They say about travel...

Travel Quotations: THE JOURNEY BEGINS...

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." -- Lao Tzu

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." -- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain

"There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it." -- Charles Dudley Warner

Without travel "I would have wound up a little ignorant white Southern female, which was not my idea of a good life." -- Lauren Hutton

Travel Quotes: WHAT IS TRAVEL?

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

"Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries." -- René Descartes

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." -- Miriam Beard

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." -- Henry Miller

Travel Quotations: LAUGHING ALL THE WAY

"A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." -- John Steinbeck

"In America, there are two classes of travel: First class, and with children." -- Robert Benchley

"To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel." -- Fran Lebowitz

'But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?" -- Noel Coward

"Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones." -- Anne Sophie Swetchine

"Most of my treasured memories of travel are recollections of sitting." -- Robert Thomas Allen

"Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversations." -- Elizabeth Drew

"If you look like your passport photo, you're too ill to travel." -- Will Kommen

"Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned." -- Samuel Johnson

"Long voyages, great lies." - Italian proverb

Travel Quotes: TRAVEL ADVICE

"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." -- Susan Heller

"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." -- Lao Tzu

"Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings." -- Hodding Carter

"He who would travel happily must travel light." -- Antoine de St. Exupery

"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." -- James Michener

"Let your memory be your travel bag." -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey." -- Fitzhugh Mullan

Travel Quotations: TRAVEL TRUISMS

"No matter where you go, there you are." - unknown

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will lead you there." -- unknown

"Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken." -- Frank Herbert

"He travels fastest who travels alone." -- proverb

"Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter." -- Izaak Walton

"The journey not the arrival matters." -- T. S. Eliot

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." -- Lin Yutang

Travel Quotes: EFFECTS OF TRAVEL

"They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea." -- Horace

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." -- St. Augustine

"I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." -- Mark Twain

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." - Tim Cahill

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen." - Benjamin Disraeli

"We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." -- Jawaharal Nehru

Werner Reiterer – Beginnings of Space Travel

Welcome, fellow Stumbler! Don't forget to give me thumbs up if you like this page !Beginnings of Space Travel by Werner Reiterer.

Anchors Aweigh!

"Raising a child with ASD is like being a blind captain of a sailing ship with a deaf crew." Dr. Steve Gutstein

Steve and I recently did something we have not done since 1994: vacationed without the children! In fact, the 1994 trip to Las Vegas does not really count because we were attending an autism convention and chose to sit at evening talks instead of slot machines. So, the last time we went somewhere together overnight without kids was when we were, well, without kids! Pathetic, huh? Stories like that are quite common in the autism world because it really is hard to find the right people to understand and take care of our kids. It is no wonder the divorce rate is so high.

Since we moved across the street from my parents, they have spent enough time with Pamela for her to be comfortable with them and vice versa. Over the years, my mother, a fabulous cook, has learned the intricacies of Pamela's diet. She has observed how I help Pamela stay calm and regulated and how I guide Pamela's thinking by applying the principles of RDI. Pamela has become better able to express herself and converse with others. I have taken trips to North Carolina and Minnesota while Pamela stayed at my parents' house. With Steve at work, Mom could always reach him if Pamela threw her a curveball.

Last Friday, we woke up in the wee hours of the morning and drove to Miami to board Majesty of the Seas for our first cruise on a white ship (as former naval officers, we have done plenty of time haze grey and underway).

Pamela stayed with my parents, and she accompanied them on a trip to Charleston with Mom's quilting group. My dad drove the bus. While he parked, Pamela and Mom's friends walked into the auditorium. She took one look at the dazzling array of quilts and little old ladies and was ready to head back home. Dad cannot stand more than five minutes either, so Pamela, Dad, and Elvira (their white standard poodle) cruised the cobblestone streets of Charleston. She chatted with my dad a little to learn the schedule and patiently waited until two o'clock before they finally ate. When she grew tired of walking, they went back to the bus and sat for awhile.

