The Wandering Scot

An occasional travel journal

  • Cyborg Upgrade

    I’m happy to report that I’m now part cyborg!

    I had been hiking on Black Mountain, in Rancho San Antonio, near Palo Alto. I was heading briskly downhill on a steep slope, tripped and splatted down hard. I managed to use my left arm to take the impact and save my stupid head, but as a result my left wrist was clearly broken.

    I hiked out, then drove to the PAMF Urgent Care center. They took a look, deemed the fracture to be “interesting” and sent me over to the Stanford Hospital Emergency Room.

    Stanford x-rayed and scanned me and then did emergency surgery that same evening. They used a titanium plate and screws to tie the broken bone pieces together.

    Both PAMF and Stanford did a great job of looking after me. At Stanford, I was both very grateful and rather intimidated to discover that the “Hand Team”, led by a Stanford Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, had come in late specially for me.

    I also saw the darker side of US healthcare. I’m fully insured and ended up paying nothing. But the nominal list price for the whole thing was a staggering $200,000. Which Medicare negotiated down to a much more reasonable $15,000.

    My wrist is healing up fine and I should get back full normal functionality.

    The good news is that I can confidently expect that our new AI Overlords will now welcome me as a part-cyborg ally!

  • Mauritius: Dodo Quest

    I’m on Mauritius, where I successfully hunted down a dodo!

    It was a very fine dodo.  It waggled its little wings and cawed gently at me.


    Yes, it’s true, the Mauritius Natural History Museum has a very charming animatronic dodo.  🙂

    Perhaps more to the point, they also have the only “complete” dodo skeleton, which has pride of place in their Dodo Gallery.

  • Burundi: Source du Nil


    I successfully made it to the Source of the Nile!

    Well, OK, there are many sources of the Nile, but the people of Burundi confidently assert that their Source du Nil spring is the southernmost source that eventually flows into the Nile.  And, just to remove any doubt, it comes complete with an actual pyramid.  Ha!

    The spring itself now emerges from a small pipe a little below the monument, before starting a very long journey North.

    Later, back in Bujumbura, I successfully discovered the spot where the explorer Stanley successfully discovered Dr Livingstone.

    “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”

  • Frankfurt: Paternoster

    If you find yourself with some free time in Frankfurt, I recommend hunting down one of their paternosters, a kind of continuously moving step-on-step-off elevator.  They are a fine cheap amusement!

    This time, I snuck in to the library at the University of Frankfurt to visit their two paternosters.  These seem to be much beloved by the students.  There are lots of warnings, including that you shouldn’t ride over the top, which I’m sure all the students take very seriously. 😊

    P.S. If you do visit, please be discreet.  The library staff quietly tolerate the occasional joy riding visitor, but they would probably have to close off access if there were too many, which would be sad.

    P.P.S. Riding over the top is (sadly) less exciting than it first sounds.  The paternoster consists of little cabins hanging from a chain and it is designed so that the cabins stay vertical while going over the top or around the bottom.  Not that I’d know, of course.

  • India: Bengal Tiger

    I’m visiting the Bandhavgarh National Park, in Madhya Pradesh, India.  The park is famous for its tigers.  There’s a good chance you’ll see one over the course of a multi-day visit, but of course there’s no guarantee.

    My first full-day safari was a washout.  And it looked like my second morning was going to be a blank also.  But at the last minute my guide got an alert from a colleague on his cell phone and we whizzed over, to find a full-size adult male Bengal Tiger sitting calmly by the side of the road.

    He was an extremely polite tiger.  He posed graciously for photos for a few minutes, showed off his tonsils in a wide yawn and then ambled off.  Hurrah!

    Sadly he didn’t actually try to eat me, but you can’t have everything.

     

  • North Dakota: ABM Sites


    The MSR Pyramid

    North Dakota is home an abandoned 1970s Anti-Ballistic Missile complex, originally intended to protect the US ICBM launch sites from incoming missiles. In theory, it was a de-escalation step, since the ability to protect the launch sites would give the US more time to stop and think if it spotted what seemed to be an incoming Soviet attack. Sadly Congress didn’t believe the system would actually work, and the Soviets probably didn’t either, so it was shut down in 1976.

    Since I’ve visited three ICBM launch sites (the Titan Missile Museum, a Soviet SS-24 site and a Minuteman site) I decided it was time to look at the other side of things!

    The main surviving relic is the imposing and mysterious “MSR Pyramid”, a giant phased array “Missile Site Radar”. Unfortunately it isn’t open for visits.

    MSR Pyramid and cryptic ancillary structures

    I also drove by RSL #3, one of the interceptor missile launch sites.  That was also closed today, but apparently the owner does run tours in the summer months.

  • North Dakota: Fargo

    I’m in Fargo, North Dakota, where I’ve been participating in Traditional Local Customs.

    Yes, this is the actual wood chipper used for body disposal in the movie Fargo.  Oh ya, you betcha! 😃  It’s now the star attraction at the Fargo Visitor Center.  You can bring your own body parts.

    Update October 2024:  I revisited the Fargo Visitor Center on another road trip.  This time I invested in an official “Fargo Wood Chipper” Trapper Hat for extra verisimilitude.

Recent Posts