On January 22nd, I traveled to Iceland for a 3-day road trip with my friend DL.  The following are snapshots, brief glimpses of the fascinating people we met along the way.

// BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Concourse E.  After a mildly chaotic boarding process, we all find our seats. Next to me, in seat 24A, is a middle-aged man, wearing glasses and professional clothes.  He is dark skinned and looks to be from somewhere on the Indian subcontinent.

"What brings you on this flight?" I ask.

"I am headed home to London.  My son and I just came to America to see the inauguration.  We love politics!"  Turns out the man had placed a friendly wager with his son as to who the winner of the American election would be. "I wanted Hillary.  My son wanted Trump.  Now he's 500 pounds richer!"  Not content to watch the proceedings from the comfort of the British Isles, they flew in to observe it all firsthand.  The immigration officials had found this difficult to accept. "They looked at us in disbelief. We had to argue for quite some time. 'Why don't you just watch in your own country,' they said to us. My son and I simply wanted to experience the inauguration, a fascinating thing! Eventually, thankfully, they let us through."