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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As I become more and more internationally minded I find some interesting insights emerge. For example, I have determined that Countries are very much like dairy farms, The cows are the citizenry. Some counties squeeze the cows harder than others, some farmers make the cows feel better than others. Citizens are owned and branded by their countries. Good cows give more milk (money) and there will always be dry cows. How the farmers treat their livestock is a matter of principle not always profits. The parallels go on and on, have some fun with these thoughts.

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