From the Faraway, Nearby

It's a Nice Day for Some White Birding

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:25:00 +0000

Ring-billed gull - second year

Oklahoma City Audubon's Tuesday morning birders meet every week in the fall and winter come rain, snow, shine, sweeping prairie wind -- or in the case of last Tuesday - a thick blanket of misty fog on a day that promised to be a warm and sunny 71 and never mounted 60.

Ospreys in the mist

A huge flock of unidentified icterids course the air in Hitchcockian glory

This season is under the expert guidance of naturalist, Oklahoma native plant genius and birder extraordinaire - Bill Diffin. The Tuesday morning birders are lucky to have him and any day birding with Bill Diffin is a good day for the wide-eyed-and-wanting-to-learn.

Osprey and Comorant

_______________________________________________________

White bird

In a golden cage

On a winter's day

In the rain

_________________________________________________________

Great Blue Heron and Bobber

Even a day smothered in grey fog and wet mist and with less than ideal conditions for photography.

Franklin's Gull

With the promise of lots of sun, I brought the big guns last Tuesday to the Lake Hefner outing. Even on the sunniest day I am usually less than thrilled with my Canon EF 400 mm f/5.6L despite its enormous popularity and high ratings. The images are never tack sharp; and on a cloudy day - fuggetaboutit!

Osprey caged in gold

_______________________________________________

The leaves blow

Cross the long black road

To the darkened skies

In its rage

But the white bird

Just sits in her cage

Unknown

________________________________________________

Common loon a calling

I shot at everything that would sit still long enough for the lens to focus through the mist;

Red-shouldered hawk on mast

remembering that a gray day and a fairly competent digital dark room can work wonders on blurry, blah, rainy day birding images.

Leaping Harris sparrows

Whoever says photography is not art - look again.

Belted kingfisher on snag

And whoever says rainy day birding is not good...eat your heart out...

____________________________________________________

The sunsets come

The sunsets go

The clouds Float by

And the Earth Turns slow

And the Young Birds Eyes

Do always Glow

And she must fly

She must fly

_______________________________________________________

White Bird Must Fly

or She will die

She will die

Many thanks to Bill Diffin for 52 species and a great day of birding on Lake Hefner, despite the weather. That's OKC Audubon's Tuesday morning birding at its best!

"White Bird" from David LaFlamme's band Beautiful Day

Window on the Past: Travels through Albania, Siberia and the Buryat Kingdom

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

A year ago I was traveling through Albania, Siberia and the Buryat Kingdom as the advance person for a private jet company. Looking back, it seems that jet was moving well outside the shadow of the crumbling economy and so too was I. A lot has changed in a year.

These were remarkably untrodden places to work in and each held an incredible allure for even the most intrepid of us. I was elated to get to go, if not for the passport stamps and the frequent flyer miles. I was not prepared for how fantastically beautiful and mesmerizing each place would prove to be.

I was there as a destination manager and not a photographer - so I only had time to shoot a few images. Here's a short video which does little service to these beautiful places and people. Most of the water shots are of Lake Baikal - the deepest lake in the world; the ruins and blue lake are from Butrint National Park in southern Albania - a would-be birder's paradise if birders were paying attention; and the beautiful Asian woman is the Crown Shaman of Lake Baikal.

When you get a call at midnight, full moon a-rising, for a command appearance with the Crown Shaman, you get dressed and go. And you have the adventure of your life, even if it means finding yourself dressed head-to-toe in celebratory tribal-ware -- genuflecting around a fire and dancing that most ancient of dances passed down through old Genghis Khan himself.

One Shot: Novice Monk in Luang Prabang, Laos

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:22:00 +0000

Novice Monk - Saiphone

Wat Arun
Luang Prabang, Laos
March 2009
©trryan

Riot on Scott Mountain

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

Mount Scott rises up out of the mixed grass prairies of southwestern Oklahoma to almost 2500 feet and is the second largest peak of the Wichita Mountains. I hear your chuckles. Not so high for a peak, I know, but at more than 500 million years old - you gotta give a big hill a break.

It's a mountain by someone's official standards. From a state renowned for being flat and boring, we'll take it. That, and the fact that the people who call Oklahoma flat and boring have never actually been here.

Here's some boring for you. This is where the riot started.

And here is some flat...

And here's Oklahoma's most famous bird artist taking it all in. She knows where the action is when Fall starts a riot. She's traveled the world, moved here fourteen years ago from San Francisco Bay and...has...never....left. Take that flat state hate mongers.

Mount Scott rapakivi granite: salmon pink, slathered in neon-yellow lichen and studied by geologist all over the world. I like having that in my backyard.

as well as chinquapin oaks

and posing dark-eyed juncos. Only 'cause you got my good side, says the junco. And pretty on pink as well.

These purple-colored plants in the aster family start the riot in early October and keep it going well into November.

The guitar hero, straddling mountaintop, wants to be a rock star, literally. And what better place to serenade the changing season and

these changing leaves

and this riot of color made possible by unseasonably cold weather and damp days.

Mount Scott and the surrounding 60,000 acres became part of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in 1901, making it one of the oldest refuges in the National Park system.

Cache Creek is one of more than 20 lakes and streams that wrap the refuge like holiday ribbons.

This place is a rock lovers paradise. If you don't think rocks are alive - come here and watch your mind transform. This tumble of pink granite overwhelms the senses.

Teddy Roosevelt came here to shoot wolves and then went back to Washington and raved about the place. The wolves are gone now, as are the black bears and most of the hunters. But herds of buffalo and elk and longhorns are thriving. As well as prairie dogs, coyotes and bobcats. Mountain lion sightings increase year after year.

This place was home to the Comanche tribe for centuries. The Apache and Kiowa tribes were later forced here. Before General George Armstrong Custer met his match at the Battle of Little Bighorn, he had already wreaked havoc in this part of the state.

This magical place is 70 miles from my front door. I'm there in a blink of an eye and ever so grateful to have it in my backyard.

