A little foot race along the Horn of Africa

Remember how Neal Ross wowed em on Coach McClean's track team with his great endurance and speed as a middle distance runner?  Neal ran the mile so well that I gave up any track aspirations I might have had back during those high school days.  I thought of Neal as I gathered myself for an uphill climb on the streets of Addis Ababa the other day.

From Addis Ababa.......

 

 

I've been off the premises so to speak--I'm now on a bit of a tour starting at Addis Ababa.  Will stay in Ethiopia 10 nights, then continue on to Paris and Bayeux--a bucket list item (promised dad I would visit where he landed during WWll--Omaha Beach).  Binged on Spielberg's and Hanks's Band of Brothers recently--really good! After France back to Ethiopia for a spell, then on to Bangkok.

 

Remember the great marathon runner Abebe Bikila (2 gold medals), the barefoot racer?  Yesterday I was on a long walkabout in this sprawling capital city when the rains began and gradually increased from a fine mist into a steady patter.  So I began to run (wearing jeans and sneaks).  As I started to pass the many pedestrians along the walkway, they too began to run.  It was a Forest Gump moment.  There were lots of smiles and sustained merriment until a long uphill grade began to wear on me and slowed me down to a stop.  There must have been a couple of hundred men, women and children who ran by me and continued on without a pause--I wondered if they were remembering their country's great hero and were doing there best to rout the American--which, of course, they did.  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wonderful people in Ethiopia--and very pretty people as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Munching on injera...

 

Later,

 

Dan

Dan, I recently watched a film about a couple of Brits that rode their motorcycles from England to South Africa.  Part of their journey was through Ethiopia and they felt the same about the people there .  Thanks for another great story.