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Adventurers’ Club NewsVolume 54 April 2010 Number 3

Sponge over five feet tall on Tania’s Reefby Larry Schutte

The Adventurers' Club News The Official Publication of the Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles

April 2010 Volume 54 Number 3 Publisher Allan Smith #1069 Editor Bob Zeman #878

Santa Barbara, CA 93111

Club Phone (323) 223-3948 (24 Hrs) www.adventurersclub.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DIRECTORY INSIDE FRONT COVER ARTICLES

DIVING TAN IA'S REEF BY LARRY SCHUTTE 2 THE SHANGHAI TEA SCAM BYJOE VALENCIC 3 BOB GAN NON, DAN AND LUCKY LADY TOO 8

EPIPHANY BY ED BODEN 7 EDITOR'S COLUMN 13 PRESIDENT'S PAGE 1 QUOTES 13 THE BOOK IS HERE 21 THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE CLUB 10 FORTHCOMING PROGRAMS 21

(-PRESIDENT Allan Smith

2ND VICE PRES Mike Gwaltney

SECRETARY A Ian Fplrl ctpin

ADDRESS 2433 N Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90086

MAILING ADDRESS 1ST VICE PRES TREASURER DINNER RESERVATIONS PO Box 31226 Vince Weatherby Rick Flores (323)-223-3948 (VoiceMail) Los Angeles, CA 90031

Deadline: Tuesday Noon PHONE & WEBSITE (323) 223-3948 2)121,114ad n thrersclub.or

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS April 20101

The

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWSVolume 54 April 2010 Number 3THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE – Past, Present & FutureAllan R. Smith #1069 - President

Greetings fellow ad-venturers and I hopethis month’s news-letter finds you allwell. I have beenracking up the fre-quent flyer milesthis month with therelease of my film

“Rescue Men--The Story of the Pea IslandLife-Savers.” It brings out a perspective thatthose of us in Los Angeles take for grant-ed, and that is visiting our Club and social-izing with our fellow adventurers on Thurs-day evenings. I have missed the last fewweeks and while away I realized how muchthe Club means to me, as well as everyone.

I had the opportunity to stop by the Ex-plorers’ Club in New York and visit withpresident Lauri Carnath. As I am a fellowExplorers’ Club member, this was my firstvisit to NY and the headquarters of theEC. Although beautiful, I must say thatthere is no place like home and I still feelthat our Club, with the warm hospitalitythat we offer all our members and guestsevery week, is second to none.

web site www.myadventures.com and howhe is using today’s technology to connectwith adventurers around the world. Itcomes to mind that most of us in the L. A.area network with fellow members onThursday evening but do we think to usetoday’s technology to enable us to connectwith our fellow members and explorers/ad-venturers around the world.I happen to be on Facebook and can befound @Allan R. Smith. I communicatefrequently on FB with members outside thearea such as Kristjan Kristjansson in Ice-land and Danee Hazama in Tahiti. This isa great way to say hello to fellow membersand let them know what one is up to. Imight also add that I include many well-known explorers and outdoor companiesin my FB list of frients. If anything, it letsthem know about our great club and theopportunity to visit the greatest club in theworld. I would highly recommend you con-sider Keith’s web site and Facebook.As yet, the Adventurers’ Club is not on FBand per the by-laws we are not permittedto advertise the Club. I believe this is a dif-ferent category and one our Club founderswould not disapprove of us being on. ThusI will be approaching the Board of Direc-tors proposing that we start taking advan-tage of the ‘new technology. I welcome yourideas and two cents worth on this.

As I was walking through times Square, Icould not miss the use of today’s tech-nology. It is reminiscent of Las Vegaswith all the neon lights. I recently spokewith Keith Bates #1135 about his social

April 2010 ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS

By Larry Schutte

I never thought that after an almost fatalplane crash on September 19, 2009, I

would be diving in Papua New Guinea. Butone month later I flew to Brisbane and PortMoresby in order to complete my PADINational Geographic Certification.

After grueling 25-hour flights on threeplanes, we finally arrived at the GurneyAirport near Alotau, a town in the easternmost part of Papua New Guinea. This wasfollowed by a rough two-hour bus ride andfinally a boat ride.

Our destination was seven cabins, a din-ing room and a cement building. A dive shopis used to refill tanks and do simple main-tenance on our gear.

The water temperature was 80 degreesand the locals were curious of our activi-ties. The reef is a large coral mound risingfrom 130 feet to just nine feet below thesurface. One can circle the reef on a singletank of air.

Soft corals are everywhere on the south-east side. A strong current feeds the faceof this reef. It was all I could do to photo-graph with this force in my face or to myback. At one point, the current swept meaway and I found myself on the far side ina matter of seconds.The current measuredfour to six knots. We found large schoolsof fish feeding on this face of the reef.

Coral reefs teem with life. They cover lessthan one percent of the ocean floor butsupport about 25 percent of all marine crea-tures. The rocky structure that make up

coral reefs are actually a build-up of calci-um secreted by coral polyps Coral reefs arefound only in warm waters between 30degrees North and 30 degrees south lati-tudes.

The resident divers told me there seemsto be more macro sea life on this reef late-ly, although they could not give me a sci-entific explanation for it. One theory wouldbe that the microscopic plant life is increas-ing thus feeding the macro animals.

Corals are small organisms related toanemones and secrete calcium carbonatewhich hardens into an exoskeleton and overtime forms reefs. Glowing green fluores-cent coral absorbs light at one wavelengthand emits it at another.

Scientists have found that corals with flu-orescent properties can handle the effectsof coral bleaching caused by warmer wa-ters better than other corals. This gives flu-orescent corals an edge in protecting thesymbiotic algae they host.

Although the animals get most of theirfood from the byproducts of zooxanthel-lae algae’s photosynthesis, they also havebarbed venomous tentacles they can stickout, usually at night, to grab zooplanktonand even small fish.

Vivid orange, blue and white life formsbranch out from Tania’s reef. Indo-Pacificcoral reefs contain some 90 genera of softcorals. Corals open up to the current to feedon plankton and give the reef some of itsmost colorful scenes.

After nine days of diving my best pho-tography salute is a magnificent sponge thatis more than five feet tall. .

Diving Tania’s Reef--Tawali, Papua New Guinea

2


Joe Valencic, #1109

What is adventure without travel andwhat is travel without adventure?

Sometimes the adventure that takes placeduring travel can be a potentially expen-sive and unpleasant experience, just likeone discovered recently in Shanghai dur-ing a mid-Feb, 2010 visit.

