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Expectations and Surprises
The vending machines here are great. They have hot drinks as well as cold. Bottles of hot tea are 130 yen (118 yen per USD). The machines are everywhere, but nobody seems to drink anything on the street. I saw one young punk drinking tea on the subway. He must have been some kind of […]
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Tokyo: Day One
Today I went to the National Museum, which is closed on Mondays, along with everything else. This is the same reason that I have almost no photos of the inside of anything in Hanoi. I met a couple of Australians, Brian and Prue, who also failed to read their guidebook carefully. We ended up spending […]
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What time is it?
I just wanted to drop a quick note that I made it safely. The flight wasn’t as bad as I expected. The 747-400 that I was on had trouble with its Betamax player at first, but we eventually watched some movies. They apparently still make Beta tapes just for the airlines. We flew over northern […]
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Japan or Bust
I’ve decided to blow all of my vacation time at once, and I’m headed to Japan for a month from late November to late December. I’ll manage to be home for both holidays, but gone for most of the time in between. I’m pretty stoked. It looks like I’ll be able to spend quite a […]
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What Hurricane?
It looks like we’re done with this storm. There’s been some rain and gusts but nothing serious. We closed up the shelter about ten this morning, twenty-four hours after opening them yesterday. I drove a truck down to another shelter and brought back the unused supplies and food. A couple dozen volunteers showed up today […]
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Spork
This morning we brought some supplies to eight shelters in Broward county. The food was already in place, but we brought some blankets, first-aid supplies, and toys and games for the kids. Since then I’ve been at a shelter at Arthur Ashe Middle School. I’m spending the night here to help out. There are not […]
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Ernesto Who?
If this sort of thing continues I might have to rename this blog. I arrived here in sunny Fort Lauderdale last night for a class I had planned to take this week. Today at noon, after everyone else in the class bailed out and it was just the instructor and I, we decided to cancel […]
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Finally, Some Blue Ridge Photos
Alright so it’s been more than a month since I got back from the trip and I still hadn’t posted pictures. It was a great trip. My friend John joined me on his Valkerie, which has an engine only slightly smaller than my first car, and considerably more powerful. Here’s another picture from the camp […]
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Blue Ridge Parkway: The Sequel
Tomorrow morning, a friend and I are headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Horizon’s Unlimited meeting in Robbinsville, NC. It was a great trip last year, and I’m looking forward to the ride again this year. There are some great roads down in that part of the country. Last year I rode all […]
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Gettysburg
Today was a beautiful day for a motorcycle ride. I headed out onto some of my favorite back roads in northern Baltimore county, headed toward Gettysburg, PA, and made it back six hours later. I should sleep well tonight. Apparently, everybody else with a bike had the same idea. There were a lot of Harleys […]
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VT
It’s been a busy month. Tonight I’m off to Northern Vermont to re-qualify for my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification. It’s not like I’m planning to become an Outward Bound leader any time soon, but it’s a great program and it makes sense to stay current. This photo from Hamilton Pool Park near Austin. It […]
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Austin
So far I’m enjoying Austin. It’s smaller downtown than I expected. It kind of reminds me of Nashville. Yesterday I saw an exhibit of Christo and Jean-Claude’s work at the Austin Museum of Art. No, they didn’t have the Reichstag museum, just a model and a number of sketches and preliminary drawings which I kind […]