The Travel Explorer

Thoughts About Curtis

I’m not sure what made me think about Curtis today, maybe seeing a historic photo of the Cog Railway’s Peppersass? But think of him I did, and I wrote about him as well in a digital book that nobody read. So I thought, well, why not let you all meet him as well.

Back pre-pandemic, I proudly served as a writer-in-residence for the the Cog’s Peppersass Travelling Show as it toured around down in Philadelphia and Scranton, PA. I helped man the booth, do interviews and generally be a pest to the hardworking team running the show.

I even got to meet actor Andrew McCarthy. (He was kind of a jerk.) I also met travel maven Rudy Maxa. (He was not a jerk; he was fabulous and interviewed me for his show a few months later.)

Anyway, back to Curtis. I met him at an expo in Philly where Old Peppersass was on display. I met him for five minutes and the memory stuck. Here’s that encounter.

The man of the moment, Curtis the Travel Explorer

I hear him before I see him.

            "Wowee! Would you look at that!"

            I'm confronted by a well dressed slim man in sunglasses, sporting a white goatee and a fedora.

Curtis Alton McAllister has made landfall at the Mount Washington Cog Railway booth, and he's staring dramatically in wide-eyed wonder at steaming Peppersass.

            I notice his vendor tag, which suggests that he's in a trade.

            "Hi!" I say. "This is Peppersass!"

            He just laughs. "You know, when I saw the picture of this thing in the brochure, I would have sworn it was just a little bitty model."

            "No, sir," I say, “she's the real thing, full size, and celebrating her 150th birthday this year."

            He whistles. "The real thing... she's a dream, she can't be real!"

            Now I'm getting into the exchange. "I assure you she's the real thing, my friend. Would you like to have your picture taken with her?"

            "Would I!" His enthusiasm is contagious. He steps over to Peppersass, grips a gleaming steel runner pipe in one hand and holds up a Cog Railway brochure with the other. "Go ahead, son, let's get this meeting down in permanent ink!"

            "Are you a travel agent?" I ask.

            "Sort of, son. I am a travel explorer. Just enjoying life. Here you go." He hands me a business card. "You just tell me if you need anything."

            He tips his hat and drifts back into the crowd. Over his shoulder I hear him muttering, "It's the real thing!"

            I finally look down at his card. Here's what it says: Traveling, Having Big Fun with Bitcoin, Curtis Alton McAllister, cryptocurrency-investor / Travel Explore.

            There's a picture of Curtis on the business card. In it, he’s dressed in full pleasure yachting regalia, complete with a captain's hat and white suit jacket.

            I wonder what he'll explore next? I search the crowd for signs of him, but he's faded back into the wallpaper, the real deal, the gentleman explorer. Someplace far on the other side of the hall, I hear his laughter. The real thing.

In case you didn’t believe me, here I am with the great Rudy Maxa!

By the way, my short digital book, Peppersass in Pennsylvania is still available at Amazon for a mere 99 cents! Link above. Maybe I’ll publish the whole thing here sometime! Enjoy!