(A Life I Didn’t Plan, But Am Grateful to Live)
PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— Two full days off. That’s a rarity over here, and I don’t take it lightly. I spent those two days doing the kind of work I love—getting several long-simmering projects moving forward back home, catching up on Zoom calls with the restaurant teams covering new and current projects, and even watching a couple of movies with my wife, who’s here with me this spring helping lead the charge. We took time for an outstanding Easter lunch with our friend Marina and her family, then ended each day watching the sunset—cool, crisp, quiet, and better felt than explained.
This current leg of RSJ Yonderlust Tours began in early March, two days after my daughter’s wedding. No pause button. Life just kept moving. We started in Spain with a group of 25 Americans. It was my fourth time in the last four years leading a tour through that part of the world. Some of the travelers were familiar faces—folks who’ve joined me on previous tours. That always makes things easier. They know the rhythm, the way I travel, the way I host. They settle in fast.
After Spain, I flew straight to Tuscany and hosted three groups back-to-back-to-back. The first two were what I call the RSJ Yonderlust Foundational Tour. It’s the flagship. The original. The gold standard. These are the tours I’ve led for years, and they’ve become the entry point for most people who travel with me. I’ve probably hosted more than 40 of these in Tuscany alone. It never gets old.
Part of that is because of the place—Tuscany makes it easy. The land is beautiful. The food is outstanding. The people are warm and welcoming. That kind of hospitality can’t be faked. But the other part—the more important part—is the people who choose to come here with me.
The early moments for first timers are always filled with quiet uncertainty. I can see it in their eyes at the airport—so many questions still bouncing around:
Did I pack the right things?
Are we going to have enough to eat?
Will I like the other people in the group?
Is this going to feel like a forced itinerary or a real experience?
I tell them right away, “You’ve worried about enough already. From this moment forward, you have nothing to worry about. Seriously, nothing. All is covered. Everything. Lodging, meals, transportation, wine, tips, tours, guides, decisions—you name it. Just relax. Let us take care of you.”
They don’t believe me at first. That’s OK. By day three, all do. That’s usually when the questions start shifting. “Where else are you traveling?” “Tell me about the trip to Sicily.” “What’s next year’s itinerary look like?” That’s the moment they stop looking for a plan and start embracing the experience.
Those first two Tuscany tours this spring were filled with folks new to the RSJ Yonderlust family. But the third group, the one that just wrapped, was what we now call Tuscany 2.0. That tour is for folks who’ve already done the foundational tour. We stay in a different villa. We explore different towns. We eat in new restaurants. Same region, fresh experience.
What made one of the tours this spring even more special was that every traveler in the group was from Mississippi. That’s a first for me. Even on the Mississippi Tours I host, I’ve never had an entire group made up of folks from back home. It added an extra layer of comfort and familiarity. Some of the guests in the 2.0 group have travelled on six of my tours. Five of them are heading with me to Holland and Belgium tomorrow—for their seventh RSJ Yonderlust tour.
They settle in immediately. No learning curve. They know how I host. They know how we travel. It’s not a vacation anymore—it’s a reunion. And over the years, the friendships have grown deeper. I know about their kids, grandkids, hobbies, and hometowns. It’s like those long-standing childhood friendships you slip back into without missing a beat.
I’ve always valued friendship. But there’s something about this season of life that’s made me value it even more. Maybe it’s age. Maybe it’s perspective. In my twenties, I probably took it for granted. It wasn’t until I hit forty that I started to understand what really matters: faith, family, friends, food, and fun. The Five Fs. Those aren’t just things I talk about—they’re the backbone of my personal life and they guide my professional life, too. When the first four are in place—as they are in restaurants and travel—the fifth one— fun— shows up on its own.
Working with my boots-on-the-ground team, Marina and Jesse, has become one of the greatest joys of this chapter. They’re more than colleagues. They’re family. They flew to Mississippi for my daughter’s wedding in March, then immediately turned around and went back to work with me here. We laugh. We play jokes on each other when the guests are out exploring. Sometimes I feel like a fellow sibling, sometimes a friend, other times like the dad of the group. Those relationships are real, and they mean the world to me.
Tomorrow, we head to Amsterdam for the RSJ Yonderlust Holland/Belgium tour. It’s only the second time I’ve hosted that one, but it’s already become a favorite. The cities are charming, the culture is vibrant, and the food is good. But more than that, it’s meaningful because I get to work with Jesse and Marina in their homeland. Both of them are Dutch. To see them share their heritage with our guests is something special.
People often ask how I can leave my restaurants for three or four months at a time to do these tours. The answer’s simple—I’ve got the best team I’ve ever had. In 37 years of restaurant ownership, I’ve never been surrounded by a more committed, more talented, more values-driven group of leaders.
They’re not just holding down the fort. They’re carrying out our mission with passion and purpose. That mission—“to give our guests exceptional experiences through fanatical, wall-to-wall hospitality”—isn’t just a sentence on a wall. It’s something we live every day.
A few years back, we committed—really committed—to our five core values: Hospitality. Quality. Consistency. Cleanliness. Community. Once we centered everything around those five, everything changed. Two years out of COVID, our culture started to take off. The energy shifted. The results followed.
I’ve always said I love work. Some people raise an eyebrow at that, like work’s supposed to be a negative word. But outside of my family and friends, it’s my greatest joy. I don’t hunt. I don’t fish. I don’t play golf. I do restaurants and I do travel, sometimes 18 hours a day. That’s what fills me up.
I’ve told my kids for years—figure out what you love, then find a way to make a living doing it. That way, you never really “work” in the traditional sense. That’s not to say there won’t be stress or problems. But when you’re doing what you love, even the problems become chances to learn and improve.
A few years ago, I hired an executive coach named Donald Burns. He works with me and also coaches our C-suite and restaurant leadership teams through three meetings every week. He introduced me to the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen—getting just 1% better every day. That stuck with me. One bite of the apple. Not the whole orchard.
And when I think about everything we’ve built, it’s humbling. There are moments—on a hilltop in Tuscany, beside a canal in Amsterdam, or standing by a quiet loch in Scotland—when I pause and think, What a gift this is. I can’t believe I get to do this.
I didn’t plan it this way, I don’t take it for granted, and I definitely don’t take credit for it—it’s just something I’m deeply thankful to get to do, and something I’ve been blessed to share with others.
And it all comes down to people. The guests who trust me enough to spend their time and money traveling with me across the world. The partners and team members like Marina and Jesse who make the journey smoother and more joyful. The friends I’ve made along the way, many of whom started as strangers. And most of all, the people back home—the ones who keep the restaurants humming, who carry the torch of our mission, who lead with values and conviction every single day.
This work, this life, these people—I don’t take a second of it for granted.
I’m grateful. Humbled. Honored.
Onward.
