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crystal-in-nagasaki · 2 months

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tokyo 2024 and a discussion about vegan food in japan

In March of this year, I went to Tokyo to take an important teaching exam so that I could find a job as a teacher in the US after my return. (By the way, I passed the exam AND I have a new teaching job in Michigan starting in August!) Since I was heading to Tokyo for the exam anyway, my partner and I decided to turn it into a mini weekend trip so that we could see some parts of Tokyo we hadn't yet seen.

I've been to Tokyo several times in my life and I've seen pretty much all of the main tourist spots. I'm not a huge city person and generally prefer the quiet of the countryside, so I haven't been keen on making many more trips to Tokyo. But there are some things that I had been interested in checking out, so I was glad to have an opportunity to see them while I was in Tokyo for my exam.

Since Tokyo is a huge city with millions of people as well as many tourists, it's pretty difficult to find cheap accommodation close to any of the more popular boroughs. Usually when I visit Tokyo I stay in a hostel with dorm beds and shared bathrooms for about $50 a night. Luckily, for this Tokyo trip I was able to find a really cheap and cozy, if not a bit eccentric, place to stay right in the heart of Shinjuku.

This place is called Tama Ryokan. According to the lady who showed me around, it's her own home that she's lived in her whole life that she turned into a small hostel. The rooms all use tatami flooring and futon beds on the floor, with a shared bathroom and shower room. While it was a bit worn down, it was really cozy and the woman was really nice, even bringing me snacks and greeting me warmly each day. Despite being in the heart of the city, she assured me it was very safe. There was no room key and the front door to the hostel was kept open 24/7, but she said she's never had an incidents of theft or unwanted visitors. It was a really interesting little house with a lot of character, and I really enjoyed staying there.

After arriving and settling in, I decided to walk around a bit while I waited several hours for my partner's flight to come in from Kumamoto. I decided to walk around Kabuki-cho, the city's red light district, since I had never been there before. On my way there, I passed this famous LED screen at the crossing outside Shinjuku station that's designed to look 3D. Its most popular image is that of a cat, usually doing something cute and mischievous. When I saw it, the cat had gotten its head stuck in a hole and was meowing into it. So cute!

Next I decided to walk over to the famous Toho Cinema building which has a giant statue of Godzilla on top. I'm a big fan of Godzilla, so seeing it was super cool. When checking the showtimes of the theater I realized that they were still showing Godzilla Minus One, which I hadn't seen yet and wanted to see. So I decided right then that it would be perfectly fitting to see a Godzilla movie in THE Godzilla movie theater, so that's exactly what I did. Unfortunately, there were no English subtitles on the movie, and while my Japanese is pretty good, it was difficult for me to understand the combat and war-related scenes which used specialized vocabulary and a lot of what I like to call "gruff old man talk." Nevertheless, the action sequences and emotional scenes were easy to understand, so the movie was very enjoyable and I liked it a lot!

After the movie finished, I walked around Kabuki-cho a bit more and wandered in and out of some game centers. As it got later, some hawkers in the street working for shady clubs and bars started trying to reel me in to places so I decided that was my cue to head back and meet my partner back at the hostel. We nestled into our floor futons and went to bed, excited for what the next day would have for us.

The next day we headed to Odaiba area to go to Tokyo's TeamLab Planets, which is my personal favorite TeamLab exhibit, because it's huge and beautiful. I'd visited once before during my study abroad and was excited to see it again.

This TeamLab exhibit had many exciting rooms. One of the rooms was filled with long strings of lights that worked in unison to create brilliant light effects. It reminded my of the movie Interstellar.

Some of the rooms involved the use of calf-height water that you could walk through in your bare feet. This one had colored lights and moving projections of fish swimming across the surface of the water.

Another room was filled with huge inflatable balls that you could bat around as you made your way through the room. With the use of mirrors, white balls, and colored lights, the entire color scheme of the room could change.

In another room was a huge dome on which random generations of blooming flowers floated by. People were encouraged to lay down on the floor and get lost in the feeling of falling through a space filled with flowers. This was one of my favorite rooms and it was so relaxing. I could sit in there for hours.

I had seen these other rooms previously, but there were also two new additions to the exhibit since my last visit. One was these outdoor egg-like structures filled with light. Apparently the eggs change color depending on the weather and time of day.

The other new exhibit was a huge mirrored room filled with living orchids, which were suspended upside down. As you approach the flowers, they raise upwards, creating space for you. Since the orchids were living, it smelled wonderful and it was so magical.

We spent the remainder of that day wandering the city and eating lots of delicious food, which I'll talk about toward the end of this post. The next day after I finished my exam, my partner and I met up at the Hikarie building outside Shibuya station to shop and visit a few exhibits. We first went to the d47 exhibit, which showcases unique goods from each of Japan's 47 prefectures, but it was a bit disappointing because it was mostly just a shop to sell overpriced handmade goods.

We then wandered some more around the same floor of the building which held more creative exhibits. We found one exhibit about denim upcycling which featured many kinds of repurposed denim into jackets, shoes, bags, home goods, and more. Then we found an art exhibit by a Japanese artist named Kuniyoshi Kaneko. His works mostly featured female subjects with sharp features and many of them felt violent and/or erotic. I appreciated the distinct style of the artist, but wasn't very happy with the many depictions of women being sexualized and violated by a male artist.

From there we left the exhibitions and met up with a friend we had met at Kyushu pride, who was kind enough to take us to see Shinjuku Ni-Chome, Tokyo's gay district. If you'd like to read more about that, I talk about it in this blog post.

We got dinner at an American themed restaurant and I ordered a BLT, and was delighted almost to tears to find that it was made just the same as a diner in America would make. It was so comforting to have that piece of home after so long away.

After our night out, we hopped on the Yamanote Line, which loops through Tokyo's boroughs back to our cozy hostel for the night.

The next morning we went to a famous pancake shop called Flipper's to get their famous souffle pancakes, which are huge, fluffy, and jiggly all in one. They're so popular we waited in line for almost an hour, but it was worth the wait.

Next we walked through Harajuku to look at secondhand and antique clothing and accessory shops since my partner and I both enjoy fashion. On our way down a side street, we found a cherry blossom tree blooming with the year's first blossoms.

That night, we went to the Muscle Girls Bar. Yeah, you heard me right. Hostess bars (such as maid cafes) are very popular in Japan, where people pay for pretty girls (or boys) to entertain them or even flirt with them. In Ikebukuro, where many of these bars and clubs can be found, is the Muscle Girls Bar, which has become viral online for being the first hostess bar staffed by super buff women.

We paid a set fee to drink and hang out at the bar for about an hour and a half. During this time, the muscle girls chatted with us, danced, and served drinks. Each customer got a special drink in which the girls crush citrus fruits into a glass with their bare hands for you to drink. It exploded all over me and it was so fun.

You could also buy "muscle dollars" to get special services from the muscle girls, such as being carried by them or slapped by them. Yeah, so...I paid for one of the muscle girls to slap me as hard as she could. She even asked me if I wanted her to do it softly, but I was curious about how powerful these girls actually are, so I told her to hit me with everything she had and she sure did. It stung SO bad! My face went numb for the next hour, but it was really funny.

They also had a chest press in the corner of the bar set up with maybe 50 lbs? I'm not sure exactly how much. They told us that if we could successfully do fifty reps on the chest press, we could have 10 free muscle dollars to use however we like. I didn't try it because I'm a wimp, but watching the confident men line up and then fail one by one to get to 50 reps healed some deep patriarchal wound inside me.

Near the end of the night, a few of the women did pole dances for us. They weren't like ~sexy~ pole dances, but intense muscle-working displays. It was incredible to see the women hold their entire bodies in the air holding themselves only by their legs. I was so impressed with them!!

After this, our reserved time ended and we headed out. The muscle girl that was assigned to me and my partner was named Ren and we really enjoyed getting to chat with her. She told us that she works out six times a week and that during the week she's a high school civics teacher!! She was so cool. She told us she's just starting to join lifting competitions, and I hope that her journey is going well. <3

After this, we headed back to our cute little hostel and went to bed, then got up early the next morning for our flights back to Kyushu. Although I'm not a huge fan of city life, it's nice sometimes to join the fast-paced world where I can enjoy various art exhibits, food, and muscular women crushing lemon juice into my open mouth.

Before I wrap up this post, I want to take some time to talk about something I think is very important, which is the vegan/vegetarian food options, or lack thereof, in Japan. During my time in Tokyo, my partner and I were able to eat many kinds of vegan food due to the luxury of the big city, including pasta, ramen, burgers, and even buffalo wings! But finding this kind of food in Japan outside of metropolitan areas can be very difficult, so I wanted to talk a little about it.

Veganism is very popular in the US right now as many people consider the ethical and environmental problems caused by the meat and animal products industry. While some of the "trendiness" of veganism has reached Japan, it hasn't quite taken off in the same way, and it's incredibly hard to live a vegan or vegetarian diet in Japan, especially in the countryside. My partner was vegan prior to coming to Japan, but decided to switch to being vegetarian while in Japan to give herself some more food options, and even now has a lot of trouble finding things to eat.

Because of the rise of veganism, and because of the high number of people with allergies, American food plants often keep meat and animal products out of products unless they are specifically called for. For example, a "vegetable soup" found in America will usually not have any trace of meat in it, since it's advertised as only containing vegetables. Much to the dismay of many vegans and vegetarians in Japan, this is not the case here. Many times I've read a food ingredients label when shopping with my girlfriend and found that foods like "vegetable soup" and "vegetable curry" contain some sort of meat extract. It's very frustrating that food manufacturers are not cognizant of separating meat products and non-meat products for those that don't eat meat.

Traditional Japanese foods also often contain dashi, a soup stock made by boiling seaweed and fish flakes. It's used in almost all traditional dishes, from miso soup to ramen to even the flour of okonomiyaki. I found while at a sushi restaurant that even rolled Japanese omelets are cooked in dashi, making them inedible to vegetarians.

In bigger cities where the influence of newer thinking, trends, and other countries' influences are much more prevalent, it's easier to find vegetarian and vegan only restaurants. Even in more rural areas like around Kumamoto city they've been popping up, which is good news. But some restaurants incorporate vegan or vegetarian foods more for "trendiness" than for ethical or environmental reasons, which can cause some problems. For example, when at a restaurant with my partner, she ordered a lunch plate with a soy meat steak, but the sides that came with it contained dashi or other meat extracts. I also went to a cafe specializing in only soy milk drinks and soy donuts, but then accidentally served my partner a real hot dog from the menu assuming that everything on the menu was made with soy. While it's good that Japan is finally picking up more vegan and vegetarian options, I wish restaurants and food preparers would better understand the reasoning behind veganism/vegetarianism to avoid more mistakes like this.

Until I met my partner, I was completely ignorant of this problem in Japan and how hard it is for vegans and vegetarians to find food they can eat. While Japanese food is widely known for containing many vegetables and being very healthy, it's actually very difficult to find food not containing some sort of meat. My partner has to mostly cook her own meals and very rarely can find food to eat at restaurants, which makes going out for us challenging. I'm very happy to see some positive changes in recent years, for example the fast food chain Mosburger has a permanent menu item called the Green Burger, which is fully vegan. I've also recently found ice cream made from plant milk, vegan mayonnaise, and a larger selection of alternative milks like almond, oat, and soy. There's still a lot of work to do until Japan is vegan-friendly, but there's very solid progress happening!

