Grew up in Europe, spent a lot of time in the Southern Mediterranean countries between Corsica and Spain. We also spent time traveling between the northern parts of South America and the US, as well as spending two summers teaching English, one in Mexico City and the other in Buenos Aires, when I was college age. I've also visited the Grand Canyon, a federal prison outside Denver, the Yucatan Peninsula, camped at various places in Baja California, saw Niagra Falls, Acapulco, Baja, Ixtapa, Cuba, a farm in upstate New York outside Buffalo, Niagra Falls, Disneyland, the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff/Sedona for a youth camp, any number of national parks and other camping areas, and many more places before I was even old enough to drink! PHILOSOPHY "I believe the appropriate metaphor here involves a river of excrement and a Native American water vessel without any means of propulsion."