There are many reasons not to travel

        This unsavory character on the train platform in Italy could be a criminal. No one wants to get mugged. That is just one reasons not to travel.

          We are about ready to leave on a trip to Costa Rica. Someone reminded us that just recently a boy had died of food poisoning there. We are going to risk it.

         Paris has pickpockets. I encountered one. Rome has fast drivers.  We rode with one. The mountain roads of Austria are dangerous. We spent ten days in a car driving there.  In London ...

        Okay. There are lots of risks. There are also risks to walking down the street in a small town in Central California. There are reasons not to walk there.

        You can find any number of reasons to stay home, but there is a big world out there. Elephants run wild in Africa and not in my neighborhood. I like to see animals in their native environment.  You can not talk to a Swiss Guard at the Vatican by visiting a neighbor.

        It is true that you only die once, but you only live once too.