If I come home I'll be alive

Tomorrow I embark on my first vacation since I started my job in travel - no I'm not kidding, all of my travels to this point have been 'work'.
I'm heading with 4 of my closest friends & Buckley to Italy for 7 nights, then Amsterdam for 3. I obviously went out for some cocktails tonight because I don't usually pack sober. As I was saying goodbye one of my friends said "come home alive". I assured her that IF I came home it'd be alive.
Stay tuned for stories because I promise you that this trip will be rowdy and if I remember it I'll post it!

Sideburns

Did I miss a memo? Is it no longer cool to have any trace of a sideburn?
I've spent the last week in Seattle, San Francisco & Los Angeles and about 63% of the (guys?) I've seen don't have a hair below the top of their ear. If I'd've known that Dave Elliot was a trendsetter while I was at MSG I would've bought a pair of high waters and some blush...
I wish I had pictures to support this post but I didn't bring my camera on this sales trip.

Hot as Hell!

I've spent the last two days in Atlanta, where it's been in the mid-high 90's and humid. It's so hot that public schools are having half days.
I was driving through the sticks to a meeting about an hour and a half outside of the city and passed a Baptist church with the following on it's front sign "And you think THIS is hot".
I cracked the F up! Wish I had my camera...

Airport Boozin'

If you know me, then you know that I like booze. If you're reading this blog, then you know me. Therefore if you're reading this blog, you know that I like booze. That's the transitive property bitches!
That being said, I'm constantly in awe of human being's drinking habits at airports. I've spent a lot of time at airports (if you didn't know that, this is probably your first time visiting dondeestadk) and I never cease to be amazed at how much alcohol people consume in the shortest amounts of time just before boarding an 80 ton metal bird.
I'm sitting at an airport bar in Houston as I write this post. I'm on my third Stella and I've been here for just over an hour. The guy next to me sat down when I was about halfway through my second beer and he's on his 4th Grey Goose rocks. The guy next to him had 3 double Captain & cokes in a span of no more than 15 minutes. These aren't 'kids' going to Vegas; they're individual travelers heading home or going somewhere on business - trust me, they'll give you their ATM code if you just ask after 4 gooses...
No moral to this story, just an observation of a pattern that I've seen over the last year and a half. If you're looking for entertainment and/or just want to be a little amazed show up at the airport early before your next trip, pull up a barstool, watch and listen.

Cape 'oh my' Cod!

Went up to Cape Cod, MA with some friends this weekend. The house we stayed at was SICK, weather was perfect and the beers were cold. There were many funny occurrances over the course of the weekend; unfortunately I didn't really get any videos and even if I did I would not be at liberty to share them.
I can say that Saturday was a shit-show! We drank from about noon - 2am, while also playing some bocce ball, beer pong & wiffle ball. We then had the feast of a lifetime (steaks, Italian sausage, bacon & jalapeno stuffed burgers, etc.) and went out. The bar that we ended up at didn't know what hit them. The band ended up with my phone (wonder how that got on stage...) and read some texts over the microphone - which was humorous. There were also a number of cougars out on the prowl and a member of our group may or may not have had a very interesting rendezvous.
After last call we returned to the house and continued drinking. I was convinced to eat a whole jalapeno pepper (not that bad), while others decided to bite into sea sponges. I was told that they tasted like bad chalk (as opposed to all of that delicious chalk out there). Great weekend, I just wish I could share more.

My Chariots Await...

While in Botswana I utilized some interesting modes of transportation. The below vehicles (along with your legs) are literally the only way to get around most of the country. Traveling by these means certainly adds to the overall feeling of adventure on the safari.

The Cessna 6 seater plane:

The 4x4 Land Cruiser:

And finally our mokoro, a canoe made out of a large dug out tree:

For 7 days these were my only means to get ANYWHERE.
And now a brief geography lesson:
   About 70% of Botswana is covered by the Kalahari Desert. The Okavango River runs into Botswana from Angola and spreads over the northern part of the Kalahari into what is known as the Okavango Delta, the world's largest inland delta. The water levels in the delta (swamp) fluctuate during the year, however the water is usually at it's highest in June/July. This year they are predicting the highest water levels EVER recorded and that's reflected in the following videos - I was there in mid-May and the water was already incredibly high, that's why the vehicles shown above are the only way to traverse most of the country.

Here's a video I took from our 'mini-plane' while flying over the Okavango Delta. At about the 1:15 mark you can spot the landing strip and then watch as we land at the Mapula Lodge airstrip.

Here's our Land Cruiser at work during one of our game drives. Remember that 9 months of the year what we're driving on is road, but with the water so high we got this (there were literally fish swimming in the road):

Finally, this is a Dave's-Eye view of a mokoro ride. I'm sitting in the front of the 'canoe' as my guide, Papiu, steers using a long bamboo pole while standing in the back. It can be quite unnerving when you hear & see hippos and elephants around you while traveling in the flimsy mokoro...