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Showing posts from February 4, 2018

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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This picture was taken in a park in Duluth were we often walk.
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The picture says enough. A successful Falcon Heavy launch. A very good time to crack some Falcon beer from Sweden.
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I am back from another European trip. Meetings in Sweden, France and Belgium. Generally, a different hotel every night for a week, and 8 airline segments in 7 days-- pretty typical. I see labels like this "SKUM" on the fire extinguisher all the time. No shortage of irony between western language variants for sure. There was a lot of snow and cold in Northern Sweden in the city of Umea. It was getting light about 8:00 in the morning and getting dark at 3:00 in the afternoon. It is the beginning of February after all. A menu in France I experienced and some food and views in Belgium.