The world was an uncertain place as we were trying to impeach our sitting President, Bill Clinton. In South Africa, they had just elected their first black President, Nelson Mandela. War was breaking out in Kosovo, as disturbed teenagers were slaughtering their fellow classmates in Columbine High School in Colorado. But what was the difference as the world was going to end or be taken over by computers with the K2Y virus.

In 1999, I had been retired for a year and had an idea what I wanted to do with the rest of the days God gave me. I decided I wanted to learn as much as I could about the world and what made it go around. Mostly, I had traveled through Europe and experienced the culture of our heritage, but what of other exotic places? So I packed up my bags for a month in China.

From Shanghai to Kunming, I saw the East that was the classic view of China on the coast and the hidden China in the Western Hills near the Burma Road. We added central China and Hong Kong to round out the trip. Most of our time was spent in Universities, studying culture, history and everyday life in one of the oldest civilization on Earth. Everyday we were communicating with city officials, town folk, students and merchants. They were proud of their nation and its emergence into the modern world.

I was especially interested in all things China as my University Professors in Economics were both of Chinese heritage -- Wen Yu Chang and Alpha C. Cheng. One was a classic Economist; the other a noted Econometrics Professor.

That summer I added a trip to Russia, as we motored across from Finland to St. Petersburg and on to Moscow. We saw abject poverty along side booming growth. The new Russia was growing by leaps and bound as we were told that half the Mercedes automobiles in the world were on the streets of Moscow. Yet the poor were beggars as the Soviet system had let them down.

I would visit China and Russia again, as I later went around the world, using the TransSiberian RR. But in 1999, I discovered the world was mine to explore and explore it I did, having visited 60 countries or territories in my lifetime.