After not traveling at all from mid June to late September, I went on a spree, traveling from October 6 to November 8 and then tacking on another 5 days of hosting visitors from the UK.
This included stops in Fairbanks Alaska, Eldersburg MD, Fredericksburg VA, Richmond VA, San Juan, Puerto Rico, London, and 10 days jaunting around the UK, then some sightseeing around Arizona including Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, and Jerome
Because of my present aversion to the idea of Big Dull Data, here is a new iteration of the road stats format I compiled weekly for my 2011 Odyssey.
- Number of days traveled: 39
- Total Miles: 22,276 (19,664 by plane, 1,641 by car, 971 by train)
- Number of Red Eye Flights: 2 (Fairbanks AK to Washington DC; Newark NJ to London UK)
- States visited: 4 (Arizona, Alaska, Maryland, Virginia)
- Countries Visited: Depends how you want to count UK as 1 or England, Wales, and Scotland as 3
- Places in Between States and Countries: 1 (Puerto Rico)
- Number of Unique Beds Slept in (places stayed): 17
- Number of stays in hotels: 5
- Number of Photos Posted to Flickr: 869 (average of 22 per day)
- Number of Pets Visited: 7
- Most “mature”: Bob the Cat (24 years old)
- Number of Moose Seen in Alaska: a bit far stinking ZERO
- Number of Breweries / Pubs /Piña Colada Joints visited: 23? 25? estimates apply.
- Number of times I had to use my new umbrella: 0
- Number of Blue Sky Days in the UK (despite all promised to the contrary): 8
- Number of Times Rained Heavily On: 1 (returning from the Brains pub in Cardiff)
- Best Soup eaten multiple times: two different meals with Silver Gulch Brewery Beer Cheese Soup
- Number of National Parks Approached: 2
- Number of National Parks CLosed Due to The Utter Stupidity of the US Government Shutdown: 1
- Number of Castles Visited: 3
- Highest Concentration of People Named Chris for a pechaflickr demo: 3 (Fairbanks, AK)
- Worst Choice of Tacky Towns to Visit: North Pole, Alaska
- Number of Super Glue repairs to sunglasses: 4
- Number of travel induced colds: 2 (number of new immune systems desired: 1)
- Weirdest Food Eaten: Muktuk (Mmmmm whale blubber)
- Number of Times Eating Curry: 2 (Do not ask me which was best, they were both awesome)
- Number of times eating Black Pudding: 2
- Number of Times Eating Haggis: 3
- Number of Days Haggis Roared Through My Stomach: 3
- Best Bar Dog: Treacle at the Volunteer Tavern, Bristol
- Best Street Truck Food: Los Monkeys in San Juan Puerto Rico
- Best Mexican Food on the East Side of the Atlantic – Wahacas in London
- Best Coffee House in the universe Conformed by British Visitors (Macy’s in Flagstaff)
- Best Rum: Barrelito 3 star (get the 3!)
- Most Volume of Food for 20£ – Port of Call pub, Beistol. Get the spicy wedges
- Best Beer Name – Brains (in Cardiff)
- Best Bartender in a Hidden Speakeasy Style Bar: Westy at the Corridor in Manchester (cf the Hemingway Daquiri he made when I told him I can’t have drinks with tons of sugar)
- Best Spot Spent Unexpectedly Drinking Pints and Listening to the Sounds of a Band Named “Power Steering”: The Flying Grizzly Pub in Strawberry, AZ
- Number of photos now used as social media avatars:
123 (Audrey Watters new twitter icon, behind the 3D printed shark jaw at UMW; Brett Gaylor twitter icon from photo from Mozilla Festival; Stephen Hull Facebook profile picture from one taken at visit to Jisc office on Bristol) - Coolest Thing Bult With Lego: Liberty Bell at Philly Airport
- Coolest Vehicle : tie between Martin Wrller’s VW Camper and Martin Hawksey’s door sliding Puegot
- Best Wireless Password: at the home of David Kernohan
- Best Audio Recording Studio in a Kitchen: at the home of John Johnston
- Highest Concentration of Narrow Streets and Wide SUVs: San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Strangest Conversation: woman ar Fairbanks transfer station who said she modeled for Penthouse
- Presentations, Webinars, and Podcasts: 13
- Photowalk with University of Alaska eLearning Team
- The ds106 Files: Outbreaks of Infectious and Open Acts of Creativity (keynote for University of Alaska Fairbanks TechFest)
- Shar-e-Fest Presentation on ds106 (via Google Hangouts with Nigel Robertson in Waikato, NZ)
- What is Storytelling Talk for Fairbanks Art Association
- Digital Beards 10 ““ Alan Levine, DS106, and the Internet (podcast with Chris Malmberg)
- memorable / unmemorable a 10 minute “FredTalk” for the OpenVA Minding the Future event (video available too)
- Storytelling / Scientelling (STEMmED II colloquium, Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico)
- Get Your ds106 on! part of the Mosfest Scrumfest on Collaborative Digital Storytelling — see more what I was doing there.
