http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Sharona--Shaz--Doris/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Sharona Shaz Doris en-us Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:29 +0000 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:00:29 +0000 This will be my last entry from the US. I can't believe it. I've spent the day pretty quietly pottering around the house here and chatting with Steph. Only managed to get out to the local supermarket past the alleged ten storey undergound prison and cook dinner. My first homemade meal in weeksI called Jon in DC to say goodbye but somehow it doesn't seem real. It was nice talking to him http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Minneapolis/blog-137278.html It's late here but I felt I should scribble a few words before I go to bed. Tomorrow is my last proper day in the US and it doesn't seem real that my trip is ending. Today was a very fun day. We went up to the Interstate State Park really and took a walk by the river up and down the snowy trail. Animal tracks traced the ice and the pines cast amazing flamelike shadows over the frozen surface http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Minneapolis/blog-136926.html Today I walked across a frozen snowdusted river. The St Croix River here near Bayport where our lovely friends Jon and Steph Reid live just a while away from the Twin Cities. It's a wide wide river. Scratching back inches of snow we found the ice almost black seeming with the cold water underneath. I would have thought I'd feel fear but I didn't. I guess that is a good metaphor for my whol http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Minneapolis/blog-136587.html Due to popular demand thanks for your support I am hammering out this little entry while hubby has very helpfully gone to forage for hot chocolate and croissants YumChicago is a beautiful city architecturally it rivals NY but it's so brutally cold We've had to sightsee in sub zero temperatures and even walk home from a fat tomatotopped pizza through a blizzard Haven't managed to get d http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-136228.html Well this is the end. The end of my lone star days anyhow. I will be leaving the Swiss Family Matt Robinson house in DC and joining my husband in Chicago tomorrow and facing all kinds of music in my life only some of it with a funky beat.Today was the last day of my life as a free woman. Maybe I should have a hen party tonight There are rumours of me going for a farewell drink with Jon. But http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/blog-135101.html Well I could say my day was pants my husband put the phone down on me twice and I felt ill and miserable in my hotel room but then Then I dragged myself out to dinner with Dottie Lee who designed Apollo and the Shuttle and we were joined by Aneta Davis who wrote to me today about my book she was an early feminist campaigner and unionist at NASA and John Llewellyn who helped bring back http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Houston/blog-134444.html Literally. Well literally in the way that Americans mean it. I'm not churning my Happy Meal over the floor but I have got some kind of 'flu type virus which has imprisoned me in my room today. I got up for breakfast even though I felt achy and exhausted just thought it was tiredness bit of ME and then found I was unable to function. Went back to my room and slept then had pizza delivered for http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Houston/blog-134119.html That got your attention So did Johnson I've been on my own too long Space Center's Mission Control for me. I saw it today the orginal room with the old pastel green consoles where all the geeks fingered their sliderules and prayed for the Apollo missions to not fck up. I basically drooled all over the glass from the observation lounge where the astronauts' wives sat hoped their un http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Houston/blog-133844.html Well I think Houston may BE the problem Okay it's incredibly late. Okay I'm exhausted from flying from NM and then getting to the airport only to find that the shuttle I booked ages ago wouldn't come for two hours ... Okay so I had to get a taxi I can't afford they swear they will reimburse me but not 'til next week .... Okay so they shifted my hotel and when I got here they know nothing a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Houston/blog-133583.html God gives you life and he'll take it away what you do in between is your fault. This is what Philip my wonderful Hispanic shuttle driver to Sante Fe told me his grandfather said to him after a long hard life of ranching in the hills. Today was one of those days when I feel like I'm doing the right thing that my life is going roughly towards the direction I want it to go that I can take http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Mexico/Santa-Fe/blog-133253.html Most of you know just from reading this blog that I'm a romantic everything in my life is oozed over. I'm no neutral gal everything's amazing or awful. People or places are polarised by my imagination. But usually they're sent towards the positive even if they don't deserve it Well New Mexico deserves it. I fell in love at first sight. Exhausted as I was from flying here via Chicago landi http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Mexico/Albuquerque/blog-132884.html Detachment something I'm trying to learn from this trip. To say goodbye without being ripped apart. Not getting so enmeshed with other people basing my whole being on their every whim and mood. Forgetting myself in my willingness to be loved and liked by the allimportant THEM. I had to bid farewell to my new NASA buddies today. I'd grown pretty fond of Colin Fries the archivist. He'd been so http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-132224.html Did you know that Buzz Aldrin took Communion Eucharist on the moon Well that's what one article I read today claims. And also one thought which has always puzzled me ... if Neil took the first steps who was standing at the bottom of the ladder taking the pictures Buzz so he would've been the first ... Only of course they were in a TV studio right And Nixon pocketed the space billion http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-131560.html I was just 13 years old when Challenger exploded over Florida the too cold temperatures causing a tank of fuel to rupture and taking with it seven astronauts including the first and only TeacherinSpace S. Christa Mcauliffe. Today at NASA HQ I read through some documents relating to Christa prior to the accident they showed her immense passion for her profession teaching is one of my love http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-131213.html So it's Presidents Day here. Dunno what we're supposed to be celebrating especially with this current administration but hey ho. Still feeling kind of wobbly about my life I plodded my way over to Arlington Cemetery where all the big wigs spend their deaths.Yes JFK Jackie O how beautiful was she I'm so jealous and even Bobby although I somehow missed his grave. Is it just me or was http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-130879.html Well we are lucky two entries in a day A blizzard has been billowing in DC since this afternoon and that with my hangover and ongoing stuff is making me blue and lonesome. I'm writing this to feel I can connect. I miss you all. It's again one of those days when I feel like coming home. It doesn't help that I'm once more out of money. I think hope I will be narrowly saved by the bell aga http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-130588.html I really don't know how I'm ever coming home. I don't know how I'll readjust without so much amazingness in my life. Yesterday was again a terrific day for all kinds of reasons.I've discovered I love walking by myself I've discovered I like myself through every step too. Maybe I'm a sociopath to so enjoy my own company but I have certainly found that I'm a good travel companion. When alone http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-130426.html Well today was a good day. It started quite ominously tired achy and feverish I thought I was fighting off the cold the Republican next to me on the plane had just got over. I feared that his politics might come with it a plague of bigotry on both your houses. But I prevailed. I passed most of the day at NASA with my head in a file about Jerrie Cobb the first woman to pass all the astronau http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-129593.html Well we thought we had enough reasons to hate Bush but now we have another I got up at 5.45 this morning and trudged out through thick snow up to my shins in some places through the darkness only to be told that the visit was off Pah Forget Iraq now George really is done for I am reminded of the Alan Carr joke about parading with banner saying Gays against Bush ... most people don' http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-129059.html So here I am in DC snowstorms and the Senate. All in one day. Phew. DC is so different from Miami another world and 50 degrees in temperature. I trudged out for groceries through the snow this morning past beautiful clapboard houses up here in suburban Chevy Chase yes it's really called that. I just cooked dinner for the first time in two weeks in this wonderful. huge house I'm sharing w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-128872.html