Author: Rudy

Retired. Content. Living the good life. Listening to music. Watching movies. Computing. Golfing. Cycling. Mowing the lawn. Planning my next adventure.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris Day Five

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Saturday, I woke up at 10:30. Made coffee. Sue joined me at 11. I went to the bakery for bread to go with the scrambled eggs Sue made for breakfast. No bacon — Sue is on a diet. We finished watching the french movie we couldn’t stay up for last night — “La Vie Moderne” — which ended as badly as it began. I’d say it was a waste of time, but really, we have all the time in the world. We listened to music and read. I updated the ipad’s system software to iOS7, which was WAY more exciting for me than for Sue. Then at around 3pm we skyped with the kids. Mixed results. The good thing was that when Max heard and then saw us, he got a HUGE smile on his face and hurried to see us on the screen. The bad thing was that he really wanted to get through that little window and play with us, and quickly got frustrated. But it was great to see him and Tim and Alex — and to know that everything at home is going well. Although not so well for the Bombers, I see — let’s hope that things go a bit better for the Giants and Vikings tomorrow afternoon.

The Church of St Eustace, ParisAfter the skype we headed out for the day’s walk. Today we went down Rue de Martyrs down to the ÃŽle de la Cité (an island in the Seine). Our destination was the Notre Dame Cathedral. The day was sunny and warm. Lots of people out too. Cool shops along the street, and the small outdoor cafes and bars were all packed. We got close to the Seine and stopped to look inside another big old church on our side of the river — St. Eustache. It was big and old and beautiful — but then what isn’t old and beautiful around here?

notre-dame-paris-day04-03We continued on across the Pont Neuf bridge and soon arrived at the big cathedral. Hmmm… seems we’re not the only ones that thought today would be a good day to visit this tourist site! The line-up to get in went snaking around the front area of the church and then out across the street and around the block! Well, we’re here for a month, and a couple of pilgrims like us can easily come back another day for a look at the INSIDE of the church. We’ll just take a few photos of the majestic front of the building and then maybe wander around to the little park at the back, and then head back across the river and make our way back to the apartment. (Check out my photos)
Pont de l'Archevêché - famous bridge in Paris where lovers attach their 'lock of love' to the bridge. The love padlocks are each engraved with a message of love. After locking the love padlock onto the fence, lovers toss the keys into the Seine river - a sign of their eternal devotion.
Pont de l’Archevêché – famous bridge in Paris where lovers attach their ‘lock of love’ to the bridge. The love padlocks are each engraved with a message of love. After locking the love padlock onto the fence, lovers toss the keys into the Seine river – a sign of their eternal devotion.

We left the cathedral and headed back across the Seine by way of the Pont de l’Archeveche bridge. We walked for quite a way, until we stopped at a Metro station to check a map, and realized we were heading SOUTH, the opposite of the direction we wanted to go. So we backtracked and eventually got back to familiar territory. We were hot and tired and thirsty and luckily for us it was ‘happy hour’ at many of the bars we passed. So we stopped for some cool refreshment before continuing our way back home. Once we got back into Montmartre we stopped at a grocery store and picked up some sausage and mustard and beer. It was already getting dark outside by the time we got home. We had baguettes and cheese and sausage for our picnic supper. We’d walked more than 10kms and we were tired. We finished our day by watching the same news story (a shooting rampage in Nairobi) repeat about 40 times on CNN. Sue did some crosswords and I sorted through my photos. Went to bed at around 2am (again!).

Moulin Rouge, Paris Day Four

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I woke up at 4:30 and thought it was time to get up — but perseverance paid off and I was able to drift back into la-la land until 9:30 when Sue finally got up to make coffee. It’s pretty good in our place — not cold, very comfortable. Our couch and chairs are good, the bed is great, and it’s surprisingly quiet. We thought that having a bedroom overlooking the street would maybe be a problem, but so far everything is great!

We frittered away a good part of the morning. I went to the bakery to pick up breakfast pastries. We listened to music on the stereo and Sue read while I computed. Around 1pm I went out to pick up a sandwich which I brought back to the apartment. Sue had her leftover pasta from the other night. It was a bit warmer and quite sunny outside — so we scheduled a walk for late afternoon.

