People In Passing

So I’ve finally finished the story of last year’s holiday adventure. It is too long to put in a single post so I have created a separate page for it. It’s been a long time coming, a year in fact, and I’m sure it still has some spelling and grammatical issues. If you notice any, please let me know.

You can find the story here:

http://peopleinpassing.com/icelandic-new-years-2005/

Pictures can be found here:

http://flickr.com/photos/digiboom/sets/72057594055273720/

I hope you all enjoy it and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I just spoke with a woman at Visas A.S.A.P in Burbank, CA about the Visas I would need for my trip. After describing what I am attempting to do there was a sigh on the other end of the phone. Let’s just say she wasn’t optimistic about my chances of getting many, in any, of my Visas before I leave.

According to her, Iran is not an option, not safe, and I shouldn’t go there because there is a country warning on the State.gov website. Also, as an Isreali, she knows something about this. While I believe she has valid reason to dislike any country that has publicly announced they wish the destruction of her country, I sincerely doubt she has traveled there. Iran, by as many reports as I can find, is full of very friendly and intelligent people that can tell the difference between a person and their government. Iran is even offering a cash incentive to tour organizers to bring Americans to their country as reported by CNN here: “Iran offers cash to U.S. tourists”

Aside from Iran she advised that I get my Visas while traveling, noting that most of them require itinerary and proof of onward passage. I have neither. Many of the Visa applications I have looked at also require specific entry and exit dates, which I only have a rough idea of regarding the month of the year. I imagine I will be spending quite a bit of time in Turkey or Syria trying to get my passage through the rest of Asia figured out.

If you have a glass handy, raise it with me, to the long road ahead.

I spoke with Joycene (sp?) from Freighter World Cruises again yesterday regarding my passage across the Atlantic next year. You see, I spoke with her about 2 months ago and she sent me all the information needed to book my room on the ship. Then I promptly lost it.

On my second call to Freighter World Cruises I was informed that she would not be sending me the information a third time (I’m pretty sure she was kidding, maybe…).

The packet includes information on the ship I will be travelling on, which will be the NSB Ibn Sina (ignore the India part), from Savannah, Georgia to Valencia, Spain in Single Cabin #303. The packet also includes the requirements for travel, such as, Travel Insurance, Clean Bill of Health, all necessary vaccinations, Visas, Proof of Passage out of Spain, etc…

To book the cabin a downpayment of 25% is required. For my segment of the journey this will be about $329US.

The total, after conversion, deviation insurance, and fees is $1559US. Substantially more expensive than a flight across the pond but for 13 days of an experience I can get nowhere else I’ll happily write the check.

 More to come, I’ll be calling the Iranian Consulate today to find out how difficult it will be to get a visa to cross their country overland.

Heres the route for the NSB Ibn Sina:

After reading the posts of some of the other people that I crewed a fireworks show with on the 4th of July I thought I might detail some of my own thoughts on the experience.

Greg, our fearless leader and pyro dealer, kept a running blog of the events as the show was prepared so I feel no need to go over them again.(Entry 1, 2, 3) Mine will be an account of what goes through my head after all the prep work is done and the show is about to begin.

So you’ve just spent 8 hours digging, shoveling, holding, burying, loading, and rubber-banding the nearly 400 four and five inch mortar tubes that are the show. You’ve rehearsed and re-rehearsed the safety procedures for lighting off these very large guns. You feel ready, or as ready as you’re going to be.

During the practice routines and though out the day there are times where you notice how out of shape you are. During the trial lighting where you are on one knee slowly crawling across the ground, staying low, you might notice a bit of fatigue. But the fatigue disappears when the adrenaline kicks in. From the time the starting volley is lit and the concussion of the first mortars kicks you the chest, you could run a marathon. I caught myself this year hopping in place for a little while, carefully watching the lighter before me, waiting for when Greg called for the next rotation of lighter.

Your pulse is quickened and you are breathing fast, the smell of spent fuse and the smoke from the lift charges is blowing past you as you wait. You have your earplugs in to save you from the deafening explosions and at the same time the plugs lock you into your own head where your skull amplifies the pounding of your heart and your heavy breathing.

