Alaska - Day 5

Sunday, August 3, 2008 - There is really not a lot to report on today's activities. We basically rode a bus from Denali to Seward that took close to 8 hours. We did make a stop for lunch and a couple of other stops, but essentially, it was riding a bus today. Thankfully, it is the last bus for this trip, with the possible exception of catching a bus when we fly back home.

Our bus driver this time, Eric, is a school teacher here in Alaska. He is driving buses during the summer months. We drove through his home turf and he told us stories about local towns and his school district. He educated us on many interesting facts about Alaska during our ride. We were very entertained on most of it. Meanwhile, Jack slept through a big part of the ride, which worked out for us.

We finally arrived in Seward sometime before 5pm where the bus dropped us off right at the ship... the MS Volendam. We said our goodbyes to Josiah, our tour guide and friend through the land tour of our trip. Proceeding to check in for the cruise, there were not many people in line. I did the on-line check in which really helped to speed up the process. Eleven years ago when I went on the Carnival cruise, we had to wait in an extremely long line and seemed like forever to finally get on the ship. But this was not bad. I think we spent less than 10 minutes with check in. Sweet! Of course we had to go to the mandatory safety drill to prepare in the event the ship is going to sink. And that didn't really take as long.

Jack is all about the Lido Deck, where there is the swimming pool. I recently discovered The Loft where it is a lot of video games and such for teens. Jack will also like that. Mom says she could just sit on her balcony for the rest of the trip (her room is on the port side of the ship, so she had a good view of the glaciers). We started to set sail at 10pm. Tomorrow is basically just cruising as well as Tuesday. Our first port of call will be on Wednesday (I don't remember where).

I have a bit of some disappointing news for my blog fans. While the Volendam has wireless Internet access, it comes at a price. So in the interest of saving my dollars for much needed alcohol and freeing up time to vacation instead of blogging, I will only be logging onto the Internet intermittently.

Alaska Fun Fact #1
Eric the bus driver's school district is approximately the size of West Virginia. And in the state of Alaska, which is incredibly large in size, is divided in Burroughs instead of counties like most other states.

Alaska Fun Fact #2
There is an estimated 300,000 moose in Alaska. According to Eric, he has to get moose collision insurance on his car, which he has hit a moose in the past. And on the bus ride today, we got to see a moose feeding in a pond. So collectively, we have seen 1/100,000 of all the wild moose in Alaska on this trip thus far.

Alaska Fun Fact #3
According to many of the people in Alaska, this summer has been the coldest in the past 60+ years. There has only been a handful of days that the temperature has been over 65 F. Eric, the summertime bus driver and school teacher, talked a bit about the receding of glaciers and global warming. At the top of mountains where there are glaciers, are ice fields. These are bodies of water turned to ice from years of accumulated snowfall turned to ice that is unable to drain. Once full, the ice starts flowing over the top, just like pouring more water into an already full glass. Eric claims the recession of glaciers is twofold from his research. Glaciers are going to melt regardless since the Ice Age is over. And while rising temperatures can explain accelerated melting, Eric has noticed that less than enough precipitation is not allowing ice to overflow from the ice fields.

Photo Info:

All of us with Josiah disembarking off the bus and onto the ms Volendam.

Alaska - Day 4 (part 2)

We got really lucky today!! Continuing on the land tour of our trip, today we were to head out on the Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park. The tour was to last for about 8 hours, with boarding at 6:20am and ride in a converted school bus. Sounds brutal, but it turned out to be well worth it. Dennis, Shari, Jack and Mom bailed out, so it was only Buffy and myself that went on this excursion.

So our day began quite early. And all these early mornings, late nights and endless daylight must be taking its toll. I was very tired this morning, but I still managed to get to the bus. At least later in the morning, the skies opened and the sun began to shine.

