Daily Archives: May 20, 2023
More Fun and Old Friends . . .
Since we were once again out late with old friends, just the Retro-Blogs tonight. I’ll catch up tomorrow from Fairhope, AL
Since I know a few of you don’t make it all the way down through the Retro-Blogs™,
I thought I’d repost up here our time on our European Viking River Cruise today in 2019.
May 20, 2019
Total London Tour 5/20/19
Today was our first full day in London and we did it up right by taking the Total London Tour, a whirlwind, 9 hour extravaganza hitting the major tourist highlights of the city.
So we were up at 5:45, downstairs at the restaurant for breakfast when it opened at 6:30, jumping into our booked last night Uber ride at 7:00, and at the Victoria Coach Station by 7:20am. As it turns out, Coach Station is just the fancy British term for Bus Terminal.
Our tour bus pulled out right on time at 7:45am, and James, our tour guide, launched into his detailed description of pretty much every building we passed.
Our first stop was at St. Paul’s Cathedral, but something was going on inside the prevented us from touring it. Designed by Christopher Wren, this present building was began in 1675 after the previous one was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. But there has been a church on this site since 603 A.D.
The tallest building in London until 1967, it has been the location of the Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilee services for Queen Elizabeth II, and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
After passing by many other locations, like both the Old and New Scotland Yard buildings, and the Houses of Parliament, our next stop was Westminster Abbey, the coronation site of every British Monarch since 1066 A.D. And here we did get to tour the inside.
Like St. Paul’s, there has been a church on this site since the 7th century, but unlike St. Paul’s, there are over 3000 people buried here, including, not only people like Mary, Queen of Scots, and a bunch of Edwards, Williams, Charles, Henrys, and James, but scientists like Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and more recently, Stephen Hawking. And even actors like Sir Lawrence Olivier.
And supposedly there is another relationship between Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s. When it was under construction, St. Paul’s ran out of money to finished up the building. So other churches in the area were dunned to contribute to their ‘building fund’.
And since Westminster Abbey, officially titled “The Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster”, was a major ‘contributor’, this gave rise to the old saw, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
At least that’s the way the story goes.
Unfortunately they don’t allow any photos or videos inside, so no pictures for the blog. However I must say that this was the second abbey, the other one being the one in Melk, Austria, that we’ve visited that was so ‘sacrosanct’ as to not allow even ‘non-flash’ photography, but not so ‘sacrosanct’ as to have you exit the church on your tour through a ‘GIFT SHOP’. Just sayin’.
Next up was a stop at Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard.
After a short walk from where our bus was parked outside the palace gates, we lined up just in time to see the Coldstream Guards leave their post and their replacement regiment march by on the way to take up their positions.
Then it was all back on the bus for a drive across the Tower Bridge,
to our next stop, The Tower of London. But first up, we were given an hour for lunch, so Jan and I chose the nearby Wagamama location, an Asian-styled fusion place, that turned out to be excellent.
First up was an appetizer order of Bang Bang Cauliflower,
crispy wok-fried in firecracker sauce with red and green onions, and topped off with ginger and coriander.
DELICIOUS!
Jan got the Chili Chicken Ramen,
while I got the Chili Steak Ramen.
After our break we met up with our guide who passed out our Tower tickets and we were left to explore the area for several hours.
This is the White Tower, the first building in the fortress.
Constructed between 1078 and 1100 by William the Conqueror, it was very formidable for its time.
Next up was the building that holds the Crown Jewels,
but again no photos were allowed.
So I just took a photo of MY Crown Jewel.
Jan was also interested to see the memorial placed at the site of the execution of Anne Boleyn.
A historical group keeps fresh flowers on the site.
As we were leaving, I took this shot contrasting one of the oldest sites in London, and one of the most modern.
The 1000 foot tall building, called The Shard for its broken glass-like top, is now probably the most recognizable things on the London skyline. Here’s a better shot of it.
Then after a 45 minute cruise along the Thames, we finished up our day with a ride on the Millennium Eye.
At 443 feet, the Eye is the 2nd tallest Ferris Wheel in the world. The tallest one, at 550 feet, is the High Roller in Las Vegas, and we’ve been lucky enough to ride both of them.
And of course the obligatory selfie.
Then it was an Uber ride back to our hotel, where we collapsed without even getting dinner, just had some snacks in the room.
Tomorrow, thank goodness, is pretty much a do-nothing day, before we start again on Wednesday with a day-trip out to Stonehenge.
May 20, 2009
Last Day in Paradise…
Today is our last full day here in Key West.
After lunch at the Eat N Grinn deli, we headed over to Mallory Square to catch the Conch Train Tour.
We had already taken the Old Town Trolley tour on Sunday when our friends were here, but we wanted to take the train since although there is some overlap, the Conch Train concentrates more on the historic Old Town part of Key West.
One of the places we visited was the Southernmost Point of the United States.
Another place we drove by was the old shrimp boat docks.
Twice in the early ’60s I was on one of my father’s shrimp boats when we docked here at Key West for supplies. There wasn’t a heck of a lot in Key West then, except for the docks and the Naval Base, which closed down in the ’70’s.
After wondering thru some more gift shops, we headed down to the Old Town Mexican Café for our last Key West meal. We ate here Monday and really liked it so we thought we would try it again. Still great!
After dinner we headed back to our rig at Geiger RV Park. We’ve been parked right on the water with a great view.
When we got back, Jan was putting clothes in the washer to run a load. Right before she locked the door she noticed the clothes were ‘moving’.
A few seconds later, Mister popped out. He’s bad about crawling into places, and this time, he almost got washed and dried.
Tomorrow we head north to West Palm Beach to meet up with our friends again. It’s about 234 miles, but will take us 6-7 hours due to the slow speed limits getting off the Keys.
May 20, 2010
Pelicans and One-Eyed Crabs…
We picked up Al and Adrienne about 9 am and headed out for breakfast at The Fogcutter restaurant down near the beach.
After breakfast we walked across the street to check out the Gray’s Harbor Light Station, the tallest lighthouse in the state of Washington. Very picturesque.
Next we walked down to the end of the road to check out the ocean. Certainly a lot calmer than yesterday.
Then it was on to the marina area to look for pelicans and sea lions. And boy did we find them.
But this picture is just the beginning.
When we got to the marina itself, specifically pier 21, they were everywhere.
The whole end of the pier had about 300 pelicans all lined up.
And some sea lions too.
And more pelicans.
It looked like a pelican convention.
And more sea lions. They kind of sound like dogs barking.
These guys look like they’re doing some serious thinking.
And this old guy is just catching some rays.
I think he knew we were talking about him. Note the one eye open now.
I think this one’s kind of old too. He was the last one to fly away when we came down on the pier.
They had some really nice boats here, like this trimaran.
But this one looks like something you’d take a “3 hour tour” on.
Next we drove over to Grayland to check out the clam beach. Here’s Al, Adrienne and Jan walking out to the waterline.
The sandpipers were running around too.
The surf was still pretty rough, Note all the sand still stirred up in the waves.
This is a razor clam which is what everyone goes clamming here for. They’re called razor clams for a reason. The edge of the shells are razor sharp and it’s very easy to cut your hand just picking one up. Don’t ask Jan how she knows.
We didn’t realize how far we had walked until we looked around for the truck.
On the other side of the main road from the beach there are cranberry bogs everywhere.
After getting back to the rig, about 2 pm we headed over to Aberdeen for the 3 pm showing of Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe. Although it changed the story up from the conventional telling, it was really good.
After getting back from the movie, we headed over to have dinner at The One-Eyed Crab again. And it was worth the 2nd trip. Just as good as last night.
We got home about 8:30 pm, just in time to watch the season finale of “Fringe”
May 20, 2011
Resting Up . . .
My day started a little later than usual, about 11 am. But then I didn’t get to bed until almost 3.
I fixed coffee and had a banana for breakfast.
Yesterday our daughter Brandi sent over this Landon photo of his daycare class. That’s him on the far left in the checked shirt.
What I want to know is how they got all those kids to sit still at the same time. Hypnotism, powerful drugs, what?
Later for lunch, Jan heated up the last of the pizza from the other night. Once again, adding some basil and oregano made all the difference.