This post ended up becoming a bit long, but I think it's important to discuss the dilemma of being vegan or vegetarian in Japan. During our trip to Tokyo, my partner and I went to every vegan restaurant we could find since she had been deprived of tasty and filling food choices for so long. So it seemed fitting to discuss Japanese vegan food in this post about our Tokyo travels. If you stuck around to the end, thanks for reading and I hope you were able to learn about some new perspectives to this problem! Have a great day <3

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mountainrocktrek-blog · 5 months

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Cheap Everest Mountain Flight by Plane

Explore the grandeur of Everest at reasonable costs during a mountain flight by aircraft. Leaving Kathmandu behind, these beautiful flights provide vast views of the world's tallest peak and the Himalayas range. Tailored to travelers who want to discover the beauty of Everest without extreme hiking, these flights help them do this conveniently and reasonably do this conveniently and reasonably.

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coreytravelogue · 6 months

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Georgia Strait, BC - March 28, 2024

I would love to or have preferred to be going somewhere other than Victoria this extra long weekend but Victoria was the choice. Not because I dislike Victoria, anyone who knows me knows I love Victoria with all my heart. It is just that it is not exciting or exotic enough for the 4 days off.

Last year I went to Toronto which was packed with adventure and exploration, the year before was Edmonton which is not exactly a new place but during the pandemic it seemed like a safe trip. Year before that if I remember was Victoria as well but that was deeper in the pandemic.

There are multiple reasons why I am choosing this safe trip versus other places.

First and most importantly it is because of cost. Whitehorse, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Fort McMurray were all too expensive or too pricey for not having much to do.

Edmonton would have been a close choice but I decided not to because sure I could flight “cheap” the hotel would not have been plus the only reason I would go would be to see my friend and cousin but cousin would be maybe one evening and I do not know if I could have a day with my friend much less a morning. A lot to hope to travel all the way over there just to go to the water park otherwise. Winnipeg was the next closest but few things to Jayne hat not counting not much I feel one could do in April outside of a Jets game. Every other option just didn’t seem worth it for the large price tag.

For the price of one night and a half’s hotel I can stay for 3 nights at Ocean Island Inn, ferry ride is 42 bucks round trip which is infinitely lower than the airfare.

Victoria has no water park and probably won’t have any hockey games being played this weekend but it will have John’s Place and The Drake which I always enjoy. It will have record shops I like to frequent, a chill atmosphere and an arcade. It also has a friend and her family around her birthday so I would at least have company if they chose to have me.

So it is an easy trip to have, I just need to hope on a ferry and head down.

Also I think I need a weekend where I am simply not in a hurry or need to explore though there are parts of Victoria I can easily explore if I wanted to. I need a weekend to mentally recharge from the last few months of work shit that will probably only escalate when I get back.

I am coming into this trip with only three objectives; write something, treat myself and relax. And if there is one place in the world I am assured to have that it would be Victoria.

I have to be cost effective anyway if I want to to budget properly for Japan.

There is just so much uncertainty in my life right now but then you can say that about the world right now but thinking about it when is there uncertainty. We never know if we were on solid ground till it is gone. I came to realize that lately when thinking of my last workplace. I felt so stressed and unhinged back then but in comparison to now I feel that those were the more stable days.

It is more with the future of work for me and future of what is next if certain things don’t happen. With my 40s looming and failing to travel during that last half of my 30s makes me want to do another drop everything trip more and more though it would be far more risky now. It can’t be blamed, COVID-19 killed fun for everyone for many years but with it it made everything more dangerous and unaffordable.

I am not happy with how things are going and I feel like I am back in the same rut I was in 10 years ago despite all my attempts to change the script. I did nearly everything right and I feel like I am still fucking up. I guess that reminds me of a scene in Star Trek TNG where Picard said you could do everything right and still get it wrong, that is life.

Can only hope to have more clarity and assurance in May, if not I will have to force it into my life in a drastic way.

This long weekend I will start each day with a damn good breakfast, theatres during the afternoon, arcades in the evening and The Drake during the night writing. Rinse repeat or interchange with being around my friend and her family or other cheap things. Anything but work or thinking about work at all costs. That is the mission.

Shazbot nanu nanu

#SoundCloud

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brandcastbusiness · 6 months

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[CLICK THE LINK ABOVE] Temu Review: The Truth About Cheap Products on TikTok | Brandcast #shorts

[CLICK THE LINK ABOVE] Temu Review: The Truth About Cheap Products on TikTok | Brandcast #shorts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ55V03i8BM This short clip would show you the truth about cheap products sold by Temu through Tiktok. To watch the complete expose of Temu, watch this video: https://youtu.be/uNckWrqwY0w 🔔Uncover the truth about iconic brands. Subscribe now to discover their origins and controversies.https://www.youtube.com/@brandcast.business/?sub_confirmation=1 ============================= ✅ Other Videos You Might Be Interested In Watching: 👉 Coca Cola's 130 Year History is Insanely Disturbing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Sd2k7mzuE&t=49s 👉 How BlackBerry Became a MASSIVE Tech Demise [It's Shocking] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy7MXGH3gEc&t=35s 👉 How a Struggling Comic Built Joe Rogan's $245M Fortune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K436i2MsG-w&t=73s 👉 How A Polish Refugee Built A $10B Watch Empire [Patek Philippe Story] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSFCWNHI4yU&t=59s 👉 Temu EXPOSED: The TRUTH Behind It's Meteoric Rise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNckWrqwY0w&t=91s ============================= ✅ About brandcast. brandcast deepens how iconic businesses were built, revealing the real stories PR teams won't tell you. From high-flying successes to shocking scandals, we tackle inspiring Origins and messy Controversies of the brands that shape culture. There is no spin, no exaggerated myths, just the truth about the underdog Disrupters, CEO Rivalries, Unlikely Innovations, and Viral Downfalls that erupted as empires took flight. You know the drama, innovation, hijinks, and hubris behind the logos. This is brandcast—welcome to business uncensored. 🔔Curious about the real stories behind the logos you know? Join Brandcast and dive deep into the drama, rivalries, and scandals PR teams won't tell you about. https://www.youtube.com/@brandcast.business/?sub_confirmation=1 ================================= #temu #ecommerce #shein #alibaba #temucontroversy #businesstories #brandcast ⚠️DISCLAIMER: We do not accept any liability for any loss or damage incurred from you acting or not acting as a result of watching any of our publications. You acknowledge that you use the information we provide at your own risk. Do your research. Copyright Notice: This video and our YouTube channel contain dialogue, music, and images that are the property of brandcast. You are authorized to share the video link and channel and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to our YouTube channel is provided. © brandcast via brandcast https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxnwROBfDyqRM7pejn3ntRw March 20, 2024 at 07:04PM

#business #brandcast #businessinsider #blackberry #videoconference #covid #successmotivation #businessstories

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thoughts-onmars · 10 months

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december gurl

Hello mars,

I had my computer on a pillow for better stability for my eyes but it was kind of uncomfortable. I have been listening to Doja all morning today and even yesterday lol i LOVE Planet Her it is a catchy and boppy album. I hope that my gurl Ari releases some music soon. I have been listening to my MJ playlists again and some of my older 90s early 2000s music bc I like the sound of the instruments in the songs in them. I really like New Jeans too though for current kpop music. I am ready for 2024 to have some new tunes.

Today has been pretty productive in my eyes. I was pretty productive yesterday too. As soon as I got up I got the beans boiled and the chicken was also set. My food yesterday was so good. I love that I am getting better and faster at cooking lol. It really helps grow my confidence. I made red enchiladas with chicken and cheese and the beans and I even made some rice which tasted better than the first batch I made. Just a cooking mama lmao. I also went on a run and went to king soopers for some mailing bags to send beanies for my fam and whatever else i could fit with two hands lol. I got that done today and also returned the pants that were way too long and too small tbh lol. I am glad it was hassle free and plus I had to go mail the other ish so it worked out.

I was able to return the hair dye also hassle free and I got a blue and purple one to dye today. OP I just remembered that today I have to give JP his massage/cupping sesh bc I did not have energy to do it yesterday. I wrote it out so now I really have to do it jeje. Anyway today for food I am thinking of making some stir fried udon noodles with broccoli and carrots and cabbage. Maybe even make it spicy but not everything has to be spicy mars. I still have leftover chicken from yesterday so I was thinking of adding it to the noodles or frying it with some breading but now that I am writing my idea, I do not have any breading....wack. So anyway it will just be chicken pieces in the noodles and then the sushi that I bought yesterday at the king soopers.

December has been pretty good to be honest. I haven't been feeling as home sick and I think it is because I am messaging and talking to my mom more and it helps me feel like they are still just right here close by. We are 12 days in but for some reason I just feel like I have been doing more mentally and physically. We are getting closer to the end of the year and I am still also thinking about the internship in Washington. Should I wait it out?? I really want to travel and go to Asia for my dirty 30. I am turning 30 sheesh that is so crazy and people out here saying I am 23 lmao I lub it.

The prices are pretty average and we have our play money fund so we would only have to worry about flights and airbnb. JP did say the airbnbs were pretty cheap so that makes me excited that we can explore more and maybe even hit two countries. I will start looking at flights more seriously probably after I get home in Feb after going home. I think imma go to IN in Feb/March. I am not sure. My fam seems to always be busy bodies so it can be kind of hard to figure out when to go but I am sure if I just communicate instead of free balling it, it would work out lol.

Okay mars have a great day even though it already it. Do your best in all you do this week and just show up. Stay consistent and what is yours is already yours, it cannot be taken.

deuces ~~~~~

#thoughts #life #today #doja #music #cooking #noodles #travel #goals

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travelingtheusa · 10 months

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FLORIDA

2024 March 16 (Sat) – We went out for lunch to Cracker Barrel. Otherwise, we stayed around the campground most of the day. Got ready to tomorrow’s move.

2024 March 15 (Fri) – We went to El Patron for a Mexican lunch. It was very good. Afterward, we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. What a fantastic museum! They have changed it from 10 years ago. You used to walk into the foyer with 5 full-size Navy Blue Angels jets overhead in formation. The going joke was always, Why are they so far apart? When they are just inches from each other. That entrance is different now. The entrance is still jaw dropping but not focused on the Blue Angels any more. We walked around the building filled with all kinds of planes, gliders, and hot air balloons. They also cover the space program with capsules the astronauts returned home in.

A ferocious thunderstorm passed through tonight. One particular boom was so loud that the RV shook and the night sky lit up lit a bomb had gone off. Scared the heck out of Sheba and me.

2024 March 14 (Thu) – We went back to SMART HQ this morning. More talk. More review of files. Discussion of issues and upcoming caravans. We left at noon and stopped at The Fishing Hole for lunch. The name kind of gives an image of a small shack on the bayou but it turned out to be a very nice restaurant with a New Orleans flair. Paul enjoyed a jambalaya and I had shrimp and bacon on cheese grits (the house specialty). It actually turned out to taste pretty good.

2024 March 13 (Wed) - We packed up today and Eglin AFB after 28 days in place. It took a bit to get all the preparations in place as we are still getting used to the new rig. We left at 11:00 and drove to a nearby parking lot where Paul guided me while I tried backing the RV up. I did fine driving straight and turning but that backing up is hard! Paul makes it look so easy. Guess a career of driving heavy machinery has paid off for him.

