I. Teaching

At 49½, I substitute taught until I was given a teaching position. Over the next 10 years, I taught US History, economics, geography, US government & law at Jackson Hole High School, WY.  

My lofty teacher goals had always been to:
   1) Find a way for students to actually learn,
   2) Enrich students’ life potential after me.
   3) Perhaps change education at large. lol

A. Traditional ‘bad’ teaching:
In my 1st 2 years, I taught as … I had been taught, as U of WY College of Education professors taught me, AND as my fellow teachers taught — I lectured the textbook curriculum & gave tests.            Unchallenged production line!

    1. Lecturing:    
I had read & re-read popular lay-education books: 'Summerhill’, & “Education & Ecstasy.” I constantly read current professional educational pedagogy literature our school librarian had assembled in the teacher’s section, searching & always experimenting for better teaching methods & classroom management strategies. Apparently, I was alone. Our Librarian remarked, “Few teachers ever read these books." No surprise, really.

"Public education: 150 years of tradition unhampered by progress." Anonymous

"Most advanced technology productively used in schools is the lead pencil." Unrecalled older teacher. NOTE: We may use computers, but often merely to perpetuate the same underlying system.

My early experiments were foolish, hamstrung by a blind faith in traditional teaching.

Anecdote: foolish note-taking: I created detailed notes (typical me) to lecture from until I realized that students were frantically writing as I lectured, totally ignoring me.   I didn’t really need to be there.

    My 1st Solution: So, I condensed my notes & installed short blank-lined spaces (___) for key info (names, dates, etc) so students could just fill in those blanks quickly without being distracted from my ‘riveting’ lectures. I often joked later that I ‘traditionally taught’ better (read: worse) than my fellow teachers. 

The absurdity is that such lecturing/note-taking is endemic, taken for granted as ideal pedagogy that presumptively leads to actual learning, even though the decades of students before them contradicted it.  It's NOT actual learning, just a mechanical tool of memorization scheme.

Now, almost 30 years later, some cell phone AI apps will record, convert to text, and even summarize class notes, facilitating further, IMO, an inherently defective system of memorized learning. Truly like ''Re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

Anecdote: My California Bar Exam: I prepared for the exam in several ways. One technique was to simulate taking the bar exam by writing my response to a past bar exam essay question in the suggested allotted time without pause. Then, for several nights afterward, I re-wrote the same essay question afresh -- NOT memorized, but from scratch until I had such command of the question's key legal issues and sub-issues that my essays were spontaneous, crisp, complete & coherent.

Like a plumber, tennis player, or surgeon, I was practicing essay writing based on the relevant legal knowledge until my skill & confidence were acquired.

When I sat at the exam table with 3 other folks, and looked at the exam, I remember looking at 2 of them shaking their heads slowly in fear of the daunting task ahead of them. Yet, I can STILL recall having no fear AND  immediately starting to respond to each essay question as I had for the past months. The irony is that, historically, I have always suffered from severe test anxiety, but this time I was confident in my exhaustive preparation.  I passed the Bar the 1st time.

Anecdote: Melvin Belli's "preparation" advice: When a 1^st year law student (35 yrs old), I approached the legendary San Francisco “King of Torts”, Melvin Belli at his book signing appearance & asked his advice. 

(Belli defended Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald;  Other Clients: Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, etc.

He autographed my new book with one word:       “Preparation”                                            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Belli

 

 2. Testing:  Most final tests are content-driven monuments to ‘traditionally destructive testing.’  The ultimate teacher and industry's weaponized whip to force learning.  Ludicrous, IMO.

In contrast, my 'required' finals were simplistic & easy because I had no respect for the concept, AND my students had already learned what I wanted learned: 1) creativity, 2) courage to ask & answer questions, & 3) critical thinking.

Anecdote: An A student's frustration and revelation: at a parent-teacher conference, a mother's daughter, one of the top students in the school, said, "Mr. Eaton, I do not like the way you teach." I had no response.

After the semester's end in early summer, after grades had been published, I received a short note from this student saying, "Thank you, Mr. Eaton, for teaching me a new way to think.'

She validated the incredible effort I had put into creating my curriculum, etc, over several years' weekends and holidays. Thank you M'Lady, you made my teaching career.

3. Classroom management:  Classroom management is public education's euphemism for strategies for controlling bored youth who act out in response to the system's inflicted oppressive, brain-numbing boredom with sleep, surreptitious whispering, and other distracting behaviors.

Classroom management is an administration's hardball, draconian, foolishness. Unfortunately, I initially bought into my Classroom Management research for controlling 20 to 30 very bored, vibrant, intelligent kittens.      Easier to think in terms of an unruly prison population justified in their anger..

 Unfortunately, I was a new teacher drinking the Kool-Aid.  Oh, that I had the means to apologize to my earlier students.

Anecdote: A student threat: one evening, I received a phone call from a student I couldn't identify who threatened that he and his friends were considering capturing me, tying me up, putting a bag over my head and leaving me up in one of the nearby canyons. That's when I realized how evil were the methods my research was promoting. My respect for education pedagogical experts was sinking even faster.

Anecdote: My 1st year teaching mentor:    Each NEW teacher must spend specific time under mentorship of an 'experienced' teacher so they will know what is expected.  

When not lecturing, my “1st year mentor" teacher’s classes were unconstrained, loud pandemonium's shouting & fooling around.

When my mentor sought to speak, he would yell until his stentorian Football Coach’s voice quelled the riot. His methods were supposed to be my role model.

               Again, ludicrous.   

B. My Teaching’s 180° U-turn:

At 52, having taught high school for two years, I was frustrated, ashamed & unable to ignore any longer my ongoing hypocrisy of equating forced memorization and destructive testing with "actual learning".

