Jim reenacting his Airborn Ranger days. Thanks for serving your country James, then and now. Universal Weather and Aviation's ramp agents in Korea, great job! Mountain flying into Sapporo Japan. Really beautiful! Crossing the International Date Line. Don't know if I am comming or going! There are some gifts that can't be described. Bob being welcomed home by grandson Evan

Not another Chicken Head I think I ate one chicken head too many Bob and his snuff box or is that a -----nah Chris and Earl- Things looking up ???? Is it me, or does this taste funny to you?

Jim and his great buddy Earl in Shanghai Shanghai, Beautiful! Reclining Budda, very peaceful! The boys in front of the world's largest cemetary. The great wall of China. They just plastered you in if you died on the job. Thousands did Is that a gun or are you just happy to see me, Mr. Clinton?

Mercer’s view from Sapporo to Atlanta Interesting how messed up you can get blasting through time zones and international date lines. On top of that my trusty Blackberry and computer decided not to work in China, Korea and Japan which put me further behind than I had hoped. Bob did a great job covering for me and keeping this Blog up to date. I have demoted myself from trip Scribe to Scribbler. I just can’t compete with my buddy Bob. Thanks Bob you are the best in so many ways! Bob has given you all of the amazing statistics for the trip. One statistic I would like to elaborate on is the generosity level of my new great friend, Jim Pugh. Jim is a remarkable person in so many ways but allowing me to come along on this incredible journey is way over the top and leaves me forever thankful and appreciative. I had a lot of one on one time with Jim as we toured performing arts centers in every town that had one. (Agra India did not have one, all performances are done in the street with the sacred cows and monkeys). Orlando is extremely fortunate to have Jim. He and his beautiful wife are devoted to making life better for everyone, especially for those who are challenged. It is really pretty neat traveling with Jim. In Asia everyone thinks he is Bill Clinton, especially very old Chinese women who like getting their picture taken with him. Whatever you may say about Bill and Jim; they are popular with the gals. Bob did a great job of thanking all the wonderful people who made this trip perfect. I also thank them, and remain in awe of the professionalism and courtesy of everyone involved. Truly amazing, from the Showalter crew to the Universal Weather and Aviation ramp babes and boys (actually great women and men who greeted us at every stop) it was all perfect from my seat. Our mad rush home from Sapporo to Orlando in three days is a blur. I did get to add one more leg to my copiloting from Portland to Little Rock. I was perfect. I did not touch a thing and Bob kept a watchful I out to make sure I did not get carried away and play with any of the Gee Wiz stuff in the front office of Jim’s wonderful CJ3. Jim greased it on to the runway at ORL with majestic dignity. My great friend and pilot, Frank Mutz proclaimed it the best landing he had ever seen; knocking Bob and Chris out of the top spots. Earl and I were barred from the competition for some reason. Speaking of Earl what a great guy! We were all so grateful that he was able to catch up with us on the second leg. His humor and general contributions to every great day were sorely missed from Dubai and to Shanghai. Earl could always be counted on to pour oil on the turbulent waters when political discussions got too hot. And he always took Jim’s side no matter how “RIGHT” I was. Thanks Earl for help making this trip so special. Chris Hall, phenomenal pilot, peacemaker, logistician and all around great guy to be around. He was always on top of everything and never ruffled. Well, the chicken head in his soup did ruffle him just a bit but he was quickly over it and on to the next whatever it was. Having seen the complexities of this trip, looking into the front office from my leather recliner in the back, I know that the perfection of our adventure would not have been possible without Chris. Thanks so much! As great as this trip was, there really is no place like home. Pulling up to the ORL new administration building and seeing the great crowd of well wishers, reconfirmed how incredibly blessed I am. I have so much and others in the world have so little. Very humbling! And then, there she was, delivered by my great friends in their Baron from Atlanta was my beautiful bride Mary. She never looked so good. What a great lady to let me take this trip! How fortunate I am. There it is. Signed sealed and delivered. I wish there was a way to share all of the pictures and experiences with you faithful blog followers and well wishers. I look forward to trying as we meet in the future. Cheers Mercer

You Can Go Back Home Again!

WELCOME HOME JULIET PAPA! We were all early for the departure from Portland Wednesday morning, calling for the clearance 30 minutes early out of Portland. Jim was feeling the long previous day he had experienced doing the majority of the flying and opted to stay in the back. I took the left seat with Mercer as my copilot and headed the bird for the barn- some 2000+NM Southeast of Portland. It was the first break from the cockpit for Chris Hall since we landed in Bangor, Maine on May 2nd! We climbed out toward a beautiful morning sun to FL410 again flying a route that took direct to the Wichita VOR and then direct to Little Rock, where our friend Dick Holbert was waiting with box lunches and some ice cold jet fuel for a quick turn refuel stop. Dick is one of Mercer and Bob’s best friends, a wonderful guy- great to see you Dick!