I called my mom and dad just after 4pm — that would make it just after 9am at home, so at least I wouldn’t be interrupting the funeral announcements on the radio. They were fine, happy for the call, and yes, they had already listened to this morning’s funeral announcements, and no, they hadn’t heard their own names announced yet so that must mean they were okay. Dad asked me if we were in Paris, and did everyone only speak French or could we get by with English. Mom didn’t let me down either — when I told her that Sue and I had gone for a long yesterday and were planning on going for another walk right after the phone call, she said, “Well! Walking you can do in Steinbach too!”

Moulin RougeAfter the call we high-tailed it out. We couldn’t just sit inside all day! We were halfway to the Moulin Rouge, the famous ‘red mill’ cabaret, when we realized I had forgotten my map back at the apartment. Oh well, we wouldn’t go far enough to get lost. Not that you couldn’t get lost here — the strip clubs and sex shops that lined both sides of the street could get a guy off the track in a hurry! But Sue kept me on the straight and narrow, and guided me right past the distractions. It was still bright outside, only 4 o’clock — I bet this place looks quite a bit scarier later on a Friday night!

montmartre-cemetery-paris-day04-03Well, properly inspired by my parents’ enthusiasm about the funeral announcements, Sue and I decided to get off the main drag and visit a cemetery. The Montmartre Cemetery isn’t the Paris’s most famous, and although we walked right around the outer walk of the 25 acre cemetery, we didn’t actually see the grave of anyone we might have heard of before. But it was quiet and shaded and there were quite a few very interesting tombs and tombstones. And it was a nice ‘teet-fedreef’ (as they say in France). We considered whether the Nikkel family should ever invest in such an elaborate monument — many of the stone vaults here had stained-glass windows, iron grating, decorative doors, and fat little cherubs watching over it all. Hmmm… maybe not.

It was quite nice in the graveyard, but you wouldn’t want to spend ALL afternoon there (never mind eternity!) so we made our way back to our place, stopping along the way at a little wine shop. Sue bought a couple of bottles and then we asked the cashier for some dining advice. He wrote down the names of 3 nearby restaurants that he could recommend. We went back to the apartment and had ‘happy hour’ while we watched parts 2 and 3 of our ‘Visit to Paris’ video series we started last night. The parts that we didn’t snooze through were pretty good.

At 8pm we headed out around the corner to an Indian restaurant for supper. It was okay. Not too spicy, and the big stain that Sue got on her jacket sleeve washed out easily enough. Lots of people eat out here (and lots of them smoke too) — and by the time we ambled back home most of the outdoor tables were full. Not just at the Indian restaurant, but at all of the ones we passed along the way.

Back home we changed into our ‘lounging’ clothes and opened a bottle of wine. Sue watched some crappy CNN on tv and I sent some emails and updated the blog. By midnight it was probably too late to watch another movie, although I was feeling dangerously awake. If we don’t go to bed soon, we’ll probably be up all night! Au revior, or however you say that.

Champs-Élysées, Paris Day Three

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Okay, before I begin, I have to confess that it was actually around 2am that I finally went to bed last night. And Sue and I both had trouble falling asleep. I guess we stayed up TOO long! But we finally did fall asleep. At 9:30 this morning I could hear the garbage trucks down below on the street — and I knew it was time to get up, or we’d probably sleep until after lunch again!

I made a pot of coffee and ran down to the corner bakery to pick up a fancy-shmancy custard-filled pastry for my breakfast — Sue still had crusty baguette from yesterday. We had fruit, yogurt, and pastries with coffee for breakfast.

Then Sue read and I worked on the computer until it was lunch time. The forecast for today called for showers, but we really didn’t get any.  It was already a bit after lunch time when we headed out. Again, I scouted out the walk on Google maps and Sue jotted down our turn-by-turn directions on a piece of note paper. And so we set off.

champs-elysees-paris-day03-01Our ultimate destination was the Arc de Triomphe. Our first diversion came when we got to the Galleries Lafayette — an upmarket French department store located on Boulevard Haussmann. It’s where Princess Diana and Sue shop. So we went in and had a look. The smell of perfume nearly overwhelmed me, but I managed to take a few photos of the elaborate dome in the ‘ladies’ section of the store.

champs-elysees-paris-day03-08
From here you can see the Arch in the distance, the massive avenue, the National Assembly, the Madeleine church, the famous Hotel de Crillon, the Grand Palais, the Obelisk of Luxor, and the Eiffel Tower rising behind it all.

