Rufus McGaugh

I was born and raised in Michigan. I interrupted my college education with a 2-year stint in the Marine Corps, serving in the jungles of the Que Son Mts. of Vietnam. I was a grunt machine-gunner and was wounded in December of 1970. Finishing my degree I embarked on a teaching career that has now spanned 46 years. My passion has been the outdoors and travel through backpacking, mountain climbing, and canoeing. My quest was to visit every country in the world which I did in May of 2017. This was a dangerous trip where I literally had to stay one step ahead of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and tribal terrorists. I have now been to all 50 states, all 7 continents (with a 74 degree below zero temperature in Antarctica), and 258 countries and lands. Two books in a humorous fashion have been written about my experiences with a third on the way. I have been arrested in Africa and thrown into a prison for blowing up the Air Force of Zimbabwe--I swear I didn't do it! And that's the story I am sticking to. Flew into Mogadishu in Somalia avoiding ground fire and had the experience of traveling through North Korea which is actually crazier than you think. My books share the amusing and the crazy things that can occur when you visit every corner of the earth, such as breaking both arms in a bicycle accident in Cuba.(I did finish that ride with two broken arms because it was only another 13 kilometers and besides there was beer at the end.) Just recently I have had the opportunity of visiting the fabled Omo Valley of Ethiopia that National Geographic describes as "Africa's Last Frontier".