For Lyle H, Elkton, South Dakota was never enough. “I’ve always wanted to see the world and I just became nosy one day and made the decision to travel,” he said during his interview.

How many times have you traveled the world?
I’ve traveled the world once, but I have been to Europe three previous times. I have also been to Egypt twice.

Where have you been around the world?
I haven’t been to every single country. On my first trip to Europe I took the Queen Elizabeth Ship across the see to Europe. From there we went many places but altogether I have been to, Denmark, The English Channel, Sweden, Norway, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Switzerland, Bombay, the Taj-Mahal, Burmeris, Calcutta, Thailand, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Tokyo, Hawaii, San Francisco, Miami, Panama Canal, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chil, The Andes Mountains, Argentina, Uraguay, Brazil, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Atlanta, Chicago and New York. In Egypt I rode a camel to see the pyramids twice.

What made you decide to travel the world?
I was just plain nosy and wanted to see it on my own.

Do you know more than one language?
Heavens no

What was your favorite place?
Switzerland, I would really like to live there but you have to have a lot of money to live there!

How old were you when you went around the world?
The first trip I took was when I was twenty-nine years old. I took one every two years after that for a while and my last trip I took was when I was thirty-nine years old.

What was your least favorite place?
I didn’t like the food in France at all but there was no country that I didn’t like.

What was your most memorable place?
They were all really memorable but India was really interesting because it was very dirty when I saw it. The clean ones are never as interesting as the dirtier ones.

Did you leave anybody while you traveled?
No

What was your occupation at the time?
I worked at the Bank in Elkton but my title was assistant cashier.

How much did it cost to see the world?
The plane ticket to travel the world was $1300.00 and the ticket was a yard long because of all the different planes I had to board. Now you couldn’t even see the U.S. with $1300.00.

Did you travel alone?
Most of the time, on a couple of trips to Europe I was with a group of about eight or nine but usually I was alone.

Were you ever scared of some of the planes, scared of some of the places, or scared of traveling without family?
No, there was nothing to be scared about back in those times.

If you could do it again today, would you?
No, I’m getting to old now.

Is there one place that you really want to go but never got to see?
Russia, I was going to go one time but ended up getting sick and never got to see it.

What was your favorite one collection from your travels?
I really like the Blue Historical China I got from England.

Did you have any near death experiences on your travels?
No, none.

Was there a weird experience you have had while traveling?
No, nothing weird, just when you travel you expect to see different countries, living different lifestyles. I was expecting so see weird things, so they weren’t weird to me.

What was the strangest food you ate?
There was nothing strange, just different rules. In India we could only eat foods with shells on them like peanuts and oranges. We were instructed to not eat anything sold on the streets.

Was there an uninteresting country to you?
No, I learned the history of all places I went and found it all very interesting. I have no regrets.