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07/17/2018
Boerne, Texas
The old joke goes: If you locked your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car, which would be happy to see you when you opened it? Exactly!!!!!!!!!! Gucci and Prada were ecstatic to see me when I got home. However, to be fair, Sheri stayed up until 11 PM waiting for me, then gave up and when to bed. I arrived at the house around 12:30 AM after driving almost 18 hours non-stop from Nashville to Boerne.
So before I start whittling down Sheri's 'Dan's To Do List", I wanted to share with you some final comments and photos of the Trans Lab trip.
I went back to the blog web site and uploaded some of the trip photos, reworked some of the posts and generally cleaned up the Trans Lab Trip blog effort. My apologies for the lack of photos in my posts. I just could not figure out how to get iPhone photos off the iPhone on to the netbook I was using to compose and post. I needed access to the Cloud it seems which was not possible for me while on the trip. OR at least I did not know how to get access to it. My bad.
As a general rule, I find homo sapiens in large groups fairly unpleasant to be around. There are exceptions but on the whole, large groups are too easily manipulated towards negative behavior. On the other hand, individuals, one on one, on the whole I find interesting and welcoming.
On this trip, as the Alaska and Tibet trips, that finding has been reinforced. The population density of Labrador is pretty low on a per square kilometer basis. You would think that would be an impediment to personal interaction but I did not find it so. The Fire Department Chief that knew the Fish & Game Warden 150 miles away were close personal friends and professional colleagues. How many fire chiefs will just hand out their name and telephone number so you can use it as a reference? Marv Butler, Fire Dept. Chief, did so after talking with me for less than 15 mins. We talked about the weather, got directions to a favorite fishing hole of his 125 miles down the road and an introduction to the local game warden because were 'foreigner' and there were no fishing licenses available for sale locally. I find that remarkable, gratifying and reassuring on several levels.
When we finished the Viking archeological dig site tour, we stopped in and ate at this small very nice cafe on the water front near Meadows. As we were finishing up a way overpriced lobster meal, in walks this young man who sits down at the table next to us. I'm always mildly uncomfortable when strangers sit down near you and look like they want to talk to you without your invitation. The glance over, the repositioning of the chair, the look towards something you two might have in common, etc the usual "lets talk" indicators. I was not biting but Rick did. Rick being Rick the conversation got started.
As it turns out Christopher Mitchelmore is the Minister of Business, Tourism, Culture and Rural Development for the Provence of Newfoundland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The photo is one Rick took of him eating. You can check him out on Wikipedia. (www.tcii.gov.nl.ca/department/minister.html)
Anyway, he was an exceptionally engaging and knowledgeable guy. Long story short we spent about half an hour talking with Christopher about his early childhood in Northern Newfoundland to his political career and aspirations for the region.
You can make significant connections with another person if when you are alone, you ignore that nagging reservation about speaking with strangers and just say "Hi".
I'm getting 'long in the tooth' now and this voyage will most likely be my last 'solo'. I certainly have not seen it all but I have seen enough now to know that we homo sapiens pretty much solve the basics of Life the same way. When the wind blows, we build a wall to block it. When we are hungry, we eat what is locally available. When we are lonely, we socialize. The only differences in the various places I have visited are the local materials available and the peculiarities of the social structure they live in.
It is the ambitions and greed of the political that create the major frictions in Life. However, that has been and will always be true until the basic genetic of homo sapiens is altered to eliminate those baser traits. Anyone under 40 years of age today may well see that come about and be confronted with the ethical dilemma of who will be altered.
Go solo travel. Hopefully you will learn from it and make better ethical decisions that will be required of you in the near future.
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