Doing some last minute shopping before leaving for Europe for two weeks.. or so we thought.
1-Hotel near airport in New York. We spent three days there while waiting for our luggage. Our luggage actually did travel to Europe.
2-View from Hotel in Lawrence, NY where we waited for our luggage. In the evening people would fish in the canal. We never saw them catch anything.
3-The first moment of joy for my wife during our vacation. We got our luggage back.
4-We pose while a stewardess takes a photo of us and our luggage together for the first time in two days.
5-NY city Queens Bridge. A Bridge between Queens and Manhattan. They changed the name to some politician. Figures.
6-The Con-Ed electricity plant on the East River. Not a lot of swimming in the East River.
7-Some tourists on their way to see the power plant. As good as anything else to see in New York if you ask me.
8-49th street. Looks like any other big city.
9-We wanted to treat ourselves to small portions and outrageous prices just once. What would a trip to New York be if not for getting ripped off?
10-NY. It was rainy and overcast all three nights and two days there. Only saw the sky-scrappers on the taxi ride into town. Whoopie..
11-NY
12-NY
13-NY
14-NY
15-NY. Gigi on 54th street. On our way to 5th Avenue. Gigi wants to shop.
16-NY
17-Still on 54th street.
18-NY
19-Some church on 5th Avenue. My wife would rather spend money on clothes than support big business religions.
20-NY. There must be so sky-scrappers up there somewhere.
22-NY
23-NY, my little Gigi in front of a pretty doorway on 5th Avenue.
24-NY
25-NY. My biggest regret about our visit to New York was paying for three nights in Manhattan. I was ready to leave after just one day there.
26-The beginnings of the Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina.
27-Smoky Mountains
28-Going up the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee from the eastern entrance to the park.
29-Smoky Mountains
30-Views of the Smoky Mountains from inside the park in Tennessee.
31-Smoky Mountains
32-Smoky Mountains
33-Smoky Mountains
34-Smoky Mountains
35-Smoky Mountains
36-Smoky Mountains. Gigi travels amazingly well. Never once in our 3690 mile trip did she complain.
37-Smoky Mountains. The very highest point in the park was obscured by fog. But unlike NY, it was peaceful and beautiful.
38-Smoky Mountains
39-Smoky Mountains
40-Smoky Mountains
41-Smoky Mountains
42-Smoky Mountains
43-Smoky Mountains
44-Smoky Mountains
45-Smoky Mountains
46-Smoky Mountains
47-Smoky Mountains
48-Ozarks. Gigi in front of the Bagnell Dam that holds back The Lake of the Ozarks.
49-Ozarks. What's left of the carriage house on the burned down estate of Ha Ha Tonka.
50-Ozarks. The main house of Ha Ha Tonka which means "laughing waters" by the native Americans that used to live there.
51-Ozarks. But the rich guy lost his playground to fire. Only the stones remain. The Native Americans got the last laugh this time.
52-Ozarks. What to accompany me to the water tower? You look thirsty.
53-Ozarks. A fixer-upper. Just needs some new drywall and a little paint.
54-Ozarks. The fire started over there!
55-Ozarks. And now all this belongs to everyone.
56-Ozarks. Wash day and no electricity..
57-Ozarks. The laughing waters will work their magic on our laundry though.
58-Ozarks. This is Ha Ha Tonka and I am your Pocahontas.
59-Ozarks
60-Ozarks. Lake Pomme De Terre, where I used to swim and fish as a kid on family vacations.
61-Ozarks. Bennett Springs, where I used to fish. 100,000,000 gallons of clear, cool water gush from the spring daily.. about 1/2 mile upstream.
62-Ozarks. Bennett Springs state park made by New Deal "Works Progress Administration" (WPA) and "Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)." Socialism works.
63-Ozarks. The grandfather of my husband helped built this park. He was a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
64-Ozarks. Or was it the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).. It doesn't make any difference. The park is beautiful.
65-Ozarks. My husband did not think I would walk across the steel grate in my high heals. But I did.
66-Ozarks
67-Texas. Overlooking the vast nothingness of west Texas.
68-Texas. If she was ever going to complain she would have done it in Texas. Driving across Nebraska on I-80 is the ultimate test. Maybe next time.
69-Mohave Desert in California. In one of the driest years on record in California we ran into rain in the desert.
70-Mohave Desert
71-Mohave Desert
We ran into rain in the Desert during a drought but we could not visit Europe. Next year we will drive to Canada, if they welcome Chinese visitors..
We were going to Europe but it turns out they require a visa for my wife since she has a Chinese passport.
At least the airline agreed to refund the full price of our tickets since they let us on the plane in San Francisco.
I talked to the airline on the phone the day before boarding and at the San Francisco airport and was told my
wife would not need a visa to visit Europe. But in New York they changed their mind.
It's OK. If they don't welcome Chinese citizens in Europe there are still things in the U.S. I haven't seen and
my wife hasn't seen much of the U.S. at all.
