I've never been a beach person - nor much of a water person for that matter - there are only lakes and rivers in the land-locked Prairies scoured out of the ground by the glacial action of the last ice age and the meltwaters of the Rocky Mountains .
But, I think I could be... Place name links like Carolina Beach, NC go to Wikipedia. Place name links like Carolina Beach use the local tourism or government website.
Start Here
V |
Enjoy!!!
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| 2012.09.05 |
The idea strikes me...
Fortuitous Northern Hospitality |
| 2012.09.15 |
But First, a Little Homework...
Money Well Spent |
| 2012.09.27 |
Preparations While-U-Wait
Tick, Tick, Tick
Outlook: Weather-y
Leaving Eve |
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| 2012.10.09 |
Into the South Again
Snow Crossing
Crossed
Crossing the Mississippi to Nashville |
| 2012.10.12 |
Nashville Night
Nashville Cars and Country Music |
| ----------- |
| At the Beach, on the East Coast | |
| 2012.10.14 |
Through the Great Smoky Mountains to the Beach
Southport
Tiki Bar |
| 2012.10.17 |
My First Beach Sunrise
Chewing Some Charleston History
The Neighbourhood |
| 2012.10.26 |
Artists at Work
The Neighbourhood Again
Hurricane Sandy |
| 2012.10.28 |
Coltrane, Big Drawers, and Racin' |
| 2012.10.30 |
post-Sandy
The Sun and Boats Return
The Cape Fear Fair & Expo |
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| 2012.11.04 |
A Garden Walk
Freedom, God, and Food
Another Southport Day
Apropos of Clear Skies |
| 2012.11.12 |
To the Outer Banks |
| 2012.11.16 |
To Calabash for Calabash
Gnarly Trees at Fort Fisher
Boat Parking in Southport |
| 2012.11.22 |
Thanksgiving Day |
| 2012.11.23 |
Island of Lights |
| 2012.11.24 |
Wrightsville Beach Christmas Flotilla |
| 2012.11.25 |
A Little Bit of Home from Afar
Beach Morning
The (Secret) Art of Dr. Seuss
Sky, Land, Water |
| 2012.11.30 |
Carolina Beach Christmas Parade
Carolina Beach Christmas Flotilla |
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| 2012.12.02 |
Casey's Buffet
Wilmington Christmas Parade |
| 2012.12.03 |
Surf City (and Beyond), Here We Come! |
| 2012.12.04 |
Morning Sunrise
To Jerome's in Shallotte |
| 2012.12.05 |
Myrtle Beach
Dismantling the Beach |
| 2012.12.08 |
Trippin' Coastally
Ocean City |
| 2012.12.09 |
A Capitol Idea - Day 1 |
| 2012.12.10 |
A Capitol Idea - Day 2 |
| ----------- |
| Leaving the Beach to Cross the Country | |
| 2012.12.14 |
Coast to Coast |
| 2012.12.15 |
Atlanta, Georgia |
| 2012.12.16 |
New Orleans, Louisiana |
| 2012.12.17 |
Memphis, Tennessee |
| 2012.12.18 |
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Tucson, Arizona |
| 2012.12.21 |
PalmSprings, California
Riverside, California |
| 2012.12.22 |
Los Angeles, California |
| ----------- |
| Country Crossed, on the West Coast | |
| 2012.12.23 |
Petersen Automotive Museum |
| 2012.12.26 |
Settled After the Season
Venice Beach
Mall Vending
New Year's Eve in Los Angeles |
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| 2013.01.01 |
The Rose Parade
The Original Farmer's Market, and American Girl Place |
| 2013.01.04 |
Santa Barbara |
| 2013.01.08 |
The Reagan Library |
| 2013.01.10 |
The Late Late Show Taping
More Late Late Show
Winter in Los Angeles
Manhattan Beach |
| 2013.01.17 |
Solvang
Elephant Seals
A Drive to Palmdale |
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| 2013.02.10 |
Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
| 2013.02.18 |
Bakersfield
Malibu Country
To Ojai and Around |
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| 2013.03.09 |
The Mullin Automotive Museum, and Murphy Museum Street Show |
| 2013.03.13 |
Through Topanga Canyon to the Santa Monica Pier |
| 2013.03.14 |
The Mulholland Highway and Western Malibu |
| 2013.03.15 |
The Rest of Malibu |
| 2013.03.16 |
South to Other Beaches, or So We Intended |
| 2013.03.17 |
Finding a Fault on Another Way to Ojai |
| 2013.03.23 |
Over the San Gabriel Mountains Again |
| 2013.03.24 |
Calico Ghost Town |
| 2013.03.25 |
Surprise! A Hockey Game |
| 2013.03.29 |
Up the Coast for Easter
San Francisco
Pebble Beach and South Via Route 1 |
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| 2013.04.04 |
To San Diego to Visit an Old Friend
From San Diego after Visiting an Old Friend |
| 2013.04.06 |
On Wilshire Boulevard |
| 2013.04.07 |
The Getty Center |
| 2013.04.10 |
Tuna Canyon Road, Las Flores Canyon Road |
| 2013.04.11 |
Santa Monica Pier at Night
Concrete Creeks and Rivers
Universal CityWalk
Woolsey Canyon |
| 2013.04.11 |
Queen's English All British Meet 2013
American Street Cruisers |
| 2013.04.19 |
Yerba Buena Road
La Piedra Beach |
| 2013.04.21 |
Mulholland Drive |
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| 2013.05.01 |
The Road Home |
| 2013.05.03 |
Last Los Angeles Day |
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| Leaving the West Coast, Heading Home | |
| 2013.05.04 |
Los Angeles to Las Vegas |
| 2013.05.05 |
Hoover Dam |
| 2013.05.05 |
Las Vegas to Salt Lake City |
| 2013.05.06 |
Salt Lake City to Great Falls |
| 2013.05.07 |
Great Falls to Home |
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| 2013.05.07 |
Home and Looking the Other Way Around
Landed, Still Landing
Odds & Ends and Impressions
History Repeated |
| 2013.05.30 |
Round-Trip Recap |
Comment
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Nothing more to write about looking forward, but looking back, some summary observations.
