Joe Battista

I found myself in very unfamiliar confines a couple weeks ago surrounded by 120,000 sports fanatics in a southern state dominated by college football loyalists. But I wasn’t attending a Crimson Tide football game in Tuscaloosa or a Tigers game in Auburn. I was in NASCAR country in Talladega, Alabama, a town that sits roughly…

Since I was young, I always looked forward to the fall, and growing up in western Pennsylvania, fall meant football. Yeah, I know, I’m a hockey guy, but I was a football guy first and I’ve been a fan for a long time. With new head coaches leading my three favorite football programs—the Pittsburgh Steelers,…

A couple years ago my wife and I were shopping at Dick’s Sporting Goods, and I saw a really nice U.S. Ryder Cup hat that was regularly $45 on sale for $15. I really wanted to buy the hat. My wife intervened and asked a nearby clerk, a young man, “How many hats does a…

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” —Helen Keller  Our 27-day summer adventure is finally coming to an end. Just one more day in our nation’s capital, then we are finally off to our South Carolina home. It’s been quite the journey! Since July 15, we’ve been driving and flying through and across nine states…

Buckle up, baby, ‘cause we’re back on the road again! Nine states in 27 days of driving and flying, and dealing with torrential rains and tornado warnings in Pennsylvania, and a wildfire in Sun Valley, Idaho. And that was just in the first 10 days.  Yes, this “retired life” is busier than ever for my…

I recently spent an amazing day getting a VIP tour of Fort Stewart Army Base located near Hinesville, Georgia. Like most young boys who grew up in the 1960s, my brother and I and our neighborhood friends spent hours in the woods near our home in Pittsburgh “playing army” or playing inside with those little…