tbaroundtheworld

There really isn't much to report from what was a normal working in the hotel "salon" kind of day but there were two tiny moments worth mentioning. About mid-morning, one of the group using the next meeting room over dropped by to tell us to quiet down a bit. We were presenting and doing using our best projecting voices and apparently it was distracting to them. Ah well, so it goes in sharing public spaces. Lunch time came around and it was reported that ours was ready out in the hallway. I went out and and always eschewed looking at the food, I just got in line and loaded up my plate. It was traditional southwestern fare - chicken and beef fajitas, red salsa, a nice pineapple mango salsa, sour cream and tortillas. Being in the middle of a re-Atkins-ization, I passed on the tortilla and went for the piece of cheesecake, figuring it was best to use my carb allowance wisely. Food gathered I returned to the room and began stuffing it in my face, only to have my enjoyment di...

This time, I'm in Phoenix. Getting here was mostly uneventful aside from the two hour delay in getting on my one hour flight. Things like this make me grateful for the Internet and the ability to check flight status before leaving for the airport. Of course the disclaimer suggests that a four hour delay is no reason to stay home and wait, as the plane could leave on time leaving you wondering what the purpose of checking the flight status really is. So you wed the ancient with the modern and call customer service and verify that you really do have an extra couple of hours to sit around your house with your feet resting on your luggage. In any event, it's better than hanging out at the airport. An officious large man came into the waiting area and made a lot of noise telling the gate agent that his announcements were garbled. Why this mattered, I was not sure since there were all of 15 people waiting for the plane two of which had made an attempt to board the flight to Dallas th...

My original plan had been to abandon my lovely wife to her work at the fairgrounds and go out exploring. A couple of local attractions had grabbed my eye when I did a "what the heck is there to do in Jackson" search on Google before leaving. The result yielded two items I could not pass up - The Natchez Trace Parkway and Indian Mounds. The Trace is the ancient pathway across the southeast, used for millennia by Native Americans and the subsequent waves of invaders from the Spanish to the French to the early residents of the United States seeking their fortunes in the "west." Today it's a quite beautiful road that spans the entire state of Mississippi from the northeast to the southwest, terminating at Natchez on the grand river that provides the name for the state. It's been on my list ever since I read of the mysterious death of Meriwether Lewis in an inn along its route following his return to regular life from his epic exploration of the western half of t...

Well here I am again on the road albeit this time in a far less exotic place, Jackson, Mississippi. My first time in the Magnolia State, assuming of course that this is actually the Magnolia State. Adding to today's short list of firsts is this blog, done for the first time on my WiFi connected iTouch. I have to say, the pain I am developing in the back of my right wrist from typing 1 letter at a time may very well be the last time for this first, since it a true pain to get it done like this. Heck, even two thumb typing with my Blackberry beats this, as bad as that is. But I will perservere for the moment, at least until I can stand the muscle burn no more. The trip over was long on tedium and short on eventful tales and thankfully duration. The most interesting events were the guys on my rows whom were righteously in the wrong seats. I actually get tired of people defending their inability to read their tickets, but these two rolled over so easily that they hardly merit a mention...

It took Ferdinand Magellan's crew more than three years to circumnavigate the globe. He didn't make it, having been killed in the Philippines by angry locals. Of the 260 men who left Spain in 1519, 18 returned in 1522 with the sole remaining ship. A ghost ship, they considered it. It took me 17 days to do the same trip, with only three days of actual travel. Magellan's men suffered from starvation, disease, violence and mutiny. I suffered one day of food poisoning, confusing gates in Germany, smelly fellow travelers and the indifference of the US airline industry. The only violence I encountered came on my last leg when a young man with a shaved head told me he was entitled to board our Southwest flight before me because his number was 32 and mine was 35. I told him to go right ahead, he said "I will" and I'm sure he felt triumphant as he walked down the gangway and ended up sitting right across from me. I saw some wonderful things looking out the window, most...

Well, not really. But Arlo Guthrie's words still have a ring to them after all these years. Technically I completed my around the world trip some time this afternoon over Nevada when my inbound path crossed the trail I blazed almost 3 weeks ago. For the sake of argument, let's say it was over Las Vegas which appeared out my window around 2 PM. That city, sitting there in the sun blasted rock desert was a complete contrast to all the sights that came before as I wound my way home. We got off a bit late because the fuel truck ran out while it was filling us up. Only 30 minutes and not worth getting steamed about because it's kind of funny when you think about it. The plane was about 1/2 full and so I ended up with an entire window row to myself. What a treat, to be able to stretch out and enjoy the view without being trapped in the window seat. Taking off from Dublin always illustrates why Ireland is called the Emerald Isle. Bright green patchwork fields and meadows stretched...

