GROSSMONT COLLEGE — Bob Gannon made a visit on March 10 to students studying English as a Second Language at Grossmont College to tell his story about traveling around the world in 10 years. Bob got his pilot’s license in 1992, and soon after embarked on an-around-the world-journey.  The bachelor pilot has flown around the world many times.

In his first global jaunt from San Diego, he headed east to fly to Paris, France “I figured Lindbergh flew there, why can’t I?” Gannon told students in the class taught by Mimi Pollack.

Seventy airports and twenty countries later, he crashed Lady Luck in Kenya. So, in 2000 he purchased a 1968 Cessna 182, that he named Lucky Lady Too out of respect for the first plane that got wrecked. For this trip he headed out west and traveled first to Hawaii, and then southwest  to Christmas Island, today part of the nation of Kiribati.

“This was an island discovered by explorers on boats on Christmas day,” Gannon explained.

From Christmas Island he followed a zigzag route to Tahiti, The Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. He went scuba diving with two other friends off Fiji’s  Kudavu Island.

When the divers surfaced, there was no scuba diving boat and he was caught in the middle of a storm.
After being rescued from sea, he continue on his journey onto Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Australia and from there he proceeded to New Caledonia and up to Vanuatu.

Formerly known as New Herbrides, Vanuatu during its colonial period had “the only condominium government in the world. Condominium meaning half the country was owned by France and the other half owned by England.”

“One thing about traveling the world is, you get to see other people’s belief systems”

In telling about his experiences, Gannon  talked about the cities he visited that the students were from. As he continued with his story. you could see that the ESL students were very interested in what he had to say about his travels.

“I encourage you all to never give up on your goals because one day you can look back at your journey and share it with others,” Gannon concluded.

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Green is a Media Comm 132 student