The Overman Travel Log

Visit our excursions from around the world.

2001 Europe Vacation

Well, vacation for me. For Azucena it was the final leg of her MBA program.

May 19

London   Getting ready to get our train to London. Had a wonderful time touring Warwick and Kennelworth Castles.  Shockingly, we had both castles almost to ourselves for an hour or two during our visits.  On Thursday we went to Shakespeare's Birthplace here in Stratford and then a tour of the Cotswolds.  It was raining the whole time on the tour of the Cotswolds and Randy had to get some warm clothes cause we weren't expecting winter weather (48 degrees F) in May.  We've been wearing our light jackets almost the entire time we are here.  That's it for now, we need to go catch our train.  Later, Azucena & Randy  (written by Azucena)

May 22

All this fun I'm having    England is doing some elections this week. I was at the Science Museum then there was a campaign going on down that road which in turn closed the front doors for security reasons. Not only shut the doors, but also the main hall. The weather is doing real great right now. After the first day, the weather has been great. Darn, she came in. Gotta go. Leaving for King Lear. Anyone want to take my place? Don't tell her I said this.   I'll get with you again soon.

May 23

Trip so far   Alright, this is done before I read each of your replies. I've found an internet cafe right next to the laundry place. The connection speed is fantastic. Inexpensive also.   Whilst in Warwick last week, Mr. Foster past us by. I tried to track him down, but he wouldn't stop. Kept driving that truck of his. Funny, he didn't look like Joe, but he put his name on the side of the truck.   King Lear was fairly good. The play was in a location that was "identical" to the one he use to perform his plays in. All wood. short benches, open air.  I mean location, in the Building, not exact site. The Building is similar to "Shakespear in Love" where you see a lot of his performance for Romeo and Juliet. It got pretty cool last night so the open air made it colder than needed.   The weather has been quite nice. According to the Excite web page, it shows that London is quite a bit warmer (about 10 degrees).   Tomorrow I'm going to try to see Madam Troussard's wax museum.   We leave Saturday morning for France (Lyon). We'll be there until about Thursday, then head to Paris with nothing to do but shop and tour.   I think Azucena has half day Friday so we'll tour together the rest of the time.   All in all, it has been a real pleasant trip. Everything has gone pretty good. Because of the Hoof and Mouth scare, most of the Steak restaurants here are pretty empty. We haven't had a chance to eat at one, but the wait should be real minimal. I've been meaning to try the Texas Rib House down the street from our Hotel, but haven't been able to get there for lunch or dinner. Maybe soon. Suppose to have good ribs and margaritas and fajitas, etc. People from Texas say leave it alone, but if I have one more of their sandwich....   Azucena's class went to Lloyd's of London yesterday. They had a great time. They had on display the actual recording of their insurance page for the Titanic. A lot of people took stock in that one for the reason of it being unsinkable. But I also imagine a lot of those people went broke because of it.   We've found a Burger King on almost every corner. Starbucks too. Mail ect. anyone? What about Domino's pizza. I have been to a few museums and each of them had several groups of school kids. Their assignments were to find certain items. Like a scavenger hunt.   I have to get going. It's after 4 and I heard during lunch that they will be getting out early.   Cheers, Chow, See Ya, bye.

May 25

Last call, I think   We shall be getting on the train to France around 7am tomorrow. From the rumors that Azucena has given me about checking email and doing clothes while there, I don't think I will be able to. I'll wait and see.   It's been pretty fun so far except when it hasn't been fun. That's mainly trying to drag my butt out of bed in the morning.   So far, I've seen the Tower of London (really a castle started by the Romans around 40 a.d.)  The London Dungeon, which is 1/2 dungeon, 1/2 Disney ride.  British History Museum. Mummies OH My. And dead people that have been preserved for centuries.  Science Museum. Cool. Saw a 3d movie. That ANTZ dance hall in 3d was pretty neat.  Natural History Museum. It showed me that we are doing it all wrong. Joe paid extra, but if he knows what I know, he could have saved himself a lot of money. Yes, the museum had a whole section on the sexes. Who they are and how they got to be. Really. The cutaway was very educational. Gave up on Madam Toussards and the Planetarium because of the crowd.  Went to the British Library. Magna Carta, Guttenburg, Printing press, 20,000 stamps (by collectors -- those that donated their sets to the library)  Millineum Eye (largest farris wheel in the world, and damn worth it too). We didn't take the Millineum Bridge. Too shaky. No spell check here, so tough.  Oh, laundry. Let's not forget that. BBQ ribs too, almost, but not quite. I'll keep in mind to return them the next time I get ribs with a knife stuck in them.  Warwick Castle and Kinleworth. Is there anything I haven't done? Geeze. Give me a day off. And yesterday around midnight, as she changed the setting from FINE picturs to Super Fine, she said YES to the FORMAT option. Does anyone know what FORMAT means? I rest my case. We went from about 200+ pictures to about 40 after today.  I stopped by Sherlock Holmes museum, but didn't go in. Bought some junk instead.  Kink Lear. To be or not to be. That's King Lear, right? Well, it's Shakespear, the same thing. Did I bring you anything back? Are you kidding? Ha, I laugh in your face. If you're lucky, you'll see the pictures she formatted. Uh, sorry about that. I might bring some Dr. Pepper back for Sharon. By the way, Glocuester is pronounced Gloster. So how is Locuester pronounced? Locuester, of course. Glocuester was a Duke or an Earl was in King Lear.   I think that's it for now. If you want to retaliate (respond, sorry), I may be here for a few minutes checking out other things to stall for time.

May 29

Latest ventures in France   You'll have to bear with me since the french keyboard puts their keys in a different order and the numbers require the shift key.   Here is a translation of the keyboard just for fun. Skip if you want to. Iu, hqving q zonderful ti,e here in Frqnce: Ze hqve been to qn old ,useu, qnd the old pqrt of LYON:   I'm having a wonderful time here in France. We have been to a museum and the old part of LYON. The museum holds nothing remarkable, except the top floor is full of marionettes. Some of them fro, the 1700's:   I guess ze are on a peninsula; like Padre Islqnd. We have to cross a river to get to the old Lyon. There are 2 roman ampitheaters here. Beat up, but still used. We have to cross the other river to go to another part of Lyon.   By the way, Lyon is 1.5 million and the 2nd largest city in Frqnce: Oh; and everyone here has been great: So far, we've had no problems conversing (including me). As long as I greet zith BonJour, then they will help me  out. Only been on my own twice now, I hqven't had to talk much. Azucena has been doing all the conversing and they've stayed in the french language, so that tells you that the cram fest on the french language has paid off:   Monday; we went to a winery (we also tasted two different wines); then had a three hour lunch. Then another winery and did some more testing. They also had some strength contests for us.   Later; we had dinner at one of the primier restaurants here and spent another 3 hours. The dinners/lunches include an appetiser of some sort, then about 15 minutes later, they bring the main course (generally a meat and one other item). After about 1/2 hour, they bring the cheeses and more french bread. A plate to pass around zith about 5 different types of cheeses. I'll stick to my Wisconsin cheese thankyouverymuch. After the cheese, I'd guess 15 minutes, they bring the dessert (if you ordered the full 3 course meal). All told, eating like this is about a 2 hour or 3 hour adventure. Also, they won't bring the check until you ask for it. Someone also commented that unlike US where they try to get as many table turnovers in a night as they can, here they start one set around 7, then plan on another turnover around 10. That's why the dinners take so long:   Haven't done much shopping yet, picked up some wine. Tonight, there zill be one last party for the UT people and spouses. The entree? Wine.   This is getting tough on my hands; trying to find the keys. I'll let you go. We leave for Paris tomorrow and fly back on Monday.

