I Wonder as I Wander…

I love Las Vegas – not!

We’re off again—this time to Las Vegas and California. We flew in to Los Angles on the early morning plane again. I really don’t like that flight—We had to get up at 2:30 am (Central time) to catch a plane. We got to LA around 10:30 am, got off the plane, went to the bathroom and went to baggage and our bags came shortly after. We walked out to catch the Avis shuttle and one was sitting at the curb just getting ready to leave. It took us about 10 minutes to get to the Avis Car rental and since we are ‘preferred’ customers—they drop us off right at our car (which is a VW Beetle!!—cool, we’ve never driven one of those before—although we struggled to get all of our luggage in it). We were on the road shortly after 11 am—we didn’t have too bad of traffic, so got to San Bernardino—which is on the edge of LA by noon.

I had an appointment with an advisor along the way and we decided it would be no problem to get there, so we stopped for a leisurely lunch. The visit with the chapter went very well—I even got to help ‘flock’ a person’s office. They have a bin of pink flamingo lawn ornaments and for a donation you can have them ‘flock’ someone’s office—for a little bigger donation, you can buy insurance against being ‘flocked’. They are raising money for the American Cancer Society. It was fun because their president had a stick with some flowers and a pink flamingo and ribbons that she let this procession of people with a bin full of the flamingos.

We didn’t get to get Vegas and our hotel until around 10 pm—so needless to say, we were pretty tired. The conference went Friday and all day Saturday—they even had a costume ball on Saturday night. It was great fun—some chapters really went all out. One had a guy dressed as Elvis with a lot of screaming women fans around him.

On Sunday we left Vegas and drove north so we could go through Death Valley. The road up there went through rolling hills of dry, scrubby brush. I’ve decided that I really like green—and even the white of snow rather than just brown. Death Valley was really neat—it was nice that we visited in the Fall because it wasn’t too hot. In fact, it was down right cool—especially when we were up at Dante’s view. It was about 45 degrees, but when we got down to the bottom (at 282 feet below sea level) it was 78 degrees. We were able to walk out on the salt flats and it was really neat. There is no way for the little bit of rainwater that they get to flow anyplace, so it just washes the salt down to the bottom and then evaporates. Some of the roads into canyons were absolutely beautiful--lots of interesting rock formations and colors--one road was called Painted Canyon. We hiked into one canyon--it was a great time of year, because it wasn't too hot.

We checked in to our hotel in Ridgecrest—which is city that’s surrounded by a military weapons testing area and lots of high desert—again brown and dry. Our room had a Jacuzzi in it, so we had a chance to really relax. It’s too bad that we were only there one night. The next day we drove through San Bernardino to the LA suburb, Moreno Valley. It’s been really hot, dry and windy--and the radio was talking about the Santa Ana winds and fires that were burning in some of the valleys. We were on I 215 around 3:30 pm and then heard that there were fires burning so close to the highway that it had to be closed around 5 pm.

Moving every single night isn’t too much fun, so we found a hotel in Santa Monica where we could stay for three nights and be able to drive to my appointments. The first college we visited was up on a hill that faced the ocean. They had a rose garden with benches and a deck off their cafeteria that had a fabulous view. The advisor said sometimes her husband will come over for supper and they will have a date night out on the deck of her school. WOW!! It was also a Catholic school, so I ended up going to Mass with the advisor.

That evening we went to a seafood restaurant that was right on the beach in Malibu. We had to wait for a while, so we strolled a ways on the beach, but it was already dark.

One chapter that I visited had an event called ‘pizza and politics’ which included a group of 5th graders who told the crowd why it’s important to vote—they were so cute. It was followed by a forum where two speakers talked about the platforms of McCain and Obama. It was in the quad of the college—which was a beautiful area, although it was in the sun—so we were sitting in the hot sun for a couple hours.

We then headed to Santa Clarita—which is north of LA in the Canyons. It was really pretty (although pretty brown). We had time to grab a late lunch, so went to a Coco’s. It’s a chain something like Applebees or Dennys—with pretty good food. The next day the chapter I visited was another Catholic College—the advisor’s office was in what used to be the Mother Superior’s private bathroom--although it was actually pretty good sized--better than what Bob had at one time.

