Welcome to my travel journal. I started writing this journal during my first sabbatical in 1998. It's my ongoing collection of observations, photos, and traumatic introspection from the road. Enjoy.
Welcome to my travel journal. I started writing this journal during my first sabbatical in 1998. It's my ongoing collection of observations, photos, and traumatic introspection from the road. Enjoy.
Feet in the water and Belikin (beer) in hand. We’re sitting at the “split” on Caye Caulker in Belize. An old crumbled pier sits out about 100 feet from shore loaded with sun-scorched backpackers. Fish swim nearby as touts work the tourists for Belizean dollars. Slow down! Go slow! Slow traffic… - Baby Sloane is getting her first taste of salt water, taste of the island life. So far, so good! Caye Caulker seems much smaller than it did a few years ago. Maybe it’s because we are spending most of our time on the less-tranquil Ambergris Caye or maybe it is a natural reaction to traveling with a diverse group of people “family-style”. Either way, Caye Caulker is nice...
Ah, there is nothing like being stuck on the tarmac waiting out the weather. I suppose there are reasons that the airline would cram us on a plane even though they know we will sit for hours and wait… The pilot was nice enough to notify us both that “he wouldn’t have loaded the plane if it had been up to me” and that “it was American Airlines policy not to leave passengers aboard a grounded airplane for more than three hours” (likely alluding to the recent story of a 6-hour grounding in Rochester, MN where the people nearly rioted and the toilets filled to capacity – or so I heard). This means I have another two hours to wait...
A heat wave has spread across Canada. Is it global warming melting ancient ice and stranding innocent polar bears? I’m not sure... It hit something like 36C here yesterday (that’s 96F to you and me). Canada, the home of ice and tundratic conditions is sweltering in heat, humidity, and scorching sun… OK, I suppose it is normal for some hot stretches during the Canadian summer. Who knows? I’m not even sure if this place is truly north of Minneapolis (from a latitude perspective)? - Ottawa is a very beautiful city actually. During my quick Google investigation of the city I got the feeling this wasn’t much of a place, sort of a Canadian afterthought. Maybe it is an afterthought, but...
As the USA begins a ridiculous battle over healthcare my job has taken me north (actually east) to the socialist state of Canada; home of hockey and free healthcare. Now, I don’t know much about the Canadian healthcare system, but I do know that the US system is fucked up and near useless. My complaints go mostly to the insurance companies that seem to focus on denying benefits, raising prices, and creating smaller and smaller print. To all my Republican and Libertarian friends disrupting town hall meetings and pretending they’re outraged over spending I say “get real!” I doubt Obama has this healthcare problem figured out, but zero + zero is still zero. Something has to be better than nothing....
OK, so I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and was going to write something and didn’t. I was up at the lake all week and was going to write something and didn’t. Now it is a Pleasant Valley Sunday (at home) and I have to go to work tomorrow. Not good. - 1,000,000 Miles My Chicago trip was nothing to write home about (or write in a travel journal about for that matter), but it did mark a somewhat significant milestone from a “travel” perspective. I rolled over the 1,000,000 mile mark on the Northwest frequent flyer program. Thankfully I hit the mark just prior to the program getting nixed in favor of the Delta's Medallion program...
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