We stopped on our way out and bought a crusty sandwich baguette and a chocolate croissant for lunch. We sort of got lost because we hadn’t counted on going into the store — but we managed to find our way down to the Champs-Elysees. I knew we were there because I recognized it as the place where the penultimate day of the Tour de France happens. I saw the Egyptian obelisk, the palaces and fountains, and the cobblestone streets that the cyclists have to race on.

champs-elysees-paris-day03-12champs-elysees-paris-day03-13And then we were there! To our left was a big park, the Tuilerie Gardens. And then the sun came out. So we decided to check out the park. We strolled through it (along with about a thousand other tourists — and is it just me, or do even the women tourists look gorgeous here?). Fountains, and lots of metal chairs surrounding squares of green grass with statues to look at. And it’s not high season! We actually got a chair to sit in for a while and watched the people passing by.

champs-elysees-paris-day03-10We walked through the park and before you know it we had stumbled on another sight! Wasn’t that the famous Louvre pyramid ahead? I didn’t know it was all connected like that! Well, we won’t go in there today — we’ll keep that for another day. I think the museum will take a good part of an afternoon to explore.

champs-elysees-paris-day03-11Between the museum and the park was the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, not to be confused with the actual Arc de Triomphe we were on a mission to see this afternoon. No, this is a smaller version of the other arch.

champs-elysees-paris-day03-19From here we headed due west, down along the majestic Champs-Élysées. There were far too many very expensive shops along the way. And quite a few tourists, although we kept reminding ourselves that it must be ‘CA-RAZ-Y’ in high season. It was about 2.5 kms from the park to the Arch. When we got there champs-elysees-paris-day03-24Sue really wanted a photo of the two of us. We got someone to help us out. And now we still had a long way to walk back home. Unfortunately I had thrown away our little ‘map’ with the wrappers for our sandwich in the park, so now we had to find our own way back home. Along the way we stopped for a cappuccino at one of the many little cafes along the way. We ended up heading to that big Carrefour store again to pick up groceries for supper.

Back at the apartment, Sue tried out the oven by frying a fish and baking some potatoes for supper. After supper Sue read her book (“My Paris Wife” by Paul McLain) on the ipad and I wrote my (too long) blog entry. And we drank a bit of wine and listened to John Prine on the stereo. Sue called her mom to say hello. It was 10:30 — I’d spent way too much time writing and adding photos to the blog. It’s almost time for bed! I used to laugh at tourists who saw their whole trip through the viewfinder of their camera, but this is even worse! I’m spending more time writing about it than I am ‘doing’ it! This has got to stop. Tomorrow I will take ONE photo and write two paragraphs. And it will be better than this — for YOU and for ME!

Sacré-CÅ“ur, Paris Day Two

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Wow! Thirteen hours after going to bed, we finally rolled out of bed this morning at 11:00am. I woke up once at 5:30 and thought to myself, ‘Not bad’ — but instead of getting up, I turned over and went right back to sleep. And if I hadn’t got up when I did, Sue probably would have slept for a few more hours!

I showered and got dressed. Then, while Sue made coffee and showered, I went out to the corner bakery and came back with a crusty baguette for Sue and a chocolate-filled pastry for me. Good breakfast! We sat around and read some of Peter’s Paris tourist books and talked about where to go in the afternoon. We almost left once, but when I looked out the window I saw it was raining. Oh well, we’re here for a month! More reading. Finally at around 4pm we left. Headed for the Sacré-CÅ“ur, a famous big old catholic church up on the highest hill in Paris. Not far from our place here in Montmarte. I looked at google maps to figure out the walk there. We would be climbing quite a few steps up to the top.

sacre-coeur-paris-day02-01 Along the way we stopped at the Place du Tertre, a square not far from Sacré-CÅ“ur, famous for the artists that sit in the square and do portraits of/for tourists. Sue and Alex had their portrait done by one of these artists when they visited Paris 14 years ago. No time for posing today, other than for a photo. We continued on up the hill to the church.

sacre-coeur-paris-day02-02There were lots of tourist shops and cafes, and a surprising number of tourists, considering the time of year and the cloudy/showery day. But the climb had warmed us up a bit and we thought the temperature was probably “very perfect” for this kind of outing.
sacre-coeur-paris-day02-03And it didn’t take long for us to reach the church — it really is only about a 10-minute walk from our apartment. We walked around the outside. sacre-coeur-paris-day02-04We had a spectacular panoramic view of the city of Paris, which is mostly to the south of the basilica. Although it was overcast, we could spot many of the famous landmarks of the city from this vantage. And then it started to rain.
sacre-coeur-paris-day02-06So instead of getting all wet, we opted to get under the awning of that Irish pub we passed on the way here. And why not sit down and have a Guinness while we watch tourists filing by for an hour or so? So for 17 Euros (about $24 Canadian) we had ourselves a Guinness and stayed out of the rain. We were almost all the way back down all those steps when Sue remembered that she had left our backpack under the chair at the pub. So we warmed up a bit more by running all the way back up — picked up the backpack from where we’d left it! and headed back down.

