After a spring drive through Tennessee and Virginia on the way to visiting our East Coast families, Diane and I flew to Lisbon in June 2016. We spent two nights in the older part of the city before transferring to the Olivia tour hotel. While there we visited the village of Obidos, sampling its cherry liqueur, as well as the Palace of Pena in Sintra. We ate the famous custard tart made at the Jeronimos Monastery and stopped at the Tower of Belem before boarding our ship, the Windstar Wind Surf. On the way to Dublin, there were stops at Lexio in Portugal, Vigo and El Ferrol in Spain, Brest in France as well as St Mary’s on the Isle of Scilly, UK and the Irish port of Waterford.
To read more of this story and view the pictures, go to the list of Pages and Stories on the right and click on
Also, please feel free to forward the link to
anyone you think might be interested in reading this or one of the previous
stories.
Previous stories:
The two stories at the bottom are
about my wife Diane's onset of dementia and her last series of illnesses and
death. The remaining stories are about my life from college days through
meeting Diane and our life together, including our many travels. These
story names are above the bottom two and progress up the page chronologically.
36. Costa
Rica: For our 2015 winter getaway, Diane and I went to Costa Rica on our
second Road Scholar trip of the year.
Our tour began in San Jose where we visited a coffee estate and the
nature park for the National Biodiversity Institute. We then traveled through the rain forest to the
Caribbean coast. We walked to the beach
where the Green Turtles lay their eggs, and, while on a canal safari in the Tortuguero
National Park, we viewed the animals and birds living there. The next destination was a lodge in the
lowlands where we saw many bird species. We visited a cacao farm and watched a
demonstration of all the steps involved in making chocolate from the pod to the
final product. We continued to Arenal
and walked on the hanging bridges in the forest. While at a Pacific coast lodge, we visited
the national parks in the area. Our last
stay before returning from San Jose was at a lodge in the cloud forest. It was great to be able to explore all the
different regions of Costa Rica.
35. Ireland: We
started our Road Scholar trip to Ireland by visiting Belfast and Derry, two
cities in Northern Ireland. We stopped
at a distillery, the Armagh Cathedrals and the Giant’s Causeway. We turned southward entering the Republic of
Ireland, starting with the Inishowen Peninsula.
After seeing the final resting place of the poet W.B. Yeats, we stayed in
Galway. We spent a day traveling through
the Connemara Peninsula before exploring the Cliffs of Moher and driving around
the Ring of Kerry. We visited the
Blarney Castle before our stay in Cork.
We toured a Waterford Crystal factory and then reached our final
destination, Dublin. While there, we saw
St.
Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Castle and the Book of Kells at Trinity
College. During a trip to Bru na
Boinne, we entered a Neolithic age burial chamber. We enjoyed an Irish production of Arthur
Miller's A View from the Bridge.
As we headed home, we were sad to leave Ireland.
34. 2015
Australia to New Zealand and Iceland to Greenland: In February 2015 Diane and
I flew ‘down under’ to Sydney, Australia where we toured the renowned opera
house before departing for Tasmania.
There we hiked through the tree canopy of the
Tahune Forest on the elevated Air Walk. We sailed on the cruise ship to the
fjords in southern New Zealand. After a
couple of more stops, we proceeded to Australia where we were thrilled to walk
through Hobbiton, the movie set used for the Lord of the Rings and the three
Hobbit movies. In June we attended a
Center for Inquiry conference in Buffalo, NY.
In July we left for a National Geographic cruise from Iceland to New
Zealand. The pre-trip in Iceland
provided a great overview of that island.
While sailing the Denmark strait toward Greenland, we saw many large
icebergs and whales. We visited early
settlements by Scandinavians that did not thrive, and towns largely inhabited
by the indigenous population.
33. Arches
National Park and African Safari: Diane and I visited the Canyonlands
National Park on the way to Moab, Utah.
We enjoyed Arches National Park and found that Moab was a good area for
indulging our interest in petroglyphs.
We saw one more arch on a Colorado River cruise. Before 2014 ended, we flew to Nairobi, Kenya
to go on safari. We first flew to Tanzania
where we stayed in lodging overlooking the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. From our balcony we could see the bottom of
the crater, the world's largest inactive, unbroken and unfilled volcanic
caldera. We couldn’t believe the variety
of birds and animals living inside it.
