Woke up at 2 this morning after going to sleep at 9. Lay in bed wishing I could get up, get a bowl of cereal, and get on the Internet. Tried to devise a plan to write this geomoblog without consuming too many of my paid connection minutes. Left the room at 3 and went looking for a midnight snack. Was told that I could order from the Blue Lagoon 24 hours a day. First went outside to get my geoposition. Couldn’t get it on the Promenade Deck even after standing out there for 5 minutes, so I walked up to the pool, sat down with no walls around me, got my coordinates, and took this photo of the pool at night.
Why would I go to so much trouble to find my location? Well, I’m geeky that way, and I consider it a challenge to create a geotagged mobile log (geomoblog) of our travels so that friends and family can follow our progress and see where we are in the world. The reason I’m taking and posting these photos to smithersgreene.net is via Flickr is so that you can click on each photo to see it on Flickr and click the map link to the right of the photo on the Flickr photo page. You are also welcome to leave comments either on Flickr or on smithersgreene.net, although I regret I won’t have the time to read your comments much less reply to them until I get free Wi-Fi again. And even if and when I get free connectivity, it is bad for my hands to write much on this little keyboard, and besides, I’m on vacation! 😛
I discovered that I have to type my entries on this small device because the ship’s Internet cafe closes whatever page I am on when I log out. Hence, I cannot log in, open a draft in Gmail (which I started with a photo and a title on my G1), log out, finish composing, log back in, and send. I wish I could, but I guess that would be too economical to be allowed. 😉
Anyway, I forgot to give a log of our first very long day of traveling, so here is is now: we got up at 4am on Saturday the 25th. Our friend drove us to the airport at 5:45 so we could be there by 6:15, two hours before our flight (since our destination was abroad). I took a nice photo at PHX of the sunrise and our plane with Camelback Mountain and the Papago Buttes behind it, but the free Wi-Fi signal at the airport was so weak it never sent. Oh well! Then we arrived at ATL at about 2:50pm EDT. There was Wi-Fi at ATL, but it warn’t free! 😉 Our plane to BCN departed late at about 5:30pm, and we flew about 8 hours, arriving in BCN at about 8:30am Sunday.
Once in Barcelona, we took the Aerobus and the Metro to our Hotel California. We stopped in to say hello-and-see-you-next-week. Then we walked all the way down Las Ramblas rolling two suitcases each because the "Parada" (which was not a parade, but a marathon) was running down the south car lane toward the sea. At Columbus Circle (I forget the right name of the placa), we took a bus to the ship. We boarded the ship at 11am, got drinks (I took that photo yesterday of a contented poolside Andy), and I took a much-needed nap on the chaise longue. (I had not slept well on the plane despite the sleeping pill I took).
And that leads us pretty much up to now, minus a few details. This first full day of cruising will be entirely at sea. Of course I am taking more photos which I will upload after we come home November 8. But for now, I’ll probably just upload a photo a day.
Andy & I are thrilled to be doing this cruise together. Thanks for your well wishes. I wish I could reciprocate, but that will have to wail ’til we come home. In the meantime, thanks for reading!
Oh, and by the way, for pesky friends such as Ivo (Ostravaczech), Andy & I voted early by mail, and we voted the right way, of course! 😛
Daniel Greene 
Comments welcome