After lunch, the ladies went shopping and Pamela protested, "I want to go home!" She had had enough! My mother quietly explained to her that the ladies never go to Charleston because it is too far away. She promised them a shopping trip, and the ladies would feel so sad if they canceled it. Pamela listened carefully and said, "Okay!"

Pamela referenced my mother for emotional regulation again when their church youth programs coordinator picked up a television donated by my parents. She saw some strange woman hauling off the TV and protested, "No! No! No! That's not yours! It belongs upstairs!" Then, Mom explained, "Pamela, we have too many televisions: the kitchen, parlor, quilt room, television room, and the RV. We don't need it anymore!" Pamela calmed down and said, "Okay!"

Mom noticed Pamela was spending an inordinate amount of time watching programmed television. Indulging in her favorite shows is understandable since we pulled the plugged on cable last May. Mom told her she was watching too much television and needed to get outside for awhile. Pamela protested, of course, but, after the show ended, she put on her shoes and headed outdoors. Then, Mom gave her a tour of their new RV. Pamela loved it so much that she spent part of her day sitting in the back room of the RV for a change of pace.

Pamela's morning routine at my parents' house included taking a bath. Because the tub is upstairs, my mother works up there to make sure nothing floods. Pamela has never had a problem, but Mom didn't want to risk it. Mom had to run errands Monday morning, so she told Pamela she could not bathe until after lunch. Pamela understood and happily adjusted to the new schedule. As soon as they finished lunch, Pamela said, "I want to take a bath!"

Overall, Mom and Dad thoroughly enjoyed having Pamela stay with them and found her to be no trouble at all. While Pamela enjoyed knowing the schedule of the day, she stayed flexible, too. They noticed she had far fewer anxieties and stay much more regulated than in previous stays with them. When she started to get riled up, Mom kept her calm by giving her more information. Even better, Mom was amazed at Pamela's improved ability to have give and take conversations about a wide variety of topics.

What We Did on the Cruise

Next: Switzerland

iPad done deal. Back to Europe.

Flight : San Francisco - Zurich. Heading to Davos meeting.
Not sure about the train from Zurich :")

Need to reflect more about DLD conference in Munich. There was a lot of mumbo jumbo talk. Boring.

Next Event: World Economic Forum
Days: 27 - 31 January 2010.

January. Travel closed.

Fall Days in the Northeast

My Triumph

by

John Greenleaf Whittier

The autumn-time has come;
On woods that dream of bloom,
And over purpling vines,
The low sun fainter shines.

The aster-flower is failing,
The hazel’s gold is paling;
Yet overhead more near
The eternal stars appear!


And present gratitude
Insures the future’s good,
And for the things I see
I trust the things to be;


That in the paths untrod,
And the long days of God,
My feet shall still be led,
My heart be comforted.


O living friends who love me!
O dear ones gone above me!
Careless of other fame,
I leave to you my name.


Hide it from idle praises,
Save it from evil phrases:
Why, when dear lips that spake it
Are dumb, should strangers wake it?

Let the thick curtain fall;
I better know than all
How little I have gained,
How vast the unattained.


Not by the page word-painted
Let life be banned or sainted:
Deeper than written scroll
The colors of the soul.

Sweeter than any sung
My songs that found no tongue;
Nobler than any fact
My wish that failed of act.

Others shall sing the song,
Others shall right the wrong,—
Finish what I begin,
And all I fail of win.

What matter, I or they?
Mine or another’s day,
So the right word be said
And life the sweeter made?


Hail to the coming singers!
Hail to the brave light-bringers!
Forward I reach and share
All that they sing and dare.


The airs of heaven blow o’er me;
A glory shines before me
Of what mankind shall be,—
Pure, generous, brave, and free.

A dream of man and woman
Diviner but still human,
Solving the riddle old,
Shaping the Age of Gold!


Parcel and part of all,
I keep the festival,
Fore-reach the good to be,
And share the victory.

