On July 13, 29 members and prospective members of the Texas & Oklahoma TCC Chapter enjoyed a luncheon meeting, with two featured speakers, at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Center in College Station, Texas. Before and after the meeting many members also toured the Library.
Magali Hinojosa (TCC Platinum) drove all the way from Laredo to share her recent exciting trip in the North Caucasus (Russia). The stories and explanations she gave about the amazing architecture, statues and memorials, natural beauty and travel experiences captured the audience. She also explained that contrary to common belief, she at no time felt any degree of safety concerns and that she found the people there to be some of the most friendly and open people of her extensive travels.
Carolyn Barkley (TCC Platinum) shared her experiences traveling in North Korea. She knew the trip would be controlled and the explanations given by her “minders” would be one-sided and staged for the foreign visitors. But Carolyn, in her usual outgoing, friendly and upbeat way, told of how clean everything was, how many statues and images of the Kims there are, the near absence of cars on the modern streets and roads, the modern buildings in places visitors are taken, and her group’s venture to the north side of the DMZ.
As per our chapter tradition, we also held a two-minutes-per-person around-the-room travel story-tell. These included meeting the actual person who was the old man of Hemingway’s book “The Old Man and The Sea;” visiting Dracula’s Castle in costume on Halloween when no one else was in costume; jumping in an unlocked parked car in Churchill, Canada, to avoid a roaming polar bear; dining at a Michelin two-star restaurant in the Faroe Islands; and several more interesting stories.
Six new members were recognized, one of whom, Bob Young, was at the meeting. And Mike Bowles was awarded a certificate as winner of our most recent chapter e-newsletter photo contest.
The next quarterly Texas & Oklahoma Chapter luncheon meeting will be held on Oct. 12 at Cafe Blue in Austin, with details announced in due course.
