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. 

Retirement:   Why retire from teaching?
     1: I had grown tired of my excessive free time devotion to teaching.
     2. The State Dept of ED was IMPOSING a new wave of specious curriculum agendas &
         burdening administrative duties.             Same horse painted a different color. 
    3. My 3 month Mexico, Guatemala & Belize RV van road trip exposed foreign travel
        as the richest experience I could pursue as long as possible.
    4. My above 3-month trip exposed the time, energy & money sink-hole my large
        ego log house had become.
    5. Tired of administration's lack of appreciation for my efforts

Wings

Wings: ... are positive basic personal traits that all humans inherently have. Recognizing & capitalizing on those traits can beneficially improve our lives.

1. Intellectual curiosity:   Are you curious or has your curiosity died?

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 our 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-instantaneous knowledge access to satisfy our curiosity at the touch of a finger.  

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

It remains potentially unlimited & can be restored & enhanced.

2. Imagination & creativity: Are you imaginatively creative or dulled by passive media?

 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:  Do you feel good about yourself or is there a 'dead in the water' feeling?

Self-worth can be seriously sabotaged by boring education, painful marriage or relationship or unfulfilling career.

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:   Have you a hobby or physical sport you actively pursue?

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 pursuits, like watching football. ad nauseam, binge-watching streaming TV series & Netflix ...  requiring little curiosity, imagination, or creativity;  squandering, one of mankind's greatest Quality of Life opportunities.

In contrast, ask yourself, ...  what do 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 explored classical music, Renaissance art or history that you may have randomly encountered during your life, perhaps in school or the History Channel?
    -- do you stop for roadside historical markers?

If you briefly explored those venues, is it possible that you might be excited enough to pursue further… ???

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Anchors

Mid-Life Crisis

Urban myth & some research shows a U-shaped happiness curve, with midlife (ages 40-50) at the low point.  Multiple factors cause a mid-life crisis.

Two dynamics seem to dominate:
      1) Greater Autonomy (freedom):  Midlife's control & freedom often peaks with greater career stability & financial security, and fewer external burdens.

But this greater freedom & control can amplify stress, if your reality doesn't match your future expectations:  
    - You aspire to active sports (ex: tennis),
           but have let your body deteriorate.
   - You dream of foreign travel, but your
           fear blocks even research?
   - Writing excites you, but no pen to
           paper yet.

Intense concern can erupt over your life's 'big questions': your legacy, alignment of your choices & values, your future purpose & goals, including retirement & travel.

Anecdote: Early/middle 50s: my life was mellow, only mildly challenging once I had safely mastered garage door's dangerous installation, which generated enough cash flow to fund continued work on my log house (never did complete) and domestic RV van travel in US & Canada.

But unnoticed by me until my late 50's, was a growing, gnawing discontent that I had no compelling intellectual challenge such as law had been earlier.

      2) Overload stressors: Our 50s, may be plagued with both lingering 20s /30s issues AND imminent 40s to 60s issues.

Lingering parenting challenges, aging elderly relatives' care, loss of a loved one (parent), marital mutual goals, aging,  declining health, retirement viability & goals, heightened awareness of mortality.

All these can shake your emotional stability, conjure negativity, and crucially, if such major changes occur over a year's period.

The interplay of high autonomy & stressors can combine to create a perfect 'midlife crisis storm, yet, NOT having a crisis at any point in your life is extremely unusual. Only the underlying reasons decade to decade .... differ.

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

Our Mid-life Crisis Response? Often, our response to mid-life crisis is either uneasy panic & impulsive destructive actions, seething acceptance or if we have sufficient character, a conscious redirection, seeking a better path.  

Ironically, if we dare to change course, research suggests that mid-life 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.

IOW, we STILL have the mental ability to redirect our lives. (Caution: don't tarry because we also begin our inevitable decline.)

How to cope or resolve mid-life crisis?

Anecdote: My Dad's death: My sister called to inform me that Dad had died. I said, "Thank you." and we hung up. I was stunned.

I immediately drove far out on a country road & parked. I screamed several primal screams. No tears. An inevitable end to my life's touchstone - Dad. The only person who gave family, parents & love of another even a hint of validity. 

