Tag Archives: My Favorites

Crowded – Beijing

I’ve been a few places in my day. The majority of my trips were to urban environments. I like to learn about mankind and the various cultures that people create. They interest me.

Beijing Itinerary

Yes, I am going to Beijing. Glad you asked. I’m going in mid-September for about 30 days. I didn’t want to go in the winter. Too cold. I didn’t want to go in the summer. Too hot. I would have preferred to go in April, but I had just gotten back from SE Asia. Too soon to be catching another 15 hour plane ride. From Beijing I hope to get to see Shanghai and Xian. Did I mention that I also want to go see the Great Wall as well, but who doesn’t. While it won’t be, technically, my first trip to China, it will be my first trip to mainland China. I’m all excited.

Welcome to Ohio – Trucking

It’s a sign along I-70. Seeing this sign probably means I’m headed away from home. Significance? Eventually, I would head away from home too often for too long. I loved being a trucker. It was fun and, in my humble opinion, the absolute best way to see America. But, eventually, being on the road for hundreds of days a year takes its’ toll. I’d never advise anyone with a young family to go over-the-road. You’re gone from home too much. I could write a book on what it’s like to be an over-the-road trucker. Maybe I will. However, in my case, there came a day when I had to give it up.

Yummy Wings

They’re Flying J hot wings. Flying J is a truck stop with lots of places to stop across America. They have really yummy hot wings. They have delicious egg rolls. They have good salads. They have good fuel and, sometimes, quite large parking areas. They also have a place where I can dump the toilet that I carry in my truck. That’s important. Significance? Road Food.

At Home with Friends

This is me at home with two of my favorite friends, Chimay Ale and Mr. HD DVR remote. I spend way too much time watching TV while I am at home. Then again, what’s life all about anyway? I enjoy TV and I’m usually sitting in one recliner and Ethel is sitting in another when we watch it. It’s, sort of, our time alone together. We like to sit around the house at night and watch our favorite shows and talk. The Chimay Ale is representative of my favorite class of beers, trappist ales. Monk beer, or Holy Water, as I like to call them. The significance of the picture? Semi-retirement ain’t half-bad.

Grandkids- Medieval Fair

This is a picture of Patrick and Christian, a couple of grandkids. We went to the Medieval Fair that’s held locally every year. Notice the big turkey leg. They took turns with it. I said "No thanks." I think it was nice they offered me a bite, but grandkids are little germ factories. There’s nothing like grandkids. They are God’s revenge on your children for all the bad things they put you through. I love to spoil grandchildren (anyone’s) and send them home or get them all hopped-up on sugar and take them home in the early evening.

Me at Snowy Park

Here I am at the park near my house. Notice the snow. This picture is for all the people I met in SE Asia the two months before the picture was taken who have never seen snow. The picture was taken in April. That’s a late snowfall for Oklahoma. Significance of the photo? Oklahoma has seasons. Big ones. The National Severe Storms Laboratory is located in the town where I live. I don’t have to ask why. I like the changes of the season. As far as weather goes, I think I live in one of the most dramatic climates in the world.

Baskin Robbins

This is the ice cream store that inspired me to go to one of the world’s 10 largest malls, Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur. I’d just finished lunch and I didn’t have a lot going on and I just decided it would be nice to go to the mall and get some ice cream. I had lunch in the central market and there weren’t a lot of ice cream stores there. I spent about three hours in the mall after I got my ice cream. It seems they had a lot of stuff there. Not that I need more stuff, I just like to look at and gloat about how good it feels to have stopped buying so much of it. Significance? The majority of the 10 largest malls in the world are in Asia. What does that say? It says that Asia has a lot of people and that consumerism is alive and well all over the world. I would say that Asians will be the next great wave of consumers, surpassing even the United States in their ability to purchase worthless, needless junk to fill their homes.

Hong Kong Apartments

Notice the apartments? How could you not notice them. They were everywhere. They were large. They are the kind of place that makes me worry about the future of mankind. Will our species someday be all about living in little structures shut off from locations where the buffalo roam and lions wander about? Probably. Significance? Look at those things. In Asia they’re everywhere. I can understand them, I’m just not sure I like them. I could never get my wife to even consider living in one. Me? I could deal with it, but I think I‘d miss my Lawn-Boy.

Hong Kong From The Peak

This is Hong Kong from Victoria Peak. It’s not a very good shot. The weather has never really cooperated with me during any of my stays in Hong Kong. One thing I will say is that I’ve decided to make Hong Kong the World’s Best Skyline in my list of places in the world to visit. Victoria Peak also becomes one of my Top 100 Places to Visit in the world. Of course I haven’t actually made a list, but if I had one this place would definitely be on it. It might even be on the Top 10 list, but I’d have to say this view would be in a pretty tight race with the view from the Empire State Building if only because of Central Park in New York City. Significance? Huge urban cities like this are the future for mankind in the next hundred or so years. Hong Kong is, at the very least, interesting. I’m glad it’s a gateway city to SE Asia. It gives me the chance to get back to the city for a couple of days when I go to the continent.

Rolling Okie

Travel, Adventure, and more…