Spartan Profiles: Gary Frink
CRUISING THROUGH 100
In 2006 he embarked on a 47-day, 11,060-mile ocean voyage as the lone passenger aboard the Repubblica di Genova, an Italian cargo ship. He visited Angola, Cameroon, and Senegal, and then dashed through five Balkan countries—Bosnia, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia by car and by train. At journey’s end, Gary R. Frink, retired attorney and federal employee in Luray, VA, claimed membership in the Travelers Century Club for having visited at least 100 countries and detached jurisdictions.
“You’re never more alive than when you travel to a new place,” explains Frink, who has worked for many years in the political realm. “Your body comes alive with electricity.”
A native of Rochester, Gary has worked in the White House, as a lobbyist, and as a legislative director for Virginia delegates. “I’ve ran for Congress twice, once as a Democrat and once as a Republican,” he notes, adding that he lost both times. But Gary has been big on travel since he and his MSU Lambda Chi fraternity brothers drove to the 1954 Rose Bowl.
As part of his government work in Washington, DC, he was able to visit Asia, the Soviet Union and most so-called “Iron Curtain” nations. He has written extensively about his travel—for dailies such as The Daily Tidings in Oregon, for specialty publications such as The Shoestring Traveler, and for his web site, cruising-thru-100.com.
After reaching his century mark, he has not slowed down, having since visited Italy, Israel, Egypt, Greece and Turkey aboard the cargo ship Grande Ellade, visited Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, and revisited Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
Travel means constant surprises, says Gary. “When (spouse) Jeanne and I were in a car in Izmir, Turkey, suddenly we hear on the radio Patsy Cline singing Crazy,” he recalls. “I’ll probably die broke, but at least I got to see much of this world.”
