Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

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I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
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We are back from Central America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It was a very good trip, most excellent. Overall, we had only pleasant surprises, an excellent hotel in Guatemala City, fantastic experience with Mayans, active volcanoes, boats, islands, and we learned much about the area. We started in San Jose, Costa Rica and took a bus to Managua, Nicaragua. It was 10 hours of riding and a 5 hour delay at the border for immigration and customs. One of the pics shows the "Passport control" process for our bus. In Nicaragua, we spent time on Lake Nicaragua and Ometepe island. We got to peer deep into the earth at bubbling lava in Masaya volcano. We flew from Managua to San Salvador, El Salvador. We visited the Mayan pyramid at Tazumal and the archeological site found at Joya de Ceren. We also went to the city of Granada. Then we flew to Guatemala City. We took a long day trip crossing the Honduran border to visit the Mayan pyramid at Copan. lastly,we went to Atitlan Lake and visted the "modern" Mayan town of Santiago Atitlan.


It was fitting that I watched the movie "American Made" on the flight back to Atlanta (2nd time). The film was largely filmed in Atlanta and Georgia. Pilots I know were extras in the movie.

Here are a few pics as I start to sort.




Comments

omegax said…
Lovely pictures Sir. Any idea what caused the delay at the border and did you use any specific travel agency? I might want to follow your path in future and it would help to know :)
6:45 PM
Charles said…
Omegax, The delay at the border was a combination of things 1.) Not being super freindly neighbors 2.) Holiday season and lots of guest workers returning up north after working in Costa Rica. 3.) crossing not well equipped/organized for efficient processing.

We did not use a specific travel agent. We did hire drivers and guides in different countries, but it was ad hoc.

It is a really interesting trip.
5:29 AM
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