You are waved in by the show Operator, in this case Greg; he is overseeing you and your partner, while determining the pace of the show and the overall safety of the entire environment, no small task. You rotate in behind the person currently lighting, occasionally brushing any falling embers off the fireman’s coat they are wearing. You are also wearing a fireman’s coat or “turn-out”. In my case the coat was pretty tight, by no means unworkable, but all I cared about was its ability to keep me from catching fire. After watching the back of your partner for a period of time they rotate out passing you the flare. You stay low, catching your breath as you take the first breath of the strong smoke coming off the flare.

Grab the cap, pull the cap, light the fuse, repeat. You have to move pretty quickly down the line to keep the mortars firing and the pace of the show up. Time slows while you light the fuses, nothing seems fast enough and sometimes the fuses just don’t want to cooperate.

At the end of each fuse is a timed fuse. It burns at about 1 foot per minute (which gives you 3-4 seconds) before it hits the quick match (which burns at 60ft per second) and just disappears down the tube igniting the 1/4 stick of dynamite that launches the mortar into the air at about 200 miles per hour. All of this occurs 18 inches from your head.

So when the timer fuses just don’t want to light it adds some stress to the lighting. Each pause between lights seems to take forever and then when you come out of the pause you find yourself grabbing two or three caps and lighting them to catch up with the time you lost.

All the while the smoke is nearly totally obscuring the air above you, filling your mask on occasion, while your partner is patting you on the back or making sweeping strokes from side to side. This indicates the strong likelihood that you might be on fire. But that’s what your partner is there for, to put you out.

And so it goes until the last shell is launched and the finale has played out. By this time you have pulled back far enough from the line to look up into the sky and see it utterly full to the edges of your peripheral vision with the fireworks you have just been lighting but unable to look up and see.

The last of the sparks goes out and the bits of shrapnel are still falling from the sky, the embers are glowing on the ground, and if you take your earplugs out in time you can hear the whole town cheering. They scream, whistle, clap, honk, hoot, and holler. The whole time you were lighting the show you forgot about them, the people you were there to entertain. But they didn’t matter at the time. Only grabbing the cap, pulling the cap, lighting the fuse, and repeating mattered. If you got that right then they got a good show.

It was a great show.

Thanks to Greg for having me and it was great to work with everyone else on the crew. I hope to see everyone next year!

Check out blogs by Greg, Rich, and Travis for their takes on the event.

Originally posted 02/17/06 on Blogger

I haven’t posted here in a very long time. Many things have changed but one thing has not, my desire to travel around the world by surface transportation (Cargo ship, train, camel, truck, etc…)

To that end i thought I would document my research and general plans on the off chance that someone else is doing the same thing and happens to search and find these pages.

To begin, the goal is to circumnavigate the planet by surface transportation. No flights.

Everything else until i buy my tickets is speculative.

The Plan:

I will be quitting my job, selling most of my crap, and packing the rest for storage at my parents home in Iowa.

The journey will begin in Portland, Oregon. From there i will drive to Sioux City, Iowa and drop off the car, the stuff worth keeping (or selling later), my Last Will and Testament, and a power of Attorney to be put in my parent’s names.

From there I will travel to the East coast of the U.S. possibly stopping to visit friends on the way stopping finally in Philidelphia.

In Philidelphia I will board a Cargo ship bound for Europe. From there I will use a 90 day Eurail pass to bounce around 18 countries in Europe and as many Eastern European countries as I can reach from those 18.

From there I will either go to Russia and board the Trans-Siberian railroad to Bejing or choose some Silk Road route to China.

Everything past that point is foggy…

Current Budgeting list is showing about $6000-$8000US for transportation, meaning i’m going to need a lot more than that to survive…

1. Drive from PDX to SUX = at 23mpg x 2.60 per gallon = $338.00 (not accounting for a trailor) + $100 lodging + $100 food
2. Unknown cost from SUX to PHL = $???
3. Freighter from PHL to Antwerp = $2000 ($1469 transport + $313 insurance and tax + $incidentals)
4. 90 day Eurail pass = $1700
5. Trans-Siberian Rail pass = $????
6. Ship travel to LA = $???
7. Train to PDX = $???

Current Resources are:

Practical Nomad by Edward Hasbrouck

Europe by Eurail by LaVerne Ferguson-Kosinski

Freighter Resources:

GoNomad’s Freighter Travel Mini-Guide: http://www.gonomad.com/transports/0011/miniguide_freighter_voyage.html

Freighter World Cruises:
http://www.freighterworld.com/
All for now, I’ll be back later to correct myself I’m sure…