During each class lecture, my students and I struggled to stay awake, knowing that they would be tested at week’s end on the drivel I had spewed. Worse, I was replicating all the classroom dynamics that had bored me to failure during the 1st 20 years of my life. 

Unprofessionally worse, I, & my fellow teachers, knew we were frauds because we saw its useless effects each day in student boredom & bad testing performance.       Shame on me for violating my teacher's inherent moral duty. 

Anecdote:: After my 2nd year of teaching, .....I advised my School Principal that I ‘literally cried’ at home because my kids were so bored by my lectures, angered by my classroom management techniques & intimidated by test anxiety.

I told him, "I felt useless & a hypocritical fraud, because I knew my classic ‘teaching’ was destructive & counterproductive. I was everything BUT a professional teacher."

My Principal calmly looked directly at me, “If you don’t like it, change it.”   
I responded, “Really?  He confirmed.
& …. I did.
My Principal had character & courage.

1. My New Teaching Goals:

My new goal (think obsession) was to find a teaching method that would genuinely inspire/motivate kids to actually learn & perhaps enjoy learning,  rather than merely short-term memorization to pass tests. 

I needed to: ---
    1) replace the fraudulent forced memorization-based regimen posing as ‘learning’,
    2) eliminate specious, destructive testing and do so
    3) in an atmosphere conducive to learning. 

Only the arrogant foolishness of public education would pretend to presume that humans do everything correctly the 1st time.

I needed a strategy that minimized each student’s systemic academic fear and capitalized on their inherent curiosity, imagination, initiative, and creativity. IMO, all humans are innately driven by fear & by the curiosity arising .... after fear is controlled or understood. Fear & curiosity spawns all.

Anecdote: A colorful venomous snake: Hiking my AZ mountains, ...  a tiny gorgeous color-banded snake crossed my path.  My 1st reaction was a mild fear: “Snake! Beware”. My 2nd thought, “What a gorgeous vibrant color." My 3rd impulse, “What is it? My 4th thought, “Be careful, it's color could be its ‘severe venom’ warning.”  A fear & curiosity mix.

I walked respectfully on ... to Google & found the Arizona Mountain Kingsnake, often mistaken for the venomous Arizona Coral Snake. 

 

2. My Learning Solutions: 

I eliminated all lectures & tests replacing them with hands-on, critical thinking, creative projects & mini projects in a respectful classroom setting.

I promised all my students at each school's beginning that I would do my best to avoid what was boring.

Anecdote: wastepaper basket boredom solution: While students were reading a 1-page article on the differences between men and women which I thought would interest them, I realized they were bored with it.

I stopped the class, picked up the trashcan, held it against my chest and told them to crumple up those papers and throw them into the trashcan.  Some may have actually been shooting at the trash can. 🥴 We moved immediately on to my next exercise, all of which I had prepared & zerox-ed the previous summer.

                     
     a. PROJECTS: that hopefully drive & elevate the quality of their life experience.

That summer, I began the time-intensive creation of a new project-based curriculum for all my courses. A personal time commitment that continued, unabated for most weekends,   every summer, Christmas, & spring break for the next 5-6 years; creating & continually refining an entire project-based curriculum for 5 disciplines (US History, government, economics, geography, and law).           I was obsessed. 

This was a monumental effort to condense an exhaustive textbook’s detailed Table of Contents & Index down to the truly useful topics that exposed the true essence of what I considered important.

         Example: US Civil War 
              1. Traditional focus: battle dates, key generals/people, etc, list of reasons for, etc.
              2. My Focuses:
                  a. evil of slavery & prejudice,
                  b. sanctity of an undivided, indivisible USA
                  c. justification for loss of life
                  d. hero definition,
                  e. long-term effects of wars.
           Note: My goal was to ‘learn’ from Civil War study important concepts that help a citizen negotiate & understand their future US citizen's decisions. 

The projects had to be doable by all yet, unlimited in scope for those who jumped at the challenge. The projects were divided into 3 chunks: 
    1) accumulation of basic facts; knowledge (Civil War start, geography, each side's goals,
        results, etc.)
    2) student demonstration of simple use/organization of that basic info, 
    3) student's creative expression or summary of lessons learned, conclusions, reflections
        based on 1) & 2) above and their own thinking in mediium of their choice (writing, acting,
        & drawing.)

My hope was that my students would unleash their creativity & imagination evidencing a passion for their own effort; that they develop the courage to 'stand on the edge of the cliff, spread their wings & leap forward into the abyss." 

Anecdote 1: student's complaint: a junior at the very top of her class commented in front of her mother and our parent-teacher meeting, that she did not like my method of teaching. I noted her comment respectfully, but after this semester and all grades and exams were turned in, she wrote me a personal note saying 'Thank you for teaching me a new way to think."   

       Anecdote 2: student's mom’s concern/request: At the parent-teacher conference a mom said her son worked late at night on my projects. She asked me to advise him not to. I responded respectfully, of course, that, "I cannot do that because it is exactly what I am trying to promote -- for the rest of their life, an unquenchable passion."

Eventually, I replaced the standard, dry, boring, often wrong or biased textbooks with my own trusted quality resources, a college geography text book, & interesting National Geographi / coffee table type book sets. 

             Chilkoot Trail lesson plan: [pplk: ….] also some PIKs at ‘Chilkoot Trail PIKs’ fld. AK video (???) 

My goal was to engage student minds & energies in & outside of class.

Creating interesting & challenging 2 week timed projects & min-projects was an all-consuming time & energy commitment; 1½ weekend days & ¾ of all Xmas, Spring & summer breaks. No la-la-beach life here. 😀 based on classroom management of rooted mutual student-teacher respect.

        b. Tests: I eliminated all tests except 1) the administration's demanded final exam that I made very easy to pass (I did not respect the concept) & 2) an occasional homework quiz if class seemed to be shirking homework preparation.

