Recently, there has been a lot of controversy locally, because Maple Ridge City Council meetings still follow an old tradition of opening with prayer. The local ministerial, made up of protestant ministers, take turns at this. A few council members suddenly decided that, despite not ever receiving any complaints, that this might be offensive to other non-Christians. At the same time, the Chilliwack School Board decided that the Ministry of Education's reference to Winter vacation made no sense, since we are not celebrating winter. They decided to call it what it is, "Christmas Vacation". It seems the only people offended by this are members of the BC Teachers Federation, which is scary because these people are in charge of educating our children.
So why is there so much concern in Canadian society for offending people by practicing Christian traditions? The opening of Council meetings with prayer has been, as I understand it, a good thing even for those who may not be or actively practice the Christian faith. Whether or not the practice of prayer by a group which perhaps does not collectively even believe in the God they are praying to may be questionable and the solution to have a time of reflection may be a good one.
Calling the December vacation Christmas vacation rather than some trumped up excuse such as winter holidays makes much more sense. December 25 is celebrated as Christmas, and has been since Confederation. Not everyone who celebrates is doing so because they believe in the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. The stores are evidence that the majority of Canadians celebrate though some kind of gift exchange, party or other activity and all refer to it as Christmas. There are a few who may feel offended by the concept of Christmas, but I have yet to see a strong movement to open the schools so that their children may be excluded from the Christmas holidays.
No, what I wonder is why the only group we as a society don't seem to be concerned about offending are Christians. Society is quick to use the agrument about seperating church and state as an agrument for restricting God to the confines of the church buildings. This supposes that God can be put in a box and taken out only when appropriate. It totally denies the Biblical principle that God is relevant 24/7, not just on Sunday. A Christian can not deny their Christian principles or beliefs when conducting government business or other activities outside of the church, just as a First Nations person can not deny their heritage and culture when dealing with others from a different culture.
Furthermore, despite our political correctness, why is it quite OK to take God's name in vain, a direct violation of one of the ten commandments? We use common expressions like "Oh my God" continuously, without any regard for the fact that this is, or should, offend Christians. The expression is not an acknowledgement of God but a hollow expression of surprise. Clearly, God's name is not being used as it should. Why, if so many people choose to do away with God, do they keep referring to him? As a Christian, I would not want to keep referring to something I do not believe in. Newspapers used to try and disguise these common expressions by using spelling like "gawd" , but nolonger even feel the need to do this. Have you ever seen the letters to the editor when some newspaper story talks about anything Christian? It always shocks me to see the hate an venom that comes out in the denounciations. Would those same letters be printed if they attacked the Sihk, Muslim, Hindu or other religions?
As Canadians, we need to be tolerant and respectful of all people and religious faiths, but that includes Christianity. That does not mean we need to agree with everyone, but we should be accepting of all. That does not mean we need to deny our heritage or that we have to change everything because there may be someone somewhere who may be offended. In Canada, Christmas is Christmas, regardless of how December 25 is recognized in another country. That's what makes this Canada. You do not need to be a Christian, you do not need to participate in any religious celebration, and you are free to celebrate or not celebrate this day any lawful way you please, but do not be offended because in Canada the Biblical Christmas is recognized as it always has been.
OK, I got that off of my chest. Merry Christmas everyone!
About Me
- G Man
- I am a Christian who enjoys exploring God's wonderful creation! I am always on the lookout for new birds or animals to photograph.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
New Orleans III
Day 37
Destination: Fort Stockton, Texas
Today was a driving day. The weather remains sunny but the temperature is dropping, from the 90's down to the low 80's now. Very comfortable, especially with a breeze. The 5.25 hour drive from San Antonio was not too bad. Most of it went through low "mountain passes" with evergreen trees that looked more like shrubs. The last few hours it become more desolate, with scattered bushes and cacti. We did see a lot of wildlife, including 4 deer, 2 wild pigs, 1 armadillo, 8 or 9 skunk, and 20 or so raccoons, all sleeping on the side of the road.
The campsite we went to was new, and had a just finished pool. Unfortunately it was not heated, and since it cools off at night here, it was stinking cold, at least that is what I was told by some of our lunatic fringe who jumped in. The owner did take a picture of some of us sitting by the pool, which she hopes to use in her website, so look forward to that at the Hilltop RV Park, Fort Stockton. At night, they had a communal fire which a few of us dropped in for. Listening to the heavy Texan drawl made me want to shout, hee haw.
Day 38
Destination: El Paso, Texas
Another uneventful travel day. It is hitting us all that we are really on our way home, and each destination is a stopover, rather than a point of interest where we hope to explore. The only good thing is the weather remains perfect. The scenery was rather bland today, with very dry, sparsely covered land set against a backdrop of very bare mountains.
When arrived at El Paso, our site was quite bare, and the pool was indoors, so we went shopping instead, first to Saddleblanket, a 2 acre store with all the Mexican blankets, saddles, cowboy boots, cowboy gear, baskets, and mounted longhorns you could ask for. A trip to Costco and Walmart and we were done. El Paso is quite large, but it is spread out, and does not have high rises that we could see. Spanish is heard everywhere and there is a strong Mexican presence. The tour book warned about crossing the border here because of the drug violence. The town directly across the border is the most violent town in Mexico, where thousands have been killed in recent years. We spent the late afternoon reading, writing this blog, and of course, Happy Hour. On a sad note, my new camera remains out of commission.
Day 39
Destination: Willcox, Arizona
We left El Paso on another sunny day. Some had toured the old city and checked out the Mexican border area with its barbed wire fences and wall built to control illegal immigrants. It made them think of how the Americans were so opposed to the Berlin Wall. Similarities? We chose to pass this up, but the concern was evident with all the border police we say frequently, and even the helicopter that flew at night with search lights on. We did drive through the city and we surprised at how big and wide-spread it is. There are no high rises to speak of except the few in a small downtown. There is also a stark contrast between the posher neighbourhoods of the rich and some of the shanty town look of the poor. Of course, across the river is Mexico which is also not so nice looking.
Shortly out of El Paso "Welcome to New Mexico" sign for our album. This was our fourth and last attempt as previous attempts to photograph this elusive sign failed by both Tina and Joanie. Joanie was ready, but as we passed the sign, the shutter on the camera did no go, so, no photo. I might have expressed my frustration at not getting one decent photo out of four attempts at a stationary sign. Joanie did not speak to me again until Arizona.
The drive to the Arizona border went through a flat desert landscape with bare mountains in the background and a long straight highway. There were many large signs along the road warning about dust storms that could reduce visibility to zero, and exercising extreme caution.
At the border with Arizona we passed through a short, low mountain pass. On the other side, another flat valley landscape of desert.
After setting up camp, we went with Gerda and George and Tina on a drive to Chiricahua National Monument, about 30 miles away. It was very nice, with interesting rock formations that looked like voodoos made out of rock rather than clay. Very picturesque. We also saw two deer. On our drive back we could see thunder clouds and streams of rain in the distance. By the time we were back at camp the temperature had dropped to 23 degrees but it felt cold with the gusts of wind. So much for our planned BBQ. Tuna tettracini instead.
Day 40
Destination: Tombstone, Arizona
Al called us at breakfast to say he spotted a javelina, something that looks like a wild pig, but is actually from the hippo family. After getting a few good pictures of it eating under the pecan trees, we were entertained when Elsie tried to get some closer shots and it suddenly charged her, veering off at the last second, as she ran. We learned later that these animals can be quite dangerous and have big teeth.
We had an easy 1.25 hour drive to our campsite outside of Tombstone. We spent the afternoon in Tombstone, seeing the re-encactment of the shootout at the OK Corral involving Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and his brothers, and Billy the Kid and his brother and friends. This also happened to be the biggest weekend of the year, Hellorado Days and it was very busy. In addition to the locals, many people come from all over the U.S. to relive the old west, all dressed in their 1800's western outfits. Men wore long coats as worn by Doc Holliday, or cavalry uniforms, or even looking like the town drunks from some old western TV shows. The y wore guns and holsters, and apparently some were real working weapons, since this is legal in Arizona. Women wore long flowing, corsetted, satiny dresses, often with very low necklines which left very little covered up. It was like living in a western museum and was quite fun. We also visited Boot Hill Cemetary where many of the victims of of the city's lawless frontier lay.
After our BBQ we swam in the indoor, heated pool. It was so warm that it felt like a cool hot tub.
Day 41
Destination: Sedona, Arizona
We left Tombstone and drove 5.5 hours through Tucson and Phoenix, to Sedona. We were surprised by the cotton fields between Tucson and Phoenix, and loved the beautiful, clean look of the highway overpasses with pictured walls and red crushed rock medians. Downtown Tucson was not very big, and the cities are quite spread out with few highrises. Joanie was excited near Phoenix when we saw the first tall cacti with the upraised arms as seen in Arizona postcards. She wanted to stop and take pictures of the many that grew along the mountain slope, but Tina assured her that in Sedona there were "forests" of these cacti, and in red soil, so it would be even nicer. Soon after that we climbed into the mountains and that was the last we saw of these cacti. The only ones in Sedona were made of metal.
The Sedona campground was nice and green, with tall trees forming a canopy. It was also our most expensive stay of the trip so far, and we could not book the same site for two nights because it was so busy. (We did manage to get the second night in but had to move sites. I even had to back the trailer into a very narrow site!) During Happy Hour, all nine of us climbed onto the limb of a tree for a photo, women first, then the men. Only one person fell off. Guess who? Right, George. Happily, this did not cause any more bruises on his head. Soon after this thundershowers moved us inside.
Day 42
We woke to clear skies and the temperature was very comfortable. We spent most of the day shopping in Sedona and visiting view points on the scenic strip of highway around the town. Sedona is gorgeous. The whole area looks new, from the paved highway to the beautiful, artistic retaining walls, red gravelled medians, shops and Spanish style housing. Contrasting all the red rock and cement are the lush green trees. The shopping galleries are higher end and kept Joanie and Gerda very happy. For dinner the whole group went to a Mexican restaurant for awesome food. Elsie usually has a small appetite. She ordered fajitas. When her dish came, with guacamole, rice and refried beans she was happy and ready to dig in. Then another plate came with a heaping pile of meat, cooked onions, etc. and finally a covered plate with the tortillas. Her dinner covered half the table. After dinner we found ourselves in a thunderstorm with pouring rain.
Internet has been a problem for the past three days. Today we got on but an attempt to skype was abandoned because of poor connections. I tried to see the football game from a few days ago but gave up after it took 10 minutes to see the opening 3 minutes. I do find I am really missing watching football, and it looks like the Lions are really missing me. Since we left, we have only hooked up our TV once, and then only ended up watching the weather channel to make sure we were not heading into a hurricane on our way to Louisiana.
Day 43
Brenda, Arizona
Today we woke to tales of a family of javelinas that visited the campground and were in Gerda and George's site late last night. Today was to be a 4 hour drive to Brenda, in the Arizona desert. We chose the secondary route via Highway 89 and 60 rather than retracing our steps back to Phoenix. It wasn't long before we started a very steep, narrow climb up to Jerome, an interesting looking town where Arizona's first copper mine started, and then through a mountain pass. The road was narrow and had many switchbacks, and we climbed over 3,500 feet. At times you could see 3 levels of the highway above you. It was quite pretty and afforded good views of the valley. The average speed was only 30 MPH. We crossed a dry, flat valley and then ascended another similar mountain pass. On the other side we traversed the flat desert floor, with the road so straight you could nap behind the wheel and be OK for half an hour as long as you did not move the steering wheel. We also saw a return of the tall cacti Joanie was fond of. We left at 8:45 and did not arrive at our destination until 3PM. We then enjoyed a swim in the warm, heated pool. The huge RV park, with hundreds of site, most occupied by residents who stay here all winter, is surrounded by desert and a small hill of lava rock. The edge of the camp sites were occupied with hundreds of gambel's quails which were very flighty and hard to photograph. The temperature was cool for this area, with highs in the low 70's.
For the record, I have worn shorts every day since about September 9.
What has struck me about the RV resorts we have stayed at are all the rules. No dogs in restroom, (only nice looking people?), no talking after 10PM, no washing RV's at any time (although it seems if you pay someone to do it, its OK), dogs may not be left outside without an owner being outside with it, no laughing, no having fun, etc., etc. Of course the office has all sorts of services, but they close by 5PM so good luck with that. If you take all the rules too seriously, it seems very unfriendly.
Day 44
Sky Valley, California
During the night or early morning, we woke to pouring rain. It was the first time it had rained in southern Arizona since March, and we were privileged to be a part of it. By the time we got up it was dry again. After breakfast we went on a quail hunt before starting our 2.25 hr. drive to Sky Valley, near Palm Springs. Joanie loaded up on fruit and yoghurt since we were concerned with losing all the fruit and vegetables we had bought yesterday when we go through the agricultural inspection station upon entering California. We also wolfed down grapes on the way. When we entered California and went through the station, they waved us on. I am glad I stuck with my regular breakfast!
Approaching the Palm Springs, Palm Desert area where Sky Valley is, we drove through the desert. It was by far the ugliest desert we had seen on this trip, rocks, bland brush and no interesting vegetation like the variety of cacti we seen in Arizona. Even the smattering of residences fit the bill. Often they were old, delapitated trailers stuck haphazardly, with junk all around them and of course, no trees, grass, etc. The road was very wavey, like some ride at the PNE and we had to laugh when we saw a sign saying this was a scenic route. Sky Valley Resort sits in the middle of this and is quite nice, with beautiful palm trees, lagoons, pools, and paved roads. This is a haven for church people, including many CRC, who make this their winter home. It is very large and has many permanent homes and permanent trailer sites, as well as trailer pads which are rented by the day and month. The pools and hot tubs are heated naturally by the hot springs in the area and are quite warm. Our first impression? Its nice but feels like an old person place. Apparently most people start out with a negative impression but it grows on them as time ticks on. We'll see.
Traveling with a group provides many learning experiences. One of our group travels in a class A motorhome with a tow car behind it. These motorhomes do not get great gas mileage, often averaging about 7 miles per gallon. However, one day that gas mileage dropped significantly when he forgot to turn off the engine of the car after hooking it up. He drove for 4 hours with his car idling behind him. It was almost out of gas when he arrived at his destination.
Day 45
Today we woke to the sound of Ken's motorhome leaving at 7:30 to go for repairs. Some of the hydraulics and the pushouts were not working. He came back with the motorhome at 6PM and it still had some problems to be fixed the next day. Joanie and I decided to explore Palm Springs, so we drove to town, walked downtown Palm Springs and drove down Gene Autry Trail, Dinah Shore Blvd, over Bob Hope Way to Costco in Palm Desert. Downtown looked somewhat depressed, with few people walking the streets, shops closed and lots for sale. There were jags, Mercedes and Cadillacs parked on the street however.
After lunch we went for a swim. I feel so amature-ish. Not only do I not drive a golf cart to bring away the garbage, I don't know how to swim, not having had local lessons. I jump right in the pool. I still can not get used to jumping and waiting for the cold sensation to hit, only to be greeted by a feeling of warmth as I enter the water. The way to swim here is to walk in slowly, take your noodle and sit on it, and then stay in one place chatting with your neighbour. Women sit in the main body of the pool while the men sit on their noodles near the entrance or in the hot tub. Meanwhile I splash around like some young fool. Joanie on the other hand has learned how to swim on her second day already.
The weather was warm (mid to high 70's), but after 5PM the winds pick up and by 6PM I am ready for my new Texas hoodie and long pants. It is supposed to begin warming up and we hope to be here several more days before our final trek home.
On a sad note, George bumped his head again, and we were all more concerned about what Gerda would say rather than whether he was in pain. He spent much of the afternoon alone while the rest of us swam, waiting for his scab to harden so he won't bleed on his pillow tonight.
Day 46
It was a beautiful, sunny day as we set out for what was to be a hike to the painted canyon some 45 minutes from here. We found the road to the canyon was closed due to flooding from the heavy rains that fell the day before we arrived. We then dropped by a date factory store, Oasis, where you could sample different types of dates that grew on the date palm trees on the property. We then did a ridge hike through the desert along a ridge overlooking the Palm Springs valley. While I remain unimpressed with the bland desert, which looks like an abandoned gravel pit slowly being reclaimed, the view of the valley and surrounding mountains was spectacular, and I really enjoyed the palm tree grove tucked away against the stark desert landscape. There was a good breeze that kept us from getting too hot.
I learned another lesson about Sky Valley swimming: do not jump into the pool because the noodle ladies don't want to get their hair wet. There were also some rude remarks made about both men and women having noodles in the pool but they went right over my head of course.
To quote a famous person in our group, the pen is mightier than the sword. Some have expressed concerns about doing things that might get them mentioned in the blog. Therefore, in an effort to be sensitive, I am not going to mention about the person who walked in the pool, (see jumping rule above), with his wallet full of money in his trunks.
We have now been here several days, and every afternoon about 3PM, the winds pick up, gusting so hard that chairs blow over, mats lift up despite the boulders on each corner, etc. At the pool, you go in the water to warm up, and get out to cool off. Sometimes it howls like a storm and does not let up until later in the evening.
Tonight we went out for dinner for the last time as a group of nine. We went into Rancho Mirage, one of the four cities beside Palm Springs. In the city the wind was gone and it was a nice warm evening. It was so nice we decided to sit outside and have a Starbucks coffee at 10PM after dinner. When we returned to Sky Valley, the wind was still blowing and it howled through the night.
Day 47
It was a sunny day today, but the wind never gave up, often gusting quite hard. The women went to the local market in the morning, leaving the men to enjoy time alone without being told what to do, not that this ever happens. I was looking forward to doing all sorts of things, but thought I would start by downloading my VISA purchases since we left and analyse where the money went. There were some formatting issues and I was almost finished when the women returned. So much for all the other things. We did go for a swim in the afternoon. Joanie and Tina first went for a bike ride and saw the last remaining roadrunner in Sky Valley. I got my camera and checked out the whole place, and I believe road runners are now extinct.
For dinner we did a joint BBQ ribs dinner which was very good. We just came inside (10PM) because the wind is still blowing and it is cold! Tomorrow is not only our last day here, but I believe perhaps my last day in shorts, as things cool off rather fast as you travel north. It will be sad to say goodbye to Ken and Alice and Al and Elsie, as we have very much enjoyed their company and consider them our friends.
Day 48
I hope you can read this. My typing might be a little shakey because I am sitting in the trailer and the wind is howling outside to the point where the trailer rocks. There are very strong gusts. Its been like this for a few days and is unfortunate, because when the wind stops, the temperature is quite nice.
This morning we attended the Sky Valley church service. Outside were mini-parking stalls filled with golf carts, some with flowers hanging from the back. The service began with a hearing aid sound test. That says it all. After coffee together a few of us took a short hike nearby from one palm tree grove to another through the desert. The groves were quite nice, with very interesting palms. This was followed by warming up in the pool. Then tonight we went for our last sit in the hot tub. Its time to pack up and head for home. We will be leaving Elsie & AL and Ken and Alice behind as they will stay a few more days. We will miss them. I can't see myself coming back here for at least 15 more years, and the wind we have experienced every day has not endeared us to this place.
An un-named person bumped his head again today. In other news, Elsie saw a puppy that was for sale yesterday and the standing joke has been that she will own "snowball" by Monday. Looking foreward to seeing if snowball has a new home.
I am sitting here ready to add an addendum to this blog but now I can't think of what it was about. Perhaps its because we have been working on ridding ourselves of the manage a trois we need to consume before we hit the border in about 4 days. Maybe this is just a "senior moment" but then what can you expect in Sky Valley. Anyway, only 3 more nights of making this bed. Good night.
Day 49
Destination: Tracy, California
Woke up to another windy day. We left at 8:20 after bidding adios to The Journey and the Wildcat. We are now down to our Nash and the Jay Flight. It was windy most of the day. We also had rain and fog through the passes near San Bernadino. We took the longer route on Highway 138 to avoid the busyness of Pasidena, and went through a dry area with many joshua trees. We joined I-5 at Palmdale and were soon in the sun on a long, straight stretch down the wide valley of central California. We enjoyed seeing the vineyards, fruit orchards, and ven some cotton fields. We arrived at Tracy around 4:30. This was a very ordinary campground, but then it is now too cold for swimming or sitting outside at night. We had our last happy hour outside.
Day 50
Destination: Canyonville, Oregon
We woke to a cool but sunny morning with no wind. We left at 8:20. It seems no matter what we do, we always seem to ready at exactly 8:20. The drive from Stockton to Sacremento was not as busy as I remember it. In Redding we checked the GPS and found the last In n Out Burger before Oregon. We loved the home taste of the burgers and milkshakes, so my two navigators led me off the I-5 and 3 miles into town. We came to where it was and saw the sign at the last minute. I missed the parking lot, which was quite small, and was directed to go around the corner and try to get in from behind. We discovered that this street was actually the on ramp to the interstate, and we kissed our lunch good bye. The drive through the mountains of norther California by Mount Shasta was very picturesque, with more greenery than we have seen in a long time. We had a few sprinkles at higher elevations. We arrived at the 7 Feathers Casino in Canyonville at about 4PM. The casino provides free RV camping in a lot behind the casino (no hook ups) and provides shuttle service if you want to go to the casino. The lot was full by nightfall.
Joanie and I, as first timers, also got a $5 card each which could be used at the slots. We played the slots and I won $17.65 and Joanie won $2.75. We cashed out and had one free dinner.
Gerda and George did not have such luck. The day began with another bump on the head and while starting a lane change, they were cut off by one of those aggressive female drivers who tried to dart around them at the last minute. The trailer fish-tailed wildy and they were a little shaken. The contents of the trailer were also shaken, on some of those unbreakable corel dishes shattered all over the place.
Day 51
Destination: Chehalis, Washington
We woke up to a cold morning and had breakfast in the casino. We drove through fog most of the morning, and stopped in Portland to visit some stores Joanie and Gerda had scoped out. We ended up at the Walmart in Chehalis at 5:30 after getting stuck in traffic through Portland. It seemed appropriate that the trip started with a free night of camping at a Walmart and should end the same way.
Day 52
Destination: Home
This was a rather uneventful day, which is good. It sprinkled off and on all day. We enjoyed still seeing many trees in full fall colour, especially through Olympia. The border crossing went quickly and we arrived home at 3:30. By 3:35 we were missing the sunshine and warm weather we had the past 7 weeks. However it was good to connect again with our kids and we look forward to seeing friends again.
The trip did not disappoint. We thoroughly enjoyed all the wonderful things we saw and the new friends we were able to spend time with. No regrets!
Destination: Fort Stockton, Texas
Today was a driving day. The weather remains sunny but the temperature is dropping, from the 90's down to the low 80's now. Very comfortable, especially with a breeze. The 5.25 hour drive from San Antonio was not too bad. Most of it went through low "mountain passes" with evergreen trees that looked more like shrubs. The last few hours it become more desolate, with scattered bushes and cacti. We did see a lot of wildlife, including 4 deer, 2 wild pigs, 1 armadillo, 8 or 9 skunk, and 20 or so raccoons, all sleeping on the side of the road.
The campsite we went to was new, and had a just finished pool. Unfortunately it was not heated, and since it cools off at night here, it was stinking cold, at least that is what I was told by some of our lunatic fringe who jumped in. The owner did take a picture of some of us sitting by the pool, which she hopes to use in her website, so look forward to that at the Hilltop RV Park, Fort Stockton. At night, they had a communal fire which a few of us dropped in for. Listening to the heavy Texan drawl made me want to shout, hee haw.
Day 38
Destination: El Paso, Texas
Another uneventful travel day. It is hitting us all that we are really on our way home, and each destination is a stopover, rather than a point of interest where we hope to explore. The only good thing is the weather remains perfect. The scenery was rather bland today, with very dry, sparsely covered land set against a backdrop of very bare mountains.
When arrived at El Paso, our site was quite bare, and the pool was indoors, so we went shopping instead, first to Saddleblanket, a 2 acre store with all the Mexican blankets, saddles, cowboy boots, cowboy gear, baskets, and mounted longhorns you could ask for. A trip to Costco and Walmart and we were done. El Paso is quite large, but it is spread out, and does not have high rises that we could see. Spanish is heard everywhere and there is a strong Mexican presence. The tour book warned about crossing the border here because of the drug violence. The town directly across the border is the most violent town in Mexico, where thousands have been killed in recent years. We spent the late afternoon reading, writing this blog, and of course, Happy Hour. On a sad note, my new camera remains out of commission.
