Still Traveling

My wife and I have been gone from our home in San Felipe, Baja California for 6 weeks and are faced with the drive back during a heat wave.  The Imperial Valley where we have to go is 117 degrees and probably will not cool off until September.  Where we live is probably 100 because the Sea of Cortez does help with the air conditioning.  Life in the heat is spent indoors with a few distractions of visits and social connections at different venues.  Fall, Winter and Spring are the prime times for our area and the Snowbirds flock south every years to live in this 65 to 80 degree range of temperatures.  All for now. 

Homeless in America

I have been traveling in Arizona and California for the past 6 weeks in areas that are affluent.  Laguna Beach, New Port Beach and a few other wealthy beach towns make up the list.  In these towns I have noticed a few homeless people trying to survive.  My wife and I sat down with one man outside a health food store and actually talked to him after noticing the wealthy population walking by him as though he were invisible.  He was a Vietnam vet who lived in the town shelter and was suffering from an infection on his foot.  He was helped by his son who lived near by and checked on him everyday with a phone call.  I suspect he wanted to live on his own and chose to get help from those in town.  After leaving him some $ and having a talk, he thanked us for taking the time to say hi and acknowledge he was a human in need.  Sometimes these people go through days without anyone even saying hi to them.  This is an educational moment.  You may not want to give money based on some belief system that you really need that extra quarter or dollar, but at least acknowledge them.  They are humans living in our society and they are not going away. 

Many people are going abroad for vacations and travel.  Share what you learned from the country and culture you visited and how it changed the way you see the world.

Travel Mantra

"He who travels far will often see things far
removed from what he believed was  truth.  When he talks about it in the fields at home he is often accused of lying, for the obdurate people will not believe what they do not see and distinctly feel.  Inexperience, I believe , will give little credence to  my song."  (quote is believed to be by Hermann Hesse)