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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We are back from a road trip to Las Vegas. We met my brother for his birthday out there. The last time I was there was in 2006 My blog post from 2006. I don't feel any strong intrinsic need to go there then or now. But it is a well known destination and certainly the road trip from SoCal to Vegas is the iconic American road trip. We stopped in San Bernadino to visit the original site of McDonalds. While in Vegas, we may have enjoyed "downtown" better than the strip. I didn't even know it existed, but there are neon signs, cheesy clubs, cheesy casinos, cheesy buffets and even cheesier people.


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