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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Back from Russia. I got to watch the Russian - USA Olympic Hockey game from the Russian perspective. We went to Sergiyev Posad, one of the Golden Ring cities and had hands on experience making Matyrosha (Russian nesting dolls). We also visited Lenin's tomb. No pictures are allowed in most crypts. We realized later we had visited quite a few significant dead people (and saints). :-) The dog statue is Malchik in Mendeleevskaya Metro Station. Malchik

It's a long trip. I went through Rome because of the ATL ice event. The pic from the airplane is Zadar Croatia.

It gets crazy here in Atlanta with ice and snow on the roads. Living on a perfectly level street, my four wheel drive truck and my bias towards using MARTA kept me very much unaffected. I have gasoline/generator and fireplace if I needed it. Since it was really all above 32F, I wasn't concerned about heat. Having temps in the 30s inside my house will only slightly affect my normal routines. The snowy road picture looks like to should be up north. They are on Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard as part of my commute in my 4x4 truck. No issues with me except for everything being closed.




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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...
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