Our Story
Tuscany 2017
Life Lessons Through World
Exploration
MOBILE THRILL
SEEKING
UNIT
When I was a kid my dad had a leather jacket with the acronym MTSU
inscribed on it. It stood for the Mobile Thrill Seeking Unit, a group of friends who went on adventures together. It was just a part of what we thought was normal.
Denmark 1994
Our Story
Three Generations of Exploration
In the late 1940s and 50s my mother's father, Ross Holland was coming off of a 3 year LDS mission to Argentina and 3 1/2 years of War in Europe. The world he discovered after growing up on a small farm in Shelly, Idaho left him spellbound. He began touring the western states trying to explain the best he could what he had felt and seen.
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But school auditoriums had their limitations. He loaded buses with curious passengers from Utah State Agricultural College and left for a month at a time down along the PanAmerican highway and into Mexico.
Recently I have been reading through his letters and journals and am mesmerized how closely aligned our philosophies are. It wasn't until recently that I was given these pamphlets he made, the Know Your Neighbors Series. It blew me away. It couldn't be more in tune with our objectives at McFarland Guided Tours.
Purpose
We have come a long way since dwelling the shores of Loch Lomond.
At one point in the McFarland history in Scotland, the moon was called by the locals, "McFarland's Lantern" because it was used to illuminate the family's thriving horse thieving enterprise. While the McFarland's don't steal horses any longer we do have a long standing philosophy of poaching ideas and life hacks from other cultures. My dad didn't take us on adventures to be entertained. He used travel to raise better humans and to shake our teenage entitlement out of us through the wisdom of witnessing world treasures. Expansion of one's world view was at the heart of every McFarland family trip. This philosophy still runs deep through every tour we lead.
Through
the lens
I had an amazing career as a photographer. This skillset has given me access to people, places and things not all travelers see. After exploring close to 40 countries and nearly 6000 photo shoots I still enjoy the stealth of street photography on my travels.
The camera is a unique passport into the intimate lives and places. It gives you a confidence to break down walls you normally wouldn't