About 2:30 I headed in to Coarsegold to the Post Office. I wanted to check for some mail via General Delivery. But I’ll have to try again tomorrow since it didn’t come in.
Coming home we stopped at the Coarsegold Feed Store to get Jan some raw peanuts to feed the squirrels, but they were out. Said to try again next week.
Next was a stop at the Coarsegold Market for some cream cheese to have with the Raspberry Habanero jelly we got the other day.
About 5:45 we all headed into Oakhurst for dinner. We ended up going back to Todd’s Cookhouse BBQ where we ate a couple of days ago. And once again it was really good. Hopefully we’ll go back again before we leave here.
Coming home we again stopped off for a cappuccino. I think we’re hooked on these.
May 20, 2013
Jan was lucky . . .
Apparently Jan was really lucky she only got nipped by the donkey while we were at Oatman, AZ about 10 days ago.
Here’s a guy in Hungary who was attacked and killed by two donkeys who apparently didn’t like him riding his mobility scooter through their pasture.
Note to self: Don’t make donkeys mad.
After a quiet morning, around 1pm I drove down to the office to check for any mail, and also to ask if we could get a picnic table brought to our site. All the sites around us have one. I want mine.
While I was there someone else was checking in and I saw they were given a hanging tag for their power pedestal. I guess we didn’t get one since we arrived after hours, but everyone else has one. I want mine.
When I asked if they expected the park to be busy this weekend, the young lady said, “Oh, Yeah”. So it looks like our semi-isolation may not last too much longer.
A little before 4pm Jan and I headed out for supper, planning on trying one of the casino buffets in town. But after driving all the way back down to Stateline, NV, we found none of the buffets at any of the 4 casinos here were open. Right now they’re only open on weekends, at least until this upcoming Memorial Day Weekend.
So we ended up at Big Daddy Burgers, voted the Best Burgers in South Lake Tahoe.
And if it’s not the Best Burger here, it’s certainly in the top 2 or 3. One reason they are so good is the fact that they have a very limited menu. Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, Bacon Cheeseburger, and a Hot Dog. These, plus two sizes of fries, and the drinks, wraps up the menu.
Concentrate on what you do and do it well.
Jan had a Cheeseburger, and I had the Bacon Cheeseburger, both really good. We shared a large fry, which was more like a GIANT fry, with more than enough for both of us.
Coming back home we stopped off at the Sno-Flake Drive-In for a soft-serve cone. Sno-Flake looks like one of those old-timey drive-in from your childhood.
And as it turns out, the Sno-Flake Drive-In is also well-known for their burgers, and especially their fries, both with garlic and pesto seasonings.
We’ll have to give them a try before we leave.
May 20, 2014
El Maguey . . .
I woke up about 8 with a really bad headache, so I took some Advil and went back to bed. By the time I woke up again, my headache was gone, but by then it was after 10:30 so I had missed the class that started at 10.
Yesterday when I made a Martin’s run for a few grocery items, I also got some of their wonderful Cranberry Orange muffins that we remembered from past visits. And after having one for breakfast this morning with our coffee, we both agreed that we may like them better than the ones we get from Buc-ee’s. The ones from there are delicious and larger, but they’re also more than twice as expensive, I.e. $2.19 vs. 89¢. But the ones from Martin’s are actually a little better, taste-wise, with an orange glaze on top. So, even if they’re not better than Buc-ee’s, at least they’re a good replacement while we’re up here in Indiana.
Later I worked on some things around the rig before a nap seemed like a good idea. By the time I woke up it was almost 4 and close to time to head out to have dinner at the El Maguey Mexican Grille, our favorite local Mexican place.
Coming back to the rig about 8:30 I took time to let in the awnings. We’re expecting very heavy thunderstorms during the night and didn’t want to have any problems. If only from the noise the awnings can make in high winds.
Wouldn’t want to disturb my beauty sleep, now would we
May 20, 2015
No Real Blog Today . . .
Arrived in Amarillo about 10:30 pm after an ‘interesting’ and long day.
On to Illinois tomorrow.
I will try to do a full blog tomorrow night.
May 20, 2016
It Works!
I spent most of the afternoon working on client webstuff, trying to set up an online MySQL database and link it to a webpage so the customers can search for their orders and their status.
But since the website is done in GoDaddy’s Website Builder, which does makes some things much easier, but restricts my access to the bare code, I’m having a problem setting up the programming I need. But I’ll get it figured out eventually.
Later in the afternoon, while I was let some ideas percolate, I decided to take a little time and check out the Winegard Carryout Satellite Dome that I found by a park dumpster last Sunday. You can check it out here: Kitty Road Trip
The dome looked in good shape, and since whoever left it at the dumpster didn’t actually throw it away, I was hoping it was in working order. But there was no power cord with it. So since Jan was reading, and we weren’t recording anything, I took the power cord off my dome and plugged it into the new one. And I heard it immediately start running.
So I took it over to where my dome was sitting, and replaced it with the found one, and plugged in the signal cables. And by the time I got back inside I had video on the screen. I decided to just leave it in place, so I stowed the old away in the truck. That way I can double check that there wasn’t a long-term problem with the new one.
So my dumpster-diving pays off again. And I have no idea why someone would throw away a perfectly good satellite dome. But I still need a power cord for it. Checking online, I found prices ranging from $30 to $52, for the same cord. But then I remembered something I think I might still have tucked away
Three years ago or so, the power cord on my dome broke off at the dome end of the plug. So I called Winegard and they sent me another one for free. But I’m pretty sure I saved the old one. Of course I would need to replace the plug on the cord, but since it’s some kind of proprietary connector, I’ll just replace both ends with a generic one.
Miss Karma is pretty much back to her old self and her old ways, and seems to have recovered fine from her operation.
A little before 5pm Jan and I drove into Conroe for dinner and Wal-Mart. Our dinner choice was another visit to the Asian BBQ & Grill, Conroe’s version of Little V Vietnamese Bistro down in Katy. Not quite as good, but very close. And a lot nearer than Katy. And actually cheaper too. By about half. Nice.
Jan had her usual Grilled Lemon Grass Chicken Bowl with Vermicelli, while I went with the Grilled Pork and Shrimp Bowl with Vermicelli
After our usual really good meal, Jan and I went across I-45 to pick up some things at Wal-Mart, and then we headed home for the night.
Tomorrow we’ll head out about 9:30 to travel down to Brandi’s in Katy for Chris’ family birthday celebration.
May 20, 2017
Garrison . . .
We were up about 7 this morning wanting to get on the way by 9 or so. I said in yesterday’s blog that we were going back in to Pacific Time today, but I meant from Pacific Time back into Mountain Time.
Actually we’ve essentially been in the Pacific Time Zone since we entered Arizona on March 14th. Since DST had started two days earlier, and Arizona doesn’t observe DST, they’re the same as PDT. But another thing is that Idaho is in two different time zones, but not divided east and west like some states, but north and south, with the north, skinny part in the PDT and the south is in MDT.
We were out of the park and on US90 by about 10:15 MDT. It was sprinkling slightly when we left and that continued until we entered Montana. One thing noticeable was how much snow was still on the ground, not only on the surrounding mountain tops, but along side the roadway also.
After we entered Montana we started seeing billboards for the St. Regis Travel Center and their signature ‘Huckleberry Shakes’. So a little over 30 miles in Montana we took the St. Regis exit. Although the billboards didn’t say anything about RV parking, I was hoping that being a ‘Travel Center’ meant we could find a place to park.
And we did, about a block away in a big rig lot with a couple of other trucks.
The place turned out to be a casino, a bar, a restaurant, a snack bar, and to Jan’s delight, a very large gift shop.
By the time we left 45 minutes later, Jan had a new moose ornament, a bag of Huckleberry Taffy, and we each had a Huckleberry Shake.
We pulled into the Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT about 3:45pm and were met by a camp host in a golf cart who verified my name and led us right to our long pull-thru.
We’ve stayed here twice before, once in 2010, and once in 2008. And in fact the 2008 visit in early April still holds our record for the coldest night we’ve ever encountered while RV’ing.
It went down to 6° that night, but with both propane heaters running, as well as our three electric heaters, we stayed nice and cozy. And our next lowest was 17° and strangely enough that was at Galveston RV Park in Dickinson, TX, south of Houston.
