A global nomad's pursuit to see all 195 countries, 39 territories, & 9 de-facto nations
July 29, 2021
Lucas Wall appeared on four news shows today to talk about the lawsuit he is about to file against the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Transportation Security Administration, President Joseph Biden, and five other governmental agencies seeking to strike down the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate after he was denied boarding yesterday at Orlando International Airport for refusing to cover his face.
A frequent traveler unable to wear a mask was stopped from boarding his Southwest Airlines flight this morning from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale despite having submitted the required exemption form to the airline two days ago when he booked his ticket.
The Transportation Security Administration would not let Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., through its checkpoint. Multiple TSA supervisors consulted with Southwest managers for about an hour before finally telling Wall they would not let him fly. The airline violated the Air Carrier Access Act, a federal law that requires airlines to accommodate passengers with disabilities, Wall contends.
Wall, who suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder that causes hyperventilation and panic attacks when he tries to cover his mouth and nose, has drafted a lawsuit against TSA, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, President Joseph Biden, LYNX, and others seeking to immediately enjoin enforcement of the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate as illegal and unconstitutional.
A frequent traveler plans to defy the Federal Transportation Mask Mandate on Wednesday morning, June 2, at Orlando International Airport.
Lucas Wall, 44, of Washington, D.C., has a 10 a.m. flight booked on Southwest Airlines to Fort Lauderdale. He will refuse to wear a mask at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint and will presumably be denied the ability to board his flight.
October 14, 2019
Being a transit geek, I was so excited to ride Dakar’s new commuter rail this evening on my last day in Senegal. I had read some articles online indicating the line had opened in mid-January. So you can imagine my despair when I found out the railway is still under construction!
After returning to Dakar from Goree Island, I walked one-fifth of a mile from the port to the central train station, but to my great surprise found it surrounded by barricades and very much still under renovation. I had read the first segment of the Dakar Regional Express Train to the eastern suburb of Diamniadio opened in January. But apparently, I would later read after today’s misadventure, that was only the first test run, not the beginning of passenger service.
It’s my final day in Senegal. I spent this afternoon visiting a tragic reminder of the slave trade. Many “merchants” built houses here on Goree Island – just a couple miles off the westernmost part of continental Africa – in which they would live and work in the upper story and store their human cargo on the lower floor. Slaves-to-be awaited their transportation across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
This island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was an important slave-trading station during the 1700s and 1800s. It’s well known for the infamous “Doorway to Nowhere” in the Slave House – which President Barack Obama visited in 2013 – that opens directly from the holding cells to the sea, where captives would be brought out to ocean-going vessels in small boats.
“The Island of Goree is an exceptional testimony to one of the greatest tragedies in the history of human societies: the slave trade,” according to UNESCO. “The various elements of this ‘memory island’ – fortresses, buildings, streets, squares, etc. – recount, each in its own way, the history of Goree which, from the 15th to the 19th century, was the largest slave-trading center of the African coast.”
October 12, 2019
Today marks 15 months as a global nomad! I rode a Senegal Dem Dikk bus 4 hours 53 minutes from Saint-Louis to back to the capital of Dakar. The trip went smoothly, although we made a few too many stops, seemingly letting passengers off at any place they desired rather than just servicing official bus depots.
Picked up my bags from the hotel at 2:22 and had a taxi ride of about 2½ miles (F1,000; $1.72) to the bus depot to begin my journey back to Dakar. Arrived at the depot at 2:34. Wow, what a “bus station” for a city of 178,000! It’s just a sandy lot with two buses parked, an abandoned tractor, goats, and lots of garbage.
October 9, 2019
I’ve been to Africa five times before, but the sights I saw today in western Saint-Louis were still eye-popping: all the colorful fishing boats, carts drawn by horse and donkey, animals everywhere, horrendous piles of garbage, most streets that are all sand, and on and on.
It all amounts to a photographer’s paradise, with the itch to shoot every few seconds.
I walked across the unmarked, unpatrolled border from Saint-Louis, Senegal, into Mauritania this afternoon, achieving my 129th country.
After spending a few hours this afternoon exploring the former French colonial capital of Saint-Louis, I walked 1.2 miles from the end of the road in northwestern Saint-Louis along a track through the sand into undeveloped far southwestern Mauritania on a narrow spit of land called the Langue de Barbarie. It separates the Senegal River from the Atlantic Ocean. It’s my first time unofficially/illegally crossing a national border!
October 8, 2019
This afternoon I got out to wander around Saint-Louis, a UNESCO World Heritage city established in 1659 by French traders on an uninhabited island called Ndar. It was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal. I then set out for the Mauritanian border, seeking to visit a new country.
Saint-Louis, population 178,000, was the first French settlement in West Africa. The city center is located on an island in the Senegal River. The island is connected to the mainland by the Pont Faidherbe, designed by Gustav Eiffel for the Danube River in Europe but moved to Senegal in 1897.
August 18, 2019
I woke up late again today and couldn’t get on the last bus from Dakar to Saint-Louis. So I ended up having the adventure of riding more than 4½ hours in a jammed “sept place” (seven-seat) shared taxi to reach the first French settlement in West Africa, which today is Senegal’s sixth-most-populous city.
Checked out at 1:59 p.m. and grabbed a taxi (CFA 3,000; $5.18) to Liberte 5 bus station, where I learned the last Senegal Dem Dikk bus of the day to Saint-Louis (at 3 p.m.) was sold out. Damnit! Now I had to take another cab to the Gare Routière des Baux Maraichers “bush taxi” depot in eastern Dakar to find alternate transportation.
Upon arrival at 3:33 p.m., I found organized chaos. The lot is full of old beaten-up vans and seven-seat Peugeot station wagons known as “sept place,” a common form of intercity transportation in Senegal. It didn’t take too long to locate a sept place bound for Saint Louis. These vehicles don’t run on any schedule. Rather they depart once full.