After that appointment, we got on the Pacific Coast Highway—which goes right along the ocean. We followed that to Ventura and then went to Santa Barbara, which is a wonderful city right on the ocean. Our hotel wasn’t right on the beach, but we just had to cross a couple roads and we were there, so we went walking that evening. On Saturday, we went out on the beach, and walked for quite a ways, then made a nest and settled in for soaking up the sunshine (in fact got a little sunburned on my back and the back of my legs), but it sure is nice to nap on the beach.

That evening we went to a restaurant that used to be a stagecoach stop, Cold Spring Tavern. The road we were taking wound through the mountains and we saw our turn off just before a really high bridge—so we decided to keep going. Gertie (our GPS) had a fit—because we were supposed to turn on Stagecoach Road. After a couple miles there was another Stagecoach Road, so we took that. There was a sign on it that said “Road not maintained, but we decided to keep going”. The road was really neat with lots of trees, cliffs and winding roads. We went underneath the huge bridge and were clinging to the side of a cliff on a narrow road when Gertie piped up “Cold Spring Tavern” on right—all that was there was the side of a mountain. Another ½ mile and suddenly there were cars parked all along both sides of this narrow little road. We found it!! It consists of several old log buildings that include a bar, restaurant and antique shop. The food they served included wild boar, rabbit, venison, as well as the traditional menu items. I had the rabbit and it was delicious—had wild mushrooms and a rich sauce. The restaurant wasn’t very busy—we were surprised.

Sunday morning, we found a Lutheran Church and went to a service (I’m so thankful when churches have web sites, so you can find our their schedule.) It’s always fun to visit with people, because so many of them have roots in Minnesota. The pastor was new—in fact hadn’t been officially installed yet. He had gone through Luther Seminary and was a pretty good friend of a friend of ours.

We decided to drive around the area rather than take our sunburned bodies back to the beach. We had seen an article on a Lemon Festival in a neighboring town—with lemon cotton candy, lemon pie, lemon slushes, etc—so we drove over there. This town wasn’t very big, but we sure couldn’t find the park or a place where there would be 10,000 people (what the paper said had attended on Saturday). So we gave up and went driving through the mountains.

We saw a road called painted canyon and thought that might be a good one to check out. It ended up being a really windy road that was only one lane. It went up and up and up through wonderful mountains. We wondered if our little beetle would make it to the top or not, but she kept chugging away. Suddenly we came around a corner and here was a settlement of houses! I couldn't believe people would go up that winding, twisting road to get to their house--later, we discovered another road that was much straighter to get there.

We wondered if we should go back to the Cold Spring Tavern, so drove down the winding road that went to it—about a mile before we got there, we started seeing cars parked on both sides of the street—the place was absolutely packed! OK—we won’t stop there.

That title almost seems like a song or the do-ra-mi, but it actually means that I left home in MN at 5 am (which meant I had to get up at 2:45 am) and got to Sioux Falls, SD at 8:30 am. The airport there has an interesting cross between an escalator and a moving walkway. It’s a walkway that’s got a steep incline—which is OK, except when I had a briefcase on wheels that almost ran over the top of me!

I found a copy place (thanks to the lady that lives in the box in my car—that’s a GPS). After I had my copies made, I saw a Barnes and Noble Bookstore and since I had time to kill and my cell phone to charge up—I went in and bought a book (Three Cups of Tea—it’s really good) and hung out. Then I ate lunch and headed slowly for Worthington, MN where I had an appointment at 3 pm.

I had a really good visit with the advisor and one student at Worthington, although the advisor talked like crazy—even asking me for career advice--and then took me to introduce me to her college president and Academic VP. I finally got going from there around 5:30 pm. Hwy 60 goes from Worthington to Sioux City, IA, but it had a detour on it and it must have some new sections because my lady in the box was having a fit that I wasn’t on the road—she must have thought I was going 70 miles per hour out in a corn field. She kept saying “get on the highlighted route” and the picture of the little car was in the middle of a field. I was tempted to pick up the box and show her that I was really on a road. But I think I really appreciate her—I found Kinkos, Minnesota West, and the Holiday Inn Express without any problems at all.

Needless to say, I was beat. The conference started on Thursday at 8:30 am and went until late—a scavenger hunt started at 9:30 pm—although I decided to skip that. Then we went all day Friday. I didn’t have anything schedule for Saturday and Sunday. However, the advisor from the local chapter invited her chapter officers and me to her home for dinner. She is from Iran, so had some unusual food. One was baklava—but not just regular baklava—which she said is the ‘Greek’ kind. She made the ‘Persian’ baklava—it was rolled rather than cut into squares and it wasn’t as sweet as what I’m used to. The advisor was so nice that she send a container home for Bob.

