Dear Ricardo,
I am sorry you got upset. It wasn't my fault, though. I don't eat and that's why I don't ever need to use toilets.

I stayed at the Sky Lodge Hotel. They have a van that will take you to the airport, I don't know about escorts, though. I was in New Zealand during July and it was cold because that is winter there. Everybody spoke English everywhere we went but with an accent, though.
Sincerely, Bud

My - does Bud have blood running through his veins?? He looks pretty 'formal'. We just ret'd to Flagstaff now, can't find our dried cranberries, and of course, up here, there is nothing to be found like that. Bob got a big bag of them, wonder where he left them?? We have the AC running and it is over 80 out, trip back was OK, except we wanted b'fast and no such thing available, all places full.
JoAnn~~

Dear JoAnn,
No, I don't have any blood, I don't need it. I do always try to look my best, though. I'm sorry about your cranberries. Were you going to eat them for breakfast? I hope you find them. Did you look behind the couch?
Sincerely, Bud

Beautiful Trip--I was waiting for that!
Dee here, I sure will pass on--Be interesting to people (relatives) who have been there--Thanks!!

Dear Dee,
You're welcome.
Sincerely, Bud

BUD,
I enjoyed your site very much!! I spent the biggest part of a day with you, you have a wonderful site!! Keep up the good work, & safe travels!! I've saved your site for my GRANDCHILDREN to see,they will be very excited, for they are very interested in all that you do!! THANK-YOU!!
MARY

Dear Mary,
Gosh, that's very nice! I hope my website didn't make you neglect any important chores or anything. I hate chores. I try to keep my site interesting and educational but I hope your grandchildren someday get a chance to visit some of the places in person, like I have.
Sincerely, Bud

I live in the Panhandle and enjoyed seeing that you had been to Amarillo Texas. Not sure when you were in this area but the Cadillac Ranch now is covered in graffiti it is a shame to. Still attracts alot of tourists. But boy it looks awful. Enjoy receiving your newsletters. Love the pics. Keep up the work.
Mystic

Dear Mystic,
I thought Cadillac Ranch was pretty neat. When I saw it, it had just been painted all white to cover over graffiti. Maybe it needs to be painted again?
Sincerely, Bud

Bud,
Viewed your informative pictures and wish I could travel back to New Zealand/Australia in the near future. Hope you had as much fun as we did!! Never been to Fiji, but it was pretty, too....
Mary Alice

Dear Mary Alice,
Well, I don't know how much fun you had, so it would be hard for me to answer you. I bet you had a great time, though. I did make a lot of new friends and see great places. People were very friendly everywhere I went. Even though the people in Fiji were worried about their government and stuff, they were very nice and I think it is still a pretty safe place, compared to some other places.
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Bud and Friend,
Thanks so much for the great travel pictures! You certainly are the sophisticated traveller! Where is your next destination?

By the way, do you ever suffer from jetlag?? The time difference to Australia must have been difficult. I know a "granola" friend that swears by valarium (sp?) root...yeah, I know: she's a viola player, afterall!
Your Friend at the MET,
Susan
P.S. Luciano, Placido and I still await your MET debut!!

Dear Susan,
I don't know where I'm going next but I know it will be awhile because my friend says he can't afford another trip for quite awhile. Darn!

I don't get 'jetlag.' My eyes are painted open and I guess that means I'm always awake. I never feel tired, though, so I think it's okay. Musician friends of mine told me they sometimes tease viola players they know and tell jokes about them. Does your friend, the viola player, mind?

I look forward to visiting the Met sometime. I'll write to let you know when I can get up to New York City. It sounds like fun. I think you are kidding about Luciano & Placido. Um, unless you are talking about two others guys with the same names.
Sincerely, Bud

Thanks for your latest photos of Fiji, New Zealand & good old OZ. Nice to know you've been in our part of the world. Keep up the good work & enjoy.

Dear Pam,
I'm glad you liked my snapshots. I really enjoyed being down under! It is a very nice part of the world.
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Bud,
Your trip sounds like it was terrific! Where in the world are you going next?

Dear Kelly,
Yes, it was a lot of fun. I don't know where I'm going next, though. I know it will be awhile before I go again. My friend says he's broke right now. When I'm broke he fixes me with epoxy. What do you do when you're broke?
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Bud,
When I'm broke, I spend a lot more time with my dog. Tons of free fun.
Do you have a dog?

Dear Kelly,
No, I don't have a dog. Dogs need to be walked every day and I can't do that.
Sincerely, Bud

Bud-
So great to see you are travelling again. The shots of New Zealand really make us want to visit.

Has anybody ever told you that you look a bit like Leonardo di Caprio? Could you be related?