May 31, part 1

So far in Paris   Stupid french keyboards.   Yesterdqy, we got to Paris and bumped into Azucena's dad who was waiting for us in the square outside our hotel. We are staying in a tourist hotel for Students:  The area is a Student area (forgot the name – sordouin [Editors note:  Sorbonne] or something like that)   Since I am taking a day off from seeing things, we went to the landmark, Eiffel Tower. Oh man. There are three sections. 1st is just a level to walk around (about 3 or 4 stories high), the next level has a restaurant called 95 Atmosphere (95 meters up). You can take the stairs to the first level or the lift. The lift from the first level or from the ground to the second level. A second lift from the second level to the top. Oh my. I'm not great with heights so at the second level, looking up, was interesting. We went to the top and looked around. Another restaraunt was up there and to take their full course was about 750 Francs (7.4 f to ea $, thus over $100 per person). About 10pm; the lights came on. About 10:15, different lights that just flashed about announcing the lights zere on. The second lights lasted about 5 or 10 minutes. (daylight here is from about 5:45 - 10 pm easily). we stuck around to see if any other lights around the city would come on, but after about 30minutes; ze called it a night. After crossing the Seine river, other lights came on; but it was about 10:45 by then.   By the way, like London, Paris was built on an island. The Seine comes down; splits in two, then meets up again.   Paris itself is a pretty old town, but in the late 1800's some architect came by, set up plans for the streets and promptly tore down any buildings in the way. Sad, yes, but looking at Paris from 200 meters up, you get a sense of architectural beauty in the zay it was laid out. Not in squares, but a lot of angles that meet up. And very organized. Like a planned community, zhich it sort of was.   I,ll close here and try again tomorrow or Friday.

May 31, part 2

I've a few minutes left   I'm on a different system today, so I canut change the keyboard to zork better.   Hope everything is going better. Iull try to check in later tonight if I can. We'll be heading out of tozn on friday qnd Saturdqy, so I don't knoz if I can check email. Also, it is a bit more expensive here. 50Francs for 1 hour (roughly $7, compared to $4 in London). Since TML will cover it; I should'nt zorry about it, right JOE?   As you can see, Iuve pretty much given up on searching for the right keys. I can hit the "a" ok, but the "m" still gets me, as does the z qnd w.   3 minutes left. I'll end it here to check for ,ore mail.   The only thing about Paris is the trash. Everyzhere. Even in their fountains, and they have a lot.   Randy qnd Awucena.

June 3

So far in Paris    We went to Le Man on Friday (This is the place of the famous Le Man's Grand Prix). I tried to connect there, but the Excite connection kept getting screwed up so I had to give it up. Anyway, in LeMan, we went to the race track and looked around. Visited the museum and looked at the history of cars and some sports cars. Very nice. They had a mother-in-law "killer" car (1889). This was a four wheeler with no windows and the front seat was the passenger seat. Imagine a person riding between the handlebars of a bike, but a bike with 4 wheels.  Saw lots of cars, buggies, three wheelers, etc. Pretty interesting place. There was some testing going on, but we were told is was the police who had come out and were practicing. The one in the 8  car was not coming out of the turns very well.  We then went to another city (Chartre) and stopped by a very nice curio shop. After shopping, we found a place to eat. The food was nice, but the conversation turned a little sour with Mr. Rockstead and the waitress. He didn't get what he ordered, and she complained it was his accent.  Anyway, after dinner, we headed back to the train station to head home to Paris. We found out the last train left about 20 minutes before we got there. When we initially arrived, we looked at the time schedules and figured we had until about 11:30pm to shop and visit. As it turned out, that was the time for last ARRIVAL. The last DEPARTURE was about 9:40pm. The next DEPARTURE we could take was around 4:30am. We finally elected to take a taxi (about 35 min) to the next town, then the train from there to Paris. Got in around 11:30-11:45pm. Ok, so we screwed up. 1st time so far.  Yesterday, we went to Chantilly. As in Chantilly lace. There was a nice "castle", for want of better words (A small chateau, or mansion). We took a tour and had a pretty good time. It wasn't a real castle, just a location protected by moats. Across from that is the Chantilly Horse Race Track. We went to the stalls and took a look around the museum there. I never saw the insides of a horse before, complete insides. I didn't feel like checking to see if those were real intestines dangling from the ceiling.  While at the stalls, there were a few shows that they put on. Demonstrating the different things the horses could be taught to do, like bow, prance, jog, which hoof to put forward, etc. While I was checking out the museum (which also included a description of all the different styles of horses to be used for different events: Basic Racing, Rodeo, Matadour, cart racing, cowboy, farming, etc.), I got seperated from the Azucena and her dad. After looking around and going through the museum for another 2 hours, I finally left thinking I'd wait at the train station for them.  Since the last train was about 11pm, I had some time. As it turns out, They went back to the mansion, then passed by the stables about 5 minutes after I left. They then beat me to the station by about 5 minutes. Azucena held my ticket going back, but that wouldn't have stopped them from leaving me behind. They were planning on catching the next train to Paris. So, this means I would have sat at the station for another 4 hours waiting for them while they were already in Paris. Did I get lucky. Friday dejavu all over again.  Today, we made our way to the Catacombs. This is a crypt that they used to discard the bones from graves. At least the way I understand it. When the graves got full, they'd take the coffins and remove the bones and store them here. There is other stuff, but I didn't get around to it. Anyway, as we got here, it was closed for renovation until July (thus I can't really tell you what is inside). So, we went to an area for Mr. Rockstead to drop off his laundry. We also went strolling through the market (sidewalk sellers). Lots of art, books, old stuff. Today, being Sunday, a lot of the stores are closed. The restaurants are open. And are there restaurants. Probably about 10 on each city block.  On our way back, we passed through the Luxemburg gardens. This is a 22 acre area that houses the Senate. It also has a merry-go-round, a play area for kids, a water fountain-pool to play with your boat, statues (the model for our Statue of Liberty), tennis courts, etc. Just one big Central Park.  That leads me to here and now. It is about 2pm (7am your time). We are taking some time off, getting ready for tomorrow's departure. We are going somewhere tonight that starts with an M. This is a show and a dinner.  The weather has changed. Yesterday it did some sprinking all day. And it got a little bit cooler. Probably in the lower 80's or upper 70's. Today it is in the mid 70's.  This should be the last one until I get back. Azucena started off a little slow with the video. Now she's on her 5th or 6th tape, but about 400 pictures. She thinks she may have saved some pictures to video before she wiped out the first set. Let's hope so.  My plane is a 10 hour adventure from Paris to Dallas, then a 3 hour layover. Her plane leaves about 3 hours after mine. We should both be arriving in Austin about 5 minutes apart from each other. It'll be after 7pm that we pick up our baggage. Then we both head to work on Tuesday.   Well, that's it. One thing about Paris, it's a beautiful place, but no one cares to "Keep Paris Beautiful". It seems they'd rather throw trash on the sidewalk next to the trashcan than make the attempt. Oh, I amost forgot. Sidewalks are made for driving. I mean that if there are not bars/barricades, you can drive there. Nothing like being at a sidewalk restaurant and seeing a car driving by. Sometimes, they have these posts that pop up at during certain times to keep cars out. Then after a certain hour, these posts will drop into the ground allowing cars to go through. In some areas, the parking lanes are marked on the sidewalk. The basic rule is "If there is no post, you can drive".   Ok, that's it again. I'm done here. I'll see you when I get back in town. We are thinking about taking Tuesday and Wednesday off to recover from this vacation. Just kidding Anita and Petrena. I'll be there Tuesday. I'll find out just how much Job security I really have.   Till later, Auvua (don't know how to spell it - owe-vwa)

June 4

Last chapter in this book    Since our last email on Sunday, we ventured to the Moulin Rouge that evening. For those that don't know Moulin Rouge, it is the original Can Can. They started here in the late 1800's. The meal was pretty darn good (not cheap either). The price did not include the show, which you needed reservations for (3 days in advance). By the way, the show was pretty good in itself. A lot of short dance skits and three entertainment skits (two guys juggling each other; a ventriloquist; a hand shadow perfomer). The dance skits were, shall I say, entertaining. Up to 30 women performing and at least 4 were barebreasted in each number (think Las Vegas revue's). Enjoyable night it was. And an enjoyable trip it was too. That ended our vacation.   On the flight back into Dallas, they asked if I was on any farms or ranches. I said no and off I went. I don't think grape farms count in this case. Azucena also had no problems on her trip through Houston.   Overall, the trip was a success. I had a great time. The weather was real nice (last email, I said it was in the 70's, actually it was in the 50's for the last two evenings) to us practically the whole time. I had access to laundry and the internet. Work survived without me, I think. I didn't have any trouble getting around in London or in France. What little I did try to converse in France, I got along fine. Azucena had a semester of French about 10 years ago and then the last two months cramming the language. She wasn't sure she would do any good, but no one changed her to english. She learned a lot and was able to hold a pretty good conversation.    As you can tell, I had a great time. Not everything is as cut and dried as it sounds. There were a lot of areas that we had to adapt to (Do as the Romans do, comes to mind). Food, restrooms (the french still use the squat style in a lot of places), subway, funky keyboards, etc. So as long as we adapted, we were going to have a great time. I'd do it again, although 3 weeks is a bit too long.   It's been a long day. Let's see, 10:26pm Texas is about 5am France. Yep, been a long day. I guess I'd better turn in and get some sleep so I can make it to work in the morning.   Thanks for your comments and I'll see you soon.   Randy & Azucena.   Chapter done, story over, book closed.

