And so now begins a whirlwind of packing, moving, house selling, and saying goodbye. As with any major change like this, emotions are mixed with sadness for what we’re leaving behind, but excitement for what’s ahead. But for us, this is what life’s about – making conscious decisions to pursue a life that makes us happy.

You are all welcome to visit us in our new home – we hope to see you soon!

Ben & Alonna in Colorado 2006

Sphinx – Giza, Egypt

Elephant – Kruger National Park, South Africa

Opera House – Sydney, Australia

This one is a little different – the first two are similar to typical mosaics, but this one heavily overlaps and rotates photos.

It’s a given that you won’t come back from a world-wide walkabout as exactly same person.  Some people write books about their life-changing experiences, but for most travelers, the changes are small. To friends and family, the only immediately noticeable difference will be an annoying tendency to share world travel related anecdotes. “This reminds me of the time I was grilling kangaroo meat in Australia….”

But even if you have an “ordinary” world travel experience, here are some of the ways that world travel might affect you:

• An understanding of what a huge and diverse place the world is. There is a big difference between knowing and understanding. You might know that it hurts to break your leg, but until it happens you don’t
  

  Millions of Parisians live out their entire lives without ever eating a Sloppy Joe

  really understand. Everyone knows that 95% of the people on this planet don’t live the USA, but until you’ve visited some of these places and seen how billions of people live their lives in very foreign ways in very foreign places, mostly indifferent to what goes on in our country, believe me, you don’t really understand.

• Softening of tightly held opinions. When you grow up in any given culture, you inherit a set of opinions that seem inviolable. Freedom of speech and the inherent superiority of the free market are ingrained for us Americans. It’s shocking to encounter entire countries full of people who live out their lives valuing things that seem strange to us, and indifferent to principles we regard as fundamental. Your opinions probably won’t change at all, but you’ll realize that there are a lot of different ways to live out your life happily, and that that is all that matters to most people.  (Though maybe they would be even more happy with freedom of speech and a free market)
• A better understanding of your own culture. Somehow I had always assumed that because America is a melting pot of different cultures, that the way we do things is the just the most reasonable way, and what everyone else does is their “culture”. You might not carry around such a silly notion, but even so you’ll notice a million little things that people around the world do differently.  Everything from what time we eat dinner and how we hold our silverware to what our government taxes and where new shopping centers are built, it’s all cultural.
• A long list of ways America could be improved. As you travel you will inevitably encounter ideas for how you’d like to see America change.  Some things will never change – we work long hours and take insanely short vacations, it’s who we are. Others – like public transportation and an appreciation for fresh food – are objectively better and might find their way here if enough of us work at it.
  

  From here, Incan history looks more interesting

• Appreciation for America. Living in the United States, you can’t help but take a lot of things for granted. Travel the world and you’ll collect a long list of things to be grateful for.  Start the list off with free water at restaurants, one of hundreds of only-in-America things that you’ll miss when you travel the world.
• A Second Education. You might have thought history was boring in high school, but you won’t find it boring when you visit the places where history was made. Stand next to the massive rocks Incans built with, visit WWII concentration camps, and walk down the road – still with the same basalt paving stones! – that Julius Caesar walked down triumphantly on his return to Rome, and history is suddenly fascinating. The same thing goes for geology, geography, zoology, botany, and gastronomy. It’s the field trip of a lifetime.

The trip of a lifetime

The Costs

Total Travel Costs

Travel Costs by Country
Sorted by average cost per day in that country.

* NOTE: The “Other” category includes things like souvenirs, clothing, toiletries, laundry, internet, and guidebooks.
 

How it could be done MUCH cheaper

If this number scares you, but you’d love to take some time to travel, there are a few very easy ways to spend much less than us. I wouldn’t change a thing about our trip, but if I was going to do it again, I’d definitely be more aware of these tips:

An expensive bathroom break! (actually $0.20 USD)

Even cheap flights take a toll on the budget

Shopping in Paris

How we kept track of expenses

In case you’re curious, we kept track of every single purchase we made while traveling. I kept a small black notebook in my purse, and wrote down every purchase. Occasionally I would enter it into a master spreadsheet to add it all up and see if we were on track. This allowed us to see what we were spending our money on, and make adjustments if we were out of line with our budget.