Anecdote: Professor Gary Render: In UW's College of Education class I asked Professor, Gary Render,  what I might do about my disdain for anxiety-generating ‘testing’. He looked at me seriously & said, “Stop testing.” At the time I chuckled at his heresy, but his retort came back later as I prepared my 3rd year’s curriculum. I developed a new system

My Grading System: My students were graded on 1) their workman-like completion of a project's 3 tasks, 2) sincerity of reasoning (even if wrong), 3) apparent effort, imagination, and creativity. The application of 'critical thinking' & its related brethren (curiosity, creativity, etc), not taught in public schools, but rather suppressed,  trumps all else.  

AuthenticOnly B & A grades were accepted; all else were 'incomplete,' which must be upgraded before the semester's end or you fail the entire class.  I don’t want C student dentists or plumbers working for me.  

Like Michelangelo's block of poor quality, discarded marble was only the 'medium' for his magnificent "David" creation, my project's content (facts, dates, etc) was ONLY the medium my students used to express their enthusiasm, effort, imagination, and creativity.

I presumed my students would actually learn some basic facts, during their Project creation.I 

Today's internet AI apps (XAI, Perplexity, Chat GP, etc) offer near instant access to facts and can provide a deeper and deeper contextual analysis, if asked. Vastly superior to capabilities of any teacher or professor, probably without the systemic bias.

 Satisfactory completion of my projects was my assessment or test device. Example: to have a person ‘learn’ how to repair a carburetor, provide the otherwise operable vehicle with a ‘bad’ carburetor, necessary tools & repair instructions (on Google Search now).                   To assess or test: ...  turn the key.  

    c. Classroom management:   My classroom management philosophy abruptly changed to one of mutual respect between teacher and students rendering classroom management, per se, unnecessary. e.g. if I, or any student, is talking, you are not, and vice versa.

Anecdote: When I needed the 'floor':  Projects & mini-projects often involved students engaging with each other. My control mechanisms were simple: 
     1) noise level too high? I stood in front of class with a smile & motioned downward with my hand like asking a service dog to lie down. Someone would notice & the noise level would drop.

     2) If I needed to interrupt their discussions, I simply stood quietly in front of the class with a smile on my face, waiting for someone to notice. They then advised everybody else that I had something to say, and the room became quiet. (often I would do this, and my eyes would water as I reflected on the mutual respect that their 'quiet' reflected compared to the nasty 'classroom management' of my first 2 years.)

    3) If I overheard too much non-project conversation (weekend’s football game) I would casually ask the distracting student some totally innocuous question unrelated to the project. The student got my ‘hidden’ clue and went back to work without teacher’s humiliating reprimand.

Irony, that my earlier school failures now drove my passionate curiosity to learn in order to teach better.

3. Next 8 years:  

Thereafter, for 8 more years until I retired, my classes were project-based without tests in a respectful classroom environment.  

During that 10 years 2 experiences influenced my future & its travel. 

   Note: 
        1st, my father died at 85 forcing me to realize I was next in line into the abyss — no time to waste.    
        2^nd My revered friend, Mary Mead, died in a horse accident. 

 

II. Solo Adventures:

A. Prelude:

At 55, my Dad died; a ‘blow’, anticipated or not. The only connection to my youth & my family. The only human I have ever loved, in any true sense. More such wake-up calls were yet to come. 

THEREAFTER, I realized that I was more than halfway through my life. I had to max it out. Make it count in my terms. I began to seriously test my self-worth, FOMO and fear of lying on my deathbed lamenting what I had not done

 My father’s death forced me to my ‘see’ my own path to the abyss — no time to waste. This awakened mindset drove a series of large & small challenging outdoor solo adventures.

B. Synopsis:

    1. 1996 1^st AK road trip (Mary Mead’s Death)
    2. 1997 2^nd AK trip: A 60-mile backpack trek on Alaska's Chilkoot Trail over
           Chilkoot Pass into Canada’s NW Territories down to Lake Bennett…
           segueing … directly into a 600-mile solo kayak paddle down Yukon River to
           Dawson City,
   3.1997 BWCA: 2-week solo kayak paddle through Minnesota's Boundary Waters
          Canoe Area’s watery wilderness maze, followed by a loop eastward to Washington,
          DC, Florida's Everglades, Texas, Big Bend national Park and finally to my Arizona
          property.
   4. Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone NP, WY: 4 day solo kayak camping
         circumnavigation of Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone NP

C. 1^st Alaska Road trip: (1996/56) 

In 1996, always fascinated with Alaska’s Alcan Highway, its great poet, Robert Service * & novelist, Jack London, my Roadtrek RV van & I traveled up Alaska & Canada’s West coast on an Alaskan Ferry to Skagway, in Canada’s NW Territories [ytlk: to come]

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45082/the-shooting-of-dan-mcgrew

Anecdote: My Friend Mary’s death:  Waiting in line minutes before boarding my Alaska Ferry in Prince Rupert, I abruptly became aware that my name was blasting over the dock’s loudspeaker. So strange!

I rushed to the ticket office to learn that “Scott, Mary Mead has died in a horse accident.”  A paragon of character & quality, my close rancher friend was dead.

Fighting the impulse to immediately return to Jackson, I continued on with dreams of Mary that plagued my Alaskan sleep, further crystallizing the image of MY own final horizon.

Off the ferry in Skagway, I spent 2 days exploring its well-preserved buildings, museum, waterfront, and the old cemetery of heroes & villains. The next morning I drove a few miles to the actual start of the Chilkoot Trail Dyea, exploring its ruins, then walking a couple of miles up the historic gold miners' Chilkoot Trail. 

Next morning, I left Skagway driving north to join Route 2 following the Yukon River into Canada’s NW Territories (NWT) & up to Dawson City’s historical 1897 Alaskan Gold Rush site.

For several days, I explored Dawson City’s legendary streets & buildings, including the poet, Robert Service’s preserved cabin.