2002 Germany Vacation

Azucena had a big conference and I got dragged along.

December 2 part 1

Germany (log 1, again) The first time I tried to send this, I did a spell check and the email blew up. Now I have to start again, only I don´t think this will be as good (not as animated, nor is ARO here to give me the correct names). It is a bit warmer here than anticipated, although when the wind blows, it gets chilly, also when the "sun" goes down, it gets chilly pretty quick. So far, we´ve seen the sun 2 times. We are staying in Frankfurt where Azucena´s company is doing a trade show. The first day, after freshening up, we went to the Christmas Market. Imagine Lakeline Mall with booths set up in the parking lot all around the mall. This is what it is like. Only it gets crowded because each aisle is about 10 - 15 feet wide. And rows upon rows of shopping pleasure. I´d divide the booths into 3 categories. Wine - hot wine, food (nuts; chocolate anything; and meat), and everything else (clothes; toys; ornaments; and lots of other stuff). Anyway, it´s been a fun few days. Another bright note, in Chicago no less, I got to see the last half of the Cowboys game. Great interception. Hey, great weekend, Longhorns won big time, Nebraska lost at home again, and Oklahoma lost. Too bad Longhorns had to loose. Also Notre Dame. I guess Texas might make it into the top 8 again after all. All taxi´s are beige and Mercedez. All. Got in a new one today that showed the fare on the mirror. There was some more from the original email, but I can´t recall so if I think of it later, I´ll include it if necessary. Another thing I have noticed. My Adult Content is turned on at work and I never got anything. Now here, I´ve checked my email over the web and I´ve gotten about 30 in that time. Soooo, I guess my checker at work is working pretty good. Gonna go now. Will start another one in a bit. Randz  

December 2 part 2

Side bar www.messefrankfurt.com/en/ The above link is where Azucena is having her trade show. They are the EuroMold conference. There are 10 Halls and each one is bigger than Austin´s. In fact, to go from one end to the other is like walking from Cameron & 183 to Rundberg. You also can´t go from one hall to another, at least not all of them. ARO is in halls 8 & 9 (9 has 2 or 3 floors and they will probably use at least 2). Their booth use to be about 50 x 100, but they cut it in half to about 50x50. Still room enough for their storage bin which includes a sink, two refrigerators, hot plate, microwave and dishwasher, plus shelves for all the cookies, soup, crackers, food, etc. We were there while they were getting set up. Nothing like this at any of the TML conventions. There is stuff going everywhere. Their floor (ARO´s booth) is not tile, like one of the booths, or rug like most others, but hardwood floor. Or floor panel. She said something about Chicago is one of the few convention places that is larger than here. And I thought New Orleans was huge (aisles from 100 - 3400 or so and messengers on bikes). After we walked for about 10 minutes to the convention center, we had to walk an additional 10 minutes to get to the other side where 8 & 9 were. She really thought about catching a taxi. I now don´t blame her. After taking in the Christmas Markets in Heidleburg, Nurmburg and Frankfurt, plus other sites (castles, churches), we´ve done enough walking for the rest of the week. 1600 exhibits and about 55,000 visitors (217.7.92.74/english/index.php4). I might walk around the show and see how many bags of stuff I can get. Well, enough of that. By the way, the above link, is apparently handled by a White Lion in Germany. Link was busted, but I thought I´d let you know. Love and kisses Randy and Azucena, aka, aro.

December 3

Where we are staying My other email address is screwing up and I may have lost a couple of emails, so I will probably send from this one from now on. We are staying across from the main train station. Once you get inside, there are at least 3 stores of McD´s. Pizza Hut. food places, grocery stores, book stores, and a lot others. It´s a whole nuther world, the train station is. The one in Nurmburg is very impressive. It was redone completely about 2 years ago. This place is sharp. The downside, it cost €1.10 for women to use the restroom (€.60 for men). But, it is the cleanest restrooms in Germany. Attendents all over the place. So far, both stations go as far as you can see and stores lining both places, on the main floor as well as underground. The weather has been as expected. Lots of overcast, sun seen only twice and rain on occasion, but briefly. The temp ranges from cool to cold. Once the sun really goes down (around 5pm) then it starts getting colder and if there is wind, whhhooooo watch out. Only the Gruhwein can keep you warm. The place we are staying is not too bad. We had to get a double because I wasn´t on the original and their beds are 1 meter by 60, which means, unless we are pre-teens, we ain´t able to share the bed. They also apologized for the confusion of the floor numbering. Their first floor (lobby) starts above the ground floor (US ground = 1st floor). But the first floor is 200´s. Yeah, I can see how that´s confusing. In France/England, you also have ground floor (lobby), then first floor which is numbered 100´s. I guess this hotel got it messed up. I`ll have to check the Mariott American hotel to see if 1st floor starts on the Lobby floor or not. So far, I have not found anyone that doesn´t speak english. I´ve done some walking around today and have not had any problems. I guess my english is pretty good after all. Good thing I practiced. ARO has done a good job of using her German. Several have commented and one even suggested she had an Accent. I said she ought to tell them it´s her Texas German accent. One of the tour guides, who spoke german the whole time, at the end of the tour said good bye to everyone and spoke to ARO in spanish. Speaking of German. You won´t believe the Japanese population here. Not as tourists, but as German speaking Japanese who live here. Two things very noticable here is the lack of restrooms and the cleanliness. France was very dirty. Germany on the other hand has lots of stations that have room for Plastic, Waste, Wrapping, Paper. Wrapping would be cardboard, etc. In the train station, you can see these about every 50 feet. Outside, maybe every 100 feet. At least on every corner. At all centers (i.e. train stations), there is a cost to use the restroom. Sometimes, they´ll have specialized spots at places like the Christmas Market and charge about .30 or .60. Or you can use the portable, but not many do that. The Christmas Market in Nurmburg started over 100 years ago. And although it is billed as the largest, it is definately the most crowded. Nurmburg is where Hitler stayed off and on before and during the war. It was mostly levelled (about 90%) during the bombing. Instead of redoing the city, they tried to recreate the city. Looks just like a German city that has been around for a long time. Sharon, you mentioned for me to get some type of chocolate. I left that in the office. Can you tell me again what it is I need to get? If there is something that we have to get for anyone, let me know pretty soon. We haven´t really found anything that stands out. Mom, I need Jeff and Gary´s email since my other service may have lost their emails. ARO has taken lots of pictures. She is threatening to put a few together to email to everyone. We´ll see. Hope all is well. Food is good, people are great. Hope spelling is good. European keyboards, but I think I caught all the y\z problems. Randy