Our home in Boise

Re-Discovering our House

Something I never anticipated was how nice it would be to return to our house and belongings after living out of a backpack and in hostels for 5 months. In some ways it’s liberating to have only a few sets of clothes and just the essentials with you at all times. While backpacking, you can’t help but wonder why you need that house full of “stuff” anyway – you’re doing fine with just these 30lbs. But, you forget about all the little things that make life so much easier and more comfortable. No – I didn’t miss the lawnmower or vacuum cleaner – but I was surprised to remember that I love wearing high heels and jewelry, and I now have the choice between at least 5 pairs of jeans and hundreds of tops. In addition to clothing, we have a kitchen full of nice dishes and appliances. We cooked a lot while traveling to save money, but the kitchens in hostels are nothing like your own kitchen back home. Dull knives, missing utensils, tiny fridges packed full of people’s food, and no cupboard with of your favorite spices and cooking supplies. Like I said, it’s really nice to be home.
 

What’s Next?

Now that we’re back, you might be curious about our plans for the future. We are too! We don’t have any solid plans yet, but I promise I’ll let you know when we do.

As for the blog – it will live on! We still have a lot to say about our past year of traveling, and we’ll continue to share photos of any interesting adventures that come our way. Some topics in the works include the cost of our trip, things we’ve learned, and more photo collages. Is there anything you’d like to know about? Please leave a comment and we’ll try to address it.

Thank you for following us on this incredible journey!

Mr Franklin had an idea: what if I buy a book and then share it with as many people as I can, even strangers?!  In that spirit, he founded the first public lending library.  Today this basic concept has been ultra-optimized, thanks to the Internet, and is generally referred to as piracy.  An elaborate set of contradictory and confusing laws and precedents have been put in place so that libraries are legal and sharing mp3s on the Intertubes is illegal*.  But don’t kid yourself, when you check a book out from the library you are STEALING from the author as surely as if you put it in your pocket and walked out of Barnes and Noble without paying.

But Ben Franklin would approve – of checking out library books, anyway.  He might have approved of pirating mp3s too.  This is a guy who never patented any of his many inventions because he felt they should be used for the good of everyone.  He was also involved in a revolution, so you could argue he had problems with authority. If he were alive today, Franklin would probably be a member of the EFF.

*Downloading mp3s is not the same as checking a book out of the library because when you download an mp3 you make a copy whereas you have to return the book to the library.  Don’t worry, this loophole will be closed eventually.

Pantheon

We’ve seen some amazing churches, but you gotta love the simplicity and ancient grandeur of this Roman “church” built to honor all of the gods. The Pantheon is very well preserved because it was converted into a Christian church later on. The best thing about this building is the dome, which shows yet again how advanced the Roman’s were 2,000 years ago. Michelangelo studied this ancient dome when making plans for St. Peter’s Basilica. I never cease to be amazed that it took 1400 years for people to recreate something as simple (by today’s standards) as a dome or realistic looking art.
 

Trevi Fountain

We stopped by the Trevi fountain, and I got a kick out of how touristy this spot is. Artistically and historically it’s not all that significant (relatively), but this was the most densely packed tourist area we found in Rome. The fountain was nice, but there’s just something about seeing hundreds of people posing for a photo that makes it seem so lame.
 

• Life on the Road – a 3-month update on me and Ben
• Career Breaker Round-up – description of 3 “career break” couples, including us
• Negotiating a Sabbatical – includes tips from me
• Giving thanks for Career Breaks – what we’re thankful for on our travels

For example, I recently watched a move called The Lives of Others, which is set in Berlin just before the fall of the Berlin wall.  Besides having a great story and characters, this movie inspired me to spend hours on wikipedia reading about Germany after WW2, the Iron Curtain, and the eventual fall of communism.  Sure, I learned about this in school, and I vaguely remember news of the Berlin Wall falling in 1989 when I was 8 years old.  But in my adult life I’ve found that a) I don’t remember most of what I learned in grade school, and b) history really sinks in when I have an individual story to relate to it.

