Being among a herd of elephants, not outside a herd of elephants, but within and have them accept you was pretty stunning. And to be sitting and have them move through you makes you feel honored, you know, that they would do that, that they trust you. It's absolutely unique. I mean, I've never been able to experience that. Just awe, awe. The excitement of not knowing what you're seeing next. The change in the topography, the change in the geology, the change in the color. Those golden moments in the morning or evening are just unlike anything I've seen. I was a general dentist for thirty plus years, retired for about five years. My draft number was thirty six, and if I got drafted I was going into the Marines and I didn't want to do that. So I joined the military, went into the Air Force. So then after I got out the military, I decided that I wanted to go to dental school. I got into photography when I was in the military. And guys that I was in the service with were flying back and forth from Japan, and they could get camera equipment pretty cheap and bring it back. And then when I started to go to school, I realized I didn't have really enough money or time to sustain that, so I just kind of forgot about it. And then just about seven years ago, I thought, you know, I kind of want to reignite my passion for photography. I have always loved nature. I've always loved animals. I've always wanted to see the wildebeest. It's like this unstoppable force. When you think about the migration, you always think about the crossing because it's kind of the defining moment for these guys. It's a life and death situation. You just appreciate the tremendous effort. Just to watch that massive life come off the cliff, come down through the dust, into the river. You just kind of get this sense that you're observing something that's had a rhythm for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. You just have the pleasure of just watching it. It's an innocent world. Not that it's peaceful or always pleasant, but it's got a certain rhythm to it. And I think there's a lot to learn. It separates me from the chaos. I haven't been on the Internet for ten days, which is wonderful. We realize there are fewer and fewer situations where you can get out into a natural environment that's kind of been uninterrupted. And this is the environment that we prefer to travel into. These trips are a little difficult to find where you still get to live in absolute comfort, where everything's taken care of, prepared for you, then you're off on an adventure that morning. You know, then you come back and you're taken care of again. I read a book two fifty miles above the Arctic Circle about a guy that took his son up there. And somebody asked him, why why in the world would you take your thirteen year old son to the Arctic? I mean, what is the point of that? There are so many things you can do. And he said, I just wanted him to have his feet on the ground and experience the world as God intended it to be. And I think when you're out in the plains area, you get to experience the world as it was intended to be. I think that's the fulfillment of a dream.