December 4

More on Germany I haven´t done too much in the last two days except to travel around Frankfurt on my own. Azucena has a conference so I won´t be seeing her until after about 6 pm. Yesterday, I walked the train line since I knew where it went and I wanted to see some stores along the way. I made it around some, but nothing much. Came back home and sat around for a few hours until it was time to go to dinner with her and 5 coworkers. By the way, yesterday, the weather was pretty decent. I could have gotten around in a sweater, even in the evening. These long dinners I am not accustomed to. So far, every place we´ve been two has had one (1) waiter or waitress. Only one. But then there are only about 15 - 20 or so settings (picnic tables and regular tables). The first night was a bit larger and probably about 3 or 4 waitstaff. But, it does take a long time. And just like the France trip, they do not bring the check until you ask for it. The only thing different last night was our Esteemed Leader (I´m not saying who, but she was the only non-male in the group). Follow Me... left, right, right, after the end of that block take a left, wait, next block, sorry. Yes I know where I´m going, go right, then left. I got you here didn´t I, what´s the complaint. So it took 1/2 an hour. Look, if you don´t like this place, around the corner are several more. Back at the ranch.... Today, I walked across the river to the museum we tried to go to on Monday, but it was closed. I got there and found out Tuesday was the free day. This museum is an Aaaarrrrtttt museum. Pictures and more pictures and paintings and sculptures and I had to pay to see this. Don´t think so. Not today. I`ll go to the zoo instead. But since it was pretty cold I opted to go to the Xmas market instead and try more wein and food. Also to look around and see what they had we didn´t see before. I headed back home after a few hours and waited around. Got bored and here I am. Letting you know I lead a boring life. At least for a few hours today. Ever stay in one of those German speaking hotels and the TV is mostly in German? I can get Europe CNN, but they have their German segment every 15 minutes. Sports? Europe sports and football is with a round ball. MTV we can get. Saw a new release, pretty cool. The singer starts from the end and goes backwards to the beginning. Movies and shows? Ali McBeal in German? She broke up the wedding in English, I don´t need to see it in German also. But at least I get the gist of it. Fortunately we brought some mp3´s so I can survive when not out and about. It´s 18:53. She should be getting home soon and I have the only key. Wait, I forgot, the key is at the front desk. I guess she don´t need me then. Don´t know what we´ll be doing tonight, but it should be entertaining like it always is. I´m pretty sure it means more walking. More waiting. More good food. Alas, the end is near. I shall depart now and treasure this moment I have with you people. Don´t know when my next report will be. If I do more the same, then it would be kind of boring for you to read more of the same. We´ll see. Till then, tchoose ????? Randy  

December 5

Germany fun for today Ok, some might consider this fun. I went to ARO´s Euromold conference. Let me begin by saying, every person entering is treated the same. You have to have a badge. If not, get in line and buy one for € ($ and € are about the same). No pre registration except for exhibitors. But, if they don´t have enough badges, they have to stand in line like everyone else, fill out a form and pay the money. Plan on about 1/2 hour or more. Only the lines are more like the lines that form at TML A/C lunch doors. Moooo. I thought about getting a picture of the mad rush for badges and then having TML use it when sending exhibitor and registration packets with a note, "Don´t let this happen to you. Order early and get enough". Alright, we walked the hall in Hall 8. From aisles are from A - P (as opposed to aisle 100, 200, etc.) and just as deep. I haven´t figured out their booth numbering system. Anyway, in Hall 8, about 1/3 of the booths are 40x60 or better (up to ~100x100). These had their own prototyping machines or cars. They also had their own table/chairs, cheese, crackers, candy, chocolate, beer, pretzles, german style sandwichs (one slice bread, meat, cheese, olive, toothpick), snacks and some even had champagne. A few, about 1/3 of these had their own bar. BAR, as in crescent table with a bartender and tap beer, along with washer, fridge, etc. Do you know how many had pens and pads available for customers? Probably 4. How many had beer? Out of 500, maybe 450. Beer on tap? about 300. There were 4 or 6 dining spots (mini snac´s). Sandwiches, beer, water, sodas. Deposit for any glass or plate. Don´t know why people stopped at these since the larger booths had plenty of food to go around. After walking up and down the aisles, about 2 hours worth, we went to Hall 9.0 (first floor to us American folks). This was more of the same (but aisles are from A - G), but the more important people were in Hall 8. There was a restaraunt on floor 9.0 and 9.1 along with Coat attendents at both Halls. Hall 9.0 also had two mini snac places. (remember, hall 8 & 9 are a good 10 minutes walking distance from the main Exhibit location - via outside. You can take a taxi, or an underground train for 1.50. One of the booths in Hall 9 had a race car driver. Don´t know what racing league, but she was dressed up and talking about something. Across from her booth was another that was sort of a sponser of theirs and there were 6 cheerleaders. I thought it was humorous when they sat down and started smoking (cheerleaders,events,smoking,uh,nevermind). By the way, there were about a dozen cars exhibited and 1/2 of those were sports cars of some sort. Some were in various stages of completion. One was molded out in clay and being whittled down with a prototyping machine. They even had the SMART car on display Hall 9.1 and 9.3 were a bit different. 9.3 was more College booths showing what they were doing to improve the future. 9.1 was a bunch of 10x20 booths showing more of the same from the bottom floor. I have a suggestion for Karla and Mary. Double the rate for booth space, charge delegates about $50 a day, plus their luncheon and extras like usual. This way, we don´t have to distinguish between bosses and peons. Anyone can go and we might even make more off it. Might get more one day people to show up on Friday. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Ok, dinner was another of these out of the way adventures, although we were most of the way there anyway to get some dolls and other xmas stuff. It got pretty cold tonight and the Gluhwein and Apletwein didn´t help much. Anyway, this restaurant is one ARO has attended to in the past. Thus when we walked in, the bartender remembered her from before. A YEAR AGO BEFORE..... Go figure. She stops in once every year and the same bartender happens to be on shift each time. Had to wait this time, but the food was very good. Sharon, don´t recall if you drink beer, but when you order the german beer here, it takes awhile. They pour it, then pour some more, then again, then again. Basically it sits for awhile before you get it. About 5 - 10 minutes. Oh well, day has come to an end, for us anyway. It´s about 11:25 pm. I think it is about 12:25 Texas time. Tomorrow is last day for fun. One suggestion is to take the train and just ride. Easy to say, not like I want to go get lost or anything. Last time we took the train, they almost left me stranded. This was in Chantee (sp) France. We got seperated, I had to find my way to the train station, found them and they said tough. They would have left if the train came before I did and I would have been on my own and no english speaking natives. I think I´ll travel with ARO who can translate thankyouverymuch. But thanks for the thought. Very tempting. By the way, the SMART car can fit in the back of any pickup. Cut the VW Beetle in half and it may still be longer than the SMART car. Imagine a two seater with no luggage and no engine. That´s how small they are. How far your feet go for the petals is how far the front of the car is. Yes, I´m exaggerating, but it helps to get the idea. Bye for now. If you don´t get no more, then it´s because I haven´t sent it. Or it could be our mail server got blown up again, but I doubt it. We should have one installed in house before next week is out so it won´t happen again. And I can go back to using my real email. Randy, yes and Azucena too. Wait. A Siren. Can´t tell for what, but it´s probably the 4th I´ve heard since I've been here. Not many.  

December 6

Last day in Germany I went a little venturous today by taking the underground to the zoo. I found out the train passes are good for connections so that helped. I spent some time trying to figure out where my drop off would be and once I figured that out, got on the train for what I thought would be the end of the line. However, before the first stop, I was staring at the map again and saw that the Zoo stop was only two stops and not in the next county like I thought it would be and only required a change of trains. So, as I got off the 2nd stop to change trains, I followed the sign that said U6 upstairs. Once upstairs, U6 pointed downstairs. Ooookay. Downstairs and looking around definately showed U6 as being upstairs. I go upstairs again, cross the platform to a different U6 pointing downstairs. Once down, I pause for enlightenment. I finally noticed that not only does U6 point upstairs, it also tells me the end point of the track. This is the end point I wanted so I go back upstairs, cross the platform and go downstairs where I was before all this started. I now had the end point and also the stops I needed and all that. The zoo was pretty good. Only cold. They had a mexican restaurant in the Zoo, so I sat down and ordered Ribs and Wings. Definately different. They were breaded which changed the flavor a lot. On the way back, I followed the map, but after an hour or so of walking, I decided to catch the train and after it kept going and I wasn´t seeing anything familiar (like the Christmas Market), then I checked and found out I was walking and training into the next county. (Don´t tell ARO that the Zoo got me turned around 180.) Get off, cross the track, catch the next train and here I am. An hour later. I did see a lot of car dealerships. Mercedez has two floors of glass and their cars in a circle. SMART has their cars in a small clear tube about 8 cars high. Anyway, not much to talk about. The Zoo had amphibian section and that was interesting. I`m not sure if I´ve ever been to a zoo before and saw tanks of Neon Tetras. Guppies. Angle Fish. Gouramis. I saw something that looked like a rat, had 2 legs skinnier and longer than the body and tail and was standing up. Fast bugger too. I think it was from the African region. This be it. Had fun. Enjoyed it all. I may have to try this again. Our plane leaves about 10:30 am and gets in around 4pm. May invite some friends over and show them 2 hours of pictures, then again, maybe not. I can´t wait to get to work Monday, then again.... Randy.

