Jim Travels The World

Wednesday 23rd Make it to London via Heathrow. Bags not in London. I am not at all surprised. they will be here tomorrow, apparently. Taxi to my hotel. The city is all brown and red brick, very dark and old. Taxi driver gets address wrong, but I know I'm close by so I get out to walk.  Immediately discover a Brit language quirk: guy giving directions tells me it's 'two streets over' but he means one street over because he's counting the street we're on right now as one of those two streets.  whatevs. Like when an Australian says 'next thursday' and it's Tuesday, he actually means two days from now. Hyde park hotel. Smallest hotel room I've ever seen. The entire bathroom is literally as small as my bathtub at home. Wander around the shopping area nearby and buy some clothes so I can have freshies tomorrow. video chat with the wife then off to bed. Thursday 24th Short walk to the office. More brown drab old buildings. It...

Sunday march 20th To DIA for 4 pm flight to lax then connect in LAX to heathrow. Except the 4 pm flight was delayed so long I would miss the connection. My luggage, however did make the flight. So I got a new flight for tomorrow Monday march 21st My new flight takes me to LAX, and then to find my bags. No one knows where they are. Go to check in for my London flight, and they tell me it's the wrong flight; I wasn't supposed to connect from lax. The supervisor at American airlines in Denver hosed me. And also, my passport has a corner torn, so American won't let me fly with that passport. And they found my luggage, it was sent back to Denver. Stayed at the radisson in LA. At some point in the day I had cut my toe, leaving my sock a bloody mess.  it's better if you don't see it. I only have the one pair of socks as my luggage is in space somewhere. Tuesday march 22nd 6 am cab to the LA federal building to get a new passport. I'm first in...

One of the things I missed during my time in Australia   was the beautiful snow-capped mountains of Colorado. We did get to see some elevation (including snowy peaks in New Zealand ), and even spent a weekend at an Australian ski resort (no skiing, it was a work thing), but they were nothing like the ones back home. So of course, I was eager for ski and snowshoe season this last winter. balanced rock, north side view of cub lake from above. this was a tough hike  snow deep. this trail to Lake of Glass/Sky Pond is only accessible in winter because i literally hiked over Timberline falls to get to it. Yes, it is really as steep as it looks. getting down, and had to slide, using my snowshoes as rudders. awesome.  but that treacherous steep climb yielded this incredible result at Lake of Glass