We arrived at Pensacola RV Park at 1:30 pm. This is a very nice campground. The sites are roomy with lots of grass and just the right amount of trees in place. Our site is gravel and there are full hookups along with WiFi and cable TV.

Once we were set up, we drove 16 miles to SMART HQ. There is a small building on the lot of Melissa’s home. Melissa is the Executive Manager for SMART. She and her assistant, Phyllis, live together in the house. The SMART HQ used to be Melissa’s photo studio. Paul and I went through files and talked with the staff about SMART issues.

Stopped at the Bonefish Grill on the way back home and ordered the Bang Bang Shrimp. That is so good. We also indulged in margaritas and bread. Obviously, we wound up taking half our meal home. We were stuffed!

2024 March 12 (Tue) – We spent the day working on our caravan plans. Got the basic route done with a list of activities to check out. At lunch time, we drove to the base dining facility for lunch. They advertised Yankee pot roast for today’s lunch and I wanted some of it. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the dining facility, it was all gone. A black bean burger did not taste good after hungering for the pot roast. We went back and continued working on the caravan plans. I made reservations to fly back to New York on the 20th. I spent $1,000 to go back and get my free hearing aids from the VA. How crazy is that? My sister, Susan, will pick me up, take me to the Northport Medical Center, and drop me off at the airport so I will have no car rental. I will also stay with her and her husband so there will be no hotel costs. Too bad I couldn't pick up one of those cheap flights Southwest is always advertising.

2024 March 11 (Mon) – We went to the base dining facility today. I had a turkey, bacon and avocado wrap with sweet potato fries and Paul had smoked turkey with a baked potato with a mushroom vegetable sauce. We shared a potato soup and both had a drink. The entire meal came to less than $19. How come we didn’t find this place sooner?

We then drove to the commissary and did some shopping. Also stopped at the package store to pick up some bourbon. We returned the key to our mailbox in the UPS store. It was smart to get that box. We saved a lot of money with all the packages we had delivered.

2024 March 10 (Sun) – We stayed in all day working on our next caravan. It is a lot of work to put these things together.

2024 March 9 (Sat) – We drove to Fort Walton Beach and Destin this afternoon after spending the morning working on our next caravan – Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Ships. There is so much to see in Michigan that we are having a hard time shaving down the choices. We’ll get there.

The National Seashore of Fort Walton Beach and Destin reminded us very much of Fire Island back home. Lots of water and sand. The ocean on one side and the bay on the other. We stopped at a café called Crackings for lunch. Everything was excellent. The day was overcast. It rained hard most of the night.

2024 March 8 (Fri) – Well, I am back from New York. It was a longer trip as I had several doctors to see. I had left extra time hoping to get new hearing aids from the V.A. but they scheduled me for March 15. I have been trying to change it to March 20. I plan to fly back on the 19th, go to the VA on the 20th, and fly back to Florida on the 21st.

The trip home was very productive. I saw the oncologist, cardiologist, dentist, ophthalmologist, and chiropractor. All tests came back green across the board. I am fine. Almost. The ophthalmologist said my lower lid is pulling away and my upper lid needs a lift again. He referred me to an eye surgeon for evaluation. I will go back in June and get it done.

While I was away, Paul did wonders with the RV. He built a beautiful desk that looks like it came with the trailer. He also found places to store everything. It will take a while to determine where everything is and a little longer to get used to new set up. I keep going to the wrong cabinet for the trash.

We drove to Pensacola yesterday to participate in a muster with the SMART White Sands Panhandlers Chapter. We knew more people than I thought we would and enjoyed meeting new folks.

BREAK – BREAK

2024 Feb 15 (Thu) – We worked around the camper today. Paul ordered several things online to work on while I am gone. He will be making a desk for this new camper. At noon, we ran out to get some things done. First stop was at the UPS store on base. We stopped there yesterday and opened a mail box for the month we will be here. Today, we went back to get some paperwork notarized. Then we shopped in the PX and the commissary. Next, we went off base to the post office to mail off the paperwork for our new plates and registration. Of course, there was a stop for lunch. We ate at Sonny’s BBQ. “If it isn’t smoking out back, it’s not Sonny’s upfront.” Everything was delicious. We even took leftovers home for dinner.

I spent the night packing for my trip back to New York tomorrow. I will be gone for 2-1/2 weeks. I had to buy another suitcase because I am bringing winter clothes with me. It snowed yesterday and more snow is predicted in 2 days. I hope it won’t be too miserable while I am there. Kenny is sick and Miranda asked me to stay with my sister. Susan lives in the Hamptons and that would add an extra hour’s drive to wherever I want to go. I decided to stay in a motel for the duration. Ugh. The cost!

2024 Feb 14 (Wed – Valentine’s Day) – We took off from Eastpoint at 10 a.m. and headed out to Eglin Air Force Base (AFB) in Valparaiso. We went through a time change from EST to CST. We stopped at a gas station for lunch. It was quite nice. I never saw so much fishing equipment for sale in a gas station before. There must be some really popular fishing spots around there. We tried to drag our feet because check in time wasn’t until 3 p.m. but we arrived a little after 2 p.m. Since I had already spoken with the office and gotten our site number, we went straight there. It was open so we pulled in and set up. The campground is little dated with lots of trees around the area. We are parked under pine trees and some kind of tree with small nuts. Hope they don’t fall on our rig.

Hudson’s birthday is tomorrow. We sent him a pair of basketball shoes for his birthday. He had a play-off game tonight and wore them there. He said the game would be devoted to us. They won.

2024 Feb 13 (Tue) – We left Williston at 9:45 a.m. We never got to see my niece. I called her yesterday and she said we would get together later that evening. Unfortunately, a rainstorm blew in and she got busy taking care of the animals on her farm. She never called back.

We arrived at Coastline RV Resort in Eastpoint at 1 p.m. We ran out to get fuel and grab lunch at the Red Pirate. We are only here for one night. It is a beautiful campground. The sites are roomy with a large, lovely brick patio. There is a pool right behind our campsite with one person braving the cold.

2024 Feb 12 (Mon) – We packed up, then ran to the post office to send off Valentine’s cards to our grandsons. When we got back, we said good-bye to Margaret & Rich, hooked up, and took off. It was about 50 minutes to the Williston Crossings RV Resort. It is a very nice, gated resort. They have a pool and hot tub, laundry, games, activity room, and camp store. Our campsite is full hookup on a concrete pad. The staff were very nice and one of them was even named Melody.

Once we were set up, we went into town to get some spring bars for the refrigerator. For some reason, we did not have any in the fridge and when I opened the door, I got plastered with saucy chicken. We are still learning and adjusting to our new space.

2024 Feb 11 (Sun) – There were the last minute runs out to WalMart and Lowe’s. Paul was going to make steps for me to get up into the bed. Our new 10” mattress arrived and once on the base, now comes up past my waist. I need help getting into the bed. He discovered a plastic step ladder with two steps. We bought that and returned the wood he bought. Then he spent the day working under the RV, plugging holes and spraying a bed liner. I worked on trying to get the taxes done before my trip to New York. Margaret made hamburgers for dinner then we watched the first half of the Super Bowl with them before returning home.

2024 Feb 10 (Sat) – I went to the hairdresser today. I wanted to touch up the lowlights and get my hair cut. The hairdresser put too much color in and the cut is funky. She called it a pixie cut but it looks like anything but a pixie cut. As usual, I will wait for it to grow out and hope to find another hairdresser who can do my hair the way I want. *sigh*

Rich grilled the steaks tonight. I made baked potatoes and Margaret cooked up some corn.

2024 Feb 9 (Fri) – We continued work around the RV today. At noon, we ran out to Winn Dixie to pick up some steaks for dinner tomorrow. And, as always, a stop at Lowe’s was in order. We have been there almost every day as we pick up and return items. Margaret & Rich took us out to dinner at Olive Garden tonight.

2024 Feb 8 (Thu) – We stayed in all day, working around the RV. Paul is really doing so much.

2024 Feb 7 (Wed) – There’s been a pretty steady stream of Amazon packages arriving. We are expecting our new mattress on Thursday. We will be taking the king size bed out and replacing it with a queen size mattress. We spent the day working around the RV. Paul got the safe installed behind the fireplace. I am still trying to get our RV registered in South Dakota. The guy that I worked with has left the company and a new person is on board. I made an appointment to meet Tuesday by phone. I also have to find a notary public. Our mail forwarding service at Escapees sent a note asking for us to verify that SMART is not a business. Paul also has to sign his revised will. I will meet with the lawyer when I go back to New York later this month to sign my will. Margaret made stuffed chicken and rice for dinner tonight.

2024 Feb 6 (Tue) – We went to WalMart early so we could get an oil change for the truck. While that went on, we had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts then roamed the aisles for a bit before the truck was done. Then we drove to Home Depot but didn’t find anything so we left bare handed (wow!). Margaret mentioned another store where she buys things cheap so we drove there. Ollies didn’t have much of what we wanted but they do have nice area rugs. When we need another rug (our new one arrived in the mail yesterday), we’ll have to shop there.

Margaret made dinner again. We enjoyed left-overs.

2024 Feb 5 (Mon) – The modifications continue. We ran out to WalMart – returned items that didn’t work out and bought new stuff. At 5:00 p.m. Margaret & Rich had a birthday dinner for friends (one couple and a single guy). The two men were celebrating birthdays. Margaret made a seafood meal – shrimp, crab cakes and fish. As usual, all the food was good and plentiful.

2024 Feb 4 (Sun) – Paul ran out to Lowe’s to get paint. He is adding two shelves to the pantry and wanted to paint them the same color as what is in there. I worked on SMART National Muster items, including a comprehensive schedule that lists all times, topics and presenters. We took Margaret & Rich out for dinner to Los Magueyes (a Mexican restaurant). The food and margaritas were good.

2024 Feb 3 (Sat) – We went shopping again at both WalMart and Lowe’s. In addition, we got on the computers and ordered some stuff online. It’s cost us over $1,000 to date to equip and adjust this new RV. Margaret made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. She seems to be enjoying our company and fussing over us at dinnertime.

2024 Feb 2 (Fri) – We worked tirelessly all day long, getting things rearranged and built. Matt & Melissa came over to Margaret & Rich’s tonight for dinner. Paul and Margaret used to work with Matt back in NY Traffic Signal days. Margaret made Marry Me Chicken. It was very tasty.

2024 Feb 1 (Thu) – We woke, made a list of things to get, and went shopping at Lowe’s and WalMart. Half way through Lowe’s, I lost the list somewhere so we didn’t get to buy everything we needed. But we came home and got a good deal done, although very little unpacking. Paul discovered that the cardboard file boxes fit nicely in the closet. We will be going through and packing up anything we don’t use on a regular basis.

Margaret made hamburgers for dinner. Then we watched TV while our clothes were in the washer and dryer.

2024 Jan 31 (Wed) – We got up and tried to get some semblance of order, enough to be able to close the slides and drive off. We left the RV dealer parking lot at 11 a.m. and arrived at our friend’s home, Margaret & Rich (Paul and Margaret worked together at Traffic). They had a nice covered area for their RV which they were kind enough to move out and let us use.