I taught my classes the next day as usual, hiding the heavy weight of my loss. Thereafter, I dwelt very seriously on the years I had left before I too would slip over the edge into the 'Great Abyss'. It drove much of what I aspired to thereafter.

Dad, lecturing at Rochester Institute of Technology

     2. No High school diploma:  At 50, you have long 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: My multiple streams of income: When I got my teaching certificate, I also had a small garage door business, & apartment units 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 your children's college years ... 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 the complacency of a 'rest well earned' instead of your empty nest's potential.

I have a friend who retired early (60's) & devoted his life to his grandchildren. IMO, he sought security & sense of purpose. Of course, 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.

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.

IV. Investing: big blunder

Giant investing mistake. After selling my house & Snake River property next to Grand Teton National Park, for a million⁺ dollars, I invested in more rentals and the stock market. Unfortunately, I knew little about stocks, but was “very full of myself” because I had made so much on sale of my house. I believed I had the Midas Touch. ("Fools rush in where ....")

I bought tech stocks because everyone was in love with the huge, exploding range of innovative, new technologies. Unfortunately, many companies were worthless, sometimes merely a concept, rushed quickly onto the stock exchange so fools like me would throw our money at them.

When the dot.com Bubble finally crashed, my stocks lost ½ - ¾ of a million dollars in VALUE. But, in a panic I sold all my stocks, THEREBY locking in an EVEN greater loss because some my stocks would ultimately survive & prosper over the next 2 decades, but even had I this insight, I didn't know how to distinguish between the best and the worst Stocks I owned. That was my great level of ignorance. 

Anecdote: My look in the mirror: About 2-3 years later, I looked at the mirror and I said to myself, "Scott, you are looking at one of the most ignorant, arrogant, foolish investors you have ever known."And then I started laughing because it was so true

While I had certainly been shaken & frightened to the core,  a GIANT NEW QUESTION NOW LOOMED,  How do I recoup my great loss? 

Fortunately, I had bought an old rental property with part of my log house sale proceeds. A triplex & duplex, each of which was composed of 2 very old houses cobbeled together.                                
        Typical 'old Jackson.

Anecdote: a hidden opportunity: at some point, it occurred to me that I might expand or develop that property's two buildings to increase rental units #s, space and income, however. my interpretation of Town of Jackson's zoning restrictions on my property seemed to prohibit that.

Nevertheless, I gained a meeting with the planning department, and my opening words were, "My interpretation of my property's zoning restrictions is that I cannot develop this property any further. I would like you to confirm that property zoning restrictions prohibit my further development. (Notice: probably 99% of all such discussions seek approval to develop, while I was seeking confirmation that I could not.)

"After a 1/2 hour of examioning my property specs & applicable zoning laws, he looked at me & said, "Scott you're wrong. Our restrictions did not anticipate your property. You do have the potential to develop it further." I thanked him and was ecstatic. 

I immediately began the conceptual design and planning for what would become a 3 to 4 year project dominating the end of my 50s and the beginning of my 60s. ppp

      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 inexpensive hostel). 
                                                      Your money,..... your call.  

[pplk: Bio 20s: Investing track ]

Let's be blunt. At 50, if you are not financially secure now, you can either:
   1) blissfully continue, financially strapped into your future ... to work until you die, OR,
   2) If you genuinely want a solution, you can diligently & quickly become financially literate, immediately reduce your expenses, and increase your cash flow so you can INVEST (NOT save) wisely in real estate or stocks.  

CAUTION: Beware of 'financial advisors, etc at banks & independently. Learn from, perhaps, but don't rely on. Query them on their 'net worth'  In what investments? Net worth of each? etc. Believe them??

YOU MUST be willing to ..."take this horse by the tail and face your situation".  

At this late date it will not be easy.
It will demand the best of your character to pull it off…….
[pplk:Bio 20s: Investing track ]

Some suggestions:
1. Personal finances:  
   a. Expenses & Payments: Accounting for 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 irrelevant.

