Took this one tonight.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Avenue of the Flags
These are a couple of pictures of the street we live on in Portobelo Village here in Aransas Pass. It has gained the name of Avenue of the Flags or Street of the Flags depending on who you are talking to in the park. It is rather neat. Almost all the people on the street have made a flag holder out of PVC pipe and since we have lights on them, we fly them 24 hours a day.
Took this one tonight.
Took this one tonight.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Wood Carving
The Coastal Bend Wood Carvers hosted their annual show last weekend. They had a little over 1500 visitors in the 2 day event. It was an excellent show. Maybe not quite as good as last years. There didn’t seem to be as many larger spectacular items this year although there was still some of them. Following the show there were classes by various craftsmen from across the US. I took a 3 day class in medium relief carving that was taught by John Engler. John is from the Branson, Missouri area and is a nationally recognized carver. Following the carving class he also taught a 1 day painting class to paint the carvings. I also took that class. I have played at wood carving ever since we started coming to Aransas Pass for the winter but hadn’t really done much in the last 2 years. I think I will do more from now on but only time will tell. This is a picture of the finished painted carving that I did. I should mention we did have a great deal of help from John in both the carving and the painting. It is something I am really proud of. It seems I was never able to finish other carvings I have done.
I guess I had better do more caving since I ordered $150.00 in brushes and paint online.
I guess I had better do more caving since I ordered $150.00 in brushes and paint online.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Way behind on Blog
When I last posted, we were getting ready to leave for Branson, Missouri. That was the end of May 2012 so this may be the longest I have ever gone between posts. To use an old saying, a lot of water has flowed under the road, although due to the drought in Oklahoma it has been a whole lot less than is needed. We did the summer thing just as I said we would. Stayed in Loveland, Colorado for 1 month and then went to Eugene, Oregon to get the window replaced. That went well, the company that replaced the window was Coach Glass and glass replacement for Motor Homes is what they do. The bulk of their business is windshields but they also re-do insulated windows that are cloudy due to the seal leaking. They remove the window, take it apart, clean the glass, and then reseal it. They did a good job on my window and I would recommend them.
When we got back to Cushing we had a storm shelter installed in front of the existing pad. I grew up in Oklahoma and have never been overly afraid of tornadoes but after spending several nights with bad weather and strong winds I didn’t really feel comfortable during bad weather. It is a concrete in ground unit. We plan on extending the pad to cover the shelter.
We left Tulsa, Oklahoma along with 2 other couples on October the 11th and flew to Milan, Italy. We stayed in Italy for 3 weeks and then caught a cruise ship in Rome on November the 2nd for a 16 night cruise to Galveston, Texas. We spent 1 week in Brescia, Italy which is in Northern Italy on the train route from Milan to Venice. We then moved by train from Brescia to Florence, Italy where we had an apartment for 2 weeks. Although we overall had a great trip, the other 2 couples both had a bad experience in Italy. This is a copy of e-mails that Twila wrote and posted on Facebook talking about the events. The first was the first day (Oct 12) we arrived in Milan. The couples we were traveling with were Jack and Barbara Miller and Don and Kathie Bryan
On Fri. morning we arrived in Milan about 8:30 am after a very tiring 7 hr plane ride. 8:30 am Milan time would be 1:30 am Okla time. One of our suitcases didn't arrive with the plane. They said it would arrive at our hotel in Brescia the next day. (It arrived on Sun.) At the train station in Milan, Jack and Barbara had a bag stolen. The bag contained their passports. Don, Kathie, and I stayed at the train station while Jack, Barbara, and Larry went to the American Consulate to get their passports replaced . They returned about 5:00 and we caught the 5:30 train to Brescia. We checked into the hotel about 6:30, went to eat, then back to our beds for the night. It has gotten better each day. Would not want to go thru that first day again.
The next event was during a trip to Rome on Friday the 26th and went as follows.
