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 Destination North Pole is endearing, humorous, dangerous and sometimes quirky travelogue. An old guy on an old bicycle supported by a sag-wagon (his loving wife) ventures north. She traveled ahead to find nightly food and lodging as he peddled an average of 121 kilometers (75 miles) per-day for forty days searching for iconic North Pole. Nature awakened history and imagination of the senior pensioners. A love emerged from the flat Dakota Plains, Canada’s Prairie Provinces, British Columbia into the vast Yukon and Alaska through eight mountain ranges with pristine streams and hot springs over massive glaciated rivers and permafrost. Wildlife? Dangers? Risks? Constantly! Hundreds of black bears and grizzlies blocked deer, elk, moose, wood bison, wolves, bicyclists, and other critters from lush road-sides. Elements (rain, wind, flurries and chilly mornings) heighten the desire for sun, wildflowers, rippling streams, glaciated mountains, hot baths and soft beds. A couple’s love and a path through nature opened opportunities for others on this 5,000 kilometers (3,000 mile) adventure—Destination North Pole.  

 What causes cultural change? What will be some consequences of current societal practices? These and other subjects are explored by Gary Wietgrefe (pronounced wit grif) in Relating to Ancient Culture and the mysterious agent changing it.Ancient life followed nature. A culture can only develop as its educated are gainfully employed.Early cultural awareness starts at home. At what age do parents give children responsibility? If it is at college graduation, they are two decades too late. Dependency is taught.Why were teenagers old enough to work eight hundred years ago, but not today?Based on the historical accomplishments of people whose lives were half the current lifespan, we wean later, learn slower, and are less mentally developed upon entering adulthood.Team approach is often preferred over individual initiative.Innovation has slowed since the 1960s as the adoption rate of technology has quickened.Fascination with technological gadgets has replaced intellectual pursuit.  

Hieroglyphs to Virtual Classrooms: Have We Really Progressed? How are we learning? In recent decades, children have learned through many sources outside family, including daycare, schools, and after-school activities. Learning is in great contrast with centuries past where most things were taught by parents and family. What has changed? Why?  With intriguing background commentary, Relating to Ancient Learning provides an informal look at how civilizations were built by experiential learning, existed by efficiency, and declined with unprepared youth.  By necessity, throughout the world adults provide food, clothing, healthcare, and shelter for their children. Teens legally reach adulthood in high school, yet many are unprepared to sustain themselves. Age for teaching essential life skills has changed—it is delayed. Why are some young adults not inclined to work until formally educated for fifteen to twenty years?  Ancients, without writing, memorized independently. The world keeps changing. For over a century, electronic artificial memory designed to help seemingly made us unable to think and learn for ourselves. Meanwhile, education in group structure reinforced dependence.  There is an evolving change back to independent learning. Toddlers now use technology to learn and entertain themselves in a perceivable drift away from brick-and-mortar institutions.