Day 5, September 5 The forecast for the day, Rain, and it did. We walked to the convenience store and retrieved our bottle deposit. The clerk had to run a price check for the customer in front of me by calling on his cell phone. To check out and pay for 6 items took 5 minutes while I nervously looked out the window hoping our every 10 minute bus did not pass. It didn't. At the stop 8 other people waited, so we walked the extra 2 blocks to the National Museum. After going through 10,000 years of early man, my [View Full Entry]

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Day 4, September 4th The next morning the front desk girl told us to take bus 26 to Den Lille Havfru/Tiny Topless Trollop/Fine Fishy Female/The Little Mermaid. The driver responded, "20 minutes" when asked how far we had to travel from the City Hall Square bus stand. We got off the bus at a circle, walked a ways before asking a lady where Lille Miss Havfru sunned herself. She pointed where she thought LMH sat, and at the same time I detected a dozen tour busses - BINGO. With the sun behind her and everyone molesting the poor girl, I got [View Full Entry]

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Day 3, September 3rd, 2009 We checked out, and the desk clerk asked with feigned sincerity, "How was your stay." I answered, "Except for the people yelling all night in the street, it was fine." She looked shocked, and I'm sure will remedy the situation (that's sarcasm). After a perfect 70 degree clear blue sky day yesterday, this one started wet and wild as we walked to the train station. The automatic ticket machine did not list the flughaffen/airport, so back to the information window I asked where to get a ticket. "The green machine." Silly me, I should have known [View Full Entry]

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Scandinavia Frankfurt, Germany, 9/2,18/09, Copenhagen, Denmark, 9/3-6/09 Oslo, Norway, 9/7-10/09, Stockholm, Sweden, 9/11-14/09 Helsinki, Finland, 9/15-17/09 Day One and two, September, 1/2 Jock drove us to South Beloit where we caught the 7:25 Van Galder Bus to O'Hare Field in Chicago. Originally scheduled to leave at night the flight changed to 4pm and as usual we arrived early. The security guard thought we should stay by the eating, sho [View Full Entry]

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Our last full day in Merida we took a taxi to Monumento a la Patria (father) which covered the inner circle of a huge square at the end of a mansion filled boulevard, Avenue Montejo. We strolled south with weird art every block or so. My personal favorites: a mass of broken boards like a house hit by a combination hurricane, tornado, and A bomb, a space age robot, and a bench covered in poofy pink puke. Another couple of blocks found us at Palacio Canton/Museo Antropologia with artifacts from Chichen Itza and a guard who stalked us like the [View Full Entry]

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MEXICO 12/23/2008 -1/2/2009 Part 1 Some skeptics have questioned the validity of my accounts. They are much more accurate than either party's campaign promises. This year visual proof will be provided after I put the pictures on my computer when we get home. Jock found cheap tickets to Cancun last February, so we booked the same plane with different itineraries. Northwest flight 933 changed to 1146 and departure from 6:50 to 6:40 am. With no bus service that early we reserved rooms at Days Inn, Elk Grove Village, cheaper than O'Hare parking. We found out why. December 23r [View Full Entry]

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Our shuttle van with 8 of us and 6 of our closest friends, capacity 9, made it to O'Hare for the transition from 0 degrees to 85 degrees. Of course any trip has it bumps. Ours came near Memphis. Our pilot, Bucky Buckwilder warned of mild turbulence from the storm of the century. As seasoned travelers we had experienced 1,000 foot drops over the Pacific, a broken ankle in Hawaii, and a brutal hangnail in Nepal. Lee and I glanced at each other with smug looks. Bucky turned Flight 1146 east toward Memphis and the bouncing began. After 20 minutes [View Full Entry]

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I'm sure part 1 sent you into deep depression as your empathy and sympathy for our well being brought you to near tears. Part 2 is light hearted, cheerful, fun, and full of the same BS you've come to expect. Right now I'm lounging in a hammock by the Doris Albino pool filled with attractive bikini clad females. OK there's a 4 year old with a look of relief on her face and a yellow wave drifting away. Back in Cancun our eco friendly hotel, the Del Ray Caribbean, used composting/an open air garbage pit, gray water recycling/the sink and [View Full Entry]

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We/I made some bad choices yesterday which will not be made public until Lee BLABS about them. The good choice was taking a leisurely stroll to Cenote IK Kil/sinkhole across the road from our inexpensive/cheap but acceptable Doris Albino Motel. The grounds leading to the sinkhole have a beautiful array of tropical plants and flowers. The sinkhole, after they trot you through the souvenir shop, has stairs leading down a cave with observation areas and signs warning not to jump. Forty foot roots hang from the ceiling and drink from the pure, clear (almost) water of the pool with dribbli [View Full Entry]

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We camped out in the shade by the fountain and pool with a formerly cold now tepid nearly extinct Coke. Our hotel namesake, Doris Albino, liked to have herself painted numerous times and hung on the lobby walls. From a distance, not bad, but as you get closer she has the thick dark unibrow, and a telltale wing moustache that goes below the bottom lip. If you could afford to be painted why not slip the guy an extra 50 pesos with instructions not to be so accurate. Or you could have used a heavy duty weed whacker right before [View Full Entry]

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