I wandered up the Klondike River into the original gold fields with its ravaged landscape and huge abandoned gold dredges: giant pond-bound steamboat factories.

I read Robert Service’s poems often to ‘seize’ the spirit.

 

Then, continuing on back into Alaska, I stopped for 2 hitchhiking ladies who, with some girlfriends, had just canoed the Yukon River from Lake Bennett to Dawson Creek.   I was impressed. AND  the bug had bit; I was infected.  Driving back through Southern Alaska & British Columbia to Jackson, my plan began to hatch.  

Notes:
    1. Always, I was trying to validate my self-worth with outdoor adventures that
        challenged my fears, confidence, & skills.
    2. I know that some of my ‘challenges’ may seem 'Lightweight ' to many,
        but we define our own challenges.

D. 2^nd Alaska’s Chilkoot & Yukon trip: (1997/57)

Inspired by the 2 Yukon-canoeing ladies I met on last year’s Alaskan road trip, I decided that to ‘truly appreciate' Robert Service & Jack London's Alaska gold rush era I so dearly loved, …I had to retrace the Stampeder’s entire route myself. (called ‘stampeder’ because they ‘stampeded’ from all over the world at the ‘cry of gold.’)

During that fall & winter, I researched the Chilkoot Trail & Yukon River route, bought a Current Designs kayak, took a professional’s kayak lessons AND a 3-day kayak overnight trip, assembled my gear, & tested my equipment on a couple of overnight weekends on Teton National Park lakes.

1. Research & Preparation:

My adventure had 2 components:
    First phase was a 3-day hike from Dyea, Alaska up Chilkoot Trail up thru deep woods, past old gold rush campsites with original artifacts strewn about, up a steep rocky climb and over snow-covered Chilkoot Pass into Canada’s Northwest Territories (NWT) and then, a couple of downhill days alongside Yukon River’s headwater lakes to the south end of Lake Bennet where my hidden kayak awaited.

Second phase: Arriving at Lake Bennett, I retrieved my kayak, switched out my backpack gear for my kayak gear, and explored this historic gold rush campsite with its extant rough-hewn bark church. 

Next morning I pushed off for a 2 week, 531 mi paddle to Dawson City, NWT, camping on deserted shores & islands,  stopping at 1 or 2 towns, poking inside abandoned original winter Roadhouses, briefly sharing a secluded backwaters with a moose (we just stared at each other as I quietly drifted by), negotiating huge water boils, avoiding deadly log jams & coping with my anxiety attack as water rushed in from another river. 

2. Adventure Starts:

I drove & camped on western British Columbia’s back country dirt roads north to NWT’s Route 2, then on to Skagway & Dyea.  I relished the long miles through rugged British Columbia & NWT’s landscape, historical sites, random spontaneous hikes & kayak paddles, National Parks, and museums en route..

Before Skagway, Dyea & my Chilkoot Trail trek's START, I drove 1st to Carcross to find a fishing guide to:  
    1) ferry my kayak down Lake Bennett where the Chilkoot Trail meets it, 
    2) pick up my backpack, etc, at Lake Bennett after I had started paddling,
    3) drive my van & I down to Dyea and dump me for my next early morning start, and finally, 
    4) drive my Roadtrek van to Dawson City & park it for me to pick up when I arrive by kayak
        in a few weeks. Great service.

After the fishing guide dropped me in Dyea late that afternoon to camp before my next morning’s start, I explored the tiny Dyea town’s ruins again. 

Dyea was the Trail’s original starting point because it had a long pier into the bay that ships could reach to unload stampeders & their gear directly onto the beach.

Early next morning, I started up the Chilkoot Trail.  Nothing more thrilling than walking in the footsteps of history. It's raw historical charisma.

 

 

Note: Image -above- looks south from Dyea's shore over the 2 rows of posts that supported the pier from ships to land.

 

The first couple of days are a moderately undulating trail through thickly wooded forests, climbing up past original Chilkoot campsite ruins & artifacts (... an old cast iron stove. What stories it could tell.)

Finally, after a steep climb to The Scales, a Stampeder could see the “Golden Stairs”, an arduous climb to the top of Chilkoot Pass. 

The image above is the base of the Golden Stairs. The Scales would be behind you to the left on a hill. The black line going up the mountain to the left is the Golden Stairs. The black is the men and women climbing the stairs so tightly packed one after the other that if you stepped out of line to rest, it was difficult to get back into line.

Note:  this is a stereo photo, so if you zoom it out and position your head correctly, your eyes will move these two images together, creating a 3D image. You don't need a device to do it.

At the top of Chilkoot Pass, you crossed the border from Alaska into NWT & where Klondykers met Canada’s legendary Mounties who would not let you pass until you had stacked the required 2000# of gear on top of the pass, thereby, hopefully, ensuring your survival. So, the usual Stampeder made 10-14 trips up the “Golden Stairs” unless he paid others to do it. 

The Scales were so named because here Klondikers could opt to have their stuff weighed on ‘scales’ for a price, and then carried to the top of Chilkoot Pass by local Native Americans OR just leave on the ground. Many ‘dumped’ what they did not want to carry up or pay another to do. The ground was littered with broken pottery shards, & other such debris. I picked up a few artifacts, then tossed them back to preserve that history for others.  Pik of “Golden Stairs”

From The Scales I could see the “Golden Stairs” to the top of Chilkoot Pass, so I quit poking around in the dirt, hiked over to the Golden Stair’s base AND started my all-fours scramble up the snow-less yet jagged rocky slope of scree, ultimately reaching the snow-covered, mist-shrouded Chilkoot Pass top. 

I saw only 3 people on the Trail during those several days, one had turned back visibly shaken after seeing the Golden Stairs route. 2 others were young powerful European men dressed in the Klondiker’s authentic wool plaid shirt & humping a few hundred yards away boldly upward.

