On boarding the plane in Atlanta for Santiago, Chile, I struck up a conversation with a guy in front of me with a t-shirt moniker for Antarctic Helicopters. Wow, I thought, what a “cool” place to fly provided you could keep the engines and batteries warm enough to crank. I asked him if he worked for the company. “No” he said, “my wife is a dispatcher for the company in Antarctica, but only during winter; the rest of the time we both live in Alaska. I am on my way to meet her in Peru for a hike on the Inca trails.”

Well heck, I thought I was doing some pretty interesting travel and working in exotic environments! This encounter reminded me of others I have met who live and travel around the world. As soon as they have enough money for a plane ticket they are gone for the next adventure. Where ever in the world they run out of money they work for a while for the next plane ticket, then gone again. Wow! Antarctica, Alaska, and Peru all in a couple of weeks! It appeals to me—at least it would for a few days. Then I know I would get homesick for my family, my farm and garden, my woods and man cave, and my motorcycles and tractors. At the end of my short excursions abroad, I am forced to admit that I am a “farmer” with my feet stuck in my Virginia dirt. But that is not such a bad thing.