Nature -- Deer and Butterfly

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I do like the outdoors and nature. I dont like the naive view. I like the real thing. Sometimes it can be scary and sometimes it hurts. I still like nature. I like wilderness. Camping in North Georgia is quite nice. There is a alot going on as usual, at work and at home. I think I am going to sell the humvee. I dont need 5 cars. I have some more work to do to it, but after I get what I have planned done. Its gonna hit the road. It will still take me awhile with my current level of productivity and the number of projects I have in flight. I will be up in NY again soon probably and I have travel plans currently to Maine, New Hampshire and Japan. I am making vacation plans mostly in the Caribbean. That is the push to get us over 100 Countries. I also still have to get to Wyoming, to finish off the 50 US states. I did yard work today. Mostly weeding before it got hot out, but also grading. I ran the Bobcat after the dirt settled more around the house as part of the drain/vents I had p...
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We are back from a complex trip in Western and Eastern Europe. In ten days it included the following countries: Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Finland, and The Netherlands. Angie was in Moscow and we met in Poland.

On the weekend, we drove across the Lithuania/Russia border. We weren't sure about the realities of crossing the border and we had several different contingency plans. We ended up executing a form of our plan C. We had to spend extra time getting processed since the guards had likely never seen a US passport and Visa. Actually it took two tries. We were refused exit at a backwoods Poland-Russia border. Needless to say it was quite interesting. All the guards at all sites were pleasant and helpful. Only one guard of the 6 sites spoke any English.

It was all a trip through part of the Prussian empire in my thinking. Looking at the very nice architecture from the Prussians in disrepair was very evident. We saw a number of structures that were destroyed in WWII, never torn down, never repaired. Eastern Europe is a fascinating place. We visited the site of the first shots of WWII in Gdansk. We also visited the Immanuel Kant Museum in Kaliningrad (Konigsberg). I found my Grandfather's book on display and signed the guestbook as such. He is the only one to have translated one of Kant's books into English.


Auto diesel in Poland was 4.79 złoty per cubic decimeter and in Russia 36 rubles per liter. So, in Poland diesel was $5.00 USD per gallon and in Russia it was $2.62 USD per gallon.

As normal, it was too fast and I got lots of work done in Germany and Finland. Fun, satisfying, expanding and tiring.





"Never Again War"



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