We visited for a bit, then went out to tackle the problem of finding a place for everything. We moved from a 40’ rig into a 38’ rig. We also lost a lost lot of cabinet space. By the afternoon, we were walking around taking measurements. Tomorrow, we will go to Lowe’s and pick up wire racks and storage boxes to add room.

Margaret cooked meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. It was good! Afterward, we watched TV for awhile, then came back and crashed.

2024 Jan 30 (Tue) – We drove to Optimum RV for our 9 a.m. inspection and walk through of the new rig (after stopping for breakfast at the Hometown Restaurant). We waited almost an hour and a half before the tech came to get us. We walked around the RV, letting him show us the different functions and instructing him when he didn’t know something or had it wrong. The water pump didn’t work and a slide on the bureau was loose. Other than that, all seemed to be in order. When we were done inspecting the rig, the tech brought us back to the office to see someone in finance. That was another hour wait. At noon, I asked the receptionist if we should go to lunch, seeing as how it was lunch time and the finance officer was probably going to lunch, too. She told us he would be right out. Half an hour later, a young man came out and told us he needed the title to the Vilano and a copy of my driver’s license. I gave him my license but we had to walk back to the rig to get the title.

In the meantime, our RV was parked out front where we checked in. Another tech had asked to take a quick look inside so we dropped the trailer and popped the slides. He walked through, admiring the RV and telling us it was a nice rig. We agreed. We had to search a bit among all the packed up bags and boxes but we finally found the title and brought it back in. We then waited another 20 minutes before a second finance guy came out to complete the paperwork. We signed over the title, signed a bunch of papers, and were congratulated. It was now after 2 p.m.

We went back to the rig and made a quick lunch. Then we commenced to moving everything from the Vilano to the Ahara. At 6 p.m., we took a run down the road to get dinner at Wendy’s. There was another couple who was also transferring stuff from their travel trailer to a new fifth wheel. We picked up dinner for them. Seeing as how it was dark and we had a mess inside, we decided to spend the night in the parking lot. The place is a disaster and the cat is freaking out. I’m getting too old for this!

2024 Jan 29 (Mon) – We got up early and went into the Magic Kingdom to have breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It was a character breakfast and we got our picture taken with Winnie the Pooh. Afterward, we walked over to Tomorrowland to go on the Circle of Progress but it was closed. We walked through the stores looking for a bumper sticker and a Mickey Mouse sticker to put on the camper but they don’t make them any more. Bummer.

We packed up and left Fort Wilderness at 11 a.m. It was almost two hours to the Wild Frontier RV Resort in Ocala. We spent the night packing up as much as we could. I was exhausted by the time we finally went to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. We stayed here close to the RV dealer so we could arrive and get the day started early. Hope all goes well.

2024 Jan 28 (Sun) – We visited the last of the 4 parks today – the Animal Kingdom. This is the least visited park of them all. We started out with breakfast at the Rainforest Café. The meal was good but as with all Disney restaurants, the meal was more than twice the cost of a meal outside the park. We walked around a lot. Got to take a river ride in the Avatar setting, saw the It’s Tough to be a Bug show, and watched a show with birds. It was very warm this morning and early afternoon, then a cool breeze blew in. Paul says a cold front is coming in. We rode to the Wilderness Lodge for lunch and ate at the Roaring Fork. It was good. Then we caught the boat to the campground, took the bus back to the parking lot, then got in the truck and drove back to the campground. It was a long day.

On a good note, Paul seems to be over his virus and I never caught it. Whew!

2024 Jan 27 (Sat) – Today was a trip to Hollywood Studios. This was the most crowded park yet. The new Star Wars attraction is the big, new attraction. There were people everywhere! We had breakfast at Hollywood & Vine to the tune of $130 (ouch!) and got to go on one ride after a 70 minute wait. We got annoyed and left.

2024 Jan 26 (Fri) – We went to EPCOT today. We left a little later since we wanted to stay for the fireworks. We got there about 4 p.m. and strolled along the walkway. We waited over an hour for Soaring Over California. Also walked through a few areas before getting to the World Showcase. We had dinner at the Biergarten Restaurant. It was a buffet with German fare. Everything was good and there was a show with 4 performers. They played various instruments included the bells, the French horn and those long Swiss horns. The fireworks show was fantastic.

2024 Jan 25 (Thu) – Paul popped up at 11 a.m. and said, “Let’s go to the park.” I immediately agreed and we caught the boat to the Magic Kingdom. The park was crowded but we managed to get on a few rides – Runaway Train (45 minute wait), Haunted Mansion (55 minute wait), Pirates of the Caribbean (35 minute wait), and the Hall of Presidents. We came back home to feed Sheba and have dinner, then returned to the park to watch the 8 p.m. fireworks show.

2024 Jan 24 (Wed) – We stayed in again today. Paul seems worse but he says he’s a little better. Hope he gets better soon so we can take advantage of at least some of the park. My throat does not hurt any more. Guess it cured itself.

2024 Jan 23 (Tue) – We stayed in all day. Paul in blowing his nose and running a low grade fever. I have him taking Ivermectin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Quercetin, and Zinc. It only lasted him 2 days and with very mild symptoms last time he had it. Hopefully, it won’t be any worse this time.

At 4:30 p.m. we drove into town to pick up a few groceries. Then we went to Pioneer Hall in the campground and had a light dinner. I started getting a scratchy throat.

2024 Jan 22 (Mon) – We packed up and left Brandon at 10:30 a.m. We drove an hour and a half to Lake Buena Vista to stay for a week in Fort Wilderness in Disney World. No other place looks like Fort Wilderness. It is unique and inviting. I love it.

Paul started with a scratchy throat yesterday and is congested today. This evening, I was on Facebook with the Vilano group. One of the members there posted that she tested positive COVID. We did a test on Paul and, sure enough, he is positive for COVID. What bad timing!

2024 Jan 21 (Sun) – We packed up and left Tampa at 11:30 a.m. We only had 9 miles to go back to the Elks Lodge for the night. We got the same spot we had last week.

2024 Jan 20 (Sat) – We went to look at our RV again then walked around the show. The crowds were very large. Lots of people turned out to look over the displays. Another couple in our group bought an RV. We had a happy hour tonight and shared stories of our purchases.

2024 Jan 19 (Fri) – We stopped at our RV to look it over. Unfortunately, the RV we bought was a show model and because this is a manufacturer’s show, they will continue to show the model for the entire show. All we can hope for is that it doesn’t get abused during the show.

We walked around the show. Paul bought snap pads for the new rig. There was a bingo game tonight. We didn’t win anything.

2024 Jan 18 (Thu) – We walked around the show again today. When we returned last night, we sent inquiries out over the internet to get some quotes on two different RV models we liked. This morning, as we were getting ready to leave for the show, we got an email offering a quote on one of the models. We took that quote to the RV dealer, showed the quote, and asked the salesperson to match it. After a little bit of angst and some discussion among the staff, she agreed to match the offer. That was quite a coup! The MSRP was listed as $118,000. The “special show price” was listed as $89,995. The quote we got from the internet was $78,213. That was almost what we paid for our Vilano back in 2017. They gave us $30,000 for a trade-in. We feel we got an excellent deal and signed the papers. We purchased a 2024 East West Ahara.

There was entertainment tonight. A band played. They were excellent. When they called numbers for door prizes, we won two surge protectors – one for 30 amp and one for 50 amp. We will donate the 30-amp protector to SMART at national. It is worth about $250.

2024 Jan 17 (Wed) – The Tampa RV show opened today. We walked all around the show. My back was killing me by the end of the day. Whew! We stopped at a couple of designated dealer sites and got quotes on two rigs. We returned to the RV and made a couple of calls to dealers, trying to find a better deal. We will work it for the week we are here. The electric was hooked up when we got back.

Our group had a potluck tonight. It was cold and we sat around the circle with 5 propane fires burning. The food was good. The weather got cold today. It’s projected to be cold again tomorrow. Brrrr. One of the ladies brought her little chihuahua to the potluck. She was warning everyone not to touch it as it bites. Not for nothing, but if your dog bites, you shouldn’t bring it to a group function.

2024 Jan 16 (Tue) – We woke at 5:30 a.m. to pack up and leave. Taking down the RV in the dark is an adventure! I used both a flashlight and the light from my cell phone. After hooking up the trailer, Paul drove to the dump station where we dumped the black tank and filled the fresh water tank. Then we hit the road and drove 9 miles to the Tampa Fairgrounds where the Super RV Show is taking place this week. Hope we can find the kind of rig we want at a decent price. They are SO expensive today!

We are camped with the Vanleigh group on the grass along the back fence. We have no water or sewer hookup. We should get electric but are running the generator for now. Some of the folks here remember us from the first group campout here back in 2020. Paul and I set up the large tent. Another one of the guys here put up his smaller, 10x10, tent. The sky opened up this afternoon and it poured. Everyone fit under the tent very nicely.

At 5:30 p.m. we met Brenda & Rick at Ulele Beer Garden. We first met them on the Utah caravan and have become fast friends. We try to visit with them whenever we are down this way.

2024 Jan 15 (Mon – MLK Day) – We went to Bradenton this morning to visit with my cousins, Fred & Margie. Their daughter and her husband, Carolyn & Bobby, were also there. Two hours flew by. Fred is not doing well (he will be 89 this year), but he is very alert and competent. He said his sister, Pat, fell down and was in the hospital. Although she did not break anything, she is bruised and sore. Pat will be 92 this year.

After we got back to Brandon (almost an hour drive), we stopped at Tres Amigos for lunch. The sky opened up just as we pulled up and the rain poured down. We spent an hour inside enjoying our meal. By the time we came out, the rain had stopped. The weather is cooling off. There is a cold front coming across the country. Rain and ice is pelting the northern states. Even the southern states have falling temps.

When done with lunch, we went food shopping at Publix. Groceries stocked, we are ready for tomorrow’s move to the fairgrounds.

2024 Jan 14 (Sun) – We didn’t do much today. Stayed in. The weather was lousy. We worked on caravan stuff.

2024 Jan 13 (Sat) – We walked down the street to a small grocery store down the road. It was a lot like a Restaurant Depot. We picked up a few frozen meats but couldn’t find the rest of what we wanted. It was just as well, anyway, because we had to carry the groceries back down the road – about half a mile.

We drove out to lunch at Tibby’s, which was a cajun style restaurant. I had rice and beans and Paul had jambalaya. We have both tasted better but it was all good. We then stopped at Total Wines after lunch to pick up a bottle to put in the prize drawing pile.

2024 Jan 12 (Fri) – We did our laundry this morning. Drove down the road to a laundromat. It seemed like it had pretty new machines. We put the clothes in the washer and then went to the post office to mail off some insignias for SMART chapter members. After we returned and put the clothes in the dryers, we walked to Office Depot to pick up a few items.

There was a dinner at the Elks Lodge tonight. They had pierogies, kielbasa, a stuffed cabbage, salad, fruit, and the most delicious rye bread. Everything was very good.

2024 Jan 11 (Thu) – We went into Tampa to look for jeans for me. The first store we stopped at did not have any short sizes. The second store didn’t either, but Paul suggested I buy crops. That worked. I bought I pair of jeans at Macy’s and another at Lane Bryant. Mission accomplished, we stopped at Bonefish Grill for bang bang shrimp and soup.

