Posted by Dominic
Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:31:00 GMT
I’m sitting in a giant aluminum tube, chasing through the sky at 600 miles an hour, and it feels right.
It’s peaceful, around me people are sleeping, a few seat-back screens are showing a random selection of movies, and it is as if this, right here, right now, is what it’s all about.
Being surrounded by orthodox Jews, although a first in experience, seems as natural as if they’d been there every day of my life. This is but one of many things I was about to experience on this trip over the next 13 days.
It all started the night before - I was returning a dog I’d been sitting, when I was overcome with despair. I don’t know what was the cause, but all I wanted to do at the time, was to NOT GO.
You read me right: I wanted to stay home. Ignoring the cost, and not to mention the trip of a lifetime. It was all disposable at that exact moment.
Surely that’s crazy talk, right? Well, such is the power of spiritual warfare at it’s best. After texting for prayers, and spending some quality time praying, I dropped off Mr. Darcy and went home to finish packing.
I don’t remember much of the 3am wake-up, getting to the airport, or the flight to Newark. Except the Crazyness of the Sassone’s side-trip to Houston to renew Heather’s passport. You see, your passport has to be valid at least 6 months after the return from visiting Israel or you can’t go, and Heather’s passport expired in March. I’m inclined to allow them to tell the story of that adventure… but they did get to Tel Aviv.
On the topic of passports, though - the Sassone’s weren’t the only ones with passport trouble. Amanda also managed to lose hers on the flight to Newark, which causes trouble continuing international travel as you can imagine. I think I spy a passport-telling story in the future after all….
… so there I am, 36000 feet up in the air, and feeling very much at peace. As I’d be told several days later, I am going “home” after all. And as you’ll see, it wasn’t until a while later that I realized this.
(More photos can be seen here)
Posted in God, Travelling | Tags 2009, israel | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:03:00 GMT
10 hours, 2 cars, 10 people, 2 dogs.
Landlubbers on the beach.
Pool.
Kat.
More can be seen on flickr and on Facebook.
Posted in Photography, Travelling | Tags adventure, beach, blessing, friends | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:07:00 GMT
As many of you have pointed out, this last weekend was Easter Weekend. So instead of spending the weekend sitting at home, I decided to join a bunch of geocachers at Lake Mineral Wells State Park for a weekend of running around the woods looking for small hidden containers.
The weekend was great - Rebecca and Rick came with. A great time was had by all, but boy was it tiring. 4.5 hours of hoofing it through the woods at high speed, only pausing briefly while searching for the caches.
Sunday morning we slept in (8am for me, hah!) and made hot dogs in biscuit-dough blankets. Most delicious, once you get the procedure down. Yumm.
I was oh-so-sore and oh-so-tired, but boy, was it worth it.
I love the outdoors.
Posted in Travelling, Historical | Tags camping, easter, geocaching, mineral, wells, yum | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Mon, 31 Dec 2007 03:31:00 GMT
That’s the distance (including parking lots and gas stations) from Donalsonville, GA to my home in Austin, TX.
We drove through 6 states: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
We drove that distance today in roughly 13 hours (11 hours, 49 minutes driving, the rest was food/gas/bathroom breaks).
I’m glad to be home, even though my apartment is a mess from unloading the car. :)
Posted in Travelling | Tags alabama, florida, georgia, kickapoo, louisiana, mississippi, road, texas, travel | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Thu, 27 Dec 2007 04:13:00 GMT
I am currently out travelling with Rebecca, in part to visit her aging grandmother, who lives near Donalsonville - a small town in rural Georgia.
This was after a 9-some hour drive from Little Rock.
Dinner for the evening was at the local diner, called “3 Squares Diner.” One order CFS and one chicken noodle soup: $10.
And the CFS was delicious.
I’m going to enjoy this small-town experience. Oh, yes I will.
Posted in Travelling | Tags cfs, podunk | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Sun, 09 Sep 2007 08:28:00 GMT
I’m writing this from the ferry between Corfu and Venice - last night we took the bus to the town of Corfu (main city - as opposed to the island), and crashed overnight in a hotel near the docks.
This morning it was up at 5am to check in for the boat, which left at 7. It then headed to Igoumenitsa, before turning around and making the trip to Venice.
Everything is still doing well - we’re alive, my foot only bothers me a little (I should have noted earlier that I got a big blister, which then proceeded to crack open, etc… It’s kind of nasty, but only bothers me sometimes.)
Anyway, the tricky thing about this boat trip, was the fact that we only could make a “Deck fare” reservation. Then, once on the boat, we had to put down on a waiting list for the cabin upgrade. The upgrade was successful, btw.
I’ll hopefully have some pictures of the other “Deck fare” passengers… It’s interesting, much different from previous ferry rides, with people just sleeping anywhere possible.
Anyway, time is running out (to the tune of 1 EUR/10 minutes). I’ll hopefully write more later.
Tarra!
Posted in Travelling | Tags corfu, ferry, igoumenitsa, venice | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:26:00 GMT
Is awesome. Really. Awesome.
The food is delicious, the weather good (but windy), and the people friendly.
We’re staying in an old Villa on top of a mountain on the far north-west point of Corfu. I’ll finagle a map somehow sometime, if I get around to it.
We rented two scooters to scoot around the island. Today we went back to the main town to secure our tickets for the trip to Venice.
Life is good.
Hopefully I’ll have uploaded a picture for this.
Posted in Travelling | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Mon, 03 Sep 2007 14:16:00 GMT
We’re in Brindisi, Italy - a few adventures along the way, but still alive.
There was the brain for dinner, the 5am taxi ride, and the endless hours spent sitting on a train.
There was also the surprise visit in Milano, the night train (try sleeping when you’re jerked awake every hour), and the wonderful hospitality at the hostel here in Brindisi.
We’re waiting to find out plans for how to get to the ferry, so I thought I’d post a quick update.
Until we speak again….
Posted in Travelling | Tags brindisi, delay, duomo, milan, tgv, train, trenitalia | 1 comment | no trackbacks
Posted by Dominic
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:04:00 GMT
I must say, typing on a French keyboard is quite the experience.
We arrived in Geneva yesterday morning at 7am, a lot earlier than we thought we’d arrive.
The day was spent bumming around downtown, while looking for a restaurant that Daniel’s parents recommended. “Relais de l’Entrecote” Apparently their specialty is rib meat with french fries, with some green sauce on the meat.
It was very good, and they had free seconds.
Then we took the TGV (French fast train) to Marseille, where we walked around the City for a while, then met up with some people from couchsurfing.com. Gerry, a local, was gracious enough to let us stay the night.
I think we’re off to the beach now. Tarra!
Posted in Travelling | Tags couchsurfing, europe, geneva, marseille, tgv, travel | no comments | no trackbacks
