Donna
My Best Friend on Okinawa
One
of our fond memories is of the two of us doing a song and dance routine,
with her as Jane Russell and me as Marilyn Monroe,
to the song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
Donna
went on to become an actress and actually knows Jane Russell!
Before
coming to Okinawa as a budding teenager in the 1950s,
Donna had lived
in Japan (age 5-7). She also lived in Germany as a young bride in
the 1960s.
In the more recent past she has spent a good deal of time in Mexico.
We
have not seen each other since Washington in the early 1960s.
But, we re-connected a few years ago and caught up during a series
of telephone calls.
Donna now lives in Colorado and is grandmother to three.
At
some point, Donna went into real estate there.
A brief
bio in her own words...
Click here
Like
most of us military brats, including myself, Donna has a strong case
of the Wanderlust.
So, after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease a couple years
ago,
she decided to do some travelling that she had always dreamed of doing,
while she still could.
Not one to dream small, she set out to
go around the world by motorcycle!
And, thanks to her “retired” motorcycle-adventurer friend, Gregory,
the only motorcyclist in the world to have ridden solo four times
around the globe,
so she has!
For an introduction to the
plan,
Click here
Following are some photos from her adventure.
From
Deadhorse, Alaska, across the Arctic Circle
to the Arctic Ocean.
South through Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile....
Machu Pichu, Peru
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to
the southern tip of Argentina, south
of Ushuaia.
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From
Cape Town, South Africa,
via Namibia, Angola,
Botswana, Zimbabwe ...
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to
Cape Agulhaus at the southern tip of Africa.
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From
North Africa by Ferry across the Mediterranean
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to
Sicily, Sardenia, Pompeii
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North
to Florence and Pisa
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On
to the Alps of Switzerland and Austria and through Germany
Click
images to enlarge.
After
a year they had managed nearly three fourths of their ride around the
planet.
But, getting in the last leg was going to require a break for bad weather
and medical issues.
They went home for four months in Colorodao, and then they headed back
on the road.
Starting
again from Frankfurt, Germany,
they headed north to Sweden and Norway,
Click image
to enlarge.
crossing the Arctic Circle,
to the North Cape of Norway,
far north as they could ride a motorcycle on the European continent.
Click images to enlarge.
From
there they headed south to warmer weather,
starting with a trip to Helsinki,
Finland.
Ahead was a ferryboat ride to the former eastern bloc
countries of
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
From Warsaw,
they took a detour to Berlin, Germany, for Donna to see to see Berlin
and the Berlin Wall,
and to
obtain travel documents for heading east.
Before leaving Germany,
they stopped by a motorcycle traveler’s meeting in the Harz Mountains,
where Gregory knew some of the attendees and they could meet other
"global road warriors."
From there it was off to southern Germany, where Donna could visit
relatives while Gregory made motorcycle arrangements for their final
dash across Asia:
Target - Kathmandu, Nepal and points east.
Click images to enlarge.
Click image to enlarge.
Thailand
Click images to enlarge.
Finding
record-breaking rains in Thailand, they decided to forego similarly
wet Cambodia and Laos.
They parked their motorcycle on high ground in Thailand,
shipped some packages home and flew onto their final stop, Hong Kong,
and home to the US.
A
colorful narrative of their experiences, with more photos,
can be found on their web site.
Click here
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