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Showing posts from January 1, 2006

100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
No images for this post. Brother James sent me a couple of candlesticks from Tanzania (he was installing a printing press for an Arab) and an awesome book about about contemporary life in Antarctica. When trying to explain to a bank customer service representative why you don't have a phone number or why your address has a U.S. postal code but that you can't step into the nearest bank branch to re-key your PIN because the bank cancelled your old cash card, the freindly customer service rep (ed. probably in India) will hang up on you about 50% of the time as soon as you utter "Antartica." After trial and error, the best workaround solution when trying to conduct business from Antarctica is to say that you are at a "foreign military installation." Johnson, N. Big Dead Place. (2005).Feral House. Los Angeles. My siblings are a different bunch of folk, I am proud to be associated with them.