Major:  Global Studies

Naida Bacon continues to be an eloquent proponent of life-long learning and Global Honors, and makes frequent contributions to the program as a mentor to current students. After graduating in 2012, she put her love of learning into practice by embarking on a cross-country road trip, visiting some of the nation's most significant historical and natural landmarks.

"Since I was fully retired after working 40 years in the transportation industry, and at an earlier point in my life had visited all the lower 48 states and parts of Canada, but never had a chance to stop and enjoy the wonder and beauty of this country, my husband and I decided to take a "bucket trip" to some of the historical places I have always wanted to see. We spent 81 days away from home and drove our little Fiat pulling a small trailer over 19,500 miles in the middle of one of the hottest summers in the midwest and east coast on record.

"We went from Tacoma, WA through Spokane over to Mt. Rushmore and to Custer's Last Stand National Park, Wall Drugs in Wall, South Dakota, then on to Chicago, up to Detroit, across to Canada and east to Niagara falls. From there we went south to Aberdeen, Md, to Baltimore then to Strasbourg, PA, Leesburg, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Salem, Boston, Stanton Island, NY and then to Washington, DC. We spent about 5 weeks in the DC area visiting Arlington National Cemetery, Museum of Natural History, The National Holocaust Museum, the National Archives, The Wall, The Korean Memorial, World War II memorial, Lincoln Memorial just to name a few places.

"We came back to Washington by way of Kansas City and Windsor, Co and Carlin, NV then north to Boise and Spokane and finally Tacoma, WA. Along the way, some of the sights we stopped to see were Mt. Rushmore, Custer's Last Stand, Chicago museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Art Museum, Chrysler main office and Museum in Detroit, Niagara, Gettysburg, Several Amish stores in the Strasbourg, PA area (drooled over the beautiful hand made quilts:) and of course, had to take the tour of the Salem Witch trials. We also visited Corning, NY and the Corning glass museum.

"During the trip, we took the UWT Mascot, Hendrix with us so he could gain credit towards his "Bachelor of Adventure degree". Of course, now I have to make him sit down and put all his notes together to write up his trip for the Colloquium presentation and for his thesis. Man! He is hard to get to sit still!! Just wants to travel some more and play around. We hope to get him to put a book together with all the pictures we took and a little bit of explanation of the history of each place."