How and Why We Traveled

Sometimes, it’s the country you are in and sometimes the people you meet.  For us, it was almost always the country we were in, for we are intrigued by history, language, religion, lifestyle, and culture.

Travel also brings challenges. For some, knowing where they will spend each night is essential, so they must travel with a fixed itinerary. Often, this includes hiring guides to help navigate language, education of sites, and even meals and accommodations. If they can arrange every detail of their visit, they do, and little is left to chance.

Lenette and I never traveled this way. We deliberately traveled the “blue roads.” The small side roads that wind through towns and villages that may not have changed over hundreds of years. Accommodations, stores, and restaurants are rare and may or may not exist. If they do, they might be closed during midday for three-plus hours.  And this, for us, is what travel meant. Not knowing was a form of adventure for us. Because we were inquisitive, we wanted to know what we didn’t know. We wanted to see what we hadn’t seen.

A good example of this was when we were in Turkey.  While in that rarely visited country, we heard from locals that there were dogs that protected sheep and other domesticated animals from the wolves that roam the countryside. Of course, being dog owners and lovers, we have to find and see the Kangal Shepherds. 

We traveled on roads that cannot be called roads, heading for a ranch that raises these dogs. There, they are kept in large enclosures. The dogs are enormous and muscular, bigger than German Shepherds, and look like they can eat wolves for lunch.

We learn they are raised purely to protect farm animals from the wild animals of the forest. We are also told that they are being purchased and brought to Wyoming and the country surrounding Yellowstone. 

This was why we traveled as we did: to know and see the differences. We loved differences. 

Author: Sy Ogulnick

Sy Ogulnick received a BA from UCLA, Teacher’s Credential from Los Angeles Board of Education and completed phase I (Master’s portion) in a Doctor of Behavioral Science program at California Coast University. Sy leased and operated a summer day camp in LA. He and his wife then purchased virgin wilderness land in Northern CA, where they built and operated a coed summer camp. They moved to Las Vegas, NV, and purchased, built and operated a community children’s program for families staying in a major resort casino in Las Vegas. They have created programs for children nationwide that employed many people and in the process developed successful training programs for personnel. This led Sy to lecture on how to train staff and the creating of community within the workplace. Sy was then invited to speak at professional conferences on how best to hire and train employees, which led to his becoming a consultant in the art of improving relationships in a work environment and eventually to his epiphany that “Leaders are the primary problem and the answer to the personnel issues that arise in the workplace.” Sy has written numerous papers on the subject of interpersonal relationships, leadership and power. He has lectured throughout the United States, has been interviewed by the media and has appeared on many radio and TV talk shows

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