__________________________________________________________

Jim and Chris took the front seats for the last leg- we had been watching the weather develop all the way across the country. Juliet Papa has built in XM Satellite weather radar capability, enabling us to downlink the country’s Doppler weather returns. This is a wonderful capability that has been available for only the last 3 or 4 years, it is a great help in planning your routing. We all watched great red blotches march across Central Florida. The guys up front made the decision to fly down the Western side of the peninsula of Florida over the Gulf of Mexico all the way South to Sarasota before turning Northeast towards Orlando. The result was that , while we flew an extra 150 miles or so, there wasn’t even one burble of turbulence for the flight! Jim made his best landing of the trip- what timing- as we touched down at 5:20PM on good old runway 07 at Orlando Executive. I had zeroed the ‘odometer’ on the Garmin back up navigation system as we had left that airport on May 2nd. The Garmin counts all of the miles flown, vectoring for approaches, etc. It also tallies average speed, including the time spent slowed for approaches and during our climbs. The story:

1. 22,557 miles at an average speed of 367kts or 422 miles per hour!
2. Flying time totaled 59.1 hours in the air.
3. We added ½ quart of engine oil to each engine in Dubai and I had another ½ quart of oil added to each engine when we landed in Orlando!
4. That and a top off of the oxygen system also in Dubai was the total maintenance done to the aircraft for the entire trip! An outstanding performance.

THE PARTY!

We pulled off the runway and were treated to a water cannon salute by the fine men of the ORL fire department as we entered the East Ramp for the arrival at the new GOAA facility that hosted our party. As we shut down, I was treated to the eager approach of grandson Evan Harwood, running out to the plane’s door to meet us. What a treat to have that kind of welcome, along with the applause from over 50 of our friends and family waiting to welcome us personally. WOW! O’Boy’s BBQ tasted just fine to all of us as we fell into the warm and inviting group of folks that waited inside. Mercer’s wife and his best friends had flown down for the party from Atlanta. Jim’s wife Alexis and many of his friends waited with a ‘dirty martini’ already mixed for his arrival. Chris’s wife Patricia was waiting by the wingtip for him. My wife and the whole family, except son in law Brent- away flight training in New Jersey, were there- how great it is to be home! Thanks to all who had a part in getting the room decorated, the flags along the walk, the tables all decorated- just wonderful THANKS TO ALL! Thanks Continued: I am praying that I don’t forget anyone important in this list, but here are the KUDOS:

1. To Chris Hall, the most accomplished aviator that I’ve EVER been with. Always “on”, ready to watch over his flock on the ground or in the air. Competent, steady, funny, TOGETHER- Chris, you ARE the Man!
2. To Cessna Aircraft for building one of the most incredible machines for its size and purpose ever conceived! There is a reason that the CJ3 is the fastest selling jet in the history of the company. Not a single issue. Not a specification claimed that it can’t meet or exceed. The best aircraft I’ve ever had the chance to fly, Juliet Papa- thanks!
3. To Universal Weather and the Red Team in general and Mr. Richard Cook in particular: An outstanding performance of an intricate mission! We made changes, you always made it work. Overflight permits, Weather and flight planning, ground handling and hotel arrangements- all went without a serious hitch.
4. The guides on our trip. Universal had convinced us that they could provide good guides and ground transportation rather than our hotels. The theory was that their folks were more accountable to the next private plane load of people- that therefore we would get the best guides and vehicles rather get “the brother in law” of some hotel employee. Well, our guides NEVER FAILED to be competent, courteous, and on time. We never found the vehicle waiting for us to be sub-standard… and never had to wait for a vehicle- not even once! An Outstanding Performance, thanks again Universal Weather!
5. To the team led by Kim at Showalter Flying Service: thanks for not only ‘letting me go,’ but being excited for me that I could take this “trip of a lifetime,” while all of you worked so hard at home. Thanks.
6. To Mercer and Earl, two of the group that made all five of us blend and mix into a great team. Always ready, on time and over budget J! Mercer, I loved your blogs and look forward to seeing your closing comments herein soon as well. God Bless you Both. There WILL be some period of time while I undergo withdrawal due to being away from this great group of guys.
7. I’ve also noticed that I’m without the turn down service in the bedroom that I’d gotten used to at the JW Marriott’s and other great hotels we were able to stay at! Oh Well….
8. Finally, to Mr. James H. Pugh, Jr. Thank you sir for wanting to do this darn trip to begin with. For giving me the opportunity to plan and help execute it and, oh yes, for paying for the trip! Jim, you are the best. Always calm, on time and the veritable definition of a “low maintenance customer!”

JAMES H., YOU ARE A GREAT AMERICAN!

