The guy identifies himself as Agent Oh-Fourteen...when asked, he says it's because he's twice as smart as Oh-Oh-Seven.

Funny? Well, I thought so---more than forty years ago when I heard it in an episode of "Gilligan's Island."

Once, my cat brought a dragonfly into the house and the body was, I kid you not, nine inches long. It got away from her and I performed a catch and release maneuver with a wicker basket.

*****

The farthest west I've ever been is Laramie, Wyoming, and that was over thirty years ago.

I'd like to spend a few days in each place, so they'd have to be different trips.

Ha, Ha! Bow before He Who Must Be Obeyed! I will use my power to fight evil (or good, whichever is easiest), promote all that is right, and edit extrinsics posts to make him look not so smart.

Now all I need are some minions...

[This message has been edited by snapper (edited September 27, 2009).]

xkcd comic - "Locke and Demosthenes"

quote:

---

Snapper, some might argue it does't count if you didn't stop anywhere in the state except a roadside restaurant or gas station. So what's your real count?

---

I would agree that you shouldn't be able to count a place if all you did was land in an airport there and then take off for another airport.

Let me consult the map and see what is teh largest metropolitian place I have never been to yet (not including Alaskan cities).
Either Great Falls, MT or Rapid City, SD. Other places I have yet to see or drive by...

Yellowstone
Key West
Plymouth Rock (or anywhere inside the cape)
Grand Canyon

I have also been to 4 Canadian Provinces, all four corners of the lower 48 (Homestead FL, Caribou ME, Blaine WA, and Chilua Vista CA.)

The farthest north - Thompson Manitoba (450 miles north of Winnepeg) note: it was in March

South - Brownsville, TX.

quote:

---

Snapper, you must have so much in the pot for stirring up stories--do you draw inspiration from your travels?

---

One time while driving through the California desert did I get inspired. Came up with a cool hard sci-fi idea. i wrote it, posted it (in another crit site) and sent it to everyone I know. Never had so much negative feedback in my life.

A big 4wd ute with spots and bullbars pulled up next to me while I was filling up. The tray was full of dead kangaroos. They were shooters, they were drunk and they were swearing and laughing at the top of their lungs. They woke up my kids who were clearly alarmed by the racket and the comments.

So I asked them ( there were three or four) if they would mind quieting down as I had sleeping kids in the car and we had come a long way and had a long way to go.

To my surprise they shut-up.

I paid for the petrol and left and the children settled back to sleep. It wasn't long before I noticed the ute behind me with its lights off. I sped up to put some distance between us and in response they whacked on their spotlights and chased me for a hundred kilometres.

They would speed up and draw right up behind me for a moment and then fall back only to do it again, and again.

We passed no lights, no houses, no other cars for a hundred kilometres. Just them, and me trying to keep my family from waking.

As we approached the lights of a big coal mine, they gave up and turned around. I can't imagine where they were going. Back I guess.

I have often thought about that experience as a sequence in a story. What if my car had broken down, a flat tyre, what if, what if... all grist for the mill.

quote:

---

...the ideas kind of disapate if you don't get them down

---

Good reason for having some kind of audio digital recorder along--just speak the ideas into it. I understand ipods and other mp3 players have that capability.

Andrew, I think it would be cool to visit Australia, but since I don't do the boot camps, I wouldn't get to be the one to go do them. OSC may be interested, though. You can ask if he ever plans to do a boot camp down under (or any other questions you may have) on this page.