In late July 1983, Lynda and the kids flew home from Saudi Arabia to miss the worst of the Al Hasa summer. Temperature 120F+, humidity 70%. We had first planned out in great detail our vacation to travel to Asia. To go around-the-world cost almost the same as a round trip across the Atlantic. So the family went on, planning to visit Rhode Island and Kansas. I would come in early September. We would be in Hong Kong on September 5.

To visit China, or Red China as we called it then, was a dream. It was only twelve years since Nixon had made his overtures to China, and only two since it had opened up to USA tourism—or maybe to all Western or outside tourism. We were in a place where we had some disposable income to afford the trip, and the time to make it. Lynda had seen an exhibit of the terracotta soldiers, uncovered in the Xian area, when it toured through Kansas City in the mid-1970s. She wanted to see them in situ. I of course wanted to see the Great Wall. We had studied ahead and put together an itinerary that would take us through six Chinese cities in fourteen days.

And not just in China. We would start in Hong Kong for several days, go to China by train, fly back to Hong Kong from Beijing and transfer to a flight to Manila, then fly on to Bangkok, and “home” to Al Khobar. People probably thought we were crazy to try to do so much. Charles was 4 yrs 7 mos. old, and Sara was 2 yrs 5 months old. They did well on airplanes and buses, and actually did fairly well on the various tours.

China would be different, however. There would be no off the cuff touring. Everything would be planned out by Swire Travel, no doubt under the strict supervision of the government. We would be told where to go and what to do. How would the kids do on this trip?

The cities on our China itinerary were Guangzhou (formerly called Canton), Kunming, a side trip to the Stone Forest, Chengdu, Xian, and Beijing. Those of you who have read Operation Lotus Sunday will recognize this as the itinerary of the Brownwells, the tourist couple who were American expats living in Saudi Arabia and touring China with their two preschool children. Hmm, sound familiar?

On this particular trip, I brought a 1983 day timer with me that I had bought in Saudi. I had made a number of entries through the year, mainly for business, but wanted to keep a trip diary and thought that would be a good book to do it in. The previous year, summer of 1982, we had toured Europe. We hadn’t kept a trip diary on that trip, and the memory of the specific things we had seen were already fading. I didn’t want that to happen this time.

So how did I get from a 1983 tour of China with my family to the plot of a novel? See the next installment.