But tonight;’s only supposed to go down to the high 30’s. Much nicer.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 270 mile day over to Billings, MT, and dinner at Famous Dave’s BBQ.
May 20, 2018
Peeves . . . Pet & Otherwise
I spent the morning working on the Knife website until I ran out of things I could do. I finally stalled out with a bunch of questions that I need answers to before I can go any further. But my client is at a knife show this weekend, so he hasn’t been able to answer me.
So I started back on sorting stuff into GO/STAY piles for the storage room, and then sub-sorting the GO stuff into STORE until needed and STORE until next winter. Then the STAY stuff I’m trying to sort into TOOLS, PARTS, RIG PARTS, etc..
All I can say is it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. Well, maybe just off the streets. Seems like I still manage to get in trouble, no matter what.
As far as my Peeves, I’ve got a bunch of them, and seem to be gathering more all the time.
First up is Software/Apps that seem to maintained and updated on the “Peter Principle’. From a book written in the late 60’s, it’s formally written as “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
Putting it in simpler form, a guy does a good job at work, so he gets a promotion. Then if he does a good job in that position, he gets another promotion. But eventually he’s going to be promoted into a job that he’s not very good at. Of course he’s not bad enough at it to be fired, especially since he has all those promotions on his resume. So there he sits until he retires or dies, doing a crummy job.
Now think about it. Doesn’t that explain what’s wrong with pretty much every organization, government or corporate? But it seems to happen with software too.
My first example is an app called ‘Flixster’ A touch of a key would show you all the theaters in your area, the movies they were showing, and the times they were showing at. You could even buy your tickets through the app.
And if you wanted to see a particular movie, another touch of a button and you’d see a list of movies showing and then the nearest theater that was showing it. All there in big bold tabs. But now you have to hunt around trying to decipher tiny little icons, and it now takes several extra steps to buy your tickets.
They’ve basically ‘improved’ it until it’s not as useful any more.
And then there’s useless products.
The first one is a car backup camera called Zus. I saw it at Sam’s Club the other day priced at $99.00. It’s big attraction is that it operates through and displays on your cell phone so it doesn’t need a monitor. But since it’s short range, it disconnects from your phone as soon as you leave the area of your car.
So when you come back to your car, you have to get out your phone, start the car, connect up with the camera, and then hold it or place it so you can see it while you’re backing out.
And making things worse, according to the reviews, it can take as long as a minute or two for your phone to connect with the camera.
So exactly how is this useful?
The last one I’ve only seen on TV, but it still looks stupid. And it costs a lot of money extra. It’s the LG InstaView Refrigerator.
On the commercial a kid goes up the refrigerator, knocks twice on the door and the inside lights up, showing the contents through the normally darkened glass. Then the kid opens the door and gets out what he wants.
Now your first thought is that this ‘saves energy’ right? But not really. Unless you keep the door open long enough for the food inside to actually warm up, it only takes a few cents to cold down the little bit of warmer air that got in. And the kid still had to open the door anyway.
And how much does it cost you to save these few cents? According to online, maybe as much as $1000. The retail on one of these fridges starts at $4299.
Ouch!
I’ll save the rest of my peeves for another blog.
May 20, 2019
Total London Tour 5/20/19
Today was our first full day in London and we did it up right by taking the Total London Tour, a whirlwind, 9 hour extravaganza hitting the major tourist highlights of the city.
So we were up at 5:45, downstairs at the restaurant for breakfast when it opened at 6:30, jumping into our booked last night Uber ride at 7:00, and at the Victoria Coach Station by 7:20am. As it turns out, Coach Station is just the fancy British term for Bus Terminal.
Our tour bus pulled out right on time at 7:45am, and James, our tour guide, launched into his detailed description of pretty much every building we passed.
Our first stop was at St. Paul’s Cathedral, but something was going on inside the prevented us from touring it. Designed by Christopher Wren, this present building was began in 1675 after the previous one was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. But there has been a church on this site since 603 A.D.
The tallest building in London until 1967, it has been the location of the Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilee services for Queen Elizabeth II, and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
After passing by many other locations, like both the Old and New Scotland Yard buildings, and the Houses of Parliament, our next stop was Westminster Abbey, the coronation site of every British Monarch since 1066 A.D. And here we did get to tour the inside.
Like St. Paul’s, there has been a church on this site since the 7th century, but unlike St. Paul’s, there are over 3000 people buried here, including, not only people like Mary, Queen of Scots, and a bunch of Edwards, Williams, Charles, Henrys, and James, but scientists like Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and more recently, Stephen Hawking. And even actors like Sir Lawrence Olivier.
And supposedly there is another relationship between Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s. When it was under construction, St. Paul’s ran out of money to finished up the building. So other churches in the area were dunned to contribute to their ‘building fund’.
And since Westminster Abbey, officially titled “The Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster”, was a major ‘contributor’, this gave rise to the old saw, “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
At least that’s the way the story goes.
Unfortunately they don’t allow any photos or videos inside, so no pictures for the blog. However I must say that this was the second abbey, the other one being the one in Melk, Austria, that we’ve visited that was so ‘sacrosanct’ as to not allow even ‘non-flash’ photography, but not so ‘sacrosanct’ as to have you exit the church on your tour through a ‘GIFT SHOP’. Just sayin’.
Next up was a stop at Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard.
After a short walk from where our bus was parked outside the palace gates, we lined up just in time to see the Coldstream Guards leave their post and their replacement regiment march by on the way to take up their positions.
Then it was all back on the bus for a drive across the Tower Bridge,
to our next stop, The Tower of London. But first up, we were given an hour for lunch, so Jan and I chose the nearby Wagamama location, an Asian-styled fusion place, that turned out to be excellent.
First up was an appetizer order of Bang Bang Cauliflower,
crispy wok-fried in firecracker sauce with red and green onions, and topped off with ginger and coriander.
DELICIOUS!
Jan got the Chili Chicken Ramen,
while I got the Chili Steak Ramen.
After our break we met up with our guide who passed out our Tower tickets and we were left to explore the area for several hours.
This is the White Tower, the first building in the fortress.
Constructed between 1078 and 1100 by William the Conqueror, it was very formidable for its time.
Next up was the building that holds the Crown Jewels,
but again no photos were allowed.
So I just took a photo of MY Crown Jewel.
Jan was also interested to see the memorial placed at the site of the execution of Anne Boleyn.
A historical group keeps fresh flowers on the site.
As we were leaving, I took this shot contrasting one of the oldest sites in London, and one of the most modern.
The 1000 foot tall building, called The Shard for its broken glass-like top, is now probably the most recognizable things on the London skyline. Here’s a better shot of it.
Then after a 45 minute cruise along the Thames, we finished up our day with a ride on the Millennium Eye.
At 443 feet, the Eye is the 2nd tallest Ferris Wheel in the world. The tallest one, at 550 feet, is the High Roller in Las Vegas, and we’ve been lucky enough to ride both of them.
And of course the obligatory selfie.
Then it was an Uber ride back to our hotel, where we collapsed without even getting dinner, just had some snacks in the room.
Tomorrow, thank goodness, is pretty much a do-nothing day, before we start again on Wednesday with a day-trip out to Stonehenge.
May 20, 2020
More Memories . . .
Here’s another compilation of two related blogs from the past.
A week ago last year, when we were passing Buckingham Place, we saw a lot of fancy dressed women wearing big hats, getting out of limos, and Jan wondered if Sam was among them.
I’ve talked about Sam, though not by name, a couple of years ago in a long blog post called The Pixelization Of Memory. Here’s some of what I wrote back in 2017.
Believe it or not, Jan and I were recently talking about an old girlfriend of mine this morning. Now Jan’s pretty good about this. She has been known to point out an well-proportioned young lady in a bikini, and I’ve been known to point out a well-muscled guy in tight biker shorts.
I guess you could call it ‘tit for tat’. Or maybe ‘tit for lats’, maybe. Anyway we’ve always had a ‘You can look, but you can’t touch’ philosophy that’s worked for us for over 50 years.
I’ve mentioned in the blog before, how when we visit my relatives in north Alabama, part of me is looking around for old girlfriends when we’re in a restaurant or store. But then it dawned on me that I’m looking for them as they were at 14, 15, or 16, not as they would be in their 60’s now.
