I’ve not used 12seconds at all until today, and I’m still figuring it out. Here’s my first update. Well, third really, if you count the two retakes.

Here are 21 U.S. railroad trips that will cost less money — and in some cases less time — than their airline trip equivalents.

As someone who abhors air travel — at best I relegate it to one of life’s necessary evils — and is currently unable to drive himself anywhere, I much prefer traveling by rail whenever it’s reasonable to do so. The often ridiculous expense is a trade-off between comfort and — thanks to living within the Northeast Corridor — time.

Taking a long-distance trip by rail has long been an ambition of mine, if not cross country to San Francisco for example, then at least somewhere halfway. To Chicago perhaps. (I’m long overdue for a trip out there.)

Sadly, as GOOD Magazine’s Ben Jervey points out rail travel in the U.S., at least outside the Northeast Corridor, is hardly efficient nor practical for most people.

Early last month, I took a trip down to Puerto Rico, the first trip there I’ve taken since I was a high school senior. Only today did I finally get around to posting photos from the trip.

This shot leads you into a garita, one of several turrets adorning Fort San Felipe del Morro in Old San Juan. Usually, you see these turrets photographed from the side, but I lead you inside it with this photo. Unfortunately, this was as far as I was willing to get; the inside of the garita absolutely reeks of stale piss and was strong enough to keep me from walking further down the gangplank.

The fort has been part of the San Juan National Historic site since its establishment in 1949, which in turn was declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations in 1983.

My flickr set of photos from Puerto Rico is available for your perusal.

Yesterday at el campo, I had to pick some weird looking turd-shaped fruit off a tree. I was told the fruit was medicinal.

Until yesterday, the only medicinal fruit I knew was the one that charges me a $20 co-pay.

Days in Puerto Rico: 5.
Total travelers: 2.
Family members visited: 11 12.
Average family member age: 59.*
Casinos visited: 2.Money lost: $40.
Cocktails consumed: 1.
Casualties of the trip: 1 camera, crushed.

Developing a half-assed sexy tanline: priceless.

* Great-grandmother really upped the average there.

To my amazement, I arrived in San Juan in one piece. My flight from DC was delayed by nearly an hour and my connection from Charlotte met a lot of turbulence in the air. Online access is sparse for me so there probably won’t be pics online until I return.

Its time for a cocktail.

Packing for a trip is hard. Tomorrow I fly.

See you next time zone.

I’ve only ever traveled out of the country three times. The first time was in 1992; I went on a cruise to the Bahamas on a now defunct cruise line. My second trip outside the U.S. was four years later: a bus trip to Canada, with stops in Niagara Falls and Toronto. The third was another Canadian trip two years after that, this time to Cornwall and Montreal for band competitions.

Today, I returned to the U.S. mainland after a fantastic four-day cruise to Key West and Cozumel. I didn’t do any shopping in Mexico, so with nothing to declare I figured I’d get through customs in a snap.

After a relatively short wait in line, I made it to the stand and handed my customs form and passport to the officer. My passport was swiped through, and the office immediately went from all smiles to totally alarmed. He asked me my date of birth, and when I confirmed it, directed me to a little room off to the side for further questioning.

Naturally, I start to freak out a little. It was bad enough I got stressed out before the trip, now I gotta go through more after? Ugh!

Apparently, there’s a flag on someone who shares not only my exact birth date but also “parts of [my] name.” This struck me as odd, but according to the questioning officer — who was really very nice about the whole thing — it’s not unusual for that to happen. In fact, he volunteered that he came across a similar situation with parts of his name and his exact birth date.

The good news is I wasn’t detained any more than about 10 minutes. The bad news is I get to look forward to this scenario again the next time I cruise.

Fan-bloody-tastic!

Update: For the love of god and all that is holy, no body cavity jokes. They stopped being funny after the 27th time.

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