2024 Jan 10 (Wed) – We packed up and left Moore Haven ACOE at 9:45 a.m. We stopped at the dump station then took off for our 3-hour drive to Brandon. We are staying at the Elks Lodge. The camp host suggested a site that was kind of sandwiched between 2 and would have required a very long hose to the water spout. We decided to take another site adjacent to the lodge building. We have 50-amp electric and water hookup; no sewer. We stayed here back in 2017. The lodge was a very busy place back then but not so much today. We went into the lodge at 4:30 p.m. to pay for our site. There was one other couple in there. It’s still a beautiful bar but attendance is not good. The bartender confirmed that membership has dropped off, just as it has everywhere else in the U.S.

After paying for our site and enjoying a drink, we drove into town to get dinner and shop. Dinner was at Tasty Venues, a Real Italian Restaurant. I had lasagna and Paul had spaghetti pie with 3 different types of meatball. The lasagna was exquisite! I have never tasted anything as good as that. It was a large serving and I took most of it home. Paul was unimpressed with his meal.

We left the restaurant and went to Publix to pick up a few groceries.

2024 Jan 9 (Tue) – We met Allen & Carol, Buddy & Deborah, and Buddy’s daughter, Lynn, at LaBelle Brewing Company for dinner. I ordered meatloaf and got a dish overflowing with food. I think they wanted to get rid of the meatloaf because I got 2 very large slices along with green beans piled high on a plate too small for the meal. The green beans were soft and mushy. Yuck. The mashed potatoes were delicious and the meatloaf was OK. I took most of it home.

The weather was pretty ratty all day. A brisk wind blew most of the day and a rainstorm blew in tonight. There was heat lightning in the clouds. That always looks pretty cool. The weather was pretty severe south of us and we were getting warning notices about the possibility of tornados. Our son and daughter-in-law contacted us to make sure we were OK.

2024 Jan 8 (Mon) – We drove to Fort Meyers today. I need a new pair of jeans but when I started trying on clothes, I was dismayed to find I was a larger size. I got depressed and stopped shopping for any clothing. We stopped at Books-A-Million where I picked up a couple of cook books. Then we went to Chicken Salad Chick and had chicken salad sandwiches. We stopped at Publix on the way back to the campground.

2024 Jan 7 (Sun) – We stayed in today and worked on the next caravan we are planning for 2025: Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Ships. There is so much to see and do in Michigan. We are having a hard time paring the choices down. I guess that’s the hardest part of planning a caravan – choosing the right amount of activities yet leaving time to explore on their own.

2024 Jan 6 (Sat) – We went over to Allen’s tonight for a barbecue. He smoked up some ribs. They were delicious! We stopped over Buddy & Deborah’s house to look it over. They bought it in February just before taking off for an extended RV trip this summer. They only just got back at Thanksgiving. The layout of the house is odd and they have their work cut out for them. But they seem to be happy next to Allen (Allen and Deborah are siblings). Buddy showed Paul where to hook up the RV if we ever come visit and stay at their place.

2023 Jan 5 (Fri) – We drove into LaBelle to shop at WalMart. Then we tried to find a place to buy firewood. Ace Hardware, WalMart, Tractor Supply, and 7-11 were all out of wood. Allen & Carol and his sister and husband, Deborah & Buddy, came over at 4 p.m. We had hamburgers and hot dogs. I made potato salad and chickpea salad. Allen brought over some wood from his shop and we had a campfire. It was an enjoyable evening.

2023 Jan 4 (Thu) – We packed up and left LaBelle at 11:30 a.m. We only had an 11-mile drive to ACOE Ortona South Campground in Moore Haven. We were here some years ago. It is a very pleasant campground right on the Caloosahatchee River. Our site has electric and water hookup. We are on a concrete pad with a gravel patio with a covered picnic table. There is a lock right next to the campground. After set up, we walked over the lock to the other side and watched a boat come through the lock.

We sent a note to Allen, telling him we arrived and were set up. We agreed to have them come over for a BBQ tomorrow.

2023 Jan 3 (Wed) – We went to Clewiston today to tour the Seminole Reservation Museum, Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki. It was an hour’s drive from LaBelle. When we arrived, we drove first to the Swamp Water Café for lunch. The café was set in a visitors area with cages for animals. Almost all the cages were empty. There was a very nice arena with grass and a moat filled with clear, clean water surrounding it. In front were 3 stands for an audience to watch an alligator wrestling show. The waitress told Paul the café had just opened for 7 days a week on Monday. The place had closed for the pandemic and has not reopened. The petting zoo was also closed.

The entire village is very well kempt and you can see they put money back into the reservation from the casino. There was a new development under construction. A very nice campground was also on the reservation. We went to the museum. The walkway from the parking lot to the building was a decorative block. Inside the museum, we found the Seminole Indians to be very different from the Indians out west. There clothing was very colorful and the men wore turbans! The natives were driven into the everglades during the Seminole Wars (three of them) and they are very proud that they never surrendered or signed any peace treaties. In the back of the museum was a boardwalk that wound through the swamp for a mile. There were many storyboards along the way that described the wildlife, reptiles, insects, flora and fauna of the area. There was also a replica fishing camp and a replica village.

When we got back to LaBelle, we drove to Allen & Carol’s home, visited a while, then drove to Amigos & Beer for dinner. I had tortillas and Paul had a combo meal. We had margaritas but they were not good. Mine smelled like perfume and the taste was off. We drank them any way.

2023 Jan 2 (Tue) – We drove to Fort Meyers this afternoon. We spent the morning researching RVs online and decided to go to dealers to look at rigs. The first stop was at Camping World. When the girl demanded to make a copy of Paul’s license, he refused and we left. What kind of weird requirement is that? She claimed it was for insurance purposes.

Next stop was at La Mesa. They did not have any towables on their lot. We seem to remember stopping at La Mesa a year or so ago and they said they are only selling motor homes.

Then we stopped at Blue Compass RV. The salesman was very upbeat and eager to sell us an RV. We looked at a rig we really liked but once we started comparing it to our current RV, we realized it was missing a lot of storage space. There were not nearly enough cabinets to hold all our stuff. The salesman asked us to contact him when we find a rig we want and he will try to get it for us. We told him we are going to the Tampa RV Show and (to be expected) he told us the better deal is at the dealership. We will see.

We went for lunch at Skip One Seafoods, a cute local restaurant that had really good food. Allen asked if we wanted to go to dinner tonight but since we were an hour away and still looking at RVs, we made a date for tomorrow instead.

After we got back to the campground, we did the laundry.

2023 Jan 1 (Mon) – We packed up and left Naples at 11:15 a.m. It was only 74 miles to LaBelle so we took it slow. The drive was nice. We are staying at Whisper Creek RV Resort. We had such a hard time finding a campground in the area so we wound up making reservations at this resort. It is costing us $125 a night. Ouch! At any rate, we wanted to visit with our friends, Allen and Carol.

We drove over Allen’s house at 4:00 p.m. He lives in a double gated community on a hill right on the river. It is a very lovely home with a main waterway going past the back of his house. We visited for an hour then went to dinner. Allen’s son, Allen Jr., is visiting and joined us as well. We were going to go to a Mexican restaurant for margaritas but they were closed so we wound up at the LaBelle Brewing Co. I had a cobb salad and Paul had jambalaya. The food and company were very good.

After dinner, we drove back to their house. Visited for a half hour, then left.

2023 Dec 31 (Sun – New Year’s Eve) – We drove into the historic district of Naples today. Everything is built in Italian architectural style. I guess their sister city is Naples, Italy. It has a very European feel to the town. There were so many expensive cars. A Bentley convertible, many Bentleys, BMWs, Porches, Audis, etc. We are in the land of the rich people. We found a parking spot and walked down to the Naples Pier. The sand was so soft and beautiful; finer than sugar. There were people and cars clogging the streets and sidewalks. We left and drove to the Texas Roadhouse for lunch. We got fuel and returned to the campground.

New Year’s Eve came and went while we slept away. We went to bed at 10:30 p.m. There were fireworks going off all night. We were wakened at midnight when there was an influx of joyous noise.

2023 Dec 30 (Sat) – We went to breakfast at Hoots this morning. It was a small café but bustling with business. I had corned beef hash with eggs and Paul had some kind of Mexican dish. Everything was very good.

After breakfast, we went to WalMart for groceries. The exterior was not like the average store. Paul joked that because we are in a rich neighborhood, they didn’t want it to look like a WalMart so they made it quite fancy. Inside was pretty much the same except that there were 37 self check-out lanes and only 2 cashier lanes, both of which were closed. I found someone to come check us out.

2023 Dec 29 (Fri) – We packed up, stopped at the dump outside the gate, then proceeded on our way to Naples where we are staying at Marco Naples RV Resort. This is another of the gargantuan commercial company RV parks. We are here for 3 nights. Naples is a very high end city with lots of manicured lawns and residential communities. Our campsite is on a concrete pad fit between two mobile homes. We have full hook-ups. The resort has bocci ball, a pool, horseshoes, and 2 dog parks. The mobile homes are tightly fit in with open spaces here and there for RVs that come and go (like us).

2023 Dec 28 (Thu) – We took down our Christmas tree and all the decorations, packed them away, and restored the rig to pre-holiday status. It looks kind of empty now. At 4 p.m. we drove to Marathon. Traffic was heavy and we got there at 5:15 p.m. We were planning to have dinner with Tim at the Cracked Conch. However, Tim was worried we wouldn’t get our food in time to make Show Me The Money at the American Legion at 6 p.m. so we picked him up at the restaurant and drove on to the legion. We all had hot dogs. Carrie met us there. We played cards for 2 hours. Carrie was very lucky and won several games. Paul saw Tim and Carrie share an intimate kiss. Guess they are more than just friends. Good for him!

At 8:30 p.m. we said our good-byes and headed back to get ready for tomorrow’s move.

2023 Dec 27 (Wed) – We drove to Key Largo to mail off a package we were returning. I ordered (what I thought was) a heating pad, but when it arrived it was a huge sauna blanket. Too big for RV living so I returned it. Next door was Ferdinand The Bull Cuban restaurant. We both had Cuban sandwiches. I didn’t care for the bread but it was tasty.

We met Carl & Shirley (SMART friends) and Tim at the Old Tavernier Restaurant for dinner. We sat out on the patio. The menu was interesting and everything was quite expensive. I felt bad for Tim who wound up ordering the cheapest thing on the menu (lasagna) and still forked over a large share of the bill ($40). We then all drove to the Elks Lodge where we played the Queen of Hearts.

2023 Dec 26 (Tue) – We did the laundry this morning. Drove to a laundromat down the road that had bags and bags of laundry all over the place. My impression is that they are the only laundry for miles around. And they take in laundry for all the resorts and hotels in the area. It was expensive, too. The small washer cost $3.50 and the dryer was $0.25 for 5 minutes. It was over $14 by the time we were done.

A thick fog rolled in this afternoon. Everyone claims it’s weird. They never get fog. It stayed all afternoon and into the night. We drove to Marathon, got on Tim’s tiki boat, and rode to the Dockside Bar & Grill where we met Carrie. After some food and drink, we drove to the American Legion where we played bar poker.