But we were specifically talking about a girlfriend I had when we were living in Colombia, South America and I was 13 and she was 14. Though actually she was just a few months older than me.
Yeah, I know. What kind of girlfriend can you have at 13? But we were close, considered ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend, and spent a lot of time together.
I told Jan, No, I had never followed up on her, or any of my other past girlfriends for that matter. I don’t want to find out they were killed by a drunk driver while in their 20’s, raped and killed by an intruder, or even died in the World Trade Center.
I prefer to keep my memories of them intact, when they were beautiful young teenagers in the prime of life, and not possibly moldering in the ground somewhere. But that’s when I discovered the pixelization problem.
I found that, although I could visualized her generally, wavy red hair, bright green eyes, I could not zoom in on her face in my mind. As I said it was like zooming in a digital photo, with her face becoming more and more blocky and distorted the closer I got. I couldn’t see any details. And it wasn’t just her.
The rest of them were the same way. I could see them generally, but not in detail. Now it’s different with Jan. I met her when I was 18 and we’ve been together ever since. And I can see her, see her face back then, with no problem.
But then she hasn’t really changed all that much. I swear she has picture in an attic somewhere.
And this is what we were talking about in London.
The whole idea started when we were visiting my old hometown in north Alabama a few years ago, and I mentioned to Jan, that I had been checking out people around us, wondering if I would run into one of the several old girlfriends that I had back then. But as I told Jan, I realized that I was looking for them like they looked back when they were 16 or so, not in their 60’s like they are now.
And that’s why Jan brought up Sam as we passed Buckingham Palace.
It all started here.
Beginning when I was 13 we lived in South America for a while, mostly staying at a large old hotel that had both nightly guests, and also long-term residents like us.
Turns out there was a very cute British girl, about 14, also living there. Soft red, curly hair and bright green eyes. Since we were the only English-speaking kids our age around, we naturally ended up hanging out together. She told me her name was Sam (Samantha) and that her father worked for the British government.
After we had been together for a month or so, one day she showed up to where we usually met on the large landscaped grounds, all dressed up for a party, frilly dress, hair piled up on her head, the works. A big change from the shorts and T-shirts she usually wore.
She told me her mother wanted to meet me for afternoon tea at 4pm. Told me in no uncertain terms that I was to dress nice, wear long pants and a nice shirt, and comb my hair. (Yeah, I had hair back then)
And “DON’T BE LATE!”
As she left, I ask what suite she was in, and she said, “6th floor”. And when I ask what room, she smiled slightly, and said, “You’ll figure it out.” And I did.
When I got off the elevator, there was no hallway, just a vestibule and a set of ornate double doors with a pull rope for a door bell.
A few seconds after I rang the bell, there stood a butler in full regalia, but young and very fit looking, and about 6’6” tall. Looking down at me, he said, “Ah, Master Gregory, right on time, wonderful.”
Then, after he closed the door behind me, he said, “Please follow me. The DUCHESS and LADY Samantha are waiting for you in the library.”
Wait, What?
When I followed Andrews into the library, I found Sam standing behind her mother who was sitting at a writing desk. And I could tell from the look on her face that she was terrified that I was going to screw this up. And knowing me, she had good reason to worry.
After Andrews introduce me, I said, “I’ve never met a Duchess before. Am I supposed to bow, or curtsy?”
Sam blanched white as the proverbial sheet.
Her mother looked at me very seriously, and said, “In this informal situation, neither is required. Then with a big smile she said, “But I would like to see your curtsy sometime.”
With that the ice was broken, and Sam started breathing again.
After that I was regularly invited for tea. The only time the Duchess ever got mad at me was when I made the mistake of referring to Sam as ‘Sam’ instead of Samantha in front of her.
Her eyes flashed black and her voice got cold as she said, “Sa Man Tha”
Turns out that Sam’s stepfather was Consul General, and Sam would inherit her mother’s title someday, a title that had been in the family since the late-1600’s. And with that title came, not one, not two, but three ancestral estates.
But when I asked, Sam said only one of them was really a castle. Well, that was good to know.
And if that’s not bad enough, it turned out that both Samantha and her mother were actually royalty, and in line for the throne, though in the double-digits position.
But I didn’t tell her, mainly because I didn’t know then, that I also had a close brush with English royalty.This photo is from our visit to Hampton Court, the home of King Henry VIII.
And this is where my ancestor Katheryn Parr married King Henry on July 12,1543, and became his sixth, and last, wife. With Henry the 3rd of her four husbands, she was married only two less times than Henry.
And also, like Henry’s wives, Katheryn’s husband’s didn’t fair well, either. His first two died, and Henry only lived for about 3-1/2 years after they were married.
Then about 4 months after Henry died, she married Sir Thomas Seymour, a somewhat scandalous marriage since it was so soon after Henry’s death.
However, since Katheryn’s father, Sir Thomas Parr, was a direct descendent of King Edward the III, I guess I do have a little royalty in my blood.
Where all this comes down to me is that my father’s mother, Sara Anne Parr, was born in England and migrated first to Canada and then to the States in the late 1800’s, where my father was born in 1909.
So, getting back to where this all started, was Sam among those limo passengers at Buckingham? I’ll never know, and I don’t want to know. I prefer to remember her when she was 14.
And I never did learn how to curtsy . . . or bow.
May 20, 2022
And Now Another One . . .
First there was Immersive Van Gogh last year,
then Immersive Monet next month.
And now there’s another one.
No firm date yet. Just later this Summer.
Another one going on the list, I guess.
Tomorrow it’s lunch at Gator’s and then Jan’s getting a haircut.
After that, who knows?
We Were Worried . . .
First off, Happy Birthday to our son Chris. We love you, kiddo.
To recap yesterday:
We left our motel in Athens about 12:30 heading south on I-65 to Birmingham about 100 miles away. We wanted to spend some time checking out our old haunts before meeting up with Bill & Carol about 5pm.
Jan and I lived, went to college and worked here from 1972 to 1975 before we moved another 100 miles south to Montgomery, before we moved to Texas in December 1978 when I went to work for NASA.
We spend a couple of hours just driving around before making a Trader Joe’s stop so Jan could pick up a few things. Then it was on over to our friend’s house only about 20 minutes or so away.
After snacking on some nice hors d’oeuvres, much appreciated since we’ve hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and catching up, we headed out for what for us was the 3rd leg of our Southern BBQ Tour, Jim and Nick’s BBQ.
While Jan had her usual Pulled Pork Sandwich and Fries,
I got the 2 Meat Combo Plate, with Beef Brisket and Pulled Pork, along with Beans and Greens. Really good.
Jim and Nick’s is the only place so far whose Brisket looks (and tastes) anything like Texas Brisket.
Getting back to their house, we spent a couple of more fun hours talking and laughing, before Jan and I had to head back to Athens, about a 90 minute trip.
A really fun get-together, and we’re already planning next year.
Now For Today:
After getting gas, we were back on I-65 heading south for Prattville/Montgomery, about 175 miles away. But our first stop was for lunch at the Golden Rule BBQ in Irondale. My family has been eating here since the ‘50’s, and the place has been in pretty much the same location since 1891.
I say ‘pretty much’ because it’s been moved around a number of times to make way for the paving of the original dirt road in front to the building of 4 lane Crestwood Blvd, to I-20 right up the hill.
But we were worried since Bill told us that the chain had recently been sold by the founding family, and that some people didn’t think that it was as good as before. We’ve known several places in the past where someone bought a successful restaurant, and then ran it into the ground by making a lot of changes.
When we got seated Jan even asked Tammy, our server, about it, and she quickly assured us that the recipes had stayed the same.
And our Jumbo Sliced Port Sandwiches and Fries confirmed that.
From this angle it’s hard to tell, but the bottom bun has a thick pile of sliced pork with a lot of Bark, or Outside Cut, the crunchy outside crust of the pork shoulder.
Delicious!
And the Fries are different, but for the better. At least for us. The original ones were thicker and not as crispy, A nice improvement.
And you can’t come to Golden Rule without getting a slice of their homemade pies. Jan got her usual Chocolate Cream, while I always get the Lemon Icebox version.
Really, really, really good.
