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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In about 10 hours I am headed back to Duluth. I had a great meal last night of Rain deer and Blue cheese ice cream. It is absolutely true.

In the last two weeks I have been in the following cities in the following order (listed without countries) for specific reasons:

Duluth--Atlanta--Roissy--Beauvais--Roissy--Birmingham--Kennilworth--Stoneleigh--Kennilworth--Stoneleigh--Banbury--Stoneleigh--Kennilworth--Knowle--Kennilworth --Cosford--Birmingham--Kennilworth--Birmingham--Roissy--Vannta--Tikkakosken--Jyvaskyla--Linnavuori--Tampere--Jyvaskyla--Suolahti--Jyvaskyla--Suolahti--Jyvaskyla--Tikkakosken--Vannta--Roissy--Atlanta--Duluth

That makes 36 significant destinations in 12 days or 3 cities per day. The shortest travel time between any of these was about 20 minutes by car, the longest about 8 hours in the air. There were a whole lot of meetings and discussions.

Finland is nice. It is getting dark here about 5:30 pm. In the middle of winter they get about 4 hours of daylight in Jyvaskyla.

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