39,128,000,000 Miles Traveled¹...

(Source)

Okay, so that's an approximation and doesn't include the relatively trivial amount of miles I have traveled upon or above the Earth's surface itself. While I have circumnavigated the Earth, though not all on one trip, that's "only" 24,901 miles at the Equator and I didn't circumnavigate at the equator, rather higher up in latitude. According to the Google Maps distance measuring tool, my circumnavigating path was actually 19,720 miles (give or take a mile or two) in length.

My Path
Google Maps from the MS Edge browser
(The globe option has mysteriously vanished from Chrome.)

I've crossed the Pacific (in the air mind you) and the Atlantic (again, in an aircraft) multiple times. That gets tedious after a few hundred miles into the trip. Especially if it's cloudy, or even if it's not. (Unbroken cloud or just the sea itself is rather monotonous from 30,000 feet.) Over the Pacific I did see the wakes of shipping from that altitude, which was kinda cool. (And yes, in my mind I was a crewman onboard a PBY and had just spotted the Japanese carriers approaching Midway. My mind works that way. But you knew that dintcha?)

At any rate, to celebrate this momentous occasion, you get a short post today and maybe nothing at all on Saturday and Sunday. If the mood strikes I'll post, otherwise I'm taking a few ill-deserved days off.

See you auf der anderen Seite des Wochenendes...²

Oder vielleicht früher, ich weiß es noch nicht.³

Und ja, heute ist mein siebenundsechzigster Geburtstag.



(I'll leave that last line as an exercise for the reader.)



¹ This assumes that the average distance covered by the Earth in one orbit of the Sun to be 584 million miles. Yes, I'm sure that's an approximation.
² What you thought I'd go an entire post without tossing some foreign lingo your way? Sorry, that's just the way I roll. It means "on the other side of the weekend."
³ Or maybe sooner, I don't know yet.