Faces

"I've learned that regardless of color or age, we all need about the same amount of love."                                                                         ~  H. Jackson Brown, Jr. 

This little girl at a fishing village on Mieu Island near Nha Trang, Vietnam
had a look of pure joy on her face and was so eager to show us her puppy

Whether you speak their language or not, often the expressions on the faces of people you meet convey far more than words possibly could.

Over the years as Mike and I have traveled, I have typically been the one to take most of the photos.  Mike occasionally takes pictures which are quite engaging - including the first one in this blog, taken in Vietnam, of the child holding the puppy.  I find it especially endearing.  I have asked Mike why he doesn't take more pictures and his response was that he remembers more if he is a participant rather than an onlooker.  So it seems that Mike is in the moment while I attempt to capture the moment.  When we get home I tend to recall the nuances - the scent, the mood - but not the facts.  Mike recalls the facts - which city or province we were in, the names of individuals - so we make a pretty good team.

"It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves."

                                                                                         ~ Francois de La Rochefoucauld

A woman and her granddaughter in the ancient
imperial capital of Hue, Vietnam

The pictures in this blog are photos that we believe highlight the innocence of youth, the experience of age, or a glimpse of a culture through the people we have encountered.  We have always been careful, if we are taking a child's picture, that the parent or guardian was asked for permission before the picture was taken.  With photos of adults, usually a conversation has taken place before a request for a picture was made.  On occasion personal, political or religious preferences are considerations, and we resolutely respect the wishes of anyone who declines our request.

A young couple on their wedding day, at the Temple of Literature and
the National University in Hanoi, Vietnam

Yvonne's parents, taken in the spring of 2016, a few months
before their 68th wedding anniversary

There have been times, including in China and in India, when we were asked for our picture.  In China, Mike was a big hit with kids and he had scores of pictures taken of him with delighted children who called him "the happy Buddha" as they rubbed his belly for luck.  In India, my request for permission to take a picture was met with  a request from an Indian family to take my picture, and eventually led to an invitation to a wedding that was taking place the following evening.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness"      ~ Mark Twain 

Manuel, our tour leader on our second trip to Africa

As you view these photos, consider that despite outward appearances, we are more like people around the world than we are different.  The Greek philosopher Socrates said "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

A man at a Rajasthan village market in India

Children at a school in a village in Peru.  When digital cameras
first came out, kids were amazed when they could instantly see
 their pictures on the camera.

A fisherman in his boat on the Thu Bon River at Hoi An, Vietnam.  Hoi An was
once the most important trading port on the East Vietnam Sea 

"In youth we learn; in age we understand."       ~  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Girls at St. Mary's Primary School, Hwange District,
Zimbabwe.  A sign on the wall of their school reads: 

"Through the balance and the chaos, we alone are responsible for our own

happiness and success or failure.  It is up to us to design a life that works."

Our oldest granddaughter reacted with delight when
she caught her first fish at five years of age

"Travel makes one modest.  You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world."

                                                                                                   ~ Gustave Flaubert

Masai tribesmen performing the traditional Masai Warrior Dance in Kenya

Three Hindu sādhu or "holy men" in Varnasi, India.These 
religious ascetics cover their faces in ash and paint
and often wear saffron-colored clothing

A woman working in a rice paddy in Vietnam stands up to stretch from the
back-breaking work of bending over all day to tend the rice crop.

"A person's a person, no matter how small."    ~ Dr. Seuss

Our younger granddaughter, at about 10 months of age.  Here, she
is giving someone "the look" at Thanksgiving dinner at her
great-grandparents' house

A young Chinese dancer, performing at a dinner theater in Beijing, China

A child poses for the camera in Hanoi, Vietnam

"Age may wrinkle the face, but lack of enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."   

                                                                                                  ~ Danish Proverb 

This woman maintains her poise, her dignity, and her style, even while making
incense from cow dung at a women's self-help co-operative in rural India

"Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded."     ~ Jess Lair

Children pose for a picture at a Rajasthan village
market in India while shopping with their mother

Yvonne's mom, Dorothy

“The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter.” 

                                                                                                  ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

At Kafue National Park in Zambia, this woman, Grace, makes
and sells Aliffia grass baskets, woven of savanna grass.
The one she is holding now resides in our RV

Children hanging out in the doorway of a "Restroom
for Child Only" at a school in China

“For a moment at least, be a smile on someone else’s face.”  

                                                               ~ Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

On a visit to a village in the Amazon River basin in Peru

This Monk tends the gardens at a Buddhist temple
at Dalat, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.  

"Wisdom outweighs any wealth."     ~ Sophocles

A Sikh priest in Delhi, India.  Like many other
religions, they take vows of poverty and chastity

“Age should not have its face lifted, but it should rather teach the world to admire wrinkles as the etchings of experience and the firm line of character.” 
                                                                                                       ~ Clarence Day Jr.

