Back to the "Deep South" in Duluth GA

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I get a kick out of hearing the term "Deep South" in 2026. It is a crazy incredibly outdated label. I think maybe I should start saying the "Deep Northeast". I am a Yankee. My family came over on the Mayflower and moved to Upstate NY via Connecticut. Terms used in the revolutionary and Civil war days are generally inappropriate. My family is all but totally out of NY State now. I find the term "deep south" to be of the same thinking that the movie "Heidi" is what contemporary Europe is like. Watching the fireworks in Rochester, NY from the back yard of a house in the city made it look like a real war zone. It is a long drive between Berkshire, NY and Duluth, GA. Most of the 35K miles on the truck were spent in between. I drove the truck about 3k miles in 2-1/2 weeks. It was great to spend time on the farm. It was good to make some progress on needed repairs and improvements. I also felt good about making some new friends up there. I will be...
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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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