Happy travels and don't be a stranger!
Your fans,
The Rues

Dear Rues,
It was really nice to be on the road again. I made a lot of new friends. You are the first person to say I look like Leonardo di Caprio. No, we're not related, unless we're really, really distant cousins or something. Do you think I could be an actor too?
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Bud,
Thanks for the great pics of your trip Down Under Walkabout! They are terrific.

Hey, I just had an idea! Next trip, take Al Gore with you! I think you two would be a fabulous traveling duo! He might be too busy though. Anyway, think about it.

Thanks again for the fabbo photos. I'll be eagerly awaiting your next adventure!
GLE

Dear GLE,
I'm glad you liked my pictures. I'll write to the Vice President and ask him if he wants to take a vacation with me after the election. If he wins, he might like to take a break before starting work as president. If he loses, he might want to get away for awhile too.
Sincerely, Bud

Remove me at once from this mailing list
G. K.

Dear G.K.,
Okay, I promise.
Sincerely, Bud

Wow Bud you must have a great job or a kind patron.

1. Do you get frequent flyer miles and use them?
2. Have you ever considered a trip on the Concord?
3. How old were you when you started traveling. ...
4. (Why did the chicken cross the basketball court?)
(He heard the ref. was shooting fouls.)
5. Have you had any dates lately?
6.Is the story of Pinocchio a myth?
7. What's a good stock to invest in?
8. What's my mom's favorite color? 9. How can I find true happiness?
10. Do you consider yourself an ambassador of the United States?
11. What do you tell people when they ask you about the U.S.?
12. What is your most frequently asked question?

Randall

Dear Randall,
1. I usually travel steerage class. They don't offer frequent flyer miles there. 2. I'm never in a hurry.
3. Twelve, I've been twelve since I was born.
4. Ha, ha.
5. I'm not dating yet. I'm too young, really. Girls are okay, though
6. I think so.
7. I think you need a license or something to give out that kind of advice.
8. Um, most moms like pink. Is it pink?
9. Have you tried taking a vacation?
10. Not officially.
11. I tell them it's a great place to live.
12. "Where are you going next?"
I hope my answers were helpful.
Sincerely, Bud

dear Bud,
great pics, especially in Luray Caverns.... how bout one in the Mount Royal Tavern, Baltimore, Maryland USA? I lived in Baltimore once, but now I'm stuck in the suburban hellhole called Detroit, are you lucky enough to still live in Baltimore? but I guess you're always on the road travelling.....
anyways, good luck.

Dear ASporre,
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed my pictures. I have some friends who spend a lot of time at the Mt. Royal Tavern and they say that some nights it feels like a cave but more crowded. Yes, I still live in Baltimore and I love it here. I do travel a lot but I'm always glad to come back home.
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Bud,
For years I have told my Wife that I met a mannequin who traveled around the world but she did not believe me until I showed the article about you in the Today section of the Baltimore Sun. Thanks Bud, keep having fun in your travels.
Your Friend,
Joe

Dear Joe,
I glad your wife believes you now. It is true that some people find it hard to believe I've traveled as much as I have. I usually believe what people tell me because I think most people usually tell the truth. If I later find out they lied to me, I don't get mad, though, I just stop believing them when they tell me something.
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Nephew Bud,
I'm your great great-aunt - if I have the genealogy straight . My sister was your "adopted" mother's great-grandmother. Anyway, I surely did enjoy traveling around with you on your website. I got quite an education. I'll bet kids just learning history and geography (alas, not the geography I knew) like your brief, clear, factual vignettes of places you've visited. It stretches their minds, and they can identify with you and feel you are their friend and buddy. I'm sure they are looking forward to your reports and pictures of Australia, New Zealand and Figi, et al.

One thought: As with so many of us, we seem to think that every place out there is where we ought to go. But Baltimore and environs are "out there" to people of those places. So, where is your visit to Ft. McHenry? It's packed with important national history, the Flag House birthplace of the American flag, and more? Tell others about your home town. I'll be watching! (Or did I miss it?)

Have a great trip. Love, (Great) Aunt Nance

Dear Great Great-Aunt Nance,
I'm really glad you like my website (even though you are family and are probably not too objective). Most kids who write to me say they like my site, though a lot think it's weird too.

I love Baltimore and think it is a great city to visit and an even greater city to live in. But my website is just about the places I've been a tourist in. I once saw somebody wearing a funny tee shirt that said , "I'm not a tourist, I live here." I don't wear tee shirts but if I did, I'd wear that one around my home town. Around Christmas, though, I did put up a picture of me visiting the beautiful decorations and lights on 34th St. in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore.
Sincerely, your Great Great Nephew Bud

We'd be honored to host Bud for a couple of days....