We left the apartment at 8:00 this morning and went to catch the bus to the train station, then the train to Rome. This was uneventful. Then when we got to Rome we went to get on the subway to go to the Sistene Chapel. This is when it got interesting. We had to hurry onto the subway when the doors opened as it only stopped for a minute. People were getting off as we were trying to get on. ( Don is using a walker which Larry takes from him at the door of the bus, train, subway or whatever it is that we are taking at that particular time and Don climbs onto the bus, train,etc.) Don was holding onto his walker with both hands and he had his billfold in his front pocket because of pickpocets. As he was going in a young girl tried to go by him and at the same time got his billfold out of his front pocket. He knew it immediately and yelled "they got my wallet". Don grabbed the girl by the arm and she dropped the billfold on the platform. Another young man picked it up and handed it back to Don. Jack thought that young man had stolen the wallet so he grabbed him with both arms and was holding him until he realized that Don had his wallet. At the same time an older woman was trying to get Larry's wallet out of his front pocket and he moved away from her when he realized what she was doing. They took off and we didn't see them again. When we got on the subway, everyone was talking about it (in Italian, of course) and they really felt bad that it happened to us, especially Don who was handicapped. The rest of the subway ride went well and we saw the Sistene Chapel, St. Peters, then we took a taxi to the Trevi Fountain. The taxi ride was quite an experience. The driver dodged in and out of the traffic and all 6 of us were crammed in the taxi. Larry asked the driver if he was Mario Andretti and he said "No, He was his son." We ate in the area of the fountain and then we went to see it. There were so many people there we could hardly get close enough to throw a coin in, but Kathie & I did. Larry got a really good picture of us throwing the coins in. Everything has gone good till now. Our waiter told us how to get to the bus stop and Larry found a place to buy tickets. We were trying to get back to Rome by 5:45 because we had train tickets for that time to return to Florence. We were told that bus No. 175 would get us to the train station in about 10 min. OK, that would be good since it was just 4:15. We stood there and watched every other bus come and go but no 175. It started to rain, we still stood there and waited. We gave up and were going to go across the street to catch a taxi. Then bus 175 came and we rushed back to the corner to get on. It was packed full and there was no way we could get on. Back across the street to get a taxi. We succeeded, but had to take 2 taxis and said we would meet at the station. We had one train ticket for all six of us and it was almost 5:30 when we got to the station. Barbara, Don and Kathie had taken one taxi, and Larry, Jack and I the second one. Barbara, Don and Kathie were nowhere to be found when we got to the station. I tried to call Barbara and the call didn't go through. I texted her and she got that. I told her what track we were on and the car number and they had been out front and came to the track and somehow we all got on with about 30 seconds to spare. So we're on our way back and should arrive back n Florence about 7:15 then a bus to the apartment. When we got off the train and went to the bus stop, we wanted bus 11 but there were 2 others 17 & 36 that would take us close to the apartment. We didn't want to wait for 11 so we got on 17. Passengers were getting on and getting off at the stops and we had confidence that we would eventually get home. they all got off but the six of us and pretty soon, the driver pulled over and said something in Italian really loud and we got the message when he turned out the lights that this was the end of the line and he was going home. We got off and we were in the middle of nowhere with apartment buildings all around. We had no idea where we were or which way to go. After about 10 minutes a man was walking his dog , a German Shepherd that acted like he wanted to eat one of us. Jack stopped him and we talked to him a while and he was calling a taxi for us when another bus 17 came by.We got on it and rode it until it took us back to the bus station. We talked to a Phillipine young man on the bus and he told us that if we got off at the next stop and got on bus 6 it would take us where we wanted to go. We did, but weren't too sure he understood where we wanted to go. We got off bus 6 when we finally got back to the station where we had started and waited for bus 11. It brought us to our bus stop close to the apartment and it was after 9:00 when we got back to the apartment. We are going to bed early and I don't think we will venture out tomorrow.