On Sunday, I found a Lutheran Church to attend. I was going to drive around a bit and realized that, since I had been depending on my GPS to tell me where to turn all the time, I had no idea what part of town I was in—so I actually found a map and tried to figure out where I was. I discovered that I was in Sioux City, IA—not to be confused with West Sioux City which is in Nebraska, or North Sioux City which is in SD.

On Monday I drove back to Sioux Falls, SD, visited another chapter and then flew home. I was excited, because I was upgraded to first class from Sioux Falls to Mpls—I thought I’d get my glass of merlot on the way, but it was only a 32 minute flight and kind of rough—so the flight attendants never got up. Darn!

Unpack, wash clothes, repack….this is getting to be a trend. We got home late Monday evening and left again Thursday morning. Although this time we’re not flying—we are going to Bismarck, ND. I needed to get some copies made, so we stopped in Bemidji and got them started. I had an appointment with an advisor at the college, so I went and visited with her. After I picked up my copies, I saw a place to get my hair cut—and, since I hadn’t had a chance to get my hair cut for a long time, I stopped in there.

After we stopped to eat supper in Fargo, we headed for Bismarck. I just got a broadband card for my computer that will allow me to be on the internet from anyplace that has AT&T cell phone service. It was really cool. I was sending e-mails as we were driving across ND. Actually Bob was driving and I was playing on the computer. Our car has an AC electrical outlet and Richard gave me a little light that gets plugged into the usb port. I’m just really set for working—well, maybe playing, since I can’t see the papers that I have to work with, but it works OK to type.

We got to Bismarck around 11:30 pm and checked in to the hotel. The conference didn’t start until 2—so we had some time to sleep in and relax. Friday night’s activity was cosmic bowling. Since I’ve been bowling pretty good on the Wii, I thought I would do OK—even though I haven’t actually bowled in a long time. Wrong!! It’s a whole lot different when you have a heavy ball to throw rather than the little light remote. I broke 100 the first time and was on track for the second game, but in the 10th frame, I threw my ball to the left and only picked up one pin and then threw the next ball to the right and only picked up one pin—so ended up with a 98. And the next couple of days I had the sorest left butt cheek!! I didn’t realize there was a muscle in there that gets used for bowling!

The conference went until 3 pm on Saturday, but we decided to drive home—even thought it was really late before we got there. We were really glad we did, because mom was sick and needed to go to the doctor on Sunday morning. Then there was a square dance party that we were able to make it to on Sunday afternoon.

We were only home a couple days, before we were off again. We had some interesting navigation in New York City—and some really heavy traffic. We ended up renting a GPS—which was a life saver. I think we still would still be wandering around NYC if we didn’t have it. Even with the GPS, we made a couple bad turns—it said ‘turn right’, but there were several different roads going off to the right.

We stayed at the Friar Tuck Inn—it’s a very old resort—is kind of neat, but a little run down. There are some newer sections that are time-share condos, but we were in the main lodge area. It looks like a castle and we had our meetings in the lower level, which really looks like the walkways you would think of in castle dungeons.

Our meals are included with the room. When we ate supper on Thursday night, there were only four people in the dinning room (including Bob and I), and they served bread, an appetizer, salad, soup or pasta, an entrée (I had Maryland Crab Cake and Bob had Tilapia)—it was really a lot of food. We had three nights of eating like that—plus even dessert when the whole group was there. The breakfasts were a menu that included all kinds of different things and the servers kept asking ‘anything else’.

We got there fairly late Thursday evening and the conference didn’t start until Friday afternoon, so we went swimming and then sat in a hot tub that was outside—the breeze was a little cool, but the sun was really warm and the water was warm, so it felt really nice.

When we were leaving on Sunday afternoon, we decided to drive to Woodstock—where the big Woodstock gathering in the 70s happened. I guess there is a field with a small plaque, but we didn’t see it. The town is quant with lots of artsy shops and there are lots of gray haired men with pony tails wandering around—I guess the hippies are still there. That area is the Hudson Valley and it is very lush. Some literature said it is big wine area.

