It’s another secret vacation this week for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who skipped town again Wednesday. “This trip is personal in nature, and we’re not going to offer any further comment,” his spokesman said.
This latest bit of news begs the questions: Where could he be? Argentina? New York? Well… Sanford is traveling with his wife this time (if we’re to believe what he told the spokesman). So the Appalachian Trail might actually be a better guess.
Here’s a look at the highlights so far in his midlife-crisis odyssey.
Punta del Este, Uruguay: According to the website for Tours Gone Wild, this is “one of the world’s most vibrant party places.” It’s also described in a Travel and Leisure article as a place where “the Beautiful People are looking for trouble.” Bingo for Sanford, a husband married for 19 years with four kids when he met his girlfriend while the two were boogieing here on the same open-air dancefloor.
Cordoba, Argentina: Where Sanford cut short a dove hunting trip in June 2008 in order to hustle over to Buenos Aires for “trade meetings.”
Buenos Aires, Argentina: Sanford went AWOL here – not just this past June, but also in June 2008, when he had his first romantic rendezvous with the GF. He apparently got so distracted from all the “magnificently gentle kisses… in the faded glow of night’s light” – plus the tan lines, the curvy hips and all that – that staffers couldn’t locate him during the final day of the trip. And he missed his flight home. (His Commerce travel companion, Ford Graham, later said in an email to Sanford obtained by South Carolina newspaper The State: “Apparently [the Commerce Department] had an informal meeting to discuss what they could do/how they should respond to a missed flight.”)
Buenos Aires is also where the South Carolina governor ignored his own travel policy that encouraged state employees to save money by sharing hotel rooms while traveling together. Sanford, obviously, would not be shacking up with Graham on the 2008 trip. Instead he racked up thousands of dollars in travel expenses, some of which he later agreed to repay (yes to the bill for the Hilton Hotel in the Puerto Madero neighborhood, no to his $4,000 business-class flight home).
Aspen, Colorado: Sanford took a break from rendezvous with his paramour in August 2008 to hang with then-presidential candidate John McCain. One of the most G-rated passages of Sanford’s emails to his GF (leaked to The State) refers to the trip: “The following weekend have been asked to spend it out in Aspen, Colorado with McCain — which has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home.” Reminder: Sanford was a contender to be McCain’s running mate - a scenario that would have preserved Alaska’s reputation as place for whale watching and salmon jerky.
Appalachian Trail: Famed 2,175-mile hiking trail that goes from Maine to Georgia, linking a total of 14 states – of which South Carolina is not one.
Columbia, South Carolina: The state capitol and where Sanford is supposed to be when he’s everywhere else.
New York City: Sanford came here on a trip chaperoned by a “spiritual advisor” in order to break off his affair. Bets on how long before The State publishes emails revealing that Sanford also went AWOL while in the Big Apple?
Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina: A barrier island in the Charleston harbor that’s historically been a popular beach-house getaway for South Carolinians. Also where Sanford has been spending time trying to forget about his soul mate and fall back in love with his wife.
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Where in the World is Mark Sanford This Time? A Midlife-Crisis Travel Odyssey in an annotated Google map.
See also: Sarah Palin’s Alaska: An Annotated Travel Guide
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