Changes of Gauge

Delta flight 160, Denver to Amsterdam, landed today (December 1, 2014) in Amsterdam with no Denver passengers on board. This is not uncommon: it also happened with DL160 on November 13. The explanation starts with a “change of gauge,” a term rooted in railroads.Track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the two… Continue reading Changes of Gauge

Dreaming of Kyushu

This winter I’ll be back in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. I will have visited Kyushu three years in a row: 2013, 2014, and 2015. I go back for the gentle subtropical climate while Minnesota’s long winter refuses to budge. Kyushu is a manageable size, about one-sixth the area of Minnesota or… Continue reading Dreaming of Kyushu

Gas

It was breakfast at the Granvia Okayama Hotel. The tour group at the next table murmured in agreement as the colonel railed against typographical errors in the itinerary. I pegged him as “the colonel,” now a paper-pusher, close to retirement.  It was impossible to tune him out as he recalled his first encounter with the… Continue reading Gas

Gas

Posted about gas.

Categorized as Fails

Couch Potato

Today I’m a couch potato/cold sufferer: blame it on travel. Still, I’m grateful for travel, grateful it’s only a cold.

LHR/ATH

Aegean LHR/ATH, US$116, exit row, empty seat beside me, free hot meal and wine, Bennett/Gaga on Android. #grateful

Amtrak at Union Depot

Cycled to St. Paul’s Union Depot. This winter I’ll take Amtrak to Miami, stopping in several cities including NYC.