Hello all, Travel is a funny thing in that you meet people who you have amazing adventures with and then after a few days you never see them again(kind of sucks). Who is your most favorite travel companion that you have never seen again and what was your adventure?

I often do see them again. I belong to an on-line group that loves to vacation and cruise together. Members from all over the world, but most are from the US. There is an annual meeting in Vegas too. Whoa what a fun group.

yeah..try mango-tree .com

I suppose I could find people again if I really tried but part of me likes the mystery of it. Thats half the fun! I travelled with a guy from mexico for a while and had a riot. I introduced him to the great game of quarters which was good for a laugh. He in turned proved that he could hold more tequila than me! It will be one of those things where I'm walking down the street one day and poof there he is. I get a kick out of stuff like that.

I have had many travel buddies. One of the best ones was in Australia. We met on a tour of Fraiser Island and we drove around there for 2 days and then he gave me a ride back to Brisbane where he was living and then I went on to Sydney. I tried to contact him a few times but I never got in touch with him. He was a great guy and made me laugh for days. If I knew him longer I might have found out he was a real person and real life might have gotten in the way, so probably best that we never spoke again.

Okay, this one's wild and from over 15 years ago, so I think the statute of limitations will probably have taken effect.

I was out camping in the western United States. I say that because I literally did go to every state west of Kansas except for Arizona (was there the year previous). At this particular time I was in Utah, the NE corner. I was staying a campground called the Brownie Lakes. Now I had thrown away my watch and calander before I took off, so I had no idea what day of the week, let alone what day of the year it was.

I'd been having a great time at this place. I had taken my mountain bike with me on this trip (which lasted almost six months) so I was enjoying the mountains of Utah and the trails which I found in them. Well after my second week there, I noticed a lot of the camping areas were getting filled up. Didn't think a thing about it until I ran across that group of bikers. No, not bicyclists, bikers.

These guys immediately started giving me a hard time about my "bike." So, naturally, I went ahead and biked down to there campsite when they started giving me grief. I started talking to them (I am a novice motorcycle enthusiast), and they thought I was just a laugh riot. We had a great time, did some fishing, traded some "supplies" with each other (you can make some guesses). But what I didn't realize was that one thing they had, fireworks. It turned out it was 4th of July weekend.

I got to hang out, drink their beer, smoke their pot, got partially molested by one of their women, and to top it off, got to watch a rather impressive fireworks display. It was impressive too, the park ranger waited until after we had quit shooting them off (over the lake) before coming over to tell us we were under extreme fire danger rules and would have to douse our campfires. (We didn't, but we did take it down a notch or two)

Not bad for folks I'd never met, couldn't tell you a single name of, and will likely never recognize again even if I did meet them. That was just the start of the trip, I spent even more time on the road after that.

If this post is still up later, I'll add another story from that trip, I've got plenty. I think this is the kind of tales you were looking for.

wasnt me lol

wasnt me lol

LOL! ya stuff like that!

Here's another from the same trip...

I was up in Oregon, doing some camping on Huckleberry mountain. I was staying in the national forest this time, and not at campground area, you know, kind of being rustic. It's beautiful country up there, and a great place to spend a couple of weeks in the woods. Well, once again, I had my mountain bike and was traveling all over the logging paths out there.

One afternoon I decided to take one of the horse paths, thinking it would be a fairly easy ride. And it was, at least the start of it. Oh, there was some "soft" spots where my bike slid out on me in the heavy pine needles, but mostly it seemed to be fairly level. Now mind you, once again, had thrown away my watch, so I wasn't really able to keep track of the time. To overshot from the forest to get a good bearing from the sun. Also, I wasn't very prepared for my day, like an idiot.

I had taken off with plenty of water, but had forgotten to bring any real food (couple of granola bars that's it). Well it's called Huckleberry Mountain for a reason, fresh berries everywhere, and ripe too!!! So I was eating a lot of those that day, so much so I burned my throat from the berries acids, making it hard to swallow the water I had brought along. But I persisted.