My story actually begins in Ho Chi MinCity, better known as Saigon during theVietnam conflict. I had a mere six hours toexplore the city before heading to NorthVietnam. Having been brutalized in themotorized, polluting tuk-tuks (three-wheeled taxis) of Bangkok for a previous10 day period, I wanted a quieter and envi-ronmentally friendly way to travel. Accord-ingly, when I was approached by a rickshawtype pedal bike driver and he offered totake me to the War Museum for only 100Vietnamese Dong, it seemed like a deal toogood to pass up. I thought the amount hequoted me was a bit on the low side but ina country where the average monthly wageis a mere $40, his fee for 15-minute bikeride may be in line with the local economy.I double-checked again and he assured meit would be 100 Vietnamese Dong. (Forreference, 1 US Dollar = 18,610.0 Viet-namese Dong.) Off we went, darting thrutraffic in a near death-defying manner andfinally arrived at the Museum I wanted tosee. The rickshaw bike driver said he wouldwait for me since he also wanted to returnto the point he picked me up. “No Prob-lem”, he said with an ear-to-ear grin.

However, when I went to the War mu-seum admission gate, the guard pointed to

a sign in bold black letters that said “Mu-seum closed daily from 12 noon to 2 PMfor Lunch”. Just my luck. As I turnedaround my driver said he knew of anothermuseum I would like that was open and hecould take me there. I asked the transportfee and he just kept repeating, “No Prob-lem, No Problem” with the polish of a usedcar salesman pushing a well-worn lemon.

With my museum visits completed, my ped-al-to-the-metal driver was to take me back tothe starting point but pulled the bike over ina small alley about five blocks away. He saidhe was hungry and had to eat. I took out about500 Dong and proudly handed it to him think-ing he would appreciate the 400% tip. Hethrew a fit! The price was 200,000 Dong heyelled and kept screaming it. How could thisbe I asked when we agreed on 100 Dong orig-inally? Through his best “look of shock” facehe said we agreed on 100,000 NOT 100 andsince he was with me much longer the totalwould be 200,000. To back up his claim heeven produced a laminated colorful card thatstated his fee was 100,000 for the first 10minute ride. It was a rate card that I obvious-ly had never seen before. He was demandingclose to the average Vietnamese monthlywage for a mere two-hour bike ride!

Despite all my protests, he was unwaver-ing in his demand for the 200,000 Dong. Istarted to walk away when he picked up abig rock and actually threatened to kill me.Since I had about six inches of height andabout 80 lbs on him I just replied then “Iam also going to kill you too!” I could tellit was a big Mexican standoff so I finallyand reluctantly agreed to pay him 100,000.

The Shanghai Tea Scam...with a Twist

3


I thrust the money in his hand and walkedaway with deaf ears to his continued pro-tests. We were both still alive and that wasall that really mattered.

I gloated over this for about a day or two.It was not about the money but the factthat I was being lied to and cheated. I wasthe victim of a common street crime andwas stupid enough to fall prey to it. I keptthinking to myself, “An alert, seasonedAdventures’ Club traveler would haveknown better”. It was a lesson learned andthe more I reflected on it the clearer mycourse of action should have been whenfaced with this type of situation. I shouldhave just politely said no and walked brisklyaway stopping for nothing and totally ig-noring the raging protests. Yes, that wouldhave been much better.

About two weeks after the Vietnam bicy-cle rickshaw incident, I found myself inShanghai with several days to explore the city.The city was in the final preparations for host-ing the 2010 World’s Fair due to begin aboutmid-march 2010. It would also be hostingsome of the best street scam artists in theworld trying to get much more than just loosechange from foreign visitors. My visit coin-cided with the Chinese New Year Celebra-tion and I know this would also present a ripeopportunity for reducing the wallet weight ofunsuspecting tourists.

I already heard of the big China tea scamand figured I would be smart enough toavoid being drawn into its deceptive web.The idea is quite simple. You are invited tohave tea with someone who has helped youon the street. You feel indebted to their kind-

ness so sharing a pot of tea seems appropri-ate. In addition, you get to learn a bit moreabout China and their view on global politicsand international events. The rub comes inwhen the bill is presented to you for the tea.The charge is $40 or even up to $60 and youare stuck paying but only after it was too lateto avoid being taken. This simple schemecan be highly polished. For example, I wason one of the busiest main streets in Shang-hai looking at a tourist map. A sub-20 yearold couple speaking very good English askedif they could be of assistance. They pointedout sites on interest on the map along withexcellent directions and routes to them. Theywere college students from Beijing that arespending a week in Shanghai for the ChineseNew Year celebration. They both want to beEnglish language translators and work inAmerica after graduation. I was all smileswith these clear-skinned, smiley faced stu-dents until they wanted me to join them forthe Chinese Tea Festival. My light bulb turnedon and I was off faster than Bob Silver head-ing for a second dessert. My scam radar couldeven detect stealth pitches. I was one astuteAdventure Club traveler! No one’s going topull the old tea bag over #1109 member’seyes!

The following day, about 4 PM, I foundmyself window shopping in some of theexclusive watch stores that lined NanjingRoad , the main boutique fashion area ofShanghai. A very attractive Chinese girl inher early 30’s came up next to me and com-mented that she was thinking of buyingsuch a watch for her brother who just grad-uated from medical school. She had a ro-

The Shanghai Tea Scam (cont.)

4


bust, happy smile and very smartly dressedeluding an air of real class. I commentedon how good she spoke English. She saidshe spent the past two years in Londonstudying English in conjunction with herwork in the Bank of China. She traveledto London periodically on special bankprojects thus the bank funded her Englisheducation.

She said that her girlfriend was in the ad-jacent Armani store trying on clothes, shewondered if we could walk a bit so shecould practice her English; something thatshe had little opportunity to do in Shang-hai. We slowly strolled by the shops and Iwas fascinated by her insightful answersinto China politics and their opinion of theUS in light of the Dalai Lama visit withPresident Obama and the US arms sale toTaiwan. She also briefed me on the rea-sons why the bank of China had just con-verted a large amount of US securities intoother assets. It turns out that over 70% ofthe trillion plus US dollars the Chinese holdare in very low yield US Treasury notes andtheir sell off could be disastrous to the USeconomy. It was both enlightening and fas-cinating, especially when my informationsource was so attractive, articulate and al-luring.

After 20 minutes of walking, the late af-ternoon chill started to set in and she askedme if I would like to get a quick coffee. Iagreed and we took the elevator to the 7th

floor of a very fashionable coffee house thatoverlooked People’s Square. I looked atthe simple menu and ordered an Englishcoffee: price 29 yuan or about $4 US. She

ordered in Chinese to the waitress and inless than a minute my coffee appeared withher large glass pot of tea that containeddried fruit, herbs and even flowers. Alsodelivered was a plate of fresh fruit, a plateof dried fruit and an assortment of nuts. Iwas given a teacup to share in the tea whichwas a very special blend of medical herbsto bring you good health and long life. Theteacups were very small but mine was nev-er empty. Our conversations continueduntil my new friend, Lam Lam Dong, re-ceived a call from her Armani-shoppingfriend that just finished her buying spree.Her nice looking female friend joined uscarrying a bunch of packages in designerbags. Her English was also very good andasked if she could please have a Coke. Theconversations about China, and specifical-ly their life in the village they were bothborn took on a fascinating charm. TheCoke arrived but with three half filledglasses of brandy. A bit of Coke waspoured into each of the glasses so we toast-ed China-US relationship and new-foundfriends. Within a few minutes a secondround magically appeared—this time withan even larger amount of brandy. It wastime for the light bulb to finally turn on inmy head!