We can now laugh about this and we couldn’t begin to tell all the good times we had. Thought I had better include the picture Twila mentioned at the Trevi Fountain.
We are now in Aransas Pass, Texas for the Winter.
When we got back to Cushing we had a storm shelter installed in front of the existing pad. I grew up in Oklahoma and have never been overly afraid of tornadoes but after spending several nights with bad weather and strong winds I didn’t really feel comfortable during bad weather. It is a concrete in ground unit. We plan on extending the pad to cover the shelter.
We left Tulsa, Oklahoma along with 2 other couples on October the 11th and flew to Milan, Italy. We stayed in Italy for 3 weeks and then caught a cruise ship in Rome on November the 2nd for a 16 night cruise to Galveston, Texas. We spent 1 week in Brescia, Italy which is in Northern Italy on the train route from Milan to Venice. We then moved by train from Brescia to Florence, Italy where we had an apartment for 2 weeks. Although we overall had a great trip, the other 2 couples both had a bad experience in Italy. This is a copy of e-mails that Twila wrote and posted on Facebook talking about the events. The first was the first day (Oct 12) we arrived in Milan. The couples we were traveling with were Jack and Barbara Miller and Don and Kathie Bryan
On Fri. morning we arrived in Milan about 8:30 am after a very tiring 7 hr plane ride. 8:30 am Milan time would be 1:30 am Okla time. One of our suitcases didn't arrive with the plane. They said it would arrive at our hotel in Brescia the next day. (It arrived on Sun.) At the train station in Milan, Jack and Barbara had a bag stolen. The bag contained their passports. Don, Kathie, and I stayed at the train station while Jack, Barbara, and Larry went to the American Consulate to get their passports replaced . They returned about 5:00 and we caught the 5:30 train to Brescia. We checked into the hotel about 6:30, went to eat, then back to our beds for the night. It has gotten better each day. Would not want to go thru that first day again.
The next event was during a trip to Rome on Friday the 26th and went as follows.
We left the apartment at 8:00 this morning and went to catch the bus to the train station, then the train to Rome. This was uneventful. Then when we got to Rome we went to get on the subway to go to the Sistene Chapel. This is when it got interesting. We had to hurry onto the subway when the doors opened as it only stopped for a minute. People were getting off as we were trying to get on. ( Don is using a walker which Larry takes from him at the door of the bus, train, subway or whatever it is that we are taking at that particular time and Don climbs onto the bus, train,etc.) Don was holding onto his walker with both hands and he had his billfold in his front pocket because of pickpocets. As he was going in a young girl tried to go by him and at the same time got his billfold out of his front pocket. He knew it immediately and yelled "they got my wallet". Don grabbed the girl by the arm and she dropped the billfold on the platform. Another young man picked it up and handed it back to Don. Jack thought that young man had stolen the wallet so he grabbed him with both arms and was holding him until he realized that Don had his wallet. At the same time an older woman was trying to get Larry's wallet out of his front pocket and he moved away from her when he realized what she was doing. They took off and we didn't see them again. When we got on the subway, everyone was talking about it (in Italian, of course) and they really felt bad that it happened to us, especially Don who was handicapped. The rest of the subway ride went well and we saw the Sistene Chapel, St. Peters, then we took a taxi to the Trevi Fountain. The taxi ride was quite an experience. The driver dodged in and out of the traffic and all 6 of us were crammed in the taxi. Larry asked the driver if he was Mario Andretti and he said "No, He was his son." We ate in the area of the fountain and then we went to see it. There were so many people there we could hardly get close enough to throw a coin in, but Kathie & I did. Larry got a really good picture of us throwing the coins in. Everything has gone good till now. Our waiter told us how to get to the bus stop and Larry found a place to buy tickets. We were trying to get back to Rome by 5:45 because we had train tickets for that time to return to Florence. We were told that bus No. 175 would get us to the train station in about 10 min. OK, that would be good since it was just 4:15. We stood there and watched every other bus come and go but no 175. It started to rain, we still stood there and waited. We gave up and were going to go across the street to catch a taxi. Then bus 175 came and we