Day 39
Destination: Willcox, Arizona
We left El Paso on another sunny day. Some had toured the old city and checked out the Mexican border area with its barbed wire fences and wall built to control illegal immigrants. It made them think of how the Americans were so opposed to the Berlin Wall. Similarities? We chose to pass this up, but the concern was evident with all the border police we say frequently, and even the helicopter that flew at night with search lights on. We did drive through the city and we surprised at how big and wide-spread it is. There are no high rises to speak of except the few in a small downtown. There is also a stark contrast between the posher neighbourhoods of the rich and some of the shanty town look of the poor. Of course, across the river is Mexico which is also not so nice looking.
Shortly out of El Paso "Welcome to New Mexico" sign for our album. This was our fourth and last attempt as previous attempts to photograph this elusive sign failed by both Tina and Joanie. Joanie was ready, but as we passed the sign, the shutter on the camera did no go, so, no photo. I might have expressed my frustration at not getting one decent photo out of four attempts at a stationary sign. Joanie did not speak to me again until Arizona.
The drive to the Arizona border went through a flat desert landscape with bare mountains in the background and a long straight highway. There were many large signs along the road warning about dust storms that could reduce visibility to zero, and exercising extreme caution.
At the border with Arizona we passed through a short, low mountain pass. On the other side, another flat valley landscape of desert.
After setting up camp, we went with Gerda and George and Tina on a drive to Chiricahua National Monument, about 30 miles away. It was very nice, with interesting rock formations that looked like voodoos made out of rock rather than clay. Very picturesque. We also saw two deer. On our drive back we could see thunder clouds and streams of rain in the distance. By the time we were back at camp the temperature had dropped to 23 degrees but it felt cold with the gusts of wind. So much for our planned BBQ. Tuna tettracini instead.
Day 40
Destination: Tombstone, Arizona
Al called us at breakfast to say he spotted a javelina, something that looks like a wild pig, but is actually from the hippo family. After getting a few good pictures of it eating under the pecan trees, we were entertained when Elsie tried to get some closer shots and it suddenly charged her, veering off at the last second, as she ran. We learned later that these animals can be quite dangerous and have big teeth.
We had an easy 1.25 hour drive to our campsite outside of Tombstone. We spent the afternoon in Tombstone, seeing the re-encactment of the shootout at the OK Corral involving Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and his brothers, and Billy the Kid and his brother and friends. This also happened to be the biggest weekend of the year, Hellorado Days and it was very busy. In addition to the locals, many people come from all over the U.S. to relive the old west, all dressed in their 1800's western outfits. Men wore long coats as worn by Doc Holliday, or cavalry uniforms, or even looking like the town drunks from some old western TV shows. The y wore guns and holsters, and apparently some were real working weapons, since this is legal in Arizona. Women wore long flowing, corsetted, satiny dresses, often with very low necklines which left very little covered up. It was like living in a western museum and was quite fun. We also visited Boot Hill Cemetary where many of the victims of of the city's lawless frontier lay.
After our BBQ we swam in the indoor, heated pool. It was so warm that it felt like a cool hot tub.
Day 41
Destination: Sedona, Arizona
We left Tombstone and drove 5.5 hours through Tucson and Phoenix, to Sedona. We were surprised by the cotton fields between Tucson and Phoenix, and loved the beautiful, clean look of the highway overpasses with pictured walls and red crushed rock medians. Downtown Tucson was not very big, and the cities are quite spread out with few highrises. Joanie was excited near Phoenix when we saw the first tall cacti with the upraised arms as seen in Arizona postcards. She wanted to stop and take pictures of the many that grew along the mountain slope, but Tina assured her that in Sedona there were "forests" of these cacti, and in red soil, so it would be even nicer. Soon after that we climbed into the mountains and that was the last we saw of these cacti. The only ones in Sedona were made of metal.
The Sedona campground was nice and green, with tall trees forming a canopy. It was also our most expensive stay of the trip so far, and we could not book the same site for two nights because it was so busy. (We did manage to get the second night in but had to move sites. I even had to back the trailer into a very narrow site!) During Happy Hour, all nine of us climbed onto the limb of a tree for a photo, women first, then the men. Only one person fell off. Guess who? Right, George. Happily, this did not cause any more bruises on his head. Soon after this thundershowers moved us inside.
Day 42
We woke to clear skies and the temperature was very comfortable. We spent most of the day shopping in Sedona and visiting view points on the scenic strip of highway around the town. Sedona is gorgeous. The whole area looks new, from the paved highway to the beautiful, artistic retaining walls, red gravelled medians, shops and Spanish style housing. Contrasting all the red rock and cement are the lush green trees. The shopping galleries are higher end and kept Joanie and Gerda very happy. For dinner the whole group went to a Mexican restaurant for awesome food. Elsie usually has a small appetite. She ordered fajitas. When her dish came, with guacamole, rice and refried beans she was happy and ready to dig in. Then another plate came with a heaping pile of meat, cooked onions, etc. and finally a covered plate with the tortillas. Her dinner covered half the table. After dinner we found ourselves in a thunderstorm with pouring rain.
Internet has been a problem for the past three days. Today we got on but an attempt to skype was abandoned because of poor connections. I tried to see the football game from a few days ago but gave up after it took 10 minutes to see the opening 3 minutes. I do find I am really missing watching football, and it looks like the Lions are really missing me. Since we left, we have only hooked up our TV once, and then only ended up watching the weather channel to make sure we were not heading into a hurricane on our way to Louisiana.
Day 43
Brenda, Arizona
Today we woke to tales of a family of javelinas that visited the campground and were in Gerda and George's site late last night. Today was to be a 4 hour drive to Brenda, in the Arizona desert. We chose the secondary route via Highway 89 and 60 rather than retracing our steps back to Phoenix. It wasn't long before we started a very steep, narrow climb up to Jerome, an interesting looking town where Arizona's first copper mine started, and then through a mountain pass. The road was narrow and had many switchbacks, and we climbed over 3,500 feet. At times you could see 3 levels of the highway above you. It was quite pretty and afforded good views of the valley. The average speed was only 30 MPH. We crossed a dry, flat valley and then ascended another similar mountain pass. On the other side we traversed the flat desert floor, with the road so straight you could nap behind the wheel and be OK for half an hour as long as you did not move the steering wheel. We also saw a return of the tall cacti Joanie was fond of. We left at 8:45 and did not arrive at our destination until 3PM. We then enjoyed a swim in the warm, heated pool. The huge RV park, with hundreds of site, most occupied by residents who stay here all winter, is surrounded by desert and a small hill of lava rock. The edge of the camp sites were occupied with hundreds of gambel's quails which were very flighty and hard to photograph. The temperature was cool for this area, with highs in the low 70's.
For the record, I have worn shorts every day since about September 9.
What has struck me about the RV resorts we have stayed at are all the rules. No dogs in restroom, (only nice looking people?), no talking after 10PM, no washing RV's at any time (although it seems if you pay someone to do it, its OK), dogs may not be left outside without an owner being outside with it, no laughing, no having fun, etc., etc. Of course the office has all sorts of services, but they close by 5PM so good luck with that. If you take all the rules too seriously, it seems very unfriendly.
Day 44
Sky Valley, California
During the night or early morning, we woke to pouring rain. It was the first time it had rained in southern Arizona since March, and we were privileged to be a part of it. By the time we got up it was dry again. After breakfast we went on a quail hunt before starting our 2.25 hr. drive to Sky Valley, near Palm Springs. Joanie loaded up on fruit and yoghurt since we were concerned with losing all the fruit and vegetables we had bought yesterday when we go through the agricultural inspection station upon entering California. We also wolfed down grapes on the way. When we entered California and went through the station, they waved us on. I am glad I stuck with my regular breakfast!
Approaching the Palm Springs, Palm Desert area where Sky Valley is, we drove through the desert. It was by far the ugliest desert we had seen on this trip, rocks, bland brush and no interesting vegetation like the variety of cacti we seen in Arizona. Even the smattering of residences fit the bill. Often they were old, delapitated trailers stuck haphazardly, with junk all around them and of course, no trees, grass, etc. The road was very wavey, like some ride at the PNE and we had to laugh when we saw a sign saying this was a scenic route. Sky Valley Resort sits in the middle of this and is quite nice, with beautiful palm trees, lagoons, pools, and paved roads. This is a haven for church people, including many CRC, who make this their winter home. It is very large and has many permanent homes and permanent trailer sites, as well as trailer pads which are rented by the day and month. The pools and hot tubs are heated naturally by the hot springs in the area and are quite warm. Our first impression? Its nice but feels like an old person place. Apparently most people start out with a negative impression but it grows on them as time ticks on. We'll see.
Traveling with a group provides many learning experiences. One of our group travels in a class A motorhome with a tow car behind it. These motorhomes do not get great gas mileage, often averaging about 7 miles per gallon. However, one day that gas mileage dropped significantly when he forgot to turn off the engine of the car after hooking it up. He drove for 4 hours with his car idling behind him. It was almost out of gas when he arrived at his destination.
Day 45
Today we woke to the sound of Ken's motorhome leaving at 7:30 to go for repairs. Some of the hydraulics and the pushouts were not working. He came back with the motorhome at 6PM and it still had some problems to be fixed the next day. Joanie and I decided to explore Palm Springs, so we drove to town, walked downtown Palm Springs and drove down Gene Autry Trail, Dinah Shore Blvd, over Bob Hope Way to Costco in Palm Desert. Downtown looked somewhat depressed, with few people walking the streets, shops closed and lots for sale. There were jags, Mercedes and Cadillacs parked on the street however.
After lunch we went for a swim. I feel so amature-ish. Not only do I not drive a golf cart to bring away the garbage, I don't know how to swim, not having had local lessons. I jump right in the pool. I still can not get used to jumping and waiting for the cold sensation to hit, only to be greeted by a feeling of warmth as I enter the water. The way to swim here is to walk in slowly, take your noodle and sit on it, and then stay in one place chatting with your neighbour. Women sit in the main body of the pool while the men sit on their noodles near the entrance or in the hot tub. Meanwhile I splash around like some young fool. Joanie on the other hand has learned how to swim on her second day already.
The weather was warm (mid to high 70's), but after 5PM the winds pick up and by 6PM I am ready for my new Texas hoodie and long pants. It is supposed to begin warming up and we hope to be here several more days before our final trek home.
On a sad note, George bumped his head again, and we were all more concerned about what Gerda would say rather than whether he was in pain. He spent much of the afternoon alone while the rest of us swam, waiting for his scab to harden so he won't bleed on his pillow tonight.
Day 46
It was a beautiful, sunny day as we set out for what was to be a hike to the painted canyon some 45 minutes from here. We found the road to the canyon was closed due to flooding from the heavy rains that fell the day before we arrived. We then dropped by a date factory store, Oasis, where you could sample different types of dates that grew on the date palm trees on the property. We then did a ridge hike through the desert along a ridge overlooking the Palm Springs valley. While I remain unimpressed with the bland desert, which looks like an abandoned gravel pit slowly being reclaimed, the view of the valley and surrounding mountains was spectacular, and I really enjoyed the palm tree grove tucked away against the stark desert landscape. There was a good breeze that kept us from getting too hot.
I learned another lesson about Sky Valley swimming: do not jump into the pool because the noodle ladies don't want to get their hair wet. There were also some rude remarks made about both men and women having noodles in the pool but they went right over my head of course.
To quote a famous person in our group, the pen is mightier than the sword. Some have expressed concerns about doing things that might get them mentioned in the blog. Therefore, in an effort to be sensitive, I am not going to mention about the person who walked in the pool, (see jumping rule above), with his wallet full of money in his trunks.
We have now been here several days, and every afternoon about 3PM, the winds pick up, gusting so hard that chairs blow over, mats lift up despite the boulders on each corner, etc. At the pool, you go in the water to warm up, and get out to cool off. Sometimes it howls like a storm and does not let up until later in the evening.
Tonight we went out for dinner for the last time as a group of nine. We went into Rancho Mirage, one of the four cities beside Palm Springs. In the city the wind was gone and it was a nice warm evening. It was so nice we decided to sit outside and have a Starbucks coffee at 10PM after dinner. When we returned to Sky Valley, the wind was still blowing and it howled through the night.
Day 47
It was a sunny day today, but the wind never gave up, often gusting quite hard. The women went to the local market in the morning, leaving the men to enjoy time alone without being told what to do, not that this ever happens. I was looking forward to doing all sorts of things, but thought I would start by downloading my VISA purchases since we left and analyse where the money went. There were some formatting issues and I was almost finished when the women returned. So much for all the other things. We did go for a swim in the afternoon. Joanie and Tina first went for a bike ride and saw the last remaining roadrunner in Sky Valley. I got my camera and checked out the whole place, and I believe road runners are now extinct.
For dinner we did a joint BBQ ribs dinner which was very good. We just came inside (10PM) because the wind is still blowing and it is cold! Tomorrow is not only our last day here, but I believe perhaps my last day in shorts, as things cool off rather fast as you travel north. It will be sad to say goodbye to Ken and Alice and Al and Elsie, as we have very much enjoyed their company and consider them our friends.
Day 48
I hope you can read this. My typing might be a little shakey because I am sitting in the trailer and the wind is howling outside to the point where the trailer rocks. There are very strong gusts. Its been like this for a few days and is unfortunate, because when the wind stops, the temperature is quite nice.
This morning we attended the Sky Valley church service. Outside were mini-parking stalls filled with golf carts, some with flowers hanging from the back. The service began with a hearing aid sound test. That says it all. After coffee together a few of us took a short hike nearby from one palm tree grove to another through the desert. The groves were quite nice, with very interesting palms. This was followed by warming up in the pool. Then tonight we went for our last sit in the hot tub. Its time to pack up and head for home. We will be leaving Elsie & AL and Ken and Alice behind as they will stay a few more days. We will miss them. I can't see myself coming back here for at least 15 more years, and the wind we have experienced every day has not endeared us to this place.
An un-named person bumped his head again today. In other news, Elsie saw a puppy that was for sale yesterday and the standing joke has been that she will own "snowball" by Monday. Looking foreward to seeing if snowball has a new home.
I am sitting here ready to add an addendum to this blog but now I can't think of what it was about. Perhaps its because we have been working on ridding ourselves of the manage a trois we need to consume before we hit the border in about 4 days. Maybe this is just a "senior moment" but then what can you expect in Sky Valley. Anyway, only 3 more nights of making this bed. Good night.
Day 49
Destination: Tracy, California
Woke up to another windy day. We left at 8:20 after bidding adios to The Journey and the Wildcat. We are now down to our Nash and the Jay Flight. It was windy most of the day. We also had rain and fog through the passes near San Bernadino. We took the longer route on Highway 138 to avoid the busyness of Pasidena, and went through a dry area with many joshua trees. We joined I-5 at Palmdale and were soon in the sun on a long, straight stretch down the wide valley of central California. We enjoyed seeing the vineyards, fruit orchards, and ven some cotton fields. We arrived at Tracy around 4:30. This was a very ordinary campground, but then it is now too cold for swimming or sitting outside at night. We had our last happy hour outside.
Day 50
Destination: Canyonville, Oregon
We woke to a cool but sunny morning with no wind. We left at 8:20. It seems no matter what we do, we always seem to ready at exactly 8:20. The drive from Stockton to Sacremento was not as busy as I remember it. In Redding we checked the GPS and found the last In n Out Burger before Oregon. We loved the home taste of the burgers and milkshakes, so my two navigators led me off the I-5 and 3 miles into town. We came to where it was and saw the sign at the last minute. I missed the parking lot, which was quite small, and was directed to go around the corner and try to get in from behind. We discovered that this street was actually the on ramp to the interstate, and we kissed our lunch good bye. The drive through the mountains of norther California by Mount Shasta was very picturesque, with more greenery than we have seen in a long time. We had a few sprinkles at higher elevations. We arrived at the 7 Feathers Casino in Canyonville at about 4PM. The casino provides free RV camping in a lot behind the casino (no hook ups) and provides shuttle service if you want to go to the casino. The lot was full by nightfall.
Joanie and I, as first timers, also got a $5 card each which could be used at the slots. We played the slots and I won $17.65 and Joanie won $2.75. We cashed out and had one free dinner.
Gerda and George did not have such luck. The day began with another bump on the head and while starting a lane change, they were cut off by one of those aggressive female drivers who tried to dart around them at the last minute. The trailer fish-tailed wildy and they were a little shaken. The contents of the trailer were also shaken, on some of those unbreakable corel dishes shattered all over the place.
Day 51
Destination: Chehalis, Washington
We woke up to a cold morning and had breakfast in the casino. We drove through fog most of the morning, and stopped in Portland to visit some stores Joanie and Gerda had scoped out. We ended up at the Walmart in Chehalis at 5:30 after getting stuck in traffic through Portland. It seemed appropriate that the trip started with a free night of camping at a Walmart and should end the same way.
Day 52
Destination: Home
This was a rather uneventful day, which is good. It sprinkled off and on all day. We enjoyed still seeing many trees in full fall colour, especially through Olympia. The border crossing went quickly and we arrived home at 3:30. By 3:35 we were missing the sunshine and warm weather we had the past 7 weeks. However it was good to connect again with our kids and we look forward to seeing friends again.
The trip did not disappoint. We thoroughly enjoyed all the wonderful things we saw and the new friends we were able to spend time with. No regrets!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
New Orleans II
Day 24
We woke to another gorgeous day! We took the campground free shuttle in to New Orleans French Quarter for a day of shopping and boat ride. Our driver liked doubling as a tour guide, and took us down narrow streets to show us some beautiful homes, a mansion tucked away somewhere, and a tour around an old cemetery for the rich. It seems the very rich here compete for who has the biggest monument to themselves. Every plot had huge monuments, some shaped as churches, others with statutes of people or animals, and a number with stain-glassed windows inside. For health reasons, the caskets themselves have to be burned after a period of time. The family behind the Whitney Bank had what looked like the front of an old bank building. Some of these stones date back to the mid 1800's.
After coffee and beignets, a deep-fried pastry covered with heaping piles of icing sugar (much like the apple version of olliebollen, but without the apples), a N.O. tradition, we set out on our own. George marched straight to the waterfront. Joanie, Gerda and Tina headed for the souvenir stores. I was caught in the middle, not wanting to deprive this region of its economic growth, but also afraid that my enthusiasm for shopping may not match that of the others. I therefore took off on my own, exploring the French Quarter, checking out the stores and scenery. We all met again at 2:00PM to board one of the only authentic paddlewheelers still running for a tour of the harbour. A nice relaxing afternoon, followed by a mad dash to that last store Joanie and Gerda were not quite finished with, before catching our shuttle back. A good day but a little tiring. Retirement is sooo hard!
Driving around N.O. we saw many homes and businesses which were flooded by Katrina and never re-opened. One did have a note on the side by the SPCA informing rescuers of a cat upstairs. Personally, I find the old buildings with their rod iron balconies in the French Quarter very interesting, but outside of downtown, I find most of the streets and shops kind of seedy looking and not very appealing. We were also warned not to wander around the neighbourhood after dark (our campsite was secure) which adds to the sense of seediness. Of course, we also saw where the rich lived, and that was quite different. No sign of hurricane damage there. We also heard several times from locals that news reports about the BP spill were grossly exaggerated, with little evidence of damage in this area. The news focused on the few areas directly damaged and played that over and over to give the impression of total destruction.
The difference in the weather here vs Utah is that the evenings remain warm. We can sit out all night whereas in Utah, it could be 100 degrees in the day and be quite cool by 10PM.
Day 25
Another hot, lazy day. We went to a local plantation house that dated back to the late 1700's. We had a very interesting presentation by a retired black university professor of pharmaceuticals, who talked about all the remedies practiced by many of the senior blacks, even today. Many his mom used on him as a child. e.g. drinking male urine to cure a sore throat, the use of leeches, cow manure for athlete's foot, and sage tea for runny noses, fevers, etc. He and his students tested these things and most could not be shown scientifically to be effective, although some were. He is going to write a book about his findings, published by the U. of Michigan. FYI - if you get stung by a jelly fish, do not get someone to pee on it, this will aggravate the injury. So much for the Friends episode being accurate. For nettles, on the other hand, pee away!
We spent the afternoon in the pool after a visit to Winn Dixie. Tomorrow Walter and Marion leave us as they booked a cruise a few days ago, leaving from New Orleans and going to Mexico. After that they are off to do work for CRWRC in Galveston.
Day 26
Destination: Westlake, Louisiana
Today we left New Orleans. The one thing I will not miss is the trains. Even though the tracks do not cross any roads near here, they blow their whistles almost non-stop until they are far away. I don't know if people frequent the tracks or what the story is, but it is highly annoying.
We said goodbye to Walter and Marion today. The weather was warm, 32 degrees C. at 3PM. We crossed over the swamps and bayous (bayous have water that flows, swamps do not), across Louisiana. In Baton Rouge we got caught in a traffic jam at about 10:30. LSU was playing football against Tennessee at 2:30 and the highways were already plugged with a 10 km. backup on one side of town. Not that is a sign of good fan support.
Near Lafayette we saw our first sugar cane fields. The land is very flat here with areas of dry ground and other areas of swamps and bayous. After setting up camp at 2PM, we took a drive along an "All-American Highway" into the bayou to look for birds, gators, etc. We did see many egrets, lesser egrets, cattle egrets, white ibis, herons, millions of dragon flies, and other flies bent on driving me insane. Nothing all that new to see. Next time we look for an All-Canadian Highway.
PS Maria - there are no new signs of injury on George's head.
Day 27
Destination: Houston, Texas
We did a 4 hour drive to Houston. In Beaumont, Texas and the outskirts of Houston, it was incredible to see the number and size of the oil refineries wherever you looked. I was glad to leave the horrible highways of Louisiana behind. We continue to be amazed at the number and size of the churches we see in every city. We saw many mega-sized churches and World Centers of Prayer. One in Houston had a parking lot the size of a medium sized shopping mall, and it was full!
In the afternoon we, Ken and Alice, Al and Else, and Joanie and I, went to the NASA Space Center. We were not prepared for how long it would take to see all the things we wanted to, and we did run out of time. We enjoyed seeing the actual Mission Control Center, the simulators where astronauts train for flights, touching moon rocks, and sitting in a flight simulator where we had the controls and try to fly it and shoot down enemy forces. We had a great time and enjoyed a pizza before going back to camp. Gerda and George, and Tina drove a different route to Houston, passing through Galveston so arrived after we had left. The weather in Houston was a nice comfortable 25 degrees C.
In the evening we made several attempts to contact our children with Skype, but to no avail. Out of sight, out of mind?
Day 28
Destination: Corpus Christ
Another gorgeous day with temp. reaching about 91 F. Drive from Houston to Corpus Christi was uneventful and not too exciting. Mostly farmland, including cotton fields, and flat areas of trees with more swamps as we approached the Gulf of Mexico. Corpus Christi reminds me more of a tropical resort, despite its downtown office towers. We did a quick drive over to Padre Island and were excited about spending tomorrow on the beach. The water was as warm as the pools we swam in recently, and there are 180 species of birds on the island, plus rattlesnakes and nesting turtles. The beaches are bordered with white sand dunes and you can drive for 60 miles on the beach, although 4 wheel drive is recommended for most of this. It is very quiet with few people on the beach, and no one swimming. Most people are fishing. Deep sea fishing for marlin and tuna is very popular here. There is also a decommissioned aircraft carrier open for viewing.
Day 29
Another great day! Temp. in upper 80's. We spent the day on Padre Island, at the beach. The water was divine, over 80 degrees F. I could just walk right in. We played in the surf and had a great time. We also saw many birds, including flocks of pelicans soaring overhead and in the surf. Just a fantastic day.
