Our RV Adventures

A long-time friend questioned my support of Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was sentenced to jail and fined $7000 for opening her salon because she was having trouble feeding her children.

Greg, I’d have to disagree with you on funding Shelley Luther after she broke the law. What if everyone took this attitude and disobeyed the law? The virus would spread, hospitals would get overloaded — a real mess because people, like Shelley, disobeyed the law. It’s your right to send her money, if that’s your desire. But I think it sends the wrong message that it’s OK to disobey the law, which it isn’t.

There should be a penalty for breaking the law, and she should pay it. If she doesn’t like the laws in the U.S., let her move to another country.

Jim,

Civil Disobedience goes back to the beginnings of our country, I.e. the Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s Ride, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, to more modern events, Rosa Parks, Lunch Counter Sit-ins, Freedom Marches, etc.

All of these were against the ‘law’. But all changed our history, and our laws.

Don’t know if you actually listened to her statement to the judge. She’s having trouble feeding her family, and the same goes for her stylists. She’s not yet received any money from the government. How long would you let your family suffer before you ‘broke the law’?

I take it you haven’t seen the photos online of lines of cars, miles long, stacked up to get food trying to feed their families, over 10,000 at once. Google “Food lines in Texas” if you don’t believe me. These are people who 2 months ago had jobs and no problem feeding their families.

Now, as far as ‘breaking the law’. Legal scholars all over the Internet are debating the validity of these ‘laws’. Mostly because a law by definition has been passed by a legislature and signed by an executive. These are executive ‘orders’ and there are definitely limitations to the them. Note how many of President Trump’s Executive Orders have been challenged in court, some successfully and some unsuccessfully. They are not absolute.

This is why there have been over 150 lawsuits filed, both on Federal and State levels, challenging the validity of these EO’s, some from the governor’s own state legislatures.

Even a Supreme Court Justice and A.G Barr have questioned some of these declarations. For her part the governor of Michigan answered mass protests against her edicts by threatening to crack down even harder and keep the state locked down even longer.

Now both the Governor of Texas and the Attorney General of Texas have criticized the Judge’s ruling and said she should be released ASAP. Plus the Lt. Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, has paid her fine and has offered to take her place in jail.

Also note that Shelley Luther was not convicted of any ‘crime’, or breaking any ‘law’, maybe because the judge is aware it might not hold up. Instead, she was jailed and fined for ‘Contempt Of Court’ because she refused to apologize to the judge for ‘her selfishness’ as in trying to feed her family.

This in a county that’s released 100’s of actual criminals to protect them from the virus, but yet it’s OK to throw her back in the jail?

And apparently Shelley Luther’s plight has caught the attention of the Internet, since as of 10pm, her GoFundMe account is at about $475,000 with around 13,000 donors, for an average of $40 per donation.

Recently the DOJ had to intervene in several states and localities concerning the complete shutdown of religious services. Even ones where people were parked in the church parking lot listening to the sermon on their radios with their windows up. These people were given $500 tickets from police officers, not wearing masks, who demanded the people roll down their windows to receive the tickets.

See a problem here?

The other thing that is coming up is what are the governor’s limitations in all this. A number of states, Michigan and Mississippi are just two, have 30 day limitations on a governor’s State of Emergency declarations. But these are being ignored. Which is why, as I mentioned above, the governor of Michigan is being sued by her own legislature for overstepping her bounds.

In fact a number of cities and counties around the country have said that they will no longer enforce these ‘laws’ that they no longer think are valid.

Plus some governors have threatened to keep their state in lockdown until there’s a vaccine. So, since some leading epidemiologists say we may never have a real effective vaccine, how is this going to play out? We don’t have a vaccine for the common cold, we don’t have a vaccine for HIV, and even the seasonal flu vaccines are sometimes only 25 to 35% effective.

So what’s to be done about a governor who refuses to reopen their state when the other states around them are opening. An example of this is going on right now in Bristol TN/Bristol VA.

The state line between Tennessee and Virginia runs right down the center of Main St., with stores open for business on the TN side, and locked down tight on the VA side. So restaurant owners on the VA side are going broke while right across the street business is booming.