On top, I broke out of the cloudy mist & snow, quickly moving past small ponds & stark glacial features to a snow-free campsite overlooking Lindeman Lake & beyond it, Lake Bennett. 

Next day, I arrived at Lake Bennett, switched out gear from my backpack to my kayak. Then I poked around this historically temporary site & its rough-hewn church, sleeping early for tomorrow’s early departure down long narrow Lake Bennet.  PIK K9 Lake Bennett

Panic Attacks:

Anecdote 1: Scary wind-blown waves: Paddling away from shore, within a 1/2  hour I confronted 4-6 foot high waves driven by a hard wind blowing spray off the waves into my face. I had kayaked 2-3” waves in Teton Nat’l Park, but these waves towered over me.

I became so gripped with fear (1^st panic attack) that I paddled directly to shore & sat staring at the water embarrassed & ashamed of myself. Unwilling to quit, I spent a ½ hour talking to myself:   “Scott, you planned & prepared for this & frankly you don't have much choice. You're out in the wild so get a grip & get back out there.”  I was soon paddling again confidently.  Facing yourself may be life’s hardest challenge.

Anecdote 2:  Scary big river junction: Several days later, south of Carmacks, the Big Salmon River's outpour slams directly into the Yukon’s water creating huge boils & mixing large, mostly submerged ‘lost lumber-camp’ logs into the turmoil.     [YT LINK: Yukon River (to come)]. 

My panic attack in the middle of this caldron seemed instantaneous & full-blown, with no close beach to paddle to. 🥲.  Yet, I can still recall, irrationally considering ‘jumping out of my kayak & running to shore.’  Absurd, of course.

Again, I talked myself thru it, “ Scott, you have the best equipment, you have trained for this & there is no REAL danger unless you let yourself succumb to the panic.” Minutes later I was back in control, shaken, but never again so frightened until ... Mexico City’s Zocalo & never again since. 

Great psychological, physical & historical adventure.

Anecdote 3: Terrible body rash & anxiety: I did this trip under a severe mental &
physical medical handicap: A full-on body rash with large welts that migrated slowly across my entire body during the day accompanied by irrational anxiety, quelled within a couple of hours only by daily prednisone drug. 

 

 

I give you an photo image so you can appreciate my issue, NOT to cavalierly gross you out. Notice puffy swollen face & lips  Rash PIK: 

 

Not a distraction you want during a solo wilderness adventure. Always, pushing myself to test my my courage and skills against my vacillating sense of self-worth and fears.

E. Boundary Waters Canoe Area: (1998 Reunion(58))

A year before, someone showed me a map of the BWCA, let me borrow her books and the map. She planted the seed. 

Almost immediately I decided that I had to visit this last great U.S. wilderness canoeing area. August 2nd, a year later, I pushed away from shore.

The BWCA Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is a huge wilderness maze of varying-sized lakes & ponds connected by multiple portages & narrow, shallow, barely moving streams of often tiny connecting waterways. Access & numbers are controlled, yet ironically you can go anywhere & exit anywhere.

Few places seemed so remotely devoid of humanity than was the BWCA. Totally on my own. I had no backdoor, no ‘time out.’. In 1998 there was no Google Maps or iPhone, my BWCA map was barely adequate, and few rescue resources were available in BWCS’s depths. You either knew exactly where you were at all times or …you were lost. Others were seldom seen. 

Often I would arrive a point where I wasn’t sure of my location. I would back up to the last ‘for sure’ location and start again. Unlike the Yukon which flows inexorably downstream to Dawson City, BWCA has no such failsafe.

Anecdote: lost portage: 2^nd morning I mistakenly paddled past the correct portage to a wrong portage, made 2 heavy kayak & gear hauls until I realized my error, back tracked, reloaded, paddled a 1/4 mile to 1^st portage and completed the correct portage. Energy draining.

Now, it appears that BWCA resources & tech are well developed & available. My applause.

III. Travel: Domestic & Foreign

In my early 50’s, domestic trip from LA, CA to Florida in a ratty RV van along the southern coastal perimeter. 

Mid 50’s student trip to Rome  Later 50s, I started to break loose with ‘foreign travel’ to Mexico on Spring Break in my higher quality Roadtrek RV van and then, the following year, 3 mos. thru Mexico, Guatemala and Belize camping in the mountains, along the seashore, on tiny coastal village streets and, one time, on Puerto Vallarta’s main highway meridian.

Finally, for real, 3 mos in New Zealand.

 

A. Spring Break to Rome

AT 54, 25 years after Dating Game trip, I escorted several high school’s students on a packaged student tour to Rome, Italy. 

 

Ironically, while passionately videoing every US & Canada adventure, I have neither photos nor video from this Rome student trip. Why not? too focused on monitoring kids???   None of the travel inspiration the trip was trying to inspire in my students.

 

B. Baha, Mexico:

3 years later, at 58 , driven by increasing boredom with redundant & easy US & Canada trips & sites, I tentatively contemplated a van trip to Mexico, but I was afraid of its legendary bad water & food, corrupt cops & watered down gas. 

 

A fellow teacher offered to let me caravan with she & her high school students during their Spring break trip into Mexico. Yes? My safety net — alleviating my fears —- but then, … she reneged. 

 

NOTE: the irony that I, a grown man traveling & hiking alone for years in United States and Canada could only entertain travel to Mexico with a single woman much younger than I & her much, much younger students. Irony is a nice choice of words for cowardice.

 

Initially crushed & then annoyed at my own fearfulnes, I brushed aside my Mexico fears & drove into Mexico that brief Spring Break’s a Mexican cultural immersion that was thrilling: roaming Baja Mexico alone, visiting small towns. Overnight camping on beaches for early morning kayak paddle to off shore islands. Occasionally stopped by friendly, curious police. 

