You may remember John as our oldest travel story entrant who contributed an impressive four entries. You can still read them on the Travel Stories pages.  I am really honoured to be able to feature his latest wonderful entry to the Travel Highlights competition.

“How about a different kind of travel?” by John Rayburn
 
This one inside Hoover dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada. Our trip started with an elevator ride going through the rock wall of Black Canyon. We went down, down, down more than 500 feet in barely more than a minute. There’s a viewing spot above pipes 30-feet in diameter. Your unusual voyage seems paltry in witnessing fantastic water power rushing through on the way to hydroelectric generators, feeding them 90,000 gallons of water every second! Earth or space excursions would be unbelievable if that energy could be harnessed. 

The third excerpt from the second edition of Fred's Diary 1981 has been published today on 'Sarah Jane's Blog'. Follow this link to read today's segment and to find out about other authors and their works:
www.rukiapublishing.com/sarah-janes-blog


Today's excerpt is also reproduced below​:

The trip changes dramatically in Thailand

​A real shock awaited me. 

The police were there making a check of the guest house.

While sitting on the verandah with an American guy, Stan, I remembered with horror that Scott had given me a small container of grass and that it was lying on my bedside table. I just hoped that Graham had managed to get rid of it somehow.

My heart fell when I was called into the room and confronted with it. I didn't have much choice about confessing that it belonged to me.
They carried out a body search, turned out my bag completely and were disappointed not to find anything else.

The next hour or so was spent filling out forms and reports for myself, Stan (small amounts of both opium and grass) and Andy, another American guy, who was visiting a friend at the house. He only had a small amount of grass on him.

We all pleaded guilty. What big offences we thought and hoped that the situation could be sorted out within a couple of hours.

They had taken our passports and we had to go with them in an open truck to the police station where we were escorted inside. We sat in an office for a while and all of us at that time were expecting to be interviewed, fined and released. However, the wheels of Thai justice don't move that fast.
​
We were put in the cell, which was fairly clean although the toilet stinks, at 4:30 p.m. It’s quite roomy with three different sections, all separated by metal bars. Luckily they didn't separate us and only locked the main door.

Many thanks to all those entering the Travel Highlights competition. Here is our latest entry from Jackie Parry:

I found a small mirror in my compass case.
I flicked open the lid and a stranger peered back at me. Thick grey strands had taken root in my fringe. I had wide, white horizontal lines between my eyes and above my nose where I’d creased my face in worry and the sun hadn’t reached inside the folds. With my dirty t-shirt, cracked lips, and damaged skin and hair, I looked quite a picture. I looked down at my short nails: they were dirty and chipped. My fingers were smudged with ‘Neddy-dirt’ where I’d recently scratched his itchy-spot.

It is a pleasure to feature this latest travel highlight entry from Maretha:

I found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow – soaked all over by the swirling mists of the mighty Zambezi River – laughing out loud and singing at the same time.  Unbelievable! After fifty years of looking longingly at its pictures, I finally stood at the crest of a 330-foot abyss, reverberating with the never-ending sound of millions of voices; a thundering curtain of water, dropping into the depths below. Although I travelled far and wide, I’ll never forget the Victoria Falls near a town called Livingstone.

Our latest travel highlight entry is from Ann Patras:

“Mummy, I’m going to be sick”.  Here we go again, I thought.

“Brad, is this ‘I’m going to be sick’ like when we were on the airplane flying into Africa?  But then you weren’t sick.  Or like when you were sick over the taxi driver? ”

“I don’t know, mummy.”

“Be a good boy and if you think you’re going to be sick, be sick in this.” I said handing him the paper bag. “Then take it to that nice lady wearing the hat.” 

I hoped he realised I meant the air stewardess, not the passenger wearing a colourful turban. 

Many thanks to Judy for this latest entry into our Travel Highlights competition. It is an extract from her two week trip to Hamamatsu, Japan.

​The Kite Festival was Awesome. It was one thing I had looked forward to. We took a bus there and walked way back into the woods near the ocean to see it. There were people all over in their special coats with markings of their town. Food all over to enjoy.

It took 20 guys to get the kites up into the sky. The kites are huge and when they are way up in the sky, they look so tiny.

The strings rub together and friction breaks each others kite strings to bring them down. The last one up wins. 

Fred's Diary 1981
671 people entered.
10 people won.

Congratulations to the following ten winners of a paperback copy of the second edition of Fred's Diary 1981 - copies will be dispatched shortly.

Joanne K. Bannister - CA
Julia Lewis - GB
John Ricker - US
Laura Lee - US
Carol Macgregor - US
Kim Walters - US
Kelly Brower - US
Leah Thompson - US
Sherry Nickerson - CA
Deborah Walsh - CA

Many thanks to everyone else who took part.