I hope you like Oklahoma and its outrageously colored rocks and impossible beauty. Because with the economy the way it is - that's just about all your going to get from this blogger until the Olympic Games hove into view in February. I have not been on a plane since July. Fortunately, I love road trips....

and I love Oklahoma in the fall!!

My world is Oklahoma, Mount Scott and the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Set this Street on Fire

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:36:00 +0000

Sugar Maples in Autumn
15th Street, Heritage Hills
near downtown
Oklahoma City

From red dirt to red leaves, from the land where the buffalo roamed and the deer and the antelope could pretend they were in New England - did I mention how much I love this place I call home! Right in my own backyard. Oklahoma is definitely OK!

Celebrating the Motmot- an Oklahoma Treasure

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:09:00 +0000

Debby Kaspari of "Drawing the Motmot" photographed during one of many Oklahoma road trips the blogger and artist have enjoyed.

A major Oklahoma museum just debuted an extraordinary new exhibit designed to celebrate the creative adventures of an outrageously gifted local artist and naturalist. I want to join in that celebration by toasting that artist and the special friendship that has made my journey back home absolutely remarkable.

In August of 2007 I sat on the porch of my new Oklahoma home on the first full day of my new Oklahoma life after 25 years away and watched the postman make his way up the sidewalk with nothing less than resolute determination. Resolute all you want Mr. Postman - that mail is not for me. He shoved a postcard into my hand addressed to the previous owner and rushed off in a way that made certain I'd be responsible for the forwarding.

That misdirected postcard was a beautifully rendered announcement of a forthcoming art opening in my neighborhood and on the cover was the most divinely illustrated bird. Little did I know in that moment, still ripe with trepidation at my prompt decision to leave New Mexico, what incredible good fortune would unfold from that errant piece of mishandled mail.

Canopy Life- mixed media on Rives BFK paper, 30"x39" by Debby Kaspari

I was not only mesmerized by the artist's work -- but also thrilled that a gallery in my new neighborhood in my new life was celebrating the work of a nature artist. Perhaps some of those 250 galleries I had at my disposal in my previous life would not be missed after all. I hugged the card to my chest and smiled at this unintended gift that I was convinced was an omen of good things to come and, at the same time, wondered who this fantastic artist was on the backside of the card.

Portrait of the Artist on the Salt Flats of Selman Ranch in Harper County by TR.

The artist was Debby Kaspari and I soon discovered she also wrote a terrific blog called "Drawing the Motmot". Unfortunately out of town work commitments kept me from attending the postcard's promised "Passionate Menagerie: Light, Form and Function" but in that wonderful way that life often works -- our paths seemed to cross a dozen ways and in no time at all I found myself sitting in her Norman studio savoring the magnanimity of her creative genius - a meeting long insisted by mutual friend, artist and blogger Julie Zickefoose. Fortunately for me, Julie was right on - and Debby and I became fast friends that day. Almost two years later, I consider our friendship one of the greatest gifts of moving back.

The Motmot and The Birdchick on the road with TR at the 2009 Lesser Prairie Chicken Festival in western Oklahoma. Debby was named the featured artist of the festival and I got to tag along and meet the infamous Birdchick and the equally amazing travel writer Sophia Dembling.

In short time we took our mutual love for nature and art and travel and creativity off the intertubes and out of the studio and on to the road - from the swamps of southeast's Little Dixie to the magnificent prairies of the northwest -- together we have crossed the state of Oklahoma a dozen directions in car and kayak and each time always in absolute marvel at the beauty of this place we call home. We've chased birds and butterflies and rocks and flowers all through fen and forest - traversing the field with Debby is nothing short of a Master's Class in Natural History. Last fall, by odd coincidence, we anchored two ends of the Peruvian Amazon at about the same time - each pursuing passionate endeavors; like minds, indeed, living right here in central Oklahoma.

Over the Top, Amazon Macaws - Pastel and graphite on paper by Debby Kaspari inspired by the macaws at the Tampobata Research Station in Amazonian Peru.

Not only is Debby Kaspari a gifted artist who continually racks up an accomplished list of awards and prizes -- she is also a phenomenal writer, a master gardener, a brilliant naturalist, an award-winning blogger and on top of all that - plucks an exceptionally fine bluegrass tune on the banjo. Debby is the quintessential Renaissance woman and she finally received the recognition she so well deserves this weekend when the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History unveiled its newest exhibit: Drawing the Motmot: An Artist's View of Tropical Nature.

Honeycreeper sketched from Canopy Tower in Panama by Debby Kaspari

In an unprecedented gesture celebrating a local artist, the Drawing the Motmot exhibit celebrates the culmination of several years of Debby's work in the rainforests of Central and South America. The exhibit recreates Debby's tropical expeditions and is designed to immerse the visitor in "the magical world of the nature artist at work."

Rufous Motmot on Fan Palm - by Debby Kaspari

"The artwork includes sketchbook pages with notes, field drawings, pen-and-ink studies and studio paintings, accompanied by her lively and thoughtful field notes and commentary that give the feeling of a personal conversation with the artist. Adding to the adventure are the sounds of toucans, monkeys and other tropical wildlife recorded in the Amazonian and Panamanian rainforests, plus videos of works in progress in the field."

Some Birds at Summit Pond - Panama - pen and ink journal sketch by Debby Kaspari

Needless to say I am immensely proud of my friend and hometown girl - this incredible human who speaks the language of birds and participates in life so fully, ripely, deeply. I treasure our friendship immensely and look forward to endless adventures in our home state as we continue to capture this beautiful place on canvas and film.

It is fantastic that the rest of Oklahoma will finally get to experience firsthand the incredible measure of Debby's talent at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History -- starting this weekend and running through January 18. If you are from anywhere near Oklahoma - don't miss it and for more information click here for the link. And if you haven't yet come across her award-winning blog - Drawing the Motmot - add it to your list - its always a fascinating visit.

Originally from California, Debby is a proud Okie after 14 years.