Day 30
Decided to camp on Padre Island by the beach. No hookups, etc. but nice to be almost right on the beach. After setting up, we did a long loop drive, up the island, over Mustang Island, Aransas, over a short ferry ride and back through Corpus Christi. We saw dolphins briefly on our ferry crossing. Aransas looked like a fairly new community with fancy condos, RV parks, art galleries and souvenir shops and a DQ with deep fried jalapeno peppers. In the afternoon we swam in the Gulf and had a BBQ with Gerda and George and Tina. The burgers were ready just after sunset. The mosquitoes attacked on mass. Trying to eat in the dark, our hands and faces were covered with the little buggers and who knows if we were eating them or not. We quickly decided to move indoors for the rest of the night. Joanie and I spent a romantic evening by candle light hiding from the invaders.
Day 31
Another day at the Padre Island campground. First we drove to Bird Island basin to see if there were any birds like the white pelicans on the brochure. We saw sea gulls. Then we decided to take the nature trail. We lasted about 2.5 minutes before an army of skeeters drove us back into our vehicle. We spent the rest of the day on the beach, walking for miles, reading, and playing in the surf. The water had cooled to 78 degrees but we hardly noticed. Small fish, referred to locally as whities, jump around us in the surf. They were anywhere from 3 inches to about a foot long, and often landed within a few inches of us. Brown pelicans flew near by.
Padre Island is a ling narrow island running along the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico. After a few miles, the single road spills onto the beach, where you can drive for about 5 miles, and camp if you wish. After that there is 60 miles of beach driving that is reserved for four wheel drives only.
We decided to lock ourselves in our trailers after about 6:30PM because of the skeeters.
George's scabs are back. Apparently there was another head-bumping incident.
Day 32
Destination: South Padre Island
Today we drove another 200 miles south to South Padre Island, across from Port Isabel. This is near to the Mexican border and is the southernmost stop on our trip. Today I passed several trucks! This is a big deal. Pulling a trailer, most of us limit our speed to about 60 - 65 miles an hour, even though the speed limit is ofter 70-75 miles per hour. This means for 32 days I have been one of the slowest vehicles on the road. Today I encountered several trucks traveling slower than us, so it felt good to "speed" by them.
South Padre Island is just below Padre Island but is much smaller. It is much more developed with ocean front hotels and condos. The KOA where we are staying is like a Hawaii resort. The large pool is bordered with hibiscus and palm trees and there are palm trees everywhere. However, there is a motorcycle convention on the island this weekend. The campground is full of Harleys going in and out. a little noisy.
We sat outside all night without a mosquito in sight!!! There has been discussion of perhaps just staying here and never coming home. The weather forecast for the next few days is like it has been for weeks, sunny and highs in the upper 80's or low 90's.
Day 33
Its a hot one today. We were concerned about the campground being overrun with bikers and how loud it would be when they went to their convention or wherever bikers go on this weekend. However, the bikers were quiet and we woke up to the sound of children talking loudly at 6:30 AM and birds, crackles, squawking more loudly than crows. We spent the morning in Port Isabel, shopping. The place is overrun with motorcycles. Most cyclists are over 50 years old, and fat. In the afternoon we went on a snorkeling cruise. The water between South Padre Island and the mainland is not very deep. We anchored in water about 4 feet deep. We saw nothing! The water was not that clear and no matter where we looked, there was only sea weed and patches of sand. Very disappointing but we did have a nice ride. The water was very warm so that was good too. If you ever come to this area, forget snorkeling though. By the time we got back and took a dip in the pool, it was apparently too late to start making dinner, so we went to a local restaurant, Pier 19, which overlooked the water. While eating, we saw a pod of dolphins. We also saw few fireworks in honour of motorcycle week.
The beaches here are public, but most areas charge $4 for parking, and there is no shelter, so one frys to death. We therefore decided to stay an extra day but not two days as had been contemplated. However, it will be hard to leave the Gulf and its warm water.
Day 34
It rained today! I got several drops on me before the cloud moved on. It ended up being 92 degrees this afternoon. (low of about 75 degrees overnight). This morning we went to the Island Baptist Church. They had a contemporary service but we miss our own church. In the afternoon we went to the beach and had a great time playing in the surf. I thought the water could not get warmer than what we had on Padre Island but South Padre was perhaps a little warmer. Gerda and George joined us to go to the local bird sanctuary, which ended up being a one block lot with some trees on it. We did see a few different birds I need to look up in my bird book later. Before dinner I went to the pier near our campsite and spotted a number of dolphins. One surfaced only about 10 yards away.
After coffee we enjoyed our last drink together as a group outside under the palm trees. Tomorrow we begin our slow trek home, but Joanie and I are not ready to leave this paradise. It is like being in Hawaii without the Polynesian or Hawaiian cultural flavour.
Day 35
Destination: San Antonio
This morning we left South Padre Island and bid farewell to the warm Gulf of Mexico. It felt a little sad to thing we won't be swimming in the surf any more. The drive to San Antonio was uneventful and not that scenic. It was a 6 hour drive, one of our longer travel days. We saw an awful lot of Border Patrol police and we did go through one border checkpoint. The scenery changed from flat farm land to low rolling hills with trees, shrubs and various varieties of palm trees or yuccas. We did see vultures feeding on a dead cow and a few armadillos.
The resort RV park we are at is quite nice and we ended our afternoon with a rousing game of volleyball in the pool. Unfortunately there were no Olympic scouts here, because we did have some amazing play, including several times when the ball actually hit two people on the same team and still went over the net!
Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, Columbus Day in the U.S. We managed to connect with our girls by skype so that was good. We did not eat turkey, although I can not be certain that there were no turkey parts in the wieners we had. It is a little know fact (or theory) that the pilgrims in Texas ate hot dogs and potato salad on Thanksgiving. I did reflect on the day and feel so extremely grateful for family, friends, health, and this awesome trip we are on, which has gone so well so far. We have thoroughly enjoyed the new friends we made here and the things we have seen and done. God is so good. We did get some bad news about Joanie's mom in the last few days, but trust that God will provide and that family members will look after things.
Day 36
A hot, muggy day with temperatures expected to reach 90 degrees. We took to city bus from our campground to downtown San Antonio and visited the site of the Alamo. First we went to the IMAX theatre to watch the presentation on what happened at the Alamo. (about 197 people, including Davey Crockett, were under seige in the local mission from the Mexican army before being overtaken and killed at the battle of the Alamo, but this became the rallying cry for the rest of the Texas army that seven weeks later defeated the Mexicans and gained independence.) We then toured the mission. After lunch we did the River walk which was beautiful. A canal was created in a circle around downtown, with a walkway around it. It is below ground level and is lined with beautiful trees, bars and restaurants, hotel accesses, etc. A very nice feature. We visited a few very old churches, took a trolley bus ride around downtown and had dinner at a restaurant along the river walk. Most people ordered Texas steak, the main purpose for going out for dinner, and I enjoyed blackened chicken fettuccine. The margaritas were also excellent! All in all, a very nice day. We were home by 9:15PM.
The Internet here is extremely poor. I still have been unable to see the BC Lions football game from yesterday because it freezes up after a few seconds, as do other Internet applications. At the end of the day we review the email news from siblings about Joanie's mom, who appears to have suffered a heart attack. We feel somewhat helpless here and are grateful for other family members who have stepped up to look after things.
One local concern is my new camera. It dropped from my camera bag while I was trying on a sweatshirt, and now does not take pictures. Not sure if it will work again before we get home. On a lighter note, we are camped under some trees laden with little acorns. Gerda and George's trailer is right under a tree which regularly drops nuts on the roof, causing a loud bang and a rolling sound as it falls to the ground. We paid extra to camp under trees for shade, but next time Gerda wants to be a little more specific about the kind of trees we camp under.
We woke to another gorgeous day! We took the campground free shuttle in to New Orleans French Quarter for a day of shopping and boat ride. Our driver liked doubling as a tour guide, and took us down narrow streets to show us some beautiful homes, a mansion tucked away somewhere, and a tour around an old cemetery for the rich. It seems the very rich here compete for who has the biggest monument to themselves. Every plot had huge monuments, some shaped as churches, others with statutes of people or animals, and a number with stain-glassed windows inside. For health reasons, the caskets themselves have to be burned after a period of time. The family behind the Whitney Bank had what looked like the front of an old bank building. Some of these stones date back to the mid 1800's.
After coffee and beignets, a deep-fried pastry covered with heaping piles of icing sugar (much like the apple version of olliebollen, but without the apples), a N.O. tradition, we set out on our own. George marched straight to the waterfront. Joanie, Gerda and Tina headed for the souvenir stores. I was caught in the middle, not wanting to deprive this region of its economic growth, but also afraid that my enthusiasm for shopping may not match that of the others. I therefore took off on my own, exploring the French Quarter, checking out the stores and scenery. We all met again at 2:00PM to board one of the only authentic paddlewheelers still running for a tour of the harbour. A nice relaxing afternoon, followed by a mad dash to that last store Joanie and Gerda were not quite finished with, before catching our shuttle back. A good day but a little tiring. Retirement is sooo hard!
Driving around N.O. we saw many homes and businesses which were flooded by Katrina and never re-opened. One did have a note on the side by the SPCA informing rescuers of a cat upstairs. Personally, I find the old buildings with their rod iron balconies in the French Quarter very interesting, but outside of downtown, I find most of the streets and shops kind of seedy looking and not very appealing. We were also warned not to wander around the neighbourhood after dark (our campsite was secure) which adds to the sense of seediness. Of course, we also saw where the rich lived, and that was quite different. No sign of hurricane damage there. We also heard several times from locals that news reports about the BP spill were grossly exaggerated, with little evidence of damage in this area. The news focused on the few areas directly damaged and played that over and over to give the impression of total destruction.
The difference in the weather here vs Utah is that the evenings remain warm. We can sit out all night whereas in Utah, it could be 100 degrees in the day and be quite cool by 10PM.
Day 25
Another hot, lazy day. We went to a local plantation house that dated back to the late 1700's. We had a very interesting presentation by a retired black university professor of pharmaceuticals, who talked about all the remedies practiced by many of the senior blacks, even today. Many his mom used on him as a child. e.g. drinking male urine to cure a sore throat, the use of leeches, cow manure for athlete's foot, and sage tea for runny noses, fevers, etc. He and his students tested these things and most could not be shown scientifically to be effective, although some were. He is going to write a book about his findings, published by the U. of Michigan. FYI - if you get stung by a jelly fish, do not get someone to pee on it, this will aggravate the injury. So much for the Friends episode being accurate. For nettles, on the other hand, pee away!
We spent the afternoon in the pool after a visit to Winn Dixie. Tomorrow Walter and Marion leave us as they booked a cruise a few days ago, leaving from New Orleans and going to Mexico. After that they are off to do work for CRWRC in Galveston.
Day 26
Destination: Westlake, Louisiana
Today we left New Orleans. The one thing I will not miss is the trains. Even though the tracks do not cross any roads near here, they blow their whistles almost non-stop until they are far away. I don't know if people frequent the tracks or what the story is, but it is highly annoying.
We said goodbye to Walter and Marion today. The weather was warm, 32 degrees C. at 3PM. We crossed over the swamps and bayous (bayous have water that flows, swamps do not), across Louisiana. In Baton Rouge we got caught in a traffic jam at about 10:30. LSU was playing football against Tennessee at 2:30 and the highways were already plugged with a 10 km. backup on one side of town. Not that is a sign of good fan support.
Near Lafayette we saw our first sugar cane fields. The land is very flat here with areas of dry ground and other areas of swamps and bayous. After setting up camp at 2PM, we took a drive along an "All-American Highway" into the bayou to look for birds, gators, etc. We did see many egrets, lesser egrets, cattle egrets, white ibis, herons, millions of dragon flies, and other flies bent on driving me insane. Nothing all that new to see. Next time we look for an All-Canadian Highway.
PS Maria - there are no new signs of injury on George's head.
Day 27
Destination: Houston, Texas
We did a 4 hour drive to Houston. In Beaumont, Texas and the outskirts of Houston, it was incredible to see the number and size of the oil refineries wherever you looked. I was glad to leave the horrible highways of Louisiana behind. We continue to be amazed at the number and size of the churches we see in every city. We saw many mega-sized churches and World Centers of Prayer. One in Houston had a parking lot the size of a medium sized shopping mall, and it was full!
In the afternoon we, Ken and Alice, Al and Else, and Joanie and I, went to the NASA Space Center. We were not prepared for how long it would take to see all the things we wanted to, and we did run out of time. We enjoyed seeing the actual Mission Control Center, the simulators where astronauts train for flights, touching moon rocks, and sitting in a flight simulator where we had the controls and try to fly it and shoot down enemy forces. We had a great time and enjoyed a pizza before going back to camp. Gerda and George, and Tina drove a different route to Houston, passing through Galveston so arrived after we had left. The weather in Houston was a nice comfortable 25 degrees C.
In the evening we made several attempts to contact our children with Skype, but to no avail. Out of sight, out of mind?
Day 28
Destination: Corpus Christ
Another gorgeous day with temp. reaching about 91 F. Drive from Houston to Corpus Christi was uneventful and not too exciting. Mostly farmland, including cotton fields, and flat areas of trees with more swamps as we approached the Gulf of Mexico. Corpus Christi reminds me more of a tropical resort, despite its downtown office towers. We did a quick drive over to Padre Island and were excited about spending tomorrow on the beach. The water was as warm as the pools we swam in recently, and there are 180 species of birds on the island, plus rattlesnakes and nesting turtles. The beaches are bordered with white sand dunes and you can drive for 60 miles on the beach, although 4 wheel drive is recommended for most of this. It is very quiet with few people on the beach, and no one swimming. Most people are fishing. Deep sea fishing for marlin and tuna is very popular here. There is also a decommissioned aircraft carrier open for viewing.
Day 29
Another great day! Temp. in upper 80's. We spent the day on Padre Island, at the beach. The water was divine, over 80 degrees F. I could just walk right in. We played in the surf and had a great time. We also saw many birds, including flocks of pelicans soaring overhead and in the surf. Just a fantastic day.
Day 30
Decided to camp on Padre Island by the beach. No hookups, etc. but nice to be almost right on the beach. After setting up, we did a long loop drive, up the island, over Mustang Island, Aransas, over a short ferry ride and back through Corpus Christi. We saw dolphins briefly on our ferry crossing. Aransas looked like a fairly new community with fancy condos, RV parks, art galleries and souvenir shops and a DQ with deep fried jalapeno peppers. In the afternoon we swam in the Gulf and had a BBQ with Gerda and George and Tina. The burgers were ready just after sunset. The mosquitoes attacked on mass. Trying to eat in the dark, our hands and faces were covered with the little buggers and who knows if we were eating them or not. We quickly decided to move indoors for the rest of the night. Joanie and I spent a romantic evening by candle light hiding from the invaders.
Day 31
Another day at the Padre Island campground. First we drove to Bird Island basin to see if there were any birds like the white pelicans on the brochure. We saw sea gulls. Then we decided to take the nature trail. We lasted about 2.5 minutes before an army of skeeters drove us back into our vehicle. We spent the rest of the day on the beach, walking for miles, reading, and playing in the surf. The water had cooled to 78 degrees but we hardly noticed. Small fish, referred to locally as whities, jump around us in the surf. They were anywhere from 3 inches to about a foot long, and often landed within a few inches of us. Brown pelicans flew near by.
Padre Island is a ling narrow island running along the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico. After a few miles, the single road spills onto the beach, where you can drive for about 5 miles, and camp if you wish. After that there is 60 miles of beach driving that is reserved for four wheel drives only.
We decided to lock ourselves in our trailers after about 6:30PM because of the skeeters.
George's scabs are back. Apparently there was another head-bumping incident.
Day 32
Destination: South Padre Island
Today we drove another 200 miles south to South Padre Island, across from Port Isabel. This is near to the Mexican border and is the southernmost stop on our trip. Today I passed several trucks! This is a big deal. Pulling a trailer, most of us limit our speed to about 60 - 65 miles an hour, even though the speed limit is ofter 70-75 miles per hour. This means for 32 days I have been one of the slowest vehicles on the road. Today I encountered several trucks traveling slower than us, so it felt good to "speed" by them.
South Padre Island is just below Padre Island but is much smaller. It is much more developed with ocean front hotels and condos. The KOA where we are staying is like a Hawaii resort. The large pool is bordered with hibiscus and palm trees and there are palm trees everywhere. However, there is a motorcycle convention on the island this weekend. The campground is full of Harleys going in and out. a little noisy.
We sat outside all night without a mosquito in sight!!! There has been discussion of perhaps just staying here and never coming home. The weather forecast for the next few days is like it has been for weeks, sunny and highs in the upper 80's or low 90's.
Day 33
Its a hot one today. We were concerned about the campground being overrun with bikers and how loud it would be when they went to their convention or wherever bikers go on this weekend. However, the bikers were quiet and we woke up to the sound of children talking loudly at 6:30 AM and birds, crackles, squawking more loudly than crows. We spent the morning in Port Isabel, shopping. The place is overrun with motorcycles. Most cyclists are over 50 years old, and fat. In the afternoon we went on a snorkeling cruise. The water between South Padre Island and the mainland is not very deep. We anchored in water about 4 feet deep. We saw nothing! The water was not that clear and no matter where we looked, there was only sea weed and patches of sand. Very disappointing but we did have a nice ride. The water was very warm so that was good too. If you ever come to this area, forget snorkeling though. By the time we got back and took a dip in the pool, it was apparently too late to start making dinner, so we went to a local restaurant, Pier 19, which overlooked the water. While eating, we saw a pod of dolphins. We also saw few fireworks in honour of motorcycle week.
The beaches here are public, but most areas charge $4 for parking, and there is no shelter, so one frys to death. We therefore decided to stay an extra day but not two days as had been contemplated. However, it will be hard to leave the Gulf and its warm water.
Day 34
It rained today! I got several drops on me before the cloud moved on. It ended up being 92 degrees this afternoon. (low of about 75 degrees overnight). This morning we went to the Island Baptist Church. They had a contemporary service but we miss our own church. In the afternoon we went to the beach and had a great time playing in the surf. I thought the water could not get warmer than what we had on Padre Island but South Padre was perhaps a little warmer. Gerda and George joined us to go to the local bird sanctuary, which ended up being a one block lot with some trees on it. We did see a few different birds I need to look up in my bird book later. Before dinner I went to the pier near our campsite and spotted a number of dolphins. One surfaced only about 10 yards away.
After coffee we enjoyed our last drink together as a group outside under the palm trees. Tomorrow we begin our slow trek home, but Joanie and I are not ready to leave this paradise. It is like being in Hawaii without the Polynesian or Hawaiian cultural flavour.
Day 35
Destination: San Antonio
This morning we left South Padre Island and bid farewell to the warm Gulf of Mexico. It felt a little sad to thing we won't be swimming in the surf any more. The drive to San Antonio was uneventful and not that scenic. It was a 6 hour drive, one of our longer travel days. We saw an awful lot of Border Patrol police and we did go through one border checkpoint. The scenery changed from flat farm land to low rolling hills with trees, shrubs and various varieties of palm trees or yuccas. We did see vultures feeding on a dead cow and a few armadillos.
The resort RV park we are at is quite nice and we ended our afternoon with a rousing game of volleyball in the pool. Unfortunately there were no Olympic scouts here, because we did have some amazing play, including several times when the ball actually hit two people on the same team and still went over the net!
Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, Columbus Day in the U.S. We managed to connect with our girls by skype so that was good. We did not eat turkey, although I can not be certain that there were no turkey parts in the wieners we had. It is a little know fact (or theory) that the pilgrims in Texas ate hot dogs and potato salad on Thanksgiving. I did reflect on the day and feel so extremely grateful for family, friends, health, and this awesome trip we are on, which has gone so well so far. We have thoroughly enjoyed the new friends we made here and the things we have seen and done. God is so good. We did get some bad news about Joanie's mom in the last few days, but trust that God will provide and that family members will look after things.
Day 36
A hot, muggy day with temperatures expected to reach 90 degrees. We took to city bus from our campground to downtown San Antonio and visited the site of the Alamo. First we went to the IMAX theatre to watch the presentation on what happened at the Alamo. (about 197 people, including Davey Crockett, were under seige in the local mission from the Mexican army before being overtaken and killed at the battle of the Alamo, but this became the rallying cry for the rest of the Texas army that seven weeks later defeated the Mexicans and gained independence.) We then toured the mission. After lunch we did the River walk which was beautiful. A canal was created in a circle around downtown, with a walkway around it. It is below ground level and is lined with beautiful trees, bars and restaurants, hotel accesses, etc. A very nice feature. We visited a few very old churches, took a trolley bus ride around downtown and had dinner at a restaurant along the river walk. Most people ordered Texas steak, the main purpose for going out for dinner, and I enjoyed blackened chicken fettuccine. The margaritas were also excellent! All in all, a very nice day. We were home by 9:15PM.
The Internet here is extremely poor. I still have been unable to see the BC Lions football game from yesterday because it freezes up after a few seconds, as do other Internet applications. At the end of the day we review the email news from siblings about Joanie's mom, who appears to have suffered a heart attack. We feel somewhat helpless here and are grateful for other family members who have stepped up to look after things.
One local concern is my new camera. It dropped from my camera bag while I was trying on a sweatshirt, and now does not take pictures. Not sure if it will work again before we get home. On a lighter note, we are camped under some trees laden with little acorns. Gerda and George's trailer is right under a tree which regularly drops nuts on the roof, causing a loud bang and a rolling sound as it falls to the ground. We paid extra to camp under trees for shade, but next time Gerda wants to be a little more specific about the kind of trees we camp under.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
New Orleans et al Camping
Camping Trip – New Orleans, Corpus Christi
September 6, 2010 to Oct, 29, 2010
Day 1
Destination: Home to West Richland, Washington
Departure time: 8:15AM
Day began fairly uneventfully, after a half hour wait at Aldergrove and a very grumpy border guard. We left Scott and Amy’s in Lynden at 9:45. Driving went very well. We turned off I-5 at I-405 through Bellevue and went through a torrential rain storm over the Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg. At Ellensburg we tanked up and I ended up leading. We therefore missed the turnoff to I-82 (my GPS told me to go straight.) As a result we ended up going to Vantage and then south on Hwy 243 and 240 to West Richland. As it turned out, a very scenic route through vineyards, orchards, dry rocky territory and over the Columbia River. We arrived in West Richland at 4PM.
Then things took a turn. The RV park we had planned to stay had only one spot left due to workers from the Hanson nuclear project staying there. We needed two spots, (Else and Al had arrived earlier and taken the only spot) so spent our first night in the Walmart parking lot. After dinner we filled our time trying to open the bathroom door which was locked with no one in it. We even took the handle apart but could not open the door. After a visit to the next door Home Depot, where the very helpful lock specialist took a lock apart to see what our problem was, we eventually got the door open.
George’s hand, which was extremely bruised from a bungee cord incident yesterday, managed to bump his head, resulting in a stream of blood. The first head bruise of the trip.
Day 2
Destination: Huntington, Oregon
Departure time: 9:30
The day began at 8:15 with breakfast at McDonalds. We took I-82 and I-84 to Oasis RV Park, a nice fishing camp along the Snake River just past Huntingon, arriving at about 2PM. We drove through showers off and on, but the sky became sunny at Happy Hour.
The drive was very scenic, with rolling hills and small mountain passes. The landscape was barren, with mostly yellow grass and sage not unlike the Cache Creek area of B.C.
We experienced our first live wildlife (road kill excluded). A coyote crossed our path just after we entered Oregon, and where we camped, there were white pelicans and egret on the river.
A very good day with no problems. It became very cold and windy in the evening.
Day 3
Destination: Delco, Idaho
Departure time: 10:15
Drove from the Oasis Campground near Huntington through Idaho to Delco, Id. Scenery consisted of rolling, bare hills and long straight highway which traversed the Snake River several times. Some areas had mountains with black lava outcrops as we were on the southern end of the Idaho lava beds. It was very windy, but most of the time the wind was at our back. Only wildlife was two dead skunks. In areas, tumbleweeds bounced across the road. We saw a lot of threatening clouds, and storms in the distance, but had dry weather. The campground was along the side of the highway with clean spots and nicely kept grass. We arrived at 3PM.
Have to stock up on wine. Tomorrow we enter Utah for the next 8 days, and there are no liquor sales in Utah. Elsie can simply wring out her towels to access their wine.