I guess the virus knows to stop at the state line, right?

Wrapping up, this morning Governor Cuomo released a study showing that 66% of the new WuFlu cases in New York were sheltering at home, not traveling or working.

So much for self-quarantining.
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A Very Apropos Thought For The Day:

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One Year Ago Today:  We were in Nuremberg, Germany

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When Snow White Needs A New Grumpy . . .

Nuremberg, Germany    5/6/2019

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog on our visit to Regensburg how when we came out of the town museum that it had turned cold and rainy.

Well, today wasn’t any better. In fact it was worse, with 30° at 4:30 am this morning, and only up to 32 by 8:30. So everyone was scrambling, including us, for some warm coats/jackets. Everyone had looked at the average temps this time of the year and packed their clothes according, not planning for daytime temps in the 30’s.

In fact the ship sold out of their fleece jackets like the ones we got (on the left)

and had to get the much more expensive ones on the right.

Our Nuremberg walking tour was in the afternoon, so we had lunch up on the Aquavit Terrace which is kind of a light buffet, with both hot and cold dishes. One of which was listed as “Meatloaf”.

Well, it was meat, and it is in a loaf, I guess. But it AIN’T Meatloaf. It’s more like one of those Hormel canned hams. But I guess that some mushrooms and a little gravy makes it all good. Or not.

Today the Skirnir was docked right in town so we were able to step right off the ship and onto our tour buses.

Looking back at the ship we saw that the Sundeck was still configured for the upcoming low bridges.

Not only does the wheelhouse retract into the the deck when necessary, but so does the ‘BBQ Grill’ on the left side. There’s also one on the right side that’s retracted now.

I call them ‘BBQ Grills’ because that’s what they call them, because that’s what they look like. I thought that maybe the cooks use them for BBQ’ing, but actually they’re Auxiliary Control Panels.

The Skirnir has thrusters that can actually move the ship sideways. So they just pull up besides the dock and then move sideways until they’re perfectly positioned. And the Auxiliary Panels let them keep a close eye on the dockside as they’re moving.

Neat!

Our tour started out by passing by a number of the Nazi stadiums, rally grounds, and buildings, including the Federal Building where the Nuremberg Trials were held in Rm. 600. And trials are still held there today.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos because of the darkened and curved glass windows on the bus, so just use your imagination.

After our bus tour, we began our walking tour of the old city, including the medieval Nuremberg Castle.

I  will have to admit  that the Castle tour almost finished Jan and I off. The walk up to the Castle was a very steep climb, with largest cobblestones we encountered the entire trip. They were humped up about 4”, very rough, and hard to walk on. And they were wet, due to the on and off cold drizzles we were having.

By the time we were to the top our ankles were screaming for Advil, and we were both hobbling the rest of the day. And we probably wouldn’t have made it to the top without a little help from our friends.

But once we were at the top, the view out over the city was great.

Next up was a couple of very old churches, St Sebaldus, which dates from the early 1200’s.

and the Frauenkirche (Our Lady’s Church), which was consecrated in the mid-1300’s.

The clock in the tower has been ticking away since 1509.

Did I mentioned that everything over here is just OLD.

As we walked through town we passed the Albrecht-Dürer house.

Built in 1420, it was the home of Dürer, a noted Renaissance artist.

We also noticed that a number of houses had these intricate statues mounted on the corner. Not sure what the significance is, though.

We ended our guided tour at the Main Market in the center of town next to the City Hall. Our rendezvous point to meet up later to head back to the buses was the Schöner Brunnen.

A 60+ foot high Gothic spire, the fountain dates from the late-1400’s, and depicts 40 different colorful figures, ranging from leaders of the Holy Roman Empire, Church Fathers, Moses, and seven of the Apostles. Don’t know why the other five got left out. Or four if you don’t count Judas.

Since we were getting a little hungry, we decided to try the nearby Behringer’s Bratwursthausle, listed as the home of the original Nuremberg Bratwurst. But we didn’t know at the time how ‘original’ it was. Founded in 1313, the European Union has designated it as the ‘First Sausage in Europe’.

