Our RV Adventures

Heard back from DakotaPost, our SD mailing service, and our Stimulus Checks are on the way down here via Priority Mail. Yah!

Is this the end of Buffets and Cafeterias?

Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, a chain of 97 locations nationwide has announced that they’re shutting down permanently, as they see no way forward in the WuFlu environment.

And I would imagine cafeterias like Luby’s and Piccadilly’s are in the same boat. And I know Ryan’s was already on the ropes as well as Home Town Buffet and Old Country Buffet, also. So can Golden Corral be far behind?

The problem is that these places can’t even afford to open with only a 25% occupancy requirement, or probably not even at 50%. They depend on moving a lot of people through at a steady pace, otherwise they can’t even recoup their costs on the food that they’re putting out.

Jan and I are worried about our local favorite Yummy Yummy. The sign on their door says that they’re closed temporarily and will reopen soon,  but I don’t see how until the occupancy % is pretty much back to 100. Crossing our fingers.

Oh, on a separate note, Logan Roadhouse has also filed for bankruptcy, but again they were already having troubles pre-WuFlu.

On a personal note, a few weeks ago after our annual physicals, our doctor gave us both ColoGuard tests to take and send in. Well, last week they came back, with Jan’s coming out negative, but mine came back positive.

Rut Roh!

The last time I had a colonoscopy was December 2007 while I still working full-time and had insurance. Everything was fine, and in fact the doctor was surprised that I had absolutely no polyps whatsoever, especially since I had never had any removed before.

I told him I figured it was all the extremely hot stuff I ate, and that it just cauterized everything down there. He laughed and said, “Could be”.

Reading up on the Colo Guard test, I found in the fine print that it has 13% false positive rate. This from a test that costs $650. So as a double-check, I got a FIT test from the drugstore to check for blood. And it came up negative.

The Colo Guard test actually checks for suspicious DNA that might indicate cancerous polyps, while the FIT just checks for bleeding polyps that might be cancerous.

My doctor has given me a FIT test every other year for a while now and it’s always come back negative too.

So setting up the appointment last week, yesterday was Prep Day for today. And I must say they’ve really improved the whole prep thing. Last time it was a gallon of really foul tasting, chalky liquid that almost made you gag when you drank it. In fact the prep was much worse than the actual colonoscopy.

But this time it was really easy. The SuPrep kit came with two 6oz bottles of liquid and 16oz plastic cup. At 5pm yesterday, I dumped one of the bottles into the cup, topped it up to 16oz with Lipton’s Diet Green Tea and drank it down.

It was a clear liquid with a vague cherry flavor, and mixed with the Green Tea, it was very palatable. Then within the next hour I had to drink two more 16oz drinks.

The only thing that bothered me was the cost of the SuPrep kit. It was $105! And it was just a mixture of sodium sulfate, potassium sulfate, and magnesium sulfate. Now I can buy a pound of food grade sodium sulfate on Amazon for $10, as well as the potassium sulfate (potash), and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts). So for about $30 I could enough of this to make about a hundred kits.

Guess that little plastic cup must be really expensive. 

Then at 9pm I had to do it all over again. And all I can say, boy, this stuff will clean you out quick.

I was told that I needed be there at 11:30 for the 12:30 procedure. And for once they were right on time.

After I was prepped in Pre-Op, inserting the I.V., blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, etc., I was rolled into the endoscopy suite at 12:21 and woke up back in my Pre-Op room at 12:45pm. Wow, that was quick. I didn’t even remember dozing off.

And it seems that it was quick because once again I had absolutely no polyps, just a little bit of diverticulosis on one side that’s never caused me any problems.

So I guess I’m one of the lucky 13% of false positives.

In other words, it all came out OK in the end.

BTW you can thank Jan for the fact that I didn’t post the color pictures I was given of the inside of my colon.

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Thought For The Day:

Once you know what’s up, be smart and play dumb.

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One Year Ago Today:  We were in Würzburg, Germany

Würzburg

Würzburg, Germany  5/8/2019

Our ship docked at Würzburg at 7am after traveling all night from Bamberg, but we got to rest up since our Würzburg Residenz and Walking Tour didn’t start until 1pm. So we had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and a nice lunch with our friends before we headed for the buses.

Our first stop was, of course, the Würzburg Residenz.

Originally the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg resided in the Marienberg Fortress located on a hill overlooking the Main River and the city.

Note the vertically-planted vineyards. We saw vines planted like this all over Europe, but they’re apparently being phased out due to government safely regs. It seems that the workers slipping and rolling all the way to the bottom is a real problem. So now they’re moving to terracing.

