Sunday, April 19, 2009

Goliatha made it home

Got word that Goliatha made it home to Bryan, Ohio, safe and sound.

Still waiting for pictures from California and Vermont, but Dani reports that the dragon is happy to not have to be stuffed into a box for days and days to get from one place to another.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Traveling coming to an end

Goliatha left California for its final visit before heading home to Ohio.

Dan's Uncle Doug and Aunt Diane played host to Goliatha in sunny southern California. (Pictures are coming soon.)

From California Dani's cousin Phil will take Goliatha around the Burlington, Vermont, area for a few days. How knows, she may even get into one of Phil's classes at the University of Vermont.

From Vermont Goliatha heads back to Ohio.

Let's review where Goliatha has been:
  • Bryan to Ypsilanti, Michigan - 72 miles
  • Ypsilanti to Beloit, Wisc. - 277 miles
  • Beloit to Chicago, Ill. - 85 miles
  • Chicago to Brasilia, Brazil - 4,862 miles
  • Brasilia to Baghdad, Iraq - 6, 760 miles
  • Baghdad to Lome, Togo - 3,230 miles
  • Lome to Lima, Peru - 5,450 miles
  • Lima to Oxnard, Calif. - 4,222 miles
  • Oxnard to Burlington, Vermont - 2,520 miles
  • Burlington back to Bryan - 610 miles
Total mileage: 28,086 miles. That's almost once around the globe.

And that is just the mileage between the actual places Goliatha visited. If you want to look at the actual number of miles she traveled, you have look at how the mail works in and out of many of the countries she visited. For example, to go to Iraq Goliatha first had to go through Miami, Florida. The same is true of its route from Iraq to Togo and then to Peru and finally to California.

And you have to look at how its flights were affected by transfers.

So the actual miles Goliatha traveled looks more like this:
  • Bryan to Ypsilanti, Michigan - 72 miles
  • Ypsilanti to Beloit, Wisc. - 277 miles
  • Beloit to Chicago, Ill. - 85 miles
  • Chicago to Sao Paulo, Brazil - 5,219
  • Sao Paulo to Brasilia, Brazil - 525 miles
  • Brasilia to Miami, Florida - 3,765 miles
  • Miami to Baghdad, Iraq - 6,963 miles
  • Baghdad to Miami - 6.963 miles
  • Miami to Lome, Togo - 5,500 miles
  • Lome to Miami - 5,500 miles
  • Miami to Lima, Peru - 2,620 miles
  • Lima to Miami - 2,620 miles
  • Miami to Oxnard, Calif. - 2,390 miles
  • Oxnard to Burlington, Vermont - 2,520 miles
  • Burlington back to Bryan - 610 miles
This means Goliatha actually traveled 45,629 miles since leaving Bryan last year. That's 1.8 times around the globe.