Tuesday, September 15, 2009

A Day Around Geiranger

When you wake up to a view like this

You know it's going to be a special day.

I'd rank this day, touring around the Geirangerfjord as in the top five days of my life. Words can not do it justice...photos, sadly, can't either. Here is a futile attempt to try.............















































Ålesund

Ålesund was drizzily and damp...but charming nonetheless.





We took an excursion out to the islands of Giske and Godøy.

This stone church dates to 1150AD


And we visited the famous Alnes Lighthouse


The view from which is spectacular, even through rain.




Dude and I climbed all the way up (conquering my fear of open heights for a while)


We visited the Mt. Aksla viewpoint to see a panorama of Älesund








AFter lunch, we went back out to explore...





Saw some divers heading out for their explorations...


Remember Vesterålen from the Honningvåg thread? Here she is, docked...














Yet Another Sea Day

Well, after a while, sea day photos look the same.



But the two adorable young'uns of the gang were noteworthy....



Monday, September 14, 2009

Cash for Clunkers Math

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline. A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year. So, getting rid of each average clunker will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons / year

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

5 million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day's US consumption.

And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $ 350 million dollars at $75/bbl.

So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million. And we ran up the price of used cars for the people that can’t possible afford the new ones. In all likelihood there will be a rash of repos in about 6 months from the ones that bought and can’t afford.

No further comment necessary.