PAST AND FUTURE GLOBAL JOURNEYS

First, some news summaries:

• Looks like the U.S. Congress, mostly the fault of the House, will not by Friday provide stopgap funding for some of our Federal agencies, thus partially shutting down certain departments.

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  Big deal?  Not particularly, as this has happened 10 times since 1981.
• Also, the offices affected are not so crucial.  The important ones need funding by March 8.  But even then, "essential" employees, including the president and the Congress, will continue to work and be paid under any circumstance.
• The longest shutdown was during Trump's reign, when functions stopped for more than a month.
• Chances are that something will happen next week to again, temporarily, re-open our government.
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  By the time you read this, moon lander Odysseus might not be working, a few days earlier than planned.  
• Not a great mission, for the lander tipped over on landing, preventing full use of the solar panels.
• Watch a video of what happened.
• Sent a few great photos.

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  About that Georgia RICO case of Trump and cronies vs Fani Willis, there was testimony today that still leaves this matter up in the air, awaiting a decision from Judge Scott McAfee disqualifying Willis or not. A decision could come on Friday.  Note the cartoon at the end of this posting.

We will be off on an around the world trip in three weeks, so I will have several upcoming travel postings to build momentum.  Today, a retrospective on my global adventures covered in this blog.  

In fact, I'll first start by going all the way back to 7December1941 when PanAm 7 began the first commercial around the world flight, with no passengers.  This was an unscheduled emergency.  The plane was to fly from Auckland to Honolulu, but because of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, forced them to fly back to the U.S. west to New York.

Instead of heading home by going east, they took the massive Boeing 314 in the opposite direction, flying blind with no charts and no support from the airline. They were shot at twice, narrowly escaped getting blown up and otherwise avoided disaster while piloting the first commercial flight to circumnavigate the globe. They flew more than 30,000 miles over vast expanses of empty oceans and remote landscapes on five continents while crossing the equator four times.

The Boeing 314 was a flying boat and about as large as a Boeing 747.   Jet fuel?  They had to find any fuel possible and used gasoline for portions of the journey.  Incidentally, commercial jets today use kerosene because the velocity is low at low temperatures, and it is cheaper than gasoline.

Fortunately, the plane only had to look for calm waters to land, and one stop was a river in the Congo.   From there, they flew more than 3500 miles to Brazil.  Took 20 hours for that leg.  Made it to La Guardia on January 6.  And, by the way, a flight on this plane between Hong Kong and San Francisco in those days cost an equivalent today of $15,000.

In the 80s my wife and I also went west on PanAm around the world.  Since then, I had a couple more global adventures, but my blog began reporting on them after she passed away in 2009.

Since this blog begun, the first started on 17January2010:

Today, I begin my journey. I will visit Seoul, Hanoi and other parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand, New Delhi, Barcelona, Munich, Helsinki, Copenhagen (had dinner at Noma, with Chef Rene to my left), Amsterdam, London, DC, New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I will keep you informed.

I returned to Honolulu on March 15, a nearly two-month trip.  Here is what I said six weeks into this odyssey.

I left Honolulu on 28September2010:

My Fall 2010 World Odyssey begins this morning from Honolulu.  I will visit:

  Japan

  South Korea

  China (photo from Shanghai Expo)

  Switzerland

  Kenya

  Tanzania  

  Qatar (before oil, had a pearl industry)

  Norway

  Netherlands

  Italy

  USA

   DC

   Austin

   Las Vegas

For any burglers reading this blog, someone will be taking care of my apartment. 

I returned to Honolulu on November 26, so that was again a nearly two month odyssey.  Some photos I took, including the right eye of a giraffe.  This was in Nairobi and that is a Rothschild giraffe.

On 3October2011 I again went around the world.

Today I begin my final ash scattering journey.  I'll be stopping through Bangkok, Tokyo, Zurich, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, Sao Paulo, Rio, Buenos Aires, Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Las Vegas, Reno, and San Francisco.  Let me know if I'll be stopping by your city.  Perhaps we can have lunch or something.  My first leg takes 18 hours, so, maybe I'll break my Rome-DC record.  Hopefully, it will be less stressful than my Delhi to Barcelona adventure.

I had a particularly scary experience at the Machu Picchu Sundial.  Read this posting.

Another near disaster was being bitten by a spider in Rio de Janeiro.  My thumb swelled to a dangerous state, but I was able to continue on.  

I had some great meals at Pellegrino Best 100 World Restaurants.   St. John in London and DOM in Sao Paulo were outstanding.

A summary of my 2011 43-day around the world adventure.

Here is something brand new from Condé Nast, the ten most expensive cities in the world. 

• #1    Zurich and Singapore
• #3    Geneva and New York City
• #5    Hong Kong
• #6    Los Angeles

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  #7    Paris
• #8    Tel Aviv
• #9    Copenhagen
• #10  San Francisco

I've previously been to all of them and will on this next global journey stop in Singapore, New York City and Copenhagen.  The article does not say this, but so many U.S. cities must be because our dollar is so strong.  No Japan city cause we now get 150 yen to the dollar.  This was 100 Y to $1 not too long ago.

To close, a bit about The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich.  Need I say any more than that he has won two Pulitzer Prizes?  Here is one released today that speaks for itself.

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