December 7

Turn out the lights, we are home I noticed that with Eudora, not all input from the european keyboard translated. If you have questions, please let me know. Speaking of translating... Our day began around 6 am for breakfast and then an early cab ride to the airport. On the way, Azucena and the driver had the usual conversation (ARO has a conversation with anyone at the drop of an eyebrow, she don't wait for the hat). Anyway, I vaguely make out that he's from Belgium or such and she asked how long he's been in the country. I'd say I understood him when he said 32 years, but I'd be lying. She had some trouble with this, so he finally asked if she was fluent in spanish. She said yes and off they went. From German to Spanish like it was nothing. Now, I don't know about you, but it takes me awhile to go from Normal US to Yankee, then to Valley Girl, then to Texan, etc. I guess that's why it's always good to take your own personal translator with you when you travel abroad. For one thing, it's fairly cheap. Cost of travel, food, goods. We had to wait for about 1 1/2 hours for the plane and surprisingly enough, I was booked, but as a random passenger. This means, I had no seat assigned to me. So, needless to say, we didn't get to play cards all the way home. BUT, did get to watch 2 of 4 movies; Austin Powers 3 (a bit crude as usual), Serving Sarah, watch it, pretty good, funny and Matthew Perry. Since we had our own personal viewers, I could pick which movie to watch. I saw pieces of the other two from other seats (my earphones kept cutting out so I had to play with them to hear decently). By the way, it was a 777. Pretty nice. American Airlines did good by adding more leg room. Alas, we had to wait at the gate (in the plane) for about 1 hour before we took off. This meant that we missed our connecting flight by about 30 minutes. When we landed, the next flight was about 45 minutes away, but when you go through customs, it gives you about 10 minutes to make it. An no, they didn't move us to the new flight like we were told. So, again, we didn't sit next to each other. Doesn't matter. ARO was asleep before we took off. You should have seen the people running down the aisle saying, "In a rush, etc." only to miss their connecting flights. To go through customs and pick up your bags was about a 30 minute ordeal and these people had connecting flights about 10 - 15 minutes after we got to the gate. I laughed in their face. HA!. Actually, it was a silent laugh for I knew that as much as they ran and stood in place, they were not going to connect. It is now 11:18pm Austin. Some friends came over, fixed a great bowl of chili and cornbread (can't remember last time I had either of these). Pulled out the goodies, played a round of cards and now it is time for bed. (I think, it is either 4 or 5am for me (looks like 6:30am if it's 7 hours). ARO fell asleep on the couch about 1 1/2 hours ago). Two things I like when travelling with Azucena. She is a great translator and travel agent. She knows the ins and outs of travel as well as how to negotiate the airports. There's other things she's good at when travelling, but dare I go into those and suffer the wrath of a bloated ego. Sounds like I'm coming to an end, which I am. I had (we had) a great time. I enjoyed the travel, except for Friday, when my home was west and I went east forever. Probably would have gone into another country, if I let it go long enough. We adapt to the country pretty well, which makes for easy travel. The natives spoke a good english which made it easy for people like me. Currency exchange with the Euro is about 1 to 1 which also makes it easy. Food settles pretty good and was very delicious. Scenery is always good. I love castles and she loves cathedrals. What more can you ask for. Ciao, tchoose, sianara, adios, good bye, mahalo, so long, hasta luego, aloha (who cares about spelling, when you can sound it out!!!!). Randy (and Azucena, partner in travel)

December 9

Germany logs 1 & 2 that never made it the first time The first time I tried to send this, I did a spell check and the email blew up. Now I have to start again, only I don´t think this will be as good (not as animated, nor is ARO here to give me the correct names). It is a bit warmer here than anticipated, although when the wind blows, it gets chilly, also when the "sun" goes down, it gets chilly pretty quick. So far, we´ve seen the sun 2 times. We are staying in Frankfurt where Azucena´s company is doing a trade show. The first day, after freshening up, we went to the Christmas Market. Imagine Lakeline Mall with booths set up in the parking lot all around the mall. This is what it is like. Only it gets crowded because each aisle is about 10 - 15 feet wide. And rows upon rows of shopping pleasure. I´d divide the booths into 3 categories. Wine - hot wine, food (nuts; chocolate anything; and meat), and everything else (clothes; toys; ornaments; and lots of other stuff). Anyway, it´s been a fun few days. All taxi´s are beige and Mercedez. All. Got in a new one today that showed the fare on the mirror. There was some more from the original email, but I can´t recall so if I think of it later, I´ll include it if necessary. Log 2 Ok, now back to Germany. By the way, the Euro is roughly about 1-1 to the US dollar. We went downtown in Frankfurt the first day to the Christmas Market here. We didn´t buy anything, but just looked around to see what all there was and drink the wine. When we had enough, we started heading back and came to a section that we missed and it was more booths. So we followed and followed and kept going until we finally said enough. It´s cold and damp and the Market may never come to an end. Besides, once you´ve seen about 10 booths, they all are about the same, just different people. We traveled to Heidleburg and visited a castle there. I wasn´t too thrilled by it because we couldn´t get to a lot of places and a lot of the rooms had panelling covering the original. After the castle, we walked down to the town (over 300 steps, I know because they had numbers painted on the steps). In town, we went to the Christmas Market to meet some of ARO´s coworkers. They were at one end of the Market and we were at the other so it took about 15 minutes to meet up with them. Another thing about these markets is the Hot wine "gluhwein". You buy the wine in a small mug, which they charge a deposit for. You can take the mug to any other booth and get a refill for regular price. In Frankfurt, each booth had a different mug. I may like to collect things, but I´m not going to collect all the different wine mugs. That´s a lot of drinking. This stuff is actually pretty good. A red wine with something added to it and they keep them in crock pots. Each market has it´s own Christmas Tree(s) and a stage for Carolers. They've got lots of decorations. On top of the booths, some will have figurines and so of those are animated. There is at least one merry-go-round at each market. They all shut down at 9 pm also. By 9:10, the place is deserted. As you can see, we got our email problems resolved, but recreating what remains of the original emails is not easy. You've already gotten everything else and some of the above may be duplicated. Sorry about that. We really had a great time. Really. Azucena said so. Signing off (again...) Till next trip Randy and Azucena  

2005 Hawaii Vacation

Note: Mom O is not doing too well with her Chemo (lung cancer). So the boys decided to spend a week in Hawaii (most was paid with mileage, or points) and give her one last "fling".

September 26

Hawaii ALOHA Welcome my world. The long flight of 8 hours went pretty well. Hotel rooms aren't too bad. Hale Koa. I'm using my brother's Blackberry and I just changed the typing format so I hope I can achive success. Relaxed yesterday, but got an early start with both Jeff and GaryO getting work calls at 4 am Hawaiian time. So at 6 we decided to go to Hanama Bay. After we got back, we picked up mom to travel parts of the island. We went east again past H Bay with stops at Molokai Lookout(great wave crashing and a view of Molokai island waaayy of in the distance), missed Blowhole, went to Makapuu Point (Rabbit island, anyone - you TML folks can visit with Val for details). We made an afternoon at Bellows Air Station. We use to go camping there about every other month. Talk about memories 1/4 century ago. ... Picked a vacant beach spot and played in the waves for awhile until someone who shall remain nameless decided to perform his own version of the Hula. Pictures were taken but I'm pretty sure I deleted them all from the camersa when they weren't looking. Headed north to Kailua and went "sightseeing". Headed home via Kalanianaole hwy making a stop at Pali Lookout. If there's ever a place you can lean forward and not fall down, this the place. Wind so strong, you can hear it through the phone. Will try to squeeze Radford High in as well as finishing the trip around island. Mililani Town, Hickam AFB, Int. Market Place, Hotel Street for old time sake, Nanakuli beach for telephone size waves. Kobe's steakhouse. I'm done for now. Oh, thanks Valerie for getting us lei'd. We've got them in the cooler. Aloha. By the way Azucena, my excitement for the trip kicked in at Dallas when the Fl Attend. Started her welcome aboard with ALOHA.  