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 months of travel thru poor Mexico, Guatemala & Belize, 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 it & took it away.  So much for my historical legacy. 😃

I then bought 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 car payments on vehicles that flatter your ego, sell them for something modest with no payments & little maintenance that serves your needs.   IMO, cars are NOT investments unless you drive them until it is economically impractical to maintain them longer.

Anecdote: Once I became an attorney: At 38, I bought a 280ZX sports car, black with gold trim for a $1000 over-book premium because it was the only one available in LA and my ego wanted it.  A pure self-indulgent ego trip that I sold at a considerable loss a year later when I quit law practice and moved to Jackson Hole.

After my lawyer's ego trip sports car, I seldom bought a new car. Drove my attorney/friend's used car for 25 years before I recently bought his latest 3-year-old car . 

   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: Warren Buffet, Dave Ramsey etc.
         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';
             eschew his individual stock recommendations.   IMO, he may have conflicting agendas.
         4. Read Robert Kyoskai's  "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" & "The Millionaire Next Door"

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. Ignore the silly, ignorant fears of your acquaintances who have not successfully invested. Instead, educate yourself past your fears.

Facebook, etc, is jammed with good investment advice from successful, rational investors: Warren Buffett, Dave Ramsey and many focused Tesla investors (Fazard, Cathie Woods, etc.). DO NOT fall prey to the Get Rich Quick & Easy scammers. They just have nicely packaged scams.

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 and increase your income over time's increased experience.

Anecdote: teacher & garage doors: While teaching, I also resurrected an earlier garge door business (sold, installed, and repaired garage doors) for extra side income.

II. Domestic Travel 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 past Lindenman Lake to the south end of Lake Bennet where my hidden kayak awaited.

Second phase: Arriving at Lake Bennett, I retrieved my kayak stashed under an old building, switched out my backpack gear for my kayak gear, and then 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, unmoving, 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 is 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 mountain's outcrop. The black line going up the mountain to the left is the Golden Stairs. The black is the single file line of 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 Mounted Police or 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 it. Many ‘dumped’ what they did not want to carry up or pay another to do. The ground is  littered with broken pottery shards, & other such debris. I picked up a few artifacts, then tossed them back to preserve that history for others. 

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 & hiking boldly up a few hundred yards away from me.

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
the 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 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
Yukon 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 a photo image so you can appreciate my issue, NOT to cavalierly gross you out. Notice my puffy, swollen face & lips  

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

E. Boundary Waters Canoe Area: (1998 Reunion)

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 BWCA’s depths. You either knew exactly where you were at all times or …you were lost. Others were seldom seen. 

Often, I would arrive at a point where I wasn’t sure of my location, so 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 built-in, natural failsafe.

Anecdote: lost portage: After crossing a huge windy lake and setting up camp, I paddled down the shore to scope-out my next morning's 1st portage deeper into BWCA. The next morning I paddled down to what I thought was the portage I had scoped out the night before.

I made 2, kayak & gear hauls on my back until I realized I had mistakenly paddled past the correct portage to the wrong portage. To recover, I made 2 reverse portages of kayak & gear, reloaded my kayak, paddled a 1/4 mile to THE correct portage, and duplicated my kayak & gear portage once again. Energy draining, confidence-shaking. Solution? Suck-it up and be more careful next time.

NOTE: For portaging my gear, I had created a heavy-duty fabric backpack composed of a pair of large zippered pouches connected by a yoke with a hole to slip my head through; thus,  1 pouch rested on my chest, the other on my back.   To portage the kayak, I loaded the backpack modestly and slung it onto my shoulders, AND THEN I crawled under the kayak, which I had rested against a tree. With the kayak resting on my shoulders on my specially designed yoke of high-density foam, I could see far enough ahead on the trail.

I then returned a 2nd time a reloaded my backpack & portaged my remaining gear; re-packed the kayak, and I was off.

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

III. Foreign Travel

Prologue: In my early 50s, I traveled from Los Angeles, CA to Florida in my ratty old RV chevy van along the southern coastal perimeter. 

Mid-50s: a student trip to Rome & in 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. through Mexico, Guatemala & Belize camping in the mountains, along the seashore, on tiny coastal village streets and, once, on Puerto Vallarta’s main highway meridian.