It was now approaching 6 PM and timeto get back to my hotel for a shower anddinner. I asked for the bill and the waitressshowed me an elaborately detailed bill thatwas two pages long and had a total of 2,998Yuan! At seven yuan to the US dollar, myquick conversion produced a staggeringamount that almost approached the debt

5

The Shanghai Tea Scam (cont.)


of the entire U. S. Treasury! She then pro-duced a Picasso-quality colored menu thatI had not seen before listing the prices. Forexample, every two ounce cup of “specialhealth” tea was 99 yuan. The fresh fruitand dried fruits boasted double-digit pric-es. The drinks were priced like a 40-yearold Remy Martin Gold-label Reserve VOBrandy. I had to think on my feet and ithad to be fast.

I asked the girl to convert it into dollarsand followed her to the bar counter to viewthe result. $498.00. “No problem”, she saidsince they could take credit cards. I lookedto my left and saw that the elevator wasjust arriving with a couple inside. I shookmy head and firmly said “NO, this is a to-tal SCAM and I want absolutely no part ofit!” I quickly entered the elevator, andpressed the door closed button then 1 forthe first floor. My two attractive, articu-late companions yelling through the clos-ing doors “OK,Ok, Ok, How Much youwanna to pay?”

Despite my height, since a 6’ 2” man tow-ers above the locals, I ducked like the in-visible Hulk thru a series of back alleys toarrive at my hotel on the Bund riverfront.I was finally back in the crystal bubble ofsecurity. My Vietnam bicycle jinrikishaexperience taught me well, saving me asmall fortune on what I will admit was afirst-rate scam.

So what would have happened if I tookthe conventional approach of trying to uselogic and arguing over the bill with thewaitress and my two conspiring femalefriends? It turns out they had a B-plan al-

ready in place but I moved a bit too fast toset it in motion. Their B-plan involved amale waiter ducking into a back room tochange into a police uniform. Since theofficial police uniforms looks like some-thing left over from the Mao revolutioncomplete with running shoes and no dutybelt, the quick change would take only afew minutes. At best, the look was low-class frump and lacked the spit and shine,intimidating polish of a California High-way Patrolman with an arsenal of ready-to-use weapons on his duty belt.

With a faked call from the waitress, the“waiter-turned-policeman” would arrive viaa back entrance with official looking Chineselaw book in hand. He would hear both sidesthen obviously rule in favor of the restaurantdemanding the ransom-type payment of al-most $500 US. There would be a long periodof accusations and legal threats with the po-liceman threatening to throw the poor victimin jail if payment was not received. Aftermore deliberation, the amount would be re-duced to half, around $250, as a final conces-sion offer before being potentially “ hauledoff ”. The intimidated victim would pay thereduced fine thinking he had no option and abit relieved because he “saved” around $250.You have to admit, this was one well-honedcon game!

If any fellow Adventure Club member orone of their friends plan to visit the 2010World’s Fair in Shanghai, please give LamLam Dong my best……..but I recommendavoiding the coffee!

Shanghai Tea Scam (cont.)

6


One day in the winter of 1959, thethought crossed my mind that I was

leading what many would consider to bean idyllic sort of life. But I’d developed anuncomfortable feeling that it wasn’t reallyleading anywhere. At the time, I was thecrew on a sixty-one foot Alden schoonerthat was operating in the US Virgin Islandsin the charter business, a business whichthe 1958 recession had all but wiped out.

After graduating from USC in 1952 witha degree in mechanical engineering, I’d heldtwo interesting engineering positions andhad participated in the 1955 Transpac raceto Honolulu. I’d also made two sailing voy-ages as crew from Southern California tothe east coast via the Panama Canal. So,accordingly, I’d had a fair taste of whatboth ocean voyaging under sail and hightech engineering had to offer.

This prompted the question in my mind,“Okay, Ed, so how do you want to spendyour future?” To answer that, I returned toSouthern California to seek an interestingposition in engineering. Since the country wasjust emerging from a recession, jobs were stillsomewhat scarce—at least interesting ones.Without much hope of getting on, one day inApril, 1959, I got all dressed up and drove toJet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena andapplied for an engineering job. To my amaze-ment, I was hired in a few days.

The position was with the System Testand Operations group on the Vega Venus-landing program. However, the programwas cancelled in December ’59 but the teamwas reassigned to the Ranger Moon-land-

ing program. By summer of ’60, our teamhad Ranger I at Cape Canaveral on a launchpad atop an Atlas/Agena rocket. RangerIV followed eight months later.

During the countdowns, all but one of theteam was stationed in a blockhouse; that onewas me. My station was on the uppermostplatform in the service tower (commonlycalled the gantry) over 100 feet above theground and surrounding the encapsulatedRanger spacecraft. The view was outstand-ing. Off to the east, about a mile away, thecalm, turquoise sea beckoned to the sailor inme and, on land in all directions, there weremany other gantries some with rockets await-ing their turns to be space-bound.

One hot steamy afternoon during theRanger I operation, when I was at my sta-tion and not much was happening, I hadplenty of time to think through my ques-tion of a couple of years previously,“…how do you want to spend your future?”While looking out to sea, the answer cameas if in an epiphany. I thought, “I’d reallyrather be out there voyaging.”

After Ranger IV was launched, I was in afinancial position to make the thought areality. Along with another engineer fromJPL who accompanied me for a spell, Icrossed the Atlantic to Europe by freighterfrom New York. I found in England theboat that would be my home for the nextsixteen years and that would take me tomany places that really were idyllic. Aftertransiting the Panama Canal, I removed thecranky engine and sailed around the worldmaking all the passages solo. The experi-ence far exceeded my expectations.

Epiphany by Ed Boden #659

7


My oldest brother, Dan, joined LuckyLady Too and me on our 35th leg

since departing 9 years ago. In the Caribbe-an we flew first from the USA to St. Lucia.Our goal was to stop and see as many is-land nations from the air and on the groundand also to scuba dive in the more memo-rable sites along the way. Our goal was notto hang on the beach but to keep movingand experiencing.