There is only one road that takes you into the park. After 14 miles, no private vehicles are allowed unless they have a special permit. These special permits usually go to professional photographers, researchers, etc. Other than that, it is government/park owned vehicles that can enter this point. And they are only a limited number of them per day. This way, the majority of the park will not be impacted by the actions of mankind. We were instructed to eat on the bus and to leave all food, drinks, wrappers and such on the bus. This way, we protect the park and also do not become a target for animals looking for a better meal.

Our bus driver, Marsha was very informative and she talked almost for the entire tour. She knew all about the park, it's history, plants and the animals. The key word for the day was “migration,” so she called it the Marsha's Migration Tour.

Our first encounter with wildlife was not too far into the park; a snowshoe hare. It looked pretty much like a common rabbit to me. And like I said that we got lucky, it would be easier to mention what wildlife we didn't see. We also saw the Arctic ground squirrel, some raven, a lynx, dall sheep (rams), several caribou, plenty of willow ptarmigan (the state bird of Alaska) with look similar to chicken, a couple of grizzly bears with one young adult running in a field and in last 30 minutes of the tour, an adult bull moose with full antlers. The only animal we did not see was a wolf.

But the thing most exciting to see was Mt. McKinley. At 20,320 feet, it is the highest mountain in North America. So high that it can be seen on a clear day in Anchorage, 300 miles away. A large majority of the time, the mountain is not able to be seen in the park due to cloud cover. This mountain range is so large that it creates its own weather systems. We really got lucky with clear skies today.

Meanwhile, Mom, Dennis, Shari and Jack decided to take a shuttle to Denali National Park's Visitor Center. It is here where Shari probably made the quote of the day saying that she “felt that they are all prisoners on this trip,” since they have to wait in bus lines all the time and being told what activities to pursue. After looking around there for a while, they went for a ride to Savage River to look around.

Dennis wanted to start hiking around, but Mom wanted no part of that so she decided to ride the bus back to the Visitors Center and wait for them. Mom was in for the real adventure of the day. She mistakenly got off the bus a stop too early. She waited for a while for the next bus, but never really came on time. Noticing that the Visitors Center was short of 2 miles, she decided to trek out on her own. At least it was mostly downhill. It was about this time when our bus went by and Buffy and I saw Mom hiking down the road.

A short time into her hike, she came across a moose. So she just decided to turn around and go back the way she came. Later, Mom came across a couple of buses; one that was a blue campers' bus. She asked for a lift back, but they would not give it too her. Eventually, the shuttle bus going to the Visitors Center came by and she got on and made it back to the hotel.

After a nap, Mom, Buffy and I walked around the gift shops some and had pizza next door where the Princess Cruise Lines put up their passengers. While eating dinner, we ran into our tour director Josiah and one of his friends... off duty. There were no other tables available so we invited them to sit with us. We chit chatted around and learned more about how people come up for the summer and work these jobs in Alaska.

We never did find Dennis, Shari and Jack and wondered if they were still hiking somewhere. It wasn't like they were going to run out of daylight, but the shuttles quit running past 6pm.

Buffy and I later headed out to the Salmon Bake, a restaurant/bar/shops for a few drinks. Josiah was there so we hung out for a couple of drinks. We figured this was a place where the locals hang out. Heineken were $6 a bottle, so price wise it didn't seem like a place for locals. But everything else up here is a little pricier (unleaded gas is around $4.45 – 4.55 a gallon). We were here the night before after writing my previous post. One of the shots they serve is called a “duck fart.” It is Bailies, Kahlua and Crown Royal. Buffy really enjoyed it, but if I drank it, it would come up faster than it would go down. Instead, I was drinking a local brew called “Moose Drool Brown Ale.” It is a darker beer and it is very smooth, though it is a bit filling.

We ended the day getting things ready for tomorrow and, only fitting before getting on a cruise ship, watching Titanic on TBS.

So guess what we get to do tomorrow? You guessed it... another bus ride. This should be the last. We are to take a coach to Seward where we finally board the MS Volendam and begin our cruise. The ride is to be about 8 hours I hear, with a couple of stops. So I don't think a whole lot will happen tomorrow.

