My father was in the U.S. Airforce, and as a result we moved around a lot when I was growing up...

 ***************** Places I've Lived ******************

Born in Smyrna, Tennessee 1955
Philippine Islands (Clark Airbase) 1958-59
Tennessee 1959-1962.
Clovis, New Mexico 1962, 1964
Taichikawa, Japan 1962-63
Hyattsville, Maryland 1964
Lincoln, Nebraska 1964-1966.
Spokane, Washington 1966-1970, 1971-1975, 1976-1994
Topeka, Kansas 1970
Alameda, California 1975
Governor's Island, New York 1975
Estartit, Spain 1975-1976 (Mediterranean Coast - on the beach!)
Pullman, Washington Since 1994

*********Places I've visited*********

Argentina Canada Chile China Colombia England Germany Hong Kong Indonesia Korea Mexico Panama Saudi Arabia Singapore Taiwan United Arab Emirates

*****Places I've where I've been only to the airports*****

Paris, France Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Anchorage, Alaska Kuwait City, Kuwait Guayaquil, Ecuador

***********A Few Notes*****

I went to Spain for a year, 1975-76 with the Coast Guard where I lived in a small fishing/tourist village called "Estartit", on the Spanish Riviera north of Barcelona. I also spent time visiting Barcelona. Came home to Spokane in late 1976, got married in 1977, and stayed put for a few years except for a few misc cross-country driving trips to Texas/New Mexico over the next few years for family reunions and a trip to Pennsylvania to visit my wife's grandparents. Working for the Spokane Cash Register Company in 1978/79, I spent a lot of time driving around and getting familiar with the small towns of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Joined Olivetti computers (called ISC at that time) in 1980, and started travelling around the USA regularly on business. I soon became very familiar with most major US cities, but I've never been to Atlanta, or the state of Maine... (Maine is the only state I've never been to) I joined the International Operations, Marketing Division in 1985, and started travelling outside the US several times per year. I especially enjoyed the times I spent time in Argentina, China, England, Hong Kong, Panama, and Singapore.

*************Other Memorable Highlights From My Life's Travels*************

(in no particular order)
Sailing across the Pacific Ocean on a military passenger ship at the age of 3. (Yes, I can actually remember some of this still - especially the sea-sickness!) First airplane flight at age 4 - Flew across the Pacific Ocean in a DC6(?). Flying across the Pacific Ocean to Japan in 1962 in a Lockheed C-121 "Super Constellation", the old 3-tailed propeller-driven airplane. Living off-base in a Japanese neighborhood in Japan in 1962-63, with a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji in the distance. Living in Maryland in 1964 (I was in third grade) - we spent lots of time touring the Smithsonian Museums and other sights in Washington DC. I visited Dulles Airport when it first opened. We climbed the steps of the Washington Monument all the way to the top, 555'. These steps were closed to the public a few years later and this is not allowed anymore. Living on Governor's Island, New York City while in the US Coast Guard in 1975, with a view of the Statue of Liberty from the windows of my room. Met and visited with a "witch doctor" in a jungle valley on Molokai, Hawaii in 1981. Driving to the top of Haleakala volcano on Maui in 1981. Getting detained at gunpoint in Saudi Arabia for not carrying a passport (1991). Temporarily surrendering my passport to Customs Officials who spoke no english, in Jakarta, Indonesia (to get a computer out of customs for an exchange) (1989). Flying to England in a 747 right after the Lockerbee bombing of the Pan Am flight. Flying from Hong Kong to Singapore on the upstairs section of a brand new Boeing 747-400. Flying over the Andes mountains from Buenos Aires to Santiago, Chile - with the most spectacular view of Mt. Aconcagua (22,830'). Its top appeared nearly level with the wings of the 747 as we flew past. Eating duck tongues, goose intestines, and other "interesting" foods in Taipei, Taiwan. Spending two weeks staying in the world's tallest hotel, the Westin in Singapore. The view from the 74th floor was incredible. Eating breakfast on a warm sunny morning in Singapore, with my wife and my good friend Frank, who flew up from Australia to see us. We were at an A&W Root Beer shop having waffles and root beer floats for breakfast, and it was great fun. Eating breakfast on the top floor of the Sheraton Hotel in Buenos Aires, looking out at the beautiful sunrise and the colorful public buses careening wildly around the plaza. Chartering a small boat with a friend from Chile, while we were both working in Jakarta, Indonesia. We went out to tour some tropical islands, and were nearly lost at sea when first the steering failed, and then late in the day just before dark the motor died and wouldn't restart as we drifted away from the dock of an island about 5 miles out from the mainland and with a storm brewing... A man in a rowboat finally took pity on us and rowed out with a rope to pull us back to shore. Shopping with friends on Avenida Florida, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The beef in Argentina is the BEST in the world, in my experience. It was also about the cheapest, the last time I was there... (1989?) Spending a weekend in Barcelona with a friend, seeing the sights and enjoying a balcony room overlooking Avenida de las Flores. Riding my bicycle near Missoula, Montana in 1980 when Mt. St. Helens in Washington erupted. The following 24 hours of darkness, ashfall and inability to call home were quite extraordinary. I was supposed to go to Beijing the week of what turned into the Tiannamen Square Massacre in 1989, but I decided it more prudent to stay in Hong Kong and not go. Our office was in the Minzhu Hotel, right at Tiannamen Square and the site of the first Chinese army tank battles. I could have had a ring-side seat... I went to Beijing later that year, and I think of all my travels, seeing the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, the Great Wall, and the tombs and other major historical sights of China were perhaps the most memorable. Being in China was almost like being on another planet... Driving to dinner one evening with business friends in Bogota, Colombia, and suddenly realizing we were surrounded by literally thousands of poor homeless people, a sight you never see in the USA. As we stopped at a red light, a scrawny man holding a baby and with two young children sleeping at his feet held out his hand to us, with a look of total desperation. My children were about the same age as this man's, and it broke my heart to see his hopelessly desperate situation. While staying at the luxury Hilton in Jakarta, Indonesia, I walked the streets and saw poor and homeless people living in the streets, under bridges, along the river-sewer, everywhere. Many people, including small children, the blind and the crippled, made a "living" by selling individual cigarettes or bottled water literally in the middle of busy streets, at the traffic light intersections. Most Americans are so unaware of what real poverty looks like! One day in 1981 I was in Seattle working on a computer system, at a bank up on Broadway in the capital district. A woman customer came in with her sister, a professional fortune teller who was visiting from Nevada. It was a slow Friday afternoon in the bank, and I was going home to Spokane and my lovely young wife that evening, having been gone since Monday. The fortune teller started reading the palms of the female bank tellers just for fun, and was creating quite a stir of laughter and exclamations. When she got to me, I let her read my palm,just for fun, but I absolutely did not believe in or give any creedence whatsoever to fortune telling. One of her predictions was that I would take a trip to Los Angeles in the near future. Within 15 minutes of this prediction, I got an urgent phone call from my boss in Spokane, telling me I had to be in Los Angeles by Monday morning to handle a customer emergency...