Finally, real foreign travel for 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 USA & Canada adventure, I have neither photos nor video from this Rome student trip. Why not? Too focused on monitoring kids???   I gained 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 follow her & 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, would drive to Mexico if I could caravan with a younger single woman and her much younger students. Irony is a nice choice of words for cowardice.

Initially crushed & then annoyed at my own fear, I brushed aside my Mexico fears & drove into Mexico for a thrilling Mexican cultural immersion: roaming & camping in Baja Mexico, visiting small towns. Overnight camping on beaches for an early morning kayak paddle to offshore 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 (5/4/25).   I was hooked on this exotic, new & exciting FIT (free independent foreign travel) in foreign cultures.  

This was my foreign travel TRIGGER.

 

C. Mexico, Guatemala & 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 a while?”)🥲😳.

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

Anecdote: A 3 mo challenge: 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 traveler, spent weeks each year in San Francisco village with friends. That night’s dinner with his friends, just before the next morning when 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 released the brakes and kept driving south for 3 months along Mexico’s Coast, through Guatemala & Belize into southern Mexico’s Yucatan back to US’s Texas. 

With kayak strapped on top & mountain bike dangling off the rear, I camped in mountains, on beaches, in national parks & small towns, dancing with housewives & their children in the night’s firelight on the beach, trying local food in tiny coastal restaurants & at large town square’s street food vendors, 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:  lunch with Chihuahua Police: After a week's travel on dirt roads & dry ranchlands, I drove into Chihuahua, Mexico, hoping to find a safe place to camp for the night, when I noticed two motorcycle police officers standing next to a food wagon having lunch.  So I pulled in, ordered a couple of tacos, and started chatting with them in my broken Spanish.

I told them my campsite dilemma & when we were done eating the captain said,  "I caught some bandits that robbed a local motel, and he owes me a favor. I bet he would be glad to let you sleep in his parking lot." So off we went, sirens wailing as they pulled boldly into a packed intersection, stopping traffic so I could follow them through. The motel owner graciously gave me a parking spot in front of his office so he could watch over me. 

That evening at my invitation, I & the officers went to dinner, but not until Capitan (?) had switched small plastic tubing from a near-empty 1 gallon milk jug of gas in the trunk to a fresh gallon of gas. Police don't make much money in Mexico. It was a wonderful and reassuring experience that diluted my fears even more.

 A few years later, my Latino tenant and I tracked Luis down through the Chihuahua Police Department after I had read that he had been shot & nearly killed by bandits. We had a nice chat interpreted thru my tenant, but I have to try again because his WhatsApp Messenger phone number no longer works.

Guatemala: Based in the Spanish tourist-magnet town of Antigua, I took a multi-day guided tour into the back country of falls, rivers, coffee & banana plantations, before driving northeast through thick, endless jungle to famous Tikal National Park's Mayan ruins.  

Belize: In dominantly black Belize, I confronted & disarmed some prejudices, learned more Spanish, learned local politics & river dynamics from a young man speaking good English ... before I paddled his nearby croc-infested river, and  of course, visited some Mayan ruins

Wow! What a continuous adventure. What I had been missing. ........On my return to my Jackson Hole log home, I realized it was merely a large building sucking my money & energyies dry. Within a few months I had sold my large ego-driven log home, most of my accumulated 'junk', bought a condo and soon after retired from teaching to discover the rest of the world enticments.                 I would begin ‘real’ foreign travel  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 trips, I decided I should really travel off the American continents. (Duh!!!). Yet, it still seemed so daunting.

I think I chose New Zealand probably because 1) it seemed exotic, 2) I was enthralled with the man from Snowy River poem and movie in the same way I was obsessed with Robert Service's, Klondyke Gold Rush poetry, and 3) Kiwi’s speak English, which should not have been a main consideration having just navigate 3 Spanish speaking cultures for 3 months. [plk: Writings]

Initially, I booked 4 weeks with Flying Kiwi Hop On/Hop Off Bus tours which is fleet of buses traveling a defined loop around New Zealand allowing me to jump on and off at major hikiing 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. (Still in business: (https://www.flyingkiwi.com/) )

But within a week or so I longed for my flexible freedom.

