Category Archives: Uncategorized
An Island Unimagined
Imagine a chunk of land the combined size of Minnesota and Iowa, then double it! (We believe in bonuses.) Most of the 20 major rivers begin in the highland rainforests, according to cartographers. (We believe in scientists, but prefer to call those forests jungles!) The rivers empty into not one sea, but four – I…
Exploring the West on a Motorcycle Packed with Books for Real Characters
By Tom Mattson: The amazing characters and places described in my book Meeting Strangers, Making Friends “are fictional,” hearsay I imagine was mentioned on social media by a skeptic of all things literary. I’d prove the skeptic wrong by finding someone who would take off on a 4,000-mile motorcycle journey, locate a number of characters,…
Caravans of Immigrants to Minnesota’s Iron Range
By Tom Mattson: Arriving on Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range in a small caravan, the pictured visitors of Mexican heritage savor some of the Iron Range’s highlights—and have such fun doing it! I observed the travelers and their pets near the Rouchleau Iron Mine overlook at old Finntown in the city of Virginia while I secluded…
Virtual World Tour: Motorcycling America
Motorcycling across America is a thrill for those who do it, and an adventure for those who hear about the journeys. Right now, do it yourself, and hang on to the Harley tight. We’ll zip from Minnesota to Arizona, and then north to Utah and Montana. Tom Mattson‘s Virtual World Tour launched with video episodes…
Virtual World Tour: Kingdom of Bhutan
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to set foot in the Kingdom of Bhutan? Or envisioned a road trip across that Himalayan nation nestled between India and Tibet? And to travel for two weeks with two strangers who greet you at the airport in Thimphu? In this video, meet Funso and Dorji,…
Virtual World Tour: Cuba’s Santo Domingo Village
Let’s meet an eyewitness to the Cuban revolution—when he was eight years old! And let’s watch as his wife brews coffee that they cultivate, pick, sun-dry, roast and grind, all in the “old-fashioned” way. We’ll check on their village of Santo Domingo in Cuba’s Sierra Maestra Mountains, where Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other revolutionaries…
Virtual World Tour: Myanmar’s Inle Lake
Greetings to Fellow Travelers of our Planet: We’ve left our beloved Guatemala, and zipped 11,000 miles and 12 time zones! That means we are in Episode 3 of this world tour. Let’s take a chance of a lifetime to explore Inle Lake in a remote part of Myanmar (formerly Burma). People do not live on…
Virtual World Tour: Guatemala’s Caribbean Beaches
Hello Friends, People from West Virginia to Japan to Australia have virtually seen a bit of my world travels on YouTube. Now Episode 2 is out—it’s a relaxation-packed 3 minutes. My travels are called a Virtual World Tour, and produced by Books Forward. Be forewarned, when we depart Guatemala in a few days, we’ll travel…
Virtual World Tour: Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan
A selection of Tom’s world travels appears on YouTube and other media. Each one takes us to a different part of our planet. The adventures are described in Tom’s book, The Other Worlds, or his upcoming book to be released in 2021.
Stepping Off a Bus, and into a Budding Pandemic
Posted on 4/6/20 by Tom Mattson. April 29, 2009. What happens when a flu epidemic hits a city of 20 million people, and authorities fear a pandemic? Sunday—Before I take my second step off the bus in Mexico City inbound from Acapulco, a waiting police officer hands me a face mask. Before I can decide…