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Cedar Rapids globe-trotters reach all 7 continents
What they’re learned after traveling to more than 70 countries
Jan. 20, 2024 5:45 am, Updated: Jan. 22, 2024 11:30 am
Dianne and Mike Karal hold out some of their favorite magnets they have collected from their travels around the world at their home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. The couple has a large collection of magnets from each of the countries they have visited. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Arlene and Andy Houk pose for a portrait with musical instruments they have collected from around the world including a Tibetan horn and didgeridoo at a home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Andy Karal, Arlene Karal, Dianne Houk and Mike Houk of Cedar Rapids have traveled the world on their own and together, including to places like this one in Switzerland. (Andy Karal)
Andy Karal and Arlene Karal of Cedar Rapids have traveled the world, including to places like The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. (Andy Karal)
Dianne Houk and Mike Houk of Cedar Rapids have traveled the world on their own and together, including to places like this one in India. (Dianne Houk)
Dianne Houk, Arlene Karal, Mike Houk and Andy Karal of Cedar Rapids have traveled the world on their own and together, including to places like this one at an Israel Defense Force base on the border of Lebanon. (Andy Karal)
Dianne Houk and Mike Houk of Cedar Rapids have traveled the world on their own and together, including to places like this one in South Africa, Dianne’s favorite country. (Dianne Houk)
Andy Karal and Arlene Karal of Cedar Rapids have carried their Hawkeye Banner around the world, including to places like this one in Jordan. (Andy Karal)
Andy Karal and Arlene Karal of Cedar Rapids have carried their Hawkeye Banner around the world, including to places like this one in Antarctica. (Andy Karal)
Arlene Karal, Andy Karal, Mike Houk and Dianne Houk of Cedar Rapids have traveled the world on their own and together, including to places like this one in Scotland. (Andy Karal)
CEDAR RAPIDS — After crisscrossing the world through travel spanning the last few decades, two Cedar Rapids couples hit a milestone with their most recent trip.
With more than 70 countries under their belt, couples Dianne and Mike Karal and their friends, Andy and Arlene Houk, finally reached the last continent on earth without a country on it: Antarctica.
After reaching the crowning achievement, the retirees from humble backgrounds have learned a few things. Here are their favorite memories and travel tips for those who want to expand their horizons — and open their minds.
How it started
Growing up, most of the scenery these four saw was through the window of their car, the screen of their television or the photos in magazines.
“Nobody of my generation was flying for pleasure,” said Dianne Karal, who is in her 70s. “We were lucky if we got to go anywhere in the car.”
For her and husband, Mike, travel started in earnest when her work with Rockwell Collins took her to the United Kingdom. With a little time off and a travel allowance, she took advantage of the opportunity to start seeing Europe, flying Mike over for trips in England and elsewhere.
After growing up reading National Geographic specials, Andy Houk, now 61, got a taste for travel through trips with the Hawkeye Marching Band alongside his wife, Arlene. When Arlene applied for her first passport, her grandmother asked why it was valid for 10 years.
“Why on earth would you need it? You’re only going to go once,” Arlene recalled her saying.
Before long, Andy said seeing places in Europe felt unreal. Now, they’ve just returned from living abroad in the Netherlands for the last three years.
The couples, who have known each other through work since the 1980s, would always pick each other’s brains on the best travel experiences. But in 2016, they started traveling together.
Separately and together, the two couples have seen Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
Their favorite places
For some, travel starts as a way to check off the boxes — the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Taj Mahal in India, the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
But for each one of them, travel has evolved into something more than sightseeing.
For Dianne, reaching her favorite country was the realization that dreams can come true. At age 7, she became enamored with South Africa when missionaries visited her church.
In 2006, at age 60, seeing the country brought her to tears.
“I was overwhelmed by the fact that you can have a dream and if you stick with it, you can have that completion,” she said.
Mike, who enjoys the scenery along the way, cherishes his sights from Antarctica and Alaska. When Arlene has a bad day, Switzerland’s scenery is the happy place she envisions.
Mike and Andy said Americans, if only able to travel to one country, should seek eye-opening perspectives in Israel.
What they’ve learned
No matter the wonders of the world they’ve seen, the true impact of travel comes down to the people they’ve met.
For Andy, a former band director at Jefferson High School, the Mark Twain quote has rung true: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”
After learning how to break out of his bubble through large tour groups, Andy said he has learned to cherish the geopolitical perspective that comes not from seeing landmarks, but talking to residents of countries abroad.
From an Israel Defense Force base, he exchanged glances with members of Hezbollah through binoculars. In tunnels under Israel’s Western Wall, he put his feet on the same places where Jesus stepped.
But an impact that stays with the Christian came after meeting a Muslim family in Jerusalem and seeing their lives afflicted by constant conflict near holy lands. Now, he seeks diverse perspectives on other topics in his everyday life.
“That’s the kind of (learning) I’m craving now,” Andy said.
“People are people. The 99 percent, they just want to get along,” said Arlene. “It doesn’t matter if we have the same background, if we have a different religion, a different upbringing.”
For Dianne, the generosity of others has put her own material possessions into perspective. She loves Africa for its many people who, despite having very little, seem content.
“They seem peaceful within themselves — happy and content, which I don’t think most Americans are,” Dianne said. “They have nothing, and yet they’re so generous.”
“Even the poor people in the United States are rich compared to (the poverty in other countries,)” Mike said. “It makes you realize how gosh-darn lucky you are.”
And after fellowship with the penguins of Antarctica, they know Iowans experiencing local weather can handle anything. The subzero temperatures of this January were colder than Antarctica was during their visit last month.
Memorable experiences
No matter the continent, memories abound in perhaps the least expected places — weddings in Egypt, unexpected opera dress rehearsals at La Scala in Milan, Italy, and climbing to the top of a Buddhist monastery in the steep cliffs of Bhutan are a few, off the top of their heads.
They’ve been swarmed by Asian tourists for photos as they wore rented kilts around Scotland, serenaded by children in Peru dancing to raise supplies for their schools, and scared to death by sudden altitude drops in planes.
Through it all, they have a few tips to future travelers: be flexible, be open to cultural experiences, and when you see a toilet, it’s probably wise to use it while you can.
Expand your horizons, and learn things about yourself you didn’t know.
“Push yourself out of your comfort zone,” Arlene said. “Once you do it, you’ll be glad you did.”
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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