2010: Happy New Year!

Nostalgia and a new toy are an odd mix for me today. I finally installed Google Earth and of course had to go play around locating and pinning the places I'd been. That program is a hoot, It lets you be superman and fly around the globe, looking at actual satellite weather views and imagery. The closer you zoom, the more detail you get, even letting you zoom in to street level in some areas like Los Angeles and showing links to photos of the area if any are available.

So, I've been touring the world today. It's changed since the last time I looked.

After I covered Arizona and Idaho and checked out Kabul & Baghdad, I delved back into some of my own history, 40 years back, in fact. Vietnam was a shock. What was primitive and abandoned when I was there is bustling now. Civilization exists where it did not before. If anyone is interested, here are the lat/lon coordinates for a couple of places I've been. You can plug them in and see what they look like today. The pier we tied up to at our home port at Cam Ranh: 11°51'42.89"N, 109°14'53.25"E 8°45'16.25"N, 105°13'12.51"E is the entrance to the river we spent weeks on. Sea Float was moored about here: 8°45'16.97"N, 104°59'30.35"E. If you care to zoom in on the river and have all the map features turned on, you will see why we were referred to as the "Brown Water Navy". Too thick to drink, too thin to plow, that water. Note that even the ocean is discolored from the river's discharge. Okay, so here is a (not so good) screenshot of the river entrance. If you follow its route, you'll note that there is another mouth on the other end of the river that opens onto the gulf of Siam. This is why the current reversed itself with the tides. Today has been a real trip. Im agonna stop typing now and go tour some more. TBC (Me)