We got back to Montmarte close to suppertime and so we stopped at a cafe just around the corner from our place and ordered a pizza to go. Back at the ranch, we sat down in front of the TV and had our pizza and a bottle of wine. We’d found a big library of DVDs in Peter’s bookshelf, many of them with a Paris theme. So we have some movie-watching to do. Tonight we watched “Paris, je t’aime”, a 2006 movie made up of 18 short films, each by a different director and cast, and each one filmed in one of the arrondissements (districts) of Paris. It was okay! I guess the jet lag isn’t quite done with us yet, as we both were tired and tempted to go to sleep. But we stuck it out, and then, after the movie was over, Sue read and I got busy on my blog for the next few hours. And by midnight we were still both up, and awake, and not really tired. But by 1:00 we put away our distractions and went to bed.

Here we are in Gay Pahree!

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Well, Buckaroos and Buckarettes! Look who’s back! Long time no see! Here I am, once again blogging about another adventure. And this time it is a month in Paris. Fall 2013. About time!

Let me say a few words about how we got here:

Monday morning, September 16, we closed the blinds on our windows, took our packed bags to the front door, and waited for Tim to come pick us up and take us to the airport. Our flight (to Montreal) was supposed to leave at 11:30am. Tim came at 9:30 and off we went. Now Sue has a motto that guides her attitude when it comes to travel — “Expect the worst, and hope for the best!” That way, when things don’t quite work out as planned you are already prepared, because you ‘expect the worst’. And if things turn out “very perfect” (another one of her sayings) it’s all good too, because you were hoping for that. A winning philosophy. So after all the worrying Sue did about whether she had packed the right shoes and jackets, and whether we’d get to the airport on time, and what we would do with 5 hours to kill in Montreal, and what would our apartment in Paris really be like, and — well, you get the idea — but the thing is, everything about our trip here turned out “very perfect”. Tim got us to the airport at just the right time, our flights were great, we enjoyed a few hours in the Montreal airport, and the shirts, sweaters, vests, and jackets that Sue wore on our way here were the EXACT right clothes for the trip. About the only not very perfect thing was the baggage ‘carousel’ at the Charles de Gaulle Airport. We arrived there to see a mass of passengers, 8 deep, all along the short wall where presumably our bags would appear. With everyone queued up against the carousel there is no way to see if yours (or anyone else’s) luggage is ready to be picked up. The saving grace is that the luggage is dispensed SO SLOWLY and sporadically that eventually, one by one, people at the front of the line manage to yank their suitcases off the carousel and push their way back through the crush of passengers, and finally, after an hour, the baggage area has cleared out and there are only a few passengers and a few less suitcases left in the hall. And then you can take your bags and ‘wheel’ them up the stairs and down the hall for about a half mile south to the Paris train station. After that, everything once again went “very perfect”. We took the train to the Gare du Nord train station from where we dragged our bags to our apartment. Got there at just about 12 noon.

The lock combination to get into the building worked. We found the keys where they were supposed to be. Once inside our first story flat, we found a bottle of wine, a few packages of Nespresso coffee capsules, and a nice welcome note from Peter, from whom we are renting the apartment. Everything was as expected (well, NOT if you’re expecting the WORST, but you know what I mean!). After looking around a bit, we went out for a walk around the block. The weather was ‘fall-ish’, cloudy, but not raining. We looked in at a few fruit markets, a few bakeries, and even found a big supermarket not far from our place. We bought sandwiches — well, there are special French names for all these things here, but we’re not so quick with that. In fact, more than once, after buying something at a store here I’ve said ‘Gracias!’ instead of ‘Merci’. Anyway, we bought some cheese and a few beers and went back to the apartment. We heard the phone ringing, and soon after it stopped ringing we managed to find it in a cupboard in the living room. It rang again a few minutes later — Peter, calling us from New York, just checking up on us.