There are about 58 airstrips in the 20 is-land groups that make up the Bahamas.Lucky Lady Too gave us a bird’s eye viewfrom 1,000 feet elevation and safely deliv-ered us to 15 different strips on 10 of thoseisland groups. There are so many small is-lands in the Great Exuma Island group itlooks like God threw a handful of marblesacross the ocean. The deepest blue hole inthe world (663 feet deep) is along the coastof Long Island. We stayed a different placeeach night including a night with friendsof mine who have a home on the Bahamanisland of San Salvador where ChristopherColumbus first set foot in the New Worldin 1492.

From the Bahamas we departed Great In-agua Island to enter the Turks and Caicos atProvo where Lucky Lady Too was parkedbetween a gaggle of jets that were arrivingfor New Years Eve. Continuing along theshoreline we flew over North Caicos, MiddleCaicos, South Caicos, Ambergis Cay (Cay ispronounced Key) to step back in time at SaltCay. The coral was beautiful here. In 1962,the astronaut John Glenn splashed down offthe western coast of Grand Turk.

The Dominican Republic has the highest

peak and the lowest point in the Caribbe-an. It has the oldest church, the oldest fortand the oldest street in all the Americas.The Zona Colonial section of Santo Dom-ingo is a UNESCO World Heritage sitewhere Christopher Columbus’s son, Diego,set the corner stone for the oldest cathe-dral in operation in the Americas in 1514.We landed at Samana where thousands ofhumpback whales migrate to birth andbreed in the shallow waters of its lagoon.

In Puerto Rico we landed at Isla Grandeairstrip which lies next to the cruise shipharbor. We then made our way to the colo-nial town of Ponce. We stopped in Hu-macao on the east coast and then on toCulebra, an island north of Vieques wherethe US previously had a military base.

Next up was St. Croix, one of the USAsVirgin Islands where we stayed with oneof Dans 16 high school classmates. Wedove at Cane Bay and saw a number ofseahorses. This dive site was a walk-in site,quite unique as most dive sites are reachedby a boat. We flew on to St. Thomas andcaught a ferry over to St. Johns where re-cently an estate had sold for $35 million.In St. Thomas we stayed at an historicalhotel built in 1829 that had the largest col-lection of Amber in the Caribbean.

From the US Virgin Islands we contin-ued to the UK Virgin Islands landing inTortola and Anegeda. We wished to landin Virgin Gorda but since a Cessna crashedthere on their airports¡¯ opening day theyhave restricted landing to only one airline.I radioed their tower and asked if I couldland there if I begged. They replied, not

Bob Gannon, Dan and Lucky Lady Too in the Caribbean

8


even if you BEG and even if the price isWRONG! The islands in this part of theCaribbean are close to each other. Fromleaving Anegeda (British VI) we were ableto clear customs in 4 countries in 4 hoursand still had an hour breakfast in Anguilla.

From Anguilla we continued to StMaarten airport then to St. Martins airport.Of the 7,000 islands in the Caribbean thereis only one that is shared by two countries,St Maarten (Dutch) and St Martin (French).(I have now been told that this statementis not true as the USA shares an island withCuba) The Sunset Beach bar is located atthe runway’s approach to St Maarten’s Juli-ana International Airport. Hundreds oftourists come to duck as the airplanes passover their heads to land. And then on take-off they get blasted by the power of the jetengines.

St Barth has a most interesting short land-ing strip that starts in a valley between twomountains and slopes downhill to a toplesse a c h . Saba is small mountain island that has theshortest commercial runway in the world.Only one airline is allowed to land there sowe flew with them over to Saba to dive inits marine reserve.St. Eustatius was theCaribbean’s major trading center during the17th and 18th century. During this periodEngland and France fought viciously overmany of these islands. The Brimstone HillFortress on St. Kitts is a UNESCO WorldHeritage site that was traded back and forthbetween England and France. In St. Kittswe had breakfast at a sugar cane planta-tion. The owner’s family had been there

since the 1700s. St Kitts and Nevis are theoldest British colonies in the Caribbean.

In Antigua there were 3 cruise shipsdocked and Stanford’s name was still onthe signs at his bank and cricket grounds.

We wished to land in Montserrat but wewere told that only one airline could flythere so we circled the active volcano onthe east side of the island to have a look.We stayed upwind so as not to cause aproblem for the engine on Lucky Lady Toofrom the ash cloud but we were closeenough to smell the sulfur. Jacques Coust-eau declared Pigeon Islands of Guadeloupeas one of the worlds top dive sites. Thecolor of the coral walls and reefs with bigschools of fish made it the best dive onthis trip. Legend has it that touching theunderwater statue of Mr. Cousteau willbring good diving for the rest of your life.

In Dominica we stayed at a eco-lodge inthe rainforest and hiked to see the beauti-ful waterfalls. Rain and clouds kept us fromseeing Mt. Pele in Martinique but we had apleasant stay at a small beach resort wherethey were doing a photo shoot of Ms. Mar-tinique. At the cathedral in St. Lucia wesaw the Black Madonna and had a look atanother UNESCO World Heritage site, thePitons, two ionic towering peaks.

We parked Lucky Lady Too at a localaviation company in St. Lucia. My brotherkissed her cheek and thanked her for flyingus safely over 3,400 nautical miles of wa-ter; landing in 44 airstrips in 18 countries/territories over a month of travel thru theCaribbean.

So far, so good, Bob Gannon

9


Meeting April 1, 2010 (Part II)By Bob Zeman

Bernie Harris flew to Borrego Springswith the Air Adventurers. They then

motored to the dry lake and saw the stat-ues of the mammoths.

Pierre Odier is leaving in two weeks forCambodia.

Bob Gannon sent us a card. He is leav-ing Colombia and flying via Jamaica andthe Cayman Islands for a hoped-for flyoverof Cuba.

Roger Haft, Dave Finnern and SteveLawson are looking for good raffle prizesto auction off at the Night of High Ad-venture.

Experiences in World War II

Bus Cornelius spent four years underGeneral Patton’s including time with

the Mobile Ordnance Group in World WarII. Bus is a member of the Freedom Insti-tute along with member Sid Hallburn whorelate their stories to students.

Bus explained the history of tank war-fare. He showed British tanks designed togo over the trenches in World War I withguns on the side to shoot down the trench-es.

The French had their Renault tank whichGeorge Patton borrowed for a test opera-tion.

At the start of WWII, the U. S. had only alight Stewart tank which was good for fight-ing infantry. The Grant tank was built. Thiswas a nine-feet high medium tank which

was a big target. And the rivets popped offin the sun.

The Sherman tank worked well but hada short barrel and low velocity. A muchbetter tank was the German tiger tank witha long 13-foot barrel and high velocity.

Buz enlisted in 1942 and after trainingwas sent to Oran in 1943. The harbor wasdamaged due to the scuttling of the Frenchfleet.