rushed back to the corner to get on. It was packed full and there was no way we could get on. Back across the street to get a taxi. We succeeded, but had to take 2 taxis and said we would meet at the station. We had one train ticket for all six of us and it was almost 5:30 when we got to the station. Barbara, Don and Kathie had taken one taxi, and Larry, Jack and I the second one. Barbara, Don and Kathie were nowhere to be found when we got to the station. I tried to call Barbara and the call didn't go through. I texted her and she got that. I told her what track we were on and the car number and they had been out front and came to the track and somehow we all got on with about 30 seconds to spare. So we're on our way back and should arrive back n Florence about 7:15 then a bus to the apartment. When we got off the train and went to the bus stop, we wanted bus 11 but there were 2 others 17 & 36 that would take us close to the apartment. We didn't want to wait for 11 so we got on 17. Passengers were getting on and getting off at the stops and we had confidence that we would eventually get home. they all got off but the six of us and pretty soon, the driver pulled over and said something in Italian really loud and we got the message when he turned out the lights that this was the end of the line and he was going home. We got off and we were in the middle of nowhere with apartment buildings all around. We had no idea where we were or which way to go. After about 10 minutes a man was walking his dog , a German Shepherd that acted like he wanted to eat one of us. Jack stopped him and we talked to him a while and he was calling a taxi for us when another bus 17 came by.We got on it and rode it until it took us back to the bus station. We talked to a Phillipine young man on the bus and he told us that if we got off at the next stop and got on bus 6 it would take us where we wanted to go. We did, but weren't too sure he understood where we wanted to go. We got off bus 6 when we finally got back to the station where we had started and waited for bus 11. It brought us to our bus stop close to the apartment and it was after 9:00 when we got back to the apartment. We are going to bed early and I don't think we will venture out tomorrow.
We can now laugh about this and we couldn’t begin to tell all the good times we had. Thought I had better include the picture Twila mentioned at the Trevi Fountain.
We are now in Aransas Pass, Texas for the Winter.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Update and getting Summer started
We are on our pad in between Cushing and Yale, Oklahoma. Have been here since we left Texas in April. We are leaving tomorrow morning with the two youngest grandkids heading for Branson, Missouri. They will be with us for a little less than a week and then we will bring them over to Miami, Oklahoma where we will meet their mothers. We will then stay another 2 weeks in Branson before heading for Loveland, Colorado. We are scheduled to be in Loveland for 1 month starting the 21st of June.
Now this is part of the update, when we leave Loveland we will be driving to Eugene, Oregon. Why? Remember our broken window? We have finally found someone that says they can cut a piece of glass to replace the broken one. RV’s are crazy things. Since the window is an insulated window it uses 2 pieces of glass with a space between them just like any insulated window. The difference is the glass is safety glass since it is in a vehicle that travels down the road and the glass is not available to residential glass dealers or they don’t wish to get involved in finding it. So again if it says RV on it, hang on to your hat cause it’s going to cost you --- if and when you are lucky enough to find it.
The good news is that the same couple that went with us last Summer are going with us this Summer(Jack and Barbara Miller) and Oregon is a beautiful state.
Hope to see you down the road.
Now this is part of the update, when we leave Loveland we will be driving to Eugene, Oregon. Why? Remember our broken window? We have finally found someone that says they can cut a piece of glass to replace the broken one. RV’s are crazy things. Since the window is an insulated window it uses 2 pieces of glass with a space between them just like any insulated window. The difference is the glass is safety glass since it is in a vehicle that travels down the road and the glass is not available to residential glass dealers or they don’t wish to get involved in finding it. So again if it says RV on it, hang on to your hat cause it’s going to cost you --- if and when you are lucky enough to find it.
The good news is that the same couple that went with us last Summer are going with us this Summer(Jack and Barbara Miller) and Oregon is a beautiful state.
