Greece and Crete

On May 17 we woke up early and packed up the motor home to go to storage. Kristy and two of the girls came by to take us to the airport. We flew to Chicago, had a longish wait, and then on to JFK airport in New York. We stayed overnight and the next day took train and subway into the city for lunch at Sardi's. We especially enjoyed the many charicatures of famous actors and actresses which cover the walls of this restaurant. Adam, our waiter, was very friendly and is a struggling writer/actor. We tried the Eggs Benedict and, of course, NY cheesecake. Then back to the airport for an evening flight to London.

The next morning arrived very soon, and we disembarked to meet our friends Phyllis and Pat from Conn. who will be traveling with us on this trip. We then caught a flight to Athens and there spent the night in a hotel. Early the next morning we were collected at the hotel and taken to the airport for an hour flight to Crete.

In Crete we have toured the capitol city, Heraklion, visited the palace of Knossos where King Minos kept the minotaur prisoner in his Labyrinth about 4000 years ago. The artifacts that are on display in the museum are spectacular, very beautifully crafted, and show a very high degree of artistry not typically seen at that time. The palace was discovered and unearthed about the turn of the last century and is partially reconstructed. We have also been taken into the mountains to visit a local cooperative that makes cookies and wedding decorations and to have lunch in the home of one of the women of the coop. The food was delicious. We have enjoyed the shopping in the city and strolling the winding small streets, being careful to get out of the way of the ever present motor bikes. Sunset down by the harbor last night was especially beautiful. The people speak English and many signs are in both Greek and English, so it is easy to get around or understand and/or be understood. The weather has been warm but bearable with the breezes from the sea. Tomorrow we fly back to Athens and spend several days there to enjoy the local sights and sounds. Parthenon, here we come!!

We Have Finally Started Our Trip

At 5:30 this morning I looked to my left to see a pair of excited eyes looking at me. It seemed as if HW2 was hoping it was Christmas morning and could we go. But, she was not thinking of presents, rather, of getting our trip finally underway. We quickly showered and breakfasted and got the motor home and car ready to be moved to storage right at our RV park where we have been staying just west of Omaha. Kristy and two of the grands showed up at about 9am to take us to the airport.

We decided to make some of the traveling over several days. Today's part was to get from Omaha to Chicago and onto JFK airport in New York City. We had quite a long layover in Chicago and so had a late lunch in the Chicago Grill at O'Hare Airport and managed to misplace the book I was reading and lose a jacket that HW2 was carrying. We looked for both items but no luck. Some one has a very nice jacket, and someone else is reading a good Clancy story.

Undeterred, we got back on the plane at Chicago and arrived at JFK in New York City, glad to find our bags and get transportation to our motel for the night. It seemed to be quite a maze to get from our place of debarkation from the plane to the baggage area, then to the train to get ground transportation to the motel.

The noise of other travelers is something. You get to hear strident voices on cell phones, and others talking in a miriad of languages that we do not understand. This trip to Greece and Turkey will keep us for the next month among people from many lands and cultures. What a treat this will be as we seek to learn about them! We have never traveled to either Greece or Turkey, so it will be quite an adventure. Also, we get to travel with very good friends Phyllis and Pat from Connecticut. Happy travels!!!!

Presidential Weddings

Recently Jenna Bush and Henry Hagar were married in Crawford, Texas, at the family ranch. The neat thing is that Jenna managed to have a private ceremony and not have it become a media circus. Imagine our surprise when we were invited to the White House two days later. We were met at the front door by President and Mrs. Bush and overwhelmed when they told us how sorry we had not been invited to the ranch for the wedding. We couldn't imagine what they were talking about but went along with them as they then gave us a private tour.

Finally they realized that we seemed to be perplexed and then broke into laughter. They said that ever since we had written our children's story about McDuff and MacGregor, they had wanted to meet the authors. Then I woke up. Quite a dream!! Again a bit later, I heard my name called and woke up a second time. I wondered why HW2 had called my name and finally figured out that I dreamed that too. Sometimes these dreams seem to be so real that I just had to share. Enjoy!