We could set it up so he takes a few laps around the track at Daytona International or climbs the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, maybe hang out with bikers during Biketobrfest.
Dan

Dear Dan,
Thanks for the invitation. When you say take a few laps around the track at Daytona International I hope you mean in a race car or something, right? Because I don't run (or even walk) very much. That would be very neat. I like lighthouses and motorcycles too. How about after I get back from Australia?
Sincerely, Bud

Hi Bud,
Well I do live here in sunny Australia - so I think you should forget about all those places that have all the tourist hype and go of and visit the outback towns and meet some real Aussie folk. Go into the pubs of the real way out places and just catch the looks on their faces.
Anyway have fun down here in Aus - I might just see you at some time - but unless you are in my kitchen I really dont know how.
Have Fun
Christine

Dear Christine,
I like the places that have tourist hype. But that's because I'm a mannequin and a tourist. Some people call me shallow but that's not true. I am hollow, though. My friends agree with you, though, and like to go to the out of the way places and get to meet the local people, even people in kitchens. Sometimes we argue about it.
Sincerely, Bud

I am not from down under but Bud should pay attention to the toilet while he's there. The water spirals down the drain in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere than it does in the norther hemisphere. It's an interesting phenomenon to note, while he's there anyway. And have him report whether Australian barbecue is any different from plain old American barbecue.

Great website Bud has!
Kristina
American expatriate in Norway
(feel free to send Bud over here for a visit some time!)

Dear Kristina,
I don't need to use the toilet usually but I will ask my friends to check it out and see if the coriolis effect works in the lavatory. I'll also try to find out for you if Australian barbecue is different from American. I'd like to visit Norway someday very much.
Sincerely, Bud

Its been a long time since I visited Bud's site and I'm glad to see all is ok.

I have a question for Bud though. And, I shall do my own homework too! Now, as per the statement, that stonehenge is 4000 years old is agreeable, and that the druids had not arrived until 2000 years after the edifice was constructed. But.............

yes, there is always a but. Anecdotal notion sezzzzzz.....that the Druids were a spinoff (pardon the contemporary expression) of the Sufis, hmmmmm.....Pagan version of Islam and Zoraster, so to speak and that the Druids use of the olive branch in certain ceremonies is evidence of that.

Obviously, no-one can speak with total authority on this subject except for Bud.
Please forward this inquiry..

In all seriousness, Grace and Peace.
Jimmy Sickmeyer.

Dear Jimmy,
I looked it up in "Druids then and now" by Leigh Ann Berry for British Heritage magazine. and she says most of what we know about the real ancient Druids comes from the Romans who didn't like them and killed a lot of them. Very little is known about them otherwise. Many of the ceremonies of modern Druids were made up by a guy named Edward Williams in the early 18th century. He claimed to have found an ancient book of Druid knowledge but it turned out to be a forgery. Do you think he made up the part about the olive branch, too?

Did you know Winston Churchill was a Druid?
Sincerely, Bud

Dear Bud;
Thank you for the timeliness of your response! You sound well. I visited the recommended site and remain perplexed. It comes as no suprise that the Romans hated the Druids. The Romans hate everyone. This remains true today as I have recently finished a commision for a Roman architect, and let me tell you Bud, this guy was no walk in the park.

As to Edward Williams, it occurs to me that his cousin may have been Edgar Cayce. But without a court order from the Hague, permission to exhume the graves and do an exhaustive series of DNA tests to prove this is out of the question. And unfortunetly, lobbying the Hague out of my own pocket is out of the question since I would have to win the game show "Greed" and we know that is highly unlikely as the questions are far to complex. Speaking of which, rumour has it that Regis Filbin is related to Winston Churchill. I did not know that Winston was a druid but I should not be suprised at it is a fact concluded by many historians of major import, that Winston took many baths. Most of the tubs used by Churchill were no doubt constructed by the Romans as they were the only ones with the technical skills to build a tub large enough to accomodate Mr. Winston. I digress.

It occurrs to me Bud, that part of the key to this controversial mystery remains in pontificating the olive branch, or the origins of the symbol. I suppose, if in fact, Mr. Williams did fabricate the notion of the symbol of the Olive branch, that he must have been very wealthy and been able to travel a great deal. We all know that olive trees do not grow in England and that the Romans cannot draw or sculpt (inspite of popular opinion), so therefore, Edward must have gone some place to actually see a real olive tree. My guess is Afghanistan.

I shall continue to ponder this mystery Bud. Thank you for your inights to this matter. My best to you and yours.
Sincerely,
Jimmy

Dear Jimmy,
Good luck in your ponderings! I've never been to Afghanistan. I'd like to see it someday, though. Probably not all Romans are mean, you were just unlucky I guess.
Sincerely, Bud