Hope to see you down the road.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Need to Rant a little
It has been quite a spring so far. First as many of you know we had to replace our refrigerator. What some of you might not know is they are evidently made out of gold. You see if it says RV on it then all’s fair game. I can remember my grandmother having a Servel Refrigerator when I was a kid. They ran on natural gas. Same principal as a RV Refrigerator which uses propane. Of course the RV refrigerator also runs on electric by using a heating coil instead of propane for the heat source. The point is this isn’t new technology. So what should this 60 to 70 year old technology cost? Would you believe $2000? What about $3000, how about $4070? Oh and then the cost to install it. The total bill came to $4733.77. Why? Because they can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next I had to clean the seals on the toilet. Probably my favorite job. It didn’t cost me anything, well maybe a little dignity, but due to the design has to be done about every 6 months. Of course if you read the website for the toilet manufacture they say change the seal. That depending on where you buy them ranges from 35 to 45 dollars but hey for that you get two pieces of rubber about 7 inches in diameter and maybe 3/16” thick. I have no idea how they can make them so cheap!!!!
Third, the lawnmower threw a rock and broke one of the windows in our front slide. The park agreed to pay for it so no big deal. Wrong!!! These windows are not available at Lowes, in fact glass companies can’t even buy the glass to replace them. It is an insulated tinted window. One RV place contacted Gulf Stream, the manufacture of my motor home, and they said they didn’t have any windows and they couldn’t get them anymore. I guess the people that made them went broke during the great depression we are in. So did Gulf Stream arrange for another company to make them? No they didn’t, tough luck, see if you can find a company to make them for you. Let’s see will I ever buy another Gulf Stream? Nope guess not. Hopefully this will eventually get worked out but right now it’s up in the air. Luckily the glass didn’t fall out since it is safety glass but who knows what will happen when we move the coach back to Oklahoma.
Last, at least I hope it is last for now, I had a small leak at the ceiling vent in the kitchen. It only leaked when we had a downpour but it needed fixed. So up on the roof I went. I have Maxxair covers over all the ceiling vents in the coach. It would be a simple job, just remove the Maxxair covers, clean up the caulking, and add some new caulking. Again WRONG!!!!!!!! The installation of the Maxxair covers uses brackets that attach to the vents. It is really simple. You put a stainless steel carriage bolt up through a slot in the bracket, the carriage bolt fits in the slot and keeps the bolt from turning. Taking it off just reverse the process. Unless of course the people that installed the cover to start with used power tools to tighten the nut on the bolts. Guess what happens when you do that. The bolt spins in the slot and nothing holds the bolt. Now comes the poor fool (me) that has to take them off. Since they are carriage bolts they have a rounded cap on the bottom. Nothing to get ahold of. Long story short, I had to cut the bolt with a hacksaw to get them off.
At this point I decided to completely remove all the old caulking and re-caulk with new. This is what the old caulk looked like with new in the bottom picture.
I went back with regular bolts with a hex head on them that I could get a wrench on. I’m really glad the guy that installed them was able to use his power tools and get the job done quick. I really look forward to ever having to take the other two covers off the other vents. I thought the final product looked pretty good when I got through.
OK, one more thing. We had a bunch of 8 mm cassettes and even some reel to reel tapes from home movies and such. We didn’t have any way to play them so we took them to Walgreens to get them put on DVD’s. They said they would be back by the 4th of April. No problem, even if they were a little late we planned on leaving the 15th. We got two of the three orders but the last order is a problem. We had called to get them to put a rush on the order and they did, but why is there always a but, they finished them on the 11th and they shipped on the 12th ------- by pony express ---- they sent them by UPS ground. They are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday the 17th. We are now planning on leaving the morning of the 18th.
I guess I will try taping the broken window and hopefully it won’t fall out.