2023 Dec 25 (Mon – Christmas Day) – We picked a turkey breast up at Winn Dixie yesterday. I cooked it this morning, then we brought the turkey and cranberry sauce to Tim’s. Tim cooked a ham. It rained and we sat around his boat for an hour. During a lull in the rain, Paul and Tim went down to the store to pick up soda. One of Tim’s neighbors came over and invited us to sit on his boat because he had a cover over the deck. So we traipsed over there. There were 9 of us in total and we enjoyed a Christmas meal with the food everyone brought. It was a very pleasant day.

2023 Dec 24 (Sun) – Paul and I met Tim and Carrie for Christmas morning service at the Marathon Community Church. They used to be part of the Methodist Church but they broke away. Much of the service was very much like that of the Methodist Church.

After church, the four of us went to the Cracked Conch for brunch. Three of us ordered corned beef hash, eggs and potatoes. Paul ordered creamed chipped beef. The waitress brought four orders of creamed chipped beef. We sent 3 back; they left one because they were only going to throw them out any way. Everything came on a separate dish – the eggs, the potatoes, the toast, the hash. There were way too many dishes on the table.

When we finished, we got on Tim’s tiki boat and rode to the Dockside Bar. We sat on the patio and had cocktails. At 3, we left and returned to the campground for a potluck meal at the Elks lodge. At 5:30 p.m. we went into the lodge and enjoyed the assortment of foods people brought. Again, there were way too many cheese and cracker dishes. As we were leaving at 6:30, we ran into Carl & Shirley. They were on previous caravans with us. We plan to have dinner with them on Wednesday. We said a quick hello then hurried out to attend the 7 p.m. candlelight service at the United Methodist Church down the road.

2023 Dec 23 (Sat) – Paul and I went to Doc’s Diner for breakfast this morning. Tim recommended it and it was quite good. I had corned beef hash with eggs and grits; Paul had sausage and gravy. We drove to Marathon and met Tim at the American Legion for a gingerbread house making contest. Paul and Tim concentrated very hard on their project. I made a gingerbread man. The guys won the contest! I think it was the campfire (complete with flames made out of licorice) and the chimney with fire that did the trick. I was the only person to make a gingerbread man so I won it all.

Afterward, there was a potluck dinner. There were way too many cheese and cracker dishes but we were able to fill up.

2023 Dec 22 (Fri) – Everyone took off today. Chris drove Susan to Miami for her flight back to New York, then returned to his new digs in Jacksonville. Dennis & Denise decided to leave and head back to their condo in Myrtle Beach, S.C. And Greg & Potsy left to go back home to Sarasota. It’s just us and Tim again until we leave.

We took the day to just kick back and relax. Paul is reworking our route since our planned caravan has been cancelled. I worked on various projects to include my new book. At 5:30 p.m. we went into the lodge for dinner.

2023 Dec 21 (Thu) – The weather was overcast and drizzly today. The group had talked about bicycling over the bridge to Pigeon Key but cancelled out. Paul and I did some shopping at Winn Dixie. Chris and Susan walked across the 2 miles to Pigeon Key. Dennis and Denise went shopping for sandals and tee-shirts. At noon, Susan, Chris, Tim, Paul and I went to the American Legion for lunch. Then we met Dennis and Denise at the Pigeon Key Train Depot. Greg and Potsy arrived to meet us there as well and we all took the little trolley across the old railroad bridge turned walkway to Pigeon Key. There we took a tour of the island where 400 workers used to live on the island while the rail line was being built.

When we got back, some of us met at the Dockside Inn for drinks. Then, they all ran back to their respective hotels to get their gifts. We met at the Florida Keys Steak & Lobster House for a Christmas dinner. We had a Santa swap (each person put a gift in and took one gift out). It was fun. We had a great time. The last time all six of us were together was eleven years ago in May of 2012.

2023 Dec 20 (Wed) – Chris and Susan moved out of Skip Jacks this morning and went to the Hampton Inn. Apparently, the place they gave them to stay is a condo that is being lived in. When Chris pulled out the bed on the couch, there was sand and dirt, a screw driver, a half eaten dog bone, etc. They were so grossed out! Whoever lives there just threw their stuff in a closet and vacated.

We drove to Key West with Chris and Susan. Parked in back of the Navy base for free and walked the town. We saw the Butterfly Museum and had lunch at the Moon Dog Café. Then we took Chris to see the USCGC Ingham. It brought back memories for him (he’s retired from the Coast Guard).

When we got back at the foot of the 7-Mile bridge, we met Tim for dinner at the Sunset Grill. Dennis & Denise had arrived and also met us at the restaurant for dinner.

2023 Dec 19 (Tue) – Susan and Chris flew in today. We met them at their hotel, Skip Jacks, and went to dinner at the Cracked Conch. When done, they returned to their hotel and Tim and I went to the American Legion for their membership meeting. I was somewhat surprised by the lack of officers. The commander filled all roles – adjutant, vice commanders, treasurer – and ran the entire meeting by himself. It took about a half hour. When done, we filed out into the bar and played bar poker. Paul had dropped Sue & Chris off at their hotel and came back to the post. He won one game.

2023 Dec 18 (Mon) – We drove to Marathon to meet Tim. It was an almost hour drive! I don’t remember it being so far away. We met Tim at the American Legion but they had run out of lunch food. So we hopped in our vehicles and drove to the Cracked Conch for lunch. It was a cute little beachy place. Paul had fried scallops, Tim and I had cheeseburgers.

After lunch, Tim took us out on his Tiki boat. It was a very pleasant ride with a fairly strong wind blowing. There was a touch of coolness in the wind but not bad. I am always so amazed at all the people who live in their boats out on the water. The city has 250 mooring points where a person can anchor to and live for just $350 a month. There is a pump out service from the city and a facility where people can shower and do laundry. It’s certainly a different way of life. Tim keeps his boat tied to the dock because he wants to have electric service. He says the state also has mooring points for hook ups as well. There were certainly a load of boats out on the water with very few open points.

When we got back, we drove back to the American Legion where we played bar bingo (it’s bingo at the bar instead of tables). It is a very nice post. The bingo caller was clearer a man trying to be female with shorts, a blouse with open shoulders, longish hair and painted nails. S/he is called Victoria and has a slew of tattoos left over from his days in the military. They played 12 games, each on a sheet of paper with 6 cards printed on it. There were different games to play which kept things interesting. All of us won a game and when all was said and done, Paul and I basically broke even.

2023 Dec 17 (Sun) – It rained this morning, then cleared up. We were able to pack up without rain pouring down on us. Thank goodness! We left Key West at 9:15 a.m. and drove up-Island for 2 hours until we arrived at the Elks Lodge in Tavernier a little after 11 a.m. The gate was closed and I called the camp host to admit us. We were shown to our spot - #5. Paul pulled in, swung around, and backed the RV in like the pro he is. We are along the fenceline with close access to the side entrance where the bathrooms are. Since we have no sewer hookup, we need to be careful to limit our water usage. We can usually last 10 days with no sewer. We have to kick it up a little to make the 12 days we will be here.

I called my brother, Tim, to say we were here. He said Sundays are his “busy” days (as if you could be busy retired and living in the Keys) so we agreed to meet him tomorrow.

The sky is blue and nearly cloudless. There is evidence the storm passed through today. In fact, everyone says this was a really unusual storm because it lasted so long and intensified as the week went on. There are puddles and pooling everywhere. At one point during our drive, we could see where the water came up and covered the roadway. There are parts along the drive from Key West where the islands are very thin with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other side.

2023 Dec 16 (Sat) – The weather was miserable today. It poured hard on and off between light rains. The wind blew in very strong gusts, even knocking the Starlink satellite over. We didn’t want to go out, but we needed fuel for tomorrow’s move. So, we got gas on base for $1 less than the station right outside the gate. While out, we stopped at Kennedy Café for lunch. It was a Greek restaurant and we both had gyros. There was a 5 or 6 year old girl following the waitress around. She brought my water when the waitress brought Paul’s tea, then gave me a menu. Cute until she gets hurt. She was hopping and bopping around the place with her little tutu and sparkly shoes.

There was a quick stop at the NEX to look for pirate booty (which we did not find), then back to the RV. Travis called this morning. Noah was also on the phone and asked us to get some pirate booty for them. We will continue to look for it. Wish we’d known the past week we’ve been here. We walked past sooooo many gift shops. We’ll still be in the Keys on Islamorada and we can search there.

2023 Dec 15 (Fri) – We went to the aquarium this morning. It was a little misty with spotty rain. The aquarium was something of a disappointment. It was small and the outside tank was overcrowded with large fish. There were 7 nurse sharks, groupers, tarpon, red drums, etc. all swimming around (the nurse sharks actually just lay around). A staff member gave a demonstration and fed some of the different kinds of fish, including the sharks.

After the aquarium, we walked into town and had lunch at Irish Kevin’s. We thought it was an Irish restaurant but it turned out to be more of a bar that sold some food. No shepherd’s pie. We indulged and each had a margarita (since we started dieting about 2 weeks ago, we have given up alcohol). I had a cheeseburger and Paul had some kind of fish.

When we were back at the trailer, I got a call from the camp host at the Elks Lodge, where we are headed on Sunday. She wanted to know when we were arriving today. I told her we wouldn’t be in for 2 days. There was some confusion about when we were scheduled to arrive. I looked at the registration form I filled out on line and discovered I had signed off on an arrival date of December 15, not 17. Oops! I agreed to pay the 2 days since they held the space for us rather than renting it to someone else. It’s incidents like this that make me worry about my mental capacity. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, I ponder my brain. It would be awful to contract Alzheimer’s or dementia. We see a lot of folks in our travel group that suffer the disease. It’s unsettling to know that you are in the age group that is susceptible to that.

2023 Dec 14 (Thu) – We drove into town this morning and mailed off 163 Christmas cards. Whew! Then we drove to the Little White House. President Truman took his vacations here during his presidency and even after he left office. He claimed he got more work done when he was down in the Keys as opposed to being in Washington, D.C. The house was lovely. Many presidents and dignitaries visited and/or stayed in the house.

We then walked downtown to have lunch at Fogartys. We sat out on the patio and watch chickens and pigeons flock around the area. There are loads of chickens all around the area. Reminds me of Hawaii. We then drove to Fort Zachary Taylor. It was an old fort built in 1845. It was intended to protect the Straits of Florida, Key West Harbor, and the Gulf of Mexico. The fort was used in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was the longest serving U.S. coastal fortification, serving from 1861-1947.

When we drove out of the park, we noticed the USCGC Ingham. It was the largest Coast Guard ship I have ever seen. We had to explore it. We bought tickets and went onboard. They offer cocktails by sunset on Fridays. The history of the 76-year-old ship was very interesting.

By the time we finished our tour, it was raining pretty good. We came back to the campground and did the laundry.

2023 Dec 13 (Wed) – The bicycle company dropped off the bikes this morning. The bike fits although it feels like my knees come up a little high. We put them under the overhang and will take them out when the weather clears up. We told him to pick them up on Saturday.

Then we drove into town and had lunch at the Cuban Coffee Queen. It was a small café in an indoor mall. We got our meal and sat in the aisle outside. We toured the Audubon House. My cousin, Denise, has worked there for many years and when I mentioned her name, we were ushered right in. The house went through several owners. Finally, it was renovated and renamed the Audubon House in honor of John Audubon who stayed in the house for a while.

