50 Year Adventure

This is the collage of photos I put together for the front cover of my book. The top three photos are of Nepal. The top left photo is in Pokhara, Nepal which is my favorite place in the whole world. The top right photo is of the Boudhanath Temple in Kathmandu. The photo in the middle is at the foot of that temple and is the Shiva temples next to the burning ghats where people are cremated. The middle left photo was taken from a friend's house near Marina Drive in Mumbai. The middle right photo was taken from a train while in Uttar Pradesh, which reminds me of the rural India I love. The bottom right photo is of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, which is the most impressive building I have ever seen. The bottom left photo is the sand dunes next to the entrace to the beach we frequently visited in Saudi Arabia. The bottom middle photo was taken on a drive to the same beach, when we always saw roaming camels. The sign never detered us from driving on the short cut!

I had the pleasure of growing up in the mountains of rural Virginia.

These are photos of me as a child.

I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1984. I contacted the university and requested the official seal from the time when I attended, which was before they abbreviated the name. The Virginia Tech seal is used with permission of Virginia Tech.

This is a drawing I created while in Belgium for the summer. I drove a Ford Transit for two months. One month in the French part and the other month in the Flemish part of Belgium. I added the locations where I visited to the map.

While in North 24 Paraganas in West Bengal, India I drew these while living on a farm.

While in North 24 Paraganas in West Bengal, India I drew these while living on a farm.

While in Dacca, Bangladesh the colorful and highly decorated rickshaws are everywhere, so I had to draw one as it waited outside the building where I was staying. Since pineapples are so plentiful in Bangladesh I had to draw one. They are very pretty as they are mostly dark green with touches of dark red on the leaves. The aroid, called Mukhi Kachu in Bangladesh, is typically eaten by poor people who boil the roots.

While living in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa among the Santali people for a month, I drew the things I saw around me in a Santali village.

These photos were taken while living in Saudi Arabia as I worked for the national oil company for two years. We saw camels every time we drove to the beach. Photos were generally forbidden outside the Aramco compound so we captured these in our frequent trips to the nearby public beach.

One of my trips back to India took me to Bangalore and then later by overnight train to Kovalam beach at the tip of Kerala.

Before moving to San Antonio to our perfect family house, we lived in a house that can only be labeled as a "fixer-upper" as the middle two photos show. The bottom two photos show the same house after we completed all renovations right before we put the house up for sale to move to Texas.

My next trip to India took me to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh after flying into Bangalore, Karnataka. My first day in Hyderabad was spent as a full fledged tourist, which was something I was not accustomed to doing. A friend's cousin escorted me around the city. I really enjoyed seeing the ancient Golcunda Fort and the Qutab Shah tombs of the kinds who ruled the fort in the 15th and 16th centuries.

This was a painting of our children that was done by one of the last remaining Indian Bollywood poster artists in Mumbai. He suggested a nice background in Rajastan. It is 4 feet tall by 8 feet wide.

These are all done by artists in our family. The middle oil painting was created by my wife. The top right pastel drawing was done by our oldest son. The rest were all done by our middle son. The bottom two in the corners resulted in prizes at his school. The round medallions were retrieved from his desk right before he threw them away.