_____________________________________________________

AND TO YOU BLOGGERS: My associate Brad Elliott discovered, after we had passed the halfway point in this trip, that there is a way to track how many people follow our blog. So, we set up that tracking to begin on June 45th, we are unable to go back and look at what happened before then. But, as of this morning (June 29th) we have logged more than 971 hits from 269 different people since that halfway point of the trip! Awesome. We have enjoyed and benefited from the discipline of putting the blog up, enabling us to keep much better track of the incredible number of experiences we have had in the last 60 days since this all began. ‘We have enjoyed the comments, both on the blog and through emails, form so many of you, many have surprised us as we discovered that you were “watching us.” This had been a great addition to the fun we’ve had doing this wonderful journey. IT IS “almost” OVER Well, I estimate that over 400 man hours of preparation for this trip were put in by Chris and I alone, almost all of that before the first flight commenced. It was a huge undertaking, made possible by the years of experience travelling that we brought to bear on the issues before us. Thank God I had so much help available to me. Brent Harwood, former pilot for Jim, did a lot of the early spade work on the prototype routes. Then I had help from my years of travelling for a living. The real horsepower came to the party when Universal and Chris joined in the planning. The result was that we didn’t have a single incident in the air or on the ground that was of any import. Wow! Thanks be to all that had a part in this. There can be no doubt that the Mission was Accomplished. If anyone has seen a picture on the blog that you’d like to have sent to you, please just drop me an email with the description of it (

bob@showalter.com) and I’ll be happy to send you the file. I still have friends who are promising me pictures that they have taken- especially from the arrival party- that I may post on the blog in the next weeks as I receive them. So, stay tuned. I’m sure that Mercer has some more things to add as well. Bob

What do you mean all the bars are closed at 2:30 AM?

Anchorage and Portland

As we climbed above Nome just after midnight, the sun was on the horizon. It kinda stays there and moves around the horizon- rather than across like we are used to down South. The light and the clouds conspired to make some beautiful conditions looking out the window. I hope that they will transfer to you through the pictures we took- it was a beautiful flight. Earl, Mercer and I celebrated the return to the U.S. on the flight from Nome, opening for the first time the box of miniature liquor bottles that we had left Florida with in early May. I think that the Ketel One may have helped me decide that the light was just right for pictures on the flight. The descent to Anchorage was another ILS in light rain that continued through the unloading process at Millionaire at PANC. The time change for us on this day from Sapporo to Anchorage is a tough one to figure. While on our bodies it was about 9PM, it was 3AM that SAME MORNING on our watches. We ordered Pizza to meet us at the hotel lobby- eating a little of it before heading off to try to sleep in the increasing light outside. We met in the lobby at 11AM and headed out to climb into the bird once again. The FBO at Anchorage gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling about all of the great people on our team at Showalter in Orlando. The Anchorage people could not comprehend the level of service you guys’ provide to each of our customers every day. You also don’t let your garbage cans overflow- every one of them- on a day when they had one other aircraft on the ramp besides ours… No time, I guess. Chris and I had this next leg- hate to admit it, but 99% of it was one of the most boring flights of my life! We were cleared on course direct Seattle (1265NM) at about 100 feet off the ground. At 2000 feet (30 seconds later) we were cleared to FL 410 and that was it! We did nothing, saw nothing except a TCAS target once every 20 minutes 50 miles away and a frequency change every 45 minutes. We did see an airplane once, really we did. It was over Vancouver, over 1000 miles from the start of this leg, that we saw the first ‘other plane’ in the air with us. The Crowded Skies, right? Well, the fight was saved as we had a blue bird day to fly past Mount Ranier, then St. Helens and Mount Hood on the descent into Portland. Beautiful!. Chris made an outstanding landing at Portland and we were met by the fine folks of Flightcraft, who took great care of us. Jim and Earl went off to Earl’s condo so Jim could see it. Mercer, Chris and I were glad that the hotel restaurant opened at 5PM local, we were all both hungry and exhausted. Eating with purpose, we all headed off to bed at about 7:15 Pacific time. The jet lag from crossing the date line can still be felt as I write this blog in the car on the way to Vermont on Sunday morning- 5 days after we went to bed in Portland! It IS almost gone, but I can still tell I’m messed up in the sleep timing department! Bob

Which half of the runway is closed???

Nome was “Half Ready” for us.

Jim and Chris took the leg from Petro to Nome- this day being by far the longest travel times of the entire trip. I was reading my book and noticed that the crew was getting quite busy- looking again and again at the approach plate which is displayed on the center screen of the panel. I went up to find out what was what and was told two interesting things:

1. That the runway was “half closed.” Not half lengthwise, but half widthwise! They were looking at the charts and trying to make sure that we would be able to make a safe arrival on the open half. We need to figure that out BEFORE we begin the descent to Fairbanks, as our alternate airport was a good distance away and we would want to shepherd our fuel reserves carefully. The best way to do that is to make your mind up while you are still at cruise altitude.
2. The second part of the challenge was that the last half of the runway was only going to be open for 30 minutes after we landed. The question then was; can we get fueled and through Customs in that time or would they allow us perhaps to clear Customs at the next stop in Anchorage?? Tower folks said that we would stay “sterile” and clear Customs in Anchorage, but as we rolled out on final- I could see the guy in the blue uniform with the gold badge over by the “fbo.” It was going to be a challenge we thought. I had thought as far back as Seoul, when we were once again dealt with by very courteous Customs people that my most unpleasant experience at the border would be- as it usually is- upon re-entry to the United States. I can still vividly recall an entry in 1981 coming back from Australia. One of the singularly most unpleasant experiences of my life was putting up with the jerk behind the badge in Honolulu that treated us as convicted killers when Kim and I came back from Australia. WELL, I worried about nothing, as we were met by a most delightful gentleman in Nome, the sole member of U.S. Customs in the city- meeting us at midnight his time no less, with a cheerful and professional manner that – when combined by a great quick turn performance by the native Alaskan lineman with the credit card machine in the truck cab-had us back on our way 26 minutes after touchdown! Thanks, Officer Bob! You and the line guy have proved to me that Nome needs another and better visit some day. Bob