After visiting the Olduvai Gorge and Serengeti National Park, we
re-entered Kenya and its Maasai Mara National Reserve. We flew to Lake Victoria before leaving
Africa. What a great trip.
32. The Rhine and the Hudson: Our third boat trip in 2014
was on the 138-passenger Avalon Felicity which took us up the Rhine River from Amsterdam to
Switzerland. While cruising up this
river, we traversed Germany before entering the Rhine Gorge. It features many beautiful castles sitting on
the hillsides above the river. We
visited the Gutenberg Museum and went on an excursion to Heidelberg. After a canal ride in Strasbourg, we sampled
wine on a visit to the Alsace wine region.
We left the ship after a visit to the Black Forest. Our trip ended with a snowy ride up Mount
Titlis and fun tours of both a cheese and chocolate factory. Our trip to visit relatives on the East coast
also featured a drive along the Hudson, stopping at West Point on the way to
Hyde Park. There we saw FDR’s home,
library and museum, and relished food at the Culinary Institute of America.
31. Windmills,
Flowers and Art: Our
second boat trip in 2014 was on a 32-passenger barge which would take us
through the canals of Holland. Diane
and I started our tour in Amsterdam where we walked along the canals and
visited the museums. In Haarlem, I was
impressed with Holland’s largest pipe organ.
It was spring, so the tulips and other flowers were in full bloom at the
Keukenhof Gardens, one of the world's largest flower gardens. We saw how Delft
pottery was made and rode bikes among the windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. After enjoying the
cheese in Gouda, we learned during our visit to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction how
flowers from all over the world make it to our local florists.
30. Marriage, Cajuns and So. America: In October 2013 Diane and I went to Iowa and
tied the knot. We then flew to Lafayette, LA for a Road Scholar trip entitled
The Cajun Experience in Music, Food, and Dance, Louisiana-History &
Culture. We enjoyed many activities including a swamp tour, eating tasty food
and even dancing a two-step in public. 2014 began with an Olivia pre-trip to
Iguazu National Park where we were able to view these amazing falls from both
Argentina and Brazil. We then returned
to Buenos Aires to begin a relaxing cruise up the Eastern Coast of South
America to Rio de Janeiro, stopping twice in Uruguay.
29. Vietnam and Cambodia: In the fall
of 2013, Diane and I flew to Hanoi to start our tour with Olivia. We saw John McCain’s jumpsuit and enjoyed a
water puppet show. Leaving Hanoi, we spent a night on a junk in Ha Long Bay
before flying to Seim Reap, Cambodia. While there we visited many historic
temples including the famous Angkor Wat.
We then boarded our ship for the trip through the Tonle Sap Lake and
down the Mekong River. We saw many
floating villages and small manufacturing businesses before stopping in the
capital, Phnom Penh. We toured the
Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot. Our ship then took us to the former Saigon
before we flew home.
28. On Safari in South Africa,
Zimbabwe and Botswana: We continued our South Africa trip by flying to
a safari camp next to Kruger National Park.
We saw an amazing amount of wildlife during our three and a half days at
the camp. Diane and I had our own
comfortable tent that included a flush toilet!
We had two reasons for going on the post-trip to Victoria Falls. First, we wanted to see another magnificent
waterfall, and second, we wanted to see the famed elephant herds in
Botswana. We were not disappointed by
either.
27. South Africa’s Garden Route: 2013 began with an amazing trip to South
Africa. We survived the long flight from
Atlanta, GA directly to Johannesburg!
After seeing Soweto and other local sights, we flew south to start our
journey across the coast of South Africa.
Diane and I traveled from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town along the Garden
Route. Highlights for me were the
elephant park where I stroked an elephant’s tongue, the gardens and reserves,
seeing an African penguin on the way to the Cape of Good Hope and the visit to
Robben Island.
26. Greece-Dalmatian
Coast-Bled: In
August 2012 Diane and I went on our second trip with my sister Earlene. The
Hidden Gems of the Dalmatian Coast & Greece was not enough. We added a pre-trip Ancient Glories of Greece
and a post-trip to Bled, Slovenia.