Because I’m having so much fun searching Netflix for foreign films and watching as many as possible, I thought I’d share a list of my findings so far.  I’ve listed them in order of how much I liked them, with 3 descriptive words to give you a quick feel for each movie.

Movies I highly recommend:

• Amelie (France, 2001) : Charming, Adorable, Quirky
• The Lives of Others (Germany, 2007) : Intriguing, Chilling, Inspiring
• Life is Beautiful (Italy, 2007) : Charming, Beautiful, Heartbreaking
• Black Book (Germany, 2006) : Suspenseful, Enjoyable, Entertaining
• Run Lola Run (Germany, 1998) : Unique, Energetic, Exciting

Movies I recommend for most people:

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (France, 2007) : Fascinating, Bizarre, Inspiring
• Das Boot (Germany, 1981) : Interesting, Suspenseful, Somber
• Trainspotting (UK, 1996) : Dark, Disturbing, Amusing
• Cashback (UK, 2006) : Artistic, Strange, Nudity

Movies I’ve watched all the way though, but wouldn’t necessarily recommend:

• Vitus (Germany, 2007) : Cute, Heartfelt, Slow
• Marriage of Maria Braun (Germany, 1979) : Interesting, Gloomy, Slow
• The Red Balloon / White Mane (France, 1953) : Boring, Uninspiring, Silent

Not a Foreign Film, but I recently watched it again and highly recommend it anyway:

• Schindler’s List (USA, 1993) : Amazing, Powerful, Important

…
I’d love to hear any suggestions you have, or what you thought of these movies.  Currently I’m mostly focused on WW2 and Europe, but I plan to expand my horizons soon!

The chief reason we were paying $45 a month in the first place is not so we could watch TNT or the History Channel, but because TV antennas suck.  Most of the TV we watch is the main channels – NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox – so we were basically paying to receive a crystal clear reception of these channels.  But here’s the thing: for 2 years we’ve been watching standard def television on our HD TV, and the experience is really grating.  Every time I check what it would cost to get these channels in HD, it’s in the $50 range.  That’s $50 on top of the $45 we were already paying.  But you can get most of those same HDTV channels with a digital antenna.

So it’s back to the antenna – digital antennas work a lot better than those old 50’s style antennas, by the way.  And there are several other solutions that can be pieced together.

• Netflix – we get unlimited movies (1 at a time) in the mail for about $10 per month.  But the best part is that we can stream Netflix movies through our Xbox360.
• Hulu – Fox, and NBC shows in high def (we use a program called PlayOn to watch them on our Xbox 360)
• abc.com, nbc.com, etc – many of the channels let you watch shows on their website with “limited commercial interruption”.
• TV shows on DVD – this is where Netflix comes in again.  If you’re willing to wait a year, you can watch Heroes, Chuck and all that on DVD.
• bittorrent – some would argue that piracy is a victimless crime.  Not me of course, this solution is for hardened, unrepentant criminals only.
• Quit watching TV and do something with your life – I’m just kidding, how can you do anything with your life if you don’t know whether Susan and Mike get back together on Desperate Housewives?

The biggest surprise since we cancelled cable TV is how little we miss it.  We’re saving $45 a month, and everything we watch is HD.

About a year ago, I was frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t beat the song Jordan on Expert difficulty in the video game Guitar Hero II.  One thing led to another and I ultimately hacked my Guitar Hero controller to “record” songs (what it records is the button presses and strums) in practice mode – at half speed – and then play them back at full speed.  Alonna made a youtube video showing it in action.

So that’s the kind of thing I do in my free time…  I have a slightly more detailed description of it here.

• LASIK consists of having a flap cut in your cornea, a laser reshaping the part of your cornea under the flap, and the flap replaced.  Watch this FDA Animation.
• It costs roughly $3000.  Our insurance covered $500.  You can pay a lot more or a lot less.
• We had “Wavefront” LASIK – where your prescription is determined by computer and lasers or something.  Whereas prescriptions are generally measured to 0.25 of a diopter, this measures down to .01.  This effectively means that you’ll probably have better vision than you did with glasses or contacts.
• LASIK can also correct astigmatism.

