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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Stellar Axis Art Project in Antarctica (Revisited)

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I just stumbled on this film (Stellar Axis link below) about an art project that I was involved with in Antarctica on the Solstice 2006. http://blog.theguysatwork.com/2006_12_17_archive.html

It was a moving experience watching the video for me. It really took me back there for an hour. Lita Albuquerque and I connected at some level when we met. I was one of the 51 volunteers at the end in the spiral. We rode out from McMurdo on "Ivan the Terrabus", (the only time I rode in Ivan). It probably took an hour to drive there out on the shelf. My memory of the participation was one of peace. When we started walking away from the center we were all quiet and the walking got a little awkward since all the stepping turned the ice shelf into irregular masses of granular snow and the hard bits of wind hardened shelf. At the end we all lied down and outstretched our arms. After a bit we started yelling "woos and woo-hoos" and such. There was laughter and good feelings.


Stellar Axis






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

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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...
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