Kenyan Memories

I’ve been very blessed to show a lot of the world to group travelers. When folks ask me where my favorite place is, I answer “Kenya”. Eyebrows go up, and I try to explain without sounding cheesy, that one is changed after a visit there. It’s the people, it’s the animals, it’s the simplicity, it’s the surprises... you never come all the way home from Kenya, you leave part of your heart there. I think our recent and return travelers would agree with my sentiment. 

Our 2018 Kenya Wing Safari proved every aspect of these wonderful feelings. “Wing”, meaning we cover more ground in a shorter amount of time with a flight from the northern part of the country to the Maasi Mara in the southern area. The experience is as different as the  landscape is completely different.  The animals and  people are unique to each area. 

The border of Tanzania goes through southern Kenya. It is the Maasi Mara on the Kenyan side and the Serengeti on the Tanzania side. Serengeti will conjure up images of “The Lion King”, the wildebeest (aka Gnu), the hyenas, the gazelles and of course, the lions. It doesn’t take long to be immersed in the beauty of umbrella tree dotted landscape, where wild life is abundant and free. 

Hunting has been banned since the 1957. Even the king of the jungle has realized he and his pride of lionesses aren’t threatened by the safari jeeps as they roll up, turn off and just watch Wild Kingdom happen yards away. It is amazing.

Sometimes it gets even closer. 

We stayed in tents on the Maasi Mara River. Luxury tents. Beautifully furnished tents with a hot shower and flushing toilet and a mini-bar tents. We lay in canopied beds and listened to the grunting of the hippos in the river below. We heard the screech of birds calling out in the night. Unusual sounds obviously not something we’d hear on Grand Lake. We tucked our toes under our hot water bottles, pulled the blanket up a little higher and pinched ourselves to assure ourselves that “we really are here”. Sometimes it occurs to us that the only thing between us and all this wildlife… is about a quarter inch of tent canvas and a zipper.

 Mindy and Susie’s tent was next to ours. As it turned out, theirs was the party tent. Susie was taking a nap and thought she heard sister Mindy return to the tent. The zipper slid gently up. Then she heard the door to the refrigerator open and a bottle of water come out. Susie then heard Mindy’s carry-on suitcase being quietly rummaged through. Only a sister would understand that this made her suspicious, because her sister wouldn’t be that considerate. So she opened her eyes to see a big baboon at the foot of her bed digging through Mindy’s bag. She shouted and the intruder took off out the tent flap grabbing the water bottle. He only paused long enough to leave a little primate “parting gift” on the step. The next day they were entertained by a lizard on the wall. 

Kenya is a magnificent, wild place. Full of beauty and surprises that one can never forget.

Out of Africa 2018

Danish author Karen Blixen and her husband moved to Kenya  in the early 1900’s to attempt to make money with a coffee plantation. It failed. Little did she realize it was her charitable efforts that made her name live on forever in the hearts of Kenyans and become a hero in Denmark.

The drop in coffee prices, due to the world-wide depression and the breakout of WWI, was part of the failure. Wrong soil was another.  But the timing of her land donation to locals and help to give them a better life was right. This happened long before businesses sought protection under bankruptcy laws as they were forced to sell off the remaining lands and equipment to pay creditors. The banks graciously allowed her to remain on her homestead… as long as she was able to continue paying rent. Later, the Danish government bought the homestead and donated it to the Kenyan government where it still remains as a monument to her and her charitable efforts.

In her popular world-wide bestselling book “Out of Africa”, Karen details her life, times and struggles and at the time. It was considered by critics as racist, colonialist and “haughty”. However in our recent Good to Go with Patti Beth trip to Kenya, we learned a much more profound and revered status that still remains for the person whose  help for locals doesn’t seem to make it into online memoirs. Helping others less fortunate and the often unsung heroes in life are a living testament to the good in people. Being kind has a profound effect long after the benefactors have passed.

I was so very proud and thrilled with our intrepid Good to Go Gang, as well as local Groveites that donated four suitcases full of school supplies and clothing that we gave to the Girl’s School in Nanyuki, Kenya. I was proud when a member of our tour initiated an impromptu donation to a local Samburu tribe to purchase clean drinking water. This was in addition to, and far and above the help provided to the locals through purchases of locally crafts, jewelry, and other trinkets.

While our meager (by comparison) efforts will never have the profound effect of a world-wide bestselling book-come-box office legend, we saw firsthand, how much our previous efforts have helped the P.C.E.A. (Pentecostal Church of East Africa) Nanyuki Girl’s Boarding Primary School.   The school has grown from its humble beginnings we witnessed back in 2005.  They started with a handful of girls and now educate over 200 girls.  Most likely, we will never know how much these acts of goodwill and donations will reverberate for generations to come.

Proud? You bet. I am proud of our Good to Go goodwill ambassadors and how much they positively affected the lives of so many with their smiles, friendly gestures and donations before our always-too-short visit to Kenya ended and we too had to get Out of Africa. We will plan a return visit to retrieve the pieces of our hearts we left behind for a beautiful country populated with so many beautiful people.

