pictures of the lumber rack, hummingbird vine pole, or the small shelter she built in our bird sanctuary flowerbed. Although I am slightly poking fun at her, I am celebrating her accomplishments! She seriously has some skills.

When we discussed where we wanted to travel next, Tracy mentioned she wanted to see ruins like Greece or Rome. The building in the fourth panel is supposed to represent the classic Greek Parthenon.

So that’s where this joke started!

Characters, Characters, Characters!

I also tried a new cover page approach, starting with “Travel Advisory.” Since I have so many characters, I have been including a “who’s who” on my social media feeds on Sundays for the upcoming week. Starting with this comic, I identify the cast, so newcomers can start to learn the characters. As I may have mentioned before (in this forum or others) some of the characters have real-life inspirations, and some I have drawn since 5th grade, and some I have made up for a specific joke, and just kept rolling with them. The Old Man is me, Mom is Tracy, and Grand is loosely based on my father. I follow the Charles Shultz Method. I read somewhere that often the Peanuts characters were inspired by people he know (Shermy, the Van Pelts, Lucy, etc.) but quickly grew into their own personalities.