Scene: Starbucks Coffee Shop.

I enter mid-conversation between a 20-something barista and a 30-something self-described annual tennis tournament tourist from Nashville ordering a soy vanilla latte, no whip.

Tourist: So what do you know about this Jungle Jim's place? Is it near here? I am a foodie and heard it's a cool place.

Barista: "Omigod. You have to go. It's wild and crazy, kind of like an amusement park for foodies. I want to take a cooking class there."

Though I'd describe it as more of an Alice in WonderfoodLand with gorillas and giraffes instead of Cheshire cats and mad queens, the barista was on the money.

And that conversation would be music to "Jungle Jim" Bonaminio's ears. The 61-year-old's roadside stand morphed into a chock-a-block of buildings offering 300,000 square feet of food from 75 countries in a sideshow setting. You can't pass it by.

It's a successful operation that never rests on its laurels and is always looking for the next adventure around the corner, much like other folks you'll meet in this issue, including Oscar Jarnicki and Jim Amatulli who turned a day-dreamed story into a Hollywood film.

Like the cover masthead says, "The Adventure Continues."

You just have to be ready.

And willing to follow Alice down the rabbit hole.

— Joy W. Kraft, Editor