As a young child I dreamt of traveling the world. My appetite for travel was first whet in 1968 when my parents and I drove through Europe in a VW bus for 4 months with no particular itinerary or destination.  Skip ahead 40 years to 2002, when I was working as a technical writer at Intel. Within a short few weeks, my hands transformed into fiery unmoving claws making the use of the keyboard impossible. Using the voice technology of the time was too limiting. Reluctantly, I left a job I really enjoyed and spent 5 years struggling with the grim diagnosis of diffuse systemic scleroderma with a serving of Raynaud’s, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and chronic fatigue. At times I could barely walk. Slowly I rebuilt my health, and my hat is off to the many people who helped me, but especially my dear friend Richard Goldberg and acupuncturists Lesley and Michael Tierra. In 2007 a friend asked me to crew a sailboat trip along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. I grew up sailing on the bay and reluctantly agreed, uncertain whether I’d be able to withstand the physical travail. When we arrived in Dubrovnik my friend was hospitalized with dehydration, and he implored me to explore on my own. With no plans and 6 weeks ahead of me, I started island hopping up the coast by ferry. And, as they say, never looked back.  Thus began a 4 to 6 months annual sojourn anywhere I could afford to visit for $1400 a month. I am migratory, and let wanderlust guide me into deep dives exploring people, culture, and nature. I hope to never tire of this peripatetic life.