Alaska - Day 4

Travelogue Intermission - The Internet service suck big time on this ship.  This is my third attempt on a second try to get this post up!!!!  I will get back with everyone when I can find reliable Internet service.

Otherwise, we're having a good time! 

Alaska - Day 3

Today was another early start. Our original excursion called for a 4 hour scenic train ride from Fairbanks to Denali.  It was to be one of those glass dome cars. However, Alaska has had the highest amount of rainfall in 41 years. So, some of the tracks these trains need are flooded.  Instead, we had to take a bus to Fairbanks.  The part I don't understand was this; we were departing Fairbanks an hour earlier, but they claimed the bus ride would be faster than by train.  If that is so, why leave earlier?  Anyway, the weather by far cooperated with us as the day progressed.

Our first bus stop was in North Pole, AK.  That's right... the name of the town is North Pole and everything there has to do with Santa and Christmas.  All the street light poles are in the shape of candy canes.  Even the McDonald's sign is held up by a pole resembling a candy cane.  Coming into town, Andy the bus driver drove us completely through a roundabout in a complete circle before heading in the correct direction. He claimed he needed the practice.  The bus stopped at the Santa Claus House, a gift shop with everything tourist and Christmas.

Buffy was in bit of a panic.  She wanted several pictures of the place, but yet she wanted to shop. We only had 30 minutes.  I went and got the pictures and she shopped.  We did manage to get one photo of her with a giant Santa Claus statue next to the Santa Claus RV Park.  I am not making this up.  If fact later today, we met a family that stayed there!

We then had to head back to Fairbanks to pick up some folks at the train station (I think they got a late call while we were already in North Pole to pick these people up - good thing North Pole is only about 15 miles from Fairbanks).  Our next stop after about an hour or so was in a small town called Nenana.  There they have some large tripod pole they place on the Nenana River.  Each winter, the river freezes.  This tripod is connected to a clock and once the ice breaks free, it pushes free the tripod which then trips the clock and the exact time and day is recorded to when the ice finally breaks.  Wagers and bets are placed throughout the year on when this will happen.  The pot can get as high as $75,000.  And by the looks of this town, that's serious money.

We finally reached Denali shortly after 12 noon at the McKinley Chalets Resorts, where we'll be staying the next couple of nights.  It was nice that we didn't have to deal with our luggage.  The cruise people handle all that, though Mom's as well as Dennis & Shari's bags were late in being delivered.  We had lunch there at "the Chalets" at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.  This is a nice little bar with a great view of the river and canyon.  But poor Jack, it might just be too much excitement and too little sleep.  As he's bouncing around with energy, he accidently knocked over a glass of root beer and the glass broke.  He thought he was in trouble. 

After lunch and some light shopping and looking around, we were trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the afternoon. Dennis, Shari, possibly Jack and Mom were going to rent a Jeep and drive around the park.  But this would not happen until 5:45pm.  Buffy and I opted to take a shuttle over to Denali National Park and went for a hike to Horseshoe Lake.  On our way back waiting for our shuttle, we started talking to some people who was vacationing here. They mentioned that they were in North Pole and their kids got to meet Santa.  They also mentioned they were staying in an RV and then they stated that they stayed at the Santa Claus RV Park. "Yea, I know where that is," I said.

Tomorrow is going to be another early start.  We take our 8 hour Wilderness Tundra Tour or something like that in Denali National Park.  We hope for good weather, but the forecast calls for rain.  Sounds like Dennis is going to bail on this ride as he cannot handle being in a converted school bus with Jack for that long.  I'll let everyone know what happens tomorrow.

Photos:

Top - Buffy and I on the trail to Horseshoe Lake.

Bottom - All of us at the Nenana View Bar & Grill.

