Stories
The Culture of Peace News Network continued
Missions for the Culture of Peace
Travels with Lindsay in the USA
Vacations with Lindsay in the Caribbean
Vacations with Kiki in Reunion
The geometry of time
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Lindsay and I had traveled extensively in the Soviet Union and Cuba during the 80's and around the world with UNESCO during the 90's, but we had not done many travels in the US. Hence in 2004 we rented a car in St Louis, followed Route 66 across the Southwest to the Pacific, up the West Coast on Route 101 and then back across the Northwest on Route 40.
The first part of the trip was in many ways a return to my childhood, since I was born in Webster Groves, just a few miles from Route 66 where it passes through St Louis, and since Neosho, where I grew up in Southwest Missouri, was just south of Joplin on Route 66. I had not been back to the part of the country for many decades.
We had bought books and obtained maps of the old route of the highway when if was the first major cross-country highway to be built, and wherever possible we found and followed the old road, remnants of which remain throughout its course. Along the old road we found the old motels and stayed in them, as well as the old gas stations and diners. It was a voyage of nostalgia and we enjoyed it together, taking our time and never knowing where we find to stop for the night.
At a truck stop on Route 66 in New Mexico
By traveling at a liesurely pace, we had the chance to meet many people along the route and imbibe the local culture: local agricultural, architectural and native American museums; a meet of barbed-wire collectors, old hotels and diners with motley groups at the bar or impromptu jam sessions complete with guitar and musical spoons.
It was the time of the national basketball championships and so we sought out motels with cable vision so we could watch both the University of Connecticut women's team with Diana Taurasi and the men's team with Emeka Okafor win their respective national titles.
Stopping at a bar on Route 66 in Oklahoma
In Hollywood, we visited with Paul Kimmel and Ramona and took part in a culture of peace celebration that they organized with high schools in the LA region. Upstate in Napa Valley we visited with David and Susan Rounds and I went with him to the Thousand Buddhas where he works.
We took photos of everything and eventually put together two huge photo albums with a description of the trip.
In the following years Lindsay and I made similar voyages across other parts of the country, meeting many people along the way. In August 2006, we followed the thousand mile tag sale from Alabama and Georgia up through Tennessee and Kentucky. In September of 2007 we drove out to Neosho for my 50th High School reunion by way of Nashville (Grand Old Opry), Memphis (the blues on Beale street and the Martin Luther King museum) and Eureka Springs, Arkansas (the old hotel where my high school class held its class trip). It was great fun to see my classmates after 50 years. I was impressed by their world-wide experiences in the military and big corporations, but noticed that at the final dinner we still divided into tables of the townies and of the farmkids. They decided to give prize money for an annual highschool essay contest on the culture of peace.
We also had many enjoyable briefer trips during these years to Lake George and to Block Island.
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Stages
1986-1992
Fall of Soviet Empire
1992-1997
UNESCO Culture of Peace Programme