I feel the earth move sunward,
I join the great march onward,
And take, by faith, while living,
My freehold of thanksgiving.

Globetrotter mind

On the go

My recent ( last few months) VR tours around the World. Recent destination were:

Toronto, Canada
Munich, Bavaria
New York, NYC
Philadelphia, PA
Birmingham, Alabama
Singapore, Asia

There's a lot of tweets about my impressions and thoughts when I was traveling and discovering these cities.

Wordless Wednesday: The Hazards of Driving the Papa Smurf Mobile--Watch Top Gear and You'll Know Better . . .

Summertime blues in Munchen

Olympics revisited ;)

Funny coincidence, an old bloging pal Robert Basic from Basic Thinking reposted my question referring to me as ''der alteste'' ( the oldest ) blogger from Croatia.
While it might not be true, I am packing to Munich – Germany this week , but I might be the first from Croatia officially entering European Union hahaha... Weird choice for making Urlaub in Bavaria , don't you think :D
You know we ( Croatia ) are in the process of joyning this peacefullly community of EU countries so I wanna prepare on time. Euro muntzen feeling :)

So, if anyone wants to show me the city, have a beer , has some shared rooms for few days, talk with me about Web status quo, going to some live rock concert , feel free to drop me mail.
The type of persons I enjoy- people from digital media and mobile telecom, journalists, musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, innovators, women with ''curious'' attitude :))

My BlackBerry is killing me. I still haven't got used to SureType SMSsing.

Short note, a fellow Twitt from nearby Pitomaca got quoted in BBC News for FireEagle story. Dujkan matters :)

Car Games, NOT Car Wars!

Before I launch into this more light hearted post after the sturm and drang of my graphic organizer monologues, I want to know who gave my address to anti-Charlotte-Mason publishers like A Beka and BJU Press! I have my suspicions . . . ahem, the buccaneer blogster who took me in with her April Fool's Day prank. Of course, it could be all coincidental . . .



Today, the kids and I took our two dogs to the vet's office for a follow-up to their checkup. Loa, the eldest dog, has a thyroid condition that caused her to balloon to almost fifty pounds last year (now she is a svelte 37 pounds). She sings arias about this bizarre place where aliens abduct her, poke and prod her, and do all kinds of horrible things to her. From the moment we hit the parking lot until she's back in the car, she howls and moans nonstop (except when we shove a dog biscuit in her mouth).

The other one, the Arwenator (or Beastie Girl), is so hyperactive that she foams at the mouth at the sight of any and all newcomers. Don't let that sweet innocent look on her face deceive you. The moment she sees a new person her tail starts banging everything in sight and ought to be registered as a legal weapon. She is the poster dog for canine Ritalin. If I could bottle her energy, I could feel twenty-years-old!

Today in the 150-mile round trip to the vet's office, Pamela and I enjoyed playing the newest game invented at the spur of the moment on the road. We spent our time looking at license plates: when I stick to the speed limit of 70 MPH, cars pass frequently enough to maintain Pamela's attention. As soon as a car passed, we played our game and reacted. Then, Pamela turned back to look over her left shoulder and peered at the next car or truck planning to pass. The jackpot was spotting unusual states like Illinois or Oregon. Quebec and Puerto Rico completely perplexed both of us. We felt the suspense every time a car was about to pass and laughed and giggled with excitement if the car was out of state. This was emotion sharing at its best!

We have different variations of the game. The most exciting thing about them is that we made them up and often find ourselves thinking of new variations. (1) Figure out if you would fly or drive to that state. If you drive, then you state whether or not you would need to stay in a hotel. (2) Figure out if the car is from a different time zone. Pamela's latest self-taught accomplishment is learning all of the states and time zones and how to calculate times in other zones. (3) Figure out if the car is going in the wrong or right direction. Pamela's sense of direction is so sharp we call her GPS!