Another very cool night. First night with internet and TV so it is nice to reconnect with civilization as we know it.
No major mechanical problems so far. G & G had an issue with a propane alarm and an airlock in their propane lines which caused alarms of a different kind. George also acquired bandage #2 on his head and happy hour included discussions on the challenges of fitting different people's bodily functions schedule into our travel schedule.
Day 4
Destination: Springville, Utah (suburb of Provo, south of Salt Lake City)
Departure: 9:15
Another partly cloudy day, but better weather is ahead. Temp. about 68 degrees. Drove I-84 and took a scenic, longer route over I-86 and I-15. It was nice but not worth the extra driving. The city of Pocatella was very nice. It is the home of Idaho State University and the properties near the road were all well kept, with many large homes with manicured lawns and tree lined streets tucked against the barren mountainside. Most of the scenery was rolling hills and mountains covered in sage or small evergreens. I began to notice all the Mormon churches were almost identical, with large one story buildings and a white steeple.
We took a scenic route around Salt Lake City which took an extra hour, but was worth the effort. Near Hefener we passed through a narrow canyon sided by spectacular voodoos and red rock faces. We passed through Provo Canyon which had a beautiful waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls, were we spotted a mountain goat. Yes, I have a picture to prove it! The only other live wildlife we saw was two cranes.
Driving through Provo was interesting since we passed through the campus of Brigham Young University. There must be a lot of money there, judging by the beautiful, large buildings, football stadium. Things were going too well. I was following George because his spreadsheet said we were staying at the Ebay RV resort and my GPS did not recognize this. We traveled through Springville and into a residential area where he stopped. Apparently, Jill, his GPS guide, told him he was at the campsite, but there was nothing there. It turns out we were looking for East Bay RV, which is why I could not find it. I programmed it into my GPS and sure enough, it lead to the same location. George got instructions from a local, and we proceeded back to the highway to Springville, through another construction zone (we seem to find construction everywhere). I had to merge lanes, but the school bus beside me refused to let me in. Finally George signaled for me to merge in front of him, even though I had no idea where we were going. When we turned the corner, I pulled onto the shoulder to let George go by, and then tried to pull in behind him. However, the school bus was behind him and he sped up to make sure I could not get in. The shoulder was rapidly disappearing and I was heading for a ravine. The driver gave me a sneering look as he passed me. I guess not all Utahites are good Mormons. We did eventually find the campsite, but it was now 5PM, an hour passed our expected completion. The people at the desk said they get 4 to 5 people per day lost because the GPS and Google are wrong. Happy hour was late today. Ken and Alice were already there for 2 days waiting for us, as they had gone to Yellowstone first. There was slushy snow when they arrived in Yellowstone.
Day 5
Destination: Virgin, Utah (near Zion Canyon)
Departure: 9:30
A beautiful day. The drive to Virgin was uneventful and the scenery was nice but not spectacular, mostly vast valley floor surrounded by barren mountains. The valley consisted of dry grasses and sagebrush with large areas of black eyed susan flowers.
The last stretch to Virgin was spectacular, with red rock mountains, some with flat table tops and beautiful colours. The campground is beautiful, but we spent the first hour sorting out where to stay because every site they sent us to was occupied. There was a computer glitch which did not recognize many of the campers who decided to stay.
The temperature in Virgin was 97 degrees, and the forecast for the week called for similar weather. We enjoyed a nice swim before dinner, and I even got to catch the replay of the BC Lions game on TSN website while Joanie took in a concert.
Al and Elsie stayed in Springville so Al could have his truck looked at. It turns out it had transmission problems and they may not get it fixed for several days.
Day 6
Destination: Zion Canyon National Park
Its a beautiful sunny day. Temperature reached about 97 degrees. We took the shuttle bus 13 miles to the park entrance where park shuttle buses ferry people through the canyon. The canyon is stunning. The single road passes through the bottom of the narrow canyon. Colourful sheer canyon walls contrast with the trees and Virgin River which runs through it. As I gazed at the truly amazing scenery, I could not help but marvel at God's handiwork. Most mountain peaks contained Biblical references like the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Angel's landing, the Throne of God, and the table of Sacrifice. After our first walk at the end of the road, while waiting for the shuttle bus to take us back to the next stop, Joanie, gazing up at the beautiful rocky scene tumbled over the 4 inch curb. Zion may be founded on the mountain, but Joanie was founded on the valley floor! Sprained ankle. She will go to any length to get one of those souvenir walking sticks. She remained behind for the next walk and got out of making dinner. Hopefully there is no more serious damage and she heals quickly.
Wildlife spotted today included several mule deer, including a mother and fawn and a beautiful buck, flocks of wild turkeys, a small lizard and a turkey vulture, which spotted Joanie's bandaged ankle and starting hovering over our campground.
Our shuttle to the park included our group plus two other couples. Both turned out to be Dutch tourists (not together). One couple joined us for beverages in the evening.
Day 7
Destination: Cannonville, Utah
We are spending a lazy afternoon at the Cannonville KOA. Its a warm 80+ degrees. Drove three hours through Zion National Park and down scenic Highway 12 bi way. Drive began with a steep accent through a 1.1 mile tunnel and along a narrow road through a gorgeous red rock canyon where it appeared the rocks flowed down from the top and just froze in mid stream. We are now 12 miles from Bryce Canyon and Joanie is anxiously icing her foot in hopes of being able to do some walking. Her foot reminds me of the frozen panninis with fat toes at the end. Too hot for a swim right now but plans are for a dip before dinner.
The dip never happened. We decided to drive into Bryce to see the sunset but were too late. However, we did get pictures of a beautiful herd of pronghorn antelopes. I also got a nice picture of a western bluebird.
Day 8
Destination: Bryce Canyon
Went to Bryce Canyon for the day. Joanie's foot is still swollen but she was moving around a little better, and only missed one walk. It was another beautiful day. Entering the park, they were doing a controlled burn, and the entrance was thick with smoke. Very glad we did not camp right outside the park gates. At lunch Ken noted that Joanie and I brought the average age of the patrons in the restaurant down by quite a bit.
The canyon is breathtaking in its columns of orange, red and white. Its humbling to see. We also spotted wildlife including the near extinct Utah gopher, pronghorn, deer, bluebirds and tiny lizards.
Al and Elsie are still in Provo and may join up with us in a few days when the truck repairs are done.
Day 9
Destination: Green River, Utah
Woke up to another gorgeous blue sky. I could get used to that. We are planning a one night stopover before heading to Moab where we hope to join up with Al and Elsie again.
We had our first mechanical problems. Shortly after starting out, our battery light went on and never went off again. We had it checked out but, while the batteries had lost a little power, the dual battery system was strong enough so that we had no trouble starting. We carried on hoping that it would magically disappear or we could deal with it when we reach a larger centre like Moab. By mid afternoon the temperature reached 32 C and our air conditioning was blowing warm air. Joanie was not amused.
We traveled highway 24 on the way to Green River. All day long, we would ooh and ah about the scenery and think it could not get any better, and then we would turn a corner and our jaws would drop. Driving through Escalante State Park we drove this narrow road which felt like we were on top of the world because it dropped on both sides and we were surrounded by beautiful canyon vistas on all sides. We then passed through Capital Reef National Park, (who has ever heard of this place?) and the landscape became surreal. Red rock walls, red soil, red rock monuments, etc. It was difficult to drive because Joanie was everywhere, clicking pictures, out her window, through the front window, leaning on my lap to take shots out of the driver's window. Out 4 hour drive became 5 hours because of the many view points we couldn't resist. This place is worth going to on its own.
Spent the night at the KOA and had a swim as well as doing some laundry. Joanie's foot is making progress. Her limp is getting less and less.
Day10
Destination: Moab, Utah
Drove a Short 1:15 to Moab. Camp resort we had chosen was full so we were referred to the KOA. Plans to explore Arches National Park, 14 km. away melted away in the 95 degree sun and we spent time in the pool instead.
I decided to get the truck checked because of the air conditioning and the battery light, despite the truck starting well. I phoned and arranged to bring it to a local auto and RV repair place (yes, it was on the advice of Gerda so I better give her credit, because the car dealership only promised to "look at it" tomorrow). When I jumped in to drive away from our site, it wouldn't start and we had to jump start it. It turns out we need a new alternator and fluid in the air conditioner. It will be worked on first thing tomorrow and should be ready when we return from visiting Arches. We are so grateful that the batteries, despite not charging for the last day and a half, took us here, and we have two day planned, so getting repairs will not effect our plans. God is good!
Shortly after setting up camp, a truck pulled in two sites beside us. It was Elsie and Al. They had a new transmission and went to the other campground, only to be told that the Canadians were at the KOA. Later in the day, Walter and Sylvia, who said they may join up with us, arrived as well.
Yesterday we spotted the Dutch couple we met in Zion arriving at Capitol Reef campground as we went by and today we ran into them again. They were also at the KOA so we invited them over for drinks.
Day 11 : Moab
Another hot, hot day, with temp.'s reaching close to 100Degrees. We left at 7AM to do a 3 mile hike in Arches National Park. Joanie's ankle was still swollen but she was determined to do this hike and did make it! It was a continuous climb, walking on slabs of rock and along ridges with no railing to prevent you from falling to a certain death. We got to the main feature of the park, the Delicate Arch. It was as beautiful as many of the pictures you see of Utah. After this we did a 2.8 mile hike to see Landscape Arch, a fascinating arch which had a very narrow piece at one end. I felt all day like I was walking in a post card, the scenery was so nice. After exploring the park we at lunch in Moab, and George and I had a 26 oz. beer to quench our thirst. It was heavy! After a swim, shower and quick dinner (I ate salad, yogurt and a banana, which anyone who knows me would think could never happen!) we returned to see the Delicate Arch again from a view point before sunset, as was recommended to us. This involved another climb just to see it in the distance. There was nothing new to see except the shadows were a little different from the morning! We did visit a few sites we missed earlier so all was not lost.
This was a good news day! We picked up our truck and it is running well, and the A/C is working better than ever! Also, we found a liquor store in Utah and no longer face the threat of running out of wine before New Mexico. Utah allows beer sales everywhere but has very strict laws about wines and spirits, so alcohol other than beer is very hard to get. Of course, with this heat, even Joanie has turned into a beer drinker.
Day 12
Destination: Natural Bridge Monument and Bluff, Utah
We drove to Natural Bridges Monument in southern Utah and drove the 9 mile loop to see the rock formations which form bridges across the canyon. We have been so spoiled by the scenery these last days that we were not as impressed as we should have been. It was another scorching day. We haven't seen a cloud in the sky for days.
Tonight I am writing this while sitting under a starry sky in Bluff, Utah. It is a town with very little in it on the edge of the Navajo Reserve. In the background I hear loud native drums, singing, chants and whooping noises, as well as the neighing of horses. Tomorrow is the local Navajo rodeo and tonight is the big powwow. I feel like I am in the middle of a John Wayne movie and the natives are on the warpath. Al suggested we might want to circle our vehicles.
There were two ways to get here from the Bridges Monument, one involved retracing our route to Blanding, and then taking the highway here. Another was to turn down a scenic highway; both were approximately of equal length. Shellah told me to go 47 km before turning so I blew by the turnoff for the scenic highway George had just gone down. It turns out the scenic highway had hairpin turns and was not recommended for RVs or towing vehicles. It was apparently a very scary descent to the valley floor so I am so glad I did not do it. Elsie was so nervous when they did it that she was praying for all of us to get through safely. It worked, we did all make it but we were probably the most relaxed.
Day 13
Destination: Chama, New Mexico
We all woke up with our scalps in place so I guess that was not a war party last night. In fact, all of the Navaho we met were very nice people. We did some grocery shopping along the way and were the only non-native people in the store, but never once felt uncomfortable.
Today was a 4.5 hour drive which was not too special. The last stretch was through a higher valley where we actually saw green grass and trees of normal size. The weather was quite cool today, with highs of only about 85 degrees. Chama is at high elevation so the night will be cold. We also enjoyed our first Dairy Queen of the trip. Tonight I watch yesterday's Lions game.
For those keeping track, George's head has healed quite nicely, Joanie's ankle continues to improve though there is still some swelling, and Ken is also recovering from a twisted ankle.
Day 14
Destination: Taos, New Mexico
Today we did a short 2 hour drive to Taos. The temperature was very nice, in the high 70's with clouds. We travelled over a mountain pass where there were many trees dressed in their golden fall colours. Interestingly, when we reached the other side, the greenery turned to flat, dry, sage covered land. The first several miles, you could look over the sage brush and see many, many remnants of old cars, buses, etc. Sad to see such a vast junk yard.
Taos had an old shopping plaza as well as several very old Spanish looking churches made of mud and straw, and remains of a Pueblo town. They not only charged $10 to walk through it, but you had to pay for each camera you took, and extra if you also had a video camera. As good Dutchmen, we refused and snuck a few pictures out of the window as we left to start Happy Hour instead. We actually had a thunderstorm and walked together to a nearby Mexican restaurant in the rain.
Joanie and I are feeling very fortunate to be on this trip, and really appreciate how at home everyone has made us feel, especially our new friends.
We did have a problem finding our RV park. As Joanie and I drove down a busy street on the way to where we believed the pre-determined site to be, we passed Gerda and George going the other way. George signalled to go back, but I was in the wrong lane and had no way of making a quick turn or knowing why they were going the wrong way, until we passed where the campsite was and it did not look very good. I decided to go around the block to try and find George. Of course, the street I chose went on for several miles without a side street so our little loop around became quite a big loop. We found ourselves heading down the same road we had been on before when we met George. I had no idea where I should go or where our new destination should be. Then I saw Tina standing at a corner, waving maddly at us to turn in a street. I went to the next possible place to turn, and beside us was Walter, so we told him to follow us. As I turned into a parking lot to turn around, there came Ken and Al, (we had not been travelling together so this was a coincidence) so we all found the right turnoff together and arrived safely at the place George had found to stay. Was that just luck, or....?
PS For those on Facebook, I did post a few sample pictures of our trip so far.
Day 15
Destination: Amarillo, Texas
Today was an eventful day, sort of. We survived a strong storm overnight and woke up to an overcast sky. We drove about 4 hours into Texas on Ropute 66, Interstate 40. The Texas landscape included vast flat fields of yellow grass with a tree here or there. We passed one stockyard with more cows than I have ever seen together. There were thousands of Holsteins in large pens for about a km. along the highway. As we approached Amarillo, Shellah and I had a falling out. I had programmed the GPS with the exact address of our RV park. Shelah kept directing me to leave the interstate and drive along a light-filled road that parralelled the highway. Each time I went back on the interstate, she would direct me off again. This wasted a lot of time. Then, when we arrived at the correct street, she indicated that the park was on the right when it was on the left, so I missed it and had to make a u-turn.
Our concern with finding a park with a pool was not well founded, since it remained overcast, though warm all day.
We decided that we would go to the medical clinic to get Joanie-s ankle looked at, since the swelling was not going down much. This proved quite entertaining. We (Gerda, Joanie and I)settled on the West Texas Hospital emergency ward (could not find the clinic) and settled in for a wait. I could write a book about all of the people in the waiting room, but will focus on a few. Despite the cost of medical treatment in the US, this place must have catered to those who cannot pay. Many sat with 10 gallon cups of soda or slurpies, and the junk food vending machines were in constant use. One family in particular were a little disturbing. The daughter was there for a sore throat, and she was slumped in her seat, eating chocolate bars. (After the first bars, they bought more) The father was somewaht cross-eyer (no offense to anyone intended), was as scruffy as could be and spoke with a hillbilly drawl. When he stood up, I was amazed at this build. It appeared that under his filthy shirt and sweatpants (my favoutite look), he looked like he had a 10-pin bowling ball strapped to his stomach. His wife was gaunt, with thin scraggly hair, and chose not to wear a bra, thereby allowing her breasts to sway across her waist when she walkded. I was certain he looked like the kind of person who may have someone locked in his basement to abuse, and she was the battered wife who went along with it. Not that I like to judge on appearances or anything, but apart from Gerda, Joanie and I, there only seemed to one couple who also appeared normal, including the big woman with only one eye open wide who made snorting noises from time to time. Final diagnosis after x-rays was that Joanie had a sprained foot and ankle with a stress fracture, and she just needs to put her leg up, apply heat, and let it heal without mountain climbing. We consider that good news, at least until the bill arrives.
While Joanie waited for her results, Gerda and I went to a local mall. We were the only ones there in shorts and wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hat would not have made us stand out. When we left, the skies opened up, Texas style. Fine warm rain came down in waves.
Driving back to the campsite, Shelah was now mad at me. The road signs give little warning of where to turn or what lane to be in, so getting back to Interstate 40 proved to be a challenge, despite the fact that the hospital was only a few blocks away. I turned to Shelah for help. She sent me on a big circle route, through downtown Amarillo, before finally gettng us back to the interstate not far from where we started. A word of advice, which seened to be shared by someone Joanie spoke to: Do not move to Amarillo. And if you stay there, keep your doors locked, because there are stange people here and your GPS will not get you home any time soon.
We ended the day with a delicious salmon dinner courtesy of our nephew Richard.
Day 16
Destination: El Remo, Oklahoma
We managed to sleep through another windy night. As we crossed the eastern end of the Texas panhandle, the land lay flat as a pancake for miles, or at least as far as we could see under the heavy cloud cover. We were privileged to see the largest cross in the western hemisphere. Entering Oklahoma, the weather gave us all it could. We went through long downpours so hard that you could barely see ahead of you, and the centre of the lane was a river of water. It was white knuckle driving. Then it finally let up and we could actually see the countryside. Oklahoma was nicer than I had imagined. It had gentle rolling hills, red and orange soil, and lots of stands of beautiful trees sprinkled the landscape. Just when we took a breath, the winds picked up. I think that generally you can either go through the state very fast, or very slow, depending on if the wind is with you or not. Unfortunately, we were traveling east and the wind wanted us to go north. Very challenging!
After stopping at a few Indian (yes they use this word in the US) trading posts we drove through El Remo, and got lost. No one had ever heard of our campground, but eventually Shelah made up with me and when I checked what lodging was near by, I found a listing for the Best Western, with our campground attached. We arrived a little later than expected. The winds continue, interspersed with showers, but the temperature remains in the low 80's (25 - 26 C.)
Day 17
Destination: Van Buren, Arkansas
The day started with a free breakfast at the best Western. We continued our trek across Oklahoma. The eastern part of the state, east of Oklahoma City was very green with lots of trees, much like the Fraser Valley without the mountain backdrop. The weather was overcast but very warm (80 +) but it was nice not battling the wind.
We have been taking pictures of each "Welcome to..." sign for each state. Today, Tina drove shotgun with us and Joanie was in the back. I was nervous, because Tina's attempt at the New Mexico sign failed miserably. As we approached Arkansas, I had her get the camera ready, practice to make sure she knew where the shutter button was, etc. and open her window. We ended up with a picture of the handle on the front post of the door! She is now banned from the front seat on all future state crossings.
Our first impression of Arkansas was of a very religious state. We saw billboards of the 10 commandments and there was a copy in the lobby of our RV park. Biblical messages were everywhere. This must have been a real challenge for Al, who accidentally caught a roof vent on one of the trees as he was parking his trailer, sheering it off. I'm sure he must have had som non-biblical thoughts, but did manage to get it fixed before nightfall. The Van Buren county is also a dry county, which means there are no liquor stores or wine outlets, which is not a good thing when you finished your last wine last night.
We did a quick trip to old town Van Buren. Sad, very sad. Almost everything was deserted, boarded up or had for sale signs on it. There was two or three very nice old buildings which graced the cover of the pamphlet which led us here, but there was nothing to see.
We saw two dead armadillos along the road. That night, a couple walked past who had lived in Texas. We mentioned wanting to see an armadillo. He said they only have dead ones along the freeway. There is no such thing as a live armadillo. I did NOT know that!
We BBQ's together as a group. After dark, the sound of crickets and frogs was deafening. Our RV park was under a beautiful canopy of tall trees along the Arkansas River.
Day 18
Destination: Memphis
We left this morning, Saturday, to traverse Arkansas on Interstate 40, via Little Rock. Van Buren is the home of Arkansas University and the Razorbacks were playing football that afternoon. We saw literally hundreds and hundreds of cars on the Interstate with Razorback car flags and large razorback decals on their car and truck doors.
The trip was uneventful. We did stop at a liquor store to replenish our wine supply. It was a very shady looking place and Joanie did not dare stay in the truck by herself. There was a woman at the counter, and she asked if we could wait while she went to the washroom. She came back and explained that most of the time, she would not trust her customers alone, but we looked trustworthy. When she found out we were Canadian, she grilled us about our health care system. She also knew about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Not the best representation of Canadians!
Up to Little Rock, there were rolling hills totally covered by a deciduous forest. No sign of Fall yet. After Little Rock, the land flattened out, with more pockets of cultivated land, including several cotton fields. The weather remained warm, in the low 80's, but cold weather is in the forcast. In a few days it could get down to the mid to upper 70's. Good thing we head south again soon.
We drove over 7 hours with stops, a long day. We are now camped a the gates to Graceland.
You probably want to know what a typical travel day looks like. Oh, yes you do!!! We are with 5 vehicles of assorted size. Everyone gets up and leaves on their own, usually between 9:15 and 10:00. We may see some of our party at a rest stop some days. When we arrive at our destination and set up, it is usually mid to late afternoon and Happy Hour begins. This may last for a few hours, but in actual fact, involves little acohol, usually only one drink. Then dinner preparations begin and everyone does their own thing. Most nights, if the weather is good, people may congregate again at the designated Happy Hour site for coffee and a glass of wine around 9 or 9:30. During this time, plans are confirmed for the next day.
Day 19
Today was an awesome day! The weather was nice but not too hot. We started with a tour of Graceland. Very enjoyable. They did a great job of organizing and I was surprised that despite how rich Elvis was, the mansion was not as opulent as I would expect. Everything was left as of 1970's when he did his last redecorating, so there was long green shag carpets and a jungle room with a waterfall on the wall. A good tour. Everything around here is Elvis related. Everywhere there are gift shops with Elvis pictures on almost any tacky gift you can imagine.
After lunch we then took a free shuttle bus to visit the Sun Studio, which is exactly as it was in the fifties. It was neat to see the room where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, and many others recorded their first records. The actual microphone they sang into was still standing there. Very cool.
The shuttle then dropped us off on Beale Street near downtown Memphis. We walked around and had a drink at an outdoor Irish patio. Everywhere there was the sounds of blues bands. We found where Jerry Lee Lewis had his musical note and hand print in the sidewalk. We caught the shuttle in front of the FedEx Forum, home of the stollen Memphis Grizzlies.
For dinner, we got picked up at our campsite in a pink limo and driven to Marlowes, a Ribs restaurant. I had the biggest rack of pork ribs, that spilled off of the plate on both sides, and Joanie had Mississippi Delta Catfish, (many catfish restaurants here), baked beans and corn fritters. They were quite good. As we left the restaurant and waited for our limo, new clientele began to arrive for the music portion of the evening. They were mostly black women dressed in tight clothing and super high heels. Not sure what was going on.
We looked into the possibility or changing our route tomorrow to go to Nashville in the hopes of visiting the Grand Ole Opry, and maybe taking in a show. However, per their website, the Opry is having a grand re-opening on Tuesday, with a line-up of the best Country singers on the radio today. Nothing is scheduled for tomorrow, so we decided to forgo the extra travel and go to Jackson, Mississippi instead, just like Johnny Cash.
The nice thing about being here is that you can watch CFL football games the next day and not run the risk of finding out the score. Tonight, before watching yesterday's BC Lions game, we skyped with Leah. The first thing she says to me is, " Dad, did you know the Lions won yesterday!" Ah, not even safe in Memphis.
Day 20
Destination: Jackson, Mississippi
Left at 9:15 and arrived at Clinton, a suburb of Jackson at 3PM, where we had a swim before Happy Hour. The drive was uneventful. We did see a flock of white egrets and some vultures feeding on something, but apparently missed some wild pigs. The rolling land was covered in a mixture of evergreens and deciduous trees which were much taller than the trees we had seen lately, but also more narrow and less dense. Surprised at how green Mississippi is. We traveled the interstate for a while, then got on the Natchez Trace Trail, a very long parkway that traverses the state. It was a nice drive, a little like driving through Stanley Park, with trees covering the two lane road. The weather was nice and sunny, with some clouds, and temperatures in the upper 70's, quite pleasant. For dinner, we ate the leftover catfish from last night's outing.