Anecdote: ratty stationwagen purchase:  I had  'hopped off' Flying Kiwi for a few days in a town's local hostel and bought an old station wagon from a hostel clerk, had a mechanic sprinkle holy water on it (LOL), & insured it. I drove to a nearby junk yard and threw out the back seats so I had room for my sleeping bag, air mattress, and my backpack filled with my backpacking gear, including my small stove for hiking some of New Zealand's great hiking trails. I also bought a cheap ice cooler for my perishable food.

I drove that ratty station wagon from the north end of the North Island to the south end of the South Island and all around each island, parking it for several days while I hiked Stuart Island. I camped my nights on ocean beaches with seals & walrus lounging nearby, on high mountain road pull-outs with magnificent ocean views and in quaint NZ towns, Duneden. I vaguely recall having to continually tinker with the engine etc to keep her moving. 

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

Staying almost exclusively in youth hostels, I marveled at young people I met who were traveling for a week or so, over spring break, on Europeans’ Gap Year or sometimes indefinitely. They were everywhere- alone, in pairs or couples, or packs. They were in Europe, Australia. New Zealand & in unfamiliar S America & Africa, &  exotic Asian countries.

The hook was set, the bug had bitten … and I was off to see the world,

BUT  where next .....???

 

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.

uuu

 

Domestic & Foreign Travel: 

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

In our 50s, we are approaching the 'fish or cut bait' stage of life for travel.

Hopefully, you are in good health & financially secure through retirement. Loss of a parent or close friend may force you to become aware of your own final abyss 20 or 30 years ahead.      My father's death did that for me.

This highly predictable 😃 abyss may goad us into maximizing our remaining Quality of Life. Domestic & Foreign travel may be exciting routes to explore 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 FIT (free independent travel).
       - If health issues, even the worst case handicapped, may do Big Bus Touring & Cruising. IOWs, you can tailor foreign travel to your capabilities   
        Large Bus Touring:
        Ocean Cruising: 

   B. Comfort level 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: I once offered my sister & husband an Alaskan Coast Cruise tickets, but when her ego insisted that she had to have an outside cabin with an ocean view, I withdrew my offer.

Anecdote: youth hostels: Usually, I stayed in youth hostel dorm rooms with several others for several reasons:
     1) inexpensive accommodation,
     2) better amenities than a hotel
         (full kitchen common room,
                lay, etc),
     3)  usually met young, vibrant folks
         with interesting histories & 
                travel stories, 
     4) I booked the most expensive 4-bed dorm because often the less expensive 4 bed dorm would fully book first and I would have a better 4 bed dorm room all to myself.

If someone snored, I'd opt for a single room all to myself after complaining to the inconsiderate rube.

    C. Sense of Adventure: Depending on factors A & B above, you can travel at whatever level of adventure pleases you from cushy cruise ship deck chairs to solo mountain treks through China's rice terraces. (ytlk: Longi Rice Terraces, China)

Anecdote: In Yangon, Myanmar: I took a tuk-tuk across town to the 1st of several famous temples, then meandered randomly from one site to another thru back street neighborhoods, local markets, eating in tiny street side sidewalk cafes. Pure spontaneous adventure. 

  D. Financial Means: If wealthy -- no issue. Somewhere beneath Brad Pitt, ... you must find your financial travel niche. It's not about the money. It's about the experience you crave.

If not Brad, adjust your finances to match a travel mode, guided or free independent travel, trip length, hotels or hostels/guest houses, etc., BUT please, do some foreign travel.  
       Don't  presume, "It can't be done."  

Please revisit " 4. Financial Security" above.

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 at street kiosks, riding local's cheap transportation & walking. Using guided 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] yyy

Travel questions

Why did I wait so long to shift from domestic travel to foreign travel?   Just guessing ...
    1. Memory of my late 20s, early return from
        my free Dating Game's European trip
        because I felt lonely without a romantic
        partner.  
    2. I had 100% financed real estate
        investments, leaving me financially
        strapped & very busy all the time.
    3. Occasional roadtrips & ski weekends
        were sufficiently rewarding diversions. 
    4. My California beach life was both
         exciting, busy & gratifying, so I looked
         NO further afield. 
    5. Corporate work, law practice & real
        estate' AND constant "fear of failure"
        haunted me constantly.
                "Nose to the grindstone."