I ate authentic food prepared by locals for locals in tiny authentic restaurants or from street vendors, erasing the language barrier with hand gestures & my primitive Spanish No bad police, no bad food, no bandits, no bad water, nor bad gas only wicked dirt & pot holed roads and only 1 morning’s brief bout of Montezuma’s Revenge.. 

 

My foolish fears had evaporated away. (May not be so foolish today (5/4/24)

 

(PIK) My fears were foolish; the experience was great

 

I was hooked on this exotic, new & exciting SIT (solo independent trave) of foreign cultures.  

This was my foreign travel TRIGGER.

 

C. Mexico, Guat & Belize: 1^st ‘free’ 2^nd semester:

My School Principal had graciously given me the 2^nd semester off from teaching for the next 2 years. (Or, on reflection, “Was he glad to get rid of me for awhile?”)🥲😳.

 

So, in Jan 1998, inspired by my Baha Spring Break roadtrip, I began a 1 mo Roadtrek roadtrip thru Mexico, but alas, south of Puerto Vallarta I impetuously & impulsively kept driving South for a full 3 months thru Mexico, Guatemala & Belize. Fantastic memories & video.     [YTclip. ]

 

Anecdote: A 3 mo challenege: 

Parked on tiny San Francisco village’s, ocean side beach 30mi north of Puerto Vallarta luxuriating in the balmy solitude of my little RV Van far from MY America, I heard a deep American voice from behind my van say, "What part of Wyoming are you from.”      … and I thought I had escaped …. 😀

 

Brad, an American & most accomplished SIT traveler, spent weeks each year in San Francisco village with friends. That night’s dinner with his friends, just before I would turn east to Mexico City, he challenged me to “just keep driving south thru Guatemala, Belize, & into Mexico’s Yucatán.” 

 

Early next morning I arrived at ‘the’ intersection, thought of his challenge, looked briefly east toward Mexico City… then kept driving south for 3 months along Mexico’s Coast, thru Guatemala & Belize into southern Mexico’s Yucatan back to US’s Texas. 

 

 

With kayak strapped on top & mt. bike dangling off the rear, I camped in mountains, on beaches, in national parks & small towns, visited major Mayan sites & historic old Spanish flavored towns, biking wherever, and kayaking Mexico's' vast coastal estuaries & playas amongst picturesque net-throwing fishermen & croc infested Belize Rivers

 

Anecdote: 1) dinner with friendly very helpful Chihuahua, Mex motorcycle police

 

In dominantly black Belize, I confronted & disarmed my prejudice learned more Spanish, ate new foods languishing in tiny coastal restaurants & large town square’s street food, met wonderful, helpful people (dancing with housewives & their children in the night’s firelight on the beach),  wallowing daily in the culture of these countries. 

 

Wow! What an experience. What I had been missing. On my return home I sold my large ego-driven log home, most of my accumulated 'junk' and bought a condo and retired from teaching

I would begin ‘real’ foreign in earnest.

 

Quote:

“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.” - Karen Lamb

 

D. New Zealand: 2^nd year’s ‘free’ 2^nd semester:

Inspired by my Mexico & Central American trip, I decided I should really travel off the American continents. (Duh!!!).  It still seemed so daunting.

 

I chose New Zealand probably because Kiwi’s speak English and I was enthralled with the movie & poem "The Man from Snowy River.”  [plk: Writings]

 

Initially, I booked 4 weeks with Flying Kiwi on/off Bus tours (https://flyingkiwi.com/) which is fleet of buses traveling a defined loop around New Zealand allowing me to jump on and off at major hike’s trailheads or towns and then jump on next bus when I was ready to move along. 

 

A wonderful convenient, reassuring way to see New Zealand: camping out each night, group prepared meals & traveler’s camaraderie.

 

But within 2 weeks I was convinced I could travel travel NZ alone. I bought an old junker station wagon from a hostel clerk, quit Flying Kiwi, and spent remainder of my 3 months traveling both islands living out of my ratty van. Great trip! 

 

The hook was set, the bug had bitten 

… and I was off to see the world,

BUT  where next

 

“I always wonder why birds stay in  same place when they can fly anywhere on earth. Then I ask myself  same question.” - Harun Yahya

Staying almost exclusively in youth hostels I marveled at  young people I met traveling for  week or so, over spring break,  Europeans’s Gap Year or sometimes in definitely. They were everywhere —- alone, in pairs or couples or in packs. They were in Europe, Australia & NZ ’s similar culture countries & in unfamiliar S America & Africa &  exotic Asian countries.

Anecdote: Lost portage: 2nd morning I mistakenly paddled past the correct portage I had scoped out the night before to a wrong portage, made 2 heavy kayak & gear hauls until I realized my error, backtracked, reloaded, paddled a 1/4 mile to correct portage and completed it.   Very energy-draining.

Now, it appears that BWCA resources & tech are well-developed & available. My applause.

 

IV. Investing: big blunder

Giant investing mistake. After selling my house & riverside property next to Grand Teton NP, for a million +  I invested in more rentals and the stock market. 

Unfortunately, I knew little about stocks, but was “full of myself” because of the house sale profit I bought tech stocks. Unfortunately, many were worthless, sometimes merely a concept. I in the dot.com Bubble’s crash I lost between ½ > ¾ kof a m,illion dollars.

I had been shaken & frightened. How do I make up that loss? 

Fortunately, I had bought a piece of property with part of the proceeds

Why  change at 30 yr?

Teacher, new curriculum & learning mode; tired of unappreciated effort & pending specious US/WY Standards focus.

 

Why retire from teaching?

Teacher, new curriculum & learning mode; tired of unappreciated effort & pending specious US/WY Standards focus.

 

Wings

1. Intellectual curiosity:   Intellectual curiosity is just a fancy term for Curiosity; the inherent, unquenchable thirst to know everything that might protect us or enhance our Quality of Life..