Tanks were sent to Oran and Buz’s grouphad to assemble them. The guns were inwooden boxes on the back of the tank.Sights had to be installed.

The tanks had varied missions from bull-dozers, to anti-mining using Jemima devic-es to flamethrowers.

Some 600 tanks were then shipped on tothe Soviet Union via Iran.

For some months, Bus helped with theprisoner of war camp in Oran which heldmany Italians.

Finally, Bus was sent to Marseilles whichhad been heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe.His group moved north and found a bar ina small town. The owner warned his four-some that there were eight German soldiersin the bar. Bus was scared but they talkedthe Germans into surrendering.

The Allied convoy was two miles longand moved north to the front. They usedburlap bags to disguise the trucks and tanks.Pontoon bridges were built to cross the riv-ers.

There was much wreckage on the roadto the front.

Bus showed slides of the German laddergun which could fire shells to London. The

10


French had a rail gun that was rated for 35tons.

In Chaumont, a prisoner of war camp wasset up for the Axis prisoners. Of the 2,000POWs, there was not one Nazi. Chaumonthad been a headquarters for U. S. generalsin WWI.

Bus showed a photo of an Abrams tank.He noted the Sherman tank could travelsix miles on a gallon of gas. An Abramstank uses six gallons to travel one mile.

At the end of the war, Bus inspectedbuildings for remnants of the enemy. Hepatrolled down one with deep basementswhen he heard a sound. He still does notremember how he got out of there so fast.

Years later Bus went back to the ceme-tery at Utah Beach with his wife.

Bus was impressed with the Germantechnology. The Germans built a Mousetank that could ford a river that was sixfeet deep. Ten were built and used on theeastern front. They needed a submarineengine but there were not enough to buildmore tanks.

German technology was used to put thefirst man in space, to build the first guidedbomb and the U. S. atomic bomb was basedon a German plan.

The old radio unit on tanks was the sizeof a podium. New ones can fit in the palmof one’s hand.

Quotes

“I am so convinced of the advantages oflooking at manking instead of readingabout them, and of the bitter effects ofstaying at home with all the narrowprejudices of an Islander, that I thinkthere should be a law amongst us to setour young men abroad for a term amongthe few allies our wars have left us.”(George Gordon) Lord Byron

“We wander for distraction, but we trav-el for fulfillment.”

Hilaire Belloe

“I have been a stranger in a strange land.”Moses

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been,travelers don’t know where they’re going.”

Paul Theroux

“I am leaving the town to the invaders:increasingly numerous, mediocre, dirty,badly behaved, shameless tourists.”

Brigitte Bardot

11

Editor’s Column

I am happy to welcome Marc Weitz as newcontributor to our Club News for writ-

ing up the notes of weekly meetings.The News continues to need Epiphanies

and Book Reviews from Club members toenable all of us to keep in touch whetherwe are regular attendees or non-residentmembers.


Meeting Feb. 11, 2010By Bob Zeman

President Allan Smith welcomed a goodcrowd of about 40 including his two

guests.Charles Carmona had just returned

from the International Gem Show held inTucson. It was his third show and he is oneof the respected members.

Steve Bein #1057 and his guest, profes-sional bird photographer Joe Fuhrman, areleaving for Midway atoll. It is a four and ahalf hour plane flight from Hawaii. It ispopulated by 200,000 albatross as well asspinner dolphins and monk seals.

Alan Feldstein is going to Tanzania tokick off his sea kayaking business.

Jim Dorsey is leaving after this programto go to Alaska to engage in dog mushingand other activities.

Shane Berry was watching the militarychannel and saw a show on the top ten as-sault weapons of the twentieth century. Thepanel of three included Richard Venola.Shane said that Richard was the most in-teresting of the trio. The top assault weap-on was the AK-47.

Pierre Odier introduced Jim Dorsey asthe one who broke Pierre’s habit of travel-ing alone. The two have been to 12 coun-tries together and returned in good shapemuch to Irene Dorsey’s relief.

Guests of the MaasaiBy Jim Dorsey

Jim and Irene journeyed to Tanzania andKenya as invited guests of Moses Pulei,

an elder of the Maasai nation.Moses has been a guest at the Club of

David Dolan. Moses is a recent graduateof Fuller Theological Seminary and is nowteaching theology and literature at Whit-worth College in Spokane.

On the first part of his trip, Jim climbedMt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He becamesick to his stomach but trudged on. He didmake it to 18,200 feet but both he and hisguide had severe stomach pains. So theyturned back.

He had made plans to meet Irene, whohad flow to Tanzania, and Moses near theKenya border of the two countries. He metIrene but there was no cell phone coverageat the crossing. Jim searched the multitudethere with no success.

He and Irene left the border in a truckand were hailed by a truck going in theopposite direction. Apparently, Moses hadalerted all the locals to yell for Jim Dorseyif they saw a white man in a truck. This ismodern-day jungle telegraph.

The Maasai live in villages called bomas.The bomas are surrounded by a fence madeof acacia thorn trees to keep out the lionsand other wildlife. There is only one en-trance through the thorn trees. Inside theboma is another fence to corral the cattleand goats.

The Maasai wear long red robes and jew-elry around their neck. They are nomadsmoving every few years. Their wealth is intheir cattle and they prize their children.

The huts are made from animal dung. Thefire in the hut burns 24/7 so there is al-ways smoke inside.

Thursday Nights at the Club

12


Prior to the Maasai going out with theircattle, they stick a branch in a termitemound at night. They retract the branchnext day after it is covered with termiteswhich they eat and this nourishes them.

Jim and Irene did stay one night in thehut but did not get much sleep. The nextnight they stayed in their tent which fasci-nated the natives who traveled from milesaround to view the tent and to zip and un-zip the zipper.

The Maasai men always carry spears andare accurate with their throws. When a boycomes of age, he is taken on a lion hunt.The members of the tribe form a giant cir-cle around the lion and converge.to helpthe boy get his kill.

The visit of Jim and Irene was a big eventand the villagers killed a goat in their honor.The goat was smothered. Then the neck wasslit and the Maasai and Jim drank its blood.

Everyone works in the village. Jim triedto milk the cows but realized he was moreproficient in photography.

The villagers wore sandals that were ef-ficient made from truck tires.

Jim and Irene then visited an Iraqw vil-lage which was basically built underground.The spear demonstration showed great ac-curacy.

One villager developed a system to col-lect cow dung and let it ferment. Methanegas is released to power a lantern or a smallone-burner stove.

Jim did learn about 200 words of Swahilito communicate with his hosts. He had agood video of the lion dance in which theMaasai jump high in the air.

There are about 350,000 to 400,000Maasai. Some live in Nairobi and somework in the safari camps or other cities.

He and Irene went on a foot safari dur-ing which they viewed the wildebeest mi-gration, three pregnant giraffe, a leopard,and other beasts.