Sue had a bit of a ‘lie-down’ — we were determined to beat the jet lag and NOT go to bed in the afternoon. I hooked up my ipod to the sound system and spent a bit of time at my computer. We had a glass of wine and at around 7pm we headed out again. We took our umbrellas with us because it was raining lightly. We went to a nearby restaurant to get out of the rain. Had a nice pasta meal with drinks. Then back out and a bit of a walk. We didn’t want to wander too far at night since we really didn’t have a map and we didn’t want to get lost on the first night. Eventually we found our way back at the Carrefour (big grocery store) and Sue did some grocery shopping.

Back at our apartment, we put away the groceries and sat at watched a bit of BBC tv until a little after 10pm. A respectable hour to go to bed. Finally! The bed is good. So is the bedding. Pretty much everything today has gone “very perfect”. We’ll be fine here. End of Day One.

The best thing about coming home is…

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Sue woke up early. Chased me out of bed and into the shower. Rudy, we gotta get going. It was too early to force breakfast down my throat. Sue went and got a bunch of little muffins and a couple of yogurts from the breakfast in the hotel lobby. It was cold and dry outside. Clear sky. We have a 10-hour drive ahead of us. We were on the road at 7:35 Mountain time. A few clouds in the eastern sky kept the sun out of my eyes as we angled northwest from Mile City, Montana. We had coffees to go — which meant that by the time we got to Sidney, a small dirty town just before the North Dakota border, we needed a washroom break. Well, why not go to the Macdonald’s and get an Egg McMuffin at the same time? Big sign on the door of Macdonald’s says ‘Sorry. Closed today. Due to labor shortage we can’t open the restaurant’. What? Labour shortage? I thought that people were out of work and business was suffering? Not here. We punched the next town into the Garmin. Williston, North Dakota. Big new Macdonald’s. VERY busy. Parking lot is all full. People inside are standing in a long line holding their ‘tickets’ with their order number, waiting for their food. About 25 people are working their butts off in the kitchen. Sue suggested that maybe I would like to order ‘lunch’ instead of breakfast, since it was already close to 11:00, and actually 12:00 with the time change. We waited longer than we’ve EVER waited for our order. Not really worth it, either.

dirty-windows-01We filled up the car at a big new gas station. The ice cold wind blew right through my windbreaker and jacket. B-r-r-r-r. This is what we’re going home to? Back on the road. Big oil pumps all over. Lots of construction. No, LOTS of construction. This is the most ugly country I’ve ever seen! All the cars (well, trucks mostly — everyone here drives a big Dodge RAM 4×4) are filthy. So is our van! Bugs plastered to the windshield from the warm drive through Montana yesterday afternoon — and now they’re getting FROZEN on. I couldn’t read the license plates on any of the cars and trucks I passed because they were covered with dust and dirt. Plastic bags fluttered in the gale-force winds, trying desperately to hang on the barbed wire fence along the side of the road. Row upon row of big steel buildings with big parking lots full of equipment everywhere. Lots of manufacturing going on here. Looks like pipeline work. dirty-windows-02Looks like UGLY work. I thought that there were a lot of people living in mobile homes in Phoenix, but this takes the cake. Fenced in yards with a mobile trailer with several attached porches and an old truck camper shell lying beside it, right next to where the barking black dog is chained up, across from a line of old washers and dryers and maybe a car or two that don’t work anymore but one of these days when you get around to it you’re gonna make sumpin outta that stuff. And if you don’t have a beat-up trailer to live in then maybe you’d consider one of the many ‘labor camps’ that are popping up all over here — row upon row of ‘factory-built’ tiny bungalows with just enough room between each house for you to park your truck. This is NOTHING like the (artificial) paradise we just spent the last 3 months in, where everything on the yard is immaculate and the houses are all tidy, and the residents are all retired. But I guess that’s the thing about trade and commerce — it don’t have to be pretty but it pays the bills.

Our Garmin was mapping out a route that took us up along Hwy 2 in northern North Dakota. So for much of the afternoon we passed big highway semis along a two-lane road 20 miles south of the Canadian border. Sue read her kindle. The Garmin said at the rate we were going we’d be home by about 7pm. The temperature outside went down to 1 degree. Snow on the fields on either side of us.

deer-crossingClose to the I-29 we began to see quite a few deer — and at one point a whole row of them ran across the road in front of us. Unfortunately, by the time I got a hold of the camera and figured out where the on/off button was all I got was a photo of their rear ends as they trotted off into the snowy field. We stopped at a Dairy Queen near Hallock for one last peanut butter shake.