Day 21
Destination: New Orleans
Drove 3.5 hrs to New Orleans on another beautiful, sunny warm day. People here are so happy with the weather, as it has been near or over 100 degrees for the past months. South Mississippi and Northern Louisiana had beautiful pine forests as well as the orange soil which seems to be throughout the midwest and south. We travelled on a stretch of about 60 miles of elevated highway going into New Orleans, with swamps and stands of dead trees on the side. I spotted several different birds, including egrets and some kind of heron, while others claimed to see an alligator as well. The approach to N.O. is interesting because you travel over a piece of the Pontchartrain Lake on which the city lies. The highway 55 in Lousiana was very rough, with rolling cement separated with grooves which reminded me of how it felt to ride those mechanical horses they used to have in the grocery store when I was young, the few times my parents actually put a dime into the machine.
We caught a shuttle from our KOA to the city and took in the French Quarter. We had a great meal, a sampling of gumbo, crayfish, and jambaliya. We walked down Bourbon Street at night. The streets are narrow and lined with rod iron balconies. Bourbon street was actually kind of seedy looking, and we were surprised by all the sex establishments, some with girls in scantily clad bikinis showing off their wares and enticing customers to come in. It almost reminded us of a Red Light District. We did hear lots of music coming out of the bars, but were surprised that few were actually playing jazz.
Day 22
Another beautiful sunny day wiht highs of around 90 degrees. This is a more relaxing day, so we started with a pre-breakfast stroll along the dike beside the Mississippi River. Later we went on a swamp tour and saw many,many alligators. We returned for a nice swim and of course, Happy Hour. This trip has cause me some stress as I have had to adjust to new dinner hours. The traditional Meyer dinner hour of 5:15 has now been moved to 6:30 or 7PM, whenever people are finished with Happy Hour.
Tomorrow, I will begin a new blog, New Orleans II, so you don't have to scroll so far down for the next portion. I see the crowd is growing outside out trailer for coffee and ??? so its time to go.
September 6, 2010 to Oct, 29, 2010
Day 1
Destination: Home to West Richland, Washington
Departure time: 8:15AM
Day began fairly uneventfully, after a half hour wait at Aldergrove and a very grumpy border guard. We left Scott and Amy’s in Lynden at 9:45. Driving went very well. We turned off I-5 at I-405 through Bellevue and went through a torrential rain storm over the Snoqualmie Pass to Ellensburg. At Ellensburg we tanked up and I ended up leading. We therefore missed the turnoff to I-82 (my GPS told me to go straight.) As a result we ended up going to Vantage and then south on Hwy 243 and 240 to West Richland. As it turned out, a very scenic route through vineyards, orchards, dry rocky territory and over the Columbia River. We arrived in West Richland at 4PM.
Then things took a turn. The RV park we had planned to stay had only one spot left due to workers from the Hanson nuclear project staying there. We needed two spots, (Else and Al had arrived earlier and taken the only spot) so spent our first night in the Walmart parking lot. After dinner we filled our time trying to open the bathroom door which was locked with no one in it. We even took the handle apart but could not open the door. After a visit to the next door Home Depot, where the very helpful lock specialist took a lock apart to see what our problem was, we eventually got the door open.
George’s hand, which was extremely bruised from a bungee cord incident yesterday, managed to bump his head, resulting in a stream of blood. The first head bruise of the trip.
Day 2
Destination: Huntington, Oregon
Departure time: 9:30
The day began at 8:15 with breakfast at McDonalds. We took I-82 and I-84 to Oasis RV Park, a nice fishing camp along the Snake River just past Huntingon, arriving at about 2PM. We drove through showers off and on, but the sky became sunny at Happy Hour.
The drive was very scenic, with rolling hills and small mountain passes. The landscape was barren, with mostly yellow grass and sage not unlike the Cache Creek area of B.C.
We experienced our first live wildlife (road kill excluded). A coyote crossed our path just after we entered Oregon, and where we camped, there were white pelicans and egret on the river.
A very good day with no problems. It became very cold and windy in the evening.
Day 3
Destination: Delco, Idaho
Departure time: 10:15
Drove from the Oasis Campground near Huntington through Idaho to Delco, Id. Scenery consisted of rolling, bare hills and long straight highway which traversed the Snake River several times. Some areas had mountains with black lava outcrops as we were on the southern end of the Idaho lava beds. It was very windy, but most of the time the wind was at our back. Only wildlife was two dead skunks. In areas, tumbleweeds bounced across the road. We saw a lot of threatening clouds, and storms in the distance, but had dry weather. The campground was along the side of the highway with clean spots and nicely kept grass. We arrived at 3PM.
Have to stock up on wine. Tomorrow we enter Utah for the next 8 days, and there are no liquor sales in Utah. Elsie can simply wring out her towels to access their wine.
Another very cool night. First night with internet and TV so it is nice to reconnect with civilization as we know it.
No major mechanical problems so far. G & G had an issue with a propane alarm and an airlock in their propane lines which caused alarms of a different kind. George also acquired bandage #2 on his head and happy hour included discussions on the challenges of fitting different people's bodily functions schedule into our travel schedule.
Day 4
Destination: Springville, Utah (suburb of Provo, south of Salt Lake City)
Departure: 9:15
Another partly cloudy day, but better weather is ahead. Temp. about 68 degrees. Drove I-84 and took a scenic, longer route over I-86 and I-15. It was nice but not worth the extra driving. The city of Pocatella was very nice. It is the home of Idaho State University and the properties near the road were all well kept, with many large homes with manicured lawns and tree lined streets tucked against the barren mountainside. Most of the scenery was rolling hills and mountains covered in sage or small evergreens. I began to notice all the Mormon churches were almost identical, with large one story buildings and a white steeple.
We took a scenic route around Salt Lake City which took an extra hour, but was worth the effort. Near Hefener we passed through a narrow canyon sided by spectacular voodoos and red rock faces. We passed through Provo Canyon which had a beautiful waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls, were we spotted a mountain goat. Yes, I have a picture to prove it! The only other live wildlife we saw was two cranes.
Driving through Provo was interesting since we passed through the campus of Brigham Young University. There must be a lot of money there, judging by the beautiful, large buildings, football stadium. Things were going too well. I was following George because his spreadsheet said we were staying at the Ebay RV resort and my GPS did not recognize this. We traveled through Springville and into a residential area where he stopped. Apparently, Jill, his GPS guide, told him he was at the campsite, but there was nothing there. It turns out we were looking for East Bay RV, which is why I could not find it. I programmed it into my GPS and sure enough, it lead to the same location. George got instructions from a local, and we proceeded back to the highway to Springville, through another construction zone (we seem to find construction everywhere). I had to merge lanes, but the school bus beside me refused to let me in. Finally George signaled for me to merge in front of him, even though I had no idea where we were going. When we turned the corner, I pulled onto the shoulder to let George go by, and then tried to pull in behind him. However, the school bus was behind him and he sped up to make sure I could not get in. The shoulder was rapidly disappearing and I was heading for a ravine. The driver gave me a sneering look as he passed me. I guess not all Utahites are good Mormons. We did eventually find the campsite, but it was now 5PM, an hour passed our expected completion. The people at the desk said they get 4 to 5 people per day lost because the GPS and Google are wrong. Happy hour was late today. Ken and Alice were already there for 2 days waiting for us, as they had gone to Yellowstone first. There was slushy snow when they arrived in Yellowstone.
Day 5
Destination: Virgin, Utah (near Zion Canyon)
Departure: 9:30
A beautiful day. The drive to Virgin was uneventful and the scenery was nice but not spectacular, mostly vast valley floor surrounded by barren mountains. The valley consisted of dry grasses and sagebrush with large areas of black eyed susan flowers.
The last stretch to Virgin was spectacular, with red rock mountains, some with flat table tops and beautiful colours. The campground is beautiful, but we spent the first hour sorting out where to stay because every site they sent us to was occupied. There was a computer glitch which did not recognize many of the campers who decided to stay.
The temperature in Virgin was 97 degrees, and the forecast for the week called for similar weather. We enjoyed a nice swim before dinner, and I even got to catch the replay of the BC Lions game on TSN website while Joanie took in a concert.
Al and Elsie stayed in Springville so Al could have his truck looked at. It turns out it had transmission problems and they may not get it fixed for several days.
Day 6
Destination: Zion Canyon National Park
Its a beautiful sunny day. Temperature reached about 97 degrees. We took the shuttle bus 13 miles to the park entrance where park shuttle buses ferry people through the canyon. The canyon is stunning. The single road passes through the bottom of the narrow canyon. Colourful sheer canyon walls contrast with the trees and Virgin River which runs through it. As I gazed at the truly amazing scenery, I could not help but marvel at God's handiwork. Most mountain peaks contained Biblical references like the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Angel's landing, the Throne of God, and the table of Sacrifice. After our first walk at the end of the road, while waiting for the shuttle bus to take us back to the next stop, Joanie, gazing up at the beautiful rocky scene tumbled over the 4 inch curb. Zion may be founded on the mountain, but Joanie was founded on the valley floor! Sprained ankle. She will go to any length to get one of those souvenir walking sticks. She remained behind for the next walk and got out of making dinner. Hopefully there is no more serious damage and she heals quickly.
Wildlife spotted today included several mule deer, including a mother and fawn and a beautiful buck, flocks of wild turkeys, a small lizard and a turkey vulture, which spotted Joanie's bandaged ankle and starting hovering over our campground.
Our shuttle to the park included our group plus two other couples. Both turned out to be Dutch tourists (not together). One couple joined us for beverages in the evening.
Day 7
Destination: Cannonville, Utah
We are spending a lazy afternoon at the Cannonville KOA. Its a warm 80+ degrees. Drove three hours through Zion National Park and down scenic Highway 12 bi way. Drive began with a steep accent through a 1.1 mile tunnel and along a narrow road through a gorgeous red rock canyon where it appeared the rocks flowed down from the top and just froze in mid stream. We are now 12 miles from Bryce Canyon and Joanie is anxiously icing her foot in hopes of being able to do some walking. Her foot reminds me of the frozen panninis with fat toes at the end. Too hot for a swim right now but plans are for a dip before dinner.
The dip never happened. We decided to drive into Bryce to see the sunset but were too late. However, we did get pictures of a beautiful herd of pronghorn antelopes. I also got a nice picture of a western bluebird.
Day 8
Destination: Bryce Canyon
Went to Bryce Canyon for the day. Joanie's foot is still swollen but she was moving around a little better, and only missed one walk. It was another beautiful day. Entering the park, they were doing a controlled burn, and the entrance was thick with smoke. Very glad we did not camp right outside the park gates. At lunch Ken noted that Joanie and I brought the average age of the patrons in the restaurant down by quite a bit.
The canyon is breathtaking in its columns of orange, red and white. Its humbling to see. We also spotted wildlife including the near extinct Utah gopher, pronghorn, deer, bluebirds and tiny lizards.
Al and Elsie are still in Provo and may join up with us in a few days when the truck repairs are done.
Day 9
Destination: Green River, Utah
Woke up to another gorgeous blue sky. I could get used to that. We are planning a one night stopover before heading to Moab where we hope to join up with Al and Elsie again.
We had our first mechanical problems. Shortly after starting out, our battery light went on and never went off again. We had it checked out but, while the batteries had lost a little power, the dual battery system was strong enough so that we had no trouble starting. We carried on hoping that it would magically disappear or we could deal with it when we reach a larger centre like Moab. By mid afternoon the temperature reached 32 C and our air conditioning was blowing warm air. Joanie was not amused.
We traveled highway 24 on the way to Green River. All day long, we would ooh and ah about the scenery and think it could not get any better, and then we would turn a corner and our jaws would drop. Driving through Escalante State Park we drove this narrow road which felt like we were on top of the world because it dropped on both sides and we were surrounded by beautiful canyon vistas on all sides. We then passed through Capital Reef National Park, (who has ever heard of this place?) and the landscape became surreal. Red rock walls, red soil, red rock monuments, etc. It was difficult to drive because Joanie was everywhere, clicking pictures, out her window, through the front window, leaning on my lap to take shots out of the driver's window. Out 4 hour drive became 5 hours because of the many view points we couldn't resist. This place is worth going to on its own.
Spent the night at the KOA and had a swim as well as doing some laundry. Joanie's foot is making progress. Her limp is getting less and less.
Day10
Destination: Moab, Utah
Drove a Short 1:15 to Moab. Camp resort we had chosen was full so we were referred to the KOA. Plans to explore Arches National Park, 14 km. away melted away in the 95 degree sun and we spent time in the pool instead.
I decided to get the truck checked because of the air conditioning and the battery light, despite the truck starting well. I phoned and arranged to bring it to a local auto and RV repair place (yes, it was on the advice of Gerda so I better give her credit, because the car dealership only promised to "look at it" tomorrow). When I jumped in to drive away from our site, it wouldn't start and we had to jump start it. It turns out we need a new alternator and fluid in the air conditioner. It will be worked on first thing tomorrow and should be ready when we return from visiting Arches. We are so grateful that the batteries, despite not charging for the last day and a half, took us here, and we have two day planned, so getting repairs will not effect our plans. God is good!
Shortly after setting up camp, a truck pulled in two sites beside us. It was Elsie and Al. They had a new transmission and went to the other campground, only to be told that the Canadians were at the KOA. Later in the day, Walter and Sylvia, who said they may join up with us, arrived as well.
Yesterday we spotted the Dutch couple we met in Zion arriving at Capitol Reef campground as we went by and today we ran into them again. They were also at the KOA so we invited them over for drinks.
Day 11 : Moab
Another hot, hot day, with temp.'s reaching close to 100Degrees. We left at 7AM to do a 3 mile hike in Arches National Park. Joanie's ankle was still swollen but she was determined to do this hike and did make it! It was a continuous climb, walking on slabs of rock and along ridges with no railing to prevent you from falling to a certain death. We got to the main feature of the park, the Delicate Arch. It was as beautiful as many of the pictures you see of Utah. After this we did a 2.8 mile hike to see Landscape Arch, a fascinating arch which had a very narrow piece at one end. I felt all day like I was walking in a post card, the scenery was so nice. After exploring the park we at lunch in Moab, and George and I had a 26 oz. beer to quench our thirst. It was heavy! After a swim, shower and quick dinner (I ate salad, yogurt and a banana, which anyone who knows me would think could never happen!) we returned to see the Delicate Arch again from a view point before sunset, as was recommended to us. This involved another climb just to see it in the distance. There was nothing new to see except the shadows were a little different from the morning! We did visit a few sites we missed earlier so all was not lost.
This was a good news day! We picked up our truck and it is running well, and the A/C is working better than ever! Also, we found a liquor store in Utah and no longer face the threat of running out of wine before New Mexico. Utah allows beer sales everywhere but has very strict laws about wines and spirits, so alcohol other than beer is very hard to get. Of course, with this heat, even Joanie has turned into a beer drinker.
Day 12
Destination: Natural Bridge Monument and Bluff, Utah
We drove to Natural Bridges Monument in southern Utah and drove the 9 mile loop to see the rock formations which form bridges across the canyon. We have been so spoiled by the scenery these last days that we were not as impressed as we should have been. It was another scorching day. We haven't seen a cloud in the sky for days.
Tonight I am writing this while sitting under a starry sky in Bluff, Utah. It is a town with very little in it on the edge of the Navajo Reserve. In the background I hear loud native drums, singing, chants and whooping noises, as well as the neighing of horses. Tomorrow is the local Navajo rodeo and tonight is the big powwow. I feel like I am in the middle of a John Wayne movie and the natives are on the warpath. Al suggested we might want to circle our vehicles.
There were two ways to get here from the Bridges Monument, one involved retracing our route to Blanding, and then taking the highway here. Another was to turn down a scenic highway; both were approximately of equal length. Shellah told me to go 47 km before turning so I blew by the turnoff for the scenic highway George had just gone down. It turns out the scenic highway had hairpin turns and was not recommended for RVs or towing vehicles. It was apparently a very scary descent to the valley floor so I am so glad I did not do it. Elsie was so nervous when they did it that she was praying for all of us to get through safely. It worked, we did all make it but we were probably the most relaxed.
Day 13
Destination: Chama, New Mexico
We all woke up with our scalps in place so I guess that was not a war party last night. In fact, all of the Navaho we met were very nice people. We did some grocery shopping along the way and were the only non-native people in the store, but never once felt uncomfortable.
Today was a 4.5 hour drive which was not too special. The last stretch was through a higher valley where we actually saw green grass and trees of normal size. The weather was quite cool today, with highs of only about 85 degrees. Chama is at high elevation so the night will be cold. We also enjoyed our first Dairy Queen of the trip. Tonight I watch yesterday's Lions game.
For those keeping track, George's head has healed quite nicely, Joanie's ankle continues to improve though there is still some swelling, and Ken is also recovering from a twisted ankle.
Day 14
Destination: Taos, New Mexico
Today we did a short 2 hour drive to Taos. The temperature was very nice, in the high 70's with clouds. We travelled over a mountain pass where there were many trees dressed in their golden fall colours. Interestingly, when we reached the other side, the greenery turned to flat, dry, sage covered land. The first several miles, you could look over the sage brush and see many, many remnants of old cars, buses, etc. Sad to see such a vast junk yard.
Taos had an old shopping plaza as well as several very old Spanish looking churches made of mud and straw, and remains of a Pueblo town. They not only charged $10 to walk through it, but you had to pay for each camera you took, and extra if you also had a video camera. As good Dutchmen, we refused and snuck a few pictures out of the window as we left to start Happy Hour instead. We actually had a thunderstorm and walked together to a nearby Mexican restaurant in the rain.
Joanie and I are feeling very fortunate to be on this trip, and really appreciate how at home everyone has made us feel, especially our new friends.
We did have a problem finding our RV park. As Joanie and I drove down a busy street on the way to where we believed the pre-determined site to be, we passed Gerda and George going the other way. George signalled to go back, but I was in the wrong lane and had no way of making a quick turn or knowing why they were going the wrong way, until we passed where the campsite was and it did not look very good. I decided to go around the block to try and find George. Of course, the street I chose went on for several miles without a side street so our little loop around became quite a big loop. We found ourselves heading down the same road we had been on before when we met George. I had no idea where I should go or where our new destination should be. Then I saw Tina standing at a corner, waving maddly at us to turn in a street. I went to the next possible place to turn, and beside us was Walter, so we told him to follow us. As I turned into a parking lot to turn around, there came Ken and Al, (we had not been travelling together so this was a coincidence) so we all found the right turnoff together and arrived safely at the place George had found to stay. Was that just luck, or....?
PS For those on Facebook, I did post a few sample pictures of our trip so far.
Day 15
Destination: Amarillo, Texas
Today was an eventful day, sort of. We survived a strong storm overnight and woke up to an overcast sky. We drove about 4 hours into Texas on Ropute 66, Interstate 40. The Texas landscape included vast flat fields of yellow grass with a tree here or there. We passed one stockyard with more cows than I have ever seen together. There were thousands of Holsteins in large pens for about a km. along the highway. As we approached Amarillo, Shellah and I had a falling out. I had programmed the GPS with the exact address of our RV park. Shelah kept directing me to leave the interstate and drive along a light-filled road that parralelled the highway. Each time I went back on the interstate, she would direct me off again. This wasted a lot of time. Then, when we arrived at the correct street, she indicated that the park was on the right when it was on the left, so I missed it and had to make a u-turn.
Our concern with finding a park with a pool was not well founded, since it remained overcast, though warm all day.
We decided that we would go to the medical clinic to get Joanie-s ankle looked at, since the swelling was not going down much. This proved quite entertaining. We (Gerda, Joanie and I)settled on the West Texas Hospital emergency ward (could not find the clinic) and settled in for a wait. I could write a book about all of the people in the waiting room, but will focus on a few. Despite the cost of medical treatment in the US, this place must have catered to those who cannot pay. Many sat with 10 gallon cups of soda or slurpies, and the junk food vending machines were in constant use. One family in particular were a little disturbing. The daughter was there for a sore throat, and she was slumped in her seat, eating chocolate bars. (After the first bars, they bought more) The father was somewaht cross-eyer (no offense to anyone intended), was as scruffy as could be and spoke with a hillbilly drawl. When he stood up, I was amazed at this build. It appeared that under his filthy shirt and sweatpants (my favoutite look), he looked like he had a 10-pin bowling ball strapped to his stomach. His wife was gaunt, with thin scraggly hair, and chose not to wear a bra, thereby allowing her breasts to sway across her waist when she walkded. I was certain he looked like the kind of person who may have someone locked in his basement to abuse, and she was the battered wife who went along with it. Not that I like to judge on appearances or anything, but apart from Gerda, Joanie and I, there only seemed to one couple who also appeared normal, including the big woman with only one eye open wide who made snorting noises from time to time. Final diagnosis after x-rays was that Joanie had a sprained foot and ankle with a stress fracture, and she just needs to put her leg up, apply heat, and let it heal without mountain climbing. We consider that good news, at least until the bill arrives.
While Joanie waited for her results, Gerda and I went to a local mall. We were the only ones there in shorts and wearing cowboy boots and cowboy hat would not have made us stand out. When we left, the skies opened up, Texas style. Fine warm rain came down in waves.
Driving back to the campsite, Shelah was now mad at me. The road signs give little warning of where to turn or what lane to be in, so getting back to Interstate 40 proved to be a challenge, despite the fact that the hospital was only a few blocks away. I turned to Shelah for help. She sent me on a big circle route, through downtown Amarillo, before finally gettng us back to the interstate not far from where we started. A word of advice, which seened to be shared by someone Joanie spoke to: Do not move to Amarillo. And if you stay there, keep your doors locked, because there are stange people here and your GPS will not get you home any time soon.
We ended the day with a delicious salmon dinner courtesy of our nephew Richard.
Day 16
Destination: El Remo, Oklahoma
We managed to sleep through another windy night. As we crossed the eastern end of the Texas panhandle, the land lay flat as a pancake for miles, or at least as far as we could see under the heavy cloud cover. We were privileged to see the largest cross in the western hemisphere. Entering Oklahoma, the weather gave us all it could. We went through long downpours so hard that you could barely see ahead of you, and the centre of the lane was a river of water. It was white knuckle driving. Then it finally let up and we could actually see the countryside. Oklahoma was nicer than I had imagined. It had gentle rolling hills, red and orange soil, and lots of stands of beautiful trees sprinkled the landscape. Just when we took a breath, the winds picked up. I think that generally you can either go through the state very fast, or very slow, depending on if the wind is with you or not. Unfortunately, we were traveling east and the wind wanted us to go north. Very challenging!
After stopping at a few Indian (yes they use this word in the US) trading posts we drove through El Remo, and got lost. No one had ever heard of our campground, but eventually Shelah made up with me and when I checked what lodging was near by, I found a listing for the Best Western, with our campground attached. We arrived a little later than expected. The winds continue, interspersed with showers, but the temperature remains in the low 80's (25 - 26 C.)
Day 17
Destination: Van Buren, Arkansas
The day started with a free breakfast at the best Western. We continued our trek across Oklahoma. The eastern part of the state, east of Oklahoma City was very green with lots of trees, much like the Fraser Valley without the mountain backdrop. The weather was overcast but very warm (80 +) but it was nice not battling the wind.
We have been taking pictures of each "Welcome to..." sign for each state. Today, Tina drove shotgun with us and Joanie was in the back. I was nervous, because Tina's attempt at the New Mexico sign failed miserably. As we approached Arkansas, I had her get the camera ready, practice to make sure she knew where the shutter button was, etc. and open her window. We ended up with a picture of the handle on the front post of the door! She is now banned from the front seat on all future state crossings.
Our first impression of Arkansas was of a very religious state. We saw billboards of the 10 commandments and there was a copy in the lobby of our RV park. Biblical messages were everywhere. This must have been a real challenge for Al, who accidentally caught a roof vent on one of the trees as he was parking his trailer, sheering it off. I'm sure he must have had som non-biblical thoughts, but did manage to get it fixed before nightfall. The Van Buren county is also a dry county, which means there are no liquor stores or wine outlets, which is not a good thing when you finished your last wine last night.