Japan to Russia to Alaska

Sapporo to Petro to Nome

Catching up on some of the end game stories- A career first! My leg to Petro with Captain Chris on the radios. We copied down our clearance to taxi out of Sapporo. We were sure the guy had missed something- namely giving us an initial altitude to climb to. As we were nearing the end of the runway and had things squared away, Chris asked the controller to please give us our initial altitude to be assigned. The controller responded that we had been given the clearance to cruise at Flight Level Four One Zero and that was exactly what he meant! I have never in my life been cleared to my final altitude from the takeoff clearance before! We sheepishly acknowledged his somewhat put out response and took to the runway, dialing in 41,000 feet on the autopilot for our “initial climb.” J An interesting sight on this flight occurred about 300 miles after takeoff. I was watching a large contrailing aircraft approach, both visually and on the TCAS system, indicating that he was 7000 feet below us- therefore cruising at 34,000. It looked at a distance like a 747, with its bulbous front end, but it didn’t look right- it looked “crooked.” Well, as it passed below us, I figured out why. It was indeed a 747, but it was operating on only 3 engines instead of 4. Thus, the thick contrails of condensed moisture were emanating from only 3 engines- two on the right side and one on the left, leaving an imbalanced trail behind him as he flew on to Japan. Yes- a 747 can operate quite well on 3, just not as high or quite as fast as with 4. Mercer provides herein the pictures of the Russian soldiers that met us in Petropavlovsk and some of the pictures of the Foxbats and other machines that were scattered about this cold war base. There were spectacular cone shaped volcanic mountains all around “Petro” as we arrived from Sapporo, starting with one sticking up through the clouds above an island about 100NM south of there and on three sides of the airport as we descended. An intricate arrival and approach- you fliers should look up the ILS at Petro (Identifier UHPP) to see the descent plan around the rocks. Landing in to the wind seemed of no importance to them either, but with over 10,000 feet in front of us, we obliged rather than cause an international incident by asking for the other runway… I had stayed with the plane to oversee the refueling as the other guys went in to the terminal in a van to get the paperwork handled. After the fueling was done, I pantomimed the need for a men’s room and asked if I could just walk over the 300 meters to the terminal. No, but the lady in uniform would lead me to another building. She strode ahead, I dutifully followed and went into what looked like a small TSA security type site in a very small old building. She pointed and I went in to the one -holer men’s room. As I came out, I noticed that there was a small security camera attached high up on the wall. It was in a white plastic housing… the brand was written clearly on it- Radio Shack!

On Schedule Today

PORTLAND, JUNE 25TH DAWN IS BREAKING HERE. BEAUTIFUL AND UNEVENTFUL FLIGHT FROM ANCHORAGE YESTERDAY. PAST MOUNT RANIER, ST. HELEN'S AND HOOD INTO PORTLAND, BEAUTIFUL . SEE MERCER'S WORDS BELOW, PICTURES LATER THIS WEEK. DETAILS WILL BE FILLED IN ON FLIGHT FROM JAPAN TOO. WE ARE TIRED AND HAPPY, ON TRACK FOR SEEING FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES AT 5PM TODAY AT KORL! Bob

Mercer's Sapporo w/o pictures

With this and the three blogs that follow, please come back later this week when Mercer will be able to upload his photos of the last several stops. Computer problems kept him from downloading his pictures. Check back! One night in Sapporo, June 23, 2008 It is a short flight, relative to our normal legs, to Sapporo from Seoul. We check in to our on airport, Japanese style Microtel. A little Spartan for our hotel rooms at Missouri River Aviation, Jim. They are nice enough however and very efficient. This is a modularly constructed hotel. Unfortunately, you have to step up 4” to go into the bathroom. Oddly, none of us could remember this important detail of Microtel living in the middle of the night. We were all a little gimpy with stubbed toes next morning. We took the high speed train from the airport into the Sapporo downtown train station looking for dinner. There is not too much English spoken here so we struggle a bit getting our bearings. We are assisted by this very cute, train station hostess in pillbox hat and red suit. Not much English but she aimed us at the ATM machine and the taxi cabs with a great big smile. We are off but know not where. We have not eaten for many hours so we are getting desperate. Nothing is open yet, it is 4:00PM local. We finally wander in to a #10, crab restaurant. Traditional Japanese in every respect. Beautifully dressed staff in kimono point at pictures of crab prepared in every way imaginable. The food was great and the Sake better. We decide to take taxies back to our Microtel in that we had no idea where we were. This is I am sure a generalization, but the gentle and respectful nature of oriental people, Chinese, Korean and Japanese is so refreshing and appreciated. We are now almost done with this great adventure around the world and what is most striking to me is how wonderfully we have been treated by all we have met. People don’t make war. Governments and wacko’s do. People are pretty much the same. There are huge economic differences, but at the end of the day from the poorest to the richest we all just want to be able to live and prosper in peace. My goal is to study more about other cultures. To date, I have based my world view and opinions on too little information, handed to me in sound bites by organizations which are influenced by agenda or economic situation. I finish this trip much more optimistic about the world. Huge problems exist and finding solutions is way above my pay grade. There will continue to be horrific events in many areas of the world. There always have been. I continue to believe that 99.9% of the people on the face of the earth are good. We just need to coordinate our efforts a little better to deal with the .1%. I am looking forward to getting back to my wonderful wife, Mary and our family and friends. I have missed them greatly. I have the best clients imaginable and they have been so gracious in letting me take this time away from the office. I have seen a lot of architecture and dozens of FBO’s. Brace yourselves. Mercer