Next, we went to the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Mel was born in Indiana and moved to California. He became in the new sport, scuba diving. He opened a dive shop and did snorkel and scuba until discovering shipwrecks. He went on to wrecking (diving on shipwrecks) and moved his family to Florida. He searched for 16 years until he discovered a Spanish galleon with a cargo valued at over half a billion dollars in 1985. The ship had sunk in a storm off the Florida Keys. It turns out there were many ships that sank during storms sailing from Cuba to Spain. Mel made quite a living diving on the wrecks.

After we got back to the campground, we finished up the Christmas cards for mailing.

2023 Dec 12 (Tue) – We drove over to the ITT office and got military tickets to a few attractions. Paul also arranged to rent 2 bikes. Unfortunately, they are NOT electric. I hope I can manage it. We’ll see when they deliver them tomorrow.

We drove into town and had lunch at the Stoned Crab. The waitress seemed to forget us. I kept staring down the aisle looking for her. Finally, the hostess noticed and went to get our waitress. The meal was OK but nothing to write home about.

We drove over to Office Max to get ink for the printer. We also stopped at CVS to pick up a statin the doctor prescribed for me. I put it aside while I mull over taking it. Maybe I’ll put it in the drawer with the high pressure medicine. When we came out of CVS, we noticed a hair cutting salon. Paul needed a haircut badly. It’s been too windy for me to do it outside, so we went in. While in there, I had a hairdresser also trim my hair. I asked her if she could fix a bad cut. She looked at my hair and went, “Oy Vay!” It looks much better now. And the black lowlights have begun to fade and blend in better. I like the way it looks now.

When we got back to the campground, there was a note on our door from the camp host. There is a weather report calling for high winds and local flooding caused by rain. Wish we had known before we rented the bikes.

2023 Dec 11 (Mon) – We stayed in all day. I began working on writing our Christmas and getting cards ready to assemble. The weather was kind of crappy anyway. At 5 p.m., we walked over to the Sunset Grill for dinner. We had wine with it and wanted to watch the sun set but it was too cloudy. Oh, well. Another day.

2023 Dec 10 (Sun) – We drove around town to check out the sites. We stopped at Winn Dixie for a few items and Paul picked himself up a bagel at a small shop near the grocery store. I picked up a prescription at CVS. It is a statin the doctor wants to start taking for cholesterol. I am reluctant to do this and the bottle sits on the shelf for now.

2023 Dec 9 (Sat) – We packed up and left Sunrise at 9 a.m. It was a 4-hour drive to Key West. We are camped at the Sigsbee Naval Air Station (NAS) campground. The campsites are very tight and the campground is full. We have been trying to get into this campground for a couple of years. We wanted to stay here because so many folks talk about camping here. Now that we have done it, I hope that’s the end of coming here. We are mountain people, not beach people.

There is a lounge right in the campground. We walked over and sat on the deck with a glass of wine and watched the sun set. The campground is right on the Gulf of Mexico and the front row of campsites faces the water.

2023 Dec 8 (Fri) – We packed up and drove to the dump site where we emptied our tanks. Then we had to stop at the store to return a remote control they gave us in case we were out late and needed to open the gate upon our return. We had to put $40 down in deposit and when I gave it back, they refunded the $40. The clerk was different than the one from yesterday, so I told her I lost my membership card. She said there was supposed to be a charge to get a new card but she just gave it to me. We then drove to George’s body shop where I presented him with the card. I filled it in with me as the member and George as my husband. Hopefully, it will work for him.

The drive was pleasant until we got into the Palm Beach/Miami/Ft Lauderdale area. Then the traffic ground down and we crawled to our destination. We are camped at Markham County Park in Sunrise, Florida. We stayed here two years ago on the way down to the memorial for Tim’s son, Joey. It is a huge park with loads of activities – shooting range, skeet range, BMX track, archery range, several dog parks, volley ball, etc. Our campsite is in section B in a wagon wheel formation. It is very nice, on grass, with full hookups.

After set up, we drove to town (about a half mile away) to do a little shopping and get fuel. We came back and drove around the park. It is very impressive.

2023 Dec 7 (Thu) – We drove over to meet George at his place of work this morning – AutoHaus Body Shop. He showed us around and introduced us to his new dog, a rottweiler. Beautiful animal but he calls it dumb. We went to lunch in George’s new Audi electric car. Our meal was at Muddies, a small but very nice café. Next door was a Rope Store. We had to go in and check it out. They really sell ropes and all kinds of lines.

After lunch, we went back to the shop. Paul mentioned that there are spots on our truck that he can’t get out. He asked George about it. When he looked at the truck, he said the spots were caused by battery acid. The only place that could have happened was when Paul had the truck in the shop back in Greenville, SC, while I was in NY. The garage said the batteries were bad and sold us two new ones. It looks like someone dropped a battery in front of the truck and acid splashed across the right front panel of the truck. George took pictures and made up an estimate of cost to repair the damage.

When we got home, Paul called the Ford dealer and told them about the damage. The manager told Paul to send pictures. I emailed the estimate and pictures. We’ll see what happens.

At 5:30, we drove to Dolphin’s Waterfront Grill & Bar where we met George (Linda was at a Christmas party with her bible study group), Denise & Matthew. Denise is George’s sister and Melody’s cousin. Matthew is her new boyfriend. They have been dating for six months and seemed very happy together. We enjoyed a delightful meal while we reminisced about our growing years.

2023 Dec 6 (Wed) – We left Kings Bay, GA, at 10 a.m. It was a long drive with two stops – one at the visitor center at the border and the second at one of the largest Buc-ee’s we have ever seen. It had 120 gas pumps and 240 fill stations. Inside was like a combination department store, country store, and gas station. The place was so busy with traffic jams outside by cars looking for parking. We wound up parking on the curb because there was no parking. The “station” was packed with lots of energy going on. There was a smoked meats sandwich counter and a fudge/candy station. We shopped for a gift for family.

We arrived at KARS (NASA’s recreation park and campground) on Merritt Island at 3 p.m. This is the 4th time we have camped here. We came because they give a second membership card to use the facility for a family member. Because NASA has been revitalized and demand is back up, they stopped giving the additional membership card. We gave those cards to George & Linda. He will be disappointed to hear this. We were assigned a sign right on the water front of the Banana River. They have improved the campground a lot since we were last here. They put in new electric stanchions and a second dump station. The American Legion post is active with meetings 3 times a month. We have never seen this post do anything in the past.

At 5 p.m., we drove to George & Linda’s home. We visited for a while then they drove us to a restaurant names in honor of Ernest Hemingway. It was a unique place and the food was good. We all celebrated with “traditional” margaritas. We returned to their home then drove back to the campground at 9:30 p.m.

I was so tired, I went to bed. Paul stayed up to watch a lift off from Kennedy Space Center. The complex is directly across the river and offers spectacular views of rocket launches. Although I had fallen asleep, I was awakened at 12:08 p.m. when the RV shook with the force of the list-off.

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adanrui · 2 years

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5 Interesting Facts About Chicago

Chicago is home to mind blowing design, a rich exhibition hall scene, and gobs of Midwestern history. Understudies who experience the Breezy City can see everything. The following are nine intriguing realities about this extraordinary American city.while booking cheap flights from Chicago to St. Thomas, consider traveling around September to October.

5 Interesting Facts

1. Chicago, Illinois Student Tour

Go on your understudies on a school outing to Chicago, home of unprecedented design, recreational areas, exhibition halls, and history. Visit the Water Pinnacle and Thousand years Park. Appreciate unbelievable perspectives on the city from the highest point of Willis Pinnacle. However, if you are looking for cheap flights from Santiago to Aruba, then the low season is recommended to visit the city. Visit the Lincoln Park Zoo and Shedd Aquarium — even see a genuine Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at the Field Gallery! You'll have some good times and be propelled on this instructive understudy trip!

2. Chicago Festival of Gold

Perform at the Chicago Celebration of Gold! Step into this shocking social city as a choral, band or instrumental entertainer on the stage at the eminent Ensemble Lobby at the Chicago Ensemble Center. Then, at that point, invest your free energy partaking in the galleries, theaters and shopping and eating encounters that Chicago brings to the table!

3. Chicago Heritage Festival

Perform at the Chicago Legacy Celebration! Thriving in the performing expressions, Chicago's social local area makes way for a remarkable end of the week. A multicultural legacy is simply an aspect of what makes this city so unique. For a higher perspective of the destinations, make a beeline for the highest point of Willis Pinnacle, perhaps of the tallest structure on the planet. Some way you see it, Chicago's top of the line music and diversion, amazingly popular historical centers, and craftsmanship displays supplement this interesting occasion. End the outing on a high note with a Supper and Competition Show at the Bygone eras!

4. Chicago Thanksgiving Parade Marching Band Program

Welcome to Chicago! What better stage for your public presentation than this top notch city? In the Chicago Thanksgiving March, you will swagger your stuff down memorable State Road and past the Christmas tree in Daley Center Square, at the core of this special city. Experience the adventure of walking down roads loaded with invigorated observers, and feel the television cameras on you as your loved ones cheer you on at home. Presently tolerating applications for the Nov 2023 and Nov 2024 procession!

5. Rock the Vibe Chicago

Go along with us for a day of sticking out, meeting new companions, and learning new current band strategies. Your understudies will get to advance new methods from Small children Rock clinicians, meet other Present day Band gatherings and watch them perform, and make that big appearance for their very own exhibition. Educators can acquire PDPs and understudies can procure secondary school credits. This experience will be all that cutting edge band encapsulates making socially applicable music in an uplifting, comprehensive, sticking climate!

#ABOUT #chicago #intrestingfacts

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nicholas-martin · 5 years

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Blue Origin’s Lunar Spacecraft

"It's time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay," said Amazon entrepreneur Jeff Bezos on Thursday at a rare event in Washington, DC, as he presented the Moon goals of his space exploration company Blue Origin, to an audience consisting of potential customers and officials from Nasa.

Jeff Bezos unveiled a mock-up of a new lunar lander spacecraft that aims to take equipment and humans to the Moon by 2024. The reusable Blue Moon vehicle will carry scientific instruments, satellites and rovers. It will feature a new rocket engine called BE-7 that can blast 10,000lb (4,535kg) of thrust. The Blue Moon lunar lander comes loaded with enough fuel to get from Earth to the Moon.

It can deliver payloads to the lunar surface, deploy up to four self-driving rovers, and launch satellites to orbit the Moon. A pressurised vehicle for humans is also envisaged. The aim is for Blue Moon to land on the south pole of the Moon, where ice deposits have been found in craters. The water derived from that ice can be broken down to produce hydrogen, which could then fuel up the spacecraft for further missions.

In March, the Trump administration announced that it intended to return US astronauts to the Moon by the end of 2024. In his speech, Mr Bezos said that Blue Origin would be able to meet Trump's deadline, but "only because" the firm had begun designing the lunar lander in 2016. Mr Bezos wanted to improve access to the Moon, because he has a wider vision of a future where people are able to live and work in space, which is not possible today. "The price of admission to do interesting things in space right now is just too high because there's no infrastructure," he said. To illustrate this, he showed pictures of self-sustaining space colonies that could support people, animals and greenery - somewhat similar to the concepts developed by Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill.

The firm has spent two decades quietly designing and testing new rocket technologies that Bezos hopes will help usher in a science fiction future where millions of people live and work among the stars. The Amazon CEO and world's wealthiest person recently described Blue Origin as the "most important work" he's doing. But so far he'd mostly forgone flashy announcements, and encouraged employees to adopt mantras like "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast." Things have been different this week.

