Posts

Showing posts from September 1, 2024

100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

Image
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 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 around the wor...

Another NY Trip (but always something new)

Image
I flew up to the farm in NY. I rented a Kia EV6 Electric car. It was ok. Better than my 2013 Nissan Leaf, but not as nice as my 2024 Tesla Model Y. It had pretty good range and comfort that comes along with an all electric vehicle. They didn't include a mobile chanrger, but did include a useless adapter that plugs into the charge port and allows household electic items to run directly from the battery, crazy. I had to pay 64 cents a kW at the NY sanctioned changing stations. That is 10 times the regular rate for electricity. Totally expected for a NY government franchise that is well known for corruption. https://evolveny.nypa.gov/ . Nevertheless, I felt proud that I could easilty drive a rear wheel drive electric car on my new driveway up to the planned yurt site. I met up with two very old friends (Jeff Kuebel and John Kucharski) that I met in first grade in Irondequoit, NY at Oakview school. Needless to say, that was a long time ago. We remembered some very funny stories of m...