Mercer's Seoul w/0 pictures

June 22 Seoul Our guide says there generally are only two or three days a year where the air is clear and you have good visibility. Today is one of them. Crystal clear, bluebird sky and 30 miles visibility. There are mountains everywhere! This country is beautiful. Yesterday when we rode from the airport to our downtown hotel it was 500 overcast and maybe a mile. This is big time smog and we have seen it in every city since Cairo. Certainly we do our share of polluting in the US but I haven’t seen smog like we have seen on this second leg of our trip since Los Angeles in the 1960’s. The future of mega pollution is in third world developing nations. Clean air is just not on their agenda. Even in Dubai you wonder why they build such tall buildings. Much of the time you cannot see higher than halfway, due to smog and dust. So again, cheer up America! Turn off the TV and feel proud of our great country. Don’t read Newsweek and go see for yourself. Despite our problems we remain the most generous and environmentally conscious nation on earth! At least that I have visited. I don’t want to wax politically and none of us will really know if invading Iraq was right or wrong for many years, but ask the South Koreans if they are happy the good old USA pitched in. Forty minutes North of Seoul we visited a very nice viewing center where just 3,500 meters away is a country where people are literally starving to death because of a brutal authoritarian wacko that the world politic believes we can negotiate with. I just don’t think you can negotiate with a man that has no conscience. He is playing all of us. I will quit now on this subject before I get too spun up. Jim and I visited the War Museum. While it is mostly about the Korean War it traces Korean history back to the bronze age. The museum is a tribute to brave men and women who have fought for their country and mostly lost. They came very, very close to losing to the North if it had not been for the monumental efforts and sacrifices of American and Allied forces. Seoul is a very industrial city, very modern and clean except for the air. I think 13,000,000 is the population. Many live in high rise apartment buildings. These building mostly of simple concrete construction are embellished with bright colors and brief ornamentation showing that these are a very proud hard working group of people. They are fun loving and cheerful. I understand from my retired flight attendant sister-in-law, Cindy Dye that this is the epicenter for good deals. We did not have a chance to shop but Bob and I rushed through the 10 story mall attached to our hotel and I did not see any good deals at Cartier, Tiffany and all the rest high end shops. We did see hundreds of beautifully dress Korean shoppers laden with their treasures. I really like these people. There nature is to be polite and considerate. We learned that the first classes that young children take in school is what they call “Ethical Education”. These are courses all about how to treat your elders, family and friends with respect. It works. I look forward to coming back someday. On a clear day you can see forever and it is stunning. Off to Sapporo and then the sprint home! Mercer

Mercer's Beijing w/o pictures

Again, check back later this week for the pictures that will go with this blog Beijing The Olympics are about a month away. The “Party” has had 1,000,000 workers brought in to get ready for it. They have been working constantly since they were awarded the games. They have not stopped yet and it is a horse race. Just ask Bob, where outside his room at the Raffles Beijing Hotel they work 24/7. Bob didn’t get much sleep as workmen bang steel girders together constantly. I, on the other hand and on the other side of the hotel luxuriate in my suite with its two bathrooms and beautiful fabrics. The master bath is much bigger than my first house and had as much marble as Mount Rushmore. My Butler, Frank was very nice but not ever having a Butler before I was a bit intimidated. I really tried hard to find stuff for him to do thinking that his job probably depended on his charge keeping him busy. In the end I decided having a Butler was just too much trouble. Frank would have to fend for himself. I drew my own bath and refused to eat the chocolate he laid out on top of the 12, count them 12, pillows on my King Size, canopied and shrouded bed. The bed was also raised on a very proper, sultanesque dais which I fell off of, first night. Thought I was going to have to call Frank to pick me up and tuck me back in. Back to the City tour. Mazy our great Chinese guide was spectacular. Warm, friendly, very bright and communist. The reality is if you want to get anywhere with your career in Beijing, you need to be a member. You don’t have to practice or go to Party meetings but, I get the sense you better have that little card in your pocket. We did the tourist things, the Great Wall 1/10,000th of it anyway. Did you know it is the biggest cemetery in the world? One fifth of the population of China during the Ming Dynasty was working on the wall. This was very tough work and if you died on the job they just plastered you in and kept going. Of course, this great endeavor didn’t work. the Mongol’s were amused and road right through it. Bummer! The Forbidden City is something everyone needs to see before they get plastered in and left behind. I forget the statistics but it is 100 times bigger than I imagined. And 100 times more beautiful. It was very good to be the Emperor. There are 9,999.5 rooms in this place. That is the real number no hyperbole here. The Emperor was God. The .5 room was in heaven. The logic escapes me but Mazy said it was true and I believe her. Three thousand wives and 20,000 eunuchs. He was the only fully equipped man on the premises after 6:00pm when all the ministers and aids were sent home. It would make you think twice about accepting an invitation to an evening backgammon game with the emperor. You might leave more on the table than your marbles. Off to Seoul South Korea