Next I had to clean the seals on the toilet. Probably my favorite job. It didn’t cost me anything, well maybe a little dignity, but due to the design has to be done about every 6 months. Of course if you read the website for the toilet manufacture they say change the seal. That depending on where you buy them ranges from 35 to 45 dollars but hey for that you get two pieces of rubber about 7 inches in diameter and maybe 3/16” thick. I have no idea how they can make them so cheap!!!!
Third, the lawnmower threw a rock and broke one of the windows in our front slide. The park agreed to pay for it so no big deal. Wrong!!! These windows are not available at Lowes, in fact glass companies can’t even buy the glass to replace them. It is an insulated tinted window. One RV place contacted Gulf Stream, the manufacture of my motor home, and they said they didn’t have any windows and they couldn’t get them anymore. I guess the people that made them went broke during the great depression we are in. So did Gulf Stream arrange for another company to make them? No they didn’t, tough luck, see if you can find a company to make them for you. Let’s see will I ever buy another Gulf Stream? Nope guess not. Hopefully this will eventually get worked out but right now it’s up in the air. Luckily the glass didn’t fall out since it is safety glass but who knows what will happen when we move the coach back to Oklahoma.
Last, at least I hope it is last for now, I had a small leak at the ceiling vent in the kitchen. It only leaked when we had a downpour but it needed fixed. So up on the roof I went. I have Maxxair covers over all the ceiling vents in the coach. It would be a simple job, just remove the Maxxair covers, clean up the caulking, and add some new caulking. Again WRONG!!!!!!!! The installation of the Maxxair covers uses brackets that attach to the vents. It is really simple. You put a stainless steel carriage bolt up through a slot in the bracket, the carriage bolt fits in the slot and keeps the bolt from turning. Taking it off just reverse the process. Unless of course the people that installed the cover to start with used power tools to tighten the nut on the bolts. Guess what happens when you do that. The bolt spins in the slot and nothing holds the bolt. Now comes the poor fool (me) that has to take them off. Since they are carriage bolts they have a rounded cap on the bottom. Nothing to get ahold of. Long story short, I had to cut the bolt with a hacksaw to get them off.
At this point I decided to completely remove all the old caulking and re-caulk with new. This is what the old caulk looked like with new in the bottom picture.
I went back with regular bolts with a hex head on them that I could get a wrench on. I’m really glad the guy that installed them was able to use his power tools and get the job done quick. I really look forward to ever having to take the other two covers off the other vents. I thought the final product looked pretty good when I got through.
OK, one more thing. We had a bunch of 8 mm cassettes and even some reel to reel tapes from home movies and such. We didn’t have any way to play them so we took them to Walgreens to get them put on DVD’s. They said they would be back by the 4th of April. No problem, even if they were a little late we planned on leaving the 15th. We got two of the three orders but the last order is a problem. We had called to get them to put a rush on the order and they did, but why is there always a but, they finished them on the 11th and they shipped on the 12th ------- by pony express ---- they sent them by UPS ground. They are scheduled to be delivered on Tuesday the 17th. We are now planning on leaving the morning of the 18th.
I guess I will try taping the broken window and hopefully it won’t fall out.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Looking ahead
Wow! I just looked and couldn’t believe it has been so long since I last posted. The 9th of October 2011 at Albuquerque, but the truth is we are just living an everyday life. We are in our Winter “abode” in Aransas Pass, Texas with our friends. Yeh, we are enjoying it but it isn’t very exciting. We go to the clubhouse and play games 3 nights a week and go out to eat several times during the week. But I don’t see how describing what we eat is anything anyone would be interested in.