As I write, I am still on my Great Western Road Trip - birding the soft golden hills and steep canyons of southeast Arizona and wishing my birding and road trip buddy was here with me in this land she also loves. Sadly, there are no Motmots here in this part of the world - which means its time to get home. See you soon.

Midnight in the Garden of Cactus and Coyotes

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Southwest Arizona
Near the Border of Mexico
at Midnight

Moons over the Mojave

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Harvest Moon

taken

outside of

Joshua Tree National Park

October 3, 2009

during the Great Western Road Trip

And again

the next night

the Solstice Full Moon

rising almost a half hour later

than the night before

coming up over the

Little San Bernardino Mountains

October 4, 2009

One Shot: High Noon at Chilchinbito Rock

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Click image to see photo in its entirety

Watching the sky near Chilchinbito, Arizona
on the Many Farms to Kayenta Road
between Carson and Black Mesas
Outside of Monument Valley
in Navajo Country
Mile 1314
on the
Great Western Road Trip

Road Trip: Day 14 - Navajo Country

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:44:00 +0000

After eight days of working in the old home town of Santa Fe it was time to get back on the road. I pointed the car west and headed for Arizona, Dine land and the incredible Canon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, AZ. My complete route was still undecided - I had to be in Las Vegas, NV five days later for work.

Day 14
Starting Mile: 935
Ending Mile: 1193
Santa Fe, NM to Chinle, AZ

Mile 1010
Late Summer Monsoon Rain
Near Blue Lake State Park in New Mexico

Mile 1140
Leaving Pueblo Country and entering Navajo Country

Mile 1134
Nazlini, AZ - Heart of Navajo Country

Nazlini, Navajo Country

Mile 1158
Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Mile 1176
North Rim of Canyon de Chelly
looking west to Hopi Country

Mile 1180
The last remnants of afternoon showers
fall on the
Hopi Nation's First Mesa

Road Trip: Celebrating National Parks, Ken Burns and America's Best Idea

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:04:00 +0000

I must confess a good part of my road trip itinerary was inspired after seeing some of the breathtaking advance press footage for the Ken Burn's directed documentary series "The National Parks - America's Best Idea" which debuts tonight on PBS.

I have always believed our National Park System is without question one of America's greatest legacies and I have been looking forward to the debut of Burn's highly acclaimed work for months. I learned a few months ago that I would be working on the night of the big debut and s0 - decided to see some of these parks for myself in a nearly 3000 mile drive across Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California.

Like other of Burn's award-winning documentary work - the National Park film takes an historical look at the people and politics that saved America's greatest natural treasures from exploitation and certain demise. A battle that continues today.

PBS says that the documentary was filmed "over the course of more than six years in some of nature’s most spectacular locales — from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska — the documentary is nonetheless a story of people from every conceivable background — rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy. It is a story of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration — set against breathtaking backdrops."

To whet your appetite for the documentary - here are scenes from nine National Parks and Monuments that I have so far visited on my great western road trip.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument
Chinle, AZ

Monument Valley Tribal Park
Northeastern, Arizona
(not technically part of the NPS)

Natural Bridges National Monument
Utah

Capitol Reef National Park
Utah

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Utah

Bryce Canyon National Park
Utah

Zion National Park
Utah

Desert National Wildlife Refuge at Corn Creek
with Warbling Vireo
Las Vegas, NV

Death Valley National Park
California/Nevada Border

PBS says THE NATIONAL PARKS film is a visual feast, featuring some of the most extensive, breathtaking images of the national parks system ever captured on film containing the most contemporary footage of any Ken Burns film since “Lewis and Clark,” shot principally by chief cinematographer Buddy Squires (who has photographed all of Burns’s films), long-time Florentine cameraman Allen Moore, Lincoln Else (who also is a former ranger at Yosemite) and Burns himself. Read more here at PBS.org

I'll be featuring more of my road trip to the nine National Parks and Monuments listed above over the next few weeks here at The Faraway, Nearby.

Top Photo: Monument Valley

All photos ©trryan @ from the faraway, nearby

One Shot: Sunrise at Spider Rock

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:16:00 +0000

Spider Rock - Canyon de Chelly

near Chinle, Arizona

Mile 1248

Great Western Road Trip - Photo of the Day - Nazlini, Navajo Country, Mile 1202

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:27:00 +0000

To see the image - click on the photo above

Nazlini, Navajo Country
Arizona
September 14
Mile 1202

Enchanted Circle

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:25:00 +0000

Gallagher Ranch on the Enchanted Circle

Eagle Nest, New Mexico

Great Western Road Trip
Day 4, 5 & 6

Santa Fe to Eagle Nest, NM and back to Santa Fe

Mile 601 - 935

Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa)

A well-planned road trip should always include travel on roads that have flowers blooming, even in the fall. Northern New Mexico is the perfect place - Apache plume with its divinely diaphanous pink blooms, sunflowers, purple aster and the impossibly yellow chamisa and snakeweed provide miles and miles of brilliant color along the roadways.

Sunflower and Snakeweed

Roxi Beegles of Denver, Colorado used "the pose" she learned as the first-runner up in last year's short-lived "How to Look Like a Celebrity" makeover reality show.

The second leg of my journey was a side trip up to Eagle Nest, NM to take advantage of an empty labor day weekend cabin on the backside of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Many thanks to my friends David and Alvaro for the use of Camp David prior to an eight-day event in Santa Fe that followed. Friend, co-worker and fellow August 10 Leo, Roxi Beegles, joined me for the weekend on her way down from Denver to Santa Fe.

Eagle Nest is on the infamous "Enchanted Circle" route from Taos to Eagle Nest to Cimarron to Red River to Questa and back.

Every visit to the cabin includes a hike up to Gallagher meadows to pay respects to a long-deceased member of the clan who rests in a plot with a very fetching view.

Holding sentinel over the plot is no ordinary pine-bark beetle infested ponderosa pine. Look closely - it appears to double as a Western Kingbird tree - perhaps a migratory launching pad? The nights here at 9000 feet were already down to the low 40's and high 30's - probably time for those WEKI's to head back to southern Mexico and Central America. Oh, how I would love to join them in about two months.

