1985 Expedition

Harry Rutstein,an international trader in high technology (the modern equivalent of the Polo business); Joanne Kroll, anthropologist, nurse, commercial artist and the co-author of the book "In the Footsteps of Marco Polo" the third expedition member was Richard Rutstein, 19 year old son of Harry Rutstein who was the same as Marco Polo when he traveled with his father in the 13th century journey. After a few days in Venice staying Marco Polo's second house which is today a hotel and pizza shop, they boarded a boat for Israel to visit Jerusalem, found their way in a ten meter sailboat to Turkey, past Mt. Ararat to Iran, across the two great deserts of Iran to Afghanistan and finally into the high Hindu Kush to be stopped by the snow coverd mountain passes. Without permission to cross over into China, the expedition party returned to the U.S.A. after four months of travel.