Now I’m not sure how the Old Sausage Kitchen in Regensburg feels about this, since they’ve been around since 900 A.D. Our guide told us that’s there’s a big rivalry between the two cities over their sausages. I guess now we know why.

Our guide told us that Nurembergers are known for being especially grumpy. In fact she said that if Snow White needed a new Grumpy, she’d come to Nuremberg. And we found this out for ourselves.

We ordered sausages with kraut and bread, and this is what we got.

Note: No kraut.

And though we asked repeatedly, in both English and my halting German, we never got it. And in fact, the more we ask, the grumpier he got.

And before you ask, no, it wasn’t just us. Others from our cruise were having the same problem. And when we tried to get our check, it got even worse. He had them all mixed up, with different tables lumped together. And the more we tried to correct him, the grumpier he got.

But finally settling up, we headed over to other side of the market square to buy some of the famous Nuremberg gingerbread. But what we got was kind of disappointing. Turns out that Nuremberg gingerbread has no ginger in it.

Or cinnamon or cloves.

In fact, it pretty much tasted like an moist oatmeal cookie. But it was tasty, anyway. How can gingerbread not have any ginger in it?

Back at the ship, we took the obligatory nap, gobbled down some more Advil, and met up for dinner.

Jan and I both repeated on our Appetizers and Entrees, with the only new dishes, our desserts.

Jan had a delicious Mango sorbet, so good she almost ordered seconds.

And I had the Blueberry Crumble, also delicious.

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Tomorrow: Bamberg

As I mentioned in Saturday’s blog, we ate dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse that night, and then Sunday, we had breakfast for dinner at our local Denny’s. And as at Saltgrass there were a few changes from normal.

We were ‘social distanced’, spread out among the booths and our waitress, Shelby, wore a mask. Our menu (we only got one) was printed on paper and thrown away as soon as we were finished ordering, and no salt/pepper shakers, jus the paper packets. Same thing goes with the sugar/jelly/creamers. As soon as we were done, the remaining packs were thrown away.

I didn’t see our usual waiter, Scott, so I asked. Shelby, said he was not coming back for a couple of weeks so he could collect the extra $600/week unemployment for a while longer. And in his case I don’t have a problem since I know he takes care of his invalid mother.

But I have heard of other places that are trying to reopen but can’t get their staff back to work because they’re making more on unemployment with the extra $600 than they can make on the job.

Of course if they wait too long, until the extra money runs out July 31st, there may not be a business to come back to.

Then this afternoon we did Curbside Pickup at our local Whataburger once again.

That’s a Double Meat with Cheese, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Onions, and Grilled Jalapenos, along with Mustard and Mayo

And no, no Ketchup. And not on Hotdogs, either. Ketchup goes on French Fries. And maybe on top of your grandmother’s Meatloaf. That’s it.

We asked Lillian, the young lady who brought our order out if she knew when they were going to reopen the dining room, and she said no one had any idea.

And on the Wuhanic Plague front:

Tanzania suspends laboratory head after their president questions coronavirus tests. In this case the lab said a sample from a goat and a pawpaw fruit both tested positive for the virus. Maybe this is what happened with my test, too.

And here’s a couple of articles about all the different strains of WuFlu that are running around the world, and how the vaccines may not work against all of them.

More mutant strains of coronavirus found in Europe.

At least 12 strains of the virus found in the U.K.

It may be that any vaccine that they come up with will be about as effective against all the different versions as the yearly flu vaccinations are against the seasonal flu.

Which about about 25% effective in 2018 and 35% effective in 2019.

And here’s a medical article from an Italian researcher who says she has discovered how CoVid damages the hemoglobin in the blood, and how HCQ actually works to block the virus.

And here’s a Dallas Salon owner who defied the authorities and opened her salon a week early.

A Texas salon owner was given seven days in jail on Tuesday after she refused to apologize for defying coronavirus related restrictions by remaining open for business.

Dallas business owner Shelley Luther was given a choice: She could offer an apology for selfishness, pay a fine and shutdown until Friday, or serve jail time.

“I have to disagree with you, sir, when you say that I’m selfish because feeding my kids is not selfish,” she told the judge. “I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they would rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon.”