Cimarron Canyon looms large a few miles northeast of Eagle Nest. The mighty red-colored Cimarron river that flows across the Oklahoma prairies begins here as a trickle in hills above Eagle Nest.

The Carson National Forest is a cool, shady rainforestesque refuge to the otherwise high desert landscape of sage, juniper and pinon.

A fourth generation Coloradan descended from Colorado pioneers - Roxi is no stranger to the mountain trail and proves to be a keen hiker.

This beautiful butterfly on the forest trail will go unnamed for the moment - for fear I've used up all my ID credits with Doug Taron - perhaps he'll chime in with an answer later.

A hazard of the trail almost anywhere in NM, this cow-pie juxtaposed against an eight-inch water bottle gives the word ginormous some actual legitimacy. That sucker is at least 12 x 12.

There is a reason this part of New Mexico is called the Enchanted Circle

Sunday morning we said goodbye and left the Enchanted Circle by way of the Rio Grande Valley back to Santa Fe.

Here is your classic northern New Mexico Rio Grand Valley shot. I have driven back and forth through this narrow canyon no less than a hundred times and every single time it takes my breath away.

Late summer monsoons give the outdoor adventure junkies a last chance to shoot the rapids before summer's early end up here.

Nothing says "Fall" here like freshly-strung chile ristras for sale on the side of the road.

Back in Santa Fe where - "Only in Santa Fe" would someone leave a $30,000 dollar cello in their car to be purloined. And only in Santa Fe would said cello fetch a whopping $40 dollars at the flea market. Fortunately lucky cello buyer saw this sign and put the pieces together to make a happy ending for the old cello owner - recently out of an instrument and a car window.

Road Trip - Day Two - Palo Duro - Tucumcari - Santa Fe

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Canyon with Crows - Georgia O'Keeffe - 1917
Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas
from the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe

I've long been a fan of Georgia O'Keeffe's powerful abstract images of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones and landscapes. Her contoured forms and subtle tonal transitions have left me mesmerized time and again. I've also long known that before she lived and painted in the same New Mexico high desert I once called home - she was first inspired by the supremely stunning landscape of Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle.

Palo Duro Canyon has been on my bucket list for a couple of decades and was the first order of business for the road trip.

At mile 281, I arrived very early on Day 2 and waited for the sun to rise and the gates to open. I was not entirely prepared for how absolutely beautiful the landscape would be.

Or for how fantastically empty the park would be. I am quickly learning that the few weeks between "Back to School" and Labor Day Weekend are an incredible window of opportunity to enjoy some of America's most amazing places in absolute solitude. I explored for hours without passing a car or seeing another human.

Cactus Longhorn Beetle

Identification courtesy of Doug Taron - Gossamer Tapestry

This Cactus Longhorn Beetle was navigating the sandy desert floor along the Prairie Dog Town fork of the Red River - likely looking for a prickly pear cactus patch to play host for breakfast or for egg laying.

Many thanks to everyone's favorite bug scientist - the brilliant Doug Taron at Gossamer Tapestry Blog for the positive beetle ID. I started at dung beetle and settled on giant tiger before Doug saved the day. His blog is a must-read and his love for beetles, bugs and butterflies is infectious.

This large ant with a velvet looking abdomen is surprisingly called: Velvet Ant. In actuality it is a large wasp - the females, pictured above, being wingless. Velvet Ants are often called Cow Killer for the painful power of their sting - rating a 3 out of possible 4 on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. The aposematic coloring was enough to force my distance until Doug the bug man could weigh in again. There's also a great post on the velvet ant here at the Firefly Forest.

Roadrunner in mesquite tree

Prickly Pear Cactus with Fruit

The natural vegetation of the canyon includes sage, yucca, juniper, prickly pear cactus, mesquite, and cottonwood.

120 miles long, 20 miles wide, and 1200 feet deep, Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the USA after the Grand Canyon. The erosion resistant sandstone, claystone, mudstone and caprock limestone, layering in resplendent shades of red, orange, yellow, white and purple, represents four major geological time periods over 240 million years.

"Because of the availability of wood, water, game, edible wild plants, raw materials for weapons and tools, and shelter from harsh winter winds, Palo Duro Canyon was a favorite camp site for both prehistoric peoples and later Indian tribes. The first known inhabitants, who date from the period between 10,000 and 5,000 B.C. were big-game hunters of now-extinct giant bison and mammoths. Archeologists have found projectile points, stone tools, mortar holes, paintings, carvings, and other artifacts of these and later prehistoric people at numerous sites throughout the canyon. "

The first European explorers to discover the canyon were members of the Coronado expedition , who visited the canyon in 1541. Buffalo-hunting Apache Indians lived in Palo Duro at the time, but were later displaced by Comanche and Kiowa tribes, who had the advantage of owning horses brought over by the Spanish.

The canyon matches its breathtaking beauty with a heartbreaking legacy. In 1874 the US military captured and killed over a thousand Comanche and Kiowa horses forcing the devastated and demoralized tribes to concede their land and face removal to Oklahoma.

TUCUMCARI TONIGHT

The next stop on Day 2, at Mile 429, was Tucumcari, New Mexico. Tucumcari was the quintessential Route 66 stop.

And, more-so than any other town on the route, much of that legacy remains in the preservation of motor lodges and restaurants.

I made a lunch stop at the infamous Del's on Route 66 -

and savored an outrageously delicious red chile pork enchilada complete with fried egg on top. Yum!

The historic motels and restaurants might still remain - but the future of Tucumcari is becoming abundantly clear.

At Mile 543 I said goodbye to I-40 and the old Route 66 and made the turn at Cline's Corners toward Santa Fe. The haze from the LA fires mixed with northern New Mexico's famous afternoon monsoon rains made for a breathtaking drive that skirted the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in San Miguel County.

Finally, at Mile 596, I arrive to Santa Fe, my home for thirteen years.

Day Two
Amarillo - Palo Duro Canyon - Tucumcari - Santa Fe
Mile 241 to Mile 596

On the Road Again! Day One - Mile Zero

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:18:00 +0000

"On the road again. And I can't wait to get on the road again. Goin' places that I've never been. Seein' things that I may never see again" Willie Nelson

Yep, as the song says, I am on the road again. I have two eight-day events coming up a week apart and both in the southwestern corner of the US - Santa Fe and Las Vegas and I've decided to drive from here to there and back and feast my eyes on a few places I've yet to see - before, between and beyond my paid assignment dates and locations. All told - it looks like I might be on the road for about six weeks.

I left September 1st with mile Zero starting on I-40 in Oklahoma City - just a few miles from my home. I-40 was designed to roll over and replace the old Mother Road, Route 66, and here and there lovely old remnants can still be seen within the blur of the fast lane. Route 66 - a perfect place to start a journey.

The first 400 miles is nothing but gorgeous, summer-hewn, rolling prairie...and wind turbines; more and more each time I make this journey. The odd thing is that the miles and miles of over-plowed, over-used, nutrient starved crop land has not a single one. But the miles and miles of nearly untouched native prairie habitat rangeland - are choked with the turbines. Go figure. Until we really know if these things are truly green - wouldn't it be nice if they experimented on the land that was already destroyed by inept farming practices? Oh well, prairie chickens - it was nice knowing ya!

I got a late start on the road - funny how that works when there's not a fixed airline departure time to adhere to and had to settle for Amarillo as my final destination for the evening. My car is packed with the strangest bedfellows - pressed suits, ties and shiny dress shoes vie for space among a sleeping bag, a Coleman lantern, a tent and a library fit for a small town.

At mile 156 on the odometer I crossed over the border into Texas. Strange how Texas really does feel like a whole other country. Rest easy though, I am safe here - I graduated from the Other University, the one with the relatively non-threatening football team and the fact that I am not a Sooner fan almost guarantees me safe passage through these ominous foreign lands.

The pic above is the Johnson Ranch Rest Area at mile 201 on the dashboard. Have you ever seen a more picturesque rest stop? I've been stopping here for the last 15 years of plying these roads regularly between Santa Fe and Oklahoma City. It's beyond bedazzling - that is when the wind is not blowing - which is most of the time and usually doing a solid 60. Today was dead calm. Oh the stories that land could tell.

It is here that the rolling prairies of the southern Great Plains start to give way to the high plains of west Texas and eastern New Mexico - a landscape famous for a startling mix of endless, flat llano estecado suddenly ripped apart by ancient canyons. I have been enchanted by these mixed prairie canyon lands since as long as I can remember.

So here is my plan and my wish list for the 20 odd days out here not working or visiting friends. Let me know if there is anything I am missing or must see or, more importantly, should avoid. With two exceptions, I have never been to any of these places:

-Palo Duro Canyon State Park in the Texas panhandle
-A little cabin in the big Rocky Mountain woods outside of Eagle Nest, northern NM (a long standing summer tradition)
-Driving across the Navajo Nation and Canyon De Chelley National Monument in eastern Arizona
-Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona
-Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park in southwest Utah
-Death Valley National Park - California
-Mojave National Preserve - California
-Joshua Tree National Park - southern California
-Madera Canyon and the birdy parts of Southeast Arizona
-El Paso, Texas
-Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas
-Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico
-Home Sweet Home

And of course, along the way, visiting friends and family in Santa Fe, Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

For the days that I am traveling and not working - I will be reporting from the road - when I can find an internet connection, that is. Along the way and weather permitting, I plan to spend quite a few nights under the stars. Wish me luck.

Day One - Oklahoma City to Amarillo - Mile Zero to 241

Holding Up Half the Sky - The Seminal Moral Challenge of Our Time

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:23:00 +0000

Holding Up Half the Sky
local girls from Barrio Esperanza in Granada, Nicaragua go back to school through Kathy Adam's Empowerment International ©2008 trryan

If you do nothing else this week - checkout this past weekend's edition of the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Almost the entire 56 page spread is dedicated to addressing what is surely the seminal moral challenge of our time: the oppression of women worldwide. What anchors this issue is an excerpt from a passionate and powerful new book by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and Times Op Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Pulitzer-prize winning author Sheryl WuDunn, called "Half the Sky - Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide".

From the New York Times Editor: Nicholas Kristof began writing his Times Op Ed column eight years ago, and form the start, he has regularly and incisively called attention to women's issues, especially those in the developing world. Traveling to scores of countries, he has carefully documented and forcefully denounced the crimes and cruelties suffered by women and girls: sex trafficking and slavery; political rape, child marriage; the denial of the freedom to pursue an education or career, or to enter a domestic relationship in which you're not beaten by a man.

________________________________________________________

"The oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time. And their liberation could help solve many of the world's problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism."

________________________________________________________

Kristof says that "the oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time. And their liberation could help solve many of the world's problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism."

That kind of statement should merit everyone's attention and if the excerpt in the Times Magazine is any indication - this book, in stores next month, is a not only must-read but a clarion call to action for all of us.

Kristof and WuDunn write that if the paramount moral challenge was slavery in the 19th Century and totalitarianism in the 20th Century - in this century the overwhelming moral challenge is the brutality inflicted on so many women and girls around the world: sex trafficking, slavery, acid attacks, no access to medical care and education, bride burning, and mass rape. In most cases these atrocities easily escape the fatally blind and discriminatory arms of the law. "Yet," they write, "if the injustices that women in poor countries suffer are of paramount importance, in an economic and geopolitical sense the opportunity they represent is even greater."

_________________________________________________________

"Women hold up half the sky" Chinese saying

_________________________________________________________

"'Women hold up half the sky,' in the words of a Chinese saying, yet that's mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and it's not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos." The pair add that there is a growing recognition that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. "The world is awakening to a powerful truth: Women and girls aren't the problem; they're the solution."

