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Author enjoying beach time at Ixtapa Island |
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Parking Author’s walker at dinner |
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Author’s walker waits at poolside |
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Author’s walker serves as clothes line at Ixtapa resort |
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Author enjoying beach time at Ixtapa Island |
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Parking Author’s walker at dinner |
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Author’s walker waits at poolside |
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Author’s walker serves as clothes line at Ixtapa resort |
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This translate as Homeland or Death but had a more popular meaning of “We Shall Overcome” |
Today, official communism remains in only five of the 46 original countries – China, Vietnam, Laos, North Korea and Cuba. Communism still dominates Cuba but capitalism is gradually cracking open the door to greater economic and political freedom and Cubans are responding.
Billboard supporting the Cuban Revolution |
A Cuban Food Booklet – all Cubans are entitled to this |
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An owner offers both a restaurant and a bed and breakfast |
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A bakery paladar with an English name |
Cuban flag is everywhere |
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1950’s Chevrolet convertible in front of Hotel Nacional, Havana, Cuba |
Not all cars have been maintained. |
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Soviet Lada used as a taxi. This one looked nicer on the outside than the inside. |
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Baby carriage in back of horse drawn cart |
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Taxi drivers outside Hotel Nacional, Havana, Cuba |
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Bicycles used creatively to carry passengers Santa Cruz del Norte, cuba |
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Jose’ Marti Airport in Cuba |
View of Mt. Rainier National Park from Paradise Inn |
Wildflowers on the moutain |
Dining Room in Paradise Inn |
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Paved trails in Mr. Rainier Park |
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River emerging from cave in Misqually Glacier Remains |
Mt. Rainier finally peaks out |
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One of the many tugboats at the Harbor Day Festival in Olympia, Washington |
Skip Suttmeir, owner of Galene with his wife, Marty |
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Tugboat owners enjoying a tailboat party |
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Steering wheel of the Sandman |
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Approach to Torres del Paine |
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Two Guanacos in Patagonia |
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Rheas in Patagonia |
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Modern Day Gauchos in Patagonia |
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Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Birthplace |
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Room where Eisenhower was born |
Denison, Texas began as a company town built by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad (called the KATY), the first railroad into Texas. At its height, half of Denison worked for the KATY, including David Eisenhower from 1889-1892. In a small white clapboard house across the road from a railroad tract, the family’s third son, Dwight D. Eisenhower, was born in 1890. President Eisenhower’s birth details may have been lost since all births were at home and Denison had no hospital. As late as his application to West Point, Dwight thought he was born in Tyler. However, Principal Jennie Jackson remembered the Eisenhower family and contacted him when he became famous.
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Statue of Eisenhower by Robert Dean |
Then General Eisenhower visited his birthplace in 1948, just after the home was purchased by Denison to be preserved. It is now a State Historic Site that offers a short tour of the house (he only lived there 18 months). A bronze life size statue of General Eisenhower stands on the grounds with him dressed in his personally designed short Eisenhower jacket. Oklahoma artist Robert Dean created five statues of the president and Denison was lucky to get one of them. The statue was dedicated on the 50th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France. Eisenhower Birthplace
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Kaboodles Store in Denison |
A surprising number of art galleries and antique stores line Main Street with a proposed Studebaker Museum in the works. My favorite store was Kaboodles, opened two years ago by Cindy Dickson. The store includes creative and unique repurposed items by local artists and even carries leather purses made by Brad Berrentine, a resident of Pattonville. Kaboodles Facebook Page
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Swimming Beach at Eisenhower State Park |
Continuing to capitalize on the brief Eisenhower connection, the city boasts of nearby Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma. This is a large park with many camping spots, screened in cabins and some serious marinas, including the Eisenhower Yacht Club. An employee acknowledged there is no club nor club house and the name is just a fancy way to describe the marina. Pontoon boats are available for hire and we particularly liked the small swimming beach. We were sorry not to have brought swim suits to enjoy the clear, cool waters.
Eisenhower State Park
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Compass Rose |
Quantas Airlines approaching Auckland, New Zealand |
The travel day had already been long – early morning wake-up call, two hour drive to the airport, parking, check-in, security review, first flight out, lost in a new airport, and now, finally, the second and last flight from Mexico City to Oaxaca. American Airlines brought us to Mexico City and bankrupt Mexicana was to carry us to our destination. I walked into its clean, new airplane and immediately relaxed as classical music played overhead and wondered why other airlines didn=t use Mozart to calm passengers. But then all international airlines have their own personalities.
