Durwood Larry Franke

How far can one go without a degree? Quite a ways apparently. I never got my degree. I attended University of Houston while working full time - sometimes carrying a full load of classes. In 1964 I met and married my wife, Rita, who has stayed with me all these years. We have two wonderful, smart daughters, Rachel and Gretchen and one charming granddaughter. I worked as a computer operator at a large downtown bank and aimed to become a computer programmer. I took every computer course at UH - all three of them. At an oil exploration company I was given the IBM programmers aptitude test and passed with flying colors. I became a computer programmer and did well. In 1969 we left Houston when I was offered a job in Honolulu - I dropped out of UH in my senior year. The job was developing a command and control system for the US 7th Air Force in Saigon. I traveled to Vietnam in 1970 as a contractor and had several low-flying trips over the jungles to Ben Hua, Long Bin, Vung Tau and other camps. I also traveled on R&R to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. My thirst for travel was just beginning.

I have lived on five continents – North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. I visited all 50 USA states, several Canadian provinces, all states and territories of Australia and nearly 100 countries around the world. I lived in Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Iran, England, Florida, Saudi Arabia, Virginia, France, Australia, Ecuador, Belgium, Greece and retired to Wimberley, Texas in 2007.

Interested in travel, other cultures, foods, history, and people, I have explored ancient civilizations such as: Persepolis in southern Iran; Jerash and Petra in Jordan; the Giza pyramids and Luxor in Egypt; Knossos on Crete; Chichen Itza in Mexico; Angkor Wat in Cambodia; Mycenaean ruins in Greece; Machu Picchu in Peru; many Roman ruins throughout Europe and Greek ruins throughout Greece to name a few. I have probably visited more abbeys and cathedrals than the Pope – York Minster, Canterbury, St. Paul’s, Winchester, Westminster Abbey, and others in England; Notre Dame in Paris, Amiens, Strasbourg, Reims, Chartres, Bayeux, and more in France; Cologne, Aachen, Trier and more in Germany; Seville, Burgos, Toledo, Segovia and others in Spain; Florence, Milan, Sienna, Pisa and more in Italy; St. Peter’s Basilica (and Sistine Chapel) in Vatican City; Hagia Sophia in Istanbul; St. Stephen’s in Vienna; and the monasteries of Meteora, Greece to name a few. The castles and chateaus I have visited are too many to list but I slept overnight in castles converted to hotels in Germany, Spain, France and Belgium. I spent the night in a 900 year old caravanserai in the Iranian salt desert. We lived in a VW pop-up camper van for three plus months while traveling from England to Hungary and back during the time of the Iron Curtain. I kissed the Blarney Stone in Cork, Ireland.

I also visited some of the great mosques in the world such as the Blue Mosque and Suleymaniye in Istanbul; mosques in Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz, Iran; the Mohammed Ali mosque in Cairo; Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem; and many more. I walked barefoot through Hindu temples in India, Sri Lanka and Bali. I took in the beauty of the Taj Mahal in India, Buddhist temples in Nara and Kyoto, Japan, and the Buddhist Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet. I saw the Buddha’s tooth in Sri Lanka and Muhammad’s relics in the Topkapi Palace Museum. I walked along the Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall in England. I walked among the boulders of Stonehenge, the megaliths of Carnac in Brittany and the ruins of Pompeii and Ephesus. I loved exploring old walled cities such as Carcassonne and Rothenberg ob der Tauber. I witnessed in-rushing tides in the Bay of Fundy in Canada and at Mont St. Michel in France.

I have explored many of the great museums of the world – The Metropolitan in New York, Louvre, Prado, British Museum, Hermitage in Russia, Uffizi in Florence, Rijksmuseum, Vatican Museum, d’Orsay, Smithsonian, Egyptian Museum, and others. I have visited several of the US National Parks including Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Glacier, Arches, Acadia, Sequoia, Denali, Big Bend, Rocky Mountain, Canyonlands, Everglades, Shenandoah, Olympic, Mesa Verde, Death Valley, Great Smokey Mountains, Hawaii Volcanoes, Crater Lake, Guadalupe Mountains, Voyagers, Isle Royal, Petrified Forest, Badlands and more. I visited Carlsbad Caverns; Mammoth Cave; Caverns of Sonora, Longhorn Caverns and Cascade Caverns in Texas; Garcia Caves in Mexico; Lascaux Caves in France; Han-sur-Lesse caves in Belgium; Luray Caverns in Virginia and others.

I stood on the equator in Ecuador and Kenya. I straddled the prime meridian in Greenwich, England, sat on the Tropic of Capricorn in Australia and crossed the Arctic Circle in Alaska. I sailed the Seven Seas. I dipped my toes, and sometimes more, in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Great Lakes, Loch Ness, Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, Aegean, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, Dead Sea, Great Salt Lake, Caribbean, Red Sea, Lake Geneva, Tasman Sea, Arabian Sea, Lake Como, English Channel, North Sea, and the Baltic Sea among others. I traveled to the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, sailed across the Nile in a faluka, traveled for three days on the Yangtze River in China, relaxed in a gondola in Venice, traversed the Panama Canal from end to end, drove along the Blue Danube, rode in a baton mouche on the Seine, white water rafted the Youghiogheny River in Pennsylvania, and took a midnight cruise on the Rhine River in Germany to view fireworks. I witnessed the Perahera parade of decorated elephants in Sri Lanka, 2004 Olympics in Athens, Carnival in Venice, Octoberfest in Munich, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Paris Air Show, and watched the whirling dervishes in Turkey.

I have visited several of the world’s noted islands – Long Island, Hawaii Islands, Sanibel, Key West, Padre Island, Outer Banks and others in the USA; Great Britain; Ireland; Skye in Scotland; New Zealand; Bahamas and others in the Caribbean; Isle of Capri and Sicily in Italy; Mont St. Michel in France; many of the Galapagos Islands; Tasmania, Kangaroo, Montague, Whitsunday, and Hamilton Islands in Australia; Bali and Lombok in Indonesia; Sri Lanka; Bahrain; Japan; Isla Iguana in Panama; Prince Edward Island in Canada; several Greek Islands such as Santorini, Rhodes, Mykonos, Naxos, Hydra, Kefallinia, Spetses, and Crete to name a few.

I was an avid hiker and hiked in deserts, mountains, and rain forests all over the world. One major achievement was hiking the Samaria Gorge on the Island of Crete from top to bottom – over 10 miles long. I climbed to the top of Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas and I hiked to the top of Mount Kosciusko, the highest spot in Australia. I hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail and both Caprock and Palo Duro Canyons in Texas. I climbed to the top of Ayers Rock (Uluru) in Australia. I learned to ski in Iran then skied in the Alps, Rockies, and the Snowy Mountains of Australia in July and August. I snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef, rode horses, elephants and camels, and went on camera safari in Kenya sighting the Big Five plus more wildlife. I enjoyed sports such as softball, bowling, volleyball, basketball, jogging, swimming, skiing, sports car rallying, and fishing to name a few. I ran the Marine Corps marathon under four hours. I got my private pilot license in Hawaii. I did free fall skydiving in Australia and paragliding in the Alps of France. I was a late bloomer.

I switched careers in 1989 and joined the US State Department, Foreign Service. I was fortunate (or maybe unfortunate) to have met and been in the room with several dignitaries - Secretaries of State James Baker, Warren Christopher, Madeline Albright and Colin Powell (my favorite). I have been in a room with President George Bush, Gorbachev, Thatcher, Mitterrand and Kohl but my best memories are of the Welsh pig farmer begging for money outside the Freiberg cathedral who kept us in stitches with his tales.