TRAVELING!

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I got my first taste for travel as a Marine and, while stationed in Korea, I would get to go to Kyoto, Japan, for a weekend now and then and became fascinated with the country and its people. When I got out of the Marines I hitchhiked from Los Angelos to Miami Beach, which planted an idea in my head that I would carry out 20 years later! Today while watching Memorial Day events, as only the brain can do, I started thinking of the Marine Corps, traveling and all I had done in a short period of time. In the 1970s I lived in Memphis and used to travel to Chattanooga on Sunday and back on Monday. I had a white Caddie convertible and would put the top down going and coming. Between that and the fun, and people I met when hitchhiking when I had the money I took July 15-August 15 off from work. Each year I would get in the car, put the top down, the triple-A travel book and head in different directions. The first year it was the Southwest, the second was Northwest, the third Northeast and finally the Southeast. Didn't have any plans and would stop where I wanted when I wanted for as long as I wanted. A couple of things I remember are stopping in Duluth, Minnesota, to visit sweet Ginny Pozos who became an important part of my life and sadly died too young, to find it as cold as it was in Memphis in December! I don't know why but the only State I never visited was South Dakota! I would go to Alaska and Hawaii but not South Dakota! This past week I got caught up in watching "Miriam Margoyles: Almost Australian" on Netflix and reading about Marie's cruise from Australia to Pappette and Hawaii and looked up a few things in my diaries. I did the opposite trip in July 1972 and I still have the trip book which I will post another day and I surprise myself how much I remember. In July 1973 I went to South America and had some wild adventures like getting lost by myself in the Brazillian jungle on the way to Iguazu Falls or forgetting 3 days of my life after arriving in Acapulco, and still not knowing how I got through the airports(!), I woke up in Memphis in the hospital after blacking out on the balcony hotel in Mexico. That's a trip I'll have to post about another time. I had 10 years of traveling, having a ball and diaries filled with stories about the trips--oh yes, also spending a lot of money traveling first class all the way--even when driving around the USA it was THE best hotels, restaurants, etc. When I speak to 'youngsters' today I emphasize traveling when you are young because I can't tell you how many people live here at Gateway whose greatest regret was they 'left' their traveling days for when they retired and then, for many reasons, they couldn't. By the way among the photos, on the left the middle photo, is of a check I wrote for tickets to "A Chorus Line" that was among my travels as an ardent follower of the show--going to a city and seeing the show Friday night, Saturday matinee, Saturday evening and Sunday matinee--which are rich memories that I will have to write about at another time! That passport photo always makes me laugh--the haircut alone in a riot!