Hiking/Book Tour Update
We are off for our summer/fall adventure, to France, Spain, Italy, Africa and back thru Israel... First, you need to be aware that email messages get to us via the mailbox icon on the bar at the bottom of each of these site pages; we will respond as we can. Internet contact in remote areas is often difficult. If you want to get our periodic email updates, send us your email address by using the mailbox icon. By using access through this site and closing most of our current email addresses, we hope to stop some of the junk mail we have been getting. When we travel it is best to use our normal address:
If you have emergency information for us, call our daughter Dawna 805-473-6508 or FAX 805-473-6509, but we don't want her notified of anything that is not an emergency. Just having us gone adds enough to her already heavy family and business load. She, and my brother Wes and his wife Marilyn who live next to us, make it possible for us just to walk out the door and know that everything, including our bills, will be taken care of in our absence. Friends are using the house and watering the plants. Bill will be doing a lot of hiking on this trip. It is always exciting to head out for the next days of my ever-changing adventure while Bill's on the trail. Small -- and often large-town -- book stores, hospices, counselors, support groups, schools, churches and hospitals appreciate an in-service-training on grief issues or a talk. This trip, I will not do so much of a formal book tour due to my lack of facility with French, Spanish and Italian. This will leave me time to do more sight-seeing and exploring at my own pace. An author with a husband hiking is a change of pace for the press, especially in rural areas. I frequently have the privilege of helping people and promoting the work of local organizations at the same time the books get mentioned. In addition, I and sometimes Bill, too, often have opportunities to give talks to Rotary Clubs and other groups on the difference between fleeting and lasting international development, the work of World Neighbors, Grow Biointensive - John Jeavons methods (www.growbiointensive.org) and the Savory Institute and their holistic decision process that seems to be applicable in almost every situation and group (www.holisticmanagement.org). Decisions made with this method make what one does today also be wise decisions in light of our grandchildren. It is applicable in businesses as well as families and is easy to understand and in most cases quick to use. As you may know, improving health and agriculture production in remote areas of the "two-thirds world" has been a lifetime passion for me. (If you want to know more about this, click on the globe icon on the bottom of the page.) Starting in July, we plan to hike the GR10 and the Compestella Trails in the Pyrénées. These trails are in the mountains, coast to coast, between France and Spain. Some of the hiking will likely be done with Bill's cousin Steve who lives part of each year in France. We will spend time with him and his wife, Sharon in France. Late August and September are on to Italy for cheese and non-violence conferences and to visit friends. We used to make cheese here on our farm in California. Several of our local San Luis Obispo area friends, also cheese makers, will be at the conference. At the other conference we anticipating seeing and working with folks from all over the world. We then go on to Africa in September and early October, in Kenya and Tanzania, to do some agriculture and sustainable development updating. Hopefully, I will also have a chance to do some midwife training and hospice and AIDS updates. As always, Bill is as interested as I am in bio-intensive gardening, John-Jeavons-style. Part of the time we will be traveling with some World Neighbors friends (www.wn.org) visiting and learning from their Kenyan projects. Wes will meet us in Nairobi, and he and Bill plan to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro in Tanzania. I will meet them several days later at the, we hear amazing, Ngorongoro Crater where the three of us will spend a couple of days before Wes comes back to the US and we go on to South Africa. Our next stop includes Zimbabwe & Botswana, near Victoria Falls for bio-diversity sustainable range management updates with the Savory Institute on some of the techniques we use here on our place in California. You can get more information on that at savorycenter@holisticmanagement.org We plan to return through Israel to experience that area first hand. We have recently been leading up to this next experience by starting a discussion group of Muslims, Jews, and a few Christians and others who meet monthly here in San Luis Obispo over a potluck dinner and discuss the Middle East. We rotate the homes so we