Saturday, July 22, 2006
HOT
We tied the record at 108 degrees here yesterday. It was 96 in the living room upstairs at 10 o'clock last night. Phew! It's a balmy 82 here in the computer room right now, 8 am. And that may be as cool as it going to get today. The weatherman says it's going to hit 102 this afternoon. I don't know.... I pretty much can't tell the difference once it gets over 100. And on top of the heat, the power went out for a while in the middle of the night. We don't have air conditioning, just a lot of fans, including a ceiling fan in our bedroom. The ceiling fan stopped. We started sweating just lying in bed. I don't know how long the power was out, but I do remember the fan starting back up. Ahhhhhh drying that sweat and cooling me down, some... Well, its time to take Bailey for a short walk. It's Saturday. He doesn't let me out of his sight until we take the walk. Have to do it now, it's not going to get any cooler today than it is now.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Home Again
We made it. Home, once again. 8,452 miles. Time to unpack, clean up, catch up and get ready for the regular routine.
More to follow.....
More to follow.....
Monday, July 10, 2006
Birth place of Dwight D Eisenhower
Monday evening. I've been having problems with very slow and unreliable internet connections. And expensive internet connections too. I will add photos when I get home or we stop somewhere that has a truly high speed internet connection.
We are in Abilene Kansas, birthplace of Dwight D Eisenhower and location of his Presidential Library. Never having seen a presidential library, we will check it out in the morning.
After Wilgus State Park we made it to the Foxwoods Casino in eastern Connecticut. Had a good time, and actually won a few bucks playing poker with a bunch of guys with from Boston and Providence. Took a while to tune my ear to the eastern seaboard accents. Very interesting listening to the way they talked. We thought about staying over another day because Atlantic City was shut down. And that was exactly why they didn't have any rooms available for Thursday. It was just as well. We played a little more in the morning and headed for Cleveland. We drove across Connecticut, New York and half way across Pennsylvania before we stopped for the evening in Bloomsberg PA. Got a room in a nice little motel called The Inn at Turkey Hill.
Friday we drove to the outskirts of Cleveland and hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing Saturday morning. Some really cool stuff there. Its right on the water front. The building was designed by I M Pai. Very futuristic, glass and chrome, lot of angles with has six floors. The basement has the bulk of the collection and the floors get smaller as you go up. The top two floors are for whatever special exhibition is going on. We caught one of the last days of the Bob Dylan exhibit. Lots of memorabilia from his early life and early career. They had a bunch of sound booths to listen to his music while reading about it's significance in its time and even today. We spent about four hours there and could have just as easily spent another four hours.
We proceeded to Speedway Indiana, just outside Indianapolis. Sunday morning we visited the raceway museum and took a lap around the raceway itself in a tour van. They have a number of cars that participated in the races over the years. The raceway will be 100 in 2009. Look for a big celebration that year. The collection includes the STP turbine powered car that lead the race the whole way until a gearbox failure knocked it out of the race with 4 laps to go. I vividly remember listening to that race when I was a kid in Milwaukee. They also have some Nascar and Formula 1 cars represented in the collection. The Formula 1 cars can go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! I have been following Formula 1 racing for a couple of years now. It was great to be able to see a couple of cars up close. We missed the US Grand Prix by a week. (Michael Schumacher won in a Ferrari, if you were wondering...)
After the racing museum we proceeded to St Louis and arrived in time to check out the Gateway Arch. They have a tram (little cars, kind of like pods, that hold 5 people each) that goes up to the top of the Arch. There is a viewing area with windows that overlook the city on one side and the Mississippi and East St Louis (Illinois) on the other side. We headed out of town to find more reasonable accommodations for the evening and discovered that there is a Harrahs Casino and Hotel in the outskirts of St Louis. We managed to get a room there. It was pretty crowded. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at that, this is prime vacation time afterall.... So we had a nice meal and tried some games of chance. P seemed to do ok but the people I played cards with must have seen me coming. It wasn't a good evening for me. We were going to check out the Budweiser Clysdales but you have to make a reservation first. It isn't something you can just drop in and see. So, we turned the car west and here we are in Kansas. We had a nice storm pass by in the last hour. Only a little bit of thunder and lightening. We have been very lucky so far, weather wise, this vacation, in all the places we've been. I think this is the third time the rain has caught us in the 17 days we've been on the road. Lets hope it stays that way.
Tomorrow we hope to be in Denver or beyond. We've been away from home for a long time. Getting to sleep in our own bed is sounding better and better to us.
We are in Abilene Kansas, birthplace of Dwight D Eisenhower and location of his Presidential Library. Never having seen a presidential library, we will check it out in the morning.
After Wilgus State Park we made it to the Foxwoods Casino in eastern Connecticut. Had a good time, and actually won a few bucks playing poker with a bunch of guys with from Boston and Providence. Took a while to tune my ear to the eastern seaboard accents. Very interesting listening to the way they talked. We thought about staying over another day because Atlantic City was shut down. And that was exactly why they didn't have any rooms available for Thursday. It was just as well. We played a little more in the morning and headed for Cleveland. We drove across Connecticut, New York and half way across Pennsylvania before we stopped for the evening in Bloomsberg PA. Got a room in a nice little motel called The Inn at Turkey Hill.
