In addition to owning two businesses I also was a fire lookout when CDF (Calfire) still hired then in 1985 and 1986

There were two advantages for my family with this job. The first was the best medical policy for my whole family that included health, dental and hearing at that time. Best I have ever seen and since my family in 1985 was the 5 of us this medical plan was very helpful because the kids were 10, 12 and 14 I believe then too (two boys and a girl at that time). (another daughter was born in 1989).

So. the other advantage was that when Vajrasattva in one of his forms came to me and told me I was going to India December 10th 1985 I went home from the fire lookout and told my wife. She said, "Where is the money coming for this?"

I said, "I don't know but usually dieties like this are never wrong just like Angels when they tell you things are never wrong."

So, at first we didn't know what was going to happen because this was October of 1985. So, as time went on we inherited some money and thought about investing in land with it and realized we already owned a house and 2 1/2 acres of land in Mt. Shasta so at least at that point we didn't need any other land.

So, we asked how much a travel agent would charge us for 5 tickets for the whole family to go to India then and they said "$10,000". We said, "that's just too much for airfare to do this and still have enough money while we are there even if we have a family member be in charge of our two businesses here." 

So, it gets to be the first week in December and we had sort of given up going to India even though I knew Vajrasattva was likely right so I was just waiting for him to actually make this happen in some useful way for everyone. So, we are walking down Haight Street which is famous for the 1960s with a friend and one of his kids and my mother was with us and all our kids were there too and my mother sees an advertisement in a travel agency for 300 dollars or something like that for a week or two in Hawaii and that just sounds too good to be true so I walk in with my mother to protect her from a fraud.

However, when I went inside I realized that this was no ordinary travel agency but the kind that sells tickets all over the world to people that go on Archaelogical digs who go to Berkeley and CSU San Francisco and stuff like this.

So, I asked how much for discount open end 6 month tickets to Kathmandu, Nepal?

He says 6000 dollars for all 5 of you stopping in Narito Airport in Japan, Bangkok i Thailand and then landing in Kathmandu. However, you have to leave within a week because of the Asian holidays or this cannot work. 

So, I bought the tickets right then and we went home and packed and left within a week's time for Japan on First class seats on a JAL 747 to Narito Airport in Japan and then hopped on another plane pretty soon to Thailand because Japan was too expensive for us then so we went to Bangkok where it only cost then about 5 dollars to feed the whole family a good meal then.

Since my fire lookout job was 4 days a week 24 hours a day from about April or May to October usually I was free to travel then from December to April because of this and a family member took charge of our two businesses while we were gone.

By God's Grace

PS: we flew out of SFO which is San Francisco International Airport to Japan December 11th 1985 and returned to SFO by about April of 1986. We had become in a way citizens of the whole world.

However, the experience for all of us made us all world travelers ever after this in our lives adults and children too. 

For example my step son then 14 got married atop Mt. Kilimanjaro mountian in Africa and had Lions the night before the climb rummaging outside of his tent there in Africa.

So, it's been pretty interesting for the whole family since then watching them all travel all over the world after this 1985 to 1986 experience.

However, I would say it was more like spending 4 or 5 months on another planet than anything else and the worst Culture shock wasn't going there it was coming back to the U.S. (strangely enough).

by God's Grace 

The scariest animal on the Trip was dealing with White Rhinos on the Terai of Nepal on the plains ina jungle there. But, somehow we all even survived this too. My wife and I had to climb trees as the male rhino bashed up against my tree trying to knock me out of it. So, there was never a dull moment over there in any way. Like I said it was most like going to another planet.

However, I was 37 then and got really sick with Giardia which is why I don't want to go back there at age 78 because I don't want to die there. I was skinny as a rail for 6 months but finally I was over it. I think 4 out of the 5 of us got sick in Kathmandu in March or April sometime 1986. But, they have paved most all the roads now but then they were dirt a lot with Feces of various kinds blowing in the dust then which likely made us sick. Every American I knew who traveled there then got Giardia (to Kathmandu then).

 

 

 

 

 

 

By God's Grace