Having negotiated 40 years of 'life' already, we have grappled with fear & curiosity to find a mate, a career & hopefully pleasurable, satisfying pursuits - sports, arts, history, etc.

While fear may still haunt us, as it always should, today's cell phone/internet tech offers us near-infinite curiosity prompts at the touch of a finger.  

Perhaps, your curiosity was seriously dulled by the demands of your life making you believe it is lost forever. Not true. It is inherent in your DNA. You may stifle, but not destroy it.  

It remains potentially unlimited & can be restored & enhanced.

2. imagination & creativity:   Imagination & creativity may also have been seriously smothered by boring, possibly useless education, or career & family demands, BUT it is a sleeping giant, potentially unlimited & restorable.

3. self-worth & other personal character traits:  again, perhaps seriously sabotaged by boring education, painful marriage or relationship or unfulfilling career choice.

Yet, you are still the Master of your Fate if you choose to be so. Easy? Probably not! But it can be done.

4. Extracurricular life: Perhaps for the first time in 14,000 years, we modern American middle-class humans have free time daily and in retirement to pursue our own interests & pleasures.  We have a greater variety of free-time activities available than any human at any economic level at any time in the history of man.

Yet, many of us squander this free time throughout our lives on passive, frivolous non-effort pursuits, like watching football. ad nauseam, binge-watching streaming TV series & Netflix ...  requiring little curiosity, imagination, or creativity, while squandering, one of mankind's greatest Quality of Life opportunities.

In contrast, ask yourself what you do that takes advantage of the profound, powerful complex creativity, imagination, and curiosity, machine dangling between your ears?

Do your hobbies or activities require effort (hiking kayaking, tennis)? Have you ever investigated classical music, renaissance art or history that you randomly encounter during life?

Is it possible that if you briefly explored those venues, you might be excited to pursue further… and enjoy?

Anchors

Urban myth suggests that in our 40s through 60s we may encounter a "midlife crisis " for different "overload" stressors including excess emotional instability, negativity, and crucially, major changes over a year's period. Basically juggling too many activities at one time.

Research apparently suggests NOT having a crisis at any point in your life is extremely unusual. Only the underlying reasons differ decade to decade.

Women apparently suffer more high-level distress "crossover" stressors between work & family demands.

Our response to such crisis is usually either redirection, acceptance or accommodation that you hope will set you on a better path.  Midlife job changes seem to be beneficial if these people didn't feel stuck.

Our 50's, may be plagued with crises caused by both 20s /30s issues AND  40s>60s issues i.e. ill health & loss of a loved one (parent), looming retirement concerns & heightened awareness of mortality can forment a longterm uneasy 'crisis.'

Men's job concerns dominate, but coupled with a far more important and impactful, “Holy crap, I’ve got a lot to do.” paranoia.

Ironically, midlife crisis folks suffer such stressors because they actually have more control over their lives; they are not so locked in , can sense ability to change tan earlier,

Equally interesting, and good, midlife folks score higher on almost every measure of cognitive functioning than they did when they were 25,  Verbal ability, numerical ability, reasoning, and verbal memory all improve by midlife.

OTOH ths may be the cusp upon which cognitive function begins its inexorable mid-50s to early 60s decline, as we know.

    1. Foreign Travel: 

NOTE: As stated before, I discuss Travel because I DO NOT want you to miss-out on such an exciting, & fulfilling life experience because you are UNAWARE of foreign travel options: 

In our 50s, we are approaching the 'fish or cut bait' stage of life for foreign travel. Hopefully, you are in good health & financially secure thru retirement, but loss of a parent or close friend may force you to become aware of your final abyss 20 or 30 years ahead. My father's death death did that for me.

This highly predictable 😃 abyss may goad us into maximizing our remaining Quality of Life. Foreign travel may be one exciting route to search for such fulfillment.

Realistic Travel Requirements: To do so we have to realistically assess our current 50s travel criteria:
      A. Health: current & immediately foreseeable health status,
       If reasonably healthy all travel may be available including my SIT (solo independent traveler) travel. If health issues, even the worst case handicapped can do Big Bus Touring & Cruising. IOWs, you can tailor foreign travel to your capabilities [pplk"    ]

    B. Comfort required: If wealthy enough, you can travel at the Brad Pitt level, if not you can do as I do, 'Close to the ground and in the dirt.' The full range is available.

Anecdote: My sister: once,  I offered my sister & husband  Alaskan Coast Cruise tickets, but when she insisted that she had to have an outside cabin with ocean view, I retracted my offer.

    C. Sense of Adventure: Depending on factors 1 & 2 above you can travel at whatever level of adventure pleases you from cushy cruise ship deck chairs to mountain treks through China's rice terraces. 

    D. Financial ability: If Brad Pitt - no issue. Somewhere between Brad & I, ... you must find your financial travel niche. It's not about the money. It's about the experience.

If not Brad, adjust your finances to match a travel mode (SIT), trip length, etc. so you do some foreign travel.  
            Don't  presume, "It can't be done."  

Please scroll down to 'Failure to Invest' for a solution discussion.  [jlk   ]

Regardless of my net worth, I traveled as though I had very little money, even though my day pak & luggage carried substantial hidden US dollars for emergencies.

I traveled "close to the ground", "in the dirt" sleeping &  cooking in clean hostels, eating street food, riding local's cheap transportation & walking. Using small day trips only when a practical necessity.

Years from now when perhaps too old or infirm to travel, I don’t want you to look back and wish you would have traveled or traveled more.

[pplk: Travel Wisdom: Travel Benefits] [pplk: Travel Wisdom: Travel Benefits]

    2. Lacking High school diploma: At 50, you long time ago resolved this dilemma.

OTOH, if dissatisfied with your current career, choose to change it or add another. You have 15 to 20 years before retirement to ACT. 

