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I’ve added a new airport to my list – Frankfurt (FRA). This brings the total to 77, now. How many have you been to? Ever make a list?

I’ve arrived in Bad Homburg [a suburb of Frankfurt] safely, if a little later than I thought. I found the city just fine, but finding the hotel was something else. I was unable to find the right street and ended up driving around the town for over an hour before I found a “familliar” place – one where I knew the streets – and called the hotel. They were kind enough to give me directions and now, I’m here.

My rental car is A Mercedes – but not what you might think. It’s a model we don’t have in the US: the A series. It’s like a mini-mini-van. Very small box on wheels. I did, however, get seat 1A on the flight over, due to the oversold nature of the flight. They had too many people in coach and a seat or two open in First – so I was chosen [I feel special] to fill in the gap while vacating a coach seat for one less fortunate, but still grateful for a seat. If I had known I was going to be upgraded, I likely wouldn’t have eaten dinner in the terminal.

For now, though, it’s only 1pm and I have to make it until at least dark or jet lag will kill me. I only slept a few hours on the plane, but let’s hope its enough to keep me going. And now: I’m off to some castle ruins to take some pictures…

I’ve been fortunate enough to be given an upgrade to first class – on an international flight! … which is very rare. I’m off now – no time to type before they shut me down!

I’m in Newark, NJ now – enjoying the fruits of my youthful extravagance [for those that don’t know, when I was younger with more money than sense, I purchased a lifetime membership to the Continental President’s Club for scads of money – I’m somewhat glad I did it then, since I haven’t been able to blow nearly so much money ever since…] in the new President’s Club. I have about 3 hours to kill, most of which I’ll do here, but for some of which I’ll find me a nice restaurant to patronize… one with steak, maybe…

The shuttle between terminals was a God-send. Spartan, to be sure – one has to descend a flight of stairs to the outside right next to the planes and then stand up on a bouncy bus, but even so: I was very glad to avoid the inconvenience of yet another security screen. It reminds me of IAH before there was a tram built in the secured section of the airport – where you either had to exit security and ride the rickety underground tram [I have many memories of this], or there was a shuttle bus. This is very like that old bus, for those of you who have ridden it in the past.

Obviously, other than my airport-hopping, nothing is happening, but I’ll still keep you posted. Oh – and of course, on this tirp, I get to add a new airport to my list of airports visited: Frankfurt (FRA).

Now I’ve went and done it. I’ve gotten myself on a trip and I haven’t done this in quite some time. I’m going to Germany to learn some more about technology and eat some bratwurst. Well, truthfully, the company didn’t send me to eat bratwurst, but I added that to my list of things “to do”.

So, here I sit in the World Club [Northwest’s version of an airline club that I have access to through their alliance with Continental] on the free WiFi waiting for my first leg of the flight. I have learned two great pieces of news at the ticket counter:

1. There is now an “elite” security line here at Dulles, which is awesome for frequent travellers – one of which I might not be after the turn of the year when my status expires…
2. There is now a shuttle between the C and A terminals in Newark – this TOTALLY ROCKS! Previously when connecting through Newark, one had to leave terminal A [where flights from here and a few other cities arrive], exit the secured area and ride a train to terminal C and go back through security again. Now, I won’t have to do that. Most excellent.

The first leg of this flight will be the short hop to Newark, followed by a little layover, and then a long trip to Frankfurt. Let’s hope I figure out how to get to my hotel when I get there!

I’ll let you know how the trip goes.

After many hours of riding around this morning, I’m back home now and relaxing. I have realized yet again how hard long distance riding is. My rear quarters were positively numb after the duration of the ride I went through today. I did quite enjoy it even so. The weather was perfect – high 60s to low 70s with good cloud cover. We even found some nice windey roads through the forested mountains.

Tomorrow, one group of motorcycle riders from one of my customers is going to head out for a ride in the hinterlands of Virginia [not quite the ‘wilds’, I know, but as close as you get here] and I have been invited. This will be my first such group ride. We meet in Haymarket, VA at 8:30am and head out from there. I have never been to Haymarket, although Laura and I drove by on our way into town to begin our Virginia citizenship…

I’ll be bringing my camera in case I come across any place to take cool pictures. Of course, I don’t really know where we’re going or if there will be anything to take pictures of, but that’s okay. It’s all about the adventure, right?

What happened to Summer? Today, I rode up to work and it was 51 degrees outside [and raining, which makes it colder]. 51? It’s still supposed to be Summer, isn’t it? Not today – looks like we’re heading into Winter early – so much for Global Warming… We’re on to Global Cooling.

Today on my way to work, I happened to notice that my mileage hit 18081 – a nice palindrome. I began to think – this seems to happen almost every one hundred miles or so. For example, my next palindrome will be 18281 followed by 18381, 18481, etc. There are hiccups when you switch to the 19000 mile range, so now instead of 19081 [which would be 100 miles from 18981], the next palindromal mileage mark is at 19091, or 110 miles later.There will be another skip at 19991 miles, which will be 20002, or 11 miles…

In an earlier phase, palindromes are easier to hit. For example, starting with 1 [by definition a palindrome, but a very boring one…] you get 2,3,4, etc. which are 1 apart. The next big leap, then is 11, which is 2 from 9 [not sure how this fits into the pattern yet…]. From 11, we have 22, 33, 44, etc. which are 11 apart. The next change in distance, then is 101, which is, strange enough, 2 from 99. The next series is 10 apart: 111, 121, etc. Then from 191 to 202 is again 11 apart. Moving from 999 to 1001 is only 2 steps [there’s that 2 again], but the next sequence is 110 apart: 1111, 1221, 1331, etc growing from 1991 to 2002 by stepping 11 [yet again].

So: adding a digit means you skip either 2 or 11 depending on whether or not the number of digits is odd or even – going from odd, you skip 2 and from even, 11. So, from 99999 to 100001 is only 2 apart. Nice, eh?

Okay – I know: enough already.

I love playing with numbers in my head – besides, it gives me something to think about while I ride since I can’t listen to the radio or anything. I wonder if I’ll ever hit 100001… Probobly not on this bike. In the car, definitely.