The only other real change we noticed was that the servers now take orders on iPads, and you check out at the front on one of those computer work stations.
So we can breathe easy now and look forward to next year’s visit.
Back out in the car, we made a Happy Birthday call to our son Chris, and then we were back on the road to Prattville, where we were staying at the Day’s Inn, which just happens to be right behind the Longhorn Steakhouse where we met Kathy for dinner at 5pm.
So yes, we did have two meals today, very unusual for us.
Kathy and Jan worked together at Jackson Hospital from 1975 until December of 1978 when we moved to Texas, and we always get together when we’re in the area.
The place was really busy, with a number of high school graduation dinners going on, but our food came out fast, and was as good as always from Longhorn.
And Amanda, our server, had no problem with us talking for a while, even though it slowed down the turnover of the table that she could have been make other tips on.
But I did slip her an extra $10 to somewhat make up for it.
Finishing up and getting our hugs, it was nice to just walk back across the parking lot to our hotel.
Tomorrow we’re getting together with Fred and Susan, Fred a former coworker of mine, down in Montgomery, about another 15 miles south of here..
Thought for the Day:
“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to appear normal.” – Albert Camus
That would be me.
Since I know a few of you don’t make it all the way down through the Retro-Blogs™,
I thought I’d repost up here our time on our European Viking River Cruise today in 2019.
May 19, 2019
Paris To London in 90 Minutes . . .
It’s become pretty obvious to me, and probably everyone else, that there’s no way I’m going to be able to catch up with the cruise blogs before we get home next Sunday.
For instance, the last four days in Paris, we were out the door by 8am and didn’t get back to the hotel until 10-11pm. So no time to even do a regular blog, much less process all the photos.
So I’m going to get back to doing a daily blog of our time here in London and then started catching up on the older blogs when I can.
This morning we were up at 6am, at the hotel restaurant for breakfast when it opened at 7, and out the door when our ride to the train station showed up at 8am.
We were taking the Eurostar High Speed Train, from Paris Nord, the same station we came into on the Thalys High Speed Train from Amsterdam last week.
Our train is the one on the left.
These stations are huge with no porters or luggage carts to be found. So Jan and I, and everyone else, were dragging our suitcases hundreds of yards, and then up an escalator, no elevators to be found either.
So I would send Jan up with her small carry-on, and then send her big suitcase up behind her. Then I came up manhandling my two bags. Luckily someone at the top helped her get the big one off and to the side.
Then it was another couple of hundred yards to our check-in point where they actually scanned our tickets. Next we all queued up and went through two sets of Customs, French Border Exit Control, and then 10 feet away, British Customs. The French just checked and stamped our passports, but the British bunch x-rayed our luggage, checked our purses and bags, and wanded us.
What was kind of funny was that we were not checked for anything when we got on the train from Amsterdam to Paris, since it’s all part of the EU. The last time we went through any type of customs inspection was after we landed in Frankfurt before we left for Budapest on April 26th.
Then while we were waiting to board I found a Currency Exchange to get rid of the last of my Euros. So far we’ve cycled through four currencies, US Dollars, Hungarian Forints, EU Euros, and now British Pounds. And somehow I seem to get poorer every swap.
Actually we pretty much only have the cash for tips and the occasional place that doesn’t take credit cards. I’ve never had a problem with using any of our three cards over here.
When we finally boarded it was back down the escalator to the platform, but we found an elevator this time so it was a lot easier. But then it was another couple of hundred yards to our assigned car, which was #5. And when the train stopped, we were standing next to car #25. This is a long train.
Astonishingly these trains are over 2500 feet long.
After dragging our luggage up the steps, we stowed it away, large bags in the area between the cars and the small carry-ons in the overhead racks. On both this train and the one from Amsterdam to Paris, we were warned not to leave our small bags with the big ones due to luggage thieves.
The trip actually takes about two and a half hours, but you gain an hour from France to England, so effectively 90 minutes.
But this ride wasn’t as nice as the Thalys train from Amsterdam. Not only was it not as smooth, the well-advertised Wi-Fi didn’t work either. And I don’t know what the roof was made of, but I was never able get a GPS signal for the Speedometer app on my phone. And I’m not talking under the English Channel either, but out in the countryside.
But it worked just fine on the train from Amsterdam, clocking speeds up to 311 kph, or about 194 mph. The Eurostar is supposed to be just about as fast, but is only allowed to go 160 kph, or 100 mph in the Chunnel.
We got into London’s station about 11:30, and again dragged our suitcases another couple of hundred yards to the end of the platform where we found our driver waiting for us, holding up a sign that said, WITE, Gregory. Well, at least the suitcases were his problem now.
I’m beginning to think that it would be easier to just throw everything away except the clothes on your back when you travel, and just buy new stuff when you get to your destination.
An hour later we were checked in and in our room.
And after doing a little unpacking and catching our breath, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. And what’s the first meal any new visitor to England should have?
Fish and Chips, of course.
Really good, and a really nice restaurant,
with a very nice view out the window.
But they don’t have Coke Zero, and don’t even think about asking for Iced Tea. They get a horrified look on their face liked you have bad-mouthed the Queen, and then they start stuttering.
And I don’t know what the problem is with even getting ice in your water or soft drink, but they must be rationing it or something. When they brought my Coke, I got a glass with three small cubes at the bottom. Then when we asked for some ice to add to the lukecold glasses of water we were given, our waitress came over with a glass with six cubes in it, and then spooned out three to each of us.
Back in our room, we unpacked some more, looked over our tour for the next day, The Total London Tour, and then since we’d been up since 5:30, we took a nice long nap, waking up just in time for, what else but dinner.
We decided to dress up a bit for this, but Jan really outdid herself.
It’s hard to believe she’s kept me around for almost 52 years.
Jan had the Lasagna, which she said was OK, but wasn’t seasoned very well.
We’ve noticed that a lot over here, that most foods aren’t seasoned as much as we’re used to.
But my Chicken Curry was delicious, and had a multitude of flavors.
For dessert I had the Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Whipped Cream,
while Jan went old-school with Chocolate Ice Cream.
Tomorrow it’s up early again for Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard, the Tower of London, and more.
May 19, 2009
Birthday Wishes and Key Largo Dreams…
First off, Jan and I want to wish our son Christopher a Happy Birthday today.
Jan and I decided to explore back up the Keys today. We went all the way up to Key Largo and then back down to Key West. There were several places that we drove by on the way down that we wanted to take a closer look at.
Strangely enough, most of them seemed to be gift shops.
Lunch was at a small but very good Chinese buffet restaurant in Marathon called Panda Café. Really good!
We drove in and out of several rainstorms both up and down the Keys. But it did produce some very pretty pictures. And the ‘Glades and Keys can certainly use the rain.
One thing we got see on our trip today was ‘Fat Albert’ floating over Cudjoe Key.
‘Fat Albert’ is a 175 foot long helium-filled blimp floating at 10,000 ft. It is tethered to a pickup truck at the small blimp base on Cudjoe Key.
It is used mainly by NORAD, and the radar it carries monitors suspected drug smuggling flights, fast boats smuggling Cubans, weather, any low flying planes and other potentially harmful activity.
It is also sometimes used to broadcast ‘TV Marti’, which consists of anti-Castro TV programs beamed toward Cuba.
After we got back we headed down into Key West for another dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Just as good as last time.
And of course, a few more gift shops had to be visited.
Tomorrow will be our last full day in the Keys before we head north to West Palm Beach on Thursday. We’ve really enjoyed all the sights we’ve seen here in Southern Florida and the Keys.
Here’s a few pics…
We also saw this interesting lizard while we were at Coral Castle.
This one was about a foot long and I had never seen one like it.
A quick Google told me that it is a Red-headed Agama, native to Africa. It seems that some agamas being kept as pets had escaped and there are now a number of colonies thriving here in South Florida.
When they are in courting mode, the males are even more colorful.
We’ve also seen a number of interesting signs.
Looks like this guy has his business plan mapped out.
Yes, there are crocodiles in the Keys. The really scary part about this sign is that there is a 6 ft. fence on both sides of the highway for the entire 6 miles. I’m not sure I want to think about crocodiles that can jump 6 ft. fences.
And finally, like I needed another reason to eat more Key Lime Pie!