The Tolstoi border crossing had 2 white vans ahead of our Montana when we arrived there at 6pm. Both went through quickly. The border guy asks us how long we’ve been away. Any alcohol or tobacco? Any work done to the vehicle? He takes our passports inside, comes right back out and sends us on our way. Didn’t even ask us where we were from or where we had been! Welcome to Canada.

We got to Steinbach just before 7pm. We stopped at Tim Hortons and picked up a couple of bowls of chili and went home. Neighbour Nathan sees our van in our garage and comes to say hello. Sue decides that we should unpack first and then eat our supper. (There is only one correct response when Sue makes a suggestion like that.) We unpack. Put the bikes back together and park the golf bags in the garage. Sue has the suitcases unpacked. We eat our chili. No TV, no internet — that will get connected tomorrow. But we’re home. Sue calls Alex to let her know.

Tomorrow we’ll see Max. We’ll go say hi to Tim and Alex. We’ll say hello to my mom and dad and Sue will visit her mom in the nursing home. We’ll probably have my sister Linda and her husband Dale over for supper — they’re visiting from Abbotsford and will be going back home early Saturday morning.

Yeah, the weather here sucks. The scenery is downright ugly compared to where we’ve been and the places we’ve driven through in the last few days. We probably won’t be taking out those golf clubs for a couple of months. We’ll probably even leave the bikes in the garage for a while. But it’s home. And the people we care about are here. And that’s the best thing about coming home.

The Montana makes it to Montana

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We got up early and had a quick waffle in the hotel breakfast room. We lost an hour because of the time change. We were in the van by 8:20 and on the road. It was raining and miserable and the highway was very busy with rush-hour traffic all heading into Salt Lake City. Not ideal driving conditions. But then, not even an hour into the trip, the rain stopped and we were through Salt Lake City and the scenery was so beautiful — it was FUN to be on the road. Low-hanging clouds obscured the peaks of the Rockies to the east, but we could see the foothills and an occasional break in the clouds revealed the snow-covered tops of the mountains. Great! We were surprised at how many licence plates were from Alberta — especially big motorhomes and fifth-wheel trailers. I guess most of Alberta has been down in southwest USA and their rentals end at the end of March, and now, just like we, they are going home.
The highway in UtahThat's why they call it 'Big Sky' countryFast-running streams in Big Sky, MontanaFly-fishing streams in Big Sky, Montana

We stopped for lunch in Rexburg, just outside of Idaho Falls. We’d gone about 500kms. Sue took a turn at the wheel. She would drive through Idaho, then up past Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, and up into Montana. Most of the way was two-lane, not too busy traffic-wise, but not the 80mph speed limit of the freeways either. But the scenery was great. We passed through Big Sky in Montana, a favorite ski destination for many of our friends. We saw fast-running streams and quite a few fly-fishermen in their hip-waders angling for greyling in the freezing rivers. And because Sue was driving I was in charge of the ipod — so Johnny Cash inspired the Genius Playlist. And I read the Time magazine feature article on the costs of health care in America on my iPad.

In Bozeman, Montana we had a couple of super-thick Dairy Queen milkshakes (one peanut butter and the other strawberry) for our mid-afternoon snack. Switched drivers again. Now we were on the I-90. And at Billings we got on the I-94 which will take us all the way to Fargo. And the big highway had little traffic. Time to set the cruise at 135kph and enjoy the ride. That old Montana van of hours sure has served us well! We originally bought it for our 2008 Oregon cycling trip — but we like driving it and it’s so practical we keep taking it on these road trips: twice to Phoenix, once to Vancouver Island, last summer to Cape Breton, and this year to Palm Desert. And I don’t spend money on it and barely change the oil on it, and one of these days it will probably let us down, but today that 2001 Montana enjoyed the race through Montana.

We’d semi-booked a hotel in Billings but it was 5:00pm when we whistled through there so we decided to drive another couple of hours and call it a day in Mile City. Sue called a couple of hotels (we got the phone numbers from our GPS) and booked the Holiday Inn Express, the only ‘pet-free’ hotel here. By the way, do you know that when you call a hotel and ask for ‘pet-free’ they assume you mean pet-friendly and go on and on about how pet-friendly they are, not realizing they are talking themselves out of a sale? And when you type ‘pet free hotel’ into google the first five hits are for ‘pet friendly’ where pets stay for ‘free’! It’s disgusting! Everyone makes a big stink about ‘smoke-free’ but I’d way rather stay in a smoker’s room than sleep in a bed where some dog has shat in.

