Archives
This post was intended to include a photo album of my time in both Kristiansand and Stavanger. Too many photos I cannot resist including so this is from Kristiansand, Stavanger to follow. Morning I was going to be clever and call this post ‘The Thrill of the Road’ while actually describing a day of reviewing the budget, sink-washing the undies, eating the bread and brown cheese I’ve squirreled away from breakfast. However… Read More
So I tried to write a long stream-of-consciousness poem-like thing. I did not work. I am not Ron Silliman or probably James Joyce either. Although I feel sure if I rewrote DELTA a few more tens of times it could get close. It seems like sacrificing a week of my vaca to do that would not be wise use of my time. However I’ve decided to post it anyway because it does pretty… Read More
The Itinerary. The Arrangements. The Payments. The Luggage. The Endoscopy. True, the latter was not part of the initial pretty picture of the Big15Trip, but dudu occurs, yes? The endoscopy was simply to rule out any serious reasons for my stomach’s frequent ‘acting-up.’ And it did…rule out the bad stuff. Now a consistent regimen of prilosec for awhile will enable me to eat Norwegian, Swedish, Latvian and Belarusian prior to getting… Read More
Two weeks to get in shape for The Journey. I may have set six month, three month, one month deadlines for launching a plan to become super-healthy before I travel. Okay, so they didn’t work out. Think what I can do in two weeks however. Fourteen days. Six visits to gym for abs class and at least half an hour on the machines. Ten morning walks, one to 1 ½ hours each…. Read More
I always think part of my reason for needing to GO PLACES is my (humankind’s) existential search for water/moisture/rain/lakes/oceans/streams. This summer it seems to be raining in Albuquerque so why leave? But there are these big plans and train tickets and plane tickets and that amazing new backpack so guess I’ll go anyway. Meanwhile I’m very busy with the North Fourth ‘newsletter of a thousand pictures’ so there is no time to write profound things…. Read More
The Time is July 5th, 2015, still morning. My Place is Albuquerque, New Mexico. Just a little while ago it was dawn down by the Rio Grande. Quiet. Absolutely quiet. Only saw two people and one rabbit and heard a few sleepy birds. Soon the sun came to bother me but it was still a little cool and smelled of green, unusual for New Mexico. So for awhile I ignored thoughts of the… Read More
Could I be just a little flippant about independence on this fine 4th of July? My independence. A cherished but sometimes exhausting state of being. I am told that I was always an independent sort—but when I was four being chastised by my mother for chewing forbidden gum and somehow wadding it in my already scraggly locks, I didn’t know how completely that would apply to my life. Now I know. With… Read More
There are two kinds of visas, yes? Both essential to travelers. First there’s the kind that comes in the form of a card enabling you to travel without money—a travel accoutrement of great value—and more than a little stress when you return! Then there’s the other kind of visa which is simply a stamp in your passport saying that the government of said country has authorized you to cross their borders and… Read More
The Trans-Siberian Express covers half of what we think we know about Russian history. The other half is Catherine the Great and Imperial Russia and Dr. Zhivago, followed by Stalin and friends’ scary Communist Russia. And last, but never tell him least, there’s Putin and of course Pussy Riot and, oh yeah, that little scuffle in the Crimea/Ukraine. Russian history in a typical American nutshell. I’ll come back to all of that… Read More