May 19, 2010
Pig N Pancake…
We spent last night at Circle Creek RV Park just south of Seaside, OR.
It rained pretty much all day yesterday, but when we first got up this morning it was clear. But that didn’t last long.
Since we had a short 105 mile trip today, we decided to have breakfast in Seaside before we left, so about 9:15 am we headed over to the Pig N Pancake.
Jan had the Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon, and I had the Banana Pancakes with Orange/Pineapple sauce, and both were really good.
After breakfast we drove down to the end of Broadway on the beachfront. Seaside is a very popular tourist destination on the Oregon Coast and the town shows it.
Even the streetlights reflect the Seaside theme.
Seaside’s other claim to fame is that it was the end of the trail for Lewis and Clark in 1805. They stayed for almost a year before heading back east.
We left Circle Creek RV Park about 11:30 and headed north on US 101, and of course by then it was pouring down rain again.
But lucky for us it stopped right before we got to American Sunset RV Park in Westport, WA about 3 pm.
We were glad to find our good friends, Al and Adrianne Cox parked right across from us. We first met them two years ago in Fairbanks, AK and then got to see them again this past February in Tucson. They are workamping here this summer and it’ll be good to spend a few days with them.
They came over as soon as we got parked and we talked for about two hours. We also watched a crow trying to steal suet out of one of their bird feeders. Hey, crows gotta eat too.
They already had a park get-together scheduled for tonight so about 5:30 we went to down to the marina area to eat at The One-Eyed Crab, a recommended seafood place. Jan had the Wild Mexican Prawns and I had the Fish (Cod). The platters came with twice-baked potatoes which was also good.
After dinner we drove over to the seawall to watch the waves come over it. There is a storm off the coast which is causing all the rain and bringing a lot of really high winds with it. When I got out to take these pictures, I told Jan the winds were about 60-70 mph.
There was a TV camera crew there taping the storm, and when we watched them later on TV, they confirmed winds in excess of 60 mph. And on Mt Rainer, they recorded a wind gust of 118 mph.
By the time we got back to the park, the rain had slacked off and left us this.
But the wind hasn’t let up. I didn’t even try to put out the Satellite dish. It would have been hopeless. But the park cable works pretty good, so we have some TV.
May 19, 2011
Yosemite Redux . . .
First off, I want to wish a Big Happy Birthday to our son, Chris. Enjoy your dinner at Ichibon’s.
Today was our day to visit Yosemite National Park. It was a second visit for us, since we were here last year.
We left the park about 9, heading first into Oakhurst to pick up some things, like gas, breakfast, and lunch,
Gas, because there are no gas stations in the park proper, breakfast because everyone was hungry, so we stopped off at Jack in the Box, and lunch sandwiches from Subway, because we found out last year how bad the food is at the dining hall at Yosemite Lodge.
So we decided that with chips and drinks from home, sandwiches from Subway, and some of Jan’s delicious lemon bars for dessert, we were all set.
On our way into Oakhurst our daughter Brandi called with the latest Landon update. He had his 9 months checkup today, and Brandi wanted to let us know that he’s doing fine with no problems.
Finally, about 10 we left Oakhurst to make the 16 mile trip into the park itself. But the 16 mile trip takes almost an hour because the road is very curvy and we were climbing from about 2300 ft. to over 6000 ft. before dropping back down to about 2000 ft. on the valley floor.
After you enter the park, it’s about 35 more miles to the Lodge area. At about 4500 ft. we started encountering more and more snow as we climbed, But not near as much as last year. But then we were three weeks earlier last year.
Last Year.
This Year.
One of the most spectacular views in the Park comes as you exit the Wawona Tunnel and get your first view of the Yosemite Valley.
That’s the 3000 ft. El Capitan on the left and the 4700 ft. Half Dome in the middle of the shot. Half Dome just looks shorter because it’s a lot further away.
And this shot shows El Capitan, Half Dome, and BridalVeil Fall (Yes, Fall, not Falls. Don’t know why). Just a fantastic view.
Here’s a little closer shot of BridalVeil. Note all the mist at the bottom. We’ll see more of this later.
And here’s my Sweetie outshining it all.
This is Yosemite Falls, as seen from Yosemite Lodge. At about 2400 ft. it’s the highest waterfall in North America. BridalVeil is only a little over 600 ft..
That is a lot of water going over that cliff.
Last week, one of two people killed in the park was killed near these Falls.
After getting our National Park Passport stamped at the Visitor’s Center, we started on the loop that would take us back out of the park.
About 1:30 we stopped for lunch at a beautiful spot along the road.
We even had a helpful raven to clean up any crumbs we dropped. And of course Jan made sure we dropped a lot. At one point she even tore off a large chunk of my sandwich to give him.
Leaving the picnic area, we spotted two does right along the roadside, just walking around grazing.
Nearing BridalVeil Fall I found this Swallowtail Butterfly, although I’m not exactly sure which one it is.
This is a shot of BridalVeil Fall taken from the path leading up to Vista Point near the base of the Fall.
And this photo was taken from Vista Point. You can only get about one shot before the mist obscures your lens.
All that water coming down translates into some really strong rapids at the base.
Leaving BridalVeil and heading on, we notice the fog starting to move in along the mountain ridges, and it started to get colder quick.
Getting back to the Park entrance area we decided to make the 2 mile trip out to Mariposa Grove, home of Yosemite’s largest Sequoias, some of them over 300 ft. high. We didn’t get to do this last year as the road was snowed in.
Although there are over 500 giant Sequoias here, they really don’t measure up to the ones in Sequoia National Park where we plan to go next week.
We finally got back to Oakhurst a little after 5, and deciding no one was really hungry for supper after our late lunch, we just stopped off and got cappuccinos.
Later, around 8 Jan fixed us a light supper of Cheese Toast made with homemade bread. Really good.
May 19, 2012
All Landon, All the Time . . .
Well, it finally happened.
Landon’s first haircut.
And as much as Brandi probably hated to do it, it was just about time since he turned 21 months on this Sunday the 20th.
It was getting a little long and curly there.
They never had barber chairs like this when I was a kid.
Not too sure about those clippers buzzing around his ears.
Ahh! That’s better.
Monkey see, monkey do. The monkey’s name is Eek-Eek! because that’s what Landon said his name was. A while back he had learned to say a bunch of animal sounds, and Eek-Eek! was the sound he said a monkey makes.
So when Lowell brought the toy home from a business trip, Landon immediately named him Eek-Eek! and takes him everywhere.
Finally headed home.
It looks like Landon first haircut went a lot better than our son’s first one. Chris, who just turned 44 on Saturday, acted like they were cutting fingers and not just haircut. in fact, he pitched such a fit, that after it was all over, we were politely asked to never bring him back.
Sunday morning at Starbucks.
Landon and Daddy Lowell
They started drilling yesterday (Saturday) and seem to be making good progress. They were at 800 feet by midnight and were at 2800 feet by midnight Sunday.
It looks like we might be here a little longer than the normal 2 to 3 weeks this time. They apparently will be doing a lot of sampling on this well so it’s scheduled for 40 days, which will take us to around the end of June. But of course, as always, things could slip.
So far this gate seems to be a little busier than our last gate, but that may just be because we are here for the startup.
May 19, 2013
South Lake Tahoe . . .
Well, we did pretty much nothing today. And it was really, really nice.
It made it all the way up to 62 degrees with plenty of sun, so we had the windows and the door open all day. Really nice. And the smell of pine trees just makes it better.
We’ve gotten a few more neighbors in the last couple of days, but nobody on either side of us. Hopefully that will hold. But with the Memorial Day weekend coming up, it might be touch and go.
When Jan did her zip line ride in Las Vegas last week, we purchased a photo of her, but I forgot about posting it until now. So here it is.
They have a zip line ride here in South Lake Tahoe, but Jan says she’s checked off Zip Lining from her Bucket List, so it’s Been There, Done That now.
About 11:30 we called our son Chris to wish him a Happy Birthday. Now being 45, that makes him officially old. Of course I don’t know what that makes us.
Jan says she’s still 39, but I’m not quite sure how that works.
Brandi sent over a picture of the kitchen area of their new house with the backsplash installed.