I began thinking about what good travelers Pamela and David are. They have never required massive doses of electronics in the car. For example, today, Pamela had her classical CD's and kept the music flowing, while David listened to his iPod. He also narrated some books for me and read a book for pleasure: How to Stay Christian in College. Back in 2001, we survived a 4,500-mile journey from Colorado to Homer, Alaska without a DVD player or video games (okay, I do admit that David wielded his Game Boy until he left it at a rest stop in Washington and did not realize it until an hour down the road). Listening to an audio version of Trumpet of the Swan helped him recover from his loss. They have enjoyed many long, long trips with amusing little games we invent when the mood strikes.

Now, I am the first to admit some kids are such miserable travelers that only a DVD player can keep the peace. One thing I did with three-year-old David to break the habit of whining when the kids and I traveled from Louisiana down the Florida peninsula and up to Connecticut was to play stop the action. If he began complaining, I warned him I would pull over and stop so he could see the real meaning of boring. After a couple of stops, he got the message. When I was a tween, my parents traveled from Washington state to Illinois to North Carolina and back to Illinois with six kids, camping equipment, and a dog with three puppies. When Bill Cosby did the "he touched me" bit, I knew he had bugged our brown van. I spent that trip escaping to the gritty world of Oliver Twist.

Rather than share with you all of the tricks we have learned throughout our years of traveling, I will let masterly inactivity rule the day. The best games are the ones your children invent for themselves. For more ponderings on play, read Rebekah Brown's post called The Art of Play.

The Road Less Traveled Part III

Our next destination was Vicksburg National Military Park. We stopped at the visitor center, where we viewed an orientation film that summarized the siege at Vicksburg in less than eighteen minutes. Abraham Lincoln recognized the importance of Vicksburg, "Vicksburg is the key! The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket . . . We can take all the northern ports of the Confederacy, and they can defy us from Vicksburg."

An exciting narration of the heroics of Commander David Dixon Porter tickled the hearts of two naval officers in the audience (Steve and I). While General Ulysses Grant marched his forces down to staging area Hard Times, Louisiana, Commander Porter stealthily floated seven gunboats and three supply-laden troop transports past Vicksburg on April 16, 1863, a clear, moonless night. The fact they lost one boat and only thirteen men sustained wounds was miraculous because nothing passed the eagle eyes of the Confederates guarding the Mississippi River from the high bluffs of Vicksburg. Porter and his crew hugged the enemy shore so closely they could hear rebel commanders barking out orders as they floated right under Confederate cannons. A few days later, six more gunboats repeated this feat. For his actions before and during the siege of Vicksburg, Porter received a promotion to Rear Admiral on July 4, 1863, the day Vicksburg surrendered to the Union. After the war ended, Admiral Porter served as Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy for four years. Officer's Row (where high-ranking officers at the Naval Academy live today) is on Porter Road, named after Admiral Porter.

The map to the left shows General Grant's campaign to obliterate reinforcements to Vicksburg and to storm this Confederate stronghold in one massive attack. He accomplished his first objective by wiping out defenses in Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River Bridge in less than three weeks, a blistering rate when you consider the distance and other factors. Vicksburg, perched on above rolling hills and bluffs, proved more challenging than Grant anticipated: his first two assaults on May 19 and May 22 failed, so he opted for a siege that lasted 38 days. General John Pemberton surrendered on July 4, 1863, hence the timing of this post!

After the film, we skipped the books and headed to the indoor exhibit, artifacts and static displays of a Confederate trench, Confederate hospital, field officer's tent, siege meal (actually more robust fare than described in Rifles for Waitie), and cave life. The cave fascinated me the most because people found it quite comfortable. The coolness of a cave would sound inviting on a hot summer day with no air conditioning. One baby was born there, and his parents named him William Siege Green. I found the weaponry interesting for the swords were not as fine as the one I carried at the Academy and the bayonets looked more like pikes than the thin knives we attached to our rifles. David and I both thought of Chips' comment about bayonets, "It seems to me a very vulgar way of killing people."

