Re:

On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 08:57:14 +0100, Catja Pafort wrote:

Ric Locke <warlocke@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I enjoy travelers' tales, but lately they've become bittersweet. Pushing
sixty, and with very little in the way of money or prospects, there are a
lot of things I've dreamed of doing that I'll never get to do. One of those
is to drive right across Australia, as Catja did, and visit the tropics
there. I'd like to see the Rock, but it's not something I lust to do.


I was backpacking, and had a bus pass, so I spent miles and miles
sitting on buses. I don't think I would do it again in this way, because
it gives you no opportunity to stop for a couple of hours - it's a whole
day or nothing.

At the time I did it because I wanted to get to know the country,
thinking I'd either be back to the bits I'd enjoy, or I'd have seen it
and satisfied my curiousity.

I loved it, but have't been able to go bac, and it's seventeen years ago
now :-(((

I do hear you. I've had lots of people tell me "Do it now!" but didn't
listen. It's one of the reasons I had so much trouble with child-rearing,
especially after my son got to be a teenager. I remember making those same
mistakes myself.

Perhaps I'll get the chance to finish my list of U.S. States; I've got
Connecticut and North Dakota, still, as blanks on my personal map, and
three others -- New Jersey, Delaware, and New Hampshire -- where I've never
spent the night.

I'm missing Florida, Hawaii and Alaska. Florida I drove through a corner
of, and I haven't kept track of the 'sleep in' but I've seen parts of
all the rest. _That_ was a bit of a road trip, too, and my mother wanted
it so - for the same reason I went to Australia.


If I'm very fortunate, including keeping my health, I
might get to add Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan to the
list. The Mexican States, not so likely; there are too many, especially in
the south, where I've never been or had reason to go.

I'd love to see the north of Canada, and I've not been to Mexico yet.
Nor to South America, Africa, or Mainland Asia. (Three nights in Bali.)

Given unlimited funds I'd like to be a modern-day Schliemann -- hire a
company of well-equipped mercenaries, a squad of interpreters, and a team
of archaeologists and ethnologists, land at Tarsus or Iskenderan, and make
my way slowly across the arc of mountains where Anatolia, Asia, Europe, and
South Asia come together, all the way to the beginnings of the Hindu Kush,
listening to whatever tales and myths the small tribes would tell me.
Something very strange happened around there several millenia ago, and I'd
like to be part of teasing it out. Of course they would sneer at my
prejudice -- if you look at the planet as someone who's never been there,
and you only have the resources to land and set up at one place, that would
be real high on the list of desirable bases, especially when the Harappans
were living and building things.

Of course to do that I'd have to be Paul Allen. Rich people always waste
their resources :-)

It's by no means over, and the company is wonderful, but the host isn't
filling the buffet any more and the level is getting low in the bottles on
the drinks table. I've had fun, and I'll have more, not the raucous fun of
teenagers and young adults but the quiet, heart-filling, half-melancholy
joy appropriate to one who could have done better but enjoyed it anyway.
Once upon a time I loved the sunrise, especially the polychrome slow
explosions in tropic waters, and I remember those times and treasure them,
but lately the cool magentas and deep blues of early twilight after sunset
have more appeal.

That's very poetic. May you have many more good travelling years.

Thank you.

Regards,
Ric

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

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