meet in each Muslim, Jewish, and other home. It has been a wonderfully broadening experience. The discussions are so lively that no one wants to leave at the end of an evening. No one tries to change anyone else; this is only an attempt to understand and build our skills in listening and communicating based on our personal experiences and in some small way possibly promote peace in our world. This has been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We followed the ideas of another California couple who have help thousands of others around the world start similar groups. If you are interested in doing this in your area or finding if a group is already going, contact LTRAUBMAN@igc.org While in Israel, we plan to meet possibly with some folks involved in hospice and in non-violent communication education efforts, both of which we have been involved in here. We also will spend time with some hiking friends and their families. Most of the time, we will be staying in a convent in Jerusalem. As always, we like to touch in for another reality check in a hot spot in this world with all its peoples we both love so deeply. Just wanted you to know we will be home for the holidays, so don't take us off your mailing list or get discouraged if you get a returned piece of email saying we are off-line or the email box is closed. If it is important, or if it's an address change for you, as we don't want to loose track of you, please mail the returned email to us via POB 945 SLO, CA 93406, and Dawna will forward it to us during our travels. Life is good and full for us. This seems strange when the world seems to be going nuts with conflict and other problems. Our best to you and your family as we hope you have a peace-filled 2003 following your own dreams,
or as you may know us, Phyllis "Trail Mom" & Baritone Vagabond Bill(AT 2002/PCT 2001)Incase you are interested in looking back over |
 Bill & Phyllis near Stekein, Washington, along Lake Chelan with the Cascades as a backdrop. |
In our past experiences, this hiking/book tour combination has worked well. I love the variety of activities. My book touring is altered each time Bill gets near a trailhead. (Unlike most folks, our definition of a trailhead is not at a main road. We consider it where even a fire road crosses the trail at a point passable with the small 23 ft. Tioga motor van, I drive). This cozy home serves well as our moving base camp and office. We lived in this same little van (which gives us about 18 ft. of actual living space) for the year we traveled and book toured in 38 states during 1996.
If I get to the trailhead first, I sometimes hike up the trial to meet him. Especially, if dinner is ready and I have everything set up for evening camp. I enjoy hiking a ways with him when he starts out the next morning, after a resting rendezvous.
April 29, back to San Luis Obispo to repack and left immediately for the state of Washington. My college roommate, Peggy, and I lived together for four years in the early 1960's. We still enjoy each other immensely and take every opportunity to have another adventure together.
We helped friends in the Washington Packers Association take their horses, mules, chuckwagons, stagecoach and supply wagons into the Cascades for the summer. The livestock is wintered on pastures along the Columbia River. Each spring they are ridden and driven into the mountains for their summer of work. This was a fun step back into my past, riding again; in the mountains, as I did as a child and since, doing ranch work. It is also reminiscent of the years I spent "wrangling horses" and later "cowboying" at Union Feed Yards where I first encountered Bill who was a banker in town. He came out to count inventory on the 50,000 head of cattle we had in the pens. At that time, "Union" was the largest feed yard in the world. Young women doing things like cowboying in the 1950's and '60s was a bit strange, so he gave me wide berth, but later decided to change his mind.
April 26 was Bill's target date to start hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) from Mexico to Canada. He and my brother, Wes began hiking that day. Wes flew him down and hiked the first two days with Bill and came home to go back to work.
The trail goes as high as possible along the ridge of the Sierras and the Cascades. The PCT thru-hike is a long-time dream for Bill. At 66, we needed to make the opportunity for his dream to come true. As you may know, over the years, Bill has done some deal of hiking. He has done parts of the Appalachia Trail, the Long Trail into Canada, the Florida Trail, the Texas/Rio Trail and some on the Pacific Crest
Hiking from Mexico to Canada is a trip he would have loved to have made with our sons, Derek and Dylan, who would have been 30 and 31, had death not passed across their lives.