Apparently things have really sped up on the construction front, and they may be moving in in just a couple of weeks. We know they’re really excited.
Wednesday we plan on making a big loop around Lake Tahoe, first heading up the west side of the lake to the Donner Pass area, then over to Reno for a Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club visit. After that. we’ll probably swing down through Virginia City, before heading home.
Tomorrow’s still kind of up in the air, though. We’ll see how it goes.
May 19, 2014
TILT . . .
There’s a couple of new high-flying attractions on the scene now. The first one, called TILT, is on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building in Chicago.
Guests stand in individual glass cubicles which then ‘tilt’ out 30° from the side of the building.
giving you a 1000 ft. straight down view of the city,
and a spectacular view of the Chicago skyline.
Makes me almost willing to journey into Chicago to check it out.
For another 1000 ft. down view, check out the Glacier Skywalk. Located in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, it looks out over (and down on) a fantastic view of the Canadian Rockies.
Hope it’s not as big a tourist trap as the Grand Canyon Skywalk on the Indian Reservation in Arizona.
On a final note, I saw today that due to a shortage of gate guards, Gate Guard Services, the company we’ve worked for the last two years, has bumped the pay rate from $125 to $150 a day.
Hope it holds until we’re back there in August.
May 19, 2015
Still No Move . . .
Well, we still didn’t move today, so it’s going to be up to them to take care of things. Of course they pretty much do anyway since only company employees are allowed to drive the coach back here in the lot. But that way, if they dent it, they pay for it.
So we’ll just leave it all ready for them to move, with the levelers up and the slide in. All they’ll have to is unplug shore power and go.
But the good news is that Stan, the service manager, thinks that the rig will be ready when we get back. We’ll see. The only thing I’m really worried about is the torn up and shredded wiring. But Stan doesn’t seem to think it will be any big problem.
Again, we’ll see.
One thing I told them to do is to dump our tanks before they park us in the new spot. As of tomorrow, we’ve gone 18 days since we dumped our black tank the Saturday night before we left Las Vegas. I think that’s a new record for us.
After we got word that we weren’t moving this morning, we headed over to the Cowgirl in the Kitchen to have breakfast again. And it was just as good as last time.
Jan did a repeat with her omelet, while I did a changeup, and went with the Huevos Rancheros, with Bacon, Black Beans, and Jalapeno Cornbread. Really great!
And of course their great Dark Roast coffee. After we got back from breakfast, I dropped Jan off and headed out for some pre-trip chores. First up was a new right front tire.
I walked into the Big O Tire store and told the guy I needed a new tire, and then said, “Anything but Goodyear”. And he didn’t seem surprised when I told him this was the second Goodyear tire in 6 months that started coming apart on the me.
The first one twisted and warped so the front end wobbled. Then this one split open along a sidewall seam so you could the cords, AND warp and wobbled. And we’ve both heard stories from other people about Goodyear problems. So I don’t know what’s happened to them, but they’re off my ‘buy’ list for now.
Finishing up with a car wash, a fill-up, and Jack in the Box breakfast sandwiches for tomorrow morning, I headed home and started packing stuff away for the trip.
A 4:30 wakeup for a 6am departure is going to come awfully early.
More tomorrow from Amarillo.
May 19, 2016
Dredging Up Memories . . .
Today was just nice and dreary, very overcast with a light rain most of the day. In fact the AC never came on until almost 7pm. So, nice.
Miss Karma is still doing great, and is pretty much back to normal. She’s jumping up and down on things with no problems, and is still eating good, though it will be awhile until her belly hair grows back. She’s not had any trouble with licking her incision, even though I wasn’t able to get her to wear a cone.
I cut one out of piece of plastic sheeting and then tried to get in on her. And after a few puncture wounds, and only one deep laceration, I finally got it in place. And then the fun started.
She thrashed and rolled around the sofa, crying and meowing. Finally she rolled off onto the floor with a thump and began to run around the rig, bumping into things, howling as she went. And it only took me a couple of more scratches to get it off her.
But her incision still looks good, so I guess she hasn’t been bothering it too much.
After I posted some old photos yesterday, a number of blog readers commented on how much Landon and I look alike.
So I thought I post some where our ages are closer.
While I was going through Facebook today, I came across these old photos of Gulf Shores, where I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. And these brought back some real memories.
This is the main beach intersection about the time we moved to Gulf Shores in the winter of 1950.
And this what the beach looked like in probably the 1970’s. The middle of the 3 piers in this shot is the remains of my parent’s pier. At over 600 feet when it was built in the 1950’s, it was the longest private pier anywhere on the Gulf Coast. When this photo was taken, more than half of it had been destroyed in a hurricane.
The main intersection is at the crook in the road in the photo below.
And this is what it looks like today.
And unlike the photo above this one, it’s pretty much multiple story hotels and condos as far as the eye can see it down the beach.
But of all the photos I found today this one was the one I was happiest to see.
This was my parent’s motel after we built the bigger house and after my parents sold it to Mr. Young around 1957. We lived in a small cottage at first, but built this larger place around it in 1955.
And here’s the way the Young’s By The Sea sign looked when we owned the motel. Yep, that’s me in my favorite cowboy suit.
Several years ago Jan and I were eating at the Sea N Suds restaurant and I discovered this aerial photo on the wall. This is what the motel looked like, probably around 1956.
The Sea N Suds is built around what was the ‘Tackle Shack’ in the above photo.
The motel itself is long gone now and has been replaced by another condo.
Tomorrow we’ll do some shopping to get ready for Saturday’s get-together for our son Chris’ birthday at Brandi’s down in Katy.
Really looking forward to it.
May 19, 2017
No Moose . . .
After a nice quiet morning and early afternoon, we headed out for the rest of the afternoon to drive around Coeur d’Alene and then have dinner.
Our first stop was at the Wal-Mart a mile or so back up US95 to drop off a prescription that we’ll pick up later this afternoon on our way home. Then it was on to the downtown area.
Jan was looking for some new moose socks and a couple of moose stickers. We found a couple of nice souvenir shops right downtown, and right across the street she finally saw a moose
Then we headed out to make the drive around Fernan Lake, again looking for moose. We had some great scenic views,
and even some prime moose feeding areas,
but no actual moose.
Later, after driving down south of town we headed back over to Tomato Street, a really good Italian restaurant where we’ve eaten in the past.
We started off with soup, Jan getting the Clam Chowder,
while I got the Tomato Basil Soup
For our entrees. Jan got the Baked Mostaccioli with Roasted Chicken
while I got the Mamma Meatza Pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage links, meatballs and prosciutto ham.
Everything was delicious as in our last visit. One thing I noticed was that the Parmesan Cheese I asked for to sprinkle on my pizza was freshly grated and kept cold, not drying out on some shelf.
And of course we have plenty of leftovers.
While we were eating dinner, I got a text from Wal-Mart saying our prescription was ready, so we picked it up on our way home.
When we were coming up through Washington yesterday we noticed Cannabis stores everywhere, including right along the Interstate.
And this ad was on the Spokane newspaper’s website.
I guess this is for people too lazy to roll their own. Like people who smoke a lot of marijuana.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 239 mile trip over to Garrison, MT for one night before moving on to Billings. We’ll try to get off a little earlier than usual tomorrow since we’ll be losing an hour as we go back into Mountain Time Zone.
May 19, 2018
Tag! You’re It!
After yesterday’s festivities, Jan and I just stayed at the rig today, never even going outside. We had kind of planning to take another load over to the storage room, but it just didn’t happen.
After yesterday’s blog about my training porpoises, one of our blog readers commented, wanting to know how you train porpoises? Turns out it’s pretty much like training any animal, except easier. You start with something that the animal already knows how to do, and then try to get them to do it slightly different. Then you reward that behavior. Then it’s more modify and reward.
With porpoises it can be even easier. They love to play and to mimic you. In one case I taught Lori to do a flip in mid-air when she jumped by doing one myself a few times from from the high platform.
It only took three times before she was doing flips in the air, copying me. In fact she was happy to just have me scratch her head as a reward, since she knew she’d get a bunch of fish when we were done. I also taught here to swim on her back with her head out of the water, again by doing the same thing until she started copying me.