We did a quick trip to old town Van Buren. Sad, very sad. Almost everything was deserted, boarded up or had for sale signs on it. There was two or three very nice old buildings which graced the cover of the pamphlet which led us here, but there was nothing to see.
We saw two dead armadillos along the road. That night, a couple walked past who had lived in Texas. We mentioned wanting to see an armadillo. He said they only have dead ones along the freeway. There is no such thing as a live armadillo. I did NOT know that!
We BBQ's together as a group. After dark, the sound of crickets and frogs was deafening. Our RV park was under a beautiful canopy of tall trees along the Arkansas River.
Day 18
Destination: Memphis
We left this morning, Saturday, to traverse Arkansas on Interstate 40, via Little Rock. Van Buren is the home of Arkansas University and the Razorbacks were playing football that afternoon. We saw literally hundreds and hundreds of cars on the Interstate with Razorback car flags and large razorback decals on their car and truck doors.
The trip was uneventful. We did stop at a liquor store to replenish our wine supply. It was a very shady looking place and Joanie did not dare stay in the truck by herself. There was a woman at the counter, and she asked if we could wait while she went to the washroom. She came back and explained that most of the time, she would not trust her customers alone, but we looked trustworthy. When she found out we were Canadian, she grilled us about our health care system. She also knew about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Not the best representation of Canadians!
Up to Little Rock, there were rolling hills totally covered by a deciduous forest. No sign of Fall yet. After Little Rock, the land flattened out, with more pockets of cultivated land, including several cotton fields. The weather remained warm, in the low 80's, but cold weather is in the forcast. In a few days it could get down to the mid to upper 70's. Good thing we head south again soon.
We drove over 7 hours with stops, a long day. We are now camped a the gates to Graceland.
You probably want to know what a typical travel day looks like. Oh, yes you do!!! We are with 5 vehicles of assorted size. Everyone gets up and leaves on their own, usually between 9:15 and 10:00. We may see some of our party at a rest stop some days. When we arrive at our destination and set up, it is usually mid to late afternoon and Happy Hour begins. This may last for a few hours, but in actual fact, involves little acohol, usually only one drink. Then dinner preparations begin and everyone does their own thing. Most nights, if the weather is good, people may congregate again at the designated Happy Hour site for coffee and a glass of wine around 9 or 9:30. During this time, plans are confirmed for the next day.
Day 19
Today was an awesome day! The weather was nice but not too hot. We started with a tour of Graceland. Very enjoyable. They did a great job of organizing and I was surprised that despite how rich Elvis was, the mansion was not as opulent as I would expect. Everything was left as of 1970's when he did his last redecorating, so there was long green shag carpets and a jungle room with a waterfall on the wall. A good tour. Everything around here is Elvis related. Everywhere there are gift shops with Elvis pictures on almost any tacky gift you can imagine.
After lunch we then took a free shuttle bus to visit the Sun Studio, which is exactly as it was in the fifties. It was neat to see the room where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Roy Orbison, and many others recorded their first records. The actual microphone they sang into was still standing there. Very cool.
The shuttle then dropped us off on Beale Street near downtown Memphis. We walked around and had a drink at an outdoor Irish patio. Everywhere there was the sounds of blues bands. We found where Jerry Lee Lewis had his musical note and hand print in the sidewalk. We caught the shuttle in front of the FedEx Forum, home of the stollen Memphis Grizzlies.
For dinner, we got picked up at our campsite in a pink limo and driven to Marlowes, a Ribs restaurant. I had the biggest rack of pork ribs, that spilled off of the plate on both sides, and Joanie had Mississippi Delta Catfish, (many catfish restaurants here), baked beans and corn fritters. They were quite good. As we left the restaurant and waited for our limo, new clientele began to arrive for the music portion of the evening. They were mostly black women dressed in tight clothing and super high heels. Not sure what was going on.
We looked into the possibility or changing our route tomorrow to go to Nashville in the hopes of visiting the Grand Ole Opry, and maybe taking in a show. However, per their website, the Opry is having a grand re-opening on Tuesday, with a line-up of the best Country singers on the radio today. Nothing is scheduled for tomorrow, so we decided to forgo the extra travel and go to Jackson, Mississippi instead, just like Johnny Cash.
The nice thing about being here is that you can watch CFL football games the next day and not run the risk of finding out the score. Tonight, before watching yesterday's BC Lions game, we skyped with Leah. The first thing she says to me is, " Dad, did you know the Lions won yesterday!" Ah, not even safe in Memphis.
Day 20
Destination: Jackson, Mississippi
Left at 9:15 and arrived at Clinton, a suburb of Jackson at 3PM, where we had a swim before Happy Hour. The drive was uneventful. We did see a flock of white egrets and some vultures feeding on something, but apparently missed some wild pigs. The rolling land was covered in a mixture of evergreens and deciduous trees which were much taller than the trees we had seen lately, but also more narrow and less dense. Surprised at how green Mississippi is. We traveled the interstate for a while, then got on the Natchez Trace Trail, a very long parkway that traverses the state. It was a nice drive, a little like driving through Stanley Park, with trees covering the two lane road. The weather was nice and sunny, with some clouds, and temperatures in the upper 70's, quite pleasant. For dinner, we ate the leftover catfish from last night's outing.
Day 21
Destination: New Orleans
Drove 3.5 hrs to New Orleans on another beautiful, sunny warm day. People here are so happy with the weather, as it has been near or over 100 degrees for the past months. South Mississippi and Northern Louisiana had beautiful pine forests as well as the orange soil which seems to be throughout the midwest and south. We travelled on a stretch of about 60 miles of elevated highway going into New Orleans, with swamps and stands of dead trees on the side. I spotted several different birds, including egrets and some kind of heron, while others claimed to see an alligator as well. The approach to N.O. is interesting because you travel over a piece of the Pontchartrain Lake on which the city lies. The highway 55 in Lousiana was very rough, with rolling cement separated with grooves which reminded me of how it felt to ride those mechanical horses they used to have in the grocery store when I was young, the few times my parents actually put a dime into the machine.
We caught a shuttle from our KOA to the city and took in the French Quarter. We had a great meal, a sampling of gumbo, crayfish, and jambaliya. We walked down Bourbon Street at night. The streets are narrow and lined with rod iron balconies. Bourbon street was actually kind of seedy looking, and we were surprised by all the sex establishments, some with girls in scantily clad bikinis showing off their wares and enticing customers to come in. It almost reminded us of a Red Light District. We did hear lots of music coming out of the bars, but were surprised that few were actually playing jazz.
Day 22
Another beautiful sunny day wiht highs of around 90 degrees. This is a more relaxing day, so we started with a pre-breakfast stroll along the dike beside the Mississippi River. Later we went on a swamp tour and saw many,many alligators. We returned for a nice swim and of course, Happy Hour. This trip has cause me some stress as I have had to adjust to new dinner hours. The traditional Meyer dinner hour of 5:15 has now been moved to 6:30 or 7PM, whenever people are finished with Happy Hour.
Tomorrow, I will begin a new blog, New Orleans II, so you don't have to scroll so far down for the next portion. I see the crowd is growing outside out trailer for coffee and ??? so its time to go.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Listless Retirement, June 2010
Its been a few days since my retirement after thirty-five years with the CRA, a government agency. If you do not know what the acronym means, too bad, we choose not to explain it.
What I have found really interesting is the reaction from family and friends, either personally or via Facebook. Oh sure, they all begin with the obligatory congratulations, but then things turn very quickly.
"Has your wife given you her list yet?" At first I assumed they were asking if she had given me a list of gifts to choose from for my retirement. But that would not explain all the happy faces and "laugh-out -louds" or the chuckles I hear. Why are all these people so interested in my rewards?
Then it hit me. These people, who I thought liked me, were not concerned about my happiness at all! In fact, they had no idea what retirement means. For some reason, they thought retirement meant changing employers from the government to my spouse. I worked thirty-five years so that I could start being at my wife's beck and call seven days a week.
What I still didn't understand is, why were these people sending happy faces instead of solemn messages of concern? Had some of them been caught cheating on their taxes and now saw this as an opportunity for revenge? Is this some kind of female sadistic ritual?
I am happy to report that I have now been retired for five days, I did get a fantastic gift from my family, and to date, NO LIST. I think she is happy to have me around, although she seemed a little less enthusiastic when I noted that I should have more time to watch football this fall.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Holland 2007, Coming Home!
Today, as I begin to write this reflection, it is the end of May, 2010, I am contemplating retirement in three weeks, and considering planning our next trip to Europe. What was an almost certain plan is somewhat up in the air due to the sudden and shocking discovery that my brother-in-law, Ben, who was part of our planned trip, is lying in a hospital with terminal cancer. However, it may be a good time to reflect on what was before planning on what is to come.
I should note that while my wife Joanie accompanied me, this account is a personal account of my impressions, not hers. I’m sure she had impressions, but I have learned not to speak for her. This may be the most important lesson you may learn from this, but I learned many more on this trip.
The Preparation
The main focus of our trip to Holland, my first time since leaving there as a three year old, was a one week bike and barge trip around Holland (more correctly called The Netherlands of course). After fifty years of living in Canada, it was about time to visit the homeland. Inspired by my sister’s previous bike trips to Holland, Joanie and I decided to organize a trip ourselves. We put out the word, and secured commitments from 14 others to join us so that we could arrange a boat all to ourselves. Our group included two family members, six friends (I should actually say three friends and let them struggle with what category they fit into), four people who were relatives or friends of others on the trip, and an elderly couple who were parents to one of the relative’s friends. During the Spring of 2007 we organized many local biking outings to help strengthen our butt cheeks. By July, our bums were ready. See your sorry butts in Holland on August 4!
The final challenge before our arrival was complete was in my uncle and aunt’s house itself. The stairs from the main floor to our bedroom on the second floor were only slightly less steep or narrow as a fireman’s pole. The stairs spiralled around a corner, narrowing to only a few inches wide on the inside of the turn. You could stand on the bottom step and place you hand five steps up for balance. You had to be very careful about manoeuvring the luggage around the corner, because if you stepped too much to the inside, there was hardly any stair to stand on. We later learned that most old Dutch houses had posts sticking out of the front with hooks on them. These were used to hoist furniture and other large items up and through the windows, because it would be impossible to get them up the stairs.
Hardewyk
July 27 was our first full day in our native land. We discovered immediately that Dutch people have no idea what to do with a toaster. Apparently, many have them but no one uses them. We had to get used to breakfast with untoasted bread. After three weeks, I was dreaming about fried eggs with toast and hashbrowns.
Our first morning was spent touring the old city on bicycles. The city had an extensive network of paved bike paths, and there was even a traffic circle for bikes. As much as I missed North American breakfasts, I will also miss Dutch cruising bikes. They were so comfortable to use, chains and tops of tires were fully covered, and it was not unusual to see men in suits or women in dressing, sitting up straight, biking with one hand on the handle and one hand holding large shopping bags.
Hardewyk was a beautiful, old, fortified city with buildings dating back to the 15th century. It is a port city. Many, like my uncle and aunt, live in row houses which are attached. Each have postage-stamp sized little from and back yards. Many houses also favour landscaped front yards with gravel, flowers and bushes or other low maintenance designs rather than lawns. The vast majority of properties were very well kept.
We also discovered a few other differences inside. After a fruitless hunt, I found that my uncle and aunt’s house did not have a tissue box to be had anywhere. The shower system was interesting. The shower/bathroom/shower room consisted of a fully tiled room with a sink and mirror on one side, and laundry facilities on the opposite wall. On the wall around the corner from the door, and opposite the washer, was the shower head. There was no partition anywhere. There is no toilet here. That is downstairs. This requires some planning. Do I go to the toilet first and then come upstairs for a shower, or do I take a shower first because its available.
My aunt is very particular about her house. Once you have had your shower, half the room, including the washer, is now all wet. It is strongly advised to place you clothing at the far end of the room near the sink and preferably off the floor. Having had a refreshing shower, you must now take a squeegee to the walls and floor, and then dry them all. When you are done, you will be all sweaty, so it is a good idea to take a shower. After one shower I decided there were only a few days left until we travelled to Amsterdam and since I was in an ancient city, I would follow the ancient ways of bathing less often.
The toilet facilities are interesting as well. In this case, the washroom consisted of a tiny room off of the hallway right by the living room. I think this was placed here so that if one were to have a particularly difficult or noisy bowel movement, it could be shared with the rest of the people in the house. We had learned before we came that Europeans have many different toilet styles, with different ways of flushing. Therefore, the first time I used the toilet, I frantically looked around for levers, pull strings, pipe sleeves, or any other device for flushing. I soon found what I was looking for and felt some relief until I opened the lid of the toilet. Beneath the seat was a shelf which them dropped down into a small pool of water. This might not be a problem, but this tiny room has no fan. Therefore, pardon my crudeness, but once one does their thing, it sits on this shelf, providing aroma for the whole room. The toilet had a half flush and whole flush feature. This country which is almost under water and has water ways everywhere, is concerned about conserving water. The idea is to only do a half flush if you only pee. Joanie did some work on this and discovered if you put toilet paper on the shelf first, it helps keep things from “sticking” and you can do a half flush to move things into the water, thereby reducing the smell factor. This being the only toilet in the house, I tried very hard to plan my trips, keeping them to a minimum and trying hard to protect others. However, I was often not successful, like the day I waited until just before we left for an outing to use the washroom. I had been saving up, and the shelf thing was not always that effective. So after I was finished, and I hoped we could quickly leave. Not more than one minute later, my aunt decides she will just pop into the bathroom before we go. She said nothing when she came out, but I don’t know how she could have held her breath that long!
Coming Home
July 28 was truly homecoming. Along with my uncle and aunt, we took the train to Zwolle and then to Rheden where we had reserved some bikes for rent. My aunt was quite concerned because the only bike they had available for me had 21 gears. Theirs had 5. I assured her that I was OK. It didn’t matter how many gears a bike had, you find the few you are comfortable with on the mostly flat trip, and ignore the rest.
We biked the three kilometres to Velp, which is across the river from Arnhem. My uncle acted as tour guide, and was in his glory. We visited the house where I was born at #2 Vondelaan Straat. The house was neat, but I was impressed by the neighbourhood, which seemed quite posh, with many large beautiful house. We rode past the local park where my father played soccer on Saturday afternoons and came to the house where my Oma Meyer lived until moving into a rest home before she died. My uncle explained to the owner, who was probably concerned about these strangers staring at his house and taking pictures, that we were from Canada and this is where his mother lived. The man was very gracious and offered to let us come in and see the back yard where I spent many a Sunday afternoon after church service for family coffee. I was impressed by how nice it was, with a canal at the back of the lot, lined with willow trees, other houses with little docks, etc.
My uncle on the other hand was over the top. He was thrilled to have been able to see this, as it had been decades since he had been inside. He told everyone who phoned them about this day. We also visited the graveyard where many of my family were buried and saw the old church the ‘Oude Jan’ and the park where my mother’s parent’s farm had stood. The area had since been subdivided, but a tree which stood in front of the house still grew in the park.
We finished the trip with a visit to a pancake house which served every kind of pancake and topping imaginable.
One of the things I noticed was how calm the traffic was, which I did not expect. Motorists were very patient with and mindful of cyclists, and no one seemed to be speeding, as I was expecting.
The next day was Sunday, and we attended the CRC in Hardwyk. It was like going back to the sixties. Very stiff. Slow, dreary hymns. What was charming however was hearing the church bells ringing to call people to church.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent visiting Elburg, Geithorn and the zoo in Arnhem. For our outing to Geithorn, a lovely little place with waterways instead of streets, we packed a lunch. This consisted of buns with meat, very simple. When we arrived in Geithorn, by bus, it was lunch time. We went to a restaurant for coffee, and then had to sneak bites from our buns, which we hid under the table. I had not done this since high school! By Thursday, we were ready to move on (and take a shower!).
Amsterdam
We arrived by train at Central Station in Amsterdam on August 2. The station was very crowded and we chose to walk to our hotel, rather than fight the crowds for a bus or taxi. After a twenty minute walk through downtown Amsterdam we found our hotel, The Nadia. We opened the hotel door from the sidewalk and our hearts fell. We were looking up a very, very long, narrow staircase which led to the 3rd floor lobby. Having pulled out suitcases over the cobble stones and through the crowds, we were hardly prepared to lug them up these stairs. Then we heard a voice call to us. We were told to leave the luggage at the foot of the stairs and someone was coming to bring them up. I had anticipated three trips to get everything up the stairs, but this fellow came down, and in one trip, managed to get everything up the stairs in one trip. I still have no idea how he did it.
Our room was quaint little room with a small balcony. We had a view of the Westerkerk church across the street. This is where Rembrandt attended and was buried. Our bathroom was interesting. Again with the bathrooms!!! It was impossible to bend over the sink. If you wanted to do that, you had to open the door so your butt could stick out.
We were fortunate enough to hit Amsterdam during “Gay Weekend”. The courts of the Westerkerk were adorned in bright colours and a band was playing monotonous, repetitive beat music until late in the night. The streets were filled with gay couples all night long.
The next two days were spent exploring what Amsterdam had to offer, including the Anne Frank museum nearby, the Rykesmuseum, Chinatown, the flower market and off course the famous Red Light District. The Anne Frank museum was very moving. The Rykesmuseum was a gorgeous old building and to my surprise, I thoroughly loved seeing and marvelling at the intricate detail of some of the old 16th and 17th century paintings, including Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch”. Chinatown was dirty and not to my liking. The Red Light District was interesting to say the least. It was very busy, and there were rows of windows with red lights above them, which indicated whether the women inside were busy or not. The odd man would come out of the building looking not the least bit embarrassed that the whole world knew what he had just been up to.
I also enjoyed seeing where my sister-in-law had booked one of the groups to stay, in the heart of the Red Light and drug district. To enter the little hotel, you had to pass through an aways present group of people smoking dope, and up the mandatory narrow little staircase, to a room overlooking the street below, which was filled with people milling about and smoking funny things. Across the street was a store where you could get a variety of drugs, magic mushrooms and other hallucinogenics. I was however very jealous of their great bathroom, with full bath, shower, normal toilets and room to walk around.
The night before the bike and Barge trip, we took one of the canal tours in the glass-covered boat. Very nice.
My impressions of Amsterdam? I loved the architecture. It was everything I expected and more and the canals, which paralleled every other street, made for a beautiful setting. Even without the Gay celebration across the street from the hotel, it seemed sex and drugs were in your face all the time. Even far from the Red Light district, souvenir shops prominently display items in the form of phallic symbols and had cups, mugs etc. adorned with marijuana leaves. We felt like we were in Sodom or Gomorrah. I also commented on how many items had “XXX” on them, like some pornographic rating. Then I noticed this same triple X on the tower of the Westerkerk. I began to doubt that the church was advertising sex, so I had to do some research. I learned that “XXX” mark was actually part of the coat of arms for Amsterdam and had a religious connect to the cross. Oops.
There were a few surprises which we began to learn as common throughout the country. Despite the throngs of tourists everywhere, stores generally closed at 6PM, even in tourist areas. Even on a Friday night, the main stores in Amsterdam were closed. The explanation we got from the locals was that the Dutch feel it is important for workers to have their family time, so they are not asked to stay open late, despite all the tourists with pockets full of money to spend. The main square in Amsterdam was the hub of activity during the day, and we were interested to see what it was like at night. In fact, it was quiet and deserted. It was almost impossible to find a place to just sit and enjoy a coffee after 9PM. It seems the nights are reserved for the bars which are hopping, but that’s about all. Oh yah, except for those little automat machines that spit out warm croquettes, nasi or bitterballen all night long.
Bike and Barge
On a beautiful, sunny August 4 we took a taxi and found our boat, ‘Christina’. It flew the Canadian flag, as we had pre-arranged for easy identification. Some of our group had already been there and left for a stroll. We met the captain, Toon Stevens, who escorted us to our room. He became enraged to discover that someone had tried to claim the large bedroom which he had reserved for us, because we had arranged the trip. This was not starting well. He took the bags out of our room and re-assigned it to us. If we had known what was to come, we may not have been so pleased. Our first meeting as a group began with Toon lecturing everyone about the attempted room switch and how on this ship he was the boss on board. Luckily, he did calm down and things proceeded well after that.
After a short cruise out of Amsterdam and up the canal to Nighveghter, we started our first biking session, an 18 km. trip to meet up with the boat again just north of Utrecht. We found a bike trail along the canal for a while until we met another couple who noticed our t-shirts with the Dutch-Canadian flag logo. They were from Ontario. They told us we were missing the more scenic route inland and proceeded to lead us to the trail we wanted. It did not take us long to run into problems. At Loenen, we stopped at a little draw bridge, and the party got separated. Some proceeded across the bridge, which was not part of our route, and visited a windmill. The rest of us remained on the other side, and decided to carry on, not knowing if the rest would be returning this way or not. We stopped at a set of locks for a cool beer and to watch people manoeuvre their boats through the locks, yelling at each other when someone did not cooperate. Very entertaining. We carried on and when we got to the town where we needed to cross the river and head for the canal where our boat should be, we ran into the ‘lost’ party (they may have called us lost). When we reached the canal, we turned left per directions, and cycled for a short while before deciding we were getting too far away. We turned back and sure enough, the boat was on the right side of where we had come out. Finding the boat that first day gave us a real sense of accomplishment.
Saturday night we docked just outside of Utrecht and enjoyed an evening out on the deck. Things were going too well. It was a very warm evening and the cabins were hot. Our large cabin would only be considered large for leprechauns. It had a bunk bed along one wall and two bunk beds, one above the other along another wall. The heat and size of the beds did not encourage any thoughts of extracurricular activities. Joanie slept on the single bed while I crawled into the bottom bed on the other wall. I enjoyed a really good one hour sleep before being woken up by Joanie. She was concerned because she was feeling very itchy and found some bugs on her pillow. I got up and we turned on the light. There were a few bugs on her, and there were bugs all over her pillow. We checked the rest of the bed. It was infested with bugs. We threw her pillow in the hall. Joanie was in tears. She wanted to go home right then and there. That may have seemed like a rational request to her, but I was sceptical that we could make it work. After calming her down, she moved to the bunk bed above me. She insisted on keeping the lights on in case she saw more bugs, and then, despite her trauma, rolled over and went to sleep. As I lay beneath her, feeling somewhat itchy as well, I noticed a few bugs in my bed as well. I quietly killed them, trying not to awake Joanie. Then I saw the odd bug scurry across the boards under her bed and above my head. I tried killing any I could. When they squished, blood oozed out. My blood? Joanie’s blood?
I spent the rest of the night on guard. Whenever I thought I had not seen a bug for a while and perhaps I could get some sleep, I would feel an itch and find another bug on my sheet or see a bug crossing under Joanie’s bed. Her Majesty slept peacefully the rest of the night. Sometime between 6AM and 6:45AM, I somehow fell asleep for about twenty minutes. It was a relief when it was time to get up for breakfast.
I was quieter than usual on August 5, a Sunday. Others noticed this but said nothing. Joanie and I had agreed that we would not tell anyone about the bugs, since the mere suggestion of it often causes people to feel itchy and paranoid and we did not want to spoil the trip for anyone. We did approach Toon and his assistant, and told them about the bugs. They said there may be a spider web and they would check out the room when everyone is gone and spray it.
Breakfast consisted of untoasted bread, boiled eggs, assorted spreads, meats, cheese, etc. We could use this to also pack a lunch for our bike trip. The weather was a warm 30 degrees as we sailed through Utrecht to Wyk de Durstede, where we disembarked at 10:30AM for our bike trip to Arnhem. Two people split from the group to meet up with relatives in the area, and the rest of us carried on. We stopped for coffee at Kasteel Amerongen. They offered up a real nice appel tarte for with coffee. There was no other pastries on the menu.