As usual Jim gave an excellent presenta-tion transitioning easily from slide to slideand explaining each slide.

Meeting—February 18, 2010

Emigrant Adventures in Early LosAngeles

Paul Spitzzeri is Collections Manager atthe Workman and Temple Family

Homestead Museum.He told the story of William Workman

who was born in England and lived at thefrontier of the United States while in Mis-souri and at the northern reaches of Mexi-co both in New Mexico and California.William was a fur trapper, merchant, farm-er, rancher and banker who made and lostmillions.

His son-in-law, F. P. F. Temple, made thesea voyage around the Horn in 1841 toMexican Los Angeles and joined Williamin business activities. They were wealthyuntil the failure of their bank in 1876brought them ruin. This stopped the city’sfirst growth boom.

Temple’s son, Walter was the fortunatebeneficiary of oil income during the 1910sand 1920s and sought to restore the fami-ly’s prominence in Los Angeles. His re-sources were overmatched by his ambition

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and by the Great Depression, financial fail-ure overwhelmed the family once again.

Paul wrote a book called “The Workmanand Temple Families of Southern Califor-nia, 1830-1930.”

Meeting of February 25, 2010by Bob Zeman

Vince Weatherby presided as presidenttonight.

Although not in attendance, Gene Wal-lace was remembered as he turned 89.Gene is a retired colonel from the Air Corps.He was a B-26 pilot in World War II andwas shot down in the Pacific. He swamashore with other crewmen and survivedfor eight months on New Britain Island.After he was rescued by an AustralianPBY,Life Magazine wrote him up in June,1943.

Steve Bein leaves for Midway Island. Hehas to shake his shoes and clothes to getrid of non-native plants and species. He istaking some of the ashes of Ralph Whitewith him. Vince has visited Midway andRobert DeMott was previously stationedthere.

Bob Walters, David Dolan and DerekBorthwick attended the annual HowardHughes aviation awards banquet at theJonathan Club. Many famous pilots werethere including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Ald-rin, Chuck Yeager, and Bob Gilliland.Charles Sullenberger got the most applauseand recognition.

Martial Arts by Manny Gomes

Manny Gomes, guest of Sid Hallburn,brought his award winning black belt

team to give us a demonstration of swordmaking, knife throwing and physical movesto disarm an opponent.

Gabriel Bell is a professional swordsmithand learned how to make Japanese swordsfrom his father who owns Dragonfly ForgeJapanese Swords. They use carbon steel thatis mostly from recycled cable.

The steel is folded and hardened and asoft metal collar is attached between theblade and the guard. The original processcame from China via Korea to Japan inabout 1,000 A.D. The Japanese developedthe curved blades.

Dragonfly also operates a five-day sword-smithing school in Coquille, Oregon. Gabe’sfather makes about one sword per month.Gabe took a whole year to make his sword.

Two members of the team then demon-strated various physical moves such as thehip throw and the wrist grab. These involvesteps such as stop, hurt, stun, throw, twista and take down.

A surprise guest was eight-year oldMathew Lawson, son of Steve Lawson.Mathew had just come from his tae kwando class. He demonstrated his kickingprowess.

Manny then showed how to approach anattacker from the front and rear. He alsoshowed how to move when kneeling or sit-ting position. The weapons involved mightbe a pole, club, blade or a flexible weapon.

He then set up a large cardboard into

Meetings--February 18 & 25

14


Meeting of March 4, 2010

It was good to see Roy Roush tonight.Roy brought a guest who had been to

Shipolovi Mesa on the Hopi reservation.He hiked to the top and admired the 360degree view in which he could see for 200miles.

Dave Finnern dove the wreck of the”Sybil Mardan” off of Lompoc. This shipsunk in 1909 with hundreds of board feetof lumber.

Pierre Odier is happy that the book“Tales of the Adventurers’ Club” is goingto print.

Koteka Quest by T. J. KorstBy Marc Weitz

Not quite the Holy Grail, but a questnone-the-less, Koteka Quest takes us

on a 10-day journey through the BaliemValley in Papua, Indonesia with adventur-er TJ Korst in search of a Koteka, the tra-ditional penis sheath of the Dani tribe. TJKorst, by video instead of live performance

due to illness, entertainingly takes the audi-ence along in a tongue-in-cheek search for akoteka. The koteka is a long, yellow tube thatmale Danis use to cover their penises for rea-sons of modesty. To our western standards,the Koteka is amusing. Worn by men whoare otherwise completely naked, a koteka isheld on by two ropes - one at the top and oneat the bottom. Asked why they wear koteka,a Dani replies, “No pants.” TJ Korst uses thekoteka as a device to spark our interest in hisjourney and make this more than just a 10-day walk.

The Baliem Valley, also known as theGrand Valley of New Guinea, is located inthe highlands of Western New Guinea.Western New Guinea is part of Indonesiaand separate from Papua New Guinea onthe eastern half of the island. Occupiedby the Dani people, the main town is Wa-mena. The valley is 55 miles long by 12miles wide and lies at an altitude of about3,000 feet, with a population of 100,000.It takes approximately two weeks by footto get from the coast to Wamena. TJ Korstbegan his journey in Wamena and walkedin a 10-day loop along the Baliem river.

The trail starts as a modern road but soondeteriorates into a hard-to-find path.Knowing this, Mr. Korst hires a guide,named Martin, to take him along the route.The landscape is rugged with steep, grassymountains ascending from both sides of theriver. The altitude creates warm, tropicaltemperatures during the day and coolnights. Mr. Korst spends his nights in tradi-tional huts called Honai. These are one- totwo-story grass huts with fire pits in the

which he threw knives, screwdrivers, scis-sors, and even a paper clip—and they stuck.

Others split wood with their hands andalso a phone book. And Manny cracked hisbullwhip.

The members of the team were honoredto be with Sid who is a 10th degree blackbelt achiever.

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middle and little ventilation - leading tosmoke-filled evenings. The diet of the Daniconsists mainly of ubi, or sweet potato. Mr.Korst, not wanting to live entirely off ubi,brought along instant noodles, cookies, andtea for himself. Mr. Korst slept on the floorsof the Honai, which appeared clean in thelight of day; but revealed the horror of ratsonce darkness fell.

Along the way, Mr. Korst meets a manwho shows him how kotekas are made andallows him to try one on, from which weare shown a hilarious picture. Alas, the manhas none for sale and the quest continues.

Along the road, Mr. Korst has an amus-ing conversation with some children wherehe tries to memorize their names - much totheir delight. At some point, he encountersa group of Korean missionaries who gushpride in teaching the Dani about Jesus. Afew minor difficulties arise. It rained quitefrequently, forcing Mr. Korst to pause hisjourney and take shelter. Sadly, his guideMartin had his money stolen and later findsout that his Father had passed away. Mar-tin must quit the journey and Mr. Korst findshimself a new guide.

