On May 8, I left Boston to visit my sister in South Africa. On May 11, I arrived at Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport. The airport was renamed in 2006 to honor Nelson Mandela’s long-time friend, law partner, and one-time secretary general and president of the ANC.
Entries Tagged as 'vacation'
South Africa: Arrival and Pretoria
May 24th, 2010 2 Comments
Tags: airlines · single-serving friend · south africa · strange places and foreign planets · transport · vacation
Climbing the Trap Dike
October 14th, 2008 No Comments
The “Trap Dike” is a lovely little route up Mount Colden, in the Adirondacks, that ranges in quality from dry, blocky scramble to raging waterfall. This is the story of how four intrepid adventurers from the Free Outing Club of Cornell/Ithaca ascended the dike in “slightly runny” conditions. All photos are courtesy of my coadventurer [...]
Tags: backpacking · bit the dust · climbing · FOC · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Wyoming Part 2: Arrival at Grand Teton
October 9th, 2008 1 Comment
August 6, 2008 Around 7 AM Gros Ventre Camp August 5: Morning at Brooks Lake is gorgeous! We filled up our H20 at the lake, and I shot the panorama shown in the previous post. After some trouble with the stove, we had Quinoa cereal that Adrienne made for breakfast. The last time I had [...]
Tags: backpacking · hiking · looking for america · vacation
Wyoming 2008: The Long-Awaited Travelogue
September 3rd, 2008 1 Comment
August 6, 2008 Around 7 AM Gross Ventre Campground, Grand Teton N.P. This is my first real chance to write so far on the trip. A recap so far: August 3: Our 5 AM departure became a 9 AM departure. We were planning to drive 13 hours today and camp at Badlands National Park, SD, [...]
Tags: looking for america · Things that are not okay · vacation
Leaving, on an intermodal transit combo
August 1st, 2008 No Comments
Tonight I leave Massachusetts for sixteen days of adventure. I will take the bus to the commuter rail station, the commuter train into the city, the subway to South Station, and the Silver Line (a Dual-Mode Bus that runs through Subway tunnels on catenary wires) to Logan Airport, where I will take the plane to Chicago [...]
Tags: transit nerd · vacation
Grand Canyon: Day 6 (Kept you waiting, didn't I?)
April 22nd, 2008 No Comments
I didn’t write in my trail journal on Day 6, so this entry will be based on photographs and memory. A Graphical Summary of the Trip
Tags: canyon · cops · desert · maps · ruins · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · Those Who Came Before · vacation · volcano
An Irrational Number Between Five and Six
April 20th, 2008 No Comments
This is technically the sixth day in the desert, but by that count there were seven. We Spent this day mostly on the road, so I do not count it–I give it an irrational number between five and six. Or maybe a complex number, with five as the real part and some non-zero imaginary part. [...]
Tags: desert · gps · joshua tree · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Day 5 Part 2: The Oasis
April 20th, 2008 No Comments
The walk from here to Lost Palm Oasis is only about 40 minutes. From the overlook, you see two oases–one down in the canyon, and one on the opposite rim. The trail descends steeply into the gorge, where we immediately encounter fan palms. Some are still well-covered in shag; others have recently burned. The canyon floor is very sandy and these are the beaches we read about–beaches without water. There is very little water here, only sparse seeps leak above the ground. Many of the seeps are fouled with decomposing organic matter. We find a few bones, too small to be Bighorn Sheep, too small to be rabbit. Coyote, maybe?
Tags: desert · joshua tree · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Six Days in the Desert: Day 5
April 17th, 2008 No Comments
3/18/2008 9:36 AM Cottonwood Camp Warm morning: everybody slept well. Ginger feels better. I’m wearing my kilt and t-shirt at 9:00 AM–a vast improvement over previous days! We cooked the rest of the bacon today, but fully half of it was consumed in a sudden grease fire. I washed the pair of pants that I [...]
Tags: desert · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation
Worth Bagley Bit the Dust (Day 4)
April 8th, 2008 3 Comments
In today’s edition, our intrepid heroes climb a mountain and hike through the desert to abandoned mines and the tomb of a desperado miner who died by the hand of a rival, fighting over a few scraps of land in the desert.
Tags: desert · joshua tree · legal history · spring break · strange places and foreign planets · vacation