After starting in Athens, we visited the Peloponnese Peninsula, Delphi,
Greek island of Corfu, Albania, Montenegro, Croatian island of Korcula,
Croatian cities of Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb, Bled and the Postojna
cave. We were gone over 3 weeks and thoroughly
enjoyed every minute.
25. Peruvian Amazon: In May 2012 Diane and I went on a
different type of river cruise. There
were no cities and the boat could only tie up to a river bank at night. We traveled along both of the rivers that
were fed by the Andes Mountains. The
point at which they join together may form the start of the Amazon (at least
according to some geographers). We could
only explore the tropical jungle by going up creeks in zodiacs because the
flooding prevented hikes. The
experienced crew members helped us spot the birds and animals that made the
trip very enjoyable.
24.
2012 Begins with a Trip to Cuba: President
Obama relaxed restrictions on travel to Cuba in January 2011 which enabled us
to go there in 2012. An ecotourism
company we had previously traveled with agreed to book the trip for Diane,
myself and three other women from Columbia, MO.
A Cuban guide showed us the sights around Havana, the Vinales Valley and
the island of La Aldea Taína. We stayed
at a hotel near Trinidad on the Caribbean Coast. From there we visited a hacienda in a nature
reserve park in the Escambray Mountains where a naturalist gave us a special
tour. We returned to Havana for a
wonderful night of jazz before flying back to the US through Mexico.
23.
We Cruise the Columbia River Before SIS Ends in Munich: In September 2011 Diane and
I went “On the Trail of Lewis and Clark: A
Columbia and Snake River Expedition” with Road Scholar. The tour started in Portland, OR with a
cruise on a National Geographic boat through the locks and dams of the Columbia
River. We traveled in the opposite direction
of Lewis and Clark going up the Snake River to Clarkston, WA. Our visits onshore taught us much about Lewis
and Clark’s trip and the American Indian tribes that helped them. We also learned about the geography of the
area we traversed. On the return trip,
we followed the path of the two explorers to the mouth of the Pacific
Ocean. In December, we flew to Munich,
Germany for the last job that Sebaugh’s Information Services (SIS) had before I
completely retired.
22. Road
Scholar Trip t0 England, Wales & Scotland:
In May 2011 Diane and I went on our first Road Scholar trip, “Quintessential
Britain.” We started on our own in
London, with visits to the Globe theatre, Greenwich and the Old Bailey. After joining the tour, we saw many exhibits
at the British Museum before going to Stonehenge and the City of Bath. As we traveled north, we toured many castles,
gardens, cities and regions like the Cotswolds, Wales, York and Chester before
ending in Edinburgh. Even then, we
hadn’t seen enough and stayed on for two more tours in Scotland. I learned so much about that island and
English history.
21. Petra,
Pyramids and Palmyra: Diane and
I traveled with my sister to the Middle East in November and December
2010. In Jordan, we stopped at the Dead
Sea and many Roman ruins and castles before visiting Petra. It contains tombs and temples carved into
pink sandstone cliffs. After a brief
visit in Cairo, we flew to Luxor to see the tombs in the Valley of the
Kings. While sailing the Nile to Aswan,
there were many stops to see ancient temples.
After a flight back to Cairo, we went to Giza and see the pyramids and
sphinx. The last country we visited was
Syria where we visited Damascus, Palmyra, Aleppo and the Golan Heights.
20. Missouri,
Illinois and Kansas: We spent
the summer of 2010 taking “bite-size” driving trips. In Missouri, we visited the Johnsons
Shut-Ins, Elephant Rock, Ste. Genevieve
and the Mastodon
State Historic Site. In Springfield,
Illinois we toured the old and new State Capitols and the Abraham Lincoln Home,
Tomb and Presidential Museum. In Kansas,
we visited the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site, the Capitol
and Museum of History, the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, the
campuses of the University of Kansas and Johnson County Community College and
the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic Site. Dinner at the Justus Drugstore was a perfect
gustatory ending to our summer.