Eventually the quest is fulfilled when Mr.Korst encounters a koteka salesman namedYessio. Yessio sold Mr. Korst 20 kotekasfor $20.

Overall, the lecture was fun and enter-taining. It would have been better had Mr.Korst had given the lecture live with slidesrather than showing us video. Mr. Korst wasill. Watching the video took away from thedifficulties of hearing him speak live.

Mr. Korst is originally from Los Angeles

and began his travels at age 17 with hisFather. He has taught English in Germanyand Japan. Mr. Korst is a regular lecturerand was recommended to the Adventur-ers’ Club by Bob Arnoff. Mr. Korst’s web-site is tjontheroad.blogspot.com. The vid-eo from the lecture can be watched in itsentirety along with other information onMr. Korst and his travels.

Meeting of March 11, 2010by Bob Zeman

It was good to see President Allan Smithback after being sidelined by a combina-

tion of stress and exhaustion.Allan has been busy traveling back east

to show his film “Rescue Men.” While inWashington, DC, he was approached by aFederal agent about being nominated forthe Joint Civilian Operations Command.Out of about 500 who were nominated,Allan was one of the few selected to go toWashington D. C. and then to Europe fortwo weeks in September.

In addition, Allan was contacted by theGuinness Book of World Records for in-formation on Ralph White. He referred thecall to Rosaly Lopes.

Steve Bein returned from his seven-daystay on Midway. He and Joe Fuhrman pho-tographed birds. While there were onlyabout 15 species on Sand and Eastern Is-lands, the Laysan albatross had almost halfa million breeding pairs.

Steve noted that Lt. Cannon was incharge of Midway on December 7, 1941when it was attacked by Japanese war-

Meetings--March 4 & 11

16


planes. Despite being in a concrete struc-ture, a portion of a bomb came in througha window and seriously injured Lt. Cannon.He struggled on organizing the island de-fenses before he died. He was the firstMarine awarded the Medal of Honor inWorld War II.

The shell of the old Pan Am seaplanebuilding is still there. Midway was a refuel-ing stop on Pan Am’s transpacific routes.

Jay Foonberg ran the New Orleans Mar-di Gras half marathon and finished. He wasawarded a medal on a string of beads.

Alan Feldstein returned from paddling hiskayak with his business partner in Tanzania.There were many sea coves including the sitewhere the German ship Kronenberg was at-tacked by British ships. The German captainlit coal on the deck of his ship to fool theBrits into thinking his ship was on fire.

Unfortunately, Steve Peterman report-ed that Dale Hall has been moved to anassisted living facility.

Pierre Odier said that after years ofwork, the sequel to Tales of the Adventur-ers’ Club has gone to the printer. It is 157pages long and contains 32 stories from ourmembers. Get your orders in now.

Roger Haft is going to Burbank to be apassenger in a B-17.

Ric Flores says that the shooting star andIndian paintbrush flowers are in full bloomin the Santa Monica Mountains.

Vince Weatherby appears in a NationalGeographic special on the Queen Marybeing involved in a ship collision. Vinceplays the captain of the ship.

Next Stop for Charlie by Neil Mandt

Eight months ago Neil Mandt showedus a movie “Last Stop for Paul” in

which a fictional Paul died. In accordancewith Paul’s wishes, Neil and his friend thenscattered the ashes of Paul around theworld.

The Showtime Channel was intrigued bythe movie and commissioned Neil and EricWing to do a television series of ten epi-sodes. It will premiere in the fall.

Tonight Neil showed us a rough first draftof the first episode.

In the story, Charlie is a medical schooldropout who is using his parent’s credit cardto join in festivals around the world. Neilis the fictional cousin trying to find Charlieand persuade him to return to school.

Based on charges to the credit card sentto Charlie’s parents, Neil flies to Pasto,Colombia which is hosting its black andwhite festival. It celebrates the day whenthe white land owners gave the black slavesa day off.

The plane flight from Bogota to Pasto wascancelled due to volcanic activity. So Neilhires a guide and vehicle to take him toPasto. They were stopped by armed mili-tary guards who demand coke.

The guards and Neil drive into town. Butthey stop at a market where Neil is forcedto buy all of them bottles of coca cola.

Neil gets hungry and orders the specialat the local restaurant. He thought it waschicken but it turned out to be cuie, a localrodent. In the future, he decided to orderchicken empanadas.

17


Charlie meanwhile has been partying itup in Pasto and many of the locals remem-ber the gringo. Neil catches up to him andCharlie apparently agrees to return to thestates the next day giving his passport toNeil as security. But Charlie tricks Neil andflees. He ends up dancing on the biggestfloat in the black and white festival parade.

Neil explained that all of the filming wasdone over a period of three and a half days.He got signed releases from all of thespeaking part persons. He used two camer-as which shot 15 hours of film. This wasedited down to about 25 minutes.

The members asked a number of ques-tions and gave the show favorable reviews.

Bob Aronoff had been to Concepcion,Chile in 1996 and showed a few slides ofthe city. Concepcion was recently hit withan 8.8 earthquake.

President Allan Smith welcomed a largeladies’ night crowd including many

guests of Shane Berry.Kim McCoy lives in Italy and related his

adventures since his last visit. He sailedacross the Atlantic, climbed Mt. Blanc inthe winter and swam the nine and a halfmiles across the Cinque Terre in Italy.

Jeff Holmes lived for a time in Mexico.He recently traveled to San Cristobal inChiapas.

Chuck Jonkey returned from Morocco.He spent time with a Gnawa master. TheGnawa is a group of mystics who music toheal and for important rituals.

Chuck visited Marrakech. Meknes and atiny village (Sidi Alit) for an annual festi-val. Groups of Berbers playing drums anddancing would lead sheep through thestreets and then sacrifice them.

Chuck also visited Chefchauan, the bluecity in the Atlas Mountains. He then wentout to the Sahara for a few days. He filmedand recorded Gnawa master musicians in asmall village outside of Marrakech.

Roger Haft went up for a spin on a B-17flying fortress.

Jay Foonberg is running the L. A. Mar-athon. He promises to finish.

Roy Roush told of his experiences fight-ing in World War II on Saipan. He broughta Japanese battle flag that he showed theaudience. He also had a flag of a Japaneseregimental commander.

The Building of the Great PyramidBy Craig Smith

The building of the Great Pyramid in An-cient Egypt has long been a mystery

giving rise to many theories, from the prac-tical to the outlandish. Craig B. Smith, en-gineer and author of How the Great Pyramidwas Built, attempts to explain this mysterythrough engineering theory and on-the-ground research.