When we got into Mile City it was about 7:45. Since we had pre-booked our room we decided to find supper before checking in. Sue picked ‘Goliger’s Family Restaurant’. We sat in the bar and ordered fried chicken (my choice, not Sue’s). The waitresses were tired and not that excited about the customers. And more customers kept coming in. And when someone ordered the waitress would reply (loudly) “I’ll see what I can do when I get a minute!” A mom and her kid were busy putting money into a couple of the VLTs on the back wall. Three ‘real’ cowboys came in, sat down at the bar, ordered real Buds (in the bottle, not on tap) and steak sandwich with A1 sauce. And then one of them goes to get some cash from the ATM machine and pours it into one of the VLT machines in the back. Comes back, sits down at the bar, has a few more bites of his dinner. Back to the ATM machine for another hit. He heads to the VLT and blows that wad too. Goes back to the bar for more A1 sauce with steak. Sue and I sit there and shake our heads. We’re SO not hip. This all seems so stupid! If it was up to us, we’d set up an automatic deposit with the Steinbach Credit Union and have the money just go from there directly to the gaming commission. That way at least we could sit and eat our steak sandwich while it was still sparking hot out of the microwave and not have to waste all that time walking back and forth between the “money machines”.

We check in at the Holiday Inn — the receptionist says we’re so lucky that we booked when we did because although there were plenty of rooms available when we called, right after that they had a deluge of people and they are now solidly booked! Lucky for us.

We’ve got about 10 hours of driving left from here to home. We’ll try doing that tomorrow. That is, if the weather holds. And if our Montana keeps on truckin’.

Visit to the Hoover Dam

Posted on | by Rudy

We woke up early. Went down for breakfast at the Springhill Suites — great breakfast but there were SO MANY families, with little kids running around and making a racket. Oh well, we weren’t spending the whole morning here. We packed up and hopped into the van. The drive to Boulder was about 30 minutes. We passed the ‘official’ parking lot and parked on a small free parking lot just across the dam. Then we walked back across the dam to the ticket booth. We bought the $30 Dam Tour tickets. We went in to watch a 30-minute film about the project. Then we were split up into groups of 20 and taken on a guided tour. It was quite interesting. The dam is more than just a functional feat of engineering; it is also a fine example of 1930s architecture and craftsmanship. We went down several elevators down deep into the actual dam. Our ‘premium’ ticket allowed us to walk through narrow vent openings and look up and down fire escape stairways. It was all quite interesting. At the end of the tour we stood on top of the dam and looked out at the new Colorado River Bridge that opened in October 2010 — a very impressive structure that connects Vegas to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix, etc. And then we walked back to our van and left.



We left the Hoover Dam at around noon. The day was warm. LOTS of traffic going in to the dam so we were glad we’d gone early. Now we needed lunch. Well, we have that leftover pizza from last night — maybe we should pull over somewhere and eat that. We parked on a Dairy Queen parking lot and ate the pizza. Too full to go in for an ice cream after that. Back on the road. It was a very beautiful 5.5 hour drive this afternoon. The scenery is so spectacular. It seemed to me that there was way more traffic than other years — maybe because it’s Spring Break? Lots of trucks. I really didn’t put my cruise control on until the last hour. It felt a bit like driving in Europe — 80 miles per hour speed limit and constantly passing or being passed. Not very relaxing. But the red and orange rocks of southern Utah were stunning. Everything was going well. The outside temperature showed 26 degrees. And then, shortly after we’d stopped for an ice cream cone, the clouds rolled in. And it rained. And it got dark. And the temperature dropped to 5 degrees in less than half an hour. And everyone just kept driving like crazy. It lasted for about an hour. By the time we pulled into Orem, where we’d booked our hotel, the temperature was back to 16 degrees and most of the clouds were gone.



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We found our hotel but instead of checking in, went to a small Thai restaurant just down the road. Very Thai. Simple, but good food and friendly service. We even got fortune cookies to finish it off. Maybe an omen: Sue’s fortune says, “You will soon be involved in many gatherings and parties.” Okay, not only are we heading back into the frigid cold, but apparently we’re jumping right back into a full social calendar. Oh boy.