I travelled 34,000 km (21,126 mi) with the Cabrio, 3-4 times what I historically drive in a year. The Cabrio got one tune-up in Wilmington (cap and rotor, new plugs, and throttle-body cleaning), a new battery, a new set of floor mats, 4 oil changes (2 east, 2 west) and gas - if I care someday I'll figure it out.
Gas prices that I actually paid ranged from US$2.79 (Arizona) to about $4.25/USgallon (coastal California). That's CAN$0.73 to $1.12/liter for US-Canadian dollars at par. Right now gas at home is CAN$1.28/liter (US$4.87/USgallon), approaching the US$4.99 I saw 4 blocks from the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in December.
I was away for 211 days. I took almost 5500 pictures (11G storage) of which 3300 are on this blog.
I was in 24 states and 1 district (in order of first visit):
Here's a clickable map of all the overnight trips I made. Pick a marker to see what I blogged about that place. A has two sides: outbound on the right, inbound on the left.
Or use the table below. The right column has mostly external links. There's a larger map here .
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| A |
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2012.09.05 |
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Edmonton, AB |
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Leaving Home |
| B |
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2012.10.08 |
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Weyburn, SK |
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| C |
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2012.10.09 |
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Minneapolis, MN |
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| D |
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2012.10.10 |
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St. Louis, MO |
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| E |
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2012.10.11 |
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Nashville, TN |
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Meet up with TFS; Lane Motor Museum; Great Smoky Mountains |
| F |
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2012.10.14 |
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Carolina Beach, NC |
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The beach!
These are blog entries: Southport; Calabash; Oak Island; Surf City and Cedar Island; Shallotte; Myrtle Beach; |
| 1 |
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2012.10.18 |
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Charleston, SC |
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| 2 |
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2012.10.28 |
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Martinsville, VA |
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A NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway |
| 3 |
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2012.11.12 |
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Kill Devil Hills, NC |
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The Outer Banks ; Wright Brothers National Memorial |
| 4 |
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2012.12.09 |
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Ocean City, MD |
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Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel |
| 5 |
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2012.12.10 |
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Washington, DC |
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The National Mall : National Gallery of Art ; National Air and Space Museum ; National Museum of Natural History; Hirshhorn Museum |
| G |
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2012.12.15 |
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Atlanta, GA |
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The Georgia Aquarium |
| H |
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2012.12.16 |
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New Orleans, LA |
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Bourbon Street |
| I |
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2012.12.17 |
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Memphis, TN |
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Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum ; Graceland, sorta |
| J |
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2012.12.18 |
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Oklahoma City, OK |
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| K |
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2012.12.19 |
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Albuquerque, NM |
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The American International Rattlesnake Museum |
| L |
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2012.12.20 |
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Tucson, AZ |
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| M |
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2012.12.21 |
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Palm Springs, CA |
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Heat! And the Palm Springs Art Museum |
| N |
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2012.12.22 |
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Los Angeles, CA |
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These are blog entries: Petersen Automotive Museum; Venice Beach and Oxnard; The Rose Parade; Santa Barbara; The Reagan Library; television tapings (and here); Manhattan Beach, Solvang, Elephant Seals, and Palmdale; LACMA; Bakersfield and Ojai; Mullin Automotive Museum; Santa Monica Pier (and at night); San Andreas Fault; Calico Ghost Town; Anaheim Ducks Hockey; Wilshire Boulevard; Getty Center; La Piedra Beach; Mulholland Drive and Highway; |
| 6 |
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2013.03.29 |
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San Francisco, CA |
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Golden Gate Bridge ; Pebble Beach |
| 7 |
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2013.04.04 |
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San Diego, CA |
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| O |
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2013.05.04 |
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Las Vegas, NV |
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The Las Vegas Strip ; The Hoover Dam |
| P |
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2013.05.05 |
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Salt Lake City, UT |
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| Q |
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2013.05.06 |
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Great Falls, MT |
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| A |
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2013.05.07 |
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Edmonton, AB |
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Home Again |
These are all the routes of significance I could remember or reconstruct from blog entries.