Mr. Smith, an engineering PhD fromUCLA, has written ten books includingExtreme Waves and Lightning: Fire From theSky. He puts his engineering skills to workin determining how the Great Pyramid wasconstructed. Using slides, posters, andmodels, Mr. Smith began the lecture with abackground on the pyramid, beginning with

Meeting, March 18, 2010By Marc Weitz

Meetings of the Club

18


a synopsis of its funereal purpose to reachthe gods. Pyramids began as single blockscalled a mastaba, advanced to stepped pyr-amids, and finally to true pyramids. Exam-ples of early pyramids can be found at Djo-ser and Dahsur.

Built in 2551 B.C. over aperiod of 11years, there has been much speculation onhow the Ancient Egyptians, with limitedtechnology, accomplished such an enor-mous feat as the Great Pyramid. The pyra-mid originally weighed 5.9 million tons,reached 480 feet, and each base was 756feet long - a base nearly as wide as HooverDam and a height almost as high as theWashington Monument. Using the sunshadow method, the Ancient Egyptianslined up the Great Pyramid perfectly withthe four points of the compass.

Traveling to Egypt with his photographer,Andy Ryan, Mr. Smith, through measurementsand observations developed a theory of ex-ternal ramps being used to build the pyramid.Specifically, the Egyptians built a long rampthat rose along with the pyramid until the 55th

level, or course. At this point the rampwrapped around the outside of the structureto the top. There was no single ramp to thetop, as some theorized. Such a ramp wouldhave been unreasonably long and neededthree times the material to build as the pyra-mid itself. Once finished, the ramp was re-moved. The heavy stones were quarried near-by and dragged up the ramp by workers alongwooden sleepers. It is calculated that it takes3 men to move one ton on a flat service. Fromthis calculation, Mr. Smith derived the num-ber of workers necessary to move large stones

on an inclined surface.Internal chambers were built by filling

hollow spaces with sand, placing the roofon top, and then removing the sand. Asarches had not been invented yet, ceilingswere built using corbelling; a method bywhich the walls converged incrementallyuntil they formed an apex.

Mr. Smith followed with a review of an-cient Egyptian tools. There were no irontools, limiting them to metal, copper, stone,and wood. Mr. Smith showed us examplesof measuring instruments, including thecubit and the level. Defined as the lengthof the arm from the inside of the elbow tothe fingertip, the cubit was the unit of mea-sure used to build the pyramid. Levels wereaccurate to half an inch.

Building materials came from nearby lime-stone quarries, dolomite was a hard stoneused to polish the tools, and granite wasused for structural ceiling beams and stat-ues. In those days, the Nile ran much clos-er to the pyramids. A harbor was built be-low the pyramids to facilitate the arrivaland transport of materials and workers.

Evidence at the site, indicates that theworkers at the pyramids were not slaves,but were paid laborers – disputing long-held theories that they were slaves. TheGreek traveler Herodotus visited around450 B.C. and said it took 100,000 workersover 30 years to build the pyramid. Mr.Smith used computer models to estimatethat it took eleven years to build with apeak workforce of 11,000.

Today, the pyramid exists in worn state dueto looters and thieves. Many of the stones

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April 2010 ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS20

were removed to build medieval Cairo.Mr. Smith concluded the lecture by de-

bunking many theories, including aliens,levitation, kites, hydraulics, concrete, andinternal ramps. Dismissing aliens and levi-tation outright, Mr. Smith discussed the oth-er theories: kite experiments had been donerecently, yet never worked; hydraulics hadnot been invented; concrete proved improb-able as the blocks were not uniformlyshaped, plus there was widespread evidenceof quarrying. Internal ramps, while feasi-ble, seemed impractical.

Mr. Smith finished by mentioning his vol-unteer work with Multinational Force andObservers (MFO), an organization thatensures compliance with the Camp DavidAccord by Israel and Egypt - describing itas a positive experience.

Mr. Smith received enthusiastic applauseand myriad questions ranging from themetaphysical, to the humorous, to the cu-rious. Overall, it was an intelligently pre-sented, well-researched, thorough, and in-teresting lecture by a qualified expert.

Meeting April 1, 2010 (Part I)By Bob Zeman

Looking fit and active, Allan Smith wel-comed all asking where they had been.

Jay Foonberg said that he drove downthe hill from Arrowhead in a dense fogprompting a cynical response from BobSilver.

Shane Berry returned from a weekendtrip to Windwolves in the Kern River val-

ley just off of highway 99. The wildflow-ers are blooming and he saw herds of Tuleelk.

Bob Silver and eight other men attendeda talk by Alan Feldstein at a meeting ofthe Society of Women Adventurers.

Mort Loveman recounted an incidentexactly six years ago in Seville, Spain wherehe viewed the Santa Semana celebrationson Holy Thursday.

Macro PhotographyBy Ric Flores

Ric Flores specializes in macro photog-raphy. He photographs a plant and in-

sect from a few feet away and then canzoom in using special equipment.

Ric explained the gear he uses and howmuch it weighs. Virtually all of his activitytakes place in outdoor areas in southern Cal-ifornia where he ventures almost every Sat-urday. But he has taken recent trips to south-ern Utah and Yosemite with Shane Berry.

Ric had slides of flowers such as poppy,prickly poppy, blazing star, mariposa lily,shooting star, jimson weed, bluedick, andfiddlenecks.

His fauna included a tarantula, lizard, sala-mander, garter snake, and horned lizard.

And he shot butterflies such as western ti-ger swallowtail, brown elfin and orangetip.

He showed incredible detail on the in-sects down to the hairs on their legs.

Words cannot do justice to Ric’s photog-raphy.

Meetings--March 18 & April 1


Forthcoming ProgramsPrograms / Notes

Major General William J. Mall Jr. USAF (ret.) Grenada InvasionReplanting abaloneMike Leum--”Train Like Your Life Depends On It”Yue Chi--” Drive the Silk Road”--from Istanbul to Beijing

April 8, 2010 –April 15, 2010 –April 22, 2010 –April 29, 2010 –

May 6, 2010 –May 13, 2010 –May 20, 2010 –

May 27, 2010 ––

–

–

IT IS HERE Off the Beaten Path-- With Members of the Adventurers’ Club, Vol. II

HOW CAN YOU OBTAIN YOUR COPY?

1. To get a tax deduction for the year 2010, make a donation to the Adventurers’ Foun-dation of $100 or more. You will receive a gift (Book.) This donation is tax deductible.The check must be made out to the Foundation.

2. Sign up for the pre-publication sale and pay $25. This offer is for members in goodstanding only and expires on May 30, 2010.

3. The sales price after May 30, 2010 is $35 and books will be available to Club mem-bers and the public.

4. After all of the production costs are covered by book sales, the books will be avail-able from the Adventurers’ Club directly. All proceeds will go to the Club.

April 2010

The

Adventurers’ Club NewsPO Box 31226Los Angeles CA 90031

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