Friday we drove to the outskirts of Cleveland and hit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing Saturday morning. Some really cool stuff there. Its right on the water front. The building was designed by I M Pai. Very futuristic, glass and chrome, lot of angles with has six floors. The basement has the bulk of the collection and the floors get smaller as you go up. The top two floors are for whatever special exhibition is going on. We caught one of the last days of the Bob Dylan exhibit. Lots of memorabilia from his early life and early career. They had a bunch of sound booths to listen to his music while reading about it's significance in its time and even today. We spent about four hours there and could have just as easily spent another four hours.
We proceeded to Speedway Indiana, just outside Indianapolis. Sunday morning we visited the raceway museum and took a lap around the raceway itself in a tour van. They have a number of cars that participated in the races over the years. The raceway will be 100 in 2009. Look for a big celebration that year. The collection includes the STP turbine powered car that lead the race the whole way until a gearbox failure knocked it out of the race with 4 laps to go. I vividly remember listening to that race when I was a kid in Milwaukee. They also have some Nascar and Formula 1 cars represented in the collection. The Formula 1 cars can go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds! I have been following Formula 1 racing for a couple of years now. It was great to be able to see a couple of cars up close. We missed the US Grand Prix by a week. (Michael Schumacher won in a Ferrari, if you were wondering...)
After the racing museum we proceeded to St Louis and arrived in time to check out the Gateway Arch. They have a tram (little cars, kind of like pods, that hold 5 people each) that goes up to the top of the Arch. There is a viewing area with windows that overlook the city on one side and the Mississippi and East St Louis (Illinois) on the other side. We headed out of town to find more reasonable accommodations for the evening and discovered that there is a Harrahs Casino and Hotel in the outskirts of St Louis. We managed to get a room there. It was pretty crowded. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at that, this is prime vacation time afterall.... So we had a nice meal and tried some games of chance. P seemed to do ok but the people I played cards with must have seen me coming. It wasn't a good evening for me. We were going to check out the Budweiser Clysdales but you have to make a reservation first. It isn't something you can just drop in and see. So, we turned the car west and here we are in Kansas. We had a nice storm pass by in the last hour. Only a little bit of thunder and lightening. We have been very lucky so far, weather wise, this vacation, in all the places we've been. I think this is the third time the rain has caught us in the 17 days we've been on the road. Lets hope it stays that way.
Tomorrow we hope to be in Denver or beyond. We've been away from home for a long time. Getting to sleep in our own bed is sounding better and better to us.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Beyond Pennsylvania
Made it to Cleveland and will check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame first thing tomorrow. We're really looking forward to this.
We left Montreal Wednesday morning and went even further east so we could could head south going down the boarder between New Hampshire and Vermont. We went this way so we could stop at the Wilgus State Park. Had to get some pictures of that. When I told the park ranger I was a Wilgus, he gave us some information about the Wilgus who donated the land, just off the highway, as a place for travelers for travelers to rest and recouperate. A nice park!
We proceeded to Foxwooods Casino in easter Connecticut. The place is HUGE! We were lucky in getting a room, considering that the casinos in Atlantic City were closed down. After dinner I played some poker. I managed to walk away with a few of the other players chips. P had fun playing the slots and some of the other table games. the next morning we played some more before heading out. Unfortunately, the results weren't the same. We headed west through Connecticut, across New York and on to Bloomsberg, PA. We get a room at The Inn at Turkey Hill. A nice place! I'll have some pictures tomorrow, hopefully.
We left Montreal Wednesday morning and went even further east so we could could head south going down the boarder between New Hampshire and Vermont. We went this way so we could stop at the Wilgus State Park. Had to get some pictures of that. When I told the park ranger I was a Wilgus, he gave us some information about the Wilgus who donated the land, just off the highway, as a place for travelers for travelers to rest and recouperate. A nice park!
We proceeded to Foxwooods Casino in easter Connecticut. The place is HUGE! We were lucky in getting a room, considering that the casinos in Atlantic City were closed down. After dinner I played some poker. I managed to walk away with a few of the other players chips. P had fun playing the slots and some of the other table games. the next morning we played some more before heading out. Unfortunately, the results weren't the same. We headed west through Connecticut, across New York and on to Bloomsberg, PA. We get a room at The Inn at Turkey Hill. A nice place! I'll have some pictures tomorrow, hopefully.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
More of the Montreal Festivities
We made our way into Ottawa on Sunday, the day after Canada Day. Couldn't come all this way and not check out the capitol of Canada. The government buildings have a lot of character. the rest of the buildings in the surrounding area tend to be newer, in age as well as architectural style. It kind of work. It is an impressive area. One block away has been converted into a pedestrian mall with kiosks and vending stands in the middle of what was the street at one time. All kinds of people walking about. Left over from the Canada Day celebration the previous day? Or just coming in after, like us, to see the clean up afterwards. We stopped at Tim Hortons (kind of like a cross between a Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts with bagels and sandwichs. We got a window seat and watched the people walking by. Quite a show.