19. Tahiti, Caves and Big Bend: We enjoyed the hospitality
shown us while touring the South Pacific islands of Tahiti both on land and on
our luxurious cruise ship. Our next
travel was by car, first stopping to tour Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. That was the first cave I ever visited as a
young girl with my parents. We spent a
night at the Shaker Village before continuing on to New Jersey where we
attended my sister’s family reunion. We
visited Diane’s family before heading home with a stop in Iowa to visit an
Olivia friend. I was elated that the
second post-retirement paper I wanted to publish had been accepted for
publication in the journal Pharmaceutical Statistics. We started 2010 with a three-week driving
trip that featured a visit with Joe and Karen in Sante Fe, New Mexico and a
tour of Big Bend National Park in Texas.
18. High School Reunion and Rhone
River Cruise: The grand reopening of the Missouri Theatre was much more fun than
my 50th high school reunion. We thought
of our cruise on the Rhone River in France as our first real river boat cruise
since the river wasn’t created by a dam (like the Yangtze). Before the cruise, we visited Nice, Monaco
and the Jacques Cousteau Museum. We
appreciated the celebration on the river for Bastille Day and the Resistance
Museum in Lyon since we had read about both.
Of course, the food and wine we saw in the markets and devoured on the
cruise was yummy. Our post-cruise visits
to Brussels and Bruges were also memorable.
17. Retiring
SIS and Touring China: Sebaugh’s
Information Services (SIS) clientele was dwindling. While I still had access to my SAS
programming tool, I was able to finish the calculations for my second academic
paper. Our first international trip of
2008 was to China. We flew and flew
going as far north as Harbin which is near Russia and as far south as Jinghong
which is near the borders of Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, as well as points in
between. We ended the trip with a Yangtze
River cruise.
16. Elections, Canyons, Visits to
D.C.: 2006 was an election
year. Diane and I got more experience as
election judges and were relieved to see Claire McCaskill elected to become our
next U.S. Senator. We drove West through
Denver and Utah to join an ecotourism’s group tour of the “Great Canyons of the
Southwest” (Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon). In 2007, we visited Washington, D.C.
twice. The first time, we attended Nancy
Pelosi’s tea party and McCaskill’s swearing in reception. The second time we were with Diane’s Salon
group and visited Nancy Pelosi’s new office.
We joined the first family reunion hosted by the Baumunks and took an
Olivia cruise along the Mexican Riviera.
15. Families, Friends, Barcelona to Rome: My client numbers were
dwindling which enabled more time for friends, family visits and community
involvement. During an East Coast trip,
we saw many of Diane’s cousins and toured two DuPont estates with my sister and
her husband. The Missouri Botanical
Gardens were the back-drop for World Tai Chi Day and a Chihuly Exhibit in the
Climatron. Our international trip
started in Barcelona enabling us to explore the delights of that city. Our first Windstar cruise took us through the
Mediterranean to Rome where we saw the many sights we had read about and seen
portrayed in movies.
14.
2005 Concludes with Machu Picchu and Galapagos:
In the fall of 2005, I turned 65 and we celebrated with a
fantastic trip. We saw our first Chihuly
exhibit in Miami. Then we started our
second visit to South America with a flight to Lima, Peru. We went to Machu Picchu, a city built on the
top of a mountain by the Incas in the 15th century. Then we flew to the Galapagos and boarded a
small ship to explore the several islands.
It was a special time as there were many young birds and mammals with
their parents. To conclude our trip, we
left the tour and flew to the Ecuadorean capital of Quito.
13. 2005 Visit
to Italy and Switzerland: In the
spring of 2005, we had three different wine tasting experiences in three
different countries: California, U.S.A, Tuscany, Italy and Sion,
Switzerland. In Italy, Craig drove us
from Rome to Florence with stops in Tarquinia, Scansano and Sienna. We rode trains to visit Locarno in Italy, as
well as Sion, Gstaad, Lucerne and Zurich in Switzerland.
12. 2004
Includes Trips to Newfoundland and Antarctica:
Now in our Columbia house, we were enjoying our community
activities, even starting Tai Chi. We
made trips to visit family and friends, attended weddings and a
graduation. We learned a lot about our
neighboring countries in North and South America, finding they had icebergs in
common. On the Newfoundland trip we
visited a large bird colony, and in Antarctica we saw immense penguin colonies.