Alaska - Day 2

Today began at 12:11am.  That's when I woke up inexplicably.  I decided to check out how much sunlight was still out. Before we left, Jeff Bilsland wanted a picture taken at midnight so he could see just how much sunlight there was at that time. I didn't take a picture, but I had to see for myself.  There was no direct sunlight, but more "twilight."  It was like the sun was just beyond the horizon, like you see early in the morning.  When I woke up later in the morning, I discovered that we were in for a rainy and overcast day.  We would later learn that this year has been unusually high in rainfall, which explains why all the creek and rivers look so full.

Right now, it's 9:15pm and it looks like 6pm at night at this time of year in Illinois.

Our orders for today was to meet before 8pm in the hotel lobby for us to head out on our riverboat tour.  We had breakfast first, but then waited in the lobby until our tour was ready to head out.  We were assigned on Tour 14A, bus #864 with driver "Gwen" who regaled us with many tails about growing up in Fairbanks. 

We arrived at the place where the riverboat, the Discovery III, was to head out.  They strategically drop us off in front of the gift shop before it left.  Within the barrage of gift shops, there's a place called "Alaska at 40 Below."  It was basically a room with a temperature of 40 below or less.  At $10 a person, you can experience what life is like in Fairbanks during the winter. Dennis, Jack and I signed up no more than we see that the current temperature is -60 or less (the thermometer was buried). They put us in parkas and we first entered a room at approximately 0 F.  Then we moved into -60.  It was cold.  I've been in -40 before.  We did a couple of experiments; we through a cup of hot water in the air and watched it dissipate.  We also blew soap bubbles and watch them freeze and when they busted, turned into ice crystals.  They even showed us frozen motor oil, demonstrating what an auto goes through in this part of the country.  We moved back into the air lock where it was 0 degrees... it felt warm.

Our riverboat cruise took us on the Chena River.  We made a stop at where famed sled dog trainer Susan Butcher trained her award winning dogs for the Iditirod race.  We also stopped at an "Arctic Village" to learn how Eskimos and natives made a life for themselves.  At this stop we were able to pet many sled dogs and see cabins where natives lived life in Alaska.  There were many demonstrations on the cruise regarding life in Alaska.  But this cruise also looked at many homes along the river. 

Once this cruise was over, we headed to a gold dredging facility for lunch, a tour and some gold panning.  The lunch was actually good... beef stew, biscuits and blueberry crumb cake.  It was a bit odd going into the "mess hall" of the gold dredging facility in a line and in order.  We were directed where to sit and what to eat.  I commented that it was run by the Soup Nazi.  

After the informative tour of the Gold Dredging #8, we got to pan for our own gold.  They gave us a sack of sand, which already contained gold flakes in them.  We gave a couple of extra bags to Jack so he got extra gold.... $30 worth according to the assessor.  I not only panned out my gold, but afterwards, I dug up a bunch of rock/sand from the bottom of the water pit and was able to pan an extra flake of gold out of it, undoubtedly left over from a previous excursion. I'm rich!!

One last brief stop off the bus was to check out a section of the Alaskan Pipeline.  Shari stayed on the bus as she had no interest in this stop.  Jack got off the bus to look at the site, but displayed very little interest as well.

We all ate dinner across the street at the Iris.  Several Heinekens later, I'm back at room 316 at the Westmark.  Our day begins tomorrow before 7am.  We were originally to take a train to Denali National Park, but the heavy rains and flooding they've had going on this summer has shut down the track.  So our plans have altered to a bus to Denali.  But they say this will take less time.  Once at Denali, we are suppose to tour the park, so hopefully, I'll have some pictures of wildlife.

So until tomorrow...

Alaska Fun Fact #1:
At the gold dredging, we learned that Fairbanks is an Artic desert and that Arizona receives more rain.  This summer has been unusually wet and cold for Alaska.  The locals claim that this is the most rain they've seen since the big flood of '67.