Sky Airlines lunch on flight to Puerto Montt |
In using international airlines, it’s been a surprise to be served meals and local products, even on short flights. On an hour and a half flight from Hong Kong to Hanoi, we were given a hot lunch on Vietnam Airlines. An even shorter flight from Santiago to Puerto Montt, Chile was enough to be offered cold cuts on Sky Airways, a start-up Chilean airline. On a 50 minute puddle jumper with Tunisair from Tunis, Tunisia, to Palermo, Italy, a sole attendant was able to distribute sweet snacks and hard candy. With its mostly male attendants, Quantas Airlines made available Australian wine and beer as well as Australian movies such as “There’s nothing I’d rather be than an Aborigine.” Swiss Air served the best milk chocolate candy ever and Dutch KLM promoted its dairy products, including Gouda and Edom cheese.
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Showing of Mountain Film Festival in Puerta Natales, Chile |
Since 1946, film festivals have been held all over the world – from Cannes to Venice to Toronto to Sundance with emphasis on first time releases, ethnic origins, genres, independent film producers or even documentaries or shorts. I’ve seen promotions of festivals from Antalya, Turkey to Ft. Worth, Texas as communities work to attract visitors. But my cousin takes his Mountain Film Festival on the road to where viewers are most likely to be.
Patrick Moore grew up in Lubbock, graduated with a fine arts degree from Texas Tech, and became a serious world traveler thanks to a job maintaining satellite dishes at U.S. Embassies around the globe. Even with extra pages, his passport never lasted long and was replaced often. Wherever he went, Patrick hiked and explored and kept up with climbing feats around the world. On a whim in New Zealand several years ago, he called Sir Edmund Hillary of Mt. Everest fame. Sir Hillary invited him to his home and Patrick spent the afternoon with the family, learning more about the famous climber’s life.
Patrick married a beautiful Chilean American Airline attendant and settled in Santiago to raise his family. He found the outdoor opportunities in South America unparalleled and he and his family often hiked, biked, climbed and camped. In his backyard is a climbing wall and a shed full of outdoor equipment. Even before the embassy job played out, Patrick explored bringing a film festival to the far south that played to his interests – mountain climbing and extreme sports. He found two.
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Poster promoting Mountain Film Festival |
The Banff Film festival licenses 25 films to be available to hosts like Patrick who select those they wish to show at their own locations. He also picks up the four climbing films offered each year by The Reel Rock Film Tour. This year featured a harrowing rock climb by individuals who had missing limbs but no lack of courage as well as the Stonemasters, a 1960s group of self-taught rock climbers who ruled El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. What distinguishes Patrick’s two to three day festivals are his speakers and workshops on mountain climbing that accompany the films.
The Mountain Film Festival is shown in 13 South American locations in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru – just about anywhere young climbing enthusiasts congregate. Backpackers love it when the festival arrives in town or even on the slope. Entertainment is hard to come by in most outback areas. His most challenging location is at Aconcagua, highest mountain in North and South America at 22,000 feet. In February of this year, Patrick carried his High Definition projector while others packed in a 22 foot inflatable screen. It took two days of hiking to arrive at the second base camp of the mountain. There at 14,000 feet, the movies were shown on the screen under the stars to 200 grateful and amazed campers.
After years of following Facebook posts on Patrick’s festivals, I had the opportunity to experience a showing in Puerta Natales, Chile, a town of 20,000 where many launch into Patagonia. While North Face is his primary sponsor, Patrick finds local companies to help with overhead costs and to promote the showings. In Puerta Natales, Erratic Rock, a local hostel/outfitting company, provided assistance with the location and set-up. Posters of the festival had been hung around town and the local newspaper covered the upcoming event. We arrived on a rainy night at a large, metal hanger for a showing of “Towers of Temptation”, a film on the first ascent of the central towers of Torres del Paine in Patagonia 51 years ago. At the premier showing in Santiago, Patrick had even brought in the film’s director, Leo Dickerson, to speak. Inside, indirect lighting illuminated walls of powerful photographs of climbers and the towers. Outdoor equipment such as kayaks, mountain bicycles, and tents were displayed. Young travelers from around the world milled about – visiting, comparing, sharing stories. Some even carried their backpacks as if they had just arrived in town. Hot cider was served. By the time of the showing of the first film, the 200 chairs had filled and all settled in for an evening of entertainment far from home.
The Mountain Film Festival shows continue throughout the year, even in the coldest days of winter in southern Patagonia. In my last e-mail from Patrick, he wrote enthusiastically of the next showing in Coyhaique, Chile where a Mt. Everest climber and an Antarctica Explorer will be giving lectures along with the films. His timing is good. Travels to Patagonia and other parts of South America are up. And, there’s nothing more exciting than a good mountain climbing story, especially if the mountain is just outside the window.