But the Prince-Bishops thought that the Fortress was just too small to measure up to their exalted position. This is what they thought was too dinky for them.

So in 1720 construction was started on the Residenz, but like a lot of these projects, it dragged on through several different rulers, and it took 24 years to finish the exterior buildings, and then another 36 years to finish off the interiors in 1780..

But it was worth it as you can see from these exterior shots.

And what it looks like from the road, out over the gardens.

Unfortunately, like many of these places, the Residenz had a ‘no photos’ rule. Now, of course, I can understand a ‘no flash’ rule, but really, why no photos at all?

And as usual, somebody’s taking photos because they’re all over the Internet, so you get to see some of those. And the place is really something.

We spent a couple of hours touring the palace, and as happened in Nuremberg, when we came out, it had gotten much colder and was now sprinkling. None of which was forecast. Nothing new, of course.

We started the Walking part of the tour, heading into town, about a 15 minute walk, first checking out the Old Stone Bridge.

The first bridge here was built in 1120 A.D., but was destroyed in a flood in1342. It was rebuilt, and, until 1885, was the only  to get to Wurzburg from across the river.

Of course, when it was built, it was a pedestrian bridge, and still is.

As we walked around we came across a number of these burled trees.

I don’t know what the story is on these, but there’s nothing on the Internet about them.But they were all over the place.

Our next stop was at St. Michael’s Church.

Like many churches over here, there have been a series of churches here, with the first one dating to 1221 A.D.

This incarnation dates from 1763, a veritable youngster in this area.

As this point, as evidenced from the raindrops on the photo above, and the fact that it was getting even colder, we decided to end our participation on the walking tour and headed back to the bus. And so did a lot of others.

One last fact is that in 1895, William Roentgen, working in his lab in Wurzburg, discovered X-Rays, and in 1901 was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.

The same one that Sheldon and Amy won.

Later at about 7pm, warmer and drier, and with a nap under our belts, we met our friends for dinner.

We both started off with the Ginger Carrot Soup,

Really declivous, and reminded us of the fabled Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town, NM.

Jan had the Grilled Tilapia,

while I once again had my favorite Angus Ribeye. You just can’t have too much steak.

And for dessert, we both had the Apple Strudel.

You can’t go wrong with Apple Strudel in Germany.

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Next Up: Wertheim Am Main (Wertheim on the Main River)

Bringing things up to date on the Shelley Luther situation. After some legal maneuvering, she was released from jail at 1:50pm this afternoon. And ultimately, it took a revised Executive Order from Governor Abbott and a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court to spring her out.

A lot of people had been berating Gov. Abbott wanting to know why he didn’t just pardon her. Well, the reason is, that he couldn’t.

Unlike a lot of states,  the governor of Texas doesn’t have unlimited pardon powers. He can only pardon, or not pardon, after a recommendation from the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. He can’t just do it unilaterally.

So what he did was to issue a new E.O. eliminating the jail time as a possible consequence of breaking the rules. And then the Texas Supreme Court issued an order for her immediate release.

So as I mentioned in last night’s blog, once again a little ‘civil disobedience’ changed the law. And starting tomorrow, salons can now open legally.

And in this case, a little civil disobedience paid off for Shelley. I mentioned that a friend had set up a GoFundMe account to help cover her $7000 fine and $20,000+ lawyer bills. And it looks like she’ll have a little left over.

Apparently people all over the country rallied to her cause, and when the account was finally shut off about 11am this morning, her fund had topped out at $500,110.00.

And the judge, Judge Eric Moyé, who is up for reelection this November, has an opponent for the seat. And that opponent, lawyer Jessica Lewis, now has contributions pouring into her campaign as well.

It will be interesting to see how the election turns out in a few months.

A while back I mentioned past U.S. ‘pandemics’ and how they were handled. In 1968-69 the Hong Kong Flu (H3N2) swept through the U.S. killing over 100,000 people. And over 1 million worldwide with most of the deaths in people over the age of 65.

But there were no shutdowns, no huddle in place, no bankrupt businesses, no crippling the economy. In fact, right in the middle of this pandemic, Woodstock took place in August 1969, (Also see here) with hundreds of thousands of people gathering in upstate New York. And the Hong Kong Flu actually hung around until later in 1970.

Now, so far, there have been about 77,000 deaths in the U.S. and about 270,000 deaths worldwide. And according to the CDC, the average of someone who dies from the WuFlu is 75.

So what’s different now?   Anyone? Anyone?

And we’re still nowhere near the 2018 seasonal flu/pneumonia death totals of 130,000.

Under the heading of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:

New York is Charging Samaritan’s Purse Income Tax After the Charity Worked for Free

After being asked by New York state lawmakers and Mount Sinai Hospital executives, Samaritan’s Purse came from out of state and built and staffed a 68 bed field hospital in Central Park in NYC. All without charging the city or state a single penny.

