I take to the open road healthy, free,   the world before me. I whimper no more,  postpone no more,   need nothing. Strong and content   I travel the open road.          -Walt Whitman		GowithFlo
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More Peak Experiences

Scuba diving amidst a school of barracuda (Sipadan Island, off Borneo)

Seeing Orangutans in Malaysian Borneo.

River cruise through the jungle spotting snakes, lizards, crocs, orangutan, and the rare Probiscus Monkey - the "Long-nosed Monkey". (Borneo)

Successfully tackling Mumbai, India on my own, despite my fears.

Kruger National Park, South Africa:

• Snapping pictures out of the sun roof of a male lion who lay exhausted next to our vehicle with his partially-eaten kill - a buffalo - a few feet away.
• Watching him rise and warn a female lion to back off as she approaches the food. [Which she probably killed herself - male lions get to eat first,even though the lazy males let the females do the hunting and killing].
• Turning onto a lonely dirt road in our vehicle and coming across two cheetahs who couldn't care less that we were there - they proceeded to lay down for a rest on the road right in front of our car.
• Spotting a leopard in the bush as he stalked a springbok.
• Hearing lions roar and hippos grunt at night while sleeping in tents in the African wilderness
• Huddling around the campfire as we fearfully listened to an elephant pass through the trees in the darkness behind our campsite
• Watching a herd of about 40 elephants pass over the plains area outside our campsite in the Okovanga Delta
• Speeding along the channels of the Okovanga Delta flood plains as storks and kingfishers flew ahead of us
• My first hunting experience ( to story...)
• Making lifelong friends while traveling
• Quadbiking and sandboarding the dunes in Namibia - some of the biggest dunes in the world
• Whitewater rafting the Zambezi River - some of the wildest rapids in the world (two boat flips and one air-borne throw into the river where the safety kayaker "rescued" me)

Whale watching in the Indian Ocean:

• Two curious whales came right up to our boat
• Watched two whales mate
• Listened to a whale "sing" as she relaxed at the surface

Looking upon the night sky one of my first nights in Africa and seeing the Milky Way....I am far, far from home.

Going hunting in the African bush.

Touring the Cappadoccia region in Central Turkey - climbing amidst the cave houses and underground cities where early Christians resided during centuries of persecution and Arab/Ottoman invasions. Remember the Star Wars desert scenes...where the Jawas lived in cone-shaped cliff houses? Well, that was filmed in Cappadoccia.

Exploring "The Imperial Apartments" in the Palace of the Hapsburg dynasty in Vienna.

Wandering the "Old Town" of Bratislava in Slovakia.

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Going out Friday night after the stress of getting through our first English teaching lesson....stumbling home hand in hand like a group of grade school children....and Keith, who looks like ZZ Top, bellowing opera with a German accent as he led us, a chain of women, down the street.

Teaching my first English lesson to a group of Czech students. They successfully learned to say the word and understand the concept behind "picnic", "skyscraper", and "to go jogging". And I think they liked me.

Coming out of a Prague night club at 4AM to see the steeples of the magnificent, gothic cathedrals against the light of dawn.

The feeling you get every once in a while - at an ancient ruin, a magnificent setting, a beautiful church- of your vitality and insignificance all at once.

My visit to the Turkish baths

Waking up on May 5th, after getting in from Chicago at 2AM the night before, and not knowing where I was...and then slowly realizing I was in Greece.

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More Pit Experiences

At a campsite in Namibia...learning about and grieving about the horrible events on Sept. 11th....not being able to get information...having to frustratingly wait to get all the facts until we got back to "civilization" for newspapers and CNN.

Camping in near freezing temperatures for two nights in Botswana (my thermometer measured 2 degrees Celsius while we were having breakfast)

Getting sick after drinking the water in the Okovanga Delta - perhaps dysentery. Let's just say I have now fertilized the African bush and my intestines became cleaner than when I was a newborn babe.

Squatting in the bush to pee, squatting in the bush to pee, squatting again to pee, and again, and again, etc., etc.

Having to pee so bad in the middle of the night, but holding it until morning because I was afraid a lion would get me if I left my tent

Almost getting stuck in Zimbabwe because I didn't have the $20.00 US departure tax on me in cash. (Another American passenger lent me the money)

Being on a long bus trip and having to pee really bad. (Oh, to be human...it sure limits us)

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Getting so sick and weak in Turkey that a doctor came to my hotel and put me on an I.V. and 4 different medications.

Athens, Athens, and Athens.

The taxi drivers in Athens.

The waiters in Athens.

The ticket agents in Athens.

The stray cats and dogs in Athens.

The pollution and heat in Athens.

Climbing up to the Acropolis to find it was closed for two days due to a worker's strike.

Arriving in Vienna - none of the cash machines in the train station worked, I had no guidebook, I lost the equivalent of $6 US dollars in the ticket machine and didn't even get my tram ticket, etc, etc. It took me two hours to get out of there.

The hostel I had to sleep in my last night in Prague. Laid awake all night in a stuffy dorm room inhaling something that smelled like a combination of cat urine, cat litter, and something else I can't put my finger on.

The bathroom and shower of aforementioned hostel - you didn't want to step foot in it because you'd be cleaner NOT going into it.

The lousy food at the summer camp where I taught English (i.e. pasta mixed with chopped up bologna, and the option to add ketchup as the sauce).

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Planning my first English lesson until 2AM the night before.

Sitting in class from 11AM until 5PM while Prague beckons outside the windows.

The ride on the ferry from the Greek mainland to the island of Santorini. Waves were quite heavy and I couldn't even sit up without feeling nauseous. Three grade school children were puking over the boat and on the floor not far from me.

Getting lost on a moped in the mountains of the Greek Island of Naxos.

Spending 13 hrs. in the Munich airport - the airport from hell - because the Lufthansa pilots went on strike.

Trying to get my backpack on my shoulders for the first time in the Athens airport and realizing it is WAY too heavy. What can I possibly eliminate!? I feel like I'm down to the basics already!

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since 5/24/01