Rick Kappra

I grew up in South Jersey, in a small refinery town on the Delaware River. As kids, we used to ride our bikes to the river and watch planes take off and land at Philadelphia International Airport, directly across the river.

When I was very young, my uncle who lived in Germany would come to visit and we'd go to the airport to meet him. I remember looking up at my mom and asking, "When can I get on a plane?" She said, "When you're eight."

The first time I got on a plane was when I was 18 - my senior class trip to Disney World in Orlando.

I always wanted to travel, and when I first began teaching ESL as a volunteer in Philadelphia, it felt like I was traveling with each new student I got. I'd tell my friends, "I got a student from Kenya! I got a student from Pakistan!" I will never forget when a student from Iran invited me to her home for a delicious Persian meal. Each student I met shared their culture, food and way of seeing the world with me.

Teaching also physically brought me to new places. I taught English in Japan for 6 years. I also got to teach briefly in Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

I traveled as much as I could, but was always limited to when we had our breaks - which of course, tended to be peak travel seasons for everyone else.

Now I am retired and I am free to travel wherever I want whenever I want and I am taking advantage of it.

"Kannon Showed Up" is the first book to come out of my travels, but there will be more.

In the works, is "Mary, Please!" - a book that will chronicle my travels to places where the Virgin Mary has appeared to believers. There may be other books as well, so stay tuned.

You can follow my adventures live on YouTube at @appaskitchen-1234