At one point in the afternoon, the path finally exited out to a road. Now I had to climb over a couple of very large trees with my bike a few times, so I decided I'd follow the road back as opposed to retracing the same trail. Bad mistake. Not realizing it was after 5 or 6 when I started down the road (thinking it was only 1 or 2). Well, the road was leading me away from my camp, I recognized this early, but pressed on. Finally after about 2 hours of biking I realize I'm in trouble and not going to make it back to camp before sunset. Knowing this I, even though I'm a man, come to the conclusion that I have to stop and ask directions. So I pull up to the first house I come too.

I knock on the door, and this gentlemans wife answers. I explain my situation to her, and she says I need to talk to her husband. So he comes to the door and I tell him the story, including the road number I was on and approximately where I was camped. He gives me some directions and tells me I have a 27 mile ride back to my camp. I, seeing sunset approaching, hop on and start pedalling. I've been doing this since about 10 in the morning (that is accurate, the trucks clock said so) and was getting more and more tired as the ride progressed, up hill all the way now.

Well I had been out about 45 minutes or so, when this little blue truck comes pulling up beside me. It was the gentleman that gave me directions. He rolled his window down and said "I knew when you left you'd never make it before dark, so I told the Mrs. I was coming to take you up, throw your bike in back." Well, I did just that.

He went on to tell me that I stopped at the right place. He was a retired Park Ranger and he'd been looking for an excuse to get out into the mountains. He told me a few places to check out, one of which was a really cool hidden waterfall, and some interesting historical points about the place. He, of course, asked me if I'd been up to Crater Lake (less than 5 miles from where I had camped), but I was planning on going the next day, so I hadn't. He did inform me of the best time to be up there to see the "Ghost Ship" in it's full glory (which I did, but I skipped a day because I was tired and the time was early in the morning). He dropped me off about 30 feet from my tent, said goodnite, thanked me for getting him out of the house, and took off.

Probably my best story of meeting a complete stranger on a vacation and getting an act of altruism. I can't remember his name, but if I needed to, I bet I could find that house again. A really nice man, couple actually.

The tour guide for new york our travel agent set us up with in 10th grade man he was HOT

Hooked up with two California girls in Alaska, traveled in my van for six weeks when they went back to California, I never heard from them again. It wasn't a sex thing, I paid most of the freight and gas. Felt kinda used and let down.

I befriended my wine steward on a cruise to the Bahamas and his fiance who dealt black jack on the ship. They had a day off and showed me around Paradise Island's more private side, and we had a blast. We exchanged info and two months later they invited me to join them at his fathers restaurant in Poland and they'd show me around Europe for a few days on vacation...but I could not go. We just got on soooo well, it would have been fabulous. We still exchange Christmas cards, but I don't know if I'll ever make it out that way to see them again.

They are now married and run his fathers restaurant in Poland and have a deli and two children now too. Happy happy family.

I havent stopped travelling and I meet new people every day.

Today I met an American and a German who work in Suez as engineers. On a 3-day break.
They live in Germany and come to Egypt three or four months at a time.

Cool guys. Going to be diving with them tomorrow before they head off to St Katherine's monastery to do the 5am sunrise thing

Cool, how long have you been on the road for?

Since I was 18, so about 23 years!

Deadly, see now thats the kind of lifestyle I'm looking for! Just as soon as my house and vehicles sell that is!!!!!!!! I am looking at being on the road for about 12 to 18 months if things go right. If I can swing it, I would liked to stay out longer but we shall see how it goes. What has been your favorite spot so far?

Different places invoke different emotions.

I have been diving all over the world, so that cant really count, but either camel safari's through the Sinai, or getting jailed in Malaysia, a 3 week tour of Laos & Cambodia on a motorbike (getting off and throwing myself into a flowing waterfall)

Sitting on my patio in Thailand drinking coffee with my best friend listening to The Doors, whilst the sea lapped the beach at our toes and the moon was a big yellow thing with no clouds.

