Of course I had reserved a hotel room very close to the airport so that I could recover from an almost 23 hour day of traveling (Lisbon-London-RDU). Being the ever vigilant boy scout scientist I knew that a "freak" snowstorm was going to hit the area and possibly/probably making it difficult-to-dangerous for my wife and Buddy to drive from the OBX to pick me up. I decided to book a room for a second night and then take a flight from RDU to Norfolk on Saturday when it was forecasted to be much warmer and Norfolk is a little less than 2 hours from home compared to the 4 hours to RDU.
I crashed Thursday night and just took it easy Friday, even got some wings and a few brewskis. Took a flight from RDU-to-Washington Reagan then another flight to Norfolk. Then finally drove home completing this epic journey at around 5 PM Saturday 22 February 2025 or 6 full weeks from when it all began. .
Mark one item off my bucket list.
The first thing I did after I got home was to transfer all the photos to my system at home - I now have 5 copies of everything so hopefully I'm covered. As I look through some of the photos, I'm quickly reminded that I did a lot and I saw a lot. It was truly quite an adventure and I'm ready to do it again. But before I head off again, I've decided to share some of the facts of the trip and my partial list of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Facts:
1) I visited 11 countries and spent time (3 days - a week) in 6.
2) I took 14 flights (15 if you count the one from RDU to Norfolk).
3) I flew on American Airlines, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Arlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, and British Airways; Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Iberia were for the first time.
3) I traveled an estimated 32,606 miles (this is a minimum estimate, some flights were longer due to tracks to avoid Russian airspace and circling due to a hold pattern, etc.).
4) I used 4 different currencies (Yen, AUD, Thai Baht, Euros).
5) I slept at 10 different hotels.
Good:
1) I never missed a flight nor was my luggage misplaced or delayed.
2) Was able to get around fine on public transportation - subways and trains.
3) All the hotels worked well - as selected, they were close to a train station and most were close to a convenience store.
4) Didn't get sick or have problems with any food - and I tried a lot of stuff!
5) No issues walking around and exploring.
6) All my gear worked well.
7) Paring down the stuff I took worked fine, in fact, quite well. I wasn't in need of anything and I was able to carry ally my stuff both down and up a long flight of stairs.
8) Getting to see Wyatt over dinner and get to see, and shoot, one of his matches. That was truly special.
Bad:
1) I suffered two (only) casualties during the entire trip - I lost my electric toothbrush and my heavy BFC Bayern hoodie (wasn't thinking about my hoodie at after midnight in Perth after I has just traveled almost 24 hours and it was in the high 90s.
2) Didn't get to travel around Delhi like I had hoped.
3) Some beds were too "firm" aka rock hard to me.
4) Hot, hot, and hot in Perth (but I still really liked Perth).
Ugly:
1) Some incredible LONG flights of stairs and the elevators were broken.
2) Employees in the US at airports and at one hotel - such an attitude. Didn't experience the behavior in any other country (except for 1 minor incident at the Madrid airport). None of the ugliness was directed at me, I just observed. I think that we ALL should concentrate on making America(ns) decent again.
Speaking of observing, I did observe the culture and behavior of many different nationalities in many different situations. These observations primarily forged even stronger my previous thoughts and beliefs Verdict - come on US sports fans, we got to do better.
Here are a few photos of the last few days of the trip. I hope to make a few more posts regarding the trip where I provide a caption for a few select photos so that you'll get to experience things even better,
Until next time, be safe, be kind and help to make the world a better place.
