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07

May

Time Travel Adventures

by Joyce McGreevy on May 7, 2018

Skydivers over Queenstown, New Zealand inspire the author to consider the true nature of time travel. (Image © New Zealand Tourism)

There are many ways to fly to Queenstown, New Zealand. 
© New Zealand Tourism

Finding New Perspective
in New Zealand

Do you remember Tuesday, April 3, 2018?  I don’t. I never experienced it.

A man, with his dog, who has slept through the alarm may soon wish he could time travel. (Image © iStock/WebSubstance)

No, I didn’t forget to set the alarm.
© iStock/WebSubstance

 

A woman falling on the ice inspires thoughts of time travel adventures. (Image © iStock/Astrid860)

Nope. Wasn’t in a coma.
© iStock/Astrid860

I just had one of those time travel adventures.

Crossing the Line

Every day, thousands of westbound airline passengers leapfrog over an entire day. They take off from, say, Oakland on a Monday and land in Auckland on a Wednesday.

Yet only 14 hours have passed.

Which really crosses a line.

No, really. It’s what happens when you cross the International Date Line. The line is imaginary, but the effects are real.

Global Gazing

Remember when everyone’s home had a globe? In the 1960s, advanced technology meant that through the magic of electricity and a toggle switch, a globe could light up from the inside. Whoa!

An illuminated globe inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel. (Image © iStock/Vrobelpeter1)

As a child, I found globes illuminating.
© iStock/Vrobelpeter1

If you were a kid back then, you gazed in awe at the illuminated raised relief, marveling at mountains and the depths of the bright blue oceans.

And wondered what that line meant.

Dust off that globe now and you’ll see that the International Date Line isn’t a fixed line. It zigzags giddily to either side of 180 degrees longitude like the wake of a drunken sailor.

A map showing the International Date Lines illuminated globe inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image in the public domain)

In 2011 Samoa skipped Dec. 30 by “moving” to the NZ side of the International Date Line.

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Wednesday

Some of Magellan’s sailors probably thought they’d knocked back a pint too many after their own time travel adventure in 1522. As Antonio Pigafetta reported:

On Wednesday, the ninth of July, we arrived at . . . Santiago . . . And we charged our men in the boat that, when they were ashore, they should ask what day it was. They were answered that to the Portuguese it was Thursday, at which they were much amazed.

So amazed that, once Magellan’s impeccable record keepers figured it out, they sent a special delegation to alert the Pope. He, in turn, was so amazed that he called a conference. A mere three centuries later, the International Date Line became official. The boundary between one day and the next was set.

Racing to Places

By definition, travel is moving from one place to another place. Like a token on a game board, you advance from Country A to Country B.

For some, travel is a competitive game. Recently, travel magazines profiled a woman whose mission is to become the fastest person to visit all 195 of the world’s sovereign countries.

A woman racing toward travel symbols inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © TK)

“Let’s see, 195 countries times 3.5 hours per airport plus x hours per flight . . .”
© iStock/PRimageFactory

Places in Time

But travel is also about time. Exploring it, experiencing it.

Time travel lights up the raised relief map of your brain, revealing the Valley of Jet Lag and the Mountains of Giddy Realization: I’m here! I’m on the other side of the planet!

It toys with your internal clock, making you narcoleptic at noon, insomniac at midnight, and ravenous at four a.m.

It makes you silly: “Greetings from the Future!” you text your family, who are back in that earlier time zone.

A text message about coffee in Christchurch, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Even 7, 241 miles apart  . . .
© Joyce McGreevy

A text message about coffee in Lincoln City, Oregon inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Carolyn McGreevy)

. . . sisters have coffee together.
© Carolyn McGreevy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It makes you grin: As a traveling freelancer in New Zealand, you’re one day ahead of U.S. deadlines. Yippee!

It makes you hyper-aware: After clearing customs in Auckland, you enter the bustling airport café. It’s 5 a.m. local time, yet the woman who hands you a mug of coffee sings, “Here you are, lovey” with a bright-eyed smile.

A night skyline of Auckland, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Auckland, New Zealand as seen from Devonport across the harbor. 
© Joyce McGreevy

It makes you think: While you were snoozing over the South Pacific, she was catching her bus in Manukau, the dim silhouettes of suburban bungalows slowly un-fuzzing as dawn edged over Hauraki Gulf to etch steel and glass towers against the sky.

Oh, I see: Below the surface of what we experience and exchange lie the complex route maps of all our time travel adventures.