... trading coconuts & abuse with the monkeys at 2am in the Malaysian jungle because the little shi1ts would not keep the noise down

... or just being in my familial & spiritual home in Amsterdam, where time does not exist.

Some witterings are here ... www.dunx.net/page3.php

I travel, because the world is too big not to.

A friend I knew in New Hampshire. We went mountain climbing the last time we were together. I am somewhat afraid of heights, she is a fairly decent climber. We had a great time.

Sadly, we lost touch when I returned to England for a while.

So I had been on the road about a month this time. I was up in Maine at Moosehead lake. Beautiful country up there, and great people. I had two encounters with people I will never know, and here they are:

Story One:

I had rented a motor boat to go out on the lake and do some fishing. It was a nice sunny day, but I didn't catch anything. I actually spent most of the morning just having fun driving a boat around, because I hadn't actually done that since I was a teenager. I had some problems though. I had been given two tanks of gas to take out for my days excursion, but the second tank had a clog in the line somewhere. Even after switching lines I could not get that thing to start again. I sat drifting out on the lake for about two or three hours before someone finally stopped.

He was a genuinely nice man, threw me a rope and towed me to shore. He towed me to the dock by his cabin, then gave me a ride to the other side of the lake to where the boat rental was, probably the better part of a 30 mile drive. We had a nice conversation, he told me that he was a math professor at a college nearby, but I cannot remember which one. He dropped me off, refused to take any money for his service, and went back home. Basically, he went out of the way to help a stranger.

To top things off, the guy I rented the boat from was all apologies for the boat breaking down. He didn't even charge me for the day, just the gas I used (4.00 at the time). He was actually relieved to find his boat would be in one piece when I showed up. Apparently someone had flipped another boat like I had rented and sent the engine to the bottom of the lake. So just towing in a boat didn't sound bad to him. So I guess this first story has two nice people.

Story Two:

Sarah from New Jersey. I can't remember if I ever got her last name. I had gone to town and rented a bicycle for the afternoon. There are plenty of trails and old logging paths up there, so I was biking all over the place. I was heading back to my campsite, and came out of the woods to a road. I had stopped for a bit, to drink some water and catch my breath, when I hear someone yelling "Paul." I look around, and see this young lady looking in my direction and yelling (again) "Paul." I check the other side of me, and no one is there, but this lady keeps coming my direction and starts waving. I look around a bit more, and then realized she was yelling at me. So I stayed put and let her come walking up.

Well, as you can imagine, the first thing she said was "Oh, your not who I thought you were." I just laughed and said something to the effect of "probably why I didn't answer." It was funny enough to get her to laugh, and we struck up a conversation. Turns out she was camping about two spots down from me at the campsite area, so I walked my bike back to camp and kept chatting with her. She said she had been camping up there for about a week with her Aunt and sister, and that she was kind of glad to be speaking with someone "her own age." When we reached where I was camped, she told me that "since I know where your staying, I might stop by later." Well, I was a man in my mid twenties, so I wasn't about to miss an opportunity like that (insert eye roll here), and I drove to town shortly after she left to get a couple of bottles of wine (don't groan like that).

True to her word, she did show up later. We went for a walk, stopped by the lakeside, sat and fed some ducks that were swimming near the shore. I actally have a picture of the ducks, didn't get one of Sarah. Anyway, she came back to the camp with me, and did actually help drink one of the bottles of wine I had procured. No, there was no sex, sorry to disappoint, I was just having a good time talking with her. She went home (to her tent) well after sunset, and came back again the next morning to say "goodbye" because she was leaving with her family to go back to New Jersey.

I have always kicked myself a little for not getting a phone number or address from her, or at least giving her mine. She was a nice fun loving lady, who I would have enjoyed getting to know a little better. All I can remember about her is her first name, where she was from, and that she taught the second grade at a school where she lived. In truth, I enjoyed the time I spent with her more than half of the "real" dates I've been on.