September 27

Hawaii 2 Ok, Jeff and I visited Radford last night. You can go back, but it aint the same. One, they put railroad crossing bars neae the entrance. Wow, keepus out will you. We fooled them though, we walked in instead. Anna millers is still there but Ferrells ice cream is not. Today we headed to Majapuu beach. Joe, you will die when I get back. Great waves, but also strong undercurrent. Get dragged out abd then get dragged backed in. Talk about a never ending cycle. 15 minutes and you are exhausted. Don't do this aftre McD,s Tonight we saw Mark Mauricio the magician and saw a fantastic show www.magicislandtv.com Hopfully tomorrow is much tamrr Aloha  

September 29

Hawaii 3 Aloha from the island of Oahu!!! Yesterday Makapuu Point Lighthouse was visited by way of hiking 2+ miles UP. If it was november, we also would have seen whales. Then the International Market Place in the evening and spent way too much money(and no, I didn't get you anything). In between, we had dinner at 12th St Grill. I thought I had good pork chops before, but thesr were by far The best there ever will be!!! Today was more Bellows, then tonight was the luau that included the cooked pig and poi. Show was hosted by one Glenn Medeiros. He has a few songs that made it big. Did a lot of raining during the shoq and we were not under cover. I hear there is a huricane in the area. More island driving tomorrow. Oh, there are a few internet cafe's here, but the one in Bellows was on modem and crashed when I tried to create an email! Joe, yesterday I remembered about the spare blackberry... Too late now. Aloha and all that other Hawaiian jazz  

2005 Washington D.C. Vacation

July 28

Vacation in D.C. First thing I saw off the plane in DC was a kiosk that was selling FBI, CIA t-shirts. It didn't help that I was already winding down from my morning wake up call that almost wasn't. (Cats actually woke me up, not the alarm, how sad is that). Made my flight by 15 minutes. Another ominous note was in Cincinnati where I read Delta was going to file for Bankruptcy. Don't have to tell you what airlines I was on. Mr. Watkins, hopefully ARO will include at least one picture that you can double as a postcard. Went to most of the monuments in the immediate area. Petrena, I'm assuming when you say "Visit the Washington Memorial" you mean take the elevator to the top. Well, I didn't because you need passes and I'll pass on that for now. Also, Joe, you need a pass to visit the Permanent Exhibition on the Holocaust, which I will also have to pass on. I did visit the childrens portion which basically was David's version of Anne Frank. Saw WWII, Korean, Vietnam memorials. Didn't see any Rockstead's or Bohn's or Overman's, but did see a Overman-Rodriguez at the Vietnam. I think I liked the WWII memorial the best, at the base of the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial. Didn't visit the Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt Memorials across the bay. Can't find anything in the guides here about no Chicago Steak restaurant, but like she always does, she dragged me (almost literally since I was wore out from the day excursion) to a Brazilian restaurant near the Zoo. Tomorrow is the Smithsonian and maybe the White House tour. I'm sure there's more, Natural History? We'll probably see the Zoo and Aquarium Saturday. Oh, the Hotel Washington is the same hotel Richard and I stayed at years ago for the ALG informational gathering NLC did. Well, gotta go, need my beauty rest for tomorrow. Randy Addendum from Azucena... Well, the highlight to my day today was actually at the conference. Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway spoke at our conference for an hour and a half. It was one of the best speaches I had attended. He was only going to talk for an hour but asked for more time and the Admiral told him to take all the time he needed. There are some excellent quotes he mentioned, here's one If we knew what we were doing.. they wouldn't call it research, would they? - Albert Einstein Azucena

July 29

Next Day in DC Ok, getting up was a chore. I thought waking up was tough, getting out of bed was tougher. Hadn't used my walking muscles in a while. Whatever you do, don't stop, otherwise, you'll have a hard time starting up again. So, I walked a few blocks to the Museum of American History, decided I'd have to wait 15 minutes before it opened, then walked several blocks (15 min worth) to the National Air and Space Museum. Very crowded getting in so I walked a few more blocks to the Capitol. Walking... that's all it seems I do these past few days. Anyway, there was some type of filming going on. Looked like they were taking graduation pictures. Name of movie could be called "The Sentinal???". Got my tour pass and headed back over to the Air and Space Museum to waste a few hours before my tour of the Capital. One thing I learned in my tour was each state is allocated two statues (bronze or marble) of anyone they want to display around the interior. They have 99 (King Damien is one, www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/damien.cfm). Texas has Stephen F. Austin, and Sam Houston. For a list of all the statues, www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/index.cfm (by the way, N Mex only has one, they haven't decided on who the other will be). Ok, so I walked back several blocks past American History to Natural History and met up with Azucena. Spent several hours there including a new Smithsonian Friday Night Jazz session. Sat next to someone who use to work for J.J. Jake Pickle, lived in Austin, now lives in D.C. I don't know whose idea this was, but I need a break from this vacation. It's taking me longer to get going and we're suppose to go to the zoo tomorrow and that means more walking. I'm beginning to hate walking. Maybe we can rent one of those Segways (which, by the way, the creator spoke at a meeting Azucena was having today!!!). I'm done. Haven't found the hot tub yet, so I'll have to create one in the hotel room. Not as much fun. Randy

July 30

Last Day in DC (ARO) Well, I'm going to provide the update for today. We decided to take it leisurely since Randy's getting to be an old man and can't keep up the pace like he used to. We slept in and then went to the mall next to the Washington monument and then came back to hotel for lunch. The restaurant is on top of the hotel (about the 11th floor) and the location is excellent (15th and Pennsylvania Avenue). We got a nice table on the edge and could see the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the WWII museum and the Jefferson Memorial from up there. I'm attaching one shot of Randy on the roof. Just as we were getting ready to leave, a helicopter (looked like the presidential one) landed on the White House lawn so I got a little bit of fuzzy video of it. Randy decided to take a nap and I decided to pack up all of our newly acquired junk. Afterwards, we took the metro (aka subway) to the zoo. Luckily Randy decided to stop at the Panda cafe to get some bottled water and it provided us with a good view of the papa Panda. He was there for about a minute before he wandered out of view. We then stood in line 20 minutes to get another glimpse through the official viewing area. He was sleeping and all you pretty much saw was a panda butt. The zoo is real nice, lots of natural habitat. The golden lion tamarin (a golden brown tree monkey) is actually allowed to wander free. We went to the small mammal house (think monkeys), the reptile house (big snakes and komodo dragons) and the invertebrate house. They actually had a display of golden orb spiders which was not enclosed in glass and you could touch the spiders and the webs. Yes, Evelyn, you would have gotten the creeps from this, several standers by did. We saw some tigers, cheetahs and even a Kangaroo playing dead. All in all, it was fun but our feet were definitely tired after all that walking. We're back at the hotel now getting ready to wake up at 4am Eastern Time (3am Texas time). I have a 6am flight and Randy's flight is at 6:45 am. Oh by the way Valerie, Randy apologizes for his typo. He called Fr. Damien, King Damien, by accident. See y'all soon! Azucena

2011 25th Anniversary Route 66 Road Trip

Azucena and I have been planning our 25th anniversary for a few years now. Initially we were thinkin of doing a cruise up the Alaska waterways, but when she got layed off, those plans changed. A few months before this trip, we were still undecided what we wanted to do, but a road trip came up. At first we thought we'd camp at various places, but eventually settled on travelling as much as Route 66 as we could.
Read and enjoy.

Bestest road trip EVER !!!

Actually this is late 25th anniversary travel planning. Azucena couldn't take off from school to take a discounted Carnival Cruise along the west coast to Alaska, so this turns out the next best thing. (Any pictures you see on this trip are the ones I took with my DroidX. Azucena took picutures but they are not included here.)

We are going on a sightseeing cruise of our own. Our tour starts in Round Rock. Next destination is Amarillo where we will visit Palo Duro canyon and take on a "musical" of Texas.
After Amarillo, we'll travel west along the historic Route 66 through Albuquerque, New Mexico. The travel time is about 1/2 the time it took to get from Round Rock to Amarillo. But as I like to say, once you get to the border of Texas, you are halfway there (more on the Albuquerque leg later).

Outside of stopping for gas or lunch at a rest area, we made pretty good time. Our goal is not to see how fast we can get there, but see how much sights we can get in. Anyway, I digress. We took the convertable but left the top up. Just too darn hot to go topless. We really didn't do much sighting on the way up except for a few long trains, gas prices and oil derricks. We didn't really have any places we wanted to see on the way here, although we've got about 3 places on our map that will cause us to stick around for another day or two.
We are staying at a Luxury Inn just inside Amarillo. The price is good, internet is free and Azucena is playing Dark Cloud, so all is good in the world at this moment.