Yvonne's dad, Tracy

A vendor at a Rajasthan village market in India

A little boy in obviously-too-big sandals squats by the side of
the road, watching the American tourists in Hanoi, Vietnam

This woman poses on the steps of one of India's "stepwells"...literally,
deep wells with steep hand-cut stone steps to descend to reach
the water level.  The wells began to be constructed around 200 A.D.

Children help their mother weave at a cooperative
that provides an outlet for their finished goods in Peru

Each of us has his or her own stories to tell.  Part of the  joy of travel is engaging the people that we encounter, helping to further our understanding of the world, and contributing immensely to our ROAD STORIES.

So, when they said "who wants to hold the Python?" in the
Mekong Delta in Vietnam, Yvonne thought it sounded like
a good experience...at first.

We wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017.  Happy New Year from ROAD STORIES.

"May you live all the days of your life."    ~ Jonathan Swift

Wonders of Nature

"There is something of the marvelous in all things of nature." 

                                                                                 ~  Aristotle

For about four-and-a-half years, Mike and I have been travelling in our RV around the U.S. and Canada, but for the last 30+ years, we have been privileged to travel to some fascinating places around the world.  We've met wonderful people and have seen some incredible places and things.  In this season of Thanksgiving, we are thankful for the opportunities that we have had to see and photograph beautiful examples of nature, and we want to share a few of them with you.

“You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.” 

                                                          ~  Karen Blixen, Out of Africa

  

A mother lioness with her cubs avoiding the noonday sun in Kenya

"I am not the same, having seen the moon on the other side of the world"                                               ~  Mary Anne Radmacher

Moon over the Okavango Delta, Botswana

“Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!” 

                                                                                                                                ~  C. JoyBell C.   

       

Sunset over Mobile Bay, Alabama

A Blue-Footed Boobie in the Galapagos Islands

Robin's eggs in a nest in a cedar tree in our back yard

A bee gathers pollen from a flower in Missouri

Butterfly in a flower garden in Missouri

Cactus in the Valley of Fire, near Carrrizozo, New Mexico

"Three things cannot be long hidden:  the sun, the moon, and the truth."                                                                      ~ Buddha

Sunset near Siem Reap, Cambodia

Okavango Delta, Botswana

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."
                                                                            ~  Anita Desai

Elephant crossing the road in front of our vehicle in Samburu Game Reserve in Kenya

Marine Iguana, Galapagos Islands

Great Smokey Mountains near Asheville, NC on a winter morning

Lion tracks in the sandy shoulder of a road in Zimbabwe

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears or the sea."

                                                                              ~ Isak Dinesen

Gulf of Mexico near Santa Rosa Beach, FL

Sunset at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri

View to the sea on Iona, a small island in the Inner Hebrides
chain, off the western coast of Scotland 

A zebra grazes in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.
Like human fingerprints, no two zebras have identical stripes.

"Every mountaintop is within reach, if you just keep climbing."
                                           ~ Barry Finlay, Kilimanjaro and Beyond

Our view of Mt. Kilimanjaro on our approach into Tanzania

Algae growing on top of the still water of a cypress swamp in the
Mingo National Wildlife Refuge near Puxico, Missouri

A pride of lions, led by this big male, sun themselves near the
top of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

"There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle." 
                                                                         ~  Albert Einstein

Galapagos Banded Penguins in the Galapagos Islands

Morning Glories in bloom on the shutters on the front
of our house, as fall turns the leaves to golden brown

The complexity of a mushroom growing in Missouri reflects the beauty of nature

Whipple Cholla cactus in the high desert of New Mexico

A Macaw perches on top of a stalk of bananas
in a hut in the Amazon basin in Peru

Queen Anne's Lace in the morning dew at Hidden Valley Farm in Missouri

A mother elephant and her baby in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania.
Their redish-brown color comes from rolling in the red clay soil in the area.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens."                                              ~  Ecclesiastes  3:1

A Cardinal perches in the lilac bush outside of our kitchen
window on a snowy morning 

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." 

                                                            ~  Henry David Thoreau 

  

Sunset over Lake Manyar in the Rift Valley in Tanzania, taken from a high
plateau overlooking the valley.  The fertile Rift Valley is believed by some
to be the site of the Garden of Eden described in the Bible

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”                 ~  Abraham Lincoln   

Roses have long been associated with beauty, and it is easy to see why.
Photographed at the Birmingham Botanical Garden, Birmingham, AL

"You don't have the power to make rainbows or waterfalls, sunsets or roses, but you do have the power to bless people by your words and smiles. You carry within you the power to make the world better."                     ~  Sharon G. Larson             

The mist and spray from the falls forms a tropical rain forest and a
permanent rainbow over Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River,
at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe

Butterflies feed on fresh elephant dung in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe

From the awesome raw power of Victoria Falls, to the serenity of a Missouri cypress swamp, to the sight of yellow butterflies on a pile of dung, there is beauty in all of nature.  We only have to look around and pay attention to see it as we pursue our own Road Stories.

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

                                                                         ~  Mark Twain