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

-
Image
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...
Post a Comment
-

It was an aviation weekend. I spent a bunch of money (Ahh.. I mean time.. Hpmt..) in the air. Here is one of the flights shown mapped out on the chart. Cory and I went down to a 2400 foot grass strip skirting around and under the class bravo airspace of the world's busiest airport. It was a bit of an oxymoron. Navigating some of the worlds most complex airspace to land and have lunch at a primitive airport with a nice country restaurant/aviation museum. Loads of fun. I had blinders on most the time for simulated instrument time. It was bumpy and hazy. It was also 108 degrees F out. Needless to say, climb performance and comfort were issues. It "aint" much cooler 5000 ft in the air. The hazy picture shows what "home" looks like. It is (LZU) Gwinnett County Airport from the South on about a 1.5 mile left base for runway 25, although you can't quite see the airport off to the left.) It is refreshing to get a "good" look at things when the blinders come off. Reality is a lot different than what the instruments and charts say.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caribbean Trip Christmas 2025

-
Image
Before this trip I couldn't spell caribbean... It's a weird one. We didn't have a lot of time for this trip as usual. Other things in life besides travel to get done, like work. We planned Punta Cana Dominican Republic, Domenica, and Antigua and Barbuda. Our visit to DR was shortened by a cancelled flight on Liat Airlines. Our first flight on Liat we were at the ticket counter for 3 hours. There were only 3 other passengers on an Embraer 145 which holds 50. We learned in Dominica that Liat is short for "Leave Island Another Time". Or as I used my very limited Russian swearing vocaulary "Blyat" or "блядь". You can hear this word many times watching car crashes in Russia on Youtube. It is normally compounded with many other intensifiers. Of the three countries we liked Domenica best. It reminds me of Maui without all the tourism and people. Parts of the island might be the densest jungle I've seen. This pic is a improptu ...
Read more

Winter in Georgia

-
Image
We had some snow. It wasn't as bad as Florida or the Gulf coast. It is still a novelty when we get snow that lasts for a couple of days or more. I have absolutely no issue driving in it having spent most my life in Upstate NY, but the other drivers are another story. We are prepared here not to have to go out anyhow. I took a couple of pics of where the milk and bread was supposed to be in the grocery store before the storm hit. Just a toilet. However, it is the first one I have put in that works lower that the sewer line. It pumps up. Works good. It was a long time coming with all the other projects I have in flight.
Read more