Welcome to October
Best wishes to Circumnavigators, family and friends for a glorious month. Keep us updated on your travels!
The LOG
The upcoming issue of The LOG is in the works. Please send us any recent travel info and photos for All Over the Map. Also, for Collectors Corner we are featuring holiday tree ornaments collected from foreign trips. We would welcome submissions by email to headquarters.
Foundation News
In each upcoming edition of Circumbits, a YouTube link will be provided to a video interview of one of the Foundation Scholars from 1971 to the present who participated in the Foundation Retrospective program undertaken in connection with the half-century observance of the around-the-world travel-study grant program. The interviews provide insight into the Scholars’ research projects as well as fascinating – and at time, harrowing – travel tales that all Circumnavigators will enjoy.
Click below to access the Foundation’s interview with 2016 Northwestern University Grantee Tara Mittelberg, whose research topic was “Genetically Modified Organisms: Progressing the Conversation.”
Chapter Highlights
New York Metro members gathered at The Yale Club for cocktails and exchanged recent travels stories. The next gathering at The Yale Club will be on October 15 at 6:30 pm. Members from Chapters and At Large are welcome. We hope to see you there. If you would like to join the New York Programs Committee, please reach out to Tracy at club@circumnavigators.org.
Naples Chapter…Its seasonal G.E.M.S. held its meeting featuring Sophie Classen’s presentation on Egypt. The group (Globetrotters Exchanging Memorable Stories) is organized by Anne Granada with monthly events in the Florida “off” season.
Circumnavigator Ed Hotchkiss (New York Metro) and his wife Khadija recently completed an ambitious eight-country, three-continent tour. Afghanistan and Burundi were among the off-the-beaten track countries. Ed reports, “I spent two weeks in Afghanistan exploring many regions and cities including Kabul, Bamyan, Kandahar, Helmand, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharīf and Jalalabad. I saw only eight other foreign tourists, so it hasn’t become a mecca of travel by a long shot. I had frequent interactions with Taliban foot soldiers, commanders and government officials.” Ed goes by the moniker Exploring Ed. Members can read more about the fascinating trip at www.ExploringEd.com.
Circumnavigator Michael Lawler (Pacific SW Chapter) and his wife Barbara camped with 80,000 other “crazies” at Burning Man in the northwest corner of Nevada. Here they are ready for the Pink Tutu Parade!
September was busy for the Chicago Petersons. President Dan Peterson flew his plane to Parry Sound, Ontario, for a beautiful lakeside wedding of some friends in nearby Port Carling. Meanwhile his wife, Circumnavigator Melanie Peterson traveled to London, Portsmouth, Amsterdam, Brugge, and Paris by air, sea, and rail, with her friend and future Circumnavigator Marcia Christoffel, pictured here at the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris.
Circumnavigators Gwendolyn and Jim Sutton (Washington DC Chapter) visited Cody, Wyoming for Rendezvous Royal weekend at the Buffalo Bill museum of the west. They “highly recommend this fun event to explore the west! And yes, it’s still wild!” On the first leg of their trip, they enjoyed sites of Wyoming.
Circumnavigator Ken Mink (Washington DC Chapter) and his wife JJ took a two-week western trip that included a seven-day cruise on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. They saw many of the west’s iconic wonders such as Yellowstone, the Tetons, Mount St. Helena and Multnomah Falls.
Circumnavigators Virginia Foster and Arthur Hammonds (Pacific SW Chapter) made the long way from Southern California to Northern New England to visit beautiful Mount Desert Island in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Circumnavigator Sherri Donovan (New York Metro) is currently on an African adventure, including Libya and Algeria. Here she takes a break on Roman columns in front of the oldest mosque in Libya.
Circumnavigator Michael Bell (New York Metro) is traveling in the Tyrrhenian Sea off Italy with stops in Sicily and Corsica. He loved Sicily but Corsica is event better in his opinion.
Circumnavigator Mark Pross (Washington, DC Chapter) successfully completed a 6,042-mile polar expedition sailing from Iceland to Greenland, through the Northwest Passage of the Canadian Arctic to Nome, Alaska, and Vancouver. Mark pays his respect at the graves of three crew members from the lost Franklin Expedition to find the Northwest Passage (1845-1848) on Beechey Island, Nunavut, Canada. Inuit elder in Ulukhaktok, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. Mark sailing from the Chukchi Sea south through the middle of the Bering Strait by Big Diomede Island, Siberia, Russia (center), and Little Diomede Island, Alaska (left). At this point, the United States and Russia are only 2.4 miles apart. The islands are separated by the International Date Line.
Circumnavigators Kristen Koontz (New York Metro) and Katie Koontz (At Large, California) ventured off to Mexico to experience the south of the border culture. Here they are in Mexico City.
The Last Shot
Do you have a good photo for The Last Shot? Please send to club@circumnavigators.org.
Luck to you!
David A. Mink
Editorial Director
club@circumnavigators.org
