Category: Travel

This is the story of how Donna received her Magic Rainstick from a young man in exchange for a crystal.

We walked down the narrow labyrinthine streets of the Old City. Many were lined with small shops selling anything they could.

We decided to go to Jerusalem without knowing for sure where we would stay. Having heard that some of the Rainbow family had encamped outside the city at an abandoned village named Lifta, we decided to go there.

One afternoon a car pulled up to the gate, and a man dressed as a Russian Orthodox priest wearing a robe and kamilavkas, a clerical headdress, stepped out of the passenger side. The car quickly backed down the entrance drive leaving the priest behind. He walked to the gate and asked, “Is this the Rainbow?”

The Factory We rode down to Eilat with Peter, Karen, baby Jade, and a few others in their “Blue Whale” 508 Mercedes. The place we were directed to organize the circus was owned by a nice couple, Harvey and Mimi, who hoped to build a community there. It was a huge cement structure that could…

The next thing that happened will sound like I’m making it up, but it did happen, just as I’m saying. Blessed or cursed, I hear music in my mind. It’s not like humming a melody to myself, but more like a full-blown production with detailed instrumentation, as if I am wearing loud earbuds. It seldom stops…

It was about 20:30 hr, or 8:30 pm, as we say. The long line of vehicles, the “Blue Whale” among them, crept slowly onto the enormous ferry and were directed to their tight parking spots. 18-wheelers, or lories as they are called in Europe, were packed in so close by these expert drivers that one…

“I think that for my birthday, I would like to visit the home of Henri Matisse!” Donna said, “Nice is nice!” We had read all about Nice on the train as we neared the end of the line in France and decided to stop for the day to recover. We also decided to book tickets for the train to Rome that evening. Gotta keep moving to make it to the gathering in Israel! 

Flying to Luxembourg, landing in Reykjavík for a quick stopover with a brief pillaging of the salmon samples was becoming a regular event. We were becoming seasoned travelers on this trans-Atlantic fight. We recognized all the flight attendants, as I’m sure they recognized us, which led to even better drinks and snacks service.

October arrived, and we received our visas for India. Excitedly, we piled into Shannon’s car, and she drove us to Dulles Airport in Washington, DC. She dropped us off at the terminal and waited in the parking to ensure we could get a standby flight.