  We present high S/N measurements of the H I Ly alpha absorption line toward
16 Galactic targets which are at distances between approximately 190 and 2200
pc, all beyond the wall of the Local Bubble. We describe the models used to
remove stellar emission and absorption features and the methods used to account
for all known sources of error in order to compute high precision values of the
H I column density with robust determinations of uncertainties. When combined
with H2 column densities from other sources, we find total H column densities
ranging from 10^20.01 to 10^21.25/cm2. Using deuterium column densities from
FUSE observations we determine the D/H ratio along the sight lines. We confirm
and strengthen the conclusion that D/H is spatially variable over these H I
column density and target distance regimes, which predominantly probe the ISM
outside the Local Bubble. We discuss how these results affect models of
Galactic chemical evolution. We also present an analysis of metal lines along
the five sight lines for which we have high resolution spectra and, along with
results reported in the literature, discuss the corresponding column densities
in the context of a generalized depletion analysis. We find that D/H is only
weakly correlated with metal depletion and conclude that the spatial D/H
variability is not solely due to dust depletion. A bifurcation of D/Htot as a
function of depletion at high depletion levels provides modest support that
deuterium-rich gas is infalling onto the Galactic plane.