Since Bob had never been to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, we decided to visit there. We went to Jersey City and took the ferry from there. First we went to Ellis Island and wandered around there for a while. We didn’t take the time to do any kind of history search. I know my dad came through there—I found some information on the internet with his ship name. We got back on the ferry and went over to the Statue of Liberty—you had to have a reservation to go in, so we just wandered around the island. It’s pretty awesome—she’s so big. It was a beautiful, sunny day, so it felt good

When we were leaving Jersey City, we should have looked at a map and gone south through Jersey to get to JFK, but instead we listened to the lady who lives in the GPS. She sent us north and through the Holland Tunnel and across Manhattan—what a mistake! It was 6:15 pm and 19 miles to get to JFK. We got into heavy traffic trying to get to the Holland Tunnel. We could see the traffic light ahead of us changing from green to red and we would crawl ahead about 8 inches. After a long time, we finally got going in the tunnel and then our fuel light came on telling us we needed to get gas. We kept crawling along very slowly. It was after 9 pm before we got out of Manhattan and our GPS said we still had 14 miles to go. By that time we were really worried about the gas situation, so we pulled over to program the GPS to find a gas station. The first station ended up being a hole in the ground, the second one had construction tape all around it, the third one was just a mini-mart, the fourth one was closed. Finally we got gas at the fifth station we went to. Then after we finally got some gas, we headed for the airport—there was a gas station on every corner.

So, after going 5 miles in 3 hours, we were certainly glad that we stayed really close to the airport.

My first Advisor Education Conference for this fall was in Kansas City, MO. It’s always fun to go to Missouri—they have a really wonderful coordinator and some really great advisors! Our Friday night social was to Waldo’s Pizza, which is supposed to be the best pizza in the state. The one problem was that it was so noisy in there that we couldn’t visit with the advisors very well.

The next day was the Conference all day and then we went out to supper with the Regional Coordinator. I really enjoy having steak when we’re in the Midwest—it always tastes so good. So we said we wanted to find a steak place—someone suggested the Hereford House has really good steak, so that’s where we went. And, it was so delicious—melt in your mouth delicious!!

We didn’t leave until late Sunday, so we had the day to explore. We decided to check out Independence—which is Harry S. Truman’s home. We arrived just in time to do a tour through his home with the National Park Service. He really has an interesting story and the house—which was actually his in-laws is left the way it was during his lifetime. It even has his coat and hat hanging on a coat rack by the back door.

The Bingham-Waggnor Estate is a beautiful property with a gorgeous old home on it. We took a tour—first watching a film in the carriage house. On the tables were advertisements for the annual fall “Pig Pickin’ - Chicken Lickin’ Feast” which is a major fundraiser for the continued restoration and maintenance of the Estate. The tour guide told us that the Estate is rented out for parties, weddings, and other events—that raises $50,000 a year, which is about half of what they need for upkeep.

The house had a beautiful wooden table and piano bench that had very detailed inlay. There was also a quilt show going on in the house, so we got to check out some wonderful quilts. One of the interesting things the guide showed us was a Baseball board game that they had found in the attic. It’s very rare and worth a lot of money.

The other thing we decided that we needed to have while in KC was Barbecue. So Bob found a place on the Internet and jotted down the directions—Smokehouse—it even sounded pretty good. We followed the directions and drove right to it—except it was closed! Darn! Oh well there was a ‘Steak and Shake’ in the area—so we went there instead!

Back in the air and home again for a couple days.

A quick trip to the office in Mississippi was scheduled for the last weekend in August. Several people asked if I was going there for a vacation—heck no, I wouldn’t travel to a hot and humid area like that for a vacation. Everyone said it wasn’t nearly as hot as it had been—only in the 80s and 90s, but very humid. I guess it had been over 100 for several weeks. It did rain (pour) several days.

I left on the 4:45 am flight—yuk, but arrived before noon. So I was able to work part of the day on Monday—although I was really tired. I went back to the hotel, grabbed a quick bite and went to bed. Then next day was go to the office, go out to eat with my team members, go back to the hotel and grab a bite, and go to bed. Bob didn’t go with me, so it was pretty quiet.

On Wed, I brought my computer to the IT people to do some work on it. We had meetings all day, even brought in a lunch. When I went to pick up my computer, I learned that I had several bad sectors on the hard drive—so I ended up leaving the computer in Jackson. It crashed before they could copy the files, so I lost everything—which is why I’m posting some of these entries so late. I didn’t get my computer back until the middle of Sept—I was really lost without it. And I had so many conferences scheduled that I had to recreate many of my documents for. It’s been really stressful—I haven’t had this churning in my stomach and sleepless nights since I left the college.