This was the hilliest stretch of our journey. The elderly couple were struggling. The gentleman had recovered from heart surgery years ago. While we had suggested that the group could slpit up if they wanted, everyone wanted to stay together. This made for a very long gap between the front runners, and those at the back. When we stopped to rest and let people catch up, the first people were often well rested and ready to go again while the last people had just barely got their breath. Tensions began running high. By late afternoon, as we were ascending a hill past Osterbeck near Arnhem, the wife could not handle it anymore and blew up at the rest of us for not giving them enough time to rest. It was a relief to find the boat in Arnhem because I don’t think the couple could have stood for too much more. You’d think they had bugs in their room or something. I actually thought I did quite well that day, biking for over 50 kms. on less than one and one half hours sleep, and not getting cranky with anyone, that I can remember anyway. And not one question about the pillow in the hallway that morning.
We found that our cabin had been cleaned, with new linens put on. There was no sign of the bugs so we both slept well that night. I was glad. I would not want Joanie to lose another half hour of sleep. In the morning we did find a few bugs, and managed to catch one not too squished, which we put in a napkin and presented to Toon the next morning for identification.
Monday, August 6 was another beautiful, sunny day. After a breakfast of untoasted bread, eggs, etc. etc. and packing our lunch with the same things, we sailed to Doesburg, where most of us disembarked. The elderly couple decided to go it alone on a shorter route, beginning in Zutphen, so stayed on board. We had a great day. The tension from yesterday was gone, the route was flat, and we traveled through some very picturesque little villages and added to our windmill photo collection. We stopped for coffee at nicest little town of Bronkhorst. The little outdoor cafe only had a very nice appel tarte for with coffee. We then cooled ourselves off under the town water pump. Lunch was in a park in Zutphen, followed by exploring the town a little. Despite another 50 km. trip, we arrived at the boat in Deventer at 4PM. It was again exciting to round the turn on the wonderful, paved bike path and see Deventer, the bridge across the river, and a boat with a Canadian flag flying moored on the other side. We made it again without getting lost! This was also the last of the really nice, hot days.
We returned to the boat only to find our cabin sealed off. The bugs we had in our room were a wood bug which eats wood (the blood is caused by the iron in the wood) and is a real concern on a wooden boat. Therefore the room was fully fumigated and sealed for the rest of the trip until it got inspected. We were now moved to the remaining unused cabin, a room so small that we could not store any suitcase in or both stand up at the same time. What was most interesting was that all of this took place and not one of the other 14 passengers noticed or asked questions about why we moved rooms. Were we becoming invisible?
As much as I was getting tired of Dutch breakfasts, dinners on the boat were awesome. Today we had whiskey-soaked chicken and a wonderful chocolate mousse with ameretto.
Tuesday was my turn to lead the biking and it was an overcast day. We even had a few showers, which was a good thing, because otherwise I would not have ever used the rain gear I had bought. We followed the Issel River from Deventer to Veesen, where we had to explore the town in order to find any place for coffee. We did find a butcher shop that served a good appel tarte. This was one of the few places that also had a second choice, almond kook. We coffee’d under umbrellas in the back of the store.
We followed a wonderful route through the ‘bos’ to Hattam, a beautiful old town. We stopped at a clearing with purple heather blooming everywhere and this became a photo op for everyone. We decided to split up for an hour at Hattam for lunch and to explore. I have a confession to make. This morning I had untoasted bread, boiled egg, etc. and made the standard lunch of bread with sandwich meat. Hattam deserved more than another boring lunch so a few of us trashed the bag lunch and enjoyed croquettes, perhaps the best single cuisine item Holland has to offer for lunch. This was followed by a large beer in Zalk later that afternoon. We biked 58 km. And fortunately, we arrived at the boat in Kampen in time for happy hour. The day was not without its controversy though. Along the way, one of our group insisted they say a kangaroo in a pen. We also say storks, but I had some doubt that they would go that far of course to deliver a joey this far north. This would not be the end of it though. More on this later.
Wednesday, August 4 began with untoasted bread, cheese, etc. I passed on packing a lunch. We were given a choice, begin biking at Kampen or sail around the end of the peninsula and begin biking on the opposite side. The two young ‘uns began at Kampen while us more mature passengers chose to go for a sail. We started out at Roggebort sluis and biked to Elburg, a very quaint old fortified city.
At Elburg, we chose to split up and explore for two hours. It was market day, and very busy. We hooked up with another couple and chose to explore some culinary goals. We went to the Hema to check out a rumour that they had the best “tompoos’ pastry. We confirmed this as we sat on the curb with our pastry box spread out on the street. Then we went for a coffee. The restaurant had some very good appel tarte for with coffee but we passed. Joanie and I then went to the old port for kibberlings and lekebekkjes. The names sounded like these must be so good, and I have heard a few Dutchmen refer to them with a dreamy look in their eyes. They turned out to be different fish and so lunch was fish and chips, nothing special. Okay, one letdown. For dessert, we found a stand selling pofferjes, which were great. After some refreshments in Hierden, we arrived in Hardewyk. To continue the day’s food theme, we had Ostrich meat and French fried for dinner and a nice custard fla.
After dinner we met up with my uncle and aunt again for some wine. My uncle snuck back to the kitchen and arranged for them to cook us up some bitterbullen. However, much to my aunt’s embarrassment, when the evening was over, he was very slow with the wallet and I ended up paying for his treats. A true Dutchman!
Thursday was a very cool, overcast day. We started out by stopping by my uncle and aunt’s place. My aunt, came out in her housecoat and little else to greet us. She’s a trooper. As we biked through Horst, some of us did see deer penned up at a farm, as well as a penned kangaroo. Some did not see this, and to this day there remains a controversy on whether the shadowy picture I took was really a roo. This time I have to say it really was, so perhaps there are two kangaroos in Holland.
Due to some showers, we took a shopping break in Nykerk, another old,old city. This time we avoided the coffee shops and found a bakery with a whole assortment of pastries, including the best “bosse bols” ever. I understand the best are actually in ‘ den Bos (short for the actual name, S’Hertogen Den Bos), but when we were there Joanie never let me join the lineup at the bakery by the train station to sample them. These are actually like very large filled cream puffs covered with the most delicious dark chocolate. No calories either!
Apart from the hills on day one, this was the most difficult biking day. It was a short biking day but the last 45 minutes or so was on top of an unpaved dyke with a narrow path and a strong headwind which made peddling much more work. We arrived at Spakenburg by 2:30 already, which gave us time to explore the quaint fishing town with its old wooden boats. Some of the townspeople still wear the old traditional costumes, but apparently do not take kindly to being photographed. This made for a challenging time, trying to sneak pictures from across the street, while enjoying wine and appies. Dinner that night was peanut soup with rice and peanut-beef stew, and baked banana for dessert. Excellent.
Friday, August 10 was the final day of our bike tour. We followed the Zuider Zee route to Muidenberg where we again found a bakery which sold pastries, which we took to a coffee shop on the beach. Another day without appel tarte! After a tour of Muidenslot Kasteel, we biked the final leg into Amsterdam. Biking through Amsterdam was much easier than anticipated. Most of the way we stayed on the bike path, and only travelled a few kilometres along the streets to the place where the boat was moored.
Friday night was spent exploring Amsterdam again. The city looked like a dump. Friday night is gargage night, and everywhere, shops and stores threw their garbage into the streets for collection.
Saturday was a bit of a sad day on several levels. It began with having to say goodbye to all our friends and relatives as we parted ways for the rest of the vacation. Biking together for a week had been an awesome adventure. Then, Joanie lost her wallet and ID. She was in a mad panic for some time before the missing items were finally located. Finally, it was time to settle with the captain, Toon. Throughout the week, he kept the boat stocked with wine, beer, etc. and we simply ticked off the items we bought as we went along. Now it was time to pay. Given the episode we had with the bugs and sleep disruptions, I Had expected that we might get a discount, or a free bottle of wine or some kind of compensation for our trouble and the fact that we had kept things quiet. I forgot we were dealing with a Dutchman. There was not one penny taken off, nor an apology or thank you. This was very disappointing, and to date, has cost him at least two future boat loads of customers. There was also another incident, not Toon’s fault but nevertheless very troubling. Out boat had been tied up beside another boat, and this boat dumped waste over the side, right through an open window into one of our friend’s face. Toon did get upset and complained to the captain of the boat, who gave her a bottle of wine. The wine had a home-made label on it from a wedding, so was probably not the finest vintage.
Joanie’s Family
Wyk
From Amsterdam we took the train to Den Bos, where we were picked up and travelled in a real automobile to Wyk en Alberg. We stayed with Joanie’s cousins who spoke perfect English. What a joy to not have to speak Dutch all the time! The house too made us feel very North American again. There was a very large, well kept garden, with lawns, a pond, patio, etc. There were bathrooms upstairs AND downstairs, and the toilets looked and functioned like our own. No poop shelf! The bathrooms had fans which operated automatically when the light was turned on. Upstairs was a spacious large bathroom with a tub and a glass enclosed shower. Our bedroom was huge and had its own sink. The large closets had lights that went on and off automatically when the door opened or closed. We were living in the lap of luxury.
One of the things we had noticed, and started paying attention to, starting in Spakenburg, was how decorations in houses were always balanced. A window sill would never have one vase or one pot, but alway one on each side, or two pillows, etc. The same was true in this house. We also noticed that Dutch people do not place their napkins on their lap, but leave them on the table. They also do not take their shoes off when they come in a house. That I quite liked. We tend to get too paranoid about tracking in a grain of sand but have no problem walking around in bare feel that are black in no time and probably track more dirt than any shoe. Plus, when its time to go you go, rather than tripping over the pile of shoes all over the hallway, looking for your own.
The next few days were spent touring local places in the province of Brabant, including the old city of Heusden, where Joanie’s sister and daughter were staying with another cousin. Heusden is an 11th century city which was bombed in 1944. Joanie’s cousin Bert was a great tour guide, giving us interesting history lessons. We also visited Genderen where Joanie’s mom grew up, and where we visited relatives. We had attended church on the Sunday morning, and it seemed everyone was related to Joanie some how. “See the organ player, that’s a cousin of yours. Over there are the children of so and so, whose mom is married to your whatever.” This continued on when we visited some more family. It kind of made me think of the movie Deliverance for some reason.
Belgium
Monday morning we joined Joanie’s sister and daughter and took the train to Brugge, Belgium. We had to change trains in Antwerp, so this was a good place to quickly explore around the downtown station and have coffee. Brugge was left virtually untouched by WWII as was a gorgeous old city, with canals and little bridges everywhere. We took a boat tour.
Lunch was interesting. We had to try the local cuisine of course, so Joanie ordered a bucket of mussels. I participated by watching her eat them, while consuming my chicken. We also order the local Belgian beer. My beer was gone long before the food ever arrived. We were virtually ignored and it took 1.5 hours before we got our order. The waiter barely acknowledged us, even when serving food, and never asked if we wanted another drink or a bed to sleep on in case we wanted to order dessert. It reinforced my principals that one should not eat mussels.
Food of course is not important at all to us, but we did feel the need to sample Belgian waffles while in the country. We desperately searched for this on our pit stop at the Antwerp train station on our way home. We found a stand selling glazed Belgian waffles. Mouth-watering!
The Works
Tuesday, August 14 we hopped in the car to go out for the day. It seemed like we were living in the lap of luxury. The house we were staying in was beautiful and spacious with all the modern conveniences, and of course the surrounding garden was like a park. Traveling around the countryside in a vehicle was nice after being more restricted by bike and train travel the first week.
The day started with a tour of the small town of Klundert, where Joanie’s dad grew up. Klundert was preparing to celebrate its 650 year anniversary.
We then traveled to Willemstaat, a beautiful port city, where we stopped for coffee, and,...wait for it...appel tarte, the specialty and only offering of the coffee shop.
We then spent the afternoon touring Neltje Jan, the name given to the Delta Works, a large project to control the flow of the sea to prevent the massive flooding that occurred in the past. We had offered to take our hosts out for dinner, and they suggested a nice seafood restaurant in Ouddorp. It was pricey, and added to our feeling of living in luxury.
The Piggy Palace
Wednesday, was moving day. We were driven to our next stay, at another one of Joanie’s cousin and her friend in Berlicum, near Den Bos. We were greeted with a huge Canadian flag in the back yard. The house had a hint of a some kind of theme. The large back yard included statutes of a mother pig with piglets, and more pig statutes further down. The house included a curio cabinet filled with thousands of pig figurines, there were pig figures on each stair leading up stairs, there were wooden, porcelain and paper pigs in the living room and even hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen. I think they were going with a pig theme.
Our stay in Berlicum was fun. We took the local bus to Den Bos, and did find a restaurant to partake of Bos’ Bollen, those wonderful cream puffs. Den Bos was a stark contrast to Wyk, where we had just been. Wyk was a very “reformed” place. On Sunday, most people seemed to be dressed in their Sunday best, and many went to church. Stores were closed. There were no lawn mowers running and it was quiet.
Den Bos on the other hand had a strong Catholic influence. The centre of the city was the old, 13th century St. Jan Cathedral which contained a Michelangelo statute of the virgin mother. There were stores everywhere which sold Catholic crucifix’s, virgin Mary statues, etc. And there were even religious statues on every street corner. However, there also seemed to be more of a free spirit.
We took a boat tour through the city, traveling under many houses where there were hatches that people used to use to dispose of their waste into the water canals, and later to transport goods from their boat into their houses. It has been interesting to see how water ways were integrated into every aspect of life in Holland.
Our final full day in Holland was a wonderful whirlwind of touring some of the attractions we still had on our ‘to do’ list. Each stop was beautiful and unique. It started by a visit to Alkmaar, to see the cheese market. It was packed, but great to see. We had coffee near the market. They could only offer their special appel tarte for a treat.
From there, we headed for Edam, a very cute old town. As we drove out of town along a dike we stopped. The dike was higher than the road. We climbed the dike and were surprised to see the other side, where there was a vast expanse of water with sail boats, etc. That were higher than the road.
We toured Volendam, a very touristy place harbour city that was packed. The main street along the water was old and very narrow. Beautiful old “boter” boats filled the harbour. Across the water, you could see the picturesque town of Marken. Restaurants and shops lined the street. Huge touring buses drove down this street. It was a miracle that these behemoths could navigate the streets at all, with often only inches between them and the sides of buildings. Tourists had to scramble out of the way, and they blocked the view of the restaurant goers. It was shocking that these vehicles were allowed here. They did not take away from our croquettes however.
Marken was our final stop. This was a small town with old, wooden, green buildings often seen on pictures. I had been on the hunt all day to add to my shot glass collection but had no success in Alkmaar, Edam or Volendam. I insisted that Marken had shot glasses. The first souvenir store we stopped at, I immediately spotted what I was looking for.
The day ended with a good meal at the local pub in Berlicum . The pub owner visited with us and even gave us some liquers to sample and played some music requests. This was a wonderful last day in Europe and we have the picture (see opening page) to show for it.
Saturday, August 18 we took the train to Schiphol in Amsterdam for our flight home. We were loaded down with souvenirs we had bought, plus little gifts Joanie’s Berlicum cousin slipped us everywhere we went. Joanie had declined a pair of wooden shoe slippers and this was a good thing because there was not an inch of space left, and we had to pay for having over-weight luggage. It’s a good thing we didn’t try packing along some appel tarte for with coffee!
One final note, any resemblance to any persons who may have accompanied us on our trip is purely cooncidence, unless they are OK with it and have no intention to sue.
Post script: Ben passed away on June 3, 2010. He will be remembered and will be greatly missed if we do plan a return trip to Europe.
I should note that while my wife Joanie accompanied me, this account is a personal account of my impressions, not hers. I’m sure she had impressions, but I have learned not to speak for her. This may be the most important lesson you may learn from this, but I learned many more on this trip.
The Preparation
The main focus of our trip to Holland, my first time since leaving there as a three year old, was a one week bike and barge trip around Holland (more correctly called The Netherlands of course). After fifty years of living in Canada, it was about time to visit the homeland. Inspired by my sister’s previous bike trips to Holland, Joanie and I decided to organize a trip ourselves. We put out the word, and secured commitments from 14 others to join us so that we could arrange a boat all to ourselves. Our group included two family members, six friends (I should actually say three friends and let them struggle with what category they fit into), four people who were relatives or friends of others on the trip, and an elderly couple who were parents to one of the relative’s friends. During the Spring of 2007 we organized many local biking outings to help strengthen our butt cheeks. By July, our bums were ready. See your sorry butts in Holland on August 4!
And It Begins
Our trip began uneventfully at the Vancouver Airport on July25. After a record seven straight days of constant rain, the skies opened up and it was a beautiful 27 degree day, a perfect time to be leaving. Joanie and I traveled alone to Amsterdam with Air Transat, leaving at 9PM. The flight was 9.5 hours and was very uneventful. I know because I was awake for all but 1.5 hours of it. We arrived very tired but excited about leaving North America for the first time in our lives and setting foot on our native Dutch soil. After clearing customs we looked for my uncle and aunt, who were there to pick us up and accompany us by train to their house in Hardewyk. We knew them from several visits to Canada, but were a little nervous about how we were going to get by with our broken Dutch, as my aunt did not understand English. We found them immediately and enjoyed our first cup of coffee at Schriphol. Our lessons were beginning. How do you order coffee so you get something more than a dribble in a baby cup? Joanie discovered that it was best to be wrong. (I knew that a long time ago!) If you ordered your coffee”verkeerd”, literally translated as “coffee wrong”, you got a reasonable cup of coffee without sugar. We also discovered that despite learning Dutch through osmosis, having listened to our parents speak Dutch all our lives, and practicing it over the years in an attempt to hide our conversations from our kids, we could actually communicate and make ourselves understood, much to the relief of my aunt.
From Schriphol we descended the escalator to where the trains come in. My uncle had already purchased our tickets and soon we were on a train heading towards Hardewyk, suitcases in tow. As I sat looking out of the window I wanted to take it all in. Only three problems; first, the countryside was mostly farmers fields not unlike what I saw at home, without the mountainous backdrop, second, it was a rainy day, not unlike home, and third, my eyes had this annoying habit of closing without any effort on my part, the effects of flying through the night.
Train travel is very good in Europe, except when you are lugging along two large, heavy suitcases and several overnight bags, purse, (Joanie’s, not mine), and cameras. After struggling to get all these down to the platform, you have to fight with the masses to board the train. This involves, throwing the suitcases several feet up onto the landing in the train, if the crowds disperse for you, and then jumping on board yourself with bags dangling and swatting you as you leap. Hopefully, both spouses can accomplish this task in the short time it takes before the doors close. The idea of porters to help is a thing of the past. Once on board, you must navigate through car doors, and narrow aisles and hope that it is not too crowded so that you can put your luggage in the seats next to you. I have to admit that at one point I let my 80+ year old uncle lug a heavy suitcase up and down stairs as we had to travel from one set of tracks to another to catch a connecting train.
The final challenge before our arrival was complete was in my uncle and aunt’s house itself. The stairs from the main floor to our bedroom on the second floor were only slightly less steep or narrow as a fireman’s pole. The stairs spiralled around a corner, narrowing to only a few inches wide on the inside of the turn. You could stand on the bottom step and place you hand five steps up for balance. You had to be very careful about manoeuvring the luggage around the corner, because if you stepped too much to the inside, there was hardly any stair to stand on. We later learned that most old Dutch houses had posts sticking out of the front with hooks on them. These were used to hoist furniture and other large items up and through the windows, because it would be impossible to get them up the stairs.
Hardewyk
July 27 was our first full day in our native land. We discovered immediately that Dutch people have no idea what to do with a toaster. Apparently, many have them but no one uses them. We had to get used to breakfast with untoasted bread. After three weeks, I was dreaming about fried eggs with toast and hashbrowns.
Our first morning was spent touring the old city on bicycles. The city had an extensive network of paved bike paths, and there was even a traffic circle for bikes. As much as I missed North American breakfasts, I will also miss Dutch cruising bikes. They were so comfortable to use, chains and tops of tires were fully covered, and it was not unusual to see men in suits or women in dressing, sitting up straight, biking with one hand on the handle and one hand holding large shopping bags.
Hardewyk was a beautiful, old, fortified city with buildings dating back to the 15th century. It is a port city. Many, like my uncle and aunt, live in row houses which are attached. Each have postage-stamp sized little from and back yards. Many houses also favour landscaped front yards with gravel, flowers and bushes or other low maintenance designs rather than lawns. The vast majority of properties were very well kept.
We also discovered a few other differences inside. After a fruitless hunt, I found that my uncle and aunt’s house did not have a tissue box to be had anywhere. The shower system was interesting. The shower/bathroom/shower room consisted of a fully tiled room with a sink and mirror on one side, and laundry facilities on the opposite wall. On the wall around the corner from the door, and opposite the washer, was the shower head. There was no partition anywhere. There is no toilet here. That is downstairs. This requires some planning. Do I go to the toilet first and then come upstairs for a shower, or do I take a shower first because its available.
My aunt is very particular about her house. Once you have had your shower, half the room, including the washer, is now all wet. It is strongly advised to place you clothing at the far end of the room near the sink and preferably off the floor. Having had a refreshing shower, you must now take a squeegee to the walls and floor, and then dry them all. When you are done, you will be all sweaty, so it is a good idea to take a shower. After one shower I decided there were only a few days left until we travelled to Amsterdam and since I was in an ancient city, I would follow the ancient ways of bathing less often.
The toilet facilities are interesting as well. In this case, the washroom consisted of a tiny room off of the hallway right by the living room. I think this was placed here so that if one were to have a particularly difficult or noisy bowel movement, it could be shared with the rest of the people in the house. We had learned before we came that Europeans have many different toilet styles, with different ways of flushing. Therefore, the first time I used the toilet, I frantically looked around for levers, pull strings, pipe sleeves, or any other device for flushing. I soon found what I was looking for and felt some relief until I opened the lid of the toilet. Beneath the seat was a shelf which them dropped down into a small pool of water. This might not be a problem, but this tiny room has no fan. Therefore, pardon my crudeness, but once one does their thing, it sits on this shelf, providing aroma for the whole room. The toilet had a half flush and whole flush feature. This country which is almost under water and has water ways everywhere, is concerned about conserving water. The idea is to only do a half flush if you only pee. Joanie did some work on this and discovered if you put toilet paper on the shelf first, it helps keep things from “sticking” and you can do a half flush to move things into the water, thereby reducing the smell factor. This being the only toilet in the house, I tried very hard to plan my trips, keeping them to a minimum and trying hard to protect others. However, I was often not successful, like the day I waited until just before we left for an outing to use the washroom. I had been saving up, and the shelf thing was not always that effective. So after I was finished, and I hoped we could quickly leave. Not more than one minute later, my aunt decides she will just pop into the bathroom before we go. She said nothing when she came out, but I don’t know how she could have held her breath that long!
Coming Home
July 28 was truly homecoming. Along with my uncle and aunt, we took the train to Zwolle and then to Rheden where we had reserved some bikes for rent. My aunt was quite concerned because the only bike they had available for me had 21 gears. Theirs had 5. I assured her that I was OK. It didn’t matter how many gears a bike had, you find the few you are comfortable with on the mostly flat trip, and ignore the rest.
We biked the three kilometres to Velp, which is across the river from Arnhem. My uncle acted as tour guide, and was in his glory. We visited the house where I was born at #2 Vondelaan Straat. The house was neat, but I was impressed by the neighbourhood, which seemed quite posh, with many large beautiful house. We rode past the local park where my father played soccer on Saturday afternoons and came to the house where my Oma Meyer lived until moving into a rest home before she died. My uncle explained to the owner, who was probably concerned about these strangers staring at his house and taking pictures, that we were from Canada and this is where his mother lived. The man was very gracious and offered to let us come in and see the back yard where I spent many a Sunday afternoon after church service for family coffee. I was impressed by how nice it was, with a canal at the back of the lot, lined with willow trees, other houses with little docks, etc.
My uncle on the other hand was over the top. He was thrilled to have been able to see this, as it had been decades since he had been inside. He told everyone who phoned them about this day. We also visited the graveyard where many of my family were buried and saw the old church the ‘Oude Jan’ and the park where my mother’s parent’s farm had stood. The area had since been subdivided, but a tree which stood in front of the house still grew in the park.
We finished the trip with a visit to a pancake house which served every kind of pancake and topping imaginable.
