|
Worldly newsies find home where the heart is
By Gayle Fee and
Laura Raposa
Friday, December 26, 2003
Had enough of your spouse underfoot this holiday season? Then imagine globe-trotting with him or her for
an entire 365 days without the last stop being divorce court!
Ex-7Newsman Garvin
Thomas reports he's still ``happily'' hitched to his bride of two years, former WBZite Karen Crocker, after
an entire year of togetherness touring the world.
``Well, we came back together,''
Thomas told the Track. ``That should mean something.''
Garvin and Karen, who landed
in California on Thanksgiving Day and drove cross-country to the Cape shortly thereafter, say being in sync with each other's
travel goals helped them weather the wilds of the world.
``It wasn't the days of wine
and roses,'' said Thomas. ``But I'd say we fought no more being together 24/7 than our first year of marriage. But we had
the same priorities.''
In other words, if the guy wants
to climb every mountain and the gal's goal is to sit on every beach, that could cause more trip trouble than, say, Lake Titicaca
trout. (Which led the Thomas/Crockers to experience the region's toilets up close and personal!)
The couple's flying-by-the-seat-of-their-cargo-shorts
continent-hopping brought them from Hawaii to New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Mongolia, South Africa,
South America and Europe.
While they won't 'fess up what
was their favorite global hotspot, they're high on Mongolia, where they hitchhiked for three weeks and then stayed for an
extra two after embracing the locals. (Check out the newsies' on-the-road reports at http://theenchilada.tripod.com.)
``One of our goals was spending
time with people who don't normally meet tourists and we achieved that in Mongolia,'' said Thomas, who also spent a month
learning Spanish in Sucre, Bolivia.
And while there were low points,
like finding out about the SARS outbreak in China the day before they crossed the border there and having money stolen in
South Korea, a burg in Bolivia swept them off their feet - literally!
``We had done very well not
getting sick for the whole year, but the very last week of the trip we decided to take a mini-vacation on the shores of Lake
Titicaca in the town of Copacabana,'' he said. ``We decided on a real fancy place at $15 a night.
``Well, we ate at a place known
for trout and went down for about five days,'' he said. ``I mean, we ate cheap food cooked in street stalls all over the world
and never had a problem.''
Both Garvin and Karen spent
lots of time that week in their Bolivian bathroom - but not together!
|
