On route to the dark continent - a great adventure!

With the Bahamas behind me every country I visit is transit until I reach Morocco. Because now Africa is next. So while I have been waiting for my chariot across the Atlantic Ocean I have had some leisure time within the United States of America. The country became this projects country #42 almost 1 year earlier. Oh boy, a lot of water under the bridge...

Nanna is a friend I used to work with many years ago. She lives near Miami in Florida and has become a mother of 2 and a wife of 1. I guess that's pretty ideal. She married Ryan who has an interesting story but I'll get back to that. Nanna picked me up at the ferry terminal in Ft. Lauderdale and drove me home. And what a home! A beautiful house in a quiet neighborhood with a backyard that runs down to a lake. She still works for the same company but she is now a group leader which she combines with being a power mom! She gets up, takes care of the children, brings them to daycare, heads out to work, picks up the children on her way home, cooks dinner, makes the lunch packs for the next day and then it sort of all starts over again. Where does the energy come from? She was wonderful then...and she still is now.

Ryan is a real American! He is a generous man who treated me as a friend. But that's not what I want to say about him. Ryan, who enjoys taking his car to the track for racing and his Cessna into the sky, had a genuinely good idea. Where do name badges come from? And where do the Best Name Badges come from? If you are working somewhere and a few employees suddenly need name badges then what do you do? Do you have a name-badge-guy you call? Unlikely. No, you probably do like the rest of us and search for it on the Internet. Ryan realized that and that is where his little empire started. He got more and more orders and eventually he couldn't just do it as an evening activity from his home. So he started hiring and expanding and then one day he started getting some of the large cooperate companies as his clients. Now, only a few years later, "Best Name Badges" has more than 20 employees and service small and large companies all over the USA. From his mind, to his hands, to a business, to someone's chest. Name badges...

The high tech luxury of a modern home. Press a button and the water comes at you!

I enjoyed that oasis of tranquility which they created for me for a few days before I once again went north - closer to Norfolk, closer to the ship.

A little south of Orlando in Florida there is a place called Kissimmee. And that's where I found the only hostel "in Orlando". I guess the hotel industry dominates that region.

I had reached out to the American Red Cross in the central Florida region to see if I could help promote them. I had some extra time on my hands anyway. I got in touch with Erin and one thing lead to the next. I was invited to join in on promoting fire safety among homeowners in an area of Orlando. As it turns out 7 people die every day as a result of home fires in the USA. In Florida alone the Red Cross responds to an average of 3 disasters per day. The Red Cross cooperates with the fire department, and if the fire department feels like a certain area is experiencing a higher level of risk then they call the Red Cross. 

 

Our "mission" for the day was to walk around the neighborhood and deliver fliers to every home. It contained information about the situation and that every home would receive a free smoke detector and installation the following week if they wanted one. The homes that might already have one will be offered new batteries. I bet you didn't know that the Red Cross did that too? Well I didn't. Erin and her hardworking colleagues cover a rainbow of different activities throughout central Florida. I was only there for a few hours - but I had no doubt that they are a well functioning team who make a difference. Saving lives and changing minds.

 

 

Orlando is a city...but I don't think anyone knows. Most people come for all the entertainment and the world famous amusement parks. Disney World is one of the major players in the area. But many also know Universal studios, Sea World and perhaps you have heard of the world's only Christian amusement park: The Holy Land Experience! :)

 

 

I used to work in Florida. Only for a short while. But I challenged myself to go to Disney World and do every ride there. Also the small ones for children. Disney World is actually 4 amusement parks and I have often heard that it's impossible to do all the rides because there are too many. That's not true! It took 2.5 days of getting up really early and going to bed after midnight :)

 

 

Anyway, at the hostel I ran into Tim from England. He had rented a car and one evening he suggested that we would head out to Cape Canaveral to see a rocket launch!! It was truly amazing!! It was the first and so far only time in my life where I have seen something leave this planet! I have seen airplanes take off but they always land. I have seen birds in the sky and fireworks around new year. But it all stays on the planet. This NASA Atlas V rocket took off in the night never to return. We where looking slightly in the wrong direction but there was no doubt what we had to look for when the blast suddenly became very clear in the horizon. I bright almost white light took off and climbed up into the sky as a small sun racing for the stars. Then after perhaps a minute the sound reached us!! Wow!! That is so clearly one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen and experienced!

 

 

Tim and I also found our way into Universal studios one day. It's a massive complex with a lot of rides and activities and even more places where you can buy food and souvenirs. The park was alright but I found it to be overpriced and I found the rides to be very similar however with different themes. I think it would be great for children and enthusiasts. But it wasn't really my thing.

 

 

At the hostel I also met 2 young Vikings from Denmark! Jens and Jens. Just to keep it easy regarding names. They are cruising up and down the coasts of the USA for a few months and we ended up going out one night together. There is this "dinner and a show" concept called "Medieval Times". Knights dual against each other on horseback in the middle of the "restaurant" which is slightly more identical to an arena. Great fun!! GO TEAM RED AND YELLOW!! 

 

Then I did my Reddit session. That went terribly wrong. I have done a few other sessions which is an opportunity for people to ask questions online regarding the project. It is a great way for me to explain about the project and traveling in general. It has been increasingly successful for the past sessions. I can do it every 3 months and I try to fit in a full day of answering questions which is hard work. While I was still back in Nanna and Ryan's house I set up to do a full day of that on a Sunday. But the administrators at Reddit for some reason closed down the session and said that it was inappropriate? That was very strange. So after a few days of correspondence the administrators admitted that they had made a mistake and I was permitted to do a "replacement session" the following Sunday. That's the one that went wrong! 

 

 

I didn't think it through. Because a lot of people had seen the session the previous week although only for a few hours. So they remembered it and now it looked like I was doing it two weeks in a row. It shouldn't be that much of a problem but it spiraled out of control and internet "trolls" and "haters" launched a massive attack against my session stating that I was self-centered, egocentric, a publicity whore, a puppet of the oil industry and a lot more. It hurt. I have no training for that sort of thing and it's hard for me not to take it personally. And it went on for hours and hours as I responded to hundreds of questions. 

 

It is important to mention that there were also many genuine and nice questions and comments. But the darkness shined over the light as it went on. All in all the session had a 67% approval rate and a lot of new people found their way to Once Upon A Saga. But it took a few days for me to move on.

 

 

The next day I went to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on my own. It is a spectacular place!! NASA has achieved many mind-blowing things throughout the years and the KSC is pretty much an interactive museum for the achievements. I had been there around the same time I did my Disney activity marathon. But it still makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This time they had added the "Atlantis" space shuttle to the exhibition. The ACTUAL "Atlantis" which has carried astronauts and most of the components for the International Space Station (ISS) into space over a duration of many trips!! And there it was...just an arms length from me. I would go to space in a heartbeat if I was given the chance!! Come on Richard Branson!! Come on Elon Musk!! Give me a call!! :)

 

 

And then I said goodbye to Kissimmee and Orlando, got onboard a bus and began the journey north to Norfolk in Virginia. I was on a 26 hour bus ride with the aim of getting onboard "Maersk Missouri". However while in the bus I received notice that the ship was delayed in Houston after 2 other ships had collided in the port. But Maersk acted quickly and suggested that I would go onboard the "Maersk Carolina" instead. All of that was coordinated while I sat in the bus.

 

 

 

Best regards
Torbjørn C. Pedersen (Thor) - so ready for the African adventure!! ;)