New Cuba installment posted:Day 2, Part 1: Further Explorations of Old HavanaThis segment was also split in two due to its sheer size. Part 2 will come tomorrow.
Playing around with Google maps, we discovered that the Hill Air Force base in Odgen, UT maintains a small AF museum. We figured we could at least get some interesting shots of the planes and missiles on display. We got there only to find it closed for the day. The planes and everything were still clearly visible on the other side of the fence, so we drove up to the guard at the main gate to the base (which was right next to the museum entrance) to find out if we’re allowed to shoot over the fence. I parked the car a short distance from the guard booths, and walked over. The guard got visibly nervous the closer I got, and had his gun out of the holster by the time I came up to him. As soon as it was clear that I’m not planning on blowing myself up, he relaxed and told me that we could take as many pictures as we wanted so long as we don’t point our cameras in the direction of the base or security installations. Great, right? So we get out of the car and get a couple of shots. Not two minutes go by when we are surrounded by 3 military police jeeps, lights flashing and sirens blaring. The biggest MP marches over and tells us not to move, and that the base commander in on his way over. We had to wait just a minute or two for him to show up, but it felt like an eternity. We had already said goodbye to catching our flight home, not to mention getting home before shabbos (this was late Thursday). And this was already the best case scenario… Finally the base commander shows up, and to our surprise (and relief!) turns out to be this young, easygoing guy. He wanted to know who we were and where we’re from, what were we doing in the area, etc., etc., all standard questions. We had to show him some of the pictures we took on our trip, but at that point he was pretty convinced that we didn't represent Al-Qaeda. We explained that we had specifically asked for, and had been given, permission from the guard at the gate. This got him mad. "Either he gives you permission and lets you be, or he doesn't and calls security! What's he think he's doing, giving you permission and then calling for backup...". He promised he'll "take care" of the guard later. (What we assume happened was that the guard probably figured we'll pull out some phones, or at most a little point and shoot, but when we took out serious equipment and long lenses he panicked.) In any case, he explained that whenever there's a "security incident" he has to write a full report, so we now have our names on some government list as potential terrorists or who knows what .
According to the wiki there's a Panama trip in "ongoing" status. Where and how exactly is this?
Hmmmm.Today's XKCD:
I just realized that the pictures from my Kauai and Big Islands TRs were all broken links. I have redone these TRs, fixed the pictures, and put the pictures in-line where they belong (originally they were spread out over a number of subsequent posts).KauaiThe Big Island