Back in the hotel, Sue called Alex. I looked at our photos. Sue booked us a hotel for tomorrow night in Billings, Montana. We have a couple of very long days of driving ahead.

Leaving Rancho Mirage, via the Joshua Tree National Park

Posted on | by Rudy

We were up before 7. Sue did one last load of laundry and I vacuumed. We had breakfast. We still managed to watch our morning CNN news shows. We packed our stuff into the van. We left our house at 9:30. We drove east on Hwy 10 to the turnoff to the Joshua Tree National Park. The drive up into the park wasn’t all that impressive. Nothing but ‘regular’ desert. We got to the south park entrance and paid our entrance fee and got a map. The park official recommended the Oasis at Cottonwood Spring, and then to take the extra drive out to Keys View on our way out of the park. So that’s what we did. We went for a 2-mile hike in the sand. There were lots of yucca plants but no Joshua trees. But the temperature was good and so was the path.

From there we headed up through the park, heading for the Keys View. Along the way we drove through Joshua tree forests which were very impressive. Lots of visitors in the park this Easter Sunday. There were regular turnouts along the road where we could stop and get out for a photo. The vegetation and the geology of this park is so unique, so unusual, and so varied. Big white jumbo rocks. ‘Orchards’ of Joshua trees. Then we got to the lookout. We could see all the way to the Salton Sea, to the white snow-covered peak of San Jacinto, to the desert cities where we’d just spent the past 3 months. Gorgeous. And the temperature was 16 degrees, 10 degrees cooler than it was on the drive down below.

Well, that drive through the park took longer than we’d expected. It was 12:30 and we were still miles from reaching Twentynine Palms, our lunch stop. So Sue starting making little mini-sandwiches (crackers and cheese) which we ate as we drove. We finally got to Twentynine Palms after 1:30. Stopped for burgers. And now the second half of today’s adventure began.

We were using the map which JP used when he drove down to Palm Desert this winter. It was a hand-drawn map that showed a route that took a ‘shortcut’ up to Las Vegas. The road was two-lane, mostly in good condition, no services, not too much traffic, a warning not to get caught speeding. It went through the Mojave Desert. We saw more Joshua trees, salt flats, lava rock, and big (empty) desert valleys. Sue read from the map and navigated the turns. The temperature was comfortable.


We finally turned onto the I-15 just before leaving California. Man, there was traffic on that road! Trucks, trucks, and more trucks. And then, just as we got to the Nevada border, with it’s huge casinos standing tall as beacons just across the line, the 3 lanes of traffic going west (the opposite of our direction) turned into one very long parking lot. Three lanes of crawling vehicles. I guess everyone in L.A. had gone to Vegas for the Easter long weekend and was now trying to go back home — at the same time as everyone else. We were very glad we were going northwest instead of southeast.

Another 40 minutes from the border and we were at our hotel, a Springhill Suites hotel. We checked in. Had a drink. Got online and searched out a hotel for tomorrow night. Booked one near Salt Lake City. I checked out the tour options for our visit to the Hoover Dam tomorrow morning.

Then we went out for supper. We ended up at an ‘authentic’ Italian pizza place. We ordered 2 pizzas and could only finish half of each of ours. I guess we’ve got tomorrow’s lunch. Back at the hotel we looked at our photos, deleted half of them. wrote the journal and watched some TV.

Looking forward to day two of the road trip tomorrow.

I’m getting older

Posted on | by Rudy

I woke up a year older than when I went to bed last night. It’s our last full day here in Rancho Mirage. Another hot one. Nothing on the menu today — no more golf, no movie, no bike ride. Got a few happy birthday emails today. Had our usual bacon and eggs for Saturday breakfast.

Sue was busy cleaning and packing today. Laundry. Cleaning out the fridge. Sorting what to put in which rubbermaid bin. I sat at my Mac one last day before I packed it up into its box and loaded it into the van. Had a good time doing some web work. I’m already looking forward to more of the same when we get home.

I skyped with Tim and Alex and Max. Also got a skype from my brother Walter — all the Nikkel children are gathered at his place for Easter and they seemed to be celebrating quite a bit. I called my parents — they were happy that it seemed to be warming up a bit at home.

I barbecued some fine whistle dogs for supper. Now the fridge is empty. We sat in front of the TV in the evening. We booked us a hotel for tomorrow night in Vegas. We plan to visit the Joshua Tree National Park tomorrow morning, then drive up through the desert (courtesy of a hand-drawn map that JP shared with me) up to Vegas.