When my son Brandon turned 14, he asked me, “Dad, you climbed the Matterhorn at 14. Could we climb the Matterhorn together now that I’m 14?” It was 1998 and I was 54. I didn’t think I could do it, but his request meant more than the world to me, so I agreed. Each with our own bergführer guide, he breezed up, but it was a real struggle for me.

He made it, my guide didn’t think I could, so after summiting, Brandon came back down to get me. We climbed the last 500 feet together. Thus here we both are on the summit of the world’s most famous mountain. There are no words to come close to expressing what this means to each of us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #35 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

These are the only wild monkeys in the entire continent of Europe. Originally from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and named for Moroccan Berbers, they stowed away on various ships of Portuguese, Spanish, and Arabs centuries ago and made themselves at home on the Rock of Gibraltar.

Although locally called apes as they are tailless, they are a kind of monkey called a macaque.  There are some 300 living on the Upper Rock today in five “troops.” Originally looked after by the British Army under an Officer of the Apes, their health and population is now managed by the Gibraltar Veterinary Clinic.

They stay contentedly up on the Rock and are rarely seen down in the town below.  You can approach them and seem to love to pose for photos, but don’t get too close. These are wild critters and may bite if alarmed.  With that caution, you’ll have no problem, and enjoy being around them.  One more thing that makes a visit to the Rock of Gibraltar so fascinating. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #245 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

This is where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed by assassin Jack McCall on August 2, 1876 in Deadwood, South Dakota.

The No. 10 Saloon is where Hickok had been playing five card draw that day.  He was uncomfortable with his back to the bar (the furthest chair in the photo) and asked another player, Charlie Rich, twice if he could switch seats so his back would be to the wall behind – and twice Rich refused (the chair on the left).

A miner who had lost at cards with Hickok so badly that Wild Bill gave him money to eat, Jack McCall, came in, walked to the bar behind Hickok seeming to ask for a drink, and suddenly without warning pulled his pistol shot Wild Bill in the back of the head, killing him instantly.

Four cards in Hickok’s hand were showing – two black aces and two black eights, forever to be known as The Dead Man’s Hand. (The fifth or hole card was down and is not known.)

McCall was hung for the murder, buried with the noose still around his neck.  Hickok is reverentially interred at Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery with a large bronze monument immortalizing the single most renowned man for whom the Wild West was named – James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #227 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

The inner city of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Khiva has been unchanged for centuries. Surrounding 40ft-high snake walls that writhe around the city have protected it for centuries, enabling defenders to shoot, spear, and pour burning hot oil on attackers from three sides.

Khiva’s labyrinth of narrow lanes adorned with blue and aquamarine tile mosaics is a living museum for you to explore. On the Oxus or Amu Darya River in deepest Central Asia, Khiva was ancient when Alexander the Great seized it in 329 BC.

It survived the depredations of Arabs in the 8th century, Mongols in the 13th, Tamerlane in the 14th. The Khanate of Khiva continued to flourish on the Silk Road until conquered by the Russians in the 19th. Today in Uzbekistan, it remains as the best-preserved of the ancient oases of the Silk Road, yet unknown to the outside world.

It need not remain unknown to you, however. We were just here two years ago, and will be here again soon. Join us and make Khiva a part of your life.(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #226 photo ©Jack Wheeler)