Mercer's Shanghai w/o pics

Shanghai Every place we have been on this trip has exceeded my expectations. Even India, it was worse than I imagined. But Shanghai exceeded my expectations in the other direction. It is beautiful, outstanding architecture and all connected with an orderly hustle and bustle. Don’t cross the street without a guide. The little green man walking sign is only an illusion of safety. I think a pedestrian just looks like one more video game target to the average driver here. Doesn’t matter whether they are bus driver, scooter driver, bicycle driver or rickshaw driver, they will kill you and not look back. However, once unsaddled from their trusty steed of choice, these are beautiful and gracious people. Old and traditional jammed against each other so close that it is very hard to imagine how this all works. The super high tech next to food markets where all sorts of animal and vegetable hang ready for the next customer’s wok. Our hotel was the J.W. Marriot and the regestration lobby is on the 33rd floor looking over a mind boggling cityscape. This super modern city lights up like a kaleidoscope at night. The developers here not only compete on the bigger is better scale but here it is all about lighting your monument. Laser and holographic touches accentuate these beautiful mega structures. My Canon Eos is still recovering from color shock. Put this city on you must list. Cheers Mercer

SAPPORO!

No Blackberry No Cell phones still. This posted from the room in the airport hotel.

Had a fine flight over to Sapporo, good weather gave us a look at the land (islands) as we flew North over much of Japan to the Northern end where we landed at this beautiful airport. Checked in to the airport hotel, everything in the room is in miniature, interesting. Beautiful mountains in the distance. Customs took about 90 minutes.

The boys were restless so we, finding no one to speak English, somehow bought train tickets to downtown (40minutes) and then tried to find a good "kobe beef restaurant." Everyone just smiled. We finally walked in to a nice looking place and were served a lovely meal by wonderful people. Turned out it was a crab restaurant. You could have crab about 100 ways, but crab was what they served. We had crab about 12 ways and every one left happy. The ones that had the saki might have left happier than the others. We cabbed back- 45 minutes for $10!

It is 0530, rain is coming but it looks light. We are off to Russia for fuel, on to Nome for fuel and customs and then to Anchorage. We should arrive in there about 8-9AM eastern time tomorrow morning. Bob

Seoul and Surrounds on a Beautiful Day!

We had a hard rain in the predawn hours this morning, watching it out the window, I was not sure we would have much of a tour of Seoul today. WRONG! The weather cleared after sunup and we were treated to the nicest weather day of our whole trip!

We met our guide Bill, who spent 11 years in Chicago as a student and then an interpreter before returning a couple of years ago to his native land. He capped off a truly remarkable group of folks that acted as our guides on this trip around the world. Each and every one of them was at least terrific, a remarkable record! We told Bill that we were all very interested in the DMZ and the areas where the Korean War ( I can't ever call it a 'Conflict' when so many died here) He took us up to an area called the Reunification Observation Site, a large building on a bluff that overlooks the Yalau River, the DMZ and North Korea beyond. It is pictured below

Here is Bill, who was a great source of information and good English! Yes Sandy, there are ton's of cool cars here, I am bringing back quite a few pictures of them. This is an Audi R8, the first one I've seen in real life. It screamed by us and I was immediately certain we wouldn't be getting any pictures of the front of the machine for this collection!

Below you can see an incredible shopping "mall", 11 levels of stores of everything from Tiffany's to the GAP. Behind it, you can see our hotel, the JW Marriott, whose lobby was connected to the Mall. That is a Jumbotron TV build into the side of the store tht looks like the black square on the right. The North Korean mountains beyond the DMZ and the Yalau River. Beautiful visibility and Bill says one of the best days he's ever seen up here! One of the dozens of guard towers that were along the highway, which followed the river. The razor wire fence was lighted and stretched for over 30 miles we saw without a break! About every 3rd tower had soldiers with guns in them. The guide says that most of them are manned in the nights, when both the good guys and the bad guys can be shot at trying to gain their freedom or come South to spy..... Thought this sign came at the right time on the last of our guided city tours. There will be far more uplinked to the blog, but most of those pictures will have to wait for us to return home to where I can download the little Sony Camera and Mercer can get to a functioning computer with his camera's software in it. So more later. Bob

How do we get back from here?

Just how does this time zone thing work?

