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87 days until trip begins

December 6th, 2006

I officially bought my plane tickets today from Airtreks so the countdown begins. I leave for Easter Island on March 2 from New Orleans, LA. I only bought tickets for the first 6 months of my trip and I will buy the remainder on an as need basis. Work also informed me today that I will be transferring to Louisiana next week to work at our plant there until I go on my trip. This is great news for me. I was originally going to quit my job on January 31 and move to Louisiana anyway to live with friends and my parents as I finished making arrangements for my trip. Going to Louisiana earlier will allow me to begin my final trip preparations earlier. This means I can work longer and save more money. It is basically the best of all worlds for me. YAYYYYYY!!!! Read the rest of this entry »

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Officially informed work of my trip

November 7th, 2006

I took the plunge a little ahead of schedule and officially let my boss know that I will be doing my trip starting on March 1. I did . My company needed to know whether I would be available to take on a new position that they wanted me to fill. My boss is now going to speak with HR to see if I can take a leave of absence for 12-14 months. I could take one for six months with no problem but if I am going to do this trip, I might as well go all in. Now I just have to wait and see what my company is going to do with me for the next three months. The most likely thing will be that I will go to Michigan for December and January. There is a two month project at our new Michigan plant that they need help with. I have worked with this compound before so I could be useful there. If I do go to Michigan, I should be able to save money as the company pays by bills when I go on an assignment.

On other news, I did decide to only buy plane tickets up through Hong Kong. The quote for this was $3900. I would have to buy the rest of my tickets as I go. The flight from Easter Island has me returning to Los Angeles before flying out again to Fiji. As this will be an exceedingly long flight, I may break it up and go visit my cousin in San Fransisco for a few days. I have only been to the airport and my view of the Golden Gate Bridge consisted of staring at it through a little window as it whooshed by at 550 mph.

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Update or Decision Time Approaches

October 5th, 2006

After crunching some numbers, it appears that I can still save enough money to go on the trip without selling the car. I may sell it anyway but I haven’t decided yet. I am now about 95% certain that I will go on the trip. I am ready for a change and it just feels like the time is right for me to leave my current job and area where I currently live. Most of my friends that I have made here over the last 2.5 yrs have moved away. I haven’t really put in the effort to make new friends as I am planning on leaving myself. I have set November 15 as the ultimate deadline for making a decision by which I mean that I inform my company that I will be leaving. I am still hoping to work out an extended leave of absence instead of just quitting. The reason I am waiting so long is that my company is considering sending me to Michigan on a temporary assignment. If they do so, I can save a significant amount of money as they will pay my bills. I hope the company will let me know something before my November 15 deadline as I don’t want the fact that I may be leaving at the end of January to affect that decision. Read the rest of this entry »

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Trip Planning Set Back

August 31st, 2006

This is a restoration of the post that was lost during the server crash. All the comments to this post were lost as well as about 120 people off the page view statistics.

I did $5400 worth of damage to my car in a wreck that was my fault As I only have liability insurance, I have to pay for the repairs myself. This is going to take a big chunck out of my trip planning money. I am probably going to have to sell the car to try to recover some of my money. I will see in the next few months depending on how much money I can save.

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Westward to Oregon on the Empire Builder

August 2nd, 2006

July 23-25, 2006

My trip began at the Crawfordsville, IN train station, which consisted of an unmanned metal hut with about 10 chairs in it. I was boarding the Hoosier train bound for Chicago. I had picked up my tickets for this trip the day before at the Amtrak station in downtown Indianapolis. The train arrived at the station about 10 minutes late at 8:00 am. It could be heard clanging and blowing its horn in the distance for about 15 minutes prior to this. Upon boarding the training for the four-hour trip to Chicago, I quickly found a seat in the sparsely populated car. After the conductor came by and checked tickets, I settled into my seat. For the next four hours I watched out the window as the corn and soy fields of the Midwest slowly gave way to the suburban and then urban landscape of Chicago.
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Travel Planning and Decision Agony Continues

August 1st, 2006

Over the last two months since I last posted, I have made considerable progress in my trip planning.

I decided to try to spend the extra month or so between China and Nepal going through Tibet. A train line to Tibet was recently opened which makes it much easier and somewhat cheaper to get to Lhasa. However I am a little disappointed that Tibet may now be overrun with tourists when I get there as I will be going in September which is peak visiting time for Tibet. Train service started in July and all the trains have been sold out. Tourism has increased so much that they have started limiting access to the Potala Palace (former home of the Dalai Lama).
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A little something about myself

May 21st, 2006

My name is Barry Rogge. I grew up in South Louisiana (home of the best seafood in the world). I went to Louisiana State University and graduated in 2002 with a degree in chemical engineering. Read the rest of this entry »

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