Reasons why I wanted LASIK

• Inconvenience of glasses and contacts, especially when camping or traveling.
• Discomfort with contacts. Once you’ve worn contacts for 10 years or so, your eyes start to hate them.  After 15 they start to despise them.  My eyes always felt itchy.
• I hate glasses – no peripheral vision, and watch out for volleyballs, basketballs, etc, and they’re always dirty.
• Dependence sucks.  I once forgot to bring my glasses and spare contacts on a wedding trip to California.  Then I lost a contact.   And when you watch a movie like Red Dawn you start asking yourself, what if the commies took over and we had to be freedom fighters in the woods, and then I lost my glasses?  True, the probability seems low, but I like to be prepared.

Observations:

• Both Alonna and I currently have at least 20/20 vision. After 3 months your vision stabilizes and we’ll find out if we have crazy 20/5 eagle vision or something like that.  Both of us believe our vision is noticeably better than it was with corrective lenses before surgery.
• There are a TON of risks, and we read about all of them.  Most of them are within your control – i.e. no rubbing your eyes for a week or two after surgery.
• The 4 hours or so after the initial anesthetic wears off are pretty miserable.
• You basically can’t touch your eyes for a week.  If you do, you risk permanent vision impairment.  It’s kind of scary, because your eye will start to itch, you’ll start to reach up to rub your eye and then stop yourself and think “oh crap, I almost blinded myself!”  I should probably just wear goggles all the time.

Final verdict: totally worth it.  Beforehand I had a hard time justifying it – contacts and glasses are annoying, but not really a big deal, whereas spending $2500 and risking permanent eye damage are kind of a big deal.  But now that I’ve had it done I’m thrilled with it.

Sunset from my flight:

For some background on me & engineering, here is a profile I wrote for a SWE newsletter last year.

…

SWE Newsletter – October, 2007

How I got into engineering
Growing up I was always interested in math and science and excelled in these subjects. In high school I really enjoyed my Chemistry, Physics and Calculus courses. One day in Physics class, two professional engineers came to talk to us. One was a female and a Chemical Engineer. She told us about a summer internship she had which involved taste-testing ice cream. I didn’t know very much about engineering at that point—and to this day I’m not really sure how much engineering her internship involved—but at the time I thought, “There’s a job I could live with!”

With the encouragement of my parents and high school math teacher, I decided to give engineering a try. I initially considered, of course, Chemical Engineering. However, when I started college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, I took one semester of Chemistry and decided that ice-cream tasting internship or not, I was definitely not interested in Chemical Engineering. Luckily the following semester I took a Computer Programming class, and right away I knew that was it. As college continued and I moved from general engineering courses to more specific Computer Engineering courses, I became more and more excited and confident in my decision to pursue Computer Engineering.

My current job
I have worked as a Hardware Design Engineer in Boise for 4 years. My job involves working with a team to design and test computer chips (Application Specific Integrated Circuits, or ASIC) that control LaserJet printers. At this point in my career I would say this job is pretty close to ideal. Although working on printers may not sound particularly spectacular, let me explain why I enjoy it so much.

The work I do is interesting, challenging, and provides continual learning. No matter how much you like the people you work with or your paycheck; if you don’t enjoy the day-to-day work that you do, I am not sure you would ever consider it your ideal job.

The next best part of my job is the people I work with. I have been lucky to work with a fun and intelligent group of people. Our work environment is relaxed and emphasizes teamwork. I am continually impressed with how willing my coworkers are to help each other out. Coming into work with this group of people makes every day enjoyable.

The final area that is great about my job is the benefits and opportunities that HP offers to employees. I appreciate benefits like flexible work hours, the ability to telecommute, flexibility when raising a family, and the importance placed on work/life balance.

