Q: I get frequent very painful leg spasms on long flights. As a semi-pro baseball player in my teens and early 20s back in the 1950s, I got them often. They were charley horses, and we worked them out by jumping around and stamping our feet. Sometimes, if we caught the pain soon enough, they’d last only a few seconds, but if they happened when we were asleep or crammed into a tight space, we’d get the full spasm hit of from five to ten minutes.

They were painful as hell then, and the ones I get now on long flights are even more so because of my age. They’re worse if I’m in a five-across seat for eight hours. I’m six foot two, but is it my fault the seats are so close together? What can I do to prevent in-flight charley horses, or at least ease the pain?

Q: We’re taking a driving trip through New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California this summer. We’re nuts about old trains. Where do your recommend we visit some of them?

A: First of all, we hope you have good air conditioning in your car, because summer is hotter than hell in all of those states, except in the high mountains. Many of the exhibits are outside, so make sure you get there very early so you’ll miss the hottest part of the summer day, usually between 10 am and 6 pm. If there’s also part of the exhibit inside an air-conditioned building, duck in at least once every 15 minutes.

Q: We’ve been hearing a lot about ecotourism, where visitors to certain nature sites learn all about species preservation and pollution prevention. On our next trip we’d like to make it ecotourist. What do you suggestion?  

A: Good idea. Ecotourism promotes travel that is sensitive to the world’s very fragile ecosystem. Trips could include instructions and experience in one or more of the following important subjects: human habitat, animal life, rivers, oceans, forests, deserts, the North and South Poles and other critical subjects.

*Q: My lady love, age 52, is asking me, age 61, to accompany her on a nude vacation in Denmark. It isn’t that I’m in bad shape ... I run five miles every morning ... but I feel uncomfortable about baring it all for all to see. What do you recommend?

A: We’ll say, “Go for it!”, although we were tempted to voice our approval with “let it all hang out”, but that’s a bit too raw. Seriously, there are many nude spas, beaches and other vacation destinations around the world. Some are very basic, while others, including cruises, are super luxurious.