Day 0 - Night Before Departure - 🌏 MWT 2017

Sunday August 27th, 2017
Hiked 3.9 miles

10:09 pm

My itinerary was easy to understand and helped document
my journey on two pieces of paper. Kiwi.com

Well I am laying in my bed with my new bluetooth keyboard connected to my phone. For ease and lightweight travel I am opting to leave my laptop home and use my phone only this trip.

I decided it is wise to wait until I return home before I post anything on this trip. If only to pay attention to the moment, lest I get distracted and post something foolishly offending people when I only want to show respect. I need to understand. I am not as interested in seeing the sites as the people. I want to see people around the world. Really that is all I expect. I expect to see people just as us, similarities, and differences. It will be enlightening. I am excited to travel alone as it exposes me to interact with people. I expect I will just make short notes on here. I am not going in secret, or surprise, just not advertised. Most Americans I know have little experience with this, and I dread their opinion. Only those close to me know of it so they may be on the lookout for my return. It is kind of hard to sleep before a long journey. I doubt the wisdom in the planning of the trip. Planning that I did so quickly I can not remember if it was thorough.

So I HAVE to trust myself. Tomorrow I will be at the Castro Valley Bart before 10am to be guaranteed a spot. I have no plans for the evening. I will check into the hostel and enjoy a tasty beverage of sorts. Then I will have something very American before I go. Tues I will wake up and make my way to the airport via the BART. I will get on a, what appears now to be a 14hr leg. I will land in Wuhan China. It is new to allowing visitors, as new as 2015, and I will only be there a short time on a layover on the way to Bangkok Thailand. I reserved, in Bangkok, a three star hotel for the night after my arrival. My plane is going to land in the early morning so I don't want to reserve a hotel for the arrival of my trip.

We will see how that works out. My trip to Hawaii in July was tiring after 10 days. By twelve days, I was so happy to go back home, I felt like it was a new vacation. The return trip from Hawaii was brutal and I was beaten emotionally and physically from delays and missed connections that I am kind of surprised I am going to do this. In fact it will mark the end of my retirement and when I return I will be out of money and in need of a new job. I have seen some emails regarding available jobs from head hunters in my inbox, but am too distracted running this trip over in my head to worry about that until I get back.

So early tomorrow morning I will drive to San Francisco to visit one of our very own famous metropolis before heading out overseas. My plane to China leaves the next day.

Tonight I need to scan copies of my passport to Google drive, as well as my Drivers License and Bank Card in case they go missing. Earlier I printed out a hard copy of my ticket information in case my phone gets destroyed, goes missing, or the battery dies writing about my trip. I keep taking a break to Google things last minute to make sure I am good to go. Things like Visa requirements for all the countries I plan to visit and whether I am going to get Shanghaied in Hong Kong because Moscow won't let me pass through. I could have easily avoided Moscow, but I want to see our far eastern or western friends in the "Red" state, if only for a short while.

My bag is packed, checked, and double checked. Most important inventory is wallet/phone and passport. Everything else can be replaced along the way. I took out my sweater, rolled it up nice, and stuck it in my backpack so I could easily put it on, relieving pressure on my bag, if does not fit under some seats. I am going to try and keep my bag with me at all times.

Updated.. The absolutely best blogging system.

For three years now I have been using Blogger.  I have no reason to go elsewhere.  Since Google has taken ownership there have been no problems as far as I can tell.

As a developer I always had a reason for testing new software and ringing the newest bells.  The one mistake I always made before was mixing my writing with my playground. While I was updating the newest blog software, or messing around in my database, and updating my plugins, my writings have repeatedly succumbed to tragic loss.

Then I went to Blogger and left the programming to the professionals.  Now I could concentrate on my writing.  The time I have had available to write has more than doubled. If you are still interested in my technical analysis, that article can be found here.

My advice was sound though.  Keeping it simple has allowed me to concentrate on what blogging is good for. It is like a car.  If you like taking it apart all the time, you won't have time to go anywhere.

Instead of getting good at installing blog software.  Stick with one and start blogging.