THE WORLD IS NO LONGER "POSTCARD PRETTY"

So, you wanna be a world traveler? Maybe you want to see the sights of London, see what the mother country is like today? Get in line, stand and wait.

Okay let's try crossing the channel and see gay Paree, as it is pronounced. Paris, the Eifel Tower, The Arc De Triomphe, the Louvre to see the great art works of the world.

Well, maybe not London, or Paris. How about a world-famous spot that is more rural? Let us jump over to the British countryside to check out Stonehenge.

Ah heck! There must be some famous world sites to see that are not overrun with tourists!

Venice is nice the say, and I imagine it is a calm and peaceful place, what with all of that water, maybe you might fish a bit to catch your dinner while you are there.

Well, Venice is a no-go, as it too is a might crowded. Perhaps the vast Egyptian desert would not be crowded, and I think the pyramids at Giza and the venerable Sphinx are "far from the madding crowd," with the wide sandy wasteland stretching to the horizon in every direction. Yeah, let's go breathe some fresh desert air, and bask in the orange sands of great solitude. Dangit, Giza turns out to be a no-go too.

How about good old Mount Everest? It is so isolated, difficult to get to, and expensive, surely we can get a nice place to sit and watch a few mountain climbers with our binoculars, maybe get a good photo of a happy traveler coming down from literally, the "highest high" of their lives, after reaching the summit and lived to tell the tale. I am sure Everest, being about as secluded as it gets, will be pristinely wonderful and awesome. Nope, there is enough discarded trash on Everest to fill more than two tractor-trailers. Two hundred dead bodies, and about 6,600 pounds of uhm, well, you know, of "doodie."

Well maybe you might wanna join me in riding some dirt roads near Garfield. It'll be fun, and we can stop and eat in Portal at Baby CJ's, and visit Lanier's IGA there too. We will round it out with a tour of Twin City, a great town with no crowds a'tall! Okay, let's go...