The end of the trip had so many things go wrong it was amazing—first my computer crashed, then when I went to fill up the car with gas, my credit card wouldn’t work at the pump. I was up early for my flight and it was a little late. When we got to Memphis—the flight was a couple hours late, which meant that I missed my connection to the cities. So I ended up sitting in the MSP airport for 7 ½ hours—and it was cold in there—I was freezing. I had to keep walking to keep warm. I finally got home at 11 pm—It was a long day.

We ended up being at San Francisco State University for nearly two weeks—and it was ironic because just after we left—Ross went there for a week and a half for his conference.

We were a little bit late getting into San Francisco and I was concerned because we were meeting some other people from HQ and catching a ride to the University. Just as we were getting off the plane, I noticed a Delta gate right across from our gate. Pretty soon here came the people we were going to meet—their plane was a little late as well.

We got to the University and got into our rooms and then eight of us were going out to find something to eat—we got into two cars and the drivers took off. They both had GPS systems, but didn’t decide where they were going to eat. They said ‘we’ll find something’. So we drive around and fiddle with the GPS and call the people in the other car—and then drive some more and call the people in the other car—and drive some more. At one time there were two people in our car on the phone with two different people in the other car. Pretty soon we were right downtown San Francisco wandering around. Finally, we said ‘let’s just go back to that mall that’s close to the college and go to one of their restaurants’. The people in the other car decided they were still going to look for some place else. So we went back to the mall and went to an Olive Garden—the wait would be 90 minutes (and it was 8:30 pm)—so we checked out a Mexican place and only had a 20 minute wait. About the time we got in and sat down, we saw the other people come in. They tried the Olive Garden first and then ended up at the Mexican place as well.

That night we were so cold—there was no heat in the dorms and only a sheet and thin blanket. And it set a record low temp that night. So the next day several of us went to a target store and bought some cheap clothes. We also invested in wash clothes, a rug, and a hair dryer—some things that we had forgot to pack and some things to make our room a little nicer.

We had really great speakers and I had a good time because I was assigned to be the chauffer for some of the speakers, so I went with another staff member and picked up speakers at their hotel and dropped them off at the hotel or the airport. It was fun to escort them and get to visit with them a little more.

Then after Wednesday evening’s speaker, we discovered the speaker was going to take a taxi to Sausalito—which would have cost a small fortune, so Bob and I drove him home. The session didn’t end until 10:30 pm—and it was an hour drive each way—so it got pretty late. As we were coming into Sausalito, he asked if we wanted to take the quick way or the scenic way. Since we always like the scenic way, that’s what we opted for. We ended up driving right down by the water, where you could see the Golden Gate Bridge and there was a big huge full moon just hanging over the water—it was absolutely beautiful.

On Our R & R day, we decided to drive to Monterey—which is a beautiful drive right along the ocean. The road is a little crooked, but very pretty. It took us a couple hours to get there and we saw that they had a whale watching tour—so we got tickets. Then we had lunch--I had clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl and Bob had fish and chips. Since it was windy and a bit cool on the water, we went back and put on a few more layers of clothes before our whale watch. My college roommate and I went on a Whale watch in Maine and I remember we all watched for the blow when the whales surface and then hurry over to catch a glimpse before they go back down (for up to five minutes). This was the same way—we did a lot of looking and waiting, but didn’t see them up very close. Although we did see those big huge tails go up in the air when they dove—so it was neat. I was glad we didn’t have a camera, because so many people around us were standing there with a camera and trying to get a picture and would miss it every time. It was better to at least see it.

We finished our conference on Saturday at noon and our flight didn’t leave until midnight—so we had some time to kill. We had noticed a place called ‘sea horses’ when we were driving to Monterey where there were horses to rent and ride along the ocean. So we went down there and did a two hour horse back ride. We rode a path on top of the bank and then cut down and rode right along the water—we tried to get our horses to go into the water, but they didn’t like getting their feet wet at all. I was surprised, because we rode right along the beach where there were lots of people swimming and sun bathing. I don’t think it would be too much fun to walk along the beach and have to avoid the ‘horse apples’. We also really commented on how rough the ride was—I guess we’re spoiled because Sandy’s horses are so smooth.

We were both upgraded to first class for the trip to the cities, which was nice because we wanted to sleep since it was from midnight until 6 am. We got back home on the 10:30 am flight.