And so why is a travel and nature blogger posting today about women's rights? In 25 years of traveling around the globe it has been much too easy to find places in the world where gender equality is not accepted as a universal right -- and it is heartbreaking at every instance. But more importantly, I am the product of a lifetime of strong and compassionate women who watched over my world and held the sky over my head so that I could grow to the man I am today. It is a debt I owe them - the hopes that all women in the world could enjoy the same empowerment and all children enjoy the same sheltering sky. In my next post - I pay tribute to these women who watch over the world.

I encourage you to read the entire magazine and the other six investigative articles on crimes against women that accompany the Kristof/WuDunn piece in the magazine. And the link to purchase the book, "Half the Sky", is here. The book offers a number of ways that ordinary citizens like you and me can make a difference.

Following Kristof and WuDunn's call for action, later in the week I'll be introducing you to some of the heroes I've met from my travels in Cambodia and Nicaragua who work tirelessly toward the emancipation and empowerment of women in their own villages.

In the meantime, I'll end by sharing with you some of the staggering numbers from The New York Times Magazine piece.

Getting Ready for School
Barrio Esperanza, Nicaragua ©2008 trryan

By The Numbers:
From the August 23, 2009 edition of The New York Times Magazine

-100 Million women and girls are missing around the world because of gender discrimination

-2100 women die in childbirth for every 100,000 live births in Sierra Leone

-5000 women die a year in honor killings, the majority in the Muslim world, according to U.N. estimates

-1 percent of the world's landowners are women

-21 percent of young women surveyed in Ghana reported that their sexual initiation was by rape

-130 Million women around the world have been subjected to genital cutting

-39,000 baby girls died annually in China because parents didn't give the same medical care

-1 bride is burned almost every two hours in India - punishment for an inadequate dowry or to make way for another wife

Afternoon at Angkor Wat

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Angkor Wat - Siem Reap, Cambodia - February 2009

Similar Hopes and Convergent Dreams

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:00:00 +0000

"This is a glimpse of two lives that ran parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams. In nine months of a man's life he can think of a lot of things, from the loftiest meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup. And if, at the same time, he's somewhat of an adventurer, he might live through episodes of interest to other people and his haphazard accounts might read something like these notes: Man the measure of all things, speaks here through my mouth and narrates in my own language that which my eyes have seen" Ernesto "Che" Guevara from "The Motorcycle Diaries"

Top Travel and Adventure Books

The Motorcycle Diaries- The story of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s eight-month motorcycle journey across South America as a 23-year-old medical student in 1951-52. The book (recently turned into a movie) mixes observation, adventure and politics. Guevara left home with a doctor friend of his and this eight month motorcycle trip was the start of his path towards revolutionary. He explores Inca ruins, visits a leper colony, and helps miners and farm workers. His time with the underclass fomented his desire for political changes and solidified his politics and portents what the future held for him.

Exploring the World in a Weekend - Scenes from Santa Fe's International Folk Art Market

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:23:00 +0000

One of the great events in the wide arc of fantastic events that Santa Fe is famous for is the International Folk Art Festival. It is also the one weekend in the year that I get to travel the world without leaving very far from home.

This year 147 artists from 45 countries, from as faraway as Kazakhstan and Swaziland, came to Santa Fe "bearing the crafts, the heritage and hopes of their people". The Santa Fe International Folk Art Festival is largely undertaken to help preserve the artistic traditions and diverse cultural identities from some of the most marginalized communities around the world by teaching them sustainable entrepreneurship and empowering them to raise their own money though the age-old traditions of folk art. Meet some of the artists that came to Santa Fe:

Elhadji Koumama - Niger

Ehadji is a nomadic Tuareg from Niger. The Koumama family works in several small groups of two to 15 men fashioning engraved and bejeweled silver amulets and pendants that encase a selection from the Koran and are designed to protect the wearer from evil spirits. The pieces are made from a lost wax method, then engraved and hammered and adorned with stones.

Sabina Ramirez - Guatemala

Since she began to weave at her mother's side at age 8, Guatemala's Sabina Ramirez has received many honors for both her weaving and representing her native Mayan community as an Ixil nation princess. Her textiles, woven with meticulous attention to detail, are crafted in the ancestral tradition on the back strap loom.

Pedro Meza - Chiapas, Mexico

Pedro Meza heads up the award-winning cooperative, Sna Jolobil, in Chiapas, Mexico, an association of 800 weavers. The cooperative provides training, supplies raw materials, and markets the members’ work. All of the work represented is traditional Highland Maya handwork. The work of Sna Jolobil artists is considered to be some of the finest examples of contemporary Maya textile art. This is Pedro's fifth appearance a the festival.

Namgey Wangmo - Bhutan

Namgey displays both weaving and woodcarving - two of the 13 arts and crafts from that country. Ornate textiles are handwoven on backstrap looms and passed down through the generations from mother to daughter. Woodcarving is typically done by men and learned through two-to-three year apprenticeships. Ceremonial masks of mythical animals and Buddhist deities are carved from blue pine, juniper, rhododendron, burl and cypress and then painted with colorful, organic dyes.

Idaia Amade - Mozambique

Idaia was born and raised in Palma, a Muslim farming community in rural Mozambique. At the age of 6 her mother taught her how to weave mats - a time-consuming process using tightly woven palms strips sewn together in unique, brightly colored combinations.

Chijnaya - Peru

Each piece of embroidered bordado tells a specific story of an aspect of daily life in the Andean village of Chijnaya in Peru. The works stems from a peace corp project that began with children in the 1960's in an effort to give them a voice and an expression of their cultural identity. Ralph Bolton, a former peace corp volunteer in Chijnaya - started the Chijnaya foundation which seeks to improve living conditions there by giving community support to art, agriculture, animal husbandry and health.

Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu - Ndebele, South Africa

As a young girl in South Africa, Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu worked with her mother and grandmother beading and painting in what is a way of life for the Ndebele people who are famous for the way they decorate their clothes and homes in bright colors. Mama Esther is a master artist who has trained future artisans from 22 communities in these vibrant cultural traditions.

Moussa Albaka - Tuareg, Niger

As a metal-smith Albaka designs gorgeous jewelry using sterling silver, Tuareg silver and semi-precious stones. His techniques include engraving intricate geometric designs, using decorative inlay, and a lost wax process. Many of his pieces show the repoussé style by which he hammers a shape on the reverse side which creates a raised design on the front. The repoussé style is a slow process taking hundreds of hours, but it maximizes the touch, feel, and visual beauty of the bracelet or necklace and amulet. Albaka also fashions veil weights jewelry which follows the Tuareg tradition of using an elaborate, inventive design. This jewelry is worn by women to hold their head cloths in place.

Albaka is from Agadez which is just south of the great Saharan desert. Niger is landlocked and the drought cycles are evident. Albaka was born in a nomad tent and as a young man traveled with camel caravans. The Tuareg are semi-nomadic but their artwork remains intact and is highly distinctive. This folk art is mostly passed down through the male side of the family to families of the “enad” or blacksmith caste. Albaka was taught by his father and uncles and in turn he teaches his sons and nephews who work for him. Moussa Albaka is an acclaimed artist and is highly regarded by his peers.

Nurse Thembeni Mdluli - Swaziland

Phez’kwemkhono is a Swazi call for women and translates to, “your hands, your brain, and your entire being are your wealth.” The cooperative is located in the driest region in the country where farming is close to impossible and more than 80% of the population depends on food aid. The only source of potable water for this community is a borehole, and most have to walk for hours to get there. Nurse Thembeni, along with women from neighboring communities, formed a cooperative with the aim of making crafts to feed their families and improve the community’s livelihood. The group now has 54 basket weavers and 37 beadworkers.

Juana Cano Sebastian - Michoacan, Mexico

Handwoven cotton rebozos, or long scarves, are a traditional craft from the Purépecha village of Turicuaro in Michoacán, Mexico. Juana creates solid and striped rebozos. She soaks the cotton in a large tub before forming it into balls and weaving with it. Juana leads a group of 147 women who make rebozos. on handmade backstrap looms. The looms are portable and can be attached to a tree, allowing the women to work outside. The women of Turicuaro are carrying on a tradition of weaving that has been going on for hundreds of years. Generations ago all the women in the community were weavers. Today, fewer and fewer women continue the tradition. Juana’s work ensures that this craft is kept alive.

Ambu Gowri Bai - India

The Lambani people are the forebears of the Romani people of Europe. Vibrant textiles are created by arranging mirrors, brightly colored threads, and shells into numerous designs and a rich repertoire of motifs. The distinctive mirrored and embroidered dress of Lambani women indicate their married status, and form the dowry of young girls who begin to make them at an early age.

Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra is organized into self-help groups of 15 to 20 women. The Kendra now includes 300 craftswomen, with an additional 100 in training.

Papier Mache from Haiti

The city of Jacmel in southern Haiti is the birthplace of colorful costumes and papier maché masks used to celebrate Carnival. Recently, hurricanes so badly damaged Jacmel that most of the papier maché was destroyed by devastating floods and artisans completely lost their means of livelihood for several months. The artists quickly began producing more work so they would have inventory to use to apply to the Market. This cooperative has 307 artisans, one of which is Pierre Edgard, the president, who will bring the work of this cooperative that is so important to the economic life of this community.

Truck Art - Pakistan

Ghulam Sarwar always admired the brightly colored flamboyant trucks painted with images of idealized landscapes, famous personalities, flowers and trees that reminded truck drivers of their homes on their long journeys down south. He and other truck artists have imaginatively adapted this traditional art form to include smaller household items painted in the style of truck art. These objects are used in homes and street side cafés. Ghulam and others take on apprentices to teach them the visual language of truck art motifs to keep this threatened art form alive.

Ghulam Sarwar, together with fellow truck artists, were recipients of the UNESCO Award of Excellence in 2008.

The annual folk art market in Santa Fe is now the largest international folk art market in the world, and its success led to Santa Fe’s designation as a UNESCO City of Folk Art, the first U.S. city named to UNESCO’s prestigious Creative Cities Network. The mission of the market is to foster economic and cultural sustainability for folk artists and folk art worldwide and to create intercultural exchange opportunities that unite the peoples of the world.

Paper Art from Mexico

Many of the Market artists are from developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central Asia, Eurasia, and the Middle East where they confront daunting political, social, and environmental conditions.

Some Market participants also include women’s cooperatives and humanitarian organizations whose work supports improving economic conditions and the quality of life for many- sometimes hundreds- of folk artists in their home communities.

The impact of the Market on the artists’ home communities is considerable. In many cases, artists use earnings for food, clothing, healthcare, education, and as an investment in their growing business enterprises.

The 2010 festival is scheduled for the weekend of July 10 and 11.

The Life Aquatic - Urban Kayaking in Oklahoma City

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Perhaps its a odd for a fire-breathing Leo to find no greater sense of joy and peace than when on the water in some capacity. Any capacity. Swimming, floating, sailing, fishing and....kayaking

Not sure there is anything more magnificent than being on the water in a kayak.

Floating among the clouds in liquid rhythm

"Beauty is stacked three deep and it is difficult to find the bones beneath all this pleasant padding."
Bill G. - From the fantastic blog Dragongate while sailing on the ship "Amazon"

Cutting through soft water in a silent glide and for a moment...at one with nature

“ He taught me.... how to sense the spirit in discrete things, the shards of the seemingly impossible that glitter beyond the edge of imagining.” ‘Sweeter than the world.’ by Rudy Wiebe.

Reflecting on just about anything

or nothing at all

The Life Aquatic - right here in Oklahoma

Who says New Mexico has the market on sunsets?

Sunset - Lake Hefner, urban Oklahoma City.

Another reason why I love Oklahoma!

