Film | Travels
My Travel Blog
San Francisco has the greatest share culture I’ve seen. Everyone uses Uber, Lyft, scooters, bikes, and Air bnb. Here are some thoughts. On arrival at the airport, everyone said ride shares, not taxis were the way to go. Problem was we didn’t know where the ride share pickup points were, and we had read critiques…
I stayed at a 4 Diamond hotel for a few days last week, and it was nice, but excessive to the point of discomfort. My travels have led me to a number of similar big name luxury spots, mostly at Hotwire.com rates where $300/night rooms were discounted to $60– not much more than the smelly…
I started teaching adult ESL classes at a local community college a few weeks ago. The biggest surprise was the diversity of the students—not so much because it was an ethnically diverse classroom, which it is, but diverse in the kinds of people I normally interact with. My students are the people who are usually…
I’ve made several long driving trips around the USA in the past 3 years, one in a camper van, the other staying in a wide range of hotels, from mom & pop ‘50s style motels to deluxe resorts. I totaled about 30,000 miles, and have visited every state except Alaska ( but soon). I was…
I taught ESL one summer to Mexicans in the US. They said they moved to the US, and had no respect for anti-immigration laws. They said they were justifiably reclaiming the land stolen from them in the 18th and 19th centuries, by white Europeans. No matter how many times they were deported, they would still…
montana wilderness – indian paradise lost After spending the night at Little Bighorn Battle Field with the Lakota and US Calvary re-enactors, I headed back to the Monument Headquarters for a Crow-native guided tour of the battle sites—told from the Native point of view. The guide was one of the tribal officers, who led the…
Amazing Idaho I spent the night outside the Donner Pass town of Truckee. After 12 days on the California coast, it was surprising to see there was still plenty of snow in late June. In the morning, I drove I-80 nearly the entire length of dry-bones Nevada through Reno, Fernley, Lovelock, and Imlay, finally…
A SEA OF CELLPHONE WATCHERS, AND NOBODY IS REALLY THERE I love the US National Parks. So do many people around the world. They are packed with international tourists. Buses are full. Especially of Japanese. Watching them juggle selfie sticks,create the perfect facial expression, arrange their colorful clothing just so, then finally snap themselves looming in…
A friend called Sunday afternoon, while I was crossing Montana on the way to the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation. He recommended I should make a 100 mile detour to Little Big Horn Battlefield, because it was the 141st anniversary of the death of Gen. George Custer. I arrived at Crow Agency, Montana and found a…
Met this pleasant nouveau hippie couple at a restaurant in Garberville, California, Humboldt County. She’s from France, and he’s from New Zealand. They informed me that Garberville /Humboldt County had been one of the world’s hottest pot spots for decades– even rivaling Amsterdam as a nouveau hippie mecca, for the variety and easy availability of…