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Showing posts from June 1, 2008

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...
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Sometimes it is hard to remember how nice of an area I live in. My commute is generally stress free and a joy in experiencing nature. This morning I took this snapshot from the truck window. Can you see the fawn nursing?
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Things have been a blur lately. I had a flight lesson the other night. I am gaining confidence. I remeber some of the things that I struggled with before I am now comfortable and confident. I have a ways to go still for sure. The big thing was though, I called a missed approach (go around) because I was too high and didn't feel comfortbale with the rate of decent. I gave it the gas and went through the process of a go-around and the engine skipped a few beats on the climb-out! I let my instructor have the plane and to be safe we did a 300 degree turn and landed downwind. That is the second time the plane has hiccupped on me during climb out at low altitude. We agreed this time it was a bit different than the loss of power we had last time with a scored cylinder. This seemed electrical. The plane is being looked at. My instructor says I have bad luck with the plane. We had an extended debrief and talked about options. We both agreed that the golf course was the best place to go ...