Tomorrow Michael and I will be off to Egypt for a cruise on the Nile River! We’ll be guests of the President of Big Five Tour and Expeditions, a luxe vacation company that operates on 5 continents (all except North America and Antarctica). We’ll spend 2 nights in Cairo at the Four Seasons Cairo at Nile Plaza, 5 nights aboard the brand new, elegant Oberoi Zahra (Oberoi as in the Oberoi Udaivilas, the best hotel in the world per Travel & Leisure’s 2007 Reader’s Poll!), and our final night at the Mena House Oberoi Cairo. Not bad for 2 people from the land of Dorothy, Toto and the Wizard of Oz!

2 things:

1)  those of you who view anything West of New York and East of California as “flyover” material, get over it! I am s-o-o-o-o-o tired of the “attitude” I encounter from many Coasters—both East and West. “Oh, Kansas and Missouri, flyover states!” I don’t think so! It seemed good enough to give us US Presidents Eisenhower(born in Texas, lived in Abilene, KS) and Truman (Independence, MO); a wonderful woman heading our government in Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius; Amelia Earhart, the famous pilot was from Atchison; Kansas boasts the first black woman to receive an Academy Award, Hattie McDaniel (Gone with the Wind); Charlie Parker, legendary jazz great, was born in Kansas City, KS; and let’s not forget Robert Altman, Casey Stengel, Dale Carnegie, and Walter Cronkite. In 2005 Steve Fossett (please keep him in your prayers) began his record-breaking solo nonstop circumnavigation of the globe from Salina, KS.

2) I am not taking my laptop with me so I’ll share my Egyptian dreams, thoughts, and flights of fancy with you when I return in 9 days!

Be safe, be kind, and go “Green!”