Our travel pages celebrate the wonder, the adventure, the diverse people we met and their cultures and history, in our 43 years of travel to 41 nations on 6 continents. We explain, to ourselves as much as to you, how we got the travel bug. We lay out how we end up with new places to go (or “old,” but every revisit is truly new), how we prepare over months of enjoyment, and how we get there, get around, and get back. Our son, David, has been traveling with us from age 3 months and has ever had the travel bug. His wife, Yi, made her first trip out her native China to attend the Ohio State University for Ph. D. studies, where she met David. She, too, is now an avid traveler. We four all see the world unfold in the light of our backgrounds in science and engineering, melded with pervasive interests in art, history, and the great range of cultures. We thank all the friends we made over these years. We bring what we’ve come to know to our students at the Las Cruces Academy.
There’s so much to say that we’ve parsed it into (now) 7 pages. each page links to the next one. Here’s what to look for:
How we travel: this is the big introduction – a romp through so much of what we feel about travel. About 40 images from diverse places are imbedded… as they are in the other 5 pages, too. The carousel below is a teaser; the link at the start of this paragraph takes you to more depth.
Getting the travel bug for a place
: We come across places, people, cultures, and magnificent sights in many ways, from our childhood memories of travel fantasies (that came true!), books, talking with interesting people who pop up at all kinds of time… We find a place or a whole set of places for a trip and then pursue it, meaning that we take the next step:
Preparing each trip: We travel really on our own (one group trip in the middle reaffirmed that this was the right way). So, we need to find out how to get there, what’s the language and the money and the culture, and how to travel once we get there, by any combination of foot, canoe, car, horse, train, what have you.
Back home: The trip isn’t over, perhaps ever. We relive it and share it as we reintegrate into home and work, yet we are changed.
Books: We have over 4,000 books in our house (only 1800 square feet, 160 square meters), so it’s a packed house. On this page we present a selection of about 150 books that we’ve found outstanding about travel, cultures, fauna and flora, and plain old adventure.
Fifteen takes on travel: So many topics deserve their own space. Vince has written pages on cars and the adventures they’ve led to, food memories, the French people, “world travelers” or WTs who drop in unexpectedly from Bamenda, and more. This lead page gives a taste of each topic. The full pages are in the mill!
Call of the Far East
. Vince offered to do a presentation on travel photography for the Dona Ana Photography Club here in Las Cruces, NM (with some far-flung adherents). Having done all that work to create pages, he’s saving it all here on the website. There are 13 pages on specific areas, such as ceremonies and culture, history, art, and food. The pages are expected to be finished on 9 June 2021. They cover places in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand. There wasn’t enough time in the presentation to include Papua New Guinea, Australia (we consider it as part of Australasia), New Zealand, and Singapore. Maybe later!