- Interview With Alan Levine Of DS106.us LIVE @ Mozilla Festival a conversation with David James of SourceFabric.
- Alan Levine talks openness (OER Research Hub)- an interview with Martin Weller (in his kitchen) YouTube link
- Finding and using audio and video resources JISC webinar featuring Scott Gibbens, David Kernohan, me (referred to on the site as “Andy” and during the webinar as “Andy Devine”), and Martin Poulter
- Radio EDUtalk 6-11-2013: Alan Levine (podcast interview with John Johnston, from his kitchen) (audio)
- Conversation with Martin Hawksey and Jonathan Worth on Open Education filmed in Martin’s living room for a remote presentation to the ALT MOOC Conference at University of Southampton
- Coolest Things Seen at MozFest:
- People I Knew Online That I Met For First Time: 18
- Skip Via
- Kin Lane
- Scottlo
- Bill Smith
- Talky Tina
- Melanie Barker
- Antonio Vantaggioti
- James Michie
- Brett Gaylor
- Doug Belshaw
- Chad Sansing
- Drew Buddie
- Joss Winn
- Mariana Funes
- Martin Weller
- Helen Keegan
- John Johnston
- Martin Hawksey
- Most Fun Conference Attendee: Robin Smail (“OH….”)
- Keynoter I Most Wished To Meet But Did Not: Anil Dash at Mozfest
- Shortest Time Between International Visits Mutually Exchanged:10 days (October 30 I visited David Kernohan and Vivien Rolfe in Bristol, and on Nov 9 they visited me in Strawberry
- Best Use of a Mallet to Talk About Openness: David Wiley
- Cool New Friends From National Writing Project I met at Mozfest: 3 (Steph West-Puckett — who is good friends with Shelley Rodrigo and Susan Cochran-Miller, Christina Cantrill – who I met at an a Teachers Talk a month earlier, and Elyse Ediman-Aadahl — who shares common places in Woodlawn MD)
- Number of British Visitors Who Have Driven Red Dog: 1 (David Kernohan)
- Most Fun Mashing Up David Attenborough During Mozfest: Adam and Eric from Wreck And Salvage
- Number of People Trained and Set Up to Broadcast on ds106 Radio: 3 (Mariana Funes, Jonathan Worth, Vivien Rolfe)
- Number of People With Valid Excuses Not to Broadcast on ds106 Radio: 0
- Most Gothically Beautiful City (a clear blue sky day helped):
Edinburgh - Most Shiny Corporate Buildings: Media City in Bristol
- Number of Professional Photographers Photographed: 1
- Percentage of Clear Blue Sky Sunny Days For David and Vivien’s Visit to Arizona: 100%
- Most Dramatic Landscape: Loch Katrine Scotland
- Best Arrangement of Giant Stones: Stonehenge
- Number of Photos Taken With Scottish Bagpiper Named John: 1
- Number of Hours Spent With David Kernohan Making Up Songs About Andrew Ng: 4? 5? 12?
- Number of Hour Spent Running the ds106 Radio Show Premiere from a Bedroom at Gardner Campbell’s House in Richmond: 5
- Number of Classes Visited That Closely Resemble ds106: (1, are there really any others?) Phonar
- Number of Perfect Places I Forgot to Place Phonar Stickers: 5 (Alaska, Puerto Rico, Fredericksburg, Scotland, Grand Canyon)
- Number of Places I remembered to place Phonar Stickers: 1 Jerome, AZ
- Most Impressive View (and Most Strenuous Walk): Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh
- Perhaps the most fun day: exploring Old San Juan with Gardner and Alice
- Plans to travel anywhere before the end of the year: nil.
And probably the most ridiculous stat is how many hours I have put into compiling this post. Someone find me a hobby, please!
Featured Image: Stepping Down the Highway flickr photo by cogdogblog shared under a Creative Commons (BY 2.0) license
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