The Roads We Have Traveled

Book excerpt: The Roads We Have Traveled, Volume 2, Richard L. White collects his travel writings beginning with Kerstin’s and his trip to Mexico in April 2009 and concluding with a family vacation in Boulder, Colorado in December 2019 at the very end of the decade. While the coronavirus pandemic brought a sudden halt to the Whites’ travels, it was the perfect time to pause, reflect, and bring this collection together. Volume 2 complements the first volume, published in 2009 and covering nearly four decades of travel (1970-2008). The 44 travelogues in Volume 2 include Richard’s recollections and observations of visits to a number of foreign countries and states, almost always in the company of Kerstin. While she primarily documents their travels through photography, Richard is always capturing an experience, a moment, an image, or a feeling through the written word. This is also the story of the personal growth of Richard, Kerstin, and their children Janine, Lisa, and Windy, as they complete their graduate and undergraduate degrees and forge new lives and new purposes in the broad field of education in New York, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, and London. Throughout the book, Richard demonstrates his love of travel, writing, observation, history, culture, and memory, passions that he shares with Kerstin and has passed on to his children.