Welcome To Vagabond Adventure

1. Welcome To Vagabond Adventure solutionspace@gmail.com www.vagabond-adventure.com/

2. About the Vagabond Adventure Our Vagabond Adventure is a journey into the vast beauty, complexity and diversity of our planet, and the remarkable people and cultures that live there. It’s a personal pilgrimage. Two intensely curious souls traveling all seven continents — never by jet — one day, one culture, one experience at a time to see what surprises we can find, and share.  The planet we inhabit is rich with surprise. Diversity is woven into every aspect of the natural world — its biology, ecosystems, politics, economics, the cosmos itself. Too often those differences are the sources of pain and anger. www.vagabond-adventure.com/

3. The best way to bridge those gaps is to celebrate them at the same time we celebrate the common needs we all share for love, liberty, curiosity, safety, happiness and laughter.  We’ll hike into little-known and ancient cities, explore how geology and geography shape food, culture, language and music, and share the unexpected and unique people we stumble upon, whether it’s the engaging insights of a Navajo Shaman, a Texas cattleman's decision to raise zebras or an archivist at Mount Rushmore who knows secrets about the monument most of us don’t. We often see the world from afar, through the news or maybe a short vacation. This journey illuminates, in a personal level, how our planet’s long and startling history has shaped all of us, and reveals how listening and accepting one another can make us richer and stronger, rather than angrier and weaker. The world has much to give. Turn on your lightbulb, and learn with us on our Vagabond Journey. www.vagabond-adventure.com/ www.vagabond-adventure.com/

4. Travel Dispatches from a Vagabond’s Adventures Two people traveling seven continents — never by jet — one day, one culture, one experience at a time. We are on a personal pilgrimage to illuminate how our planet’s long and remarkable history has shaped all of us. The world has much to give. See the world face-to-face in these deep dives into locations around the world! www.vagabond-adventure.com/

5. My Moroccan Ha-Ma-Ma-Maaamm I followed her through a narrow archway and down steep stone steps into the riad’s bowels. We were way down there. Inside I found three dark rooms, one with a tub (too small for a human), the other two with large tables — one stone and one wooden. The whole scene looked like a great place to hold the Spanish Inquisition. The rooms were pristine, but I wondered if RiadKalaa had always been a Hammam. It was built in the 1600s. Maybe it used to serve as a medieval dungeon. Rayna chuckled and said she didn’t know, but explained that the Hammam ritual was routine for Moroccan muslims. Then she shot me a look as if to say, “Really, you’re gonna like it.” I checked for chains and manacles anyway. www.vagabond-adventure.com/

6. Rabat - Morocco’s Hidden Gem We walked out of the Rabat train station completely clueless. My Arabic consisted of phrases like Salaam, Inshallah and Yella in an Arabic speaking nation, and we had no more idea where we would be laying our heads this night than a blind man plopped in a Moroccan medina. Our cell service was non-existent, but I had preloaded a map of our route to the riad on my iPhone and it told us we were about 12 minutes away. All we had to do was get a taxi to the right hotel. www.vagabond-adventure.com/

7. Four Memorable Days in Marrakesh We headed through the citadel’s heat and labyrinthine passages and onto the Tizin'Tichka, the Berber word meaning snake road. Its pass worms its way through the High Atlas Mountains that separate Ouarzazate from Marrakesh like the flanks of two shoulders. We headed through the citadel’s heat and labyrinthine passages and onto the Tizin'Tichka, the Berber word meaning snake road. I  thought again how incredibly unforgiving this land could be, at least to me who had grown up in a lush Pennsylvania river valley. How Morocco’s Berbers, like the Bedouin of Arabia, have managed to survive, let alone thrive is beyond understanding.  www.vagabond-adventure.com/

8. Into the Sahara We sat with the Sahara at our feet, a land so vast that it extended clear from us to the pyramids of Egypt, thousands of miles away. I wondered about the man from another time we had passed, and the beggar Ismail had given water, and the old carved lion and the broken pillars of Volubilis and marveled at what a world we live in. How complex, how rich, how unfair, how spectacular and horrible and tried to make sense of it. I couldn’t. Instead, Cyn and I both sat before the sands, beyond relaxed, beyond amazed and humbled until finally a small group of local musicians sat to serenade us with their music. Eventually, it was time to retire into our palatial bed to imagine tales of sultans and bedouins and flying carpets, and finally sleep. www.vagabond-adventure.com/

9. Volubilis — Ancient Rome Speaks It’s not every day that you can wander a land where centurions, artists, builders and kings, Roman craftsmen, merchants and bureaucrats once trod two thousand years in the past. At the height of the empire 20,000 “Volubilitani” walked these cobble-stoned streets. I imagined the horse and mule carts clattering through the city, the bustling markets, probably much like those in the Medinas of Fez, without the air conditioning. It all provided a sobering perspective on the human race and I was humbled. Here we were at the southwestern rim of an empire that once stretched from the valleys of Morocco to the ancient city of Babylon. It reminded me that we are all simple blips in the human drama we call history. www.vagabond-adventure.com/

10. Contact Us Address 2349 Railroad Street Suite 1510 Pennsylvania Pittsburgh 15222 United States Email solutionspace@gmail.com www.vagabond-adventure.com/ www.vagabond-adventure.com/

11. Thank You www.vagabond-adventure.com/