We then headed to the outdoor exhibit, manned by people in period costume, hot woolly long sleeves and all! One young lady impressed me with her knowledge of the cannon, cannon balls, and shells. She showed us a shell cut in half, crammed with small lead balls, which inflicted much more damage on entrenched soldiers than a single ball, however heavy. She clearly enjoyed sharing what she knew about the display. Draping canvas over bamboo to make a tent struck me as odd until we spotted a patch of wild bamboo growing on the grounds of the park.




Seated in the car, we next drove the sixteen-mile loop around the park, which took us through the battlefield, trenches (now softened into rolling hills by the years and covered in grass unless you get an aerial view). We carried with us a map, full of explanations for each stop of the tour. We got out of the car several times and even walked through Thayer's approach, dug by the Union after the second assault failed.

Monuments covered this park—not just big monuments representing each state, but little monuments representing a specific military unit from a specific state or commemorating a military leader. Our favorite monument is on the left: the monument to the United States Navy, the tallest monument in the park, of course. ("Go Navy! Beat Army!") The most unique monument was Kansas, which was a drive-by for us, so we did not photograph it! I had no idea what the symbolism of the three circles meant until I found it online: the top and bottom circles represent unity before and after the war, while the broken circle in the middle represents the Union torn asunder by war.

We snapped more monument pictures at the beginning of the tour. After awhile, monument fatigue seeps into your brain and your eyes zone out. It reminds me of when we walked through a Salvador Dali exhibit and David wearily quipped, "Well, if you've seen one Dali, you've seen them all!" To the left is the Minnesota monument to peace, which just celebrated the 100th anniversary of its placement. Below are three shots of the Wisconsin memorial, which I found spectacular! Oddly, the granite used in this monument did not travel from the granite state (Minnesota), but rather South Carolina!




We did not have time to tour Vicksburg National Cemetery, but did photograph it. The cemetery holds the remains of 17,000 Union soldiers, 13,000 unknown. About 5,000 Confederate soldiers, originally buried behind Confederate lines, now rest in a separate cemetery called Soldier's Rest Cemetery. Confederate soldiers did not qualify for burial in national cemeteries.

Finally, we reached what Steve and I agreed was the surprise hit of the tour. Lurking beneath the tent is an ironclad gunboat, not a model, but the real deal! Before we explored it, we toured the museum and learned that the USS Cairo, a City Class gunboat, sank on a cold December morning in 1862. The Cairo, the lead boat of a small flotilla along the Yazoo River (north of Vicksburg), struck an electrically detonated torpedo, a first in history. Lieutenant Commander Selfridge must have had his crew well trained for no lives were lost even thought the ship sank in only twelve minutes.

A hundred years later, work began to retrieve the ironclad from her watery grave. The thick layer of silt covering the wreck preserved the Cairo and her artifacts, except for the wood. Workers restored every item pulled out of the Yazoo River. Everything you can imagine--cutlery, dishes, hooks, block and tackle, shoes, combs, watches, etc.--are now on display at the USS Cairo Museum. One brave soul sampled hot sauce found in a bottle from the gunboat and found it aged to perfection.

Then we walked onboard the boat. Former main propulsion assistant on a destroyer, Steve found the five steam drums fascinating. They were quite small compared to a modern ship, nor did they produce much pressure, only 120 psi. On modern ships, the steam pressure is so high it will cut a hole in you if you are unfortunate enough to be near a leak. We saw the capstan, the armor plating, the wheels, the keel, the thirteen guns, and rudder. Steve, who also spent four years as a shipbuilder in the Navy, found the whole construction fascinating.