It turns out our luggage was not discriminated against.. both pieceS ended up in Milan. So we spent two days
and three nights in Lawrence, New York. Not far from JFK airport. It was in a part of the bourgh of Queens
known as Jamaica Bay. It was a lower class part of New York but it was more enjoyable than Manhattan.
The people were friendlier and the prices much lower.
After waiting for two days we received our luggage on Tuesday and decided to see Manhattan. I prepaid
for three nights there in midtown Manhattan but wished I had only paid for one.
Manhattan is in decay, it's dirty, it's expensive, it's very crowded and noisy. For the life of me I can't figure
out why anyone would want to live there. My wife enjoyed shopping on 5th Avenue but she likes shopping
at Stanford Mall in Palo Alto, California much better. I do too. Palo Alto is expensive too but at least it's clean
and not crowded and there are plenty of flowers, trees, and grass in the area.
New York was so depressing that by Friday I didn't bother to get out of bed except to go get something
for us to eat late in the afternoon. I bought my wife some more Peking Duck from the restaurant across
the street since she liked it so much. She could eat the rest of the whole duck the next morning for breakfast.
She usually eats a big breakfast and not much else for the rest of the day.
I was eager to get in the towncar to take us to JFK so we could pick up our rental car and escape New York.
Escape is an accurate description for any out-of-towner trying to leave New York in a car. All I needed to do
was to get to I-78 West from JFK but the signs were few and crptic. After stopping several times to ask
directions I got the impression that roads leaving New York were something kept under wraps from the locals.
The word "zombie" comes to mind. Finally I found someone at a coffee shop in suburban New Jersey who knew
how to get to I-78 West. I had gotten that far by just concentrating on heading west no matter what freeway
I found myself on.
Relief. I was on Interstate 78 west and began to see signs telling the distance to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
From there I could travel south in I-81 to North Carolina. I wanted to see The Great Smoky Mountains in
western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Something I've never seen before and always wanted to see.
I had bought a map book of the U.S. at a drug store in New Jersey before the encounter with the guy who
knew how to get away from New York. It was good for wide open spaces but not for the crowded confines
of urban New York and the outlying areas of the metropolis.
We spent our first night away from New York in Salem, Virginia. I got a pizza after getting the hotel. It was
the first decent pizza I had since leaving home. The "famous" New York pizza is not much better than frozen
pizza and you have a very limited choice of toppings. Vegatables are unheard of. I guess if you knew where
to go in New York you could get a decent pizza but no other town would have allowed the pizza I got there.
Before I got to the pizza place I had to stop at a grocery store. My wife can't survive without fresh lemons.
She makes what she calls 'lemon tea' which is nothing more then fresh squeezed lemon juice and bottled water.
No sugar. I don't see how she can drink that stuff but it keeps her happy. So lemons we got.
The next day we drove to the Smoky Mountains and they were not a dissappointment. They were beautiful.
I've posted photos of my vacation in my "albums" and I'll post them in this blog if space permits.
We spent the next night in central Tennessee. The next day we would travel to my home state of Missouri
and meet my oldest sister in the Ozarks.
We met my sister in Osage Beach, Missouri which is a resort town next to the Lake of the Ozarks. She drove
down from Kansas City, Missouri.. my hometown. I had no desire to go out of my way to visit Kansas City.
All cities are pretty much alike to me. You've seen one, you've seen them all.
Many will disagree but music is the same way. If you don't like a certain genre of music, all the songs sound alike.
To me all country songs sound pretty much like the others and the same with rap music.. if you can call that music.
Anyway, we spent the night talking about old times and what was new with us and didn't get to sleep until the
wee hours of the morning. My wife doesn't speak English very well and my sister speaks a million miles an hour
and she won't stop. You have to wait until she begins to let up and hope you can get an opening to before
she starts up again. It's like trying to run from one shelter to another in a rain storm. When the rain begins
to let up you make a dash for it and hope it wasn't just an opening between the sheets of rain.
My wife said my sister and I were more like friends than brother and sister. We had to agree. I hardly ever write
to or talk to my other sister but a week never goes by that I don't write a few email to my oldest sister, Dian.
The next day we parted ways and I drove all over the Ozarks showing my wife all the places I used to go on
family vacations and later on as a teenager on my own.
We spent the night in Joplin, Missouri and the next morning I drove through the center of the damage path of
the May, 2011 F5 tornado that tore through Joplin. I was amazed at how far the rebuilding had come in just
three years. If I hadn't know a tornado had split the city in half the only curiousity would be why all the houses
and businesses in the middle of town were all new. A few trees remained that had been ripped clean of all their
limbs except for the trunk and perhaps a few feet of the largest limbs stemming from the trunk. The photos
in the news at the time showed total devastation in the area I had just driven through.
From there we headed west and made it home in just two more days.
It was good to be home.
Next year we plan on renting a car and seeing Yellowstone park, Glacier park, and Banff in Alberta, Canada.
But first we will check to see if Canada welcomes Chinese citizens or if they have to jump through hoops to visit.
My wife had no intentions of changing citizenship. We plan on retiring back to her home in Guilin when I retire.
Her mother is living there now. If she's still around in 7-8 years I'll be living with my mother-in-law.
But that's another blog.
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