I love my job, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love my non-work life as well. I like the motto “work hard, play hard” and I practice this by sticking to a 40-hour work week most of the time and taking vacations throughout year. Another great thing about working for a large company like HP is that there are a lot of opportunities to change jobs and try new things. Although I have just told you how much I love my current job, I do not expect to be doing the same thing in another 5 or 10 years! I like to be challenged and continue to learn new things, and at HP I don’t think I will have any trouble accomplishing that.

Why I like engineering
Someone once described engineering to me as using science to develop practical solutions to real-life problems. What initially drew me to math and science is my interest in how the world works and my natural aptitude in the subjects. But what got me hooked on engineering is the idea of taking that science and applying it to find solutions to problems. In addition to problem solving, I like engineering because it allows me to do what I really enjoy in life – spending time with my family and traveling.

Why I am involved with SWE
There are many reasons why I enjoy participating in SWE, but I will focus on the two most important to me: outreach and professional development.

I am passionate about outreach because I think there is a social pressure for young girls to shy away from math and science. Until our society changes, it is important for us to encourage young girls and women by informing them about engineering, providing role models for them, and supporting women who are pursuing engineering. As a whole, women are not better or worse engineers then men, but they do bring diversity of ideas and skills to the workplace and they should not be discouraged from entering a profession dominated by men.

My second reason is professional development. By taking officer positions and organizing programs, I am able to improve my leadership, teamwork and communication skills. This benefits me personally and also in my career. SWE is an excellent way to develop leadership skills because it is a low-pressure and supportive environment.

I wrote most of the code on the way to Moab (9 hr drive each way).  Below is a “picture” of me in Moab. Hidden inside are phrases like “slickrock” and “mountain biking”, 23 phrases in all.  Somehow the phrases are harder to find than I thought they would be, I’m not sure it passes the “would I want to print it out, frame it, and hang it on the wall” test.

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22222222222222cccccccczE2zz2zzzzzzz2z2z2cc:z2;;czz;::MMMMMMMMMMMMM:MMMMMMMMMMMMMb:::z:22:::MMMMhzzQp2zzzzzzzzz2zzy2zXMEXzzz002z

So I decided to try again using only the phrases and select non-distracting ASCII characters: .:#*(){}[]/!, etc.

