Next Stop, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Stephanie and I are taking off in a few minutes on our trip to the car show… wish us luck!!
Thanksgiving 2003
I drove to my grandmother’s house in Brighton, Iowa on Wednesday last week. Brighton is in south eastern Iowa, an hour north and west of Burlington. My younger brother Gary went with me, and he was very cool to ride with because he’s interesting and funny, despite the constant backseat driving. 🙂 He’s twenty-five, single and a Wabash graduate, BTW, in case you know any single girls. We stopped in Peoria, Illinois on the way to get photos of the Uniroyal Gal. We stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Washington, Iowa, which is about 13 miles north of Brighton, because Brighton doesn’t actually have a motel. It’s rather small.
My three other brothers all drove also; Todd and Paul drove their new trucks, too. Paul hit a deer on the way, unfortunately, and damaged the front of his truck, which I just realized I should have taken a picture of, but didn’t.
On Thursday, we all stayed around Grandma’s and ate dinner, then opened Christmas presents. All the male relatives got gag underwear, which they tried on over their pants for a photo. My grandmother gave us beautiful plates that she hand-painted herself, which will I will be hanging in my dining room.
On Friday, we went to the Amana Colonies to eat at the Ox Yoke Inn and to shop. The Amana Colonies were formed in 1854 by a german religious order who bought 18,000 acres of land in Iowa. They aren’t Amish, although there is a large Amish settlement nearby in Kalona, Iowa. Kalona is where we stop to get cheese curds every year. I bought a lot of great things this year at the Amana Colonies, including wine and beer for New Years Eve.
On Saturday we stopped at my aunt Rosemary’s farm for cinnamon rolls and coffee (recipe for the rolls will be posted soon!) and then started the six hour drive home.
Viva Las Vegas!
Wow. So that was Las Vegas. Wow. And I didn’t lose much money. Cool. This was a great trip! I didn’t think I’d care for Vegas because it’s so artificial, but I LOVED it.
Hello!
We went for a friend’s wedding and stayed at Circus Circus. I went with Dan and Douglas, and we spent most of one day visiting many of the casinos on the strip; we started at the south end at Mandalay Bay and had a drink and played some slots and took photos at various casinos as we headed back north.
Viva Las Vegas!
Otto’s Lighthouse
I visited the Pilsum Lighthouse (AKA Otto’s Lighthouse in 1997 when I visited my friend Cate. According to Wikipedia:
The Pilsum Lighthouse (German: Pilsumer Leuchtturm) was built in 1891 in order to provide a beacon for the Emshörn channel on Germany’s North Sea coast. It is located on a dyke near the village of Pilsum in the municipality of Krummhörn. It has guided ships through the narrow channel since 1915.
The tower grew in popularity as a result of the film Otto – Der AuĂźerfriesische (“Otto – the Outer Frisian”) by comedian, Otto Waalkes. In the film Otto lives in the lighthouse.
Visited with Cate
I made an offer on the house… it’s pretty cool but needs a lot more work than I had expected. So now we wait. Again.
Seeing Cate was great- we went to P.F. Changs and ate and plotted my next visit to Europe, which I hope will be in the fall of next year, and will cover London, Paris and MĂĽnster. Cool. Somehow I think “big things” will be few and far between in Europe, but I’ll have to scout out, just in case.
Customer "Support" At A Phone Company
I work in Boston, Massachusetts. A co-worker just told me this true story that happened to him this morning. He had a dispute about a phone-card bill for long distance service from his long-distance carrier, which we shall refer to by the three-letter acronym TLA to protect the guilty. Towards the end of his very long and unproductive call he was starting to get exasperated, and the following (paraphrased) exchange ensued.
In the Park
Actual comments received in 1996 from the Bridger Wilderness registration sheets and comment cards:
Trails need to be wider so people can walk while holding hands.
Instead of a permit system or regulations, the Forest Service needs to reduce world-wide population growth to limit the number of visitors to wilderness.
Travel Agent Stories
The following are actual stories told by travel agents…
A woman called to make reservations; "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York" The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent asked "Are you sure that’s the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve looked up every airport code in the country and can’t find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don’t be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don’t mean Buffalo, do you?" "That’s it! I knew it was a big animal!"
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