April 23-29 took me on a quick aide trip to New York to hear Dawna, our daughter, play both oboe and English horn in the San Luis Obispo Symphony performance on the evening of April 25th in Carnegie Hall. Then they went on to perform with the symphony in Washington, DC at Lisner Hall, at George Washington University the evening of April 27th. I was there to hear both performances. (Once a mom, always a mom!)
If the answer to the question, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" is, in fact, "practice, practice, practice," practice paid off handsomely for the San Luis Obispo Symphony. Standing ovations!!
As always, as I travel, there are book tour stops in route. I was also able to see some friends who came to the concerts and met us along the way.
This adventure was my wonderful Christmas present last year, from Bill. I wish he could have gone with me but he prefers hiking trails to big cities.
April 17-22, I was in Baltimore for the International Critical Incident Team World Congress where my books were on display and I did signings in the bookstore.
February 20, 2001 we flew to New Zealand.
New Zealand is an incredibly beautiful part of the world. It's a country of contrasts, from jungles to the Southern Alps, which rival the European Alps in many ways. The rolling pasturelands are reminiscent of England. Quaint friendly villages, lovely deep fjords, gorgeous glaciers, peopleless fine sand beaches and great food are uniquely combine in New Zealand. Yet, they remind us of other places in the world we have explored. Bill, my brother Wes and his wife Marilyn and I rode about 3000 miles on motorcycles, mostly on the South Island in two weeks of beautiful riding weather.
New Zealand has "dream riding" for folks who choose do the same type of riding we enjoy. The roads were virtually trafficless and curvy with well banked turns. They were very well maintained, had nice riding surfaces, no loose gravel (except for the dirt roads which we intentionally took).
Once again, we used traded motorcycles as our major mode of travel while we were in New Zealand. Over the years, we have traded motorcycles with experienced riders who want to come to California for a vacation. This works much like the more familiar house-trading.
When we have time to go to their area, we have always been hosted by gracious, interesting folks as we load and get familiar with their motorcycles. This time we traded with BMW owners, Murray and Renate who live near the beach north of Wellington. For more information on BikeSharing. Go to TABS (Trans Atlantic BikeShare) http://www.bikeshareworld.com.
In Blackball, New Zealand, Bill and I, Wes & Marilyn are standing with a friend John along with our hosts Murray and Renate who BikeShared with us the motorcycles we rode. The Blackball Hilton is the hotel for this little sleepy town just inland from the coast.
Combining book tour and motorcycles is always a bit of a challenge as there isn't much space for books on cycles. I sit on the books that go with us. This puts me up high and solves an old leg injury problem that plagues me when I ride in the position most pillion's (the person riding behind the person driving the motorcycle) ride. I get more wind and bug spots on my visor but it is like being a bird and Bill's helmet doesn't to block my view.
As always, while en route we have many opportunities to stop and visit. It is still, even after almost 19 years of doing touring, amazing to us that everywhere we go we find families and individuals who are struggling with bereavement. There are opportunities to be helpful at every turn.
Our hosts Murray and Renate started us off in the North Island and then met us ten days later on the South Island. We rode the last four days on the West Coast with them and their riding buddy, John.
Over the years of doing BikeShares and international travel, we have learned that it isn't necessary to pre-set accommodation arrangements. This allows for some fun, spontaneous experiences and we have yet to sleep on the ground! Once again, this held true. Only one night in a very remote area we slept in a hiker's shelter that turned out to be very comfortable, the store rented us clean bedding and sold us the food we cooked for dinner.
When Wes and Marilyn came home, Bill and I rented a car. We spent another two weeks exploring the lush green and culturally diverse North Island. Stopping at cheese factories, museums, quaint villages, restaurants "fun finds" and classic clean old hotels gave us some wonderful quiet quality time together.
