This is good ol' number five. See the three times I had pages added---not all matching, either---and the slapdashed look? I can't tell you the number of times it has led to me being checked and double-checked at immigration. I watch the flummoxed looks it gets and try hard to suppress my laughter.

This is my favorite travel memento of the last nine years I’ve had it.   Every stamp tells a story:   the bribe to get into Panama; the Paraguayan consul official who made me listen to “You Can Do Magic” by 1970’s pop band America on his mobile phone; the Ukrainians who happily stamped me out and then phoned ahead to the Hungarians that a guy with a potentially bogus passport was going to try and enter; the phony documents I had to submit to get the Brazilian visa; the relief at getting stamped out of Morocco with a possibly-contraband police license plate in my bag—good times all around!

I’m going to miss you, number 5…(sniff)