RANSVESTIA

alcoholism is a real problem, violent crimes and thefts are nowhere near what they are in this country. I didn't become a communist but I did have the opportunity to see the country and its people and its operation with my own eyes instead of through the pages of American newspapers and magazines which after all have a vested interest in our system and are therefore not likely to be very complimentary about anything Russian. It is too bad that more Americans don't go to Russia and vice versa, it might go a long way toward wearing down the mutual suspicion and distrust.

I suffered some rather bad financial losses while I was gone on this trip so that the next couple of years had to be devoted to recouping which, with the help of silver coin investments, I was able to do, so I didn't go anywhere of importance in 1976. There was one trip by motor home down to Chihuahua, Mexico where 26 of us put our motor homes on flat cars and then the train took four days going over the mountains of Mexico and down to Las Moches on the Pacific side. I had invited the lady who had been my roommate on the steamer trip down the Nile in 1973, to come out to El Paso and meet me and join me on the trip which she did. We got on fine even in the crowded conditions of a motor home which became our hotel during the whole trip from El Paso through Mexico and back to Nogales, Arizona.

On this trip I really began to find out what Androgeny was. For example, I took my bos'ns chair and tied it down on the roof of the coach and while the train was buzzing along I went up and sat in it for a terrific view. Naturally, no other woman did so. But I was the only woman driving her own coach too. Many of the others could drive theirs, of course, but all had husbands along to do it. Also on occasion when I got the urge to visit somebody several coaches ahead or behind I would just jump from one coach to another while the train was going. After all I could easily jump three feet so what difference did it make whether the cars were moving or not, they stayed just three feet apart. Again, of course, no woman on the trip would do that (and very few men, to be truthful) so from these two behaviors you can imagine that Virginia was the subject of some conversation for being so "active," "daring," (they probably meant foolish), "adventurous," etc. What they really thought might have been unfeminine. So I made what I call "boy points" among people by these actions. I did them just because I was motivated to do them, not to make any impact on other people.

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