The Road Less Traveled Part II

Whenever we travel, I try to find places to visit related to Ambleside Online books. We have been in Caddie Woodlawn's actual house and a replica of Laura's cabin in the Big Woods, at Lake Itasca where Minn of the Mississippi hatched, and Fort Harrod where Stephanie Venable bought supplies and no copies of Tree of Freedom were to be had (shocking!). We even spent two years in an Alaskan fishing village very much like the setting of Gentle Ben. Tuskegee was on the way to Louisiana so we wanted to supplement our sense of place for Unshakable Faith (our George Washington Carver biography). Steve, a stamp collector, was excited to learn more about two historical figures immortalized by the postal service (Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver).

Since both David and Steve are airplane fanatics, we first stopped at the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic site. We were all fascinated to learn more about the story of these pioneering men. Steve and I are both Navy veterans decades after African-Americans became an integral part of our military. We learned many fascinating things like the fact that the government conceived of this idea before the United States entered the war (in 1939). The training program involved over 10,000 men and women because they trained as pilots, navigators, ordinancemen, mechanics, etc. between 1942 and 1946. They trained over 1,000 aviators for the war. No one knows why they choose the color red for the tail of their planes, but rumor has it was the only color in plentiful supply. (As the daughter of a Navy supply officer, I would not be surprised.) They distinguished themselves in combat in North Africa, Sicily, and the Mediterranean, and the military proclaimed the "experiment" a success, integrating the armed forces starting in 1948.

The most shocking aspect is the rest of the story. After the government disbanded the training program in 1946, they closed off Moton Airfield and let it sit for forty-four years--untouched! All the important buildings still stand today, except for Hangar 2, which burned down in the 1970s. Nothing was done about it until after 1998 when it became a national historic site. Right now, a crew is restoring these historic buildings, most of which will be ready for visitors in October 2008. Here are photographs of Moton Field, including a Navy plane that we suspect is a T-2 Buckeye training jet that once belonged to VT-10 (a training squadron out of Pensacola, Florida).

Our next stop was the Tuskegee Institute, founded by former slave Booker T. Washington in 1881 with the backing of a former slave and a former slave owner. He was only twenty-four years old when he accepted the position. We explored the George Carver Museum, which houses historical artifacts and knowledge about Tuskegee Institute, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver. What fascinated me the most was how Booker T. Washington started with $2,000 per year for teachers' salaries: he had no money for books, supplies, buildings, etc. By securing financial backers from the North and through the hard work of teachers and students, they worked as a team to make that campus. The teachers and students cleared the land, grew vegetable gardens, made their own bricks, and built the buildings! His vision was for the school to be useful to the students and the community. The school developed a wagon with teaching materials that they took into the towns in the area to teach men and women important skills to better themselves (such as growing their own vegetable gardens to save on the cost of food) and to enrich themselves (such as products they could market: baskets, furniture, needlework, etc.). He deemphasized the liberal education so cherished by Charlotte Mason, and I was disappointed about that aspect of his philosophy. But, he clearly had a vision for his school and, like Charlotte, he changed the lives of so many people for the better. One interesting thing about a film we watched about his life--they were very balanced in bringing out controversial aspects of his life.

George Washington Carver was the kind of life-long learner Charlotte admired. Everyone knows he was a botanist and scientist who taught at Tuskegee. He also drew the most wonderful sketches and painted well. He crocheted, knitted, and did needlework, dying his own materials with natural pigments! He even extracted pigments from local clay to invent paint products for local farmers to beautify their homes. He recited poetry and one display has an audio recording of him reciting his favorite poem, "Equipment" by Edgar Guest. Like Charlotte, he devoted his life to education, wrote about a variety of topics, found a creative way to teach those who could not attend Tuskegee Institute, and never married. He took long walks in the countryside and saw Mr. Creator speak to him through nature. He encouraged his students to figure things out for themselves ala masterly inactivity and led the way through his own research. He possessed a living mind we hope all of our students have!



What did we do in the car? Steve drove, I crocheted, David read, and Pamela played her Gameboy. We managed to find a Starbucks in Jackson, Mississippi! We listened to more eclectic music: Mozart, Jesus Christ Superstar, and The Very Best of Cat Stevens plus all the stuff from yesterday.