Dan has done such a stellar job entertaining you for the last three months that I’m nervous to even weigh in. However, there are a few interstitial stories still untold that will round out the saga.

As we edge toward the boarding gate I am reminded that each time one of us - an American - travels abroad it presents an opportunity for small time diplomacy.

A few days later it happened again. All the little dogs laughed to see such sport and one even staggered to his feet with all the ardor a tropic sun permits. I knew I had a problem. I also knew that the yellow cur was a bully. He always waited till I was just past him before he made his move. No one likes a bully.

A tourist pitched half a hot dog off the bridge just to see what would happen. I always recommend this. In a blur of snapping jaws and lashing tails, several large semi-submerged crocs levitated onto the bank, smashing the lesser crocs aside. I never guessed so many pounds of reptile could move so fast. It was a real “Mutual of Omaha, Wild Kingdom” moment.

The 7th inning stretch was more of a picnic than a stretch. There was no organ playing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballpark”. In fact, there was no organ at all. And since there was no place to buy a beer, I crossed the street to a bar and grabbed me a cold one. Great minds, including athletic minds, think alike and so a couple of ball players were doing the same thing. If Doc Ellis can throw a no-hitter on LSD, then I guess these guys can handle a beer.

Now, I count myself an adventurous eater. I’ve been all over. Seldom, if ever, have I stepped back from the chance to eat something weird. I could turn your stomach describing food that has gone down my hatch. But there are some culinary paths that you simply don’t want to travel without, how do you say, foreknowledge?

One truck literally had the wheels fall off. I kid you not. It was sitting on the pavement with no wheels. We were edging past it slowly so I had a lot of time to look for the wheels. None in sight. Where the hell did they go? 

Wishing to show my enormous appreciation for this chance meeting I made a quick inventory of my Spanish and said ‘I am going to get my hair cut.” I didn’t really want a haircut. I never do. But a recent lesson in the online Spanish course I am taking included vocabulary about haircuts. He, having little hair, was enthusiastic.

In a different world this commerce would follow a carefully-considered, purpose-built route: a railway spur, an interstate highway, or it would be moved coastwise by barge. Here, it is in your neighborhood, it is in your wheelhouse, it is on your sidewalk, it is in your face.

But a successful Fulbright proposal has to stand out from thousands. It can’t just be “My wife and I want to have an overseas experience with our kids before they grow up and hate us. Well, let’s just say before they grow up.”

They say that travel is stimulating. They are right. You see the same damn stuff wherever you go but when it isn’t in your own backyard it looks different. That, in turn, makes you look differently at your own backyard.

Why build a boat if you have no harbor?