11. 2003 Trips to Alaska
and the Pacific Northwest: My
customer base was shrinking which left more time for travel. The first of two papers I was working on was
published. We went on two Olivia
cruises: their 30th anniversary cruise to the Eastern Caribbean and their
cruise from Vancouver, Canada to Anchorage, Alaska. We visited many old friends on our next trip
driving from Portland to Bend, Oregon, then stopping in Seattle, Washington before
circumnavigating the Olympic Peninsula.
10. Return to the Liberal
Oasis: Diane
completed her task of overseeing the construction of our Columbia house and, in
the dead of winter, we move back to Columbia.
We became very busy women with our involvement in Columbia activities. We also traveled to London, Paris and Norway,
as well as both coasts in the U.S. Diane
and I went on three more Olivia cruises: in the Baltic Ocean, up to Alaska and
in the Eastern Caribbean. The first of
two papers based on my own research was published.
9. Disenchantment
with Life at the Lake: The consulting business was keeping me busy. Diane and I went on two more Olivia trips, a
cruise to the Panama Canal and a land trip to New Zealand and Australia. The number of guests at the lake decreased,
and we missed the range of activities and more liberal atmosphere of
Columbia. We finally decided to build a
house there.
8. Getting to Know You: Diane and I first dated in
1990, first kissed in 1991 and then started testing the possibility for a
longer-term relationship. We kept
separate households for a few years until Diane resigned her position with
Planned Parenthood. We entertained
friends and family at the lake, traveled three times with Olivia and made two
visits to Florida. At the same time,
with Diane’s help, I was busy growing my statistical consulting business.
7. An Unexpected
Beginning: I had intended the move to the Lake of the Ozarks to simplify life,
allowing me to focus my consulting on corporate clients rather than students. I
was living alone in a big home, but determined not to jump into another
relationship before learning more about myself. After a few months, an
opportunity came to meet a new single friend that I could do things with. After
a rough start, a kiss changed my calculations.
6. Starting Life As An
Entrepreneur: Could I
be successful if I started my own full-time business? If I wasn’t, what were my chances of being
offered a job? These were the questions
I had to answer, and I had a strategy for doing so. It worked beyond my wildest dreams. I found I was quite employable. Better yet, I was offered contracts in three
different divisions of Monsanto, all of them involving work with
scientists. However, my relationship
with Gwen didn’t withstand the stresses introduced by starting a new business
and planning a move to the Lake of the Ozarks.
5. Goodbye Kansas City,
Hello Columbia: Set in the context of the early 1970s and 1980s, this story begins when
I meet a woman who turned out to be the one with whom I would share my life for
the next 16 years. After earning a Ph.D., my job opportunity turned out to be
in Columbia, not Kansas City. I didn’t
stay with the university although I gained some valuable experience consulting
with faculty and students. After five
years working on a unique project for the USDA, I was faced with having to make
a decision about my next career move.
4. Changes: The
Spice of Life?: After losing my Kansas City Woman, I am again on my own. I am hired to be the first computer
programmer at the Kansas University Medical Center. The girlfriends come and go as we play
basketball and fast pitch softball. At
last, I fall in love with the idea of becoming a statistical consultant, teach
data processing at Johnson County Community College while completing the
requirements and earning my master’s degree in Mathematics.
3. Goin’ to Kansas
City: In June 1962
I started my job in Kansas City with IBM.
I loved learning about the new computers being marketed for the first
time. I now know that I am attracted to
women and search for female companionship, eventually finding a
girlfriend.
2. Imagine My
Surprise: What’s it like in 1959 to
discover you have a condition that is considered to be a mental disease and
morally bad. I fought it, but eventually
could not deny the fact that I was attracted to females. That first kiss was powerful with much
promise for the future.
1. Houses: I had a lot of fun finding
pictures of all the houses and dormitories I lived in, from 1940 to 1962. It triggered memories about those times that
I share with you.
Don’t Let Her See
Me Cry: This story can be considered a sequel to The Descent into Dementia. It describes the events that led to Diane’s
death. She needed more care, couldn’t
get it where we lived and we made plans to move. Before it could happen, her physical decline
plus a bout of Covid led to a hospital stay, rehab, then another hospital stay which
ended in comfort care and discharge into hospice.
The Descent into
Dementia: It
sneaks up on both of you, the one who has Alzheimer's and the caregiver. This is a story of the stages Diane and I
went through after it entered our lives, and how we coped with its realities.