A Planet for All Seasons

In crossing the International Date Line, I’ve also crossed from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere. Like other imaginary map lines, its effects are real. As I write this in May, it’s autumn in New Zealand.

Autumn leaves at the River Avon in Christchurch, New Zealand inspire an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures.(Image © Joyce McGreevy)

“April in Paris” celebrates spring, but in Christchurch, New Zealand,
April is the middle of autumn.
© Joyce McGreevy

Across New Zealand, forests are ablaze with autumn, their vibrant leaves glowing against snow-capped volcanic peaks. New arrivals from the Northern Hemisphere say, “Oh, the seasons are reversed.”

But are they? Or is this another example of Earth’s symmetry? As spring surges toward summer in one half, autumn yields to winter in the other half.

As Earth’s seasons perform their balancing act, we humans seek an impossible balance between defying time and deferring to it. What if we simply observed its presence and its passage?

ake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures.(Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Reflecting on seasonal change at Lake Tekapo in New Zealand’s Mackenzie Basin. 
© Joyce McGreevy

Imagine if your travels through a place were moment-to-moment.  Imagine that, in the time it takes for the world’s fastest traveler to blaze a record-breaking trail through dozens of countries, you were still meandering along, savoring the slowly shifting here and now.

World’s Slowest Traveler?

The number of countries I’ve covered in 5 weeks plus the number I’ll visit in the next 7 add up to a grand total of (drum roll) . . . one. Over the coming weeks, I’ll share stories of New Zealand, from its staggering natural beauty to its wonderful people.

A starry sky in Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Daniel Rood and New Zealand Tourism)

Stars seem closer to Earth in Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand. 
© Daniel Rood/New Zealand Tourism

Until then, imagine that each of us was traveling on the surface of an illuminated globe. Imagine that every night we sailed through an ocean of stars, and every morning we woke up in a place of new possibilities.

Just think of all the time travel adventures we could have.

An antique clock inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Even clocks need to unwind sometimes.
© Joyce McGreevy

Why is New Zealand vanishing from world maps? Solve the mystery in this hilarious video featuring NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Adern, here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Adventure Travel/Crossing Cultures/New Zealand/Secrets to Life

24

Apr

The Dogs on the Bus

by Joyce McGreevy on April 24, 2018

Meg Vogt, creative thinker and owner of Dogs Rule! welcomes canines on her dog bus in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Dog’s Rule! is a (p)awesome bus service based in Sullivan’s Gulch, Portland, Oregon.
© Joyce McGreevy

Creative Thinking for Canines
in Portland, Oregon

Driving with a 12-pack isn’t usually the smartest idea. But when the “12-pack” is a dozen adorable dogs, it’s genius.

Meet creative thinker Meg Vogt, affectionately known as the Dog Bus Lady of Sullivan’s Gulch. When Meg launched Dogs Rule, a bus service for dogs in Portland, Oregon, the locals really got on board.

Creative thinker Meg Vogt and dogs on the bus pose for a “pack portrait” in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Ryan LaBriere)

The dogs on the bus go woof-woof-woof all around the town—en route to leash-free parks.
© Ryan LaBriere @LabrierePhoto

Dogged Devotion

Throughout her life, Meg has solved canine challenges that would overwhelm most people.

Consider Mr. Diego.

Viciously attacked as a puppy, Mr. Diego was soon making his mark on the world—specifically on its inhabitants. But Meg, who was then a dog walker, spent years working through his issues, gradually enabling him to socialize peaceably.

Mr. Diego the white Scottie went from troubled pup to poster dog thanks to Meg Vogt’s creative thinking. (Image © Meg Vogt)

By 2015, Mr. Diego had become the poster pooch for the local humane society. 
© Meg Vogt

Chelsea, a retired police dog, had degenerative myelopathy. Every morning, said Meg, she’d “ease the dog’s rear end into a special wheelchair and drive to a park where Chelsea could chase after squirrels.”

“We totally bonded. Still, I told myself that when Mr. Diego and Chelsea passed, I would move on to a real job. But there was no way. I had all these soul connections with dogs.”

After a series of remarkable careers—paginator at USA Today, audio engineer, video producer, camp counselor, radio show host, and concierge, Meg had found her real job.

Creative thinker Meg Vogt, Max the poodle, and Grendel the Irish wolfhound howl for fun on the dog bus in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Meg, Max, and Grendel practice howlistic therapy.
© Joyce McGreevy

How Much Is That School Bus in the Window?

In 2008, Meg bought an old school bus and figured out how to operate it on the drive home. She parked it beside the house that she shares with her very supportive wife, Deb (“Not a Dog Person”) Bridges. Then she invited the neighborhood over.

Families, children, and other creative thinkers paint the Dog Bus in Sullivan’s Gulch, Portland, Oregon. (Image © Meg Vogt)

Sullivan’s Gulch neighbors gather for a paint-and-pizza party.
© Meg Vogt

The dog bus was born. And wow, did it ever bus a move. Who let the dogs out? Oh, I see: In Portland, Oregon this is not a rhetorical question.

Blue Rover, Blue Rover

Recently, I joined Meg on her rounds. Our destination?  Thousand Acres—open land, berry bushes, and a delta. It’s off-leash paradise.

Because her passengers lack opposable thumbs, Meg uses house keys that clients entrust to her. Eagerly anticipating their day out, the dogs trot to the bus door, race up the steps, and take their usual seats.

Dogs of several kinds board the dog bus, a product of Meg Vogt’s creative thinking in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Why chase your tail when you can catch a bus?
© Joyce McGreevy

It’s Spring Break. Several dogs are on vacation, taking their humans with them, so we’re down to a six-pack and a bonus pup.  Our seven riders range from petite Moe to a pony-sized Irish wolfhound named Grendel. (Which technically makes Grendel a Beowulf-hound.)

Now add Meg’s “god dog” Piper the Scottie, Ida the yellow Lab, Max the French poodle, Porter the black Lab, and Finn the fantastic medley. It could be a recipe for chaos. Instead, it’s like the best buddy movie ever.

Grendel leans his massive head out the window, breezing. Moe snuggles. Porter seems pensive, as if composing a bestselling bark-all. Max, Ida, and Piper look out the windows. Finn reclines but casts a supervisory look over the pack.

Several dogs gaze out the windows of the dog bus, a product of Meg Vogt’s creative thinking in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

The dogs are poised for that first sight of green fields.
© Joyce McGreevy

Go, Dog, Go!

The dogs somehow contain themselves as Meg parks. Once out the door, they run merrily down the path, splitting off occasionally to run in broad, looping arcs.

Meg Vogt and dogs enjoy a run at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Best dog run ever!
© Joyce McGreevy

There is no happiness like that of dogs roaming free.

“Ida Idaho” spots a puddle and knows just what to do.

Dogs enjoy a puddle at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon, thanks to creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dog bus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Dive in!
© Joyce McGreevy

Dogs frolic at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon, thanks to creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dog bus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Max and Grendel show off for the pup-arazzi.
© Joyce McGreevy

Porter, the quiet one, turns daring explorer, scouting the perimeter.  Piper and Moe hold court with adoring fans.

Finn wades into the water. There is no branch so big, no stick tossed so far, that he cannot retrieve it.

A dog carrying a branch frolics at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon, thanks to creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dog bus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Finn branches out.
© Joyce McGreevy

The Leader of the Pack

When it’s time to go, how do you gather a pack of dogs from 1400 acres? The secret is to be Meg Vogt. At her call, all seven come running. Together, they lope along as one big family and board the bus.

Creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dogs stroll through a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Anyone who thinks the dog bus is a trendy business is barking up the wrong tree.
The only high end in this labor of love is Grendel’s.
© Joyce McGreevy

To be tuckered out after a day of fun is the best kind of tired in the world. While the dogs rest, Meg shares her story.

Incredible Journey

“I was that white kid on the Rez,” she says.  “It was a beautiful experience, growing up in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.”

Most nights, Meg would take her bedding out to the screened-in porch. There she’d sleep with her dog Carly, whom her mom had rescued as a puppy.

“It was sweet waking up to the sound of an Evinrude motor on the lake. I’d get in the canoe with Carly in front. Then I’d take off across the lake, go hiking in the National Forest. That was my childhood.”

Lassie (and Buddies), Come Home

One by one, the dogs are returned home. I feel like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, sad to bid farewell to my new friends.

Neighbors and dog visit with creative thinker Meg Vogt on a porch in Sullivan Gulch, Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Max loves Meg’s dog bus so much, he watches from a balcony for its arrival.
© Joyce McGreevy

It’s the community, says Meg, who helps keep her bus running. When the dog bus needed a new transmission, folks pitched in. “Sullivan’s Gulch is a good community that way. We all take care of each other.”

Meg Vogt and Štĕpán Šimek are creative thinkers and Sullivan Gulch neighbors in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Meg chats with Sullivan’s Gulch neighbor Štĕpán Šimek . . .  
© Joyce McGreevy

A passerby, Monique, chats with Meg Vogt, whose creative thinking led to the dog bus in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

. . . and a delighted passerby named Monique. 
© Joyce McGreevy

Dog Tales and Winding Trails

Now Meg hopes to fund a multi-purpose space for dogs and humans called Rawhide Ranch. So she’s writing books. There’s no shortage of material:

Her richly lived life has doglegged around the world. (Although we’ve only just met, Meg and I discover that our paths had crossed years earlier. We’d both been volunteer radio hosts at KAZU in Pacific Grove, California.)

There’s true love conquering all as Meg’s wife faced down metastatic colon cancer. Deb played soccer between rounds of chemo and went from having a 6% chance of survival to becoming a world-class race walker.

A little dog named Moe rides the dog bus, a product of Meg Vogt’s creative thinking in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

When Moe lost a twin, the pack cheered him up.
© Joyce McGreevy

Then there are Meg’s “myku,” her version of haiku. Doggerel? Hardly! But the dogs clearly are muses:

        Shut down your keyboard.

        Come! Take in the morning light.

        Can you smell the rain?

Creative thinking at its off-leash best.

 

 

That night, I make a wish on the Dog Star: May Meg’s dog tales and other writing find a loving home. And may the dog bus and the dog pack always roam free.

A license plate from the dog bus in Portland, Oregon reflects Meg Vogt’s creative thinking. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Long may their tails wag!
© Joyce McGreevy

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Clever Ideas/Making a Difference/Nature Discovery/USA

09

Apr

Meet the Challenge: Escape Rooms of the World

by Meredith Mullins on April 9, 2018

Detective with magnifying glass, part of the new trend of escape rooms around the world which enable cultural encounters and teach life lessons. (Image © demaerre/iStock.)

Everyone loves a challenge.
© demaerre/iStock

Cultural Encounters, Adrenaline, and Life Lessons—All in a Day’s Fun

I couldn’t help but get excited. Maybe a little nervous. I’d heard about it. I’d read about it. People had described the experience in a way that was seductive and sense-heightening. It was time to go for it. To see for myself.

Of course, I’m talking about escape rooms—the newest game phenomenon taking root around the world and offering cultural encounters of the mind-challenging kind.

Escape rooms are more than just a game, though. They’re theatre, mystery, teamwork, logic, puzzle solving, deciphering, intellectual sport, and, most of all, real-life fun.

Sherlock Holmes violin in the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Sherlock’s violin sets the stage.
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

You’re Sherlock Holmes, Harry Houdini, Indiana Jones, Nancy Drew, Inspectors Poirot and Clouseau, Columbo, Harry Potter, and Jessica Fletcher all rolled into one.

And, if your main purpose is fun, you are also a child again.

Ladder to an escape opening, not typical of escape rooms around the world where cultural encounters and life lessons abound. (Image © Peshkov/iStock.)

Escape is not this easy in the escape rooms of the world.
© Peshkov/iStock

For those of us who spend too much time in front of a screen of one kind or another, when we step into a world of make believe that actually has tangible elements and human teamwork, it’s a welcome treat. Add to that the challenge of the hunt, and we’re in game heaven.

I was ready. I had trained watching quiz shows like Jeopardy and reality shows like Survivor. I had scored 800 on my math SATs (albeit many years ago). I was a daily sudoku player who was also immersed in a second language (brain activity . . .  check!). And I reveled in detective mysteries.

Bring it on.

Sherlock Holmes study at the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world, where cultural encounters and life lessons abound. (Image © Richard Green.)

Sherlock’s Study—the setting for a race against time to escape
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

What is an Escape Room?

An escape room is a kind of physical adventure game where a team of people are locked in a room and have to figure out how to escape within a certain amount of time.

The players must work individually and as a team to discover clues, find hidden objects, solve problems and puzzles, answer riddles, unlock locked safes and boxes, and think creatively and strategically as a team.

Sherlock Holmes items on a desk in the Exodus escape room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Which of these items has a hidden clue? Perhaps all of them?
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

Since there are more than 3000 escape rooms in the world, they can take many forms. You can escape from a room set in specific time period (Sherlock Holmes, Roaring 20s), or you can escape from a prison or a dungeon or a space station.

You can rob a bank, find a missing person, solve a murder, be an adventurer, defuse a bomb, or capture (or be) a spy. The themes are creative and endless, and, more often than not, fit within the culture of the country.

Casino setting at The Game in Paris, France, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © The Game/Paris.)

It’s time to rob the Royal Casino. Can you make the heist in the one-hour time limit?
Photo courtesy of The Game/Paris

Cultural Encounters While Escaping

Escape rooms around the world all have different themes—settings and characters that have meaning to the particular country and culture—for example, a metro car, a casino heist, a haunted house, an espionage center, or the catacombs.

Metro car in Paris, one of the escape rooms around the world, where cultural encounters and life lessons abound. (Image © The Game, Paris.)

In Paris, one of the escape rooms is a metro car.
Photo courtesy of The Game/Paris.

In Berlin, you escape to the other side of the wall, and send a message to tear the wall down. In Ontario, Canada, you participate in the Ontario Gold Rush of 1866. In a replica of 18th century Zagreb, you find a passage so you can save an innocent woman accused of witchcraft from burning at the stake. There’s even an escape igloo at a ski resort in Slovenia.

Other cultural adjustments also exist. In the U.S., you can be teamed with strangers. In some other cultures, working with strangers would never be forced.

In all cases, the gamemaster explains the problem to be solved, and what may and may not be touched, lifted, or moved during the experience. (Everything not mentioned is fair game.) The door is locked (well, not in all cases, due to legal liabilities, but you get the idea). And the adrenaline rush begins. The clock is ticking. It’s a race against time.

Catacombs, one of The Game escape rooms in Paris, France, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © The Game, Paris.)

The Catacombs Escape Room: Dark, dangerous, gloomy and captivating. Enter at your own risk.
Photo courtesy of The Game/Paris

Five Escape Room Life Lessons

What happened to my team in my virgin escape room experience? We had to find a murderer in the era of Sherlock Holmes.

We were a bit timid at first (since we didn’t all know each other and we hadn’t yet figured out how to work as a team), but we fell into the rhythm, used our individual talents wisely, and escaped the room with 15 minutes to spare.

The exhilaration of solving the final clue and finding the key to escape was a proud victory, especially since only 50% of the teams working our room had actually escaped within the time limit. We weren’t on the leader board, but we were in the top 50%.

Can we reveal any secrets? No. Escape room ethics dictate, “What happens in the escape room, stays in the escape room.”

Bookshelf in the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Look closely. There are at least five clues in plain sight.
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

Aside from having a fun adventure, my real “Oh, I see” moment came when I realized that the five things I learned from the escape room experience were also good life lessons.

  • Appreciate that everyone has unique skills. A great team works well together but also thinks differently, finds unique paths, reaches conclusions in different ways, and thinks outside the box.
  • Divide and conquer, but keep clear lines of communication. Use everyone’s specific skills to benefit of the team and to make effective use of time, but, while working independently, let the team know what clues have been found and what puzzles have been solved.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help. (In the escape-room world, the gamemaster is watching and can provide hints if needed to keep the team from getting stuck or frustrated.)
Narrow room with violin case in the Exodus Escape Room, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room.)

Is there a room behind this room? Only time will tell.
© Richard Green/Exodus Escape Room

  • Don’t stop searching. (Look everywhere for clues. Crawl under things, turn things over, look behind things, empty drawers and pockets. Check and double check.)
  • Enjoy the experience. You don’t have to “win.” (But it would be nice not to be locked in the room forever.)

Am I now an escape room addict (diplomatically called “enthusiast”)? Possibly.

I can imagine a road trip with cultural encounters in Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Cyprus, Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands . . . and all the other countries with growing escape room opportunties.

And, even if I stay home, the escape room life lessons are worth living.

Group including Meredith Mullins, Jerry Fielder, Alexandra Roden, Patricia Roden and others in the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California, one of the escape rooms around the world that offers cultural encounters and life lessons. (Image © Exodus Escape Room.)

Our victorious team: Unique skills and teamwork were the key to our success.
Photo courtesy of The Exodus Escape Room

Thank you to the Exodus Escape Room in Monterey, California and The Game in Paris, France. 

Additional information VIA Professor Scott Nicholson.

To find escape rooms near you, here’s a map of worldwide escape rooms.  

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Cultural Encounters/Life Lessons/Worldwide Sites

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