One of the things I noticed was how calm the traffic was, which I did not expect. Motorists were very patient with and mindful of cyclists, and no one seemed to be speeding, as I was expecting.
The next day was Sunday, and we attended the CRC in Hardwyk. It was like going back to the sixties. Very stiff. Slow, dreary hymns. What was charming however was hearing the church bells ringing to call people to church.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent visiting Elburg, Geithorn and the zoo in Arnhem. For our outing to Geithorn, a lovely little place with waterways instead of streets, we packed a lunch. This consisted of buns with meat, very simple. When we arrived in Geithorn, by bus, it was lunch time. We went to a restaurant for coffee, and then had to sneak bites from our buns, which we hid under the table. I had not done this since high school! By Thursday, we were ready to move on (and take a shower!).
Amsterdam
We arrived by train at Central Station in Amsterdam on August 2. The station was very crowded and we chose to walk to our hotel, rather than fight the crowds for a bus or taxi. After a twenty minute walk through downtown Amsterdam we found our hotel, The Nadia. We opened the hotel door from the sidewalk and our hearts fell. We were looking up a very, very long, narrow staircase which led to the 3rd floor lobby. Having pulled out suitcases over the cobble stones and through the crowds, we were hardly prepared to lug them up these stairs. Then we heard a voice call to us. We were told to leave the luggage at the foot of the stairs and someone was coming to bring them up. I had anticipated three trips to get everything up the stairs, but this fellow came down, and in one trip, managed to get everything up the stairs in one trip. I still have no idea how he did it.
Our room was quaint little room with a small balcony. We had a view of the Westerkerk church across the street. This is where Rembrandt attended and was buried. Our bathroom was interesting. Again with the bathrooms!!! It was impossible to bend over the sink. If you wanted to do that, you had to open the door so your butt could stick out.
We were fortunate enough to hit Amsterdam during “Gay Weekend”. The courts of the Westerkerk were adorned in bright colours and a band was playing monotonous, repetitive beat music until late in the night. The streets were filled with gay couples all night long.
The next two days were spent exploring what Amsterdam had to offer, including the Anne Frank museum nearby, the Rykesmuseum, Chinatown, the flower market and off course the famous Red Light District. The Anne Frank museum was very moving. The Rykesmuseum was a gorgeous old building and to my surprise, I thoroughly loved seeing and marvelling at the intricate detail of some of the old 16th and 17th century paintings, including Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch”. Chinatown was dirty and not to my liking. The Red Light District was interesting to say the least. It was very busy, and there were rows of windows with red lights above them, which indicated whether the women inside were busy or not. The odd man would come out of the building looking not the least bit embarrassed that the whole world knew what he had just been up to.
I also enjoyed seeing where my sister-in-law had booked one of the groups to stay, in the heart of the Red Light and drug district. To enter the little hotel, you had to pass through an aways present group of people smoking dope, and up the mandatory narrow little staircase, to a room overlooking the street below, which was filled with people milling about and smoking funny things. Across the street was a store where you could get a variety of drugs, magic mushrooms and other hallucinogenics. I was however very jealous of their great bathroom, with full bath, shower, normal toilets and room to walk around.
The night before the bike and Barge trip, we took one of the canal tours in the glass-covered boat. Very nice.
My impressions of Amsterdam? I loved the architecture. It was everything I expected and more and the canals, which paralleled every other street, made for a beautiful setting. Even without the Gay celebration across the street from the hotel, it seemed sex and drugs were in your face all the time. Even far from the Red Light district, souvenir shops prominently display items in the form of phallic symbols and had cups, mugs etc. adorned with marijuana leaves. We felt like we were in Sodom or Gomorrah. I also commented on how many items had “XXX” on them, like some pornographic rating. Then I noticed this same triple X on the tower of the Westerkerk. I began to doubt that the church was advertising sex, so I had to do some research. I learned that “XXX” mark was actually part of the coat of arms for Amsterdam and had a religious connect to the cross. Oops.
There were a few surprises which we began to learn as common throughout the country. Despite the throngs of tourists everywhere, stores generally closed at 6PM, even in tourist areas. Even on a Friday night, the main stores in Amsterdam were closed. The explanation we got from the locals was that the Dutch feel it is important for workers to have their family time, so they are not asked to stay open late, despite all the tourists with pockets full of money to spend. The main square in Amsterdam was the hub of activity during the day, and we were interested to see what it was like at night. In fact, it was quiet and deserted. It was almost impossible to find a place to just sit and enjoy a coffee after 9PM. It seems the nights are reserved for the bars which are hopping, but that’s about all. Oh yah, except for those little automat machines that spit out warm croquettes, nasi or bitterballen all night long.
Bike and Barge
On a beautiful, sunny August 4 we took a taxi and found our boat, ‘Christina’. It flew the Canadian flag, as we had pre-arranged for easy identification. Some of our group had already been there and left for a stroll. We met the captain, Toon Stevens, who escorted us to our room. He became enraged to discover that someone had tried to claim the large bedroom which he had reserved for us, because we had arranged the trip. This was not starting well. He took the bags out of our room and re-assigned it to us. If we had known what was to come, we may not have been so pleased. Our first meeting as a group began with Toon lecturing everyone about the attempted room switch and how on this ship he was the boss on board. Luckily, he did calm down and things proceeded well after that.
After a short cruise out of Amsterdam and up the canal to Nighveghter, we started our first biking session, an 18 km. trip to meet up with the boat again just north of Utrecht. We found a bike trail along the canal for a while until we met another couple who noticed our t-shirts with the Dutch-Canadian flag logo. They were from Ontario. They told us we were missing the more scenic route inland and proceeded to lead us to the trail we wanted. It did not take us long to run into problems. At Loenen, we stopped at a little draw bridge, and the party got separated. Some proceeded across the bridge, which was not part of our route, and visited a windmill. The rest of us remained on the other side, and decided to carry on, not knowing if the rest would be returning this way or not. We stopped at a set of locks for a cool beer and to watch people manoeuvre their boats through the locks, yelling at each other when someone did not cooperate. Very entertaining. We carried on and when we got to the town where we needed to cross the river and head for the canal where our boat should be, we ran into the ‘lost’ party (they may have called us lost). When we reached the canal, we turned left per directions, and cycled for a short while before deciding we were getting too far away. We turned back and sure enough, the boat was on the right side of where we had come out. Finding the boat that first day gave us a real sense of accomplishment.
Saturday night we docked just outside of Utrecht and enjoyed an evening out on the deck. Things were going too well. It was a very warm evening and the cabins were hot. Our large cabin would only be considered large for leprechauns. It had a bunk bed along one wall and two bunk beds, one above the other along another wall. The heat and size of the beds did not encourage any thoughts of extracurricular activities. Joanie slept on the single bed while I crawled into the bottom bed on the other wall. I enjoyed a really good one hour sleep before being woken up by Joanie. She was concerned because she was feeling very itchy and found some bugs on her pillow. I got up and we turned on the light. There were a few bugs on her, and there were bugs all over her pillow. We checked the rest of the bed. It was infested with bugs. We threw her pillow in the hall. Joanie was in tears. She wanted to go home right then and there. That may have seemed like a rational request to her, but I was sceptical that we could make it work. After calming her down, she moved to the bunk bed above me. She insisted on keeping the lights on in case she saw more bugs, and then, despite her trauma, rolled over and went to sleep. As I lay beneath her, feeling somewhat itchy as well, I noticed a few bugs in my bed as well. I quietly killed them, trying not to awake Joanie. Then I saw the odd bug scurry across the boards under her bed and above my head. I tried killing any I could. When they squished, blood oozed out. My blood? Joanie’s blood?
I spent the rest of the night on guard. Whenever I thought I had not seen a bug for a while and perhaps I could get some sleep, I would feel an itch and find another bug on my sheet or see a bug crossing under Joanie’s bed. Her Majesty slept peacefully the rest of the night. Sometime between 6AM and 6:45AM, I somehow fell asleep for about twenty minutes. It was a relief when it was time to get up for breakfast.
I was quieter than usual on August 5, a Sunday. Others noticed this but said nothing. Joanie and I had agreed that we would not tell anyone about the bugs, since the mere suggestion of it often causes people to feel itchy and paranoid and we did not want to spoil the trip for anyone. We did approach Toon and his assistant, and told them about the bugs. They said there may be a spider web and they would check out the room when everyone is gone and spray it.
Breakfast consisted of untoasted bread, boiled eggs, assorted spreads, meats, cheese, etc. We could use this to also pack a lunch for our bike trip. The weather was a warm 30 degrees as we sailed through Utrecht to Wyk de Durstede, where we disembarked at 10:30AM for our bike trip to Arnhem. Two people split from the group to meet up with relatives in the area, and the rest of us carried on. We stopped for coffee at Kasteel Amerongen. They offered up a real nice appel tarte for with coffee. There was no other pastries on the menu.
This was the hilliest stretch of our journey. The elderly couple were struggling. The gentleman had recovered from heart surgery years ago. While we had suggested that the group could slpit up if they wanted, everyone wanted to stay together. This made for a very long gap between the front runners, and those at the back. When we stopped to rest and let people catch up, the first people were often well rested and ready to go again while the last people had just barely got their breath. Tensions began running high. By late afternoon, as we were ascending a hill past Osterbeck near Arnhem, the wife could not handle it anymore and blew up at the rest of us for not giving them enough time to rest. It was a relief to find the boat in Arnhem because I don’t think the couple could have stood for too much more. You’d think they had bugs in their room or something. I actually thought I did quite well that day, biking for over 50 kms. on less than one and one half hours sleep, and not getting cranky with anyone, that I can remember anyway. And not one question about the pillow in the hallway that morning.
We found that our cabin had been cleaned, with new linens put on. There was no sign of the bugs so we both slept well that night. I was glad. I would not want Joanie to lose another half hour of sleep. In the morning we did find a few bugs, and managed to catch one not too squished, which we put in a napkin and presented to Toon the next morning for identification.
Monday, August 6 was another beautiful, sunny day. After a breakfast of untoasted bread, eggs, etc. etc. and packing our lunch with the same things, we sailed to Doesburg, where most of us disembarked. The elderly couple decided to go it alone on a shorter route, beginning in Zutphen, so stayed on board. We had a great day. The tension from yesterday was gone, the route was flat, and we traveled through some very picturesque little villages and added to our windmill photo collection. We stopped for coffee at nicest little town of Bronkhorst. The little outdoor cafe only had a very nice appel tarte for with coffee. We then cooled ourselves off under the town water pump. Lunch was in a park in Zutphen, followed by exploring the town a little. Despite another 50 km. trip, we arrived at the boat in Deventer at 4PM. It was again exciting to round the turn on the wonderful, paved bike path and see Deventer, the bridge across the river, and a boat with a Canadian flag flying moored on the other side. We made it again without getting lost! This was also the last of the really nice, hot days.
We returned to the boat only to find our cabin sealed off. The bugs we had in our room were a wood bug which eats wood (the blood is caused by the iron in the wood) and is a real concern on a wooden boat. Therefore the room was fully fumigated and sealed for the rest of the trip until it got inspected. We were now moved to the remaining unused cabin, a room so small that we could not store any suitcase in or both stand up at the same time. What was most interesting was that all of this took place and not one of the other 14 passengers noticed or asked questions about why we moved rooms. Were we becoming invisible?
As much as I was getting tired of Dutch breakfasts, dinners on the boat were awesome. Today we had whiskey-soaked chicken and a wonderful chocolate mousse with ameretto.
Tuesday was my turn to lead the biking and it was an overcast day. We even had a few showers, which was a good thing, because otherwise I would not have ever used the rain gear I had bought. We followed the Issel River from Deventer to Veesen, where we had to explore the town in order to find any place for coffee. We did find a butcher shop that served a good appel tarte. This was one of the few places that also had a second choice, almond kook. We coffee’d under umbrellas in the back of the store.
We followed a wonderful route through the ‘bos’ to Hattam, a beautiful old town. We stopped at a clearing with purple heather blooming everywhere and this became a photo op for everyone. We decided to split up for an hour at Hattam for lunch and to explore. I have a confession to make. This morning I had untoasted bread, boiled egg, etc. and made the standard lunch of bread with sandwich meat. Hattam deserved more than another boring lunch so a few of us trashed the bag lunch and enjoyed croquettes, perhaps the best single cuisine item Holland has to offer for lunch. This was followed by a large beer in Zalk later that afternoon. We biked 58 km. And fortunately, we arrived at the boat in Kampen in time for happy hour. The day was not without its controversy though. Along the way, one of our group insisted they say a kangaroo in a pen. We also say storks, but I had some doubt that they would go that far of course to deliver a joey this far north. This would not be the end of it though. More on this later.
Wednesday, August 4 began with untoasted bread, cheese, etc. I passed on packing a lunch. We were given a choice, begin biking at Kampen or sail around the end of the peninsula and begin biking on the opposite side. The two young ‘uns began at Kampen while us more mature passengers chose to go for a sail. We started out at Roggebort sluis and biked to Elburg, a very quaint old fortified city.
At Elburg, we chose to split up and explore for two hours. It was market day, and very busy. We hooked up with another couple and chose to explore some culinary goals. We went to the Hema to check out a rumour that they had the best “tompoos’ pastry. We confirmed this as we sat on the curb with our pastry box spread out on the street. Then we went for a coffee. The restaurant had some very good appel tarte for with coffee but we passed. Joanie and I then went to the old port for kibberlings and lekebekkjes. The names sounded like these must be so good, and I have heard a few Dutchmen refer to them with a dreamy look in their eyes. They turned out to be different fish and so lunch was fish and chips, nothing special. Okay, one letdown. For dessert, we found a stand selling pofferjes, which were great. After some refreshments in Hierden, we arrived in Hardewyk. To continue the day’s food theme, we had Ostrich meat and French fried for dinner and a nice custard fla.
After dinner we met up with my uncle and aunt again for some wine. My uncle snuck back to the kitchen and arranged for them to cook us up some bitterbullen. However, much to my aunt’s embarrassment, when the evening was over, he was very slow with the wallet and I ended up paying for his treats. A true Dutchman!
Thursday was a very cool, overcast day. We started out by stopping by my uncle and aunt’s place. My aunt, came out in her housecoat and little else to greet us. She’s a trooper. As we biked through Horst, some of us did see deer penned up at a farm, as well as a penned kangaroo. Some did not see this, and to this day there remains a controversy on whether the shadowy picture I took was really a roo. This time I have to say it really was, so perhaps there are two kangaroos in Holland.
Due to some showers, we took a shopping break in Nykerk, another old,old city. This time we avoided the coffee shops and found a bakery with a whole assortment of pastries, including the best “bosse bols” ever. I understand the best are actually in ‘ den Bos (short for the actual name, S’Hertogen Den Bos), but when we were there Joanie never let me join the lineup at the bakery by the train station to sample them. These are actually like very large filled cream puffs covered with the most delicious dark chocolate. No calories either!
Apart from the hills on day one, this was the most difficult biking day. It was a short biking day but the last 45 minutes or so was on top of an unpaved dyke with a narrow path and a strong headwind which made peddling much more work. We arrived at Spakenburg by 2:30 already, which gave us time to explore the quaint fishing town with its old wooden boats. Some of the townspeople still wear the old traditional costumes, but apparently do not take kindly to being photographed. This made for a challenging time, trying to sneak pictures from across the street, while enjoying wine and appies. Dinner that night was peanut soup with rice and peanut-beef stew, and baked banana for dessert. Excellent.
Friday, August 10 was the final day of our bike tour. We followed the Zuider Zee route to Muidenberg where we again found a bakery which sold pastries, which we took to a coffee shop on the beach. Another day without appel tarte! After a tour of Muidenslot Kasteel, we biked the final leg into Amsterdam. Biking through Amsterdam was much easier than anticipated. Most of the way we stayed on the bike path, and only travelled a few kilometres along the streets to the place where the boat was moored.
Friday night was spent exploring Amsterdam again. The city looked like a dump. Friday night is gargage night, and everywhere, shops and stores threw their garbage into the streets for collection.
Saturday was a bit of a sad day on several levels. It began with having to say goodbye to all our friends and relatives as we parted ways for the rest of the vacation. Biking together for a week had been an awesome adventure. Then, Joanie lost her wallet and ID. She was in a mad panic for some time before the missing items were finally located. Finally, it was time to settle with the captain, Toon. Throughout the week, he kept the boat stocked with wine, beer, etc. and we simply ticked off the items we bought as we went along. Now it was time to pay. Given the episode we had with the bugs and sleep disruptions, I Had expected that we might get a discount, or a free bottle of wine or some kind of compensation for our trouble and the fact that we had kept things quiet. I forgot we were dealing with a Dutchman. There was not one penny taken off, nor an apology or thank you. This was very disappointing, and to date, has cost him at least two future boat loads of customers. There was also another incident, not Toon’s fault but nevertheless very troubling. Out boat had been tied up beside another boat, and this boat dumped waste over the side, right through an open window into one of our friend’s face. Toon did get upset and complained to the captain of the boat, who gave her a bottle of wine. The wine had a home-made label on it from a wedding, so was probably not the finest vintage.
Joanie’s Family
Wyk
From Amsterdam we took the train to Den Bos, where we were picked up and travelled in a real automobile to Wyk en Alberg. We stayed with Joanie’s cousins who spoke perfect English. What a joy to not have to speak Dutch all the time! The house too made us feel very North American again. There was a very large, well kept garden, with lawns, a pond, patio, etc. There were bathrooms upstairs AND downstairs, and the toilets looked and functioned like our own. No poop shelf! The bathrooms had fans which operated automatically when the light was turned on. Upstairs was a spacious large bathroom with a tub and a glass enclosed shower. Our bedroom was huge and had its own sink. The large closets had lights that went on and off automatically when the door opened or closed. We were living in the lap of luxury.
One of the things we had noticed, and started paying attention to, starting in Spakenburg, was how decorations in houses were always balanced. A window sill would never have one vase or one pot, but alway one on each side, or two pillows, etc. The same was true in this house. We also noticed that Dutch people do not place their napkins on their lap, but leave them on the table. They also do not take their shoes off when they come in a house. That I quite liked. We tend to get too paranoid about tracking in a grain of sand but have no problem walking around in bare feel that are black in no time and probably track more dirt than any shoe. Plus, when its time to go you go, rather than tripping over the pile of shoes all over the hallway, looking for your own.
The next few days were spent touring local places in the province of Brabant, including the old city of Heusden, where Joanie’s sister and daughter were staying with another cousin. Heusden is an 11th century city which was bombed in 1944. Joanie’s cousin Bert was a great tour guide, giving us interesting history lessons. We also visited Genderen where Joanie’s mom grew up, and where we visited relatives. We had attended church on the Sunday morning, and it seemed everyone was related to Joanie some how. “See the organ player, that’s a cousin of yours. Over there are the children of so and so, whose mom is married to your whatever.” This continued on when we visited some more family. It kind of made me think of the movie Deliverance for some reason.
Belgium
Monday morning we joined Joanie’s sister and daughter and took the train to Brugge, Belgium. We had to change trains in Antwerp, so this was a good place to quickly explore around the downtown station and have coffee. Brugge was left virtually untouched by WWII as was a gorgeous old city, with canals and little bridges everywhere. We took a boat tour.
Lunch was interesting. We had to try the local cuisine of course, so Joanie ordered a bucket of mussels. I participated by watching her eat them, while consuming my chicken. We also order the local Belgian beer. My beer was gone long before the food ever arrived. We were virtually ignored and it took 1.5 hours before we got our order. The waiter barely acknowledged us, even when serving food, and never asked if we wanted another drink or a bed to sleep on in case we wanted to order dessert. It reinforced my principals that one should not eat mussels.
Food of course is not important at all to us, but we did feel the need to sample Belgian waffles while in the country. We desperately searched for this on our pit stop at the Antwerp train station on our way home. We found a stand selling glazed Belgian waffles. Mouth-watering!
The Works
Tuesday, August 14 we hopped in the car to go out for the day. It seemed like we were living in the lap of luxury. The house we were staying in was beautiful and spacious with all the modern conveniences, and of course the surrounding garden was like a park. Traveling around the countryside in a vehicle was nice after being more restricted by bike and train travel the first week.
The day started with a tour of the small town of Klundert, where Joanie’s dad grew up. Klundert was preparing to celebrate its 650 year anniversary.
We then traveled to Willemstaat, a beautiful port city, where we stopped for coffee, and,...wait for it...appel tarte, the specialty and only offering of the coffee shop.
We then spent the afternoon touring Neltje Jan, the name given to the Delta Works, a large project to control the flow of the sea to prevent the massive flooding that occurred in the past. We had offered to take our hosts out for dinner, and they suggested a nice seafood restaurant in Ouddorp. It was pricey, and added to our feeling of living in luxury.
The Piggy Palace
Wednesday, was moving day. We were driven to our next stay, at another one of Joanie’s cousin and her friend in Berlicum, near Den Bos. We were greeted with a huge Canadian flag in the back yard. The house had a hint of a some kind of theme. The large back yard included statutes of a mother pig with piglets, and more pig statutes further down. The house included a curio cabinet filled with thousands of pig figurines, there were pig figures on each stair leading up stairs, there were wooden, porcelain and paper pigs in the living room and even hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen. I think they were going with a pig theme.
Our stay in Berlicum was fun. We took the local bus to Den Bos, and did find a restaurant to partake of Bos’ Bollen, those wonderful cream puffs. Den Bos was a stark contrast to Wyk, where we had just been. Wyk was a very “reformed” place. On Sunday, most people seemed to be dressed in their Sunday best, and many went to church. Stores were closed. There were no lawn mowers running and it was quiet.
Den Bos on the other hand had a strong Catholic influence. The centre of the city was the old, 13th century St. Jan Cathedral which contained a Michelangelo statute of the virgin mother. There were stores everywhere which sold Catholic crucifix’s, virgin Mary statues, etc. And there were even religious statues on every street corner. However, there also seemed to be more of a free spirit.
We took a boat tour through the city, traveling under many houses where there were hatches that people used to use to dispose of their waste into the water canals, and later to transport goods from their boat into their houses. It has been interesting to see how water ways were integrated into every aspect of life in Holland.
Our final full day in Holland was a wonderful whirlwind of touring some of the attractions we still had on our ‘to do’ list. Each stop was beautiful and unique. It started by a visit to Alkmaar, to see the cheese market. It was packed, but great to see. We had coffee near the market. They could only offer their special appel tarte for a treat.
From there, we headed for Edam, a very cute old town. As we drove out of town along a dike we stopped. The dike was higher than the road. We climbed the dike and were surprised to see the other side, where there was a vast expanse of water with sail boats, etc. That were higher than the road.
We toured Volendam, a very touristy place harbour city that was packed. The main street along the water was old and very narrow. Beautiful old “boter” boats filled the harbour. Across the water, you could see the picturesque town of Marken. Restaurants and shops lined the street. Huge touring buses drove down this street. It was a miracle that these behemoths could navigate the streets at all, with often only inches between them and the sides of buildings. Tourists had to scramble out of the way, and they blocked the view of the restaurant goers. It was shocking that these vehicles were allowed here. They did not take away from our croquettes however.
Marken was our final stop. This was a small town with old, wooden, green buildings often seen on pictures. I had been on the hunt all day to add to my shot glass collection but had no success in Alkmaar, Edam or Volendam. I insisted that Marken had shot glasses. The first souvenir store we stopped at, I immediately spotted what I was looking for.
The day ended with a good meal at the local pub in Berlicum . The pub owner visited with us and even gave us some liquers to sample and played some music requests. This was a wonderful last day in Europe and we have the picture (see opening page) to show for it.
Saturday, August 18 we took the train to Schiphol in Amsterdam for our flight home. We were loaded down with souvenirs we had bought, plus little gifts Joanie’s Berlicum cousin slipped us everywhere we went. Joanie had declined a pair of wooden shoe slippers and this was a good thing because there was not an inch of space left, and we had to pay for having over-weight luggage. It’s a good thing we didn’t try packing along some appel tarte for with coffee!
One final note, any resemblance to any persons who may have accompanied us on our trip is purely cooncidence, unless they are OK with it and have no intention to sue.
Post script: Ben passed away on June 3, 2010. He will be remembered and will be greatly missed if we do plan a return trip to Europe.
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