Anecdote: teaching and garage doors: During several teaching years I also sold, instaled & repaired garage doors for a little extra cash.

QUOTE: “You don't need college to learn stuff. Everything is available basically for free.   
You can learn anything you want for free."  
Elon: Jan 27, 2023

    3. Marriage & children: 
Like the 'high school diploma' issue, you have probably already navigated through the child-rearing and maybe college years of your children with you and your wife looking forward to the freedom of an empty nest.

You may now have complete freedom to design the balance of your life, including foreign travel. Your greatest risk may be succumbing to complacency instead of your empty nest's potential.

I have friends who retired early (60's) & devoted their life to their grandchildren. IMO, he sought security & sense of purpose. Ironically, grandchild engagement, intellectual pursuits, and foreign travel are all possible. 

A tradition of some grandparents is taking their extended family or high school graduating senior on a European trip PIK K9.

Financially & intellectually, activities & new adventures can all be an extended family grandparent-driven experience. You have only to imagine it, design it, and do it.

 

    4) Financial Security:

 If you have reasonably secured your financial future and retirement, then you are free to indulge your success in the Quality of Life you choose, including foreign travel. (costly hotel vs hostel). 
                            Your money,..... your call.  

[pplk: Bio 20s: Investing track ]

BUT, let's be blunt. At 50, if you are not financially secure now you can either:
   1) continue blissfully into your future financially strapped ... to work until you die , OR,

   2) if you genuinely want a solution, you can diligently & quickly become financially literate, immediately flreduce your personal expenses, and increase your cash flow so you can INVEST (NOT save) wisely in real estate or stocks.

YOU MUST be willing to "take this horse by the tail and face your situation".  [pplk: Bio 2s: Investing Track]

This Will not be easy. It will demand the best of your character to pull off…….

[pplk:Bio 20s: Investing track ]

Some suggestions:
1. Personal finances:  
   a. Expenses & Payments: Make an accounting of your monthly expenditures: utilities, food, alcohol, home, auto, credit card & loan payments.   Your goal now is to reduce or eliminate all payments and debts, so that you will have surplus investable money -- cash.

   b. House: If you own your near-empty home. it may NOW  be your ego's self-indulgent 'money pit' like a sailboat. If so, sell it & buy or move into a small condo. 

30-40 years from now you will be dead and the house you raised your kids in will be meaningless except as a memory.

Anecdote: Sold my large log house: When I built my large log house on Jackson Hole's Snake river, I imagined that 100 years later people would remark , "That's the old Scott Eaton home.

But after 3 mos travel thru poor Mexico, Guatemala & Belze, I realized it was just MY large ego trip.  2 months later my very wealthy BUYERs gave it to an Idaho church group that dismantled & took it away.  So much for my legacy. 😃

I moved into a fully paid-for, low-maintenance condo, more rental units & foolish, ignorant stock purchases (that's another story 😂). 

I was free, once again, to pursue NEW directions: reading, writing, kayaking, hiking, mountain biking &, of course, almost 20 years of domestic & foreign travel.

   c. Vehicles: if you have payments for vehicles that flatter your ego, sell them for something modestwith no payments & little maintenance that serves your needs. Pseudo assets limit your options  .

   d. Unnecessary Expenses: ... If you flatter yourself with expensive meats, fancy restaurants & wines, and multiple UN-used online subscriptions, you are squandering.

Immediately reduce the expenses and eliminate
unnecessary subscriptions.

 Read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by  Kyosaki

2. Investing:     [pplk:Bio 20s Investing track ]  
    a. Become financially literate quickly:
         1. search the internet for advice
         2. Review my biography's investing experience [jlk:  ] with stocks & real estate; risks & potentials.
         3. Listen to Jim Cramer's podcast Mad Money with attention to 'new investor strategies'
        4. Read Robert Kyoskai's " "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"

IMO, stocks are the easiest & quickest way to grow net worth versus real estate, which can require a great deal of sweat equity skills, $ investment & time. I have done both successfully)

Educate yourself past your fears. Ordinary people will become millionaires in the next 5-10 years by investing in stocks.  Real estate has excellent potential but usually requires a much longer time Horizon than you may have.

QUOTE:
“You don't need college to learn stuff.
Everything is available basically for free.   
You can learn anything you want for free."  
Elon: Jan 27, 2023

    b. New career or income source: Find a new career or additional source of income that excites you and makes money. Remember colleges fraudulently suck away your money, indebting you while a 'trade' will pay you as you learn to increase your income over time.

Anecdote: teacher & garage doors: While teaching, I also sold, installed and repaired garage doors for extra side income

 

,

 Questions to ask me
  or yourself!

 4. Travel: 

    a) Am I too old for foreign travel? 

    b) What, right now, could change or do that allow my foreign travel?

    c)  Why did that 1 week spring break Mexican trip ignite the next year’s 3 month RV van trip thru Mex, Guat & Belize?

   d) Why did my 3 month Mexcio, Guta Belize trip FINALLY ignite a passion for 20 more years  passionate foreign travel?

   e) Did I wait too long? Earlier& more often? 

 

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
                                  ― Omar Khayyám

 

 

I wasn't afraid to foreign travel, I just never thought about it.

Why none for 30 yrs?  

Work, fear of failure. Corporate world; law school & practice; Cal la la Real estate; 

NO incoming incentive.

 

Why  change at 30 yr?

Teacher, new curriculum & learning mode; tired of unappreciated effort & pending specious US/WY Standards focus.

 

Why retire from teaching?

Teacher, new curriculum & learning mode; tired of unappreciated effort & pending specious US/WY Standards focus.

 

 

Travel questions:

Did USA and Canada offer too many exciting travel opportunities for me yet to explore her? I could've easily ignored, arranged for someone to manage my properties for a month or two or decades later I realized I had enough money differently. I had known how to locate it.