Day #2

We started our late morning by heading to Palo Duro near Canyon, TX. Oh man. I know how Canyon, TX got it's name. This place reminds me of the Grand Canyon, but just a bit smaller. The lookouts have a great vista.
We took a trip down to the bottom of the canyon (in low gear to keep from flying off the edge).  There are a lot of camping and picnic spots. We chose a spot that was close to hike we wanted to take. (Note to self, no hiking when the temp is over 90, in a canyon. AND take a FULL bottle of water.) The hike was 1 mile (2 mile round trip) and took about 1 1/2 hours. Great hike, but that means we be stinky the rest of the day.
After the hike, we took lunch, then travelled around the rest of the canyon. Finally drove back up the steep mountainside and picked up a few souvenirs.
We then left for Cadillac Ranch and was a bit dismayed at seeing the decay the vehicles are in. Every inch is spray painted and seats and such are missing, but since I've never been there before, I wouldn't know if this was the norm or what. But, we got over the dismayed part because we picked up a not so empty can of orange paint and put our initials with 25 (25th anniversary) on the hood of one of the cars.
We stopped at the midpoint of Route 66 (exact center from Chicago to Santa Monica). We thought we'd do lunch, but alas, it was closed.
Right now we are in Tucumcari getting ready for dinner. On the way here, we took as much as the historic route 66 as we could and in a sense, the whole way is route 66, just some of it is IH 40. The strangest part was going from Glenrio to Bard on a dirt historic route 66 road.
We stopped at the Blue Swallow motel to see about a room, but they were booked because of a automobile show that was one stop ahead of us on their way to Albuquerque. The owners were real nice and we chatted for awhile. Picked up a few souvenirs including Route 66 soda bottles. Wa also talked about how CARS used parts of their motel to create the motel in the movie. Refrigerated Air definately made it.

Day #3

We woke up bright and early and decided to have breakfast at Kix on 66 (yeah I know, Get your Kicks on Route 66). After breakfast we went back to the Blue Swallow to get more souvenirs and head out towards Albuquerque.
One of the stops was in Santa Rosa to go to a car museum. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. They had the usual souvenir stuff and a museum with about 20 or so cars that were dated from the mid 20's through 60's. Some were in most excellent shape (overhauled) and one was from a kit. Saw a few interesting vehicles including one that was about the length of a Semi (I think it was 1935), another that was overhauled with gas shocks (had to climb up). And one or two that had parts sitting on the bench seats.
We left and missed our Montoya visit (Texas exit signs say Historic Route 66, NM doesn't). Anyway, Montoya has an old fashion gas pump, although I'm sure it's not still working. Guess we'll have to see the one in Shamrock on our way back home.
So, we eventually took the Moriarity exit where they have some sort of air exhibit (no one was there). But we accidently found another car "museum". More a graveyard for cars to come die. The place is Lewis Antique (etc). On the inside of the huge garage are about 15 - 20 antique cars (dating from the mid 50's to as early as 1905). He's been refurbishing cars for over 50 years. Some are in maculate condition, others range from good to great. Most of the cars he rebuilds, he finds the parts he needs, buys the cars and then sabatoges the parts for the car he is working on. This is where the graveyard part comes in. Outside covering about 10 acres (could be 20) are so many cars of varying stages of missing parts, that you can't count. In one section he has busses. Another trucks. Another has station wagons. Another has cars from the mid 1910's to probably 70's.
As we were leaving, a couple pulled up in a green Hudson Hornet. The one car we wanted to see since we started this trip was the Hudson Hornet. And cause we dilly-dallied, we finally got to see one in immaculate condition.
We stopped at two places that were souviner shops the size of Garden Ridge. Didn't get too much, but it was interesting to see all the stuff available.
We finally made Albuquerque and found a place to park our bodies for awhile. But before we crashed for the day, we drove into "old town" and took a Ghost Hunting tour. It was about 2 hours long and not only did they show us some ghost spots, we also learned some history in this section of Albuquerque.

Alright, now I'm tired. We'll sleep in a bit late tomorrow before Azucena heads to church. Then we may do Sandia Peak. More on this later. Time to relax.
Oh, did I say we found Mater? He was at the Santa Rosa car museum.

Day #4

Still in Albuquerque. Being Sunday, we did the church thing, then ate lunch at the ghostly hot spot. Not much activity unless you count the fact that they were busy. Didn't do much of anything else until later in the day when we went to Sandia Peak to take the longest Tram in the US.
Ride takes 15 minutes. We took a 1 1/2 mile hike to a cabin called Kiwanis Cabin that was built in the 30's. When we were almost back from this 3 mile round trip, the clouds came in and started to rain on us. Then it started to lightning. Because it was lightning, that meant the tram rides would be stopped until they deemed it safe. So including the rain delay, we spent about 4 hours at the top. Not really all that bad, but it did get a bit chilly after awhile.
They finally decided to let us leave even though it was lightning. The trip down was pretty uneventful, but we did get our money's worth with the lightning storm we witnessed. At least 3 times the lightning blew out what could be transformers. A puff of light after the strike.
Once we got back into town, we can only describe the scene as 6th street. Cars were lined up both sides with music going and several low riders either low in the front or back, or in one case, on the right side with the left front tire about 2 feet off the ground.
We are wiped out, but Azucena is getting some game time in with Dark Cloud. I'll probably pass out shortly.

Day #5

Found out today that when you are a military brat, you can almost never go home (unless you join the military). But it hits home even worse when the home you lived in for 4 years was razed. The whole neighborhood was razed about 5 years ago.
To fill you in, we were in Albuquerque earlier today and before we left, we visited Kirtland Elementary School which is just outside the base. We lived a stones throw from the school. Every morning we'd walk to the "Salute" gate and cross the road to the school. 
There was some change in the school, like a new wing for classes, a gymnasium, a school mascot, playscapes and portable buildings. What is gone are the swings, tetherball and old basketball court. Oh well, I guess you can go back, sort of.

Ok, we are finishing our day in Santa Fe. We visited the Loretto Chapel which has the famous Mysterious Staircase. After she got done taking pictures and visiting the souvenir shop, we tried to visit the state capitol, but it closed just before we got there. So we worked our way around to the Old Town Square where we listed to music and had a fajita or hambuger with chili's. Great food, fantastic music and an overall nice place to visit.

We are wiped out with all the rain that's been following us around and the travel. We need a good nights sleep before we head to Colorado tomorrow.

 

Day #6

Ok, this is the morning of Day 7. We are at Leroy's house in Carbondale Colorado (Azucena's cousin).
Yesterday on our way out of Santa Fe, we went back to Old Town Square to see a few more sites. One was the oldest house in the US. Another place was the oldest church. We stopped by the Governors mansion to walk around, but we sort of ran out of time.
We left Santa Fe and made a stop at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. A very interesting place to visit. They had a few science projects going on as well as exhibits on the evolution of the computer and of course you can't leave out the Manhattan Project.
Our next stop was at the top of Independece Pass and Continental Divide. Very lovely drive, but you don't want to be driving if you are afraid of heights. No shoulder, no guard rail, narrow roads (here's a picture of us about 2 feet from the drop off. You don't know how much it took for me to stand that close and take our picture). I don't want to say I drove with white nuckles, but I tried to stay in the middle of the road and keep my eyes on the dotted line. Yes, Azucena volunteered to drive, but I wanted her taking pictures. At the summit we stopped for more pictures (and 48 degree temp - a bit chilly with t-shirts and shorts). Coming down on the other side had it's own challenges; narrow one lane roads at some points.
We came out of the mountains at the town of Aspen. A town that caters to the rich and famous. Fortunately it was late at night, so we didn't stop anywhere (fortunately because this is not a cheap town to visit).
We finally made Carbondale around 9:30 or so. Spent the next few hours chatting away. We'll be here for a day or two and do some hiking and who knows what else.