We arrived yesterday afternoon from Beijing without incident. There was about a 20 minute delay for an overflight issue as we waited at the end of the runway, but no big deal. We flew the entire trip at only 27,000 feet. Air Traffic Control said it was for traffic considerations. Our TCAS didn't show us much nearby, but what the heck. The Citation burns a lot more fuel down low, but that is why we've always been conservative on our fight planning, never pushing the range limit of the aircraft when we might encounter traffic problems or lower altitudes like yesterday. The result was that we once again had an ILS to near minimums in haze/fog/smog, but landed with almost half our initial fuel remaining. We realized that we have had an instrument approach in real limited visibility conditions on every single leg since ISTANBUL! Once again on this early morning on Sunday in Seoul, it is misty and perhaps drizzling outside, we'll have to find out in a few hours when our tour starts.

ITEM: Blackberry's don't work in Korea!

We all feel like we've stepped off the edge of civilization with that development! IF YOU NEED TO REACH ANY OF US IN AN EMERGENCY, YOU SHOULD CALL THE JW MARRIOTT IN SEOUL AND ASK FOR OUR ROOM.

SO, HOW DO WE GET OUT OF HERE?

Many of you have asked about the time zones and how they come into play on the trip home. Here in Seoul and tomorrow in Sapporo, we will be operating on a time that is 13 hours AHEAD of Orlando. When we land in Nome, we will be landing in a place that is 5 hours BEHIND Orlando. Keep that in mind as I go over the plan:

1. Tomorrow, we go to Sapporo, a fairly short flight. I think Chris and I will then spend the rest of the afternoon on the flight planning for the three legs that we fly "Tuesday #1", the day we will repeat after we've crossed the dateline.
2. On "Tuesday #1," we go first to Petropavlovsk, an old Cold War fighter base on the Kamchitchka Peninsula of Russia for fuel (and Mercer hopes some cans of caviar!)
3. Then we fly on to Nome, Alaska, stopping again for about 45 minutes for fuel and catering, then;
4. another hour and a half flight from Nome to Anchorage. We don't know yet whether we will do Customs in Nome or Anchorage. If the Nome guy has duty time left, he'll clear us, if not, we stay "sterile" in Nome and fly on to Anchorage and do customs there. Either way, we will be arriving in the middle of the night... just after Tuesday starts in Alaska. I don't try too hard to figure it out on local time. I know that our day will begin in Sapporo at about 5AM get up and it will end at about 10PM Sapporo time in a bed in Anchorage if all works well. That's a long day but doable. Remember also that it will be only two days past the Summer Solstice, so it will not get real dark in Nome or Anchorage at all that night!
5. We will then sleep in a hotel right at the Anchorage airport , getting to bed at about 2AM Anchorage time for a good 8 hours or so in the sack.
6. We will then get up late morning on "Tuesday #2" and have "brunch" and take an afternoon flight of about 4 hours to Portland. We will be "losing" another two hours on the way there, so we will land about 6PM Portland time (9PM Orlando time) on Tuesday#2.
7. Dinner and bed in Portland, again at a hotel near the airport- then a 0730 Portland time (10:30AM Orlando time)departure is planned from Portland on Wednesday morning.
8. A fairly long flight to Little Rock, landing for fuel and catering and...
9. A flight of less than two hours from LIT to Orlando. As we "lose" three hours crossing the country and with the fuel and catering stop in LIT- we will land in Orlando just at 5PM (2PM Portland time and 6 AM THURSDAY Sapporo time)for...
10. A PARTY!

OK, you got it? Well, I'm not sure either, but the five of us are going to find out soon enough! Well, as all you 'foodies' know, it is time I get ready to meet the guys for breakfast and head out to see Seoul. Ta Ta for now.

Bob

Da Boys climbing up to the Great Wall

We were not alone on our climb, though everything today was hard to see.... This is the 'Bird's Nest', where the Olympics will have the Opening Ceremonies, seen dimly.... The Forbidden City His Picture Still Reigns here! Jim and Mercer pay homage

June 20th Beijing The tour of Beijing today started in the lobby of the Raffles when we met “Mavis”, our 27 year old native guide. Turns out that when the students are in English class in college, the teacher picks out an “English” name for them and Mavis was it for this quiet yet very competent guide. Along with our driver “Rio”, we set out in a Buick minivan no less, to see the Great Wall, followed by the Forbidden City of the Emperors and then Tiananmen Square and a walk back to the hotel. Once again, traffic is our constant companion as we slugged our way out through the 6 “Ring Roads” that circle Beijing.

It was once again terribly hazy with visibility below a mile for almost 100% of the day, getting a little better as we walked from the Square to our hotel in the very hot and humid afternoon. It was a treat to get back for shower two of the day. In my determination to be a good reporter, I managed to beat off the beer sellers in the lobby and get up here to write the blog BEFORE going back to the bar in an hour or so :-).

The Story of the Great Wall is truly incredible. At one point about 650 years ago VIRTUALLY EVERY ABLE BODIED MALE IN THE COUNTRY was hard at work on the building of the wall. It is also known as the world’s largest cemetery. Many, MANY workers died during the building of the Wall, they were simply made a part of it, buried on the spot in whatever section they were next to when they died. The Forbidden City was spectacular. About 200 acres of incredible construction and wealth displayed for us to see today after being closed to all but the royal family and its slaves for so many centuries. We decided since about 20,000 Eunuchs were used to protect the Emperor and work for him, that we would just as soon not be a party to helping him out!