It only took a couple of hours to get to Chateau des Caribiou (H & B's house in Beaconsfield, outside Montreal). We were greeted by H, Mark A and the dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, part Australian sheepdog and "who done it?" We spent the afternoon catching up, enjoying the treats and drinks on the patio next to their pool. J, Mark B & S, Alex and the twins, M & J drifted in over the rest of the afternoon. Bo even called to say he wished they were here too and add some of his energy to the gathering. H had brats simmering all afternoon. It didn't take long on the grill for an excellent dinner.
We went to the Montreal Jazz Festival that evening. They closed off five or six blocks in downtown Montreal with a main stage at one end and smaller stages at the side streets. We scoped out the scene, took in some jazz by the Phantom Power Combo Deluxe. A horn player backed up by a bass, drums and keyboards. Nice. We caught the act on the main stage too: Spectacle Suprise, and Australian group with a heavy latin influence. A good live show that ended some time after midnight.
Monday we checked out an antique shop and some of the waterfront area on one of the islands that make up this area. Old buildings, very close together, narrow streets lots of foot traffic on the sidewalks. a nice feel, kind of artsy. But I couldn't help thinking what it would look like under several snow storms in the middle of January.
The twins demonstrated thier guitar licks, they both play electric guitar. Harvey play his piano for a while. Jason arrived in early afternoon. He's been with Mesa Airline for a little over a year now, based in Orlando. He loves what hes doing.
The whole crew went to dinner at a small resteraunt called Yoyos. Excellent food. I had some deer, P had one of the specials of the day, halibut with a mint sauce. H had sweetmeats. But then thats just the kind of guy he is. Afterwards we went to a Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead concert. Some of had heard of Christopher O'Riley as a classical pianist. I'd heard of Radiohead, but none of us were familiar with their music. The concert was in a small chapel in "Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur". An excellent concert. We got seats in the third, fourth and fifth rows and were able to see his hands as he played. Impressive.
Tuesday, when we finally got around to motivating ourselves, we aren't as young as we used to be, we met the rest of the gang at the Chateau des Caribiou and proceeded to downtown Montreal for some lunch and browsing through the shops. H took P and I through The Basicila of Notre Dame - Montreal. Absolutely amazing. Very impressive.
A Fine Meal
Rock N Roll!
It only took a couple of hours to get to Chateau des Caribiou (H & B's house in Beaconsfield, outside Montreal). We were greeted by H, Mark A and the dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, part Australian sheepdog and "who done it?" We spent the afternoon catching up, enjoying the treats and drinks on the patio next to their pool. J, Mark B & S, Alex and the twins, M & J drifted in over the rest of the afternoon. Bo even called to say he wished they were here too and add some of his energy to the gathering. H had brats simmering all afternoon. It didn't take long on the grill for an excellent dinner.
We went to the Montreal Jazz Festival that evening. They closed off five or six blocks in downtown Montreal with a main stage at one end and smaller stages at the side streets. We scoped out the scene, took in some jazz by the Phantom Power Combo Deluxe. A horn player backed up by a bass, drums and keyboards. Nice. We caught the act on the main stage too: Spectacle Suprise, and Australian group with a heavy latin influence. A good live show that ended some time after midnight.
Monday we checked out an antique shop and some of the waterfront area on one of the islands that make up this area. Old buildings, very close together, narrow streets lots of foot traffic on the sidewalks. a nice feel, kind of artsy. But I couldn't help thinking what it would look like under several snow storms in the middle of January.
The twins demonstrated thier guitar licks, they both play electric guitar. Harvey play his piano for a while. Jason arrived in early afternoon. He's been with Mesa Airline for a little over a year now, based in Orlando. He loves what hes doing.
The whole crew went to dinner at a small resteraunt called Yoyos. Excellent food. I had some deer, P had one of the specials of the day, halibut with a mint sauce. H had sweetmeats. But then thats just the kind of guy he is. Afterwards we went to a Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead concert. Some of had heard of Christopher O'Riley as a classical pianist. I'd heard of Radiohead, but none of us were familiar with their music. The concert was in a small chapel in "Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur". An excellent concert. We got seats in the third, fourth and fifth rows and were able to see his hands as he played. Impressive.
Tuesday, when we finally got around to motivating ourselves, we aren't as young as we used to be, we met the rest of the gang at the Chateau des Caribiou and proceeded to downtown Montreal for some lunch and browsing through the shops. H took P and I through The Basicila of Notre Dame - Montreal. Absolutely amazing. Very impressive.
A Fine Meal
Rock N Roll!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Montreal Jazz Festival
Beer, food, music. How can you go wrong?
This requires more beer!
The Out of towners
Trouble? Who? US????
Can we get a drink over Here????
Saturday, July 01, 2006
More BUGS!
And this is what was waiting for us when we went out to the car! Had to get a towel and try to wipe them off before opening the door. They don't want to move. Exhausted after a night of cavoreting I suppose...
Bugs
This is what we saw when we opened the curtains this morning. I'd killed a couple that had made there way into the room last night.
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