Granpa Danns great adventure or how to travel

SEVEN DAYS TO FREEDOM

I am out of quarintine! I got out of the chlothes I wore for that entire week and put it all into the wash. I'm back in my hut and living lif large. I had Pizza for my first meal in a week and it was great, hamberger with pineapple (they didnt have any ham or peperoni) so we made due and had a great meal. NOW there is only about seven days left of this and I'm out of this country!

Sick As A Dog

The best part of traveling is seeing all there is to see... while the worst part of traveling is coming into contact with all the rest of the world and their inability to stay healthy. Somewhere in all my travels I picked up the flue virus. It came on rather rapidly and put me down. I took niquil and sutafed but to no avail. I am now in quarintine after seeing the doctor (which took no less than three hours a nose swab and 15 minutes later I was in a room for the next seven days all by myself) they dont have the testing equipment to see if it was h1n1 or anyother flavor just that its the flue and you get to stay in a nice quiet room for sevend days. or until the symptoms go away. I think they put someone on the other side of my room I can hear him coughing and hacking. So I let the bathroom latch open and let him use it when ever he wants, same as me. I think Im lots better but shure am sweatting alot. so now I sleep and sleep and read and sleep and eat and sleep and sleep and wander around the room okay I admit Im bored out of my skull. but still alive.

There and back again

This past month I have traveled the length and width of this country most of it is dry and desolate with just a touch of haze.....

I traveled so much the guys in the terminals got to know me quite well.

They kept my executive status seat for when ever i got to fly (yeah I got to sit on the inside)

There is not much industry in thos place but it sure does have alot of polution in th air

On a good day you can see the river... its the lighter blue smudge across the top

This was up on the Syrian Border looking into Syria. it was the end of a nice day.

and when we climbed the grain elevator towers (all 17 stories) by way of stairwells and a ton of steps, I was hoping to get a good shot and I think I did.

The dinner that night consisted of lamb kabobs, very tasty, and bread with onions and pickles on the side. all washed down with 7-up for me and tea /chi for the others.

Running

I'm sorry for not posting anything on here for a while I have been running around working from dawn to dusk. I do have a few pictures, I also missed some pictures. I saw a blue faced bee catcher while I was down in one location and alot of bulbul's. Now your going to have to look those up to see what I saw.

out and about

I guess this week I will catch you up on what I have been doing off and on since I came into country. I fly from place to place helping people get things done. Yep I'm a janator, I take out the trash and sweep up and clean the areas I go to(My MOM could not get me clean up my room but now look at me I'm cleaning not only my room but a whole country to boot). Most people are very appreciative when I show up and even more so when I leave and they are still in place.

This is way down south near the Persian gulf

This is a shot of the inland sea that covers parts of Iraq from time to time the water is not to deep but there is lots of it most of the time.

another of the sea

This is the main reason we are in the middle east...oil these are wells and piplines that bring the crude to market

This shot is really cool if you blow it up you can see a very small boat sailing in the canal.

This is on the other side of the sea. its a great big marsh / plane of reeds that the kirds hid in when the first Gulf war was over.

The small settlement is probably kirdish they make their huts of grass same as they did for almost 1000 years.

There are not many trees in this country. most are Date Palms, wich is one of the biggest smuggling operations, yes people risk their lives for Dates, occasionaly you find drugs being smuggled but mostly its dates, weird humm

This is a Zugarat, this is also the closest you can come to it, its almost 4ooo years old.

This is a dust storm starting up you can see the country disappearing.

There is green in the country mostly around the water (bullrushes)

this is........me on one of my many travels, what can I say, Ilike to travel.

strange but true

I was walking to dinner just yesterday when i came upon a guy with my name on his shirt. I stopped him and asked him what he was doing. He said nothing and we began to talk. He said he was from Hillsburo,Oregon. Then he says his name is Dan Dougall. We both laugh and talked for a bit. It was kind of different. He was tall lanky with black hair, but he didnt look like any Dougal I knew. Wonder if his wife's name is Terry and has brothers and a Sister?

The Blustery Day

Like most stories go...this one started inside and worked its way around, So I will start there...

I have just about gotten used to the time change and the climate change almost...

I have a very hard bed and a pretty nice room, ( had to buy carpet but it had curtians already)

and it has airconditioning (SAY HALALUYA can I get an AMEN)

This was taken at 2:30 pm today; the world turned from blue to gold and got alot dustier as the day went on. I didnt use a filter on the camera, it just turned gold and was hard to breath in. I guess this was my first dust storm here in Iraq.