For more information on kayaking in OKC - check out the folks at OKC Kayak - they provide the kayaks every Tuesday night at Lake Hefner. Sign-up at their website.

Celebrating SkyWatch Friday - right here in Oklahoma

Tuesday Travel Flashback - Voluntourism in Kenya and the Fabulous Flamingos of Lake Nakuru

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Storm Clouds and flamingos over Lake Nakuru, Kenya - August 2002

In August of 2002, to celebrate my 40th birthday (11 months and 20 days after the fact) - I took a month off from work and participated in a little voluntourism as a research assistant at Lake Naivasha for Earthwatch's Lakes of the Rift Valley conservation project in Kenya. We lived in tents pitched on the grounds of the Kenyan Wildlife Service on the shores of the lake. It was fantastically down-and-dirty, sleeves-rolled-up, into the muck, dodging black mambas-buffaloes-and-hippos-at-every-turn work from sun up to sun down.

We had one day off - which we dreaded as the work days were thrilling beyond imagination- and all twelve of us volunteers pitched in and paid the local camp staff and research biologists to take us a few hours north and east to Lake Nakuru for a little "safari". Most of our work at Naiviasha was done on the hoof and we really did have to "run for our lives" quite a few times -- so it was nice to hang-out in Nakuru four feet off the ground in a couple of fast moving jeeps for the day.
_________________________________________________________________

"the perils of a middle-of-the night trip in the dark to the distant outhouse would soon prove to impact our nightly Tusker Beer consumption"
_____________________________________________________

Waterbucks and Pelicans - Voluntourism and Camping on Lake Naivasha

Living in slightly more populated Lake Naivasha we had our daily fill of cape buffaloes, giraffes, hippos, zebras, and waterbucks - all of which moved regularly through our compound and would often graze the grassy lawn after we had gone to bed (the perils of a middle-of-the night trip in the dark to the distant outhouse would soon prove to impact our nightly Tusker Beer consumption). But eventually we longed for a glimpse of the more charismatic megafauna of that part of Africa - the lions and rhinos and leopards and elephants that frequented the park at Lake Nakura -- we would not be disappointed.

Wading Black Rhinoceros and Pink Flamingos

The highlight of that incredible day for all of us would prove to be the flamingos. Lake Nakuru is a shallow alkaline lake that is home to one of the great bird spectacles on earth. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pink flamingos, both the lesser and greater species, flock to the lake to feed on cyanobacteria commonly called blue-green algae. I can't even begin to describe what it was like to happen upon this impossible sea of pink birds. And these old film exposures from the days before I had real photographic equipment don't do much justice either.

At the end of the day, enormous black storm clouds moved in over the lake without warning and we were able to capture a few shots as the last of the sunlight lit up these hundreds of thousands of pink birds in a haunting swath of light before the storm raged over the lake (top photo).

Burn it Blue - Sailing through Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:01:00 +0000

New 7 Wonders of Nature - 28 Finalists Announced

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:55:00 +0000

The folks that brought us the New 7 Wonders of the World two years ago are now on a multi-year quest to determine the New 7 Wonders of Nature. World-wide voting began in December 2007 and initiated a list of 440 nominees from 220 countries. The nominees were pared down to 77 locations by popular vote that ended July 1, 2009. From the list of 77 popular locations, a panel of experts selected 28 Official Finalist Candidates and the voting for the final 7 Wonders of Nature is open as of July 21. The organizers expect over one billion votes by the time the voting closes in 2011.

Who made the Final 28? Quite a few surprises and quite frankly, some places I've never even heard of in my 25 years, 90+ country travels. Here is the list:

The Amazon - South America

Mud Volcanoes - Azerbaijan

Angel Falls - Venezuela

Bay of Fundy - Canada

Black Forest - Germany

Bu Tinah Shoals - United Arab Emirates

Cliffs of Moher - Ireland

Dead Sea - Palestine, Israel, Jordan

Great Barrier Reef - Australia, Papua New Guinea

El Yunque - Puerto Rico

Galapagos - Ecuador

Grand Canyon - United States

Jeita Grotto - Lebanon

Kilimanjaro - Tanzania

Komodo - Indonesia

Maldive Islands - Maldives

Masurian Lake District - Poland

Iguazu Falls - Brazil, Argentina

Matterhorn - Switzerland

Milford Sound - New Zealand

Puerto Princessa Underground River - Philippines

Sundarbans - India, Bangladesh

Table Mountain - South Africa

Uluru (Ayer's Rock) - Australia

Vesuvius - Italy

Yushan - Taipei

There are some notable locations conspicuously missing from the list. Some made the list of 77 - many did not. What would you add to this list of 28? Here are a few that I would have had on my Final 28:

Yellowstone National Park - United States

Rift Valley - Kenya, East Africa

Mount Everest - Nepal, China

Okavango Delta - Botswana

Serengeti - Tanzania

Kalahari Desert - Namibia

Torres del Pine - Chile

Lake Atitlan - Guatemala

Cappadocia - Turkey

My final 7 from the official list: Amazon, Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, Iguazu Falls, Galapagos and Kilimanjaro. How would you vote?

Tuesday Travel Flashback - Morning in Paris

trryan@aol.com (T.R.) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:07:00 +0000

Paris, November 2005

On a dreary Friday afternoon, I made a mad and desperate dash from my office in Torino, Italy to the train station and jumped on the high speed train to France just as it was passing through from Milan. 5 hours later I was dining in Paris with a vacationing friend from Santa Fe. I had been away from home for four months by this time and it was good to see someone from my own “village” and to speak uncompromised English for hours on end. One of the best things about living in Torino was that with little effort one could have lunch on the French Riviera or dinner in Florence. For a weekend getaway, the possibilities were endless.

Early the next morning, I took a long and deliciously solitary walk through the streets of Paris, dodging rain showers along the way. I crossed in front of the Louvre Museum and this reflection of the museum’s I.M. Pei pyramid on a Paris sidewalk on a balmy November morning is a moment I’ll not forget.