New England Facts for $500

We travel for various reasons, one good one is to learn. I only wish I could remember a tiny fraction of what I’ve been exposed to. I’d be Jeopardy-bound.
 

We are touring four states in New England and Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine did not disappoint. Here are a few things I missed in 18 years of school but I learned on a tour.

Paul Revere did not gallop through Boston crying. “The British are coming.” What he actually said was, “The regulars are coming out.” And there wasn’t any galloping. He rode and spoke quietly with the warning. Not only did my cartoons have it wrong, so did my history book.

While we are learning about Paul, “One if by land, two if by sea,” should have been “One if by land, two if they cross the Charles River.” We can blame Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for that one. I won’t deny a fellow, long or short, to take a little liberty when writing. But “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” has stuck more than the real story. But in Longfellow’s defense, “sea” sounds much more dramatic. And it’s easier to rhyme than “Charles River.”

It takes 20-30 gallons of sap tapped from maple trees to make one gallon of maple syrup. I suppose this is the reason we don’t see buckets hanging from trees in the neighborhood in Oklahoma.

Lobstermen put out strings of lobster traps a bit like Grand Lake trot lines. These are marked with a number and color combination. Traps are baited and then pulled up every two to three days. Although the traps can lure and capture multiple lobsters, due to the strict size limit, keeping an average of one per trap is considered a good run.

It takes about seven years for a Maine Rock lobster to grow big enough to be a keeper. Seven years it will eat the fisherman’s bait and be caught and released. Maybe close to 100 times in and out of the trap before it is deemed dinner. One time too many.

Seaweed is used like hay, to mulch plants in gardens. The bonus is… no bugs.

The Von Trapp family of Sound of Music fame fled Austria and still owns a lodge in Vermont. They did not make a dime from Rogers & Hammerstein’s play or Hollywood’s movie. I’ll bet these AREN’T A Few of THEIR Favorite Things.

A whale’s heart only beats 7-9 times per minute. I’m guessing trying to get it’s heart rate up and sustain it, in order to lose some blubber, would be a whale of a job.

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream has a graveyard for retired flavors and those that were short lived. You can stroll among the headstones and read the epitaphs of chunks and swirls that weren’t scooped up like Tennessee Mud and Oh Pear.

Dairy farmers use robotic milking machines that allow the cows to decide how often they want to be milked. A computer chip is read and data is recorded on the cow and her production. These costly robots are an effort to deal with costly labor. The price of raw milk is currently the same as it was in the 1940’s.

Not only does travel enlighten, it educates. I better stay Good to Go in case I wind up on Jeopardy. Alex, I’ll take Kenya for $400... we’re headed there next.

Travel for Travel’s Sake

I had a couple of days between trips last week, so what did I do? You guessed it, I traveled. I didn’t go too far - just to Branson, Missouri to join a few other group leaders on what we in the business call a FAM tour. FAM, short for familiarization. We visit destinations and do quick looks at what their area might have of interest to folks like myself, coming in on motor coaches. We look for new and interesting entertainment. We hit multiple restaurants, because the chicken fried steak and pie is important, but so is the parking lot.

There are many great places that don’t have bus parking or even bus turning. And worse, they don’t have a plan should a bus want to bring them business. We go in and out of hotel rooms, making snap decisions on whether our travelers would enjoy the stay.  Things like interior doors, elevators and level parking lots become deal makers and breakers more than the pillow top mattress. We watch shows, and view attractions through the eyes of our future travelers. Maybe in this theater the front row isn’t the best seats. Maybe this attraction has too much walking, or not enough places to sit and rest.
 

We are also very aware of people traveling on their own. How can going with a group add to the pleasure of that experience? Back when I first started in the group travel business, we used to be able to negotiate  group rates and sometimes we could boast that is was less expensive to travel with a group. Groups still share the biggest expense which is the transportation. It’s hard to put a price tag on not having to drive, or navigate or figure out any of the travel trials. One just gets to show up, take a seat and relax. It’s hard to say what being dropped at the door for almost everything is worth. But drive your own car, park fourteen miles away and you would agree, there is value in that service. 

Having a step-on guide certainly has worth on a group tour. Being educated, along with being entertained, makes lasting memories. If you are a person that kind of “shows up” for a trip, you may not discover anything about the new area if you choose not to read the guide books, or roadside signs, or museum explanations. A personal guide enhances the experience with inside knowledge and expertise. 

One of my favorite things about a FAM trip is discussions with peers. We love to share ideas and tell experiences that we have dealt with on the road. I’ve been traveling with groups for 25 years, and I won’t say that I’m one of the older leaders out there, but I do have some seniority at this point!

My suitcase, Ol’ Big Red, doesn’t stay empty for too long. If I’m not Good to Go with a group, I’m hunting ideas for tours. Robert Louis Stevenson is quoted “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”

It’s easy to not move. But there is joy in going for those of us that understand travel. I’m looking for folks that are Good to Go. Come join us!