Rides.......from Rico

A career-lifelong friend, a brother-in-arms one could say (although the Italian Fra Diavolo_brother devil also fits), did me the honor of visiting my mountain redoubt in the course of his "bucket list" motorcycle ride from Anchorage to Key West.

 

Among other things it helped me to realize that I do not have (never had) a "bucket list" and am probably too old now to even start thinking about one.

 

That said, it did give me pause to reflect upon some of the things I've had the opportunity to do that I'd never have dreamt of putting on a bucket list in the first place:

- I've walked on the Great Wall of China. 

- I've been to the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza and gone inside the grand chamber at the top of the Great Pyramid (Cheops).

- Castle Frankenstein (yes, there really IS one) was also memorable.

- So was riding a long-tailed boat on the Mekong River and visiting the Golden Triangle (the centuries-old nexus of Southeast Asia's opium trade) where Thailand, Burma, and Laos intersect.

- I saw the original WWII atomic bomb pits on the island of Tinian where Fat Man and Little Boy were loaded onto the bombers (the site has since been 'touristified' and bears NO resemblance now to the originals).

- Walking Cambodia's killing fields and visiting the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison which are reminders of the Communist genocide that murdered 25% of the Cambodian population deepened my abhorrance of all things Communist and appreciation of what they are capable of.

- Same thing for the Korean DMZ which remains in effect from the end of the Korean War to today.

- Somewhere I have pictures from a 'visit' to the ancient city of Ninevah (it's mentioned in the Bible) on the Tigris River near Mosul.

 

The 'ride' is not yet over, but it has been an interesting one so far!