West Coast
Routes travelled from Woodland Hills |
Routes travelled from Woodland Hills around Los Angeles | |
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East Coast
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Car museums and shows, art galleries, and museums that I visited, in order of visit. A few I didn't pay to go into though, marked with '*'.
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| 2013.06.01 |
Artifacts |
Comment
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This stuff has been sitting here waaay too long. Time to put it in its place. | |
| A final bit of documentary: things I brought home. I mostly shopped for others: my Mom and a few friends. But I also like "dustables": things that sit on shelves collecting dust for no other reason than to trigger happy memories and, in these cases, as signal that I was once somewhere else very far away in space, and becoming moreso in time. |
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pocketknife |
The first trinket I bought, in one of many pancake eateries in Pigeon Forge, TN. | |
Carolina Beach, North Carolina
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snow globe, shot glass & magnet |
| I hadn't thought much of buying this kind of stuff for myself until we were on our way back from Washington, DC and stopped at the east coast's largest truck stop, Kenly 95 Petro at Exit 106 of Interstate 95 in Kenly, NC. | |
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sea shells, shark egg case, and beach sand |
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t-shirts |
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For such a small place, the Lighthouse gift shop was packed with trinkets. This 8x10 print of the Lighthouse and the Keeper's house grabbed my eye for its sense of solitude.
TFS bought me the t-shirt after we ate at Jerome's. | |
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Relocating East to West
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Memphis
snow globe, shot glass, matches, and bag
from the Graceland gift shop
"Where Elvis Lives"
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Los Angeles
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CDs and music-shop trinkets |
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| LA Weekly is a free weekly with alternative culture journalism on music, food, and social issues. The classifieds have the usual escort and stripper ads, augmented with ads for marijuana dispensaries and referring "doctors."
Boulevard is mostly advertising for life along Ventura Boulevard | |
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The last bit of Christmas (and Easter) candy from TFS, bless her for the calories ;) | |
Heading Home
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40 oz. booze and 200 smokes,
duty-free (all gone now) | |
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ticket stubs & receipts | |
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Travel and attraction handouts. Too much nerdery to detail them right now. The majority are from the east coast, culled from a much-larger collection lugged across the continent. | |
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TX - speeding tickets - CA |
| For 34,000km, driving at least 10% over the speed limit, sometimes 20 or 30%, I fared pretty well. | |
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redneck wind screen | |
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| This flattened cardboard box from a toilet tank, complete with packing slip, rode in the back seat from Carolina Beach. It was inspired by some flattened shipping boxes TFS needed to ship her things home from the beach. The Cabrio's trunk is too small so I put them in the back seat. At around 30mph the boxes flipped upright from the wind backwash, becoming a screen. Inspiration! It's become pretty ratty now, especially after being used for traction to get us unstuck in the Oceano Dunes, but still functional. | | |
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| 2013.06.02 |
Tools of the Tour |
Comment
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Being a computer guy, I used some tools along the way. My Desktop sat at home running 24/7 serving me just as it does when I'm there through a VNC connection from my laptop, a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 that I otherwise used indoors and out for email and surfing, photo processing, and playing music. My smartphone is a Samsung Galaxy Note for calls, email, surfing, photos and reading The Edmonton Journal back home. A Canon PowerShot SX230 HS shot the bulk (about 5000 )of the photos (5500) I took. What you can't see is my web server, lower left of this stack, bringing you this blog. Everything but the camera runs Linux . | |
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| 2013.06.03 |
Fini |
Comment
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And that's about all I can add except lingering impressions and memories, and I may do that here over time. I'll likely fiddle with things for a while, but nothing substantive. Before I'm done I must thank some people that made this adventure entirely possible and practical:
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Nikki for starting everything off over a year ago in tipping the scales for me to go to a NASCAR race in Bristol, Tennessee.
TFS for a great many things I cannot do justice here in mere words, but great companionship, openness, communication, artistic spirit, and above all trust were fundamental. And for Jake and her family.
RM for watching my home, TO for depositing my paycheques, and PM for being interested and in contact.
Thank you for reading. |
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