Day #7 (yes, we are still going strong)

I wasn't sure what all we'd be doing, but it wasn't a dull day.
We started the day (after breakfast) doing a walk to the town center. There was a farmers market going on with about 2 dozen booths. We then walked around town here in Carbondale and stopped by the park to let Collette (Coco - 2 1/2 years) play on the swings. We walked around some more, then made our way back to the house. Beautiful day, not too hot, but I did get a sunburn on the back of my neck.
After we rested for awhile, we left for Leroy's workplace near Aspen. The drive up the mountains was long and winding. We then we made our way to Aspen to take the Gondola up the mountains, walk around and take a few pictures. Very picturesque.
Later this evening, we drove into town and had dinner at Russets. Their key lime pie is to die for...very good. We are now home and relaxing. Again, we are not sure what we will be doing tomorrow, but I'm sure if we do something, it won't be boring.
Realized I didn't let you in on who we are staying with. Azucena's cousin, Leroy Dampier and his wife Susan and their daughter Collette (Coco - yes, that's cocoa on her sweater).

Day #8, the day of rest

We started the morning by having a late breakfast at the Village Smithy. Both our meals were pretty darn good. Azucena has been using FourSquare to tell everyone where she's been. I had to join FourSquare (phone app) so that we could get a free cookie (pretty good). But since I've been there 2 x, I am now listed as the "Mayor". We'll probably stop by there on the way out and have deep fried french toast (maybe I can become "Governor").
This town is about 6300 folks and the town square is really that. We can walk to the square, walk around and get back in about 2 hours.
After we got back, we chilled out for awhile. For a long while.
Later this evening, we went to the local community center and watched a bluegrass band that's been around for over 50 years - Del McCoury Band. First bluegrass concert I've been to and everyone there was bluegrassing to the music. The concert was better than I expected.

Day #9 (original, isn't it)

Let's see: breakfast, goodbyes, new city, attractions, hotel, sleep.
We had breakfast at the Village Smithy again. We treated Azucena's cousin Leroy this time. I had deep fried french toast. Uh, Yum. It tasted sort of like deep fried french toast. And to think we weren't at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. We said our goodbyes and left for Colorado Springs.
We went back through Independence Pass without any problems. On the way, we stopped at the Florissant Fossil Beds. It use to have a lot of petrified forest artifacts, but in the early days, trains brought people to get their fill of these artifacts. So there's not much left, but we took a trail around the area and half way through we met up with some people who were looking for us. Well, looking for the owner of the car with the bumper sticker that says "We All Use Math Every Day" and the "St. William Catholic church" bumper sticker. So they found us and it turns out both of them are math teachers from Toledo, Ohio (and Catholic). Oh, they were also celebrating their 25th anniversary.
After this we finally got to Colorado Springs and after settling in to our hotel room, we took off for Garden of the Gods. Walked around for about 2 hours, running into deer and the Siamese Twins rock formation before the night light sent us packing for the evening.
And now we are back at the hotel room writing up our little stories for the rest of the world to read.
Hope you enjoyed it. And now time for sleep.

Day #10

Wow, we've been on the road for 10 days. Yikes. And we've been pretty cordial to one another the whole time!
Ok, we started the morning with another walk/hike in Garden of the Gods. Saw a few rock climbers and what may have been a newcomer to the rockclimbing. She didn't panic and felt like quitting about half way up, but with encouragement from her folks and the crowd watching, she eventually made it. We ended our tour of Garden of the Gods with a visit to the Balanced Rock. And to prove we were there...(yes, shameless display to get one more "self portait" of the lovely wife and I/me - whatever).
Our next stop was Cave of the Winds, just a few miles away. They have several cave tours (including one that is similar to Natural Caverns in Georgetown). The Lantern tour was too late for us to take if we wanted to make our 4pm reservations at the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, so we took the Discovery tour. Azucena also did the Wind Walker thingie. Let's see, how do you describe it. There was a scene in a famous tv show where Grasshopper had to walk on a narrow beam above boiling water. Ok, instead of boiling water, you have 40 feet to the ground. Yes, you are strapped in with a cable attached above, but still. Narrow beams, double beams, crooked steps, rope... all these you walk on to cross from one side to the other, about 20 - 25 feet in length about 50 feet up (I did say 40 before didn't I. We'll it seems like 30). I didn't take it because, well because. No need to go there. Azucena, after the trek across the narrow beam, decided there was nothing to be scared of, so she went all over the place, except the part overhanging beyond the canyon open space. As they say, leave everything behind because if you drop it, it's staying dropped.
Finally we went down the road for the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. What Cog railway means is they use the normal rail system to help keep the cars straight and cogs (think clocks) to drive the train. Anyway, they said to expect rain and thunder and we got both. This is a 1 1/2 hour trip to the top of Pikes Peak with a lot of visual effects on either side of the train. At the top, we stepped out into slush and drizzle. The drizzle went away, but the sluch didn't. Also, it was about 40-45 degrees (about 30 degrees cooler than at the base). The trip up and down was pretty cool. We saw a few deer (one stared at us from the tracks), some tore down houses and great vistas. I found a great light coat at the base and it did a great job keeping me warm. Azucena had a short sleeve t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt and a light coat, so she kept warm also. Our phones didn't survive as well. For some reason, I started a download for my phone's system software. So that drained my battery to 0 by the time we were about 1/3 the way down (thus I don't have a whole lot of pictures at this point, sorry). Her Sony camera started to act up by saying it was low on battery. After about 1/2 down, the camera said the battery was full, so we think the atmosphere at 14,115 feet was the culprit.
We found a place to have a light dinner in Manitou Springs where Pikes Peak Cog Railway starts to end the day on a wonderful note. Now we are back at the hotel getting ready for our return trip back home.

Ok, we just had a major catastrophe. I was given the task of moving yesterday's and today's pics and movies from her camera to a USB stick. So while I was doing the copy/paste, I went back and reselected the files and hit delete. So instead of having about 140+ files, only 80 got moved over. All those other pics Azucena took got deleted. Azucena's Wind Walker pics, the Siamese Twins rock formation and other stuff. Deleted. So after panicking a bit, we found some software that allowed the recovery. All is right in the world (I hope). At least Azucena is smiling again (sort of).

Day #11

We have turned around. We are on our way back to Texas !!!

We left Colorado Springs and stopped at a volcano in New Mexico. The Capulin Volcano National Monument to be exact. I thought we were done hiking, but we hiked to the center of the volcano (about 400 feet down into the crater). Then after we came back up, we hiked around the rim of the volcano (about 800 feet up). Don't take my word for the feet up or down, you'll need to check with Azucena to get the correct info, but I'm sticking with it. Anyway, the hike down wasn't too bad. A bit steep but expected. The trip around the rim was VERY steep at the beginning and VERY windy. But we had a beautiful view of how the volcano created the 15 sq. mile area surrounding this. Now imagine a very steep incline to start our walk. This was a tough walk to take. But, it would have been tougher if we were hiking DOWN this very steep incline, thus our choice of going this direction. The end of the hike wasn't as steep but since there were no trees, it seemed like you were walking on the edge of a rail.
After The Capulin Volano, we just drove till we crossed the border into Texas and are now resting in the beef capital of Texas (scuse me, the World). Hereford.
Oh, we stopped at Route 66 Vega for gas and this is the first place I've been to where the gas station has no one working there. In fact, the building has no windows, just two doors and a coke machine. Just pay with credit card, pump and go.

Follow up from yesterday's disaster. Besides the fact that I should know better than to delete files as they are being copied over (First time I've had this opportunity believe it or not), we were able to recover most of the files. Some that are so-so, she can work with, or I may have a version from my phone. Thanks to everyone who wept a tear on my behalf knowing I'd probably be sleeping on the couch, but since it was a king size bed, it could have been way at the other end.

Day #12 (Let's close this Road Trip)

Ok, so we are back home. We are glad to be back, but we had a great time and would do it again.
Let's see, coming home we saw a lot of wind farms, unique farming and hot weather.
We started this morning in Hereford. We worked our way through Lubbock, Abilene, and then off the beaten path through a few towns before getting home.
We had the fortunate opportunity to visit a Llano Estacado Winery just outside of Lubbock. Ooh, free wine, one ounce at a time. We went on a tour and learned a lot about wine making. We spent a bit of time tasting different wines and brought several home.

We've been home for a bit and after checking all our mail, paying our bills and feeding the animals, we are going through about 70 hours of recorded shows. Project Runway was a priority. A lot of racing to go through, most of it duplicated.

Ok, watching the weather, they say we hit a record high of 107. What a time to come home, leaving all that rain and cool weather behind. What were we thinking.

Bestest road trip EVER !!!