My Portfolio

  On the road...again!!! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester       Secret Pleasures A few memories of delicious pleasures are stuck in the corners of his mind.  Some are on the light side, while others are a bit darker. Everybody harbors them, but avoids bringing them into...

  On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Forger and Grave Robber   He never thought of himself as evil, crooked or even shady, but the Footloose Forester definitely does have a few skeletons in his closet. The thought of his forgeries...

  On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Zebra Amber   Many times we all take things for granted.  Being comfortable with one’s personal ignorance is a way to cope, so although we strive to know what is going on, or knowing...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Re-Learning Geography Learning the names of state capitals was a fundamental part of geography classes, and in grammar school, Geography was his favorite subject.  Although some people believe that knowledge is power; others discount the importance...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Explaining Glaciers   The Athabasca Glacier, located in Jasper National Park of Alberta, Canada is an example of a mountain glacier. Mountain glaciers typically form at the downslope foot of steep ridges and then extend...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Washoe Indian Encampment at Wrights Lake, California Only after joining the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy as a volunteer in 2009 did Footloose Forester rekindle his interest in geology.  Having the time to document his memoirs helped,...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   R is Rwanda   Never will the Footloose Forester be able to tie the events in Rwanda and Burundi together in a historical or insightful way. But since he traveled to both countries on various occasions,...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   E  is for Ethiopia The highlands of Ethiopia are among the most beautiful landscapes on earth.  To see things that way, one must always remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  So,...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   The Grey Wall, Desolation Valley Wilderness Area   Haunting personal memories of the past are sometimes ugly ones, but in repeated exercises to maintain mental health, most of his preferred recollections induce smiles and pleasant thoughts. ...

On the road…again!!! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Giving Up Barbershops Except for the one time he went to a barber in Gainesville, Florida before leaving for the Organization for Tropical Studies study program in Costa Rica in 1970, the Footloose Forester decided to...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Travels By Train On his first travels west of the Rocky Mountains, the Footloose Forester had a premonition that he would never again be as happy as he was in the mountains.  Seeing the Rockies...

  On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Trinity Center, California A few memoirs are related almost exclusively to forestry ventures, and some of the very sweetest memories are about the sights, sounds and events when Cal-Pacific Forest Consultants had a contract...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Uniform or Not, Civilian or Not   Uniform or not, civilian or not, many of us who spent more than a year in Viet Nam saw lots of action of one form or another. There...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION Attalea   crassispatha (C. Martius) Burret, the "Coco rosse" known only to a handful of botanists and the Haitian villagers in the Southwest of Haiti, may be one of the rarest palms...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Getting To Morocco On A Pass With a hand-written copy of the Rhein-Main flight schedule in his back pocket, Footloose Forester was not sure where he would end up during his first leave period from his...

On the road… again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   On the road… in Germany   Neuschanstein Castle in Bavaria   Visiting Dachau Prison, the site of a World War II concentration camp was on his travel agenda.  So was spending a few hours during...

On the road …again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   A is for Afghanistan His urge to visit Afghanistan was precisely as James Michener described in his book "Caravans."  That was many years ago and he has forgotten just what Michener said in the book...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   Return to Tuy Hoa (in Google Earth)   Thoughts of Viet Nam keep returning in his dreams.  Some memories are clear but others are confused, especially about why the Footloose Forester was there, in the...

  On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek   T for Trinidad Trinidad is probably carved out of South America.  If you look closely at a map of Venezuela, you will see how closely the coastline adjacent to Trinidad suggests that Trinidad once fit...

On the road…again! Afghanistan to Zambia Chronicles of a Footloose Forester By Dick Pellek    Italy Joe Pellek was the first one to note that the bathroom in our hotel room in Genoa was all marble tile; the walls, the floor, and the quaint bathtub.  Even the floor in the bedroom...