But now New York City and the state of New York are demanding that the charity and the people volunteering there are being required to pay city and state income tax on any money they may have earned, even if they were only being paid back in their home states.

Wow!

And it looks like Governor Brown of Oregon is threatening to keep Oregon in lockdown until at least September, or when a vaccine is available. This from a state that has had only 121 deaths.

Wrapping it up for tonight.

Coronavirus Fatality Rate 10 to 40x Lower than Estimates that Led to Lockdowns

This from the article:

By now, multiple studies from Europe, Japan, and the US all suggest that the overall fatality rate is far lower than early estimates, perhaps below 0.1 to 0.4%, i.e., ten to forty times lower than estimates that motivated extreme isolation.

“For children and young adults, it appears that infection fatality rate is lower than seasonal influenza, and for middle-age adults it is about the same. … While lockdowns were justified initially, their perpetuation may risk many lives.”

So what now?

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Thought For The Day:

s

f

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One Year Ago Today:  We were in Bamberg, Germany

Bamberg, Germany . . .

5/7/2019

Our ship docked in Bamberg, Germany for about an hour or so, long enough to let off those of us who were doing the daily excursion, Then, as they’ve done before, they sailed off down the Main River, where we will meet up with them again at dockside in Zeil Am Main.

They do this to allow the ship to make better time along the river, while we’re taking in the city.

Our tour started about 9:15 with a walk from the bus stop into town. Luckily our guide was on crutches, and although I think she was trying to hide it, I believe she was a few months pregnant. I say ‘luckily’ because it meant she walked a little slower. Nicer for us.

Bamberg is another one of the towns in this area that dates to the early 900’s. And for hundreds of years it was an important city of the Holy Roman Empire, and for a short time, the main center.

Bamberg sits on the river Regnitz , near where it branches off from the Main. And by ‘sits on’, the old town hall actually sits on a island in the middle of the river.

The story goes that the local religious leaders wouldn’t give the town leaders property to build a town hall, so they expanded a small island in the middle of the and built it there.

Here’s what it looks like from in town.

The view from the bridge highlighted the waterfront and its importance to the city.

Coming across the bridge, the first thing we saw was what’s nicknamed the Wedgewood House, and it’s easy to see why.

Known as the Hellerhaus because it was last owned by a famous art collector named Heller, it actually dates from the middle ages. Like pretty much every thing around here, I guess.

Our next stop was the Bamberg Witch Trials Memorial.

During the early 1600’s Bamberg was the location of over 1000 witch trials and executions, peaking between 1626 and 1631. Apparently, one of the reasons it stopped because people started to realize that anyone could be accused and executed, even themselves.

The memorial doesn’t have a lot of impact in the daytime, but it’s much more impressive at night.

We also got a look at St. Martin’s Church.

Built in the classic Baroque style, it was completed in only 7 years and finished in 1693.

Taking a break, we decided to try some of Bamberg’s famous Smoked Beer.

We had already seen the location of the 600+ year old brewery so we had to try it. Or at least I had to try it. Jan had to try the Strawberry Shortcake.

And ‘Smoked’ is a very apt description. It tastes like a wood fire. Very unique, and very good.

By this time it was back on the buses so we could meet up with our cruise ship at Zeil Am Main. We got there just in time to watch the Skirnir dock. It pulled right opposite the dock site, only slightly bigger than the ship,

and then using the Auxiliary Control Panels I mentioned the other day,

just slowly moved sideways until it gently touched the dock.

Then, without even tying off, and with only the thrusters to hold it in place, they lowered a portable gangplank into place,

and we all boarded.

Fifteen minutes and we were back under way again. They don’t mess around.

Dinner was my favorite Angus Ribeye, one of the permanent items on the menu,

while Jan tried one of the daily items,

the Fried Cod.

Then for dessert we both had this delicious fruit pudding.

It’s easy to see why everyone says you’ll gain 10 to 15 pounds on one of these cruises. Yikes!

A number of readers had suggested we bring along magnetic hooks, since the cabin walls are all steel. So the wall underneath our window became our auxiliary closet.

Or rather my closet since just about everything on there is mine. No room left in the real closet for me.

Also I had mentioned the other day about how the wheelhouse on the top deck can retract down to allow passage under the low bridges, and it suddenly dawned on me where it goes.

I had assumed that this area at the back of the bar was just a storeroom, but actually it’s where the wheelhouse ends up. The door that you see just opens to a shallow closet that holds the controls for the room’s audio/visual equipment.

Tomorrow: Würzburg