Bezos isn't the only billionaire with a space company. Elon Musk and Richard Branson started their own businesses in the early 2000s, too. The men have been credited with helping to usher in a new era of spaceflight by pouring money into projects once considered too risky or expensive for the private sector. Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX has enjoyed the lion's share of media attention. It's led the charge by developing cheap reusable rockets that now regularly haul satellites to orbit. The company also wins high-profile contracts with NASA and the military, and it's touted bold plans for colonizing Mars.

British serial entrepreneur Richard Branson has also wielded his signature showmanship to promote Virgin Galactic, a space tourism venture that hundreds of customers have already lined up for. It could open for business this year. Branson has also publicized longer-term goals like offering rocket-powered flights between cities.

Blue Origin may have kept the lowest profile. But its plans are no less ambitious. The startup has launched nearly a dozen demo flights of its New Shepard rocket, which is designed to send tourists on scenic trips to the thermosphere. Its first crewed launch could be just a few months away, an executive said during a test launch webcast last week. Bezos' enormous e-commerce fortune could give Blue Origin a leg up in the billionaire space race. Bezos has said he fills Blue Origin's coffers by selling about $1 billion worth of his Amazon stock each year. The company hasn't worried about courting investors.

SpaceX has padded Musk's early investments by raising huge amounts of venture capital dollars and landing big launch contracts. It's worth an estimated $30 billion. But if investors get nervous about SpaceX's expensive gambles on new technologies or the economy goes south, things could get rocky.

Branson's space company, meanwhile, has been hungry for cash since it turned down a $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia last year after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed at a Saudi consulate. Virgin has since hired a finance firm to help find new backers, Sky News reported in February.

#Amazon #bezos #spaceX

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newstfionline · 6 months

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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Canada’s maple syrup in a sticky situation (BBC) Canada’s maple syrup reserve—the world’s only—has reached a 16-year low, raising questions about the future of a globally loved sweet staple in the face of climate change. The reserve, located in Quebec, is designed to hold 133 million pounds of maple syrup at any given year. But in 2023, the supply fell to 6.9 million pounds (3.1 million kg). Experts link the shortage to both a rise in demand and warmer weather, which has disrupted production. Canada’s billion-dollar maple syrup industry accounts for 75% of the world’s entire maple syrup production.

Crew aboard Dali all survived bridge crash ‘by God’s grace’ (Washington Post) The director of a Baltimore ministry heard a loud boom in the wee hours of Tuesday and figured it was thunder. Then he woke up, turned on the radio and learned that the noise had been the sound of a catastrophe—the crash of a ship into a bridge that involved merchant sailors he had seen just hours earlier. Andrew Middleton, director of the local Apostleship of the Sea, texted a seafarer aboard the 985-foot container ship Dali. “Is everyone on board safe?” he asked at 6:03 a.m. Five minutes later, the crew member replied. “Yes. By God’s grace.” Their exchange is the first publicly reported communication from a mariner aboard the vessel, which lost power and slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

South Carolina has $1.8 billion but doesn’t know where the money came from or where it should go (AP) South Carolina has collected about $1.8 billion in a bank account over the past decade and state and private accountants are still trying to figure out where the cash came from and where it was supposed to go. “It’s like going into your bank and the bank president tells you we have a lot of money in our vault but we just don’t know who it belongs to,” said Republican Sen. Larry Grooms, who is leading a Senate panel investigating the problem. It’s the latest trouble with the state’s books and the two agencies, typically led by elected officials, that are in charge of making sure government accounts stay balanced.

Fleeing violence in Haiti (Foreign Policy) France airlifted around 240 people from Haiti on Wednesday as gang violence escalates in the capital, Port-au-Prince. More than 170 evacuees were French citizens and around 70 others were foreign nationals. Paris’s decision echoes other nations’ efforts to evacuate their citizens, including a Canadian flight to the Dominican Republic on Monday and U.S. flights the same day to Miami, Florida. The evacuations come amid a surge in armed attacks over the past month on key infrastructure across Port-au-Prince by gangs that have repeatedly targeted police stations; released thousands of prisoners; and closed roads, hospitals, and Toussaint Louverture International Airport. Mired in an ongoing political crisis, the country has been unable to stop the violence.

Spraying manure and throwing beets, farmers in tractors again block Brussels to protest EU policies (AP) Farmers threw beets, sprayed manure at police and set hay alight on Tuesday as hundreds of tractors again sealed off streets close to the European Union headquarters, where agriculture ministers sought to ease a crisis that has led to months of protests across the 27-member bloc. The farmers protested what they see as excessive red tape and unfair trading practices as well as increased environmental measures and cheap imports from Ukraine. “Let us make a living from our profession,” read one billboard on a tractor blocking a main thoroughfare littered with potatoes, eggs and manure. As the protests turned into violence again, police used tear gas and water cannons to keep farmers and some 250 tractors at bay. Authorities asked commuters to stay out of Brussels and work from home as much as possible.

Ukrainian navy says a third of Russian warships in the Black Sea have been destroyed or disabled (AP) Ukraine has sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea in just over two years of war, the navy spokesman said Tuesday, a heavy blow to Moscow’s military capability. Ukraine’s Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk told The Associated Press that the latest strike on Saturday night hit the Russian amphibious landing ship Kostiantyn Olshansky that was resting in dock in Sevastopol in Russia-occupied Crimea. The ship was part of the Ukrainian navy before Russia captured it while annexing the Black Sea peninsula in 2014. Pletenchuk has previously announced that two other landing ships of the same type, Azov and Yamal, also were damaged in Saturday’s strike along with the Ivan Khurs intelligence ship. He told the AP that the weekend attack, which was launched with Ukraine-built Neptune missiles, also hit Sevastopol port facilities and an oil depot.

Anti-Christian Attacks Surge as Hindu Nationalism Grows (Christianity Today) The number of violent anti-Christian incidents in India jumped to 601 in 2023 compared to 413 the previous year, according to a new report from the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFI-RLC). India is home to about 28 million Christians, or about two percent of the country’s population of 1.4 billion. The majority of attacks on Christians were categorized as threats and harassment (201) followed by 146 instances of false accusations and subsequent arrests. The report follows and reinforces the narrative of the 2024 World Watch List released earlier this year by Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors, which ranks India at number 11, noting the sustained rise of Hindu nationalism: “Any Christian who does convert from Hinduism is most likely to come under intense pressure or even violence. They can face constant pressure to renounce their new faith, face job loss/discrimination, endure physical assaults, and even be murdered. Church leaders are also in danger in many parts of India: extremists target them (along with their families) to create fear and chaos in the Christian community.”

South Korea doctors’ strike widens as medical professors join protests (Guardian) South Korea’s doctors’ strike is widening as medical professors across the nation say they’re going to join the collective action, which currently only involves trainee doctors who are protesting pay disparities and a government plan to sharply increase medical school admissions. The head of the Medical Professors Association of Korea said that medical professors would begin their strike by scaling back outpatient treatment to focus on patients with critical needs, while some professors are expected to turn in their resignations soon. The professors will be backing trainee doctors’ claims that adding 2,000 additional medical students per year will degrade the quality of Korea’s medical services.

Hong Kong official warns online criticism could breach new national security law (Guardian) Hong Kong’s justice minister has warned that posting and sharing criticism of the city’s newly enacted national security law could be in breach of the legislation, which lays down harsh penalties for sedition. Secretary for justice Paul Lam said in a televised interview on Sunday that a person might commit an offence if they reposted online critical statements issued by foreign countries and persons overseas, depending on their “intention and purpose”. The Article 23 legislation, which came into force on Saturday, includes penalties of up to life imprisonment for five categories of crime including treason, insurrection, espionage, sabotage and external interference. It also expands the British colonial-era offence of “sedition” to include inciting hatred against China’s Communist party leadership. Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang said in the same interview that additional evidence such as “what you keep at home and what other acts you have done” would have to be collected to facilitate prosecution. “As I often said, if you breached the law, I will definitely find evidence against you,” Tang said.

7 Lebanese and an Israeli killed in an exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border (AP) An Israeli airstrike on a paramedics center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven of its members early Wednesday and triggered a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed one person in northern Israel, officials said. The strike on the village of Hebbariye came after a day of airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group along the Lebanon-Israel border, raising concerns of further escalation along the frontier that has been active for the past five months of the Israel-Hamas war. The airstrike after midnight Tuesday hit an office of the Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps, according to the Lebanese Ambulance Association. It was one of the deadliest single attacks since violence erupted along the border. The paramedics association listed the names of seven volunteers who were killed in the strike. It said the strike was “a flagrant violation of humanitarian work.”

Israel Presses On With Strikes in Gaza After U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution (NYT) The Israeli military pressed on with its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, signaling that the passing of a United Nations resolution calling for a cease-fire for the holy month of Ramadan the day before had not shaken Israel’s determination to keep fighting. The military said its fighter jets had struck “over 60 targets” in Gaza over the previous day. It added that its forces were also operating in central Gaza, where it said they had killed “a number of terrorists.” Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s news agency, said Tuesday that the Israeli military had struck residential homes and buildings and that dozens of people were killed. In a statement, the Israeli military added that it was continuing its “operational activity” around Al-Amal Hospital and the town of Al-Qarara, in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, adding that its forces were “eliminating terrorists and carrying out targeted raids on terrorist infrastructure.”

Majority of Americans Disapprove of Israel’s Actions in Gaza, New Poll Shows (NYT) A majority of Americans disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, in a pronounced shift from November, according to a new poll released by Gallup on Wednesday. In a survey conducted from March 1-20, 55 percent of U.S. adults said they disapproved of Israel’s military actions—a jump of 10 percentage points from four months earlier, Gallup found. Americans’ approval of Israel’s conduct in the war dropped by an even starker margin, from 50 percent in November, a month after the war began, to 36 percent in March. The findings are the latest evidence of growing American discontent with Israel over the course of the five months in which it has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including nearly 14,000 children, according to local health officials and the United Nations. Israeli officials say roughly 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7.

A decade of documenting more than 63,000 migrant deaths shows that fleeing is more lethal than ever (AP) More than a decade ago, the death of 600 migrants and refugees in two Mediterranean shipwrecks near Italian shores shocked the world and prompted the U.N. migration agency to start recording the number of people who died or went missing as they fled conflict, persecution or poverty to other countries. Governments around the world have repeatedly pledged to save migrants’ lives and fight smugglers while tightening borders. Yet 10 years on, a report by the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project published Tuesday shows the world is no safer for people on the move. On the contrary, migrant deaths have soared. Since tracking began in 2014, more than 63,000 have died or are missing and presumed dead, according to the Missing Migrants Project, with 2023 the deadliest year yet. “The figures are quite alarming,” Jorge Galindo, a spokesperson at IOM’s Global Data Institute, told The Associated Press. “We see that 10 years on, people continue to lose their lives in search of a better one.”

Vinyl (The Verge) For the second year in a row, vinyl records outsold CDs, with people buying 43 million vinyl records and just 37 million CDs. Vinyl accounted for $1.4 billion worth of revenue compared to just $537 million from CDs. Streaming dwarfs them all—$14.4 billion in revenue—and scored 84 percent of the music revenues in the U.S.

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