    6. I never actually thought about foreign travel until my late 50s.

 

Why didn't my extensive US & Canada roadtrips & adventures inspire foreign travel in my 30s to 50s decades?  Perhaps because the US & Canada offer such a rich array of outdoor travel experiences, historical sites & camping options that I could easily visit with my small, fully equipped RV van, my kayak strapped on top & a mountain bike dangling off the back.

Anecdote: Mound Culture: My classroom's American history textbook had a small image of a large mound with the caption, "Mound Culture." At 50, I had never heard of a Mound Culture.

The Mound Culture was a native American series of cultures pre-dating most of the days of native American tribes that we are familiar with: Comanche, Apache, Hopi, Navajo, etc.

The Adena, Hopewell, and Mississippian Cultures, flouirished between 1000 BCE and 1600 A.D. centered in principally in the Ohio River & Mississippi River Basins although some ranged as far east as Florida's shell middens & west into Texas and Oklahoma.

Anyway, I began researching its still existing ruin sites, small and large, from SE South Dakota into the Ohio River Valley, down the Mississippi River, then west through Texas and Oklahoma, punctuated by visits to Civil War battlefields & cemeteries and Antebellum Plantation ll.  An exciting worthwhile physical & intelectual roadtrip.

My YouTube Channel's Playlist 'Mounds': https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRDTLYh_1p7ZQdYGfVoucFjX0DQTfZ5rV

Why didn't my 50s student chaperoned Rome, Italy trip inspire my foreign travel? I suspect that my all-consuming teacher's curriculum creation & preparation blinded me to anything, but the occasional domestic travel I had perfected.

Also, my tour role was as chaperone, i.e., an adult presence. I did no research, planning, etc. Like any tour, others did it all.

Was I afraid to foreign travel?  I have no recollection 50+ years later of having any trepidation at 28 of traveling alone in Europe. In spite of no prior research, no guide book, no cell phone's near-instant Google Maps navigation and online room & transport booking. Like any "Stranger in a Strange Land"  it was what it was. I navigated & enjoyed it.

Anecdote: Amsterdam's Red Light District Calamity: Learning I was going to Europe, my Ad Agency's CEO arranged for me to have dinner with his Amsterdam agency counterpart & his beautiful Thai wife.

They took me to an upscale popular restaurant in Amsterdam's red light district, historically famous for its 'Soiled Doves' women of past sailors' times and ... now, who display their wares and lure their men from street shop windows. I ordered Seabass.

Later, as dinner was coming to an end, I excused myself to the men's room, where I apparently collapsed unconscious, waken up in the floor's toilet swill by my host. I was terribly sick to my stomach. I'm sure my hosts were very alarmed escorting me back to my pension room, where over the course of two or three days I recovered to continue my travels.

Only years later, after a 2nd such event while skiing at Mammoth Lakes, California,  did a 3rd event occur & I discovered the cause.

Anecdote Part 2: Deadly Seabass. At 39 while a practicing attorney I ate Seabass at a restaurant a few blocks from my Manhattan Beach condo.  Late in that night, I abruptly awoke in a panic & rushed to the toilet,  my stomach exploding like a volcano, as I fortunately regurgitated what I had eaten.

That morning, as I dressed for court, my mirror glared back with the brilliant red eyes of Michael Jackson in the Thriller music video. The court clerk took one look & said, "You look like Judge _______  with his red eyes." I immediately visited the Judge in chambers & recounted my experience. He asked me to sit and explained ---.

"I had been barbecuing seabass with friends when I suddenly suffered a seizure-like experience. Ambulance EMTs declared me dead, but revived me, as again, did the hospital staff, successfully, obviously. 

Later, the LA corner, Thomas Naguci, analyzed my stomach contents. Naguci was aka "Coroner of the Stars" because, you guessed it, he performed autopsies on Hollywood's stars, ie. Natalie Wood, who drowned at Catalina Island, CA"

Conclusion: Sea Bass caught in some, but not all, Mexican coastal bays may be infected with ciguatoxin's ciguatera fish poisoning which can initiate an anaphlactic-like seizure, including a swelling & obstructing of the esophagus, generating substantial pressure when vomiting, resulting in MY severe subconjunctival hemorrhage or total 'brillant red eye."