Spring is finally here

It took a long time this year in Nebraska, but spring is finally here. Almost over night, the grass turned a beautiful green and the trees began to bud and leaf out. Yesterday we noticed corn beginning to sprout in their neat rows in the fields. Corn and soy beans are major crops in this part of the country and the corn has to be planted first with much already completed and then comes the beans. Both crops will later be harvested for food and energy needs.

We have been trying to exercise and have walked in a mall whether raining, snowing, windy or good weather. The trip brochures seem to think that we will be doing 2-3 miles of walking on many days, so we thought we had better get in shape. Yesterday we completed our shots that are required and so we are really ready to go and wonder what Greece and Turkey will be like. We have never been to this part of the world and look forward to meeting people and learning about their varied cultures. The food should be excellent. Imagine walking where St Paul walked and exhorted people to become Christians. We will also visit the cave where St. John wrote Revelations. We will also have lunch with two families and a chance to first hand interact with people in these countries.

Hopefully this blog will get used to detail the trip and maybe some accompanying pictures will help the words come to be more meaningful for the readers. Stay tuned! We leave for the trip on May 17.

Car Shopping

We decided to take our five year old Chevy Trailblazer to Car Max and see what it was worth and to see if they had any exciting cars that we might buy. The first question out of the Car Max representative was, "How many miles do you have on your car, and is it over 100,000 miles?" Our car had been driven almost 95,000 miles, and so it was considered a possible trade by this company. Finally, they made us a written offer for our vehicle, and we went home to think about it.

We decided that probably the 100,000 miles was a cut-off in the industry, and maybe we should get serious about trying to find a newer car. We also decided in these days of high oil prices that we needed a car that gets 20-30 mpg or more. We were also committed to American brands and have been for some years.

So the quest continued. We called son-in-law Chuck, an automobile engineer with GMC in Michigan, and asked his advice. He made several recommendations such as Chevy Malibu and other GMC models by Pontiac and Saturn. We went to several agencies after HW2 checked on line for models that met our criteria. We really wanted a cute convertible like the Skye or the Solstice, but we quickly discovered that there was little trunk room if the top was down. We liked the Chevy Malibu and a similar model from Saturn, but we really had been hoping for something a bit sportier. We checked out Pontiac with no luck, and then decided to check out Chrysler Sebring before quitting for the day. The Sebring did have a nice convertible but could not be dingy towed behind our motor home. The salesman at Chrysler then suggested that we look at Chrysler Crossfire. They just happened to have a 2007 coupe on the floor and wanted to make us a deal to take it home. It had sufficient trunk room, got great mileage, and most important, it was just the kind of car we had in mind. After much dickering back and forth, we agreed to purchase this model. So now we have a newer car with much better gas mileage that is very sporty and fun to drive. If I can download a picture that I took this morning, I will add it to this space so you can see it too.

Dreams

Sometimes when I wake up, I realize that I have been dreaming of a familiar theme. This is my taking a class or studying to learn some information and failing the class because I could not learn the material, or I quit going to the class or some other disaster. I find it interesting at this stage of my life to be having such dreams. I guess none of us ever quite gets by failure in any form, and yet that may well be the best form of learning. The trick is to get beyond the failure and learn from it and then to do better. Maybe if I talk about this in this blog, I won't have to dream about failing some class again.

On the other hand it is interesting to have a dream that you have experienced in the past. It makes me wonder if somehow while asleep, you access an old dream and replay it just as you can watch a favorite movie over and over. Who knows? I am no expert in this area.

It is fun to watch a dog bark in his sleep and to have his paws twitch and wonder if they are dreaming about chasing a squirrel. From this I conclude that animals can dream, too.

So, do you dream? Do you have repeated dreams? Any conclusions????