::::::......::::::::::::::.:....................:.::::::::::::*[ .::::::::(#[=:::::::::::::::::::::::::::*@@[:::::::::.........
...........    ...........................................;:=*[[;!;......(@[}:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::!@@[:::::::::::::::::
                                ... .................::::::;==..: !..::::@[:!:.:::::::+[@[;;::::::::::::::}(@@[::::::::::::::::
                                    ..._.........::::.;;=^.......> .___;(#@[[[@[;;[;[+@###@@:;.::.::::::::: @@[::::::::::::::::
              +_______          _______##@[{.:::..;::............:}+###@@@@#######@@#@*[@@#@[;::::::::::::: @@@:..:::::::::::::
               *######@@@[___+@@#######^.:::_.:^^              ___#@@***#@# .      __++####@@Ben.:...:....:.#@@...............:
                     ####, *^##*^#@###=..::^ .              _,<######;  (@[ .  __+###*_+[=@[[[[:=.........:!(@]................
                 _;^***^   :..  .!;         (:....[;(      _###@=^(@#@_ !#@}_+####^__##^ ..(@[:............:@@:.........
                             .._ .: .....   ...:.:;_(;.___[^.:     (##@[_####@^ __###^    .  =[:__. .   .:;[@{
                                :.!}_;=Moab[;;_____(#######}        (@######@[ +##*            =[}     ._(@@{
                                 __@@#__    !+##@#########@@#@#+;___#########@[_}.        ...:       .__@@#^
                                 ##].!#@}       ###@}    ^####@@@##########@@###@[...:.           ...(@@@{
                                 ![. . }        ^^[.         *####@####@#@+@@:!*#@[[;__........__;[:!:_[.
                                  (    !__       (:.        .* ..(  *@#@*@;^      *##@@@[[[[[[[@@@#@(@#^
                                   } .__@@_____  [.                  _;@##__           ^^*****^^!###@^
                                  _@_)######@@@[_[. .              _+#######@_                 _@@[*               .......    .
                                _##@} =^^@[^*@##@@[..              ##########@;               _[:=            ..:::::road trip:
                               _##@@= :  ([;   *#@@@[              ######@####{              ([:::__...::::::::::::::::::::;[::
                  ......:.....;##@@;:[ ::;=[;::.==#@@[.._          ##########];...__.;;;;;[[[[:::[[:[[[[[[[[;;;;;;;;;[[=[=[[==[
..........:::..::::.:::::::::=#@[@:::=)!:::[=;::=@[#@@[.::sweat::::#@[=@_*[:@[:=[[[[[[=[===@[[[[[:=@[[[[[[[[[[[[[=[[[[[[[[[[[=[
:::.:::::::::::::::::downhill@@[#:::::[ :;_([[::::#@#@@[([[;:;::;;::#[:#=:slickrock=====:::=knobbies:::::::::::::::::::=====:::
::::::::::::::::::::::::....:#@[@:::::=} ##[@[[::::*[#@@@@@@@@[[[:;+##@;__[[[:;;[[[[@#@::::=[[}:::::::::::::::::::([:::::::::::
:::::::::::::::.:::::.:::..::#@@[:::*@[[ (###[[:::::(#@@@@@@@[[[@@@@####@[[[#[@#@@@@##@=[[[@^.................:::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::;:;;[;;;#@@]::::@#[}_#####[;;::*@#@@#@@#@@[[[[[[#@@@[[@@@[@@##@###[=[}..:.......:...:::::::::::::::::::===
:::::::::=[::::::::::[==[===[#@[@::::=;@#####[[[:::::=#@##@@#@#@[[[[[[@#@[[[@[@@##########}::::::..::.::::::::::::::_;;[:::::;:
:[:::::::::::::::::;::[:[=:::=@[=[::::=;[switchback===###@#@#@@#[[[[[:..;;[[[[@@@@######*:::::::_;;:::::::::::[;:::(@@[[[;::[:[
:::::::::[::::::::[:::pedalling@[drop-offs[[::::::...(###::@@#[@#[}:sand[[[[[[@@@@@@\:::::::.:::#=:::::::::[;[[:::([@#@[::::===
;[[[[[[[[[[[;;:[;[[;:::::::::=[#@;:[[[[[[=::::::.....@##@.(@@#@#@@@@[[;=[;::([[[@@[:::::::::::::..:::::;;[=#@[=[:#@[##@[[[[[[=#
helmet[[[[[[[[[[=[[[[[[[[[=[[=[=#@[#[=[[fat tires:..(###}:(#@@#@##@@[@######@@[@@@:::::::::::::::::;;[@@[[[=##[==#####@@[[[[=##
:::::[=====[[[[[@@[[[=[[[[[=[[[[@#[==[[...:.:::::..;###[..(###@#@[@@@@[@[[[@@@[@@#@[;::::=;=[;:::=#@####[[@@##@[;[######@@@@[##
::::[;[;;;=====[[=[[[[[=[[@[[[[[@[*#_=[[;_::::.:::[###\...+#@#@##@@[[[[@@@@[[[[@@[=::=[[=[@[[[[;;=######@@=@@##[=######@@@@@###
[[[staircase=[[======[[[[[[[[[[==::.*#@[[[[[[[[[[####:...:###@#@@##@@@@@[[[[[[[@[::[[#@@@@@###@[@#########[=[##[=[######@@@####
[[:::::::=[=Utah[[[[sunshine=::...:..::*###@@#####*:::::::##@##@@##@@@@@[[@@@[[@:;===##@@@@##@[##########@[[@[@[[@[#@@[[[[@####
[=[:::;;;=:::[=[===[[=[[[=[[::::::..:..::::mountain biking###@@@#@[@[#@@[[[[[[[[[[=#@########@@##########@=##@@@[@###@[=[[#####
[[=[[[[[=[:[[=[=[=[[[=[[[[[::::::::::::::;:::::::::::::::(####@@[[@#@[[[[[[[[[[[[[[=[;;::####@###########@@##@[[[@##@[=[[[[####
@=[====[Camelback=[=[[[=[=::::::::;:::wheels[::::::::::::=##@@@@@#@[@@@@[[[[[[[[[[[[@@[[=*##@############@[@[[[[[###@[[[[[@@###
[=====[[[[[===[[=[[==[[[[::::::====[;::;;[[:[[[::::::::::@@[#@[[[[@#@[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[@@@[[@@#@@############@@#@[=@#@@@@@@@@@[@##
[[[[[[[[[=[[[==[[=[===[[;:::::::[===[::==[[::[[[:[::::;[=#@#@[[[[[[[@@@[[[[[[[[[[[[[=@@@@@#@@@#############@#@[@##@@@@@@@@[[@##
[[@[[[[[[[[[[==[[=[[[[[[#[[:::::=hike-a-bike:[=:[[[:[[[;*###@@@[[@@@@@@#@@[[[[[[[[[==##@@[@@[@#############@##@####@@[@@@@@@@##
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[=[@@=::::bunny hop[:::::::...:::.!:::(#######################@[[[[@@#@@@@@##############@@#@#@@@#@@@@@@@@@##
@@[[[[[[[[@@@@@@[@@[[[[[:::....... ....:::::::::::::::::+#######################@:[@@@###@@#@############@=[[##@[[[=@[[@[@@@@##
[[[[[[@@@@@@##@@@[[[[[[@@[....... ........::......::::.(########################@::;:::[:*###############@[[[###[[[@@@[[@[@@@##
[[[[@@@@@@@@@@[[[=======^..... ......:::::::..:::.....:##########################[:[::[:;::(@############@[[=##@[@@@@@[[@@[@@##
[@@@@@@@@@[[[=====[[[[#@[;:::::::::::::::....::..     ###########################@==::::[;*@@@=@######@#########@@@[@@[[@######
=@[[[@[[[[[===[[[[[::::@[[:::::%[::::;::::..... ..   !#############@#############@..::.endo==[[[@@@=@@@[@@####@@@##@[##########
[[[[[[====[[[[[[:::::::=[::::=}:*@:::::::....... .  ..############@*#############]:::;;;=@[[[@@@[=[=@#@@[=[::[[=[[[=@[[@@[;;@##
[[[===[[[[[[[::::::::::@[;:[;=[[[[@;::::........ ....(############:##############::::::[:@#####@@[=[@[=[brakes=====[[[@@#@===[=
==[[[[[[[[::::::::::::(@[[[[[====[[[=[:[::::;;;::;;::#############:#############@:::::*=:::####[;[[[[==[=[[[[[::=[[[@#@@[=[[[[