We haven’t even decided what we will do this Summer. I know it will be temperature driven but haven’t decided on an area yet. Maybe back to Montana? It is just too hot to stay in Oklahoma unless we have the motorhome in the shade and our pad isn’t shaded. With that said, we are planning something exciting. Last Summer I was checking on a website called “Vacations to Go” which is a cruise ship booking website. I found a cruise leaving the port of Rome on the 2nd of November 2012. It is a 16 night cruise that ends up in Galveston, Texas and at that time it was only $659 plus taxes per person. It actually ended up being $768.24 per person. I talked to several members of our Good Sam Chapter and ended up with 2 other couples going with us. This will actually be the third time Twila and I have done this. We went from Galveston to Italy in 2006 with Gary and Mattie House and then flew over to Barcelona, Spain in 2008 and cruised back. Our plan this time is to fly from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 11th of October into Milan, Italy and then take the train to Brescia, Italy where we will stay in a hotel for one week. From Brescia we will go to Venice for at least 2 days returning each day to the hotel. This will all be by train. Italy has a very efficient train system (if it isn’t on strike). We will also visit other cities chose to Brescia such as Milan and Bergamo but we haven’t planned all of that yet. The hotel is only about 150 feet from the train station.
After one week we will again board the train and go to Florence where we have booked an apartment for 2 weeks. Our plan there is again to use the train to visit Rome, Pisa, the 5 fishing villages called the “Cinque Terre”. This is a link to a website for the villages. http://cinqueterreonline.com/ After the 2 weeks are up we will take the train to the cruise ship port and head for Galveston. It looks like we should be able to do the entire 5 weeks for under $6000 per couple.
We haven’t even decided what we will do this Summer. I know it will be temperature driven but haven’t decided on an area yet. Maybe back to Montana? It is just too hot to stay in Oklahoma unless we have the motorhome in the shade and our pad isn’t shaded. With that said, we are planning something exciting. Last Summer I was checking on a website called “Vacations to Go” which is a cruise ship booking website. I found a cruise leaving the port of Rome on the 2nd of November 2012. It is a 16 night cruise that ends up in Galveston, Texas and at that time it was only $659 plus taxes per person. It actually ended up being $768.24 per person. I talked to several members of our Good Sam Chapter and ended up with 2 other couples going with us. This will actually be the third time Twila and I have done this. We went from Galveston to Italy in 2006 with Gary and Mattie House and then flew over to Barcelona, Spain in 2008 and cruised back. Our plan this time is to fly from Tulsa, Oklahoma on the 11th of October into Milan, Italy and then take the train to Brescia, Italy where we will stay in a hotel for one week. From Brescia we will go to Venice for at least 2 days returning each day to the hotel. This will all be by train. Italy has a very efficient train system (if it isn’t on strike). We will also visit other cities chose to Brescia such as Milan and Bergamo but we haven’t planned all of that yet. The hotel is only about 150 feet from the train station.
After one week we will again board the train and go to Florence where we have booked an apartment for 2 weeks. Our plan there is again to use the train to visit Rome, Pisa, the 5 fishing villages called the “Cinque Terre”. This is a link to a website for the villages. http://cinqueterreonline.com/ After the 2 weeks are up we will take the train to the cruise ship port and head for Galveston. It looks like we should be able to do the entire 5 weeks for under $6000 per couple.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Albuquerque Balloon Fest 10-9-2011
It hasn’t been the best week we ever had. It has been the best Balloon Fest we have ever seen, oh wait, it’s the only Balloon Fest we’ve ever seen. It has been wet and cold most of the time. The balloons couldn’t fly on Thursday or Friday due to the weather. Saturday they said about 500 got up but none of the really large special shapes were flown. This morning most of the remaining balloons did fly but not all and some had even gone home. The question would be was it worth it and even with the bad weather I would still have to say, YES. It is unlike anything you will see any place else in the World. In fact it is 4 times bigger than the next largest. We just wish it had been as spectacular as it could have been. With that said, these pictures don’t come close to showing what it is like to actually be here. Before I do the pictures I just need to say we are still in Albuquerque at an RV Park West of town on I-40. We were only able to get tonight with a possibility of tomorrow night. We will have to check in the morning if we want to stay another night.
Yes that is snow on the mountains East of us about 10 miles.
The cow never got off the ground.
Yes that is snow on the mountains East of us about 10 miles.
The cow never got off the ground.
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