We are certain that many of the things we saw today would be three times as spectacular if it was a bluebird day with clear skies and bright sun. Alas, that was not to be today. We drove through the Olympic area on our way back from the wall and were able to see some things in the dim distance, I include a picture shot of the “Bird’s Nest” which is the main stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies will be held. If the networks have the same kind of weather when the show starts, they will have a hard time bringing you anything that looks like it was shot “in living color.”

We are off to Seoul in the morning. I’m heading over to Mercer’s room in a minute to try downloading some of his pictures of Shanghai. If the construction workers’ do their thing again, I’ll be up in the morning early and will have a chance to send some of them up to the blog. Seeya! Bob

Chernobyl Chicken

and then there was the time that I..... Lady with her own spot to patrol her area for dirt and debris (FOD) on the ramp in Shanghai On short final, ONE of the new terminals at Beijing, it (the terminal) covers 240 Acres of land! Gulfstream owned by our country's finest aviation fuel provider! No accounting taste when designing paint schemes for Chinese biz jet.

June 19th, OFF TO BEIJING

We departed the hotel this morning at 0600 and headed out to the Shanghai airport. Among the more interesting sights to those in the FBO business was the ramp cleaning lady who was literally camped out near our plane- which was at a MINIMUM two miles from the nearest building- cleaning any FOD she could spot on the tarmac. I got a wave out of her and caught it on the Blackberry. The fuel truck finally came with the right hose to fit our plane and we slowly got fueled, only to have to all get out and push the Citation backwards as the fuel truck’s transmission refused to go out of Park and was stranded right in front of us. Unfortunately, no one was available to take a picture of this action as all hands, including the fuelers, were needed to push the plane backwards and slightly uphill far enough for us to be able to start up and depart. Couldn't resist showing you the paint scheme on the aircraft parked next to us in Shanghai, what were these people thinking? Jim and Chris once again took the front seats and I tested my ears on this flight to see if they would clear correctly at last. They did, so I’m back on flying status for future flights when asked. One of the attached pictures shows our friend Earl keeping Mercer and I enchanted with yet another of his stirring tales from his repertoire. Now, I’ve seen some big airports, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything to match Beijing! We must have taxied for 5 miles after clearing the runway to get to the area that had 3 Gulfstreams and us parked in a very remote spot. I did notice that one of the Gulfstreams belongs to our company’s fuel supplier, Conoco Philips. I only hope they were working to get the oil prices back down some with the help of our Chinese friends.

We can cut the air here, as advertised, the smog is pretty bad. Very low visibility on a sunny day. We are at The Raffles Hotel, one of a chain started 199 years ago in Singapore and a well known high scale chain here in China. It is a beautiful place and my room is just terrific. UPDATE! Friday Morning Beijing Time Room update. Well, my room is “mostly terrific.” I found out when the construction crew quits work on the building across the alley from my window…. when the Olympics start in August! Loud arguing in Chinese accentuated the front end loader’s diesel song; punctuated by the cymbal crash of occasional deliveries of steel dropped on the ground by a crane when offloading a truck.

But, the good news is that I can have plenty of time, since I'm starting before 5AM our time, to bring you a little more about our trip. I just uplinked the Shanghai blog and discovered that here in Beijing, just like Shanghai, I COULD NOT LOOK AT OUR OWN BLOG! I've decided that the blog addresses have been blocked by the government here, since you might imagine that you can get all kinds of opinions on blogs on the internet. I know that there are filters in place here that aren't found elsewhere- as we did in Dubai as well- interesting. Anyway, some humor attached-once again- to food. We wandered down the street to the shopping mall where we were told there were many options. We found one 'sit down' style restaurant, we were the only non-natives we saw in the whole mall. We ordered from menu's pictures and then spent the better part of 90 minutes frequently dissolving in helpless laughter as we encountered a number of funny things:

1. Watching Jim rolling noodles up on his chopsticks like you would spaghetti on your fork. No it doesn't work!
2. Trying to identify over a dozen unknown food "items" that would float up in our soup or appear under a pile of noodles or in the casserole of chicken that was the "haus espeshealluty".
3. Trying to decide where the chicken dish fell on the Kelvin Scale of heat. Let me tell you, I do not shy away from spicy food, but this dish made a jalapeno pepper feel like a snowstorm. The rest of them ordered beer, which we discovered came in huge bottles. I started with one Coke, but was driven to another by the chicken dish. While the attached picture taken by my phone isn't the best, the little white pieces that look like snow were the seeds from the peppers from Hell that are what makes the whole dish red in color. WOW! Chernobyl style Chicken in Beijing!

Yes, you did have to be there, but the laughter and the good natured natives in the restaurant made it all a wonderful evening. Jim gave the manager a tip from us after paying the very reasonable dinner bill. I don't think it had ever happened to him before. He stood and looked at the 50 yuan bill ($8.00)in his hand like it was from space!

We are off to tour the town in a couple of hours. More later. Bob