And ultimately I decided I like the first version a lot better.  I printed it out and put it up in my cubicle at work.  I don't think it's going to take the ASCII art world by storm, but you never know...

Here’s the location

Found it in the valley between Squaw Creek trail and Cobb trail.  I didn’t roll around in it though, maybe it’s just poinsettia.

I brought my kite/camera gear along too, mostly just to see how hard it is to bring the whole setup on a challenging bike ride, in preparation for trying the same thing in more interesting out-of-the way places.  The kite stayed up just long enough for me to attach the camera and then floated back to earth.  It was too hazy for good pictures anyway.

You don’t need to understand what RSS means, but if you want to then just look it up on Google or Wikipedia.  The point is that almost all blogs and news websites allow you to subscribe to them, via RSS feeds.  When you subscribe to an RSS feed you can be notified when the blog has been updated.

The most common way to do this is to use an RSS Reader.  This is especially useful when you want to subscribe to more than just one blog.  There are a lot of free readers out there, but the one I use and recommend is Google Reader.  Just follow that link, sign up for a Google account if you don’t already have one, and setup your RSS Reader.  Google will give you all the instructions you need to get started.

When you’re ready to enter an RSS feed, enter our RSS feed address: http://www.benandalonna.com/?feed=atom

Now that you know what RSS feeds are, you will probably start noticing them a lot.  Look for this icon:  Most websites which have content that is updated frequently (news websites and blogs) allow you to subscribe to an RSS feed.  Using a Reader can be a really nice way to get all of your news and blog updates in one place.

Happy RSS Reading!