My doctor told me I was lucky and would probably not survive a 4th experience. Thereafter, my travel research ALWAYS included hard written words for "allergic to seabass' in all languages I would travel in. Actually, I mainly quit eating fish.

On reflection, such dangers while traveling may have created a latent fear, but if so, I tried to compensate by anticipating such issues with: 1) travel & medical insurance, 2) various prescription & over-the-counter drugs, 3) supplies (small snake bite kit, blister kit) that I carried. 

Please see my Resources: Safety: Health Safety writings: 

Anecdote: Driving off the road in a dibetic coma: While traveling to my White River, AR kayak experience, I stopped for an early morning bike ride, then a cereal breakfast & handfuls of dried cranberries and drove on.

Hours later, driving down the highway, I became lightheaded, but before I could understand & react, I fainted and awoke in a farmer's field having blasted thru his barbed wire fence. I awoke just as the farmer arrived. I assured him I was fine. He forgave the fence damage and off I continued. 

At 52 hours diagnosed, diabetic, too, which my father was, I was taking prescribed pills, exercising on a good diet as my good doctor, instructed, but I HAD failed to realize that handfuls of dried cranberries are the equivalent of handfulls of sugar, resulting in my diabetic coma, NOW, I am incredibly aware of any lightheadedness, particularly when driving.

 

Did I lack the time?   In my 30s through 50s at various times, I was pursuing Advertising, Law school & practice, log house building, had a garage door business and apartment rentals .... often allowing only brief time slots for domestic travel which was easy & fullfilling. 

Yet, now I realize I could just as easily have been overseas having easily arranged someone to manage my properties for a month or two which I in fact I did in my 60s & 70s. 

I suspect my life was nicely balanced between garage door business, log house construction, rental management, occasional road trip, and lots of kayaks & hikes locally in Teton National Park. I had no incentive to even think about foreign travel let alone plan for it. I simply can't recall thinking about it.  

Did I lack the money?   Looking back, I had sufficient money to travel, particularly in my "poor traveler' mode that I ultimately used to travel the world for more than 15 years.

But I didn't KNOW HOW to travel abroad as I so well knew how to travel North America in my RV van.

However, even now when I have excess cash flow and substantial net worth, I'm unable to justify spending money unless there is a compelling reason.  I complain to myself about a $15 chicken breast in a restaurant when I can cook it at home for 3 bucks.

 I bought the least expensive airline ticket and then took a doctor-prescribed sleeping pill and slept through most of the flight using the saved money for the occasional upscale restaurant travel treat.

What might have prompted forign travel in my earlier decades"? Just guessing, but maybe a romantic partner who traveled, a friend's travel stories & how-to discussions, or Reading a Rick Steve's Guidebook, if they had been available then. I really don't know?

However, if I had had even a taste of the knowledge I placed in this website, my fears would have been reduced, and my confidence elevated by the practical knowledge I have provided.     I might/could have made short, but enjoyable foreign trips decades earlier.

My hope is that you can make this decision for yourself earlier rather than later

Did my 30s to 50's decades of missed foreign travel's 'opportunities' ...  motivate my passionate obsession to (1) create this website and (2) publish my YouTube Channel videos?  Absolutely YES!!!

Long after I'm gone, I hope that my website's content of both 'life advice & skills' & Free Independent Travel Factor's advice, AND 2) my Youtube's 1500+ travel videos will inspire and teach others to travel abroad throughout their life.

When much younger than I, I hope that you can at least consciously reject or optimistically plan for your foreign travel experiences.

I want you to avoid the tragedy of NOT even being aware of the opportunity.

My website's goals are:
    1. Inspire domestic & foreign travel.
    2. to assuage travel fears & inspire domestic
        & foreign travel.
    3. offer the knowledge (think tools) that
        facilitate travel  (lk > FIT Factors)

My YouTube Channel's goals are:  
    1. to expose real travel's in-depth cultural
        experience.
    2. to compare my "Down on the ground
double "mode of travel to more relaxed and limited large bus touring and Ocean cruising tourism.
    3. to allow those who, for whatever reason, can't or won't foreign travel to get as close to possible to (FIT) free independent travel's authenticity.

