918 miles from Cambridge, MA to Cincinnati, OH

Drove 15 hours and over 900 miles. Grabbed coffee at Dunkin Donuts one last tine before leaving Massachusetts. Plowed through Connecticut. Skipped across New York State at its almost narrowest. crossed the vast ranges of uninhabited hills and forest during the 5 hours of trans-Pennsylvania crossing and finally amazed at fireflies along the freeway as evening set in while crossing Ohio.

Leaving Massachusetts for Connecticut and then into New York.

Passing Scranton, PA

and finally, Cincinnati, OH

The Cube is on its way

Our (the front one) ReloCube (Relocation cubes by ABF U-Pack) leaves Aberdeen Court in Cambridge, MA and sets off on its 3300 mile (5300km) trip to the Bay Area. Using ReloCubes was about a $1000 cheaper than PODS for the same size and distance. Once in California, we will reorganize, put some in storage and set up the the rest to be picked up by Crown Relocations to be shipped to New Zealand.

onward...

The Road Home

3304 miles (5317km)

A - Leave Boston, MA

B - Pass by the start of Interstate 80 in the New York City Metro Area and start following it westward to San Francisco.

see amazing New Jersey

C - overnight in Cincinnati, OH

Eat BBQ in Louisville, KY

D - Pass by the St. Louis Arch

Photograph the Arch from the freeway

E - camp somewhere in Nebraska

Look at flat land and corn

F - camp near the Great Salt Lake

Check out the salt flats

G - Arrive in the San Francisco Bay Area

Awake from two years of slumber

After two years of hibernation, I'm reactivating my blog!

After my second year in Afghanistan working for USAID, I moved to Boston with Sara in November of 2010. New England's winter was pretty hard, the worst they had in 22 years.


Christchurch and the Southern Alps - New Zealand

Now Sara and I are both heading out to New Zealand in September working for engineering companies working on the reconstruction after the Feb 2011 Christchurch Earthquake!

Summing up the second year in Afghanistan in a few photos

embassy dodgeball games

walking in the Hundu Kush

speaking my mind

riding and crashing dirt bikes

riding MI8s 

Vacation meetings in Dubai

flying in military aircraft

building forensics

hooches

meeting Natalie Cole (Nat King Cole's daughter) 

meeting US Congresswoman Jackie Speier, California's 12th congressional district (San Francisco Peninsula) 

beer

more beer

yetis

Just hired with USAID, living at the US Embassy, suspending any further posts

I'm now working for USAID and will be living at the US Embassy in Kabul. Because of security reasons, I've decided to suspend any further post at this time.

Arctic Norway

A four-day trip to Tromsø in the arctic region of Norway. It was the middle of the polar winter (sun never came above the horizon), but you had the most amazing twilight and even was able to see the northern lights.

The road home

Kabul -> Dubai -> Frankfurt -> Stockholm
1 night

Stockholm -> Oslo -> Tromsø
3 nights

Tromsø -> Olso -> Frankfurt
1 night

Frankfurt -> San Francisco

too close to home..

That's my grandmother's house across the street!

http://www.10news.com/news/18229447/detail.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/09plane.html?ref=us
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/08/military.jet.crash/index.html

Return to Bamiyan

Returned to Bamiyan for a day trip with a bunch of USAID guys to show them some of the 'bad' buildings we've reported a few weeks ago. Our reports are stirring things up, didn't mean to, just telling how it is.

New High School in Kabul

Some resent photos of one of our projects.






Block 1 (three blocks total with a 3 story linkway between them)


Steel in the shear wall

Bamiyan

Because of the US elections, this post regarding my resent trip to Bamiyan is late. What a place, I can’t imagine another field mission being as beautiful as this one! We spent eight days up in the mountainous province located right smack in the center of Afghanistan.

We flew up from Kabul in an old Soviet MI8 helicopter, weird it having the USAID logo all over it, and landed in the historic Bamiyan Valley, you can see the 1700 year old Buddha niches carved right into the cliffs from the landing strip.

While getting on the helicopter I bumped into my friend who was also going up there on a completely unrelated trip - small world.

After touching base with the New Zealand Army’s PRT base, we went to check out the Buddhas in the evening.


From Bamiyan valley we did a three-day trip to Yakewlang district, out in the far western parts of the province. And then later north to Kahmard District.


Some highlights of the field mission (Shirley, these pics are for you!):