And you only have to train one porpoise to do a trick. Then put her through her paces with another porpoise nearby. Thor wasn’t near as directly trainable as Lori, but that’s how I got both of them to jump together, as shown in yesterday’s photo.
Another thing that made Lori easy to train was that she love to play, especially tag. She would come up behind me, poke me with her nose, and then swim away. But she would always swim slow (well, slow for her), staying just inches out of my reach, as I chased her.
Finally she would let me touch her fin, and then give me a head start before she chased me. But even then she would circle around me and dive under me for a while before she would poke me again, and it would start all over.
But I think the most amazing thing she ever did was the time she gave me a fish, rather than the other way around. The pools that Lori and Thor were in were both open to the Indian River with underwater bars and above-water fences keeping them in.
One time an unwary fish came into Lori’s pool and she quickly caught it. I was sitting on the side of her pool, dangling my feet in the water, and not paying much attention to her. I was mulling over in my mind what I could do to get that beautiful redhead who worked at the Miss Kitty’s Saloon across the street to finally go out with me.
Suddenly Lori poked her head out of the water holding a wiggling fish in her jaws. When I didn’t immediately take it from her, she tossed it up on the bank beside me. Thinking she wanted to play Fetch, another of her favorite games, I threw it further out into the pool. So she took out after it and brought it back, again throwing it up on the bank.
But when I raised my arm to throw it again, she chattered at me, her upset sound. So I put my arm down, and when I did she stopped. I raised my arm again, with more chattering and thrashing around in the water. Finally it dawned on me that she was giving the fish to me as a present because I always gave fish to her.
Lori gave me a present.
Since it was just about closing time, I headed and cleaned the fish and cooked it up on a small charcoal grill I had. Later she was perfectly happy to eat the head and the tail that I threw in to her.
BTW it took me over two weeks and five or six tries to get the redhead to go out with me. Today it would probably be called ‘stalking’.
But lucky for me, I’m persistent.
May 19, 2019
Paris To London in 90 Minutes . . .
It’s become pretty obvious to me, and probably everyone else, that there’s no way I’m going to be able to catch up with the cruise blogs before we get home next Sunday.
For instance, the last four days in Paris, we were out the door by 8am and didn’t get back to the hotel until 10-11pm. So no time to even do a regular blog, much less process all the photos.
So I’m going to get back to doing a daily blog of our time here in London and then started catching up on the older blogs when I can.
This morning we were up at 6am, at the hotel restaurant for breakfast when it opened at 7, and out the door when our ride to the train station showed up at 8am.
We were taking the Eurostar High Speed Train, from Paris Nord, the same station we came into on the Thalys High Speed Train from Amsterdam last week.
Our train is the one on the left.
These stations are huge with no porters or luggage carts to be found. So Jan and I, and everyone else, were dragging our suitcases hundreds of yards, and then up an escalator, no elevators to be found either.
So I would send Jan up with her small carry-on, and then send her big suitcase up behind her. Then I came up manhandling my two bags. Luckily someone at the top helped her get the big one off and to the side.
Then it was another couple of hundred yards to our check-in point where they actually scanned our tickets. Next we all queued up and went through two sets of Customs, French Border Exit Control, and then 10 feet away, British Customs. The French just checked and stamped our passports, but the British bunch x-rayed our luggage, checked our purses and bags, and wanded us.
What was kind of funny was that we were not checked for anything when we got on the train from Amsterdam to Paris, since it’s all part of the EU. The last time we went through any type of customs inspection was after we landed in Frankfurt before we left for Budapest on April 26th.
Then while we were waiting to board I found a Currency Exchange to get rid of the last of my Euros. So far we’ve cycled through four currencies, US Dollars, Hungarian Forints, EU Euros, and now British Pounds. And somehow I seem to get poorer every swap.
Actually we pretty much only have the cash for tips and the occasional place that doesn’t take credit cards. I’ve never had a problem with using any of our three cards over here.
When we finally boarded it was back down the escalator to the platform, but we found an elevator this time so it was a lot easier. But then it was another couple of hundred yards to our assigned car, which was #5. And when the train stopped, we were standing next to car #25. This is a long train.
Astonishingly these trains are over 2500 feet long.
After dragging our luggage up the steps, we stowed it away, large bags in the area between the cars and the small carry-ons in the overhead racks. On both this train and the one from Amsterdam to Paris, we were warned not to leave our small bags with the big ones due to luggage thieves.
The trip actually takes about two and a half hours, but you gain an hour from France to England, so effectively 90 minutes.
But this ride wasn’t as nice as the Thalys train from Amsterdam. Not only was it not as smooth, the well-advertised Wi-Fi didn’t work either. And I don’t know what the roof was made of, but I was never able get a GPS signal for the Speedometer app on my phone. And I’m not talking under the English Channel either, but out in the countryside.
But it worked just fine on the train from Amsterdam, clocking speeds up to 311 kph, or about 194 mph. The Eurostar is supposed to be just about as fast, but is only allowed to go 160 kph, or 100 mph in the Chunnel.
We got into London’s station about 11:30, and again dragged our suitcases another couple of hundred yards to the end of the platform where we found our driver waiting for us, holding up a sign that said, WITE, Gregory. Well, at least the suitcases were his problem now.
I’m beginning to think that it would be easier to just throw everything away except the clothes on your back when you travel, and just buy new stuff when you get to your destination.
An hour later we were checked in and in our room.
And after doing a little unpacking and catching our breath, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for lunch. And what’s the first meal any new visitor to England should have?
Fish and Chips, of course.
Really good, and a really nice restaurant,
with a very nice view out the window.
But they don’t have Coke Zero, and don’t even think about asking for Iced Tea. They get a horrified look on their face liked you have bad-mouthed the Queen, and then they start stuttering.
And I don’t know what the problem is with even getting ice in your water or soft drink, but they must be rationing it or something. When they brought my Coke, I got a glass with three small cubes at the bottom. Then when we asked for some ice to add to the luke-cold glasses of water we were given, our waitress came over with a glass with six cubes in it, and then spooned out three to each of us.
Back in our room, we unpacked some more, looked over our tour for the next day, The Total London Tour, and then since we’d been up since 5:30, we took a nice long nap, waking up just in time for, what else but dinner.
We decided to dress up a bit for this, but Jan really outdid herself.
It’s hard to believe she’s kept me around for almost 52 years.
Jan had the Lasagna, which she said was OK, but wasn’t seasoned very well.
We’ve noticed that a lot over here, that most foods aren’t seasoned as much as we’re used to.
But my Chicken Curry was delicious, and had a multitude of flavors.
For dessert I had the Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Whipped Cream,
while Jan went old-school with Chocolate Ice Cream.
Tomorrow it’s up early again for Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard, the Tower of London, and more.
May 19, 2020
Happy Birthday, Chris . . .
First off, a Big Happy 52nd Birthday to our son Chris.
When he turned 50 two years ago, I told him, “Welcome To Old Age.” He said that 50 was just middle-aged. I said, “Only if you plan to live to be 100.”
He didn’t have an answer for that.
Happy Birthday, anyway, Chris.
Jan’s doing a lot better, with still a little pain when she moves her arm a certain way, but she’s definitely on the mend.
May 19, 2021
The Big Five Three . . .
No, not Jan and I.
That came last September, so now we’re working on the big Five Four.
But it’s the Big Five Three for our son, Chris.
Happy Birthday, Kiddo!
And besides Chris’ birthday, May 19th also means something to Jan, because of a death.
On May 19th 1536, Anne Boleyn, Henry the VIII’s second wife, was beheaded in the Tower of London. And Jan has always been fascinated by her, reading a number of books on her life.
So seeing her execution site at the Tower of London was a must-see on our trip in 2019. Actually we were there one day after the anniversary of her death, May 20, 2019.
And if you’re keeping score, it’s :
Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived!
May 19, 2022
Next Up, The Cheesecake Factory . . .
First off, A Happy Birthday to our son, Chris. Really look forward to seeing him in a couple of weeks over in Gulf Shores.
We met up with our Alvin Opry group at 2pm at the Webster Saltgrass Steakhouse, for the second time. Very popular with this bunch.
Some of them, Bob and Maria, on the left, we’ve known since the mid-80’s, and the rest since the late-90’s.
A great group!
And next month It’s the Cheesecake Factory on the schedule.