We slowed our pace as we explored the parts of the North Island that we had missed on the motorcycles. The car made it possible to focus on book tour a bit more easily. It is nice not having to carefully ration the books, as we can travel with a supply of books in a car. Bill did some hiking or exploring when I got tied up with the books. He often notices or intuits (he calls it "woowooing") opportunities to help people that I miss. He used to think that following hunches was strange, then he realized he was doing the same type of intuiting, suddenly it seemed less strange. He is really a good sport about this aspect of traveling with me. But he does say that the next book that is written in this family is going to be "How to Live With A Woman Who Has Written A Book".
While on the motorcycles we met our now friends, Erin & Chris in Queenstown. We knew they were riding around the world on motorcycles and we had been keeping up with them to a degree in the TABS Newsletter that keeps us in touch with the TABS (Trans Atlantic BikeShare members). This is the group that allows us the opportunity to trade motorcycles with other folks around the world. Chris and Erin are using their own motorcycles on this round the world trip but have been long time BikeShare folks. They were actually using the same model BMW's (R100GS/PD, F650) that we were riding in New Zealand.
Take time to check out their site. http://www.ultimatejourney.com/home.html You won't be sorry!
Take a look at their New Zealand section. It will show you where we have been and what we love doing. You may be like lots of other folks who are having a hard time imagining how and why folks between 60 and 70 would be riding motorcycles anywhere, any time, every chance we get. Their photos are great and will give you a visual idea of what it is like to ride as a 4-some on motorcycles. I still don't know how to "can" the fun and share it with you!
My first question to Erin was "How did you decide to do this?" Her answer to me was the one you will find on their (site listed above). I have inserted the following quotes from the first chapter of their trip story, with their permission.
"My husband, Chris, and I are two (basically) normal 30-something people living and working in New York City. I have a 1997 F650 and Chris has a 1994 R100GS/PD. Chris has been riding since college and I have been riding for the past three years. Each year we take a 2-week trip (sometimes abroad) and several shorter trips on our motorcycles. We love to camp out and experience the world through our motorcycle journeys. In the past, we have ridden through Europe (the Alps and Dolomites), the Canadian Rockies and across the U.S. Everywhere we go, we meet wonderful people and see the real wonders this world has to offer!"
With a bit of forethought Chris & Erin decided to see the world. They sold their flat in New York City, crated their bikes and shipped them to Europe and took off. Their story is on the above site and is fun to check out.
Here is a bit from their Chapter 50 that mentions us.
http://www.ultimatejourney.com/Chap50.html
Fjords, Friends & 50,000 miles
a short clip of the story
by Erin & Chris
"The odometer has just clicked over 50,000 miles (80,000 kms) on the trip so far. It's been almost two years, and we've certainly covered a lot of ground."
"We had a great time in Queenstown. We even met four Californian TABS (Trans Atlantic BikeShare) members who had borrowed two bikes from the North Island. The idea is you can borrow someone's bike, and someone else from the club can borrow yours. Bill and Phyllis were on a F650, and Wes and Marilyn were riding a R100PD -- both borrowed from Murray and Renate in Levin."
For actual pictures of all of us you need to go to http://www.bikeshareworld.com/members_area/online_news/current_news.htm scroll down to 3-20-01 http://www.bikeshareworld.com/Gallery/queenstownNZ.htm.
Bill and I loved the rest of our trip adventure through Kiwi country. The U.S. dollar was worth over two New Zealand dollars, need I say more. It was a great get away!!
After Bill came home on March 20th, I flew on to Tasmania for a fun time with Michael Davies. We call Michael our nephew, he is actually a cousin of Bill's but was a buddy to our son Derek before his death in the air crash in 1984. Michael had always come to see us or we had gone to see or be with his family. This time, I went to see and be with him. We had a great fun together. I am so glad I went. Now I am holding a dream of a motorcycle trip with Bill, Wes and Marilyn around Tasmania.
When Michael was busy I did some exploring the country side and book touring. I met some great folks and sold some books, but that was not my main focus on this leg of the trip.
March 30, was a long flight home. From my early departure in Hobart, Tasmania it was 26 hours, even with short layovers.
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