After her refusal to show contrition, bailiffs led her away to be booked. Her sentence reportedly symbolizes the seven-days she stayed open, despite county regulations.

So now she’s looking at a $7000 fine, and 10’s of thousands of Dollars in lawyer costs. So a friend set up a GoFundMe site here to help cover her costs.

Shelley Luther GoFundMe site

Don’t know your feelings about this, but I sent in $25.

Well, it looks like we’ve been officially Simulated. Today was the first time I’ve gone to the IRS.gov/coronavirus/getmypayment website and go anything other than an error message. Now I get this,

So I guess the check’s in the mail.

Unfortunately it’s going to our South Dakota address.

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One Year Ago Today:  We were in Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany

Regensburg, Germany . . .5/5/2019

As with other towns/excursions along our river cruise, when we woke up we were docked out in the middle of nowhere. Just a dock, some mooring capstans, and a gangplank to the shore.

What happens is that they would dock a ways out from town, let off the people who were going to take the excursion, and then the ship would proceed on into the dock in town where it would be waiting for us at the end of the day.

So today we had a 40 minute bus ride into Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany. Founded in the mid-1200’s, it’s known for having a higher concentration of bars than any other German city.

Coming into town we passed field after field of what turned out to be mustard plants

Which turn out to figure in our lunch.

We met our local guide at the bus park and started our walking tour into town, taking in the many sights.

Though the town itself was established in 1245, it had been a Roman settlement since around 100 A.D. It fact this stone arch was part of a wall that was commissioned in 179 A.D.

Everything over here is just OLD.

Coming into the main part of town we crossed the Old Stone Bridge.

Built around 1135, it was the only bridge across the river until the 1930’s. Originally a toll bridge, two different Crusades to the Holy Land passed over it along the way.

Next up was St. Peter’s Cathedral.

Built in 1280 to replace one that was built in 700 A.D. and burned down in 1273 A.D.

Did I mentioned that everything over here is just OLD.

After we finished touring the town museum, we came outside to find that the temp had dropped into the low 40’s and it was sprinkling.

But we had planned to have lunch at the historic Regensburg Sausage Kitchen.

And by historic, I mean the 900 year old Regensburg Sausage Kitchen

Did I mentioned that everything over here is just OLD.

It is said the Sausage Kitchen fed the workers who were building the Stone Bridge right next door.

When we came out, the umbrellas were up, holding off some of the rain, so we ordered “Sechs und Kraut”. Or Six and Kraut in English.

Which means six of their famous sausages, kraut, and rolls (Brötchen), the same thing that they have been serving all these years.

And it was delicious. Even though by the time our order came, it was 37 degrees and sleeting.

Where did this come from?

But the real standout of the meal was their Sweet Spicy Mustard, made from the same recipe all these years. So good that after the meal, I stood in line in the sleeting rain for 10 minutes to buy a bottle to take home.

Unfortunately as we were packing our suitcases in London before we came home, and swapping things back and forth trying to meet the weight limits, the bottle accidently ended up in one of our carry-on bags, and is now being enjoyed by a TSA  guy in London.

But I discovered that I could order some online from a US company, so two jars are now sitting in our kitchen. And we’ve ordered it again since then.

By now it was time for us to meet our ship, and we were told it was waiting for us about a half mile down the river at dock 2. So a bunch of us headed out, only to find that  the Skirnir had not yet arrived. So there we all stood in the rain.

But the captain of the Viking ship Tor took pity on us and let us come onboard to wait until our ship arrived.

After getting back on board, dry and warmed up, and a nap, we met up with our usual crowd for another great meal.

Jan and I started with the Sweet Potato Soup,

the Veal Scaloppini.

along with Carrot Cake for me,

and Tiramisu for Jan for dessert.

Later, we were given a talk about the many locks and low bridges that we would be encountering in the coming days. And because of this we were told that the Sundeck would be closed for the next week or so.

Everything is folded down, including the railings, to allow the ship under the many low  bridges. And since it takes over 2 hours to complete the procedure, either way, they just leave them down until they’re through the worse of it.

Here’s what it normally looks like.

Next up: Nuremburg

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Thought For The Day: