2000 - Linda Completes Acupuncture Training; Tall Ships and Taller Tales - The East Indies; Y2K & Sand-Strand Bonfires. Preparing Renunciation; Mom Moves Back North; Noah Graduates

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Besides several minute Caribbean islands, they put in in Venezuela with an air flight up to Angel Falls, which at a mile-high is the tallest waterfall in the world. Coursing off the Pangaea plateau above the Amazon floor, with rock formations of a type that match up only with those from Tibet, the plateau and gorge host species of plants and animals so unique and diverse that they do not seem to belong to South America, or even this planet… Snakes and birds with outrageous plumage, a yellow poisonous tree frog less than the size of a thumbnail… My, oh my.

Everyone thought it would be the real thing: Y2K codes would crash all computers, and civilization would collapse.

As the dreaded evening approached, they became giddy. Souring the beach for driftwood, they made a huge bonfire, friends and a few relatives assembling, dancing and beating drums, dashing into the nighttime surf as the moment approached, the clock ticked down, and the lights stayed on!

It was a good party.

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At one point Noah wanted to take his own discovery trip across the U.S. The old Tumbleweed Express (VW bus) was decrepit by then, but they paid for an engine rebuild and gave it to Noah for his birthday. Noah sold it to purchase a cross-country Greyhound bus ticket and went west.

That spring, Noah graduated from Brown. Paul’s sister, Mary moved back from Europe, and Mom moved back to Virginia, essentially clearing the boards to dig into finishing school and making plans to bug out. To go to Pacific Islands, then China, and on to India and Nepal.

They got started, but per an Emmy Lou Harris song, “He promised her the world, but they never got that far“: a saga of its own…