Am I too old for foreign travel?  Definitely not. Absent my prostate cancer in late 70's, I had expected to travel into my 80s, and some do. 

While our physical and our mental abilities can decline with age, too often aging adults, forfeit the profound domestic and foreign travel opportunities that are still easily available to them. While free, independent travel may seem too challenging, certainly large bus tours, and ocean cruising are not.

Anecdote: Senior traveling in Sante Fe, Argentina: In my 1st Argentina hostel ithere were 2 men in their 80s from the rugged Fraser River Valley, SW British Columbia, Canada. 

In hostels I often check the register which included ages for the oldest past visitor. Usually me, but not allways.

Right now,  that would allow you to  foreign travel? Read, my writings under the heading "About Scott" specifically.
     Benchmark boundary          [lk.  ]
     About Scott                         [lk.  ]
     Appropriate Decade writing. [lk.  ]
     Large Bus Touring                [lk.  ]
     Cruising                                   [lk.  ]

Why did my 1-week spring break Mexican trip ignite the next year’s 3-month RV van trip thru Mexico, Guatemala & Belize?   All my accumulated fears of Mexico were washed away in this 2 week exhilarating experience.

Why did my 3-month Mexico, Guatemala & Belize trip FINALLY ignite a passion for 20 more years of foreign travel? Each day was a new adventure, continuously, spontaneously, evolving with great flexibility: meeting new people, new experiences & interesting cultural sites, new places, as well as the classic historical Mayan sites guidebooks applauded.

 Language barriers, vehicle breakdowns (flat tires) proved easily managed, usually involving another unique experience. My confidence, self-sufficiency curiosity only magnified over time.

It became obvious I could replicate my new skills in any culture in the world I chose to visit… And then I did.

Did I wait too long? Yes, but in earlier decades, I didn't see the issue, the problem, or the opportunity.

Knowing what I know now, I would've started traveling in my 20s in a very limited way so I would always be balancing my foreign travel lust with my practical life.

grand opportunity to pursue more and more and deeper and deeper as time constraints and money constraints reduced over time.

So Yes!   Much 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

 

Why take risk of solo outdoor trtavel adventure's?

The challebege is in the research, training and planning of all that's included in including navigation quality and use of equipment, basic skills.

It was also the heavy reliance on research and planning that facilitated more and more my foreign travel trips.

Anecdote: no satelitte Phpone: Long before cell phones and Internet connectivity were ubiquitous it was suggested that I carry a satellite phone so if there were an emergency, I could at least communicate with someone. I rejected that idea because I felt it would take away from the authenticity of my adventure.

Ironically, foreign travel today is dramatically easier than it was 20 years ago because of cell phone Internet receptivity (Starlink) and Google maps and Apple Maps that allow you to communicate anywhere on earth anytime and locate yourself.

jj

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why didn't my student trip to Rome inspire travel… Perhaps because it was simply an interlude in my normal life and was a highly regulated tour in which I did nothing but a company my students that required no research preparation planning or unique equipment.

 

[poij

Would Mexico be safe to travel in today? Mexico is a cartel dominated country in which the criminal activities of all groups is accommodated, including those who might on their own kidnap or rob tourist, however for their own self-serving graft and corrupt benefits, the cartel may allow a safety zone in the tourist areas because it brings in so much income. Just a guess when I traveled Mexico, I never there were occasional criminal incidents i.e. a bus load of a religious school. Students to us was hijacked for ransom. But that was rare, and that the time considered to be contrary to the government's a spouse protection of tourism and tourists. This is all just a guess I need to research more.

lkjb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are New Zealand and Australia safe to travel? Yes they are so remote in Oceana that criminals would find it difficult to escape pursuit.

 

In Jackson hole, many decades ago, it was joked that there wasn't much crime, because there were only four ways out of the valley and more particularly in the winter. There were none as per the book "cocktail hour in Jackson hole" chronicling life trapped in Jackson all winter long.