I became aware of my wanderlust through family road trips to national parks and opportunities to see southeast Asia and Europe during my late teens.  My fascination with people and cultures led me to an undergrad degree in anthropology, and eventually a Ph.D. in geography.  In the late 1980s, I accepted a faculty position at a major state university.  While I value solid classroom teaching, travel taught me that there is no substitute for firsthand experience.

Group of six people posing in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, with sunny weather and other tourists in the background.

In 1994, I began organizing and leading field-based courses to U.S. national parks, and later, excursions to Cuba, Morocco, and more than a dozen European countries.

An elderly African woman wearing traditional colorful clothing and a headwrap is talking to a smiling man with glasses, a cap, and a plaid shirt, in an outdoor setting with trees in the background.

These experiences, coupled with research and outreach trips, have taken me to six continents and more than 90 countries.  At least some of these journeys wouldn’t have happened without support from friends and others who had visited places before me.  In 2024, I developed this website with the goal of encouraging others to travel to lesser known and out of the way places. 

A man standing by a turquoise lake with his arms spread wide, wearing sunglasses, a hat, and a black jacket, with snow-capped mountains in the background.