Here I am on the last leg of the trip. In true "Terry Fashion" I left plenty of time to make the 50 kilometer drive in. It was a tough night's sleep having to wake up at 1 AM to book a reasonable seat on my upcoming Southwest flight, doing no better than 35. Normally I'm in the 20s. The wind was howling for the rest of the wee hours and so I headed out into the gloom at 6 AM for the indeterminate drive in to the airport. Most of the advice I'd received suggested at least a full hour to allow for the nature of the inbound Dublin rush hour, the traffic moved though and I made the airport exit after 35 minutes of driving. I could see though that beyond my departure point that the commute ground to a complete standstill. Lucky me. I turned in the car in the still howling wind, made my way towards the terminal, up a very strange ramp escalator that had no stairs and then went looking for the check-in lines. Aer Lingus provides a vast bank of automated kiosks, even for ...

I've dealt with a few languages on this recent adventure, a bit of Korean, a lot of Chinese, some German and a smattering of Gaelic. It's been a bit of a challenge at times to keep straight where I was and with whom I was speaking, not unlike the beer I tried to order in Mexico over the Christmas holiday by asking for "yi ge cerveza" in my best Mandamexicanglish. Tonight Tom and I went out for Chinese food at Miss Wong's in Leixlip. Feeling frisky and falling back into the food ordering routine of just 5 days ago, I decided to toss a bit of my Mandarin into the conversation with the three waitresses who were taking care of us. I started with a simple "xie xie" and moved up to a more agressive "kuazi" asking her to leave my chopsticks. I told her I spoke a little and she laughed and told me that my accent was really good. The next one came over and I chit-chatted with her a bit and she told my my Chinese was excellent. Following the cultural imp...

Tonight I was almost hit by a bus and it was a stupid, rookie mistake. I came out of a restaurant, talking to someone and I just stepped off the curb. I felt a breeze, ruffling what little hair I have and I looked up and there was a giant blue bus, number 66x to be precise, blowing by me at a prodigious clip. Now I wasn't really in the act of crossing - I had just stepped off and was in the process of stepping back on when the bus went by. But it was close, and it really rattled me and got me to thinking about this whole driving on the left side of the street thing. I had been planning to write about it earlier, but the bus really drove the point home The title of tonight's blog comes from these yellow signs you see off and on around here. The very first sign you see when you pull out of the rental car lot at the airport warns you to drive on the left. Crosswalks all have "look left/look right" painted on the ground in front of you. Even the car has a warning label on...

I know that his will come as a complete shock to many of you, but I have some travel phobias. The first one is buying gasoline outside the US. At home, fueling the car has become a completely solitary, private event. You pop the credit card in the pump, enter your zip code and fill away. You no longer have to interact with anyone. Even when the pump tells you that “clerk has your receipt” you can elect to just get in the car and drive away, imagining all those little slips of paper being saved for you inside. Over here though, you have to go inside and talk to a real person. You never know if they want the credit card first, or if you can just fill the car and then pay. Or when they’re going to release the pump for your use. It’s daunting. And then there’s the gym at the hotel. I have finally become comfortable with putting on my gear and going into the little, stinky exercise rooms at US hotels. In China and at the hotels I use in Ireland, the facilities are more like health clubs and...

I ran out of toothpaste on Thursday in Shanghai, those little tubes are simply not enough for 10+ days. So I went shopping for a replacement at the Parkson across the street from my hotel. Parksons is a combination upscale cosmetics, home electronics, clothes and grocery store. There were many choices, I settled on Colgate because they were the one firm that stated they did not allow ethylene glycol in their products, a scandal that erupted early last year. Crest and the others were ambiguous in their statements. I don't read Chinese all that well, so I chose "green" as my flavor and tonight I cracked it open. It is the most hideous shade of green, completely clear and loaded with little white squares. The flavor - best described as mentholated green tea. I'm sure I'll get used to it. Luckily it's a big enough tube such that I will have plenty to bring home.

I rolled out of bed this morning at the very civilized hour of 8, had the breakfast buffet and loaded up for a day on the road. My goal was generally the west coast of Ireland and the areas around Galway in particular. Before leaving I took a stroll around the grounds, the calls of the birds being just too irresistible to ignore. In just a short walk I saw some type of Wren, Coal Tit, Great Tit, Thrush, Wood Pigeon , Rook, Jackdaw and Eurasian Blackbird. My inability to refine a few of the species reminded me that I really need to bring a field guide with me on these trip. The hotel is built around an old manor house, and the grounds are quite nice. I managed to pull out of the car park (using the correct local term) without running into anything. I've been doing pretty well this trip, having only scraped the curb twice leaving the airport last night. In fact, last night I successfully navigated the Airport to M1 to M50 to N4 to M4 to Enfield and into the hotel lot maze without dri...