Alaska Fun Fact #2:

According to Gwen the bus driver, JC Penney opened its first store in Alaska in Anchorage in 1964 just a day before Good Friday.  Of course on the next day, Good Friday that year, Anchorage encountered one of the worst recorded earthquakes.   In 1967, JC Penney opened another store in Fairbanks... the year of a terrible flood in Fairbanks.

Alaska - Day 1

It is 5:11pm Alaska time (8:11pm Central time) and we have all arrived safely and have now settled in the Westmark Fairbanks.  Currently, Dennis, Shari, Buffy and myself are lounging in our room watching the Alaska channel while my Mom rests and Jack takes a bath.  Jack is pretty wound up right now after a full day of travel.

We started off sometime after 9am Peoria time, leaving Byerly Aviation.  After about 3 and a half hours, we stopped in Edmonton, Alberta Canada to refuel the plane and ourselves.  Our first order of business was taking care of some business... meaning potty stop.  In getting to the rest room, we passed by a terminal at the airport.  It was here where we saw scores of beat down, hunched over people waiting for a flight on a 737.  Perhaps hours earlier, these people were having a good time at a pub and then suddenly hit over the head.  Later, upon waking up, they find they were shanghaied and now forced to work in the vast oil sands of northern Alberta.  Just speculation.  Fact is, it looked pretty depressing in there.

We went to Zambelli's restaurant near Edmonton where I tried some of the local brew, Roughneck.  It's logo was that of an oil well, simply because of all the oil sand business in northern Alberta.  I thought it would come in a bottle, but was a can.

Back in the air, it was about 2 and a half hours left, thanks to less than stronger headwind.

We landed in Fairbanks, only to discover that Holland/Westmark did not know anything about picking us up.  A hour and a couple of phone calls later, the shuttle was there to whisk us to the Westmark.

After check in, we met up with Josiah, our cruise director for the land tour.  He ran down our activities for tomorrow.  We paid good money for people to tell us what to do!  Tomorrow starts off with a riverboat tour (couldn't we have done that on the Spirit of Peoria... I don't think it would be the same).  For lunch and the afternoon, there's a gold dredging outing.  Jack is excited about that because we told him he could keep any gold he finds.  Good luck. 

I hope to have some interesting photos for everyone tomorrow.  I didn't really have any today.

But right now, we researching some restaurants to go to and the all important saloon.

Just Before Leaving For Vacation...

... this is what happened at the office the night before we left for Alaska.  The power was out for hours.  All is well now and that tree is coming down all together.

I Just Saved $5,000...

... and I didn't even have to switch my car insurance to Geico!

On Friday, July 25, 2008, President George Bush traveled to Peoria to help fund raise campaign dollars for the 27-year old Republican candidate for Congress, Aaron Schock. The event was held at Weavers' Farm around 1:30pm and it cost $500 a plate, and for another $5,000, you could have your picture taken with the President.

A few hours later at 4pm, when folks finally got off work, Democratic candidate Colleen Callahan held a fish fry at the Kickapoo Sportsmen Club, where it was only $15 for the Walleye dinner. Photos were free!!

Actually, I think I saved $10 grand because I had 2 pictures taken.

President To Stay Overnight

Peoria, IL (RLO News Service) - President George Bush will be staying overnight in Central Illinois after flight crews had difficulties with Air Force One. Bush was in town to spearhead a fundraiser for Aaron Schock, who is running as the Republican candidate for the 18th Congressional District.

Bush had originally asked Schock if he could just "flop on his couch for the night." Schock claimed that his house was already full of family guests and that there was no room to spare. "If I still had one of my rental houses near Bradley University, it would have been perfect for the President," Schock testified.

Instead, Schock summoned his assistants to secure lodging facilities for the President. Within the hour, President Bush and the First Lady were booked for the night at the Ragon Motel in Creve Coeur, IL.

"I am truly honored to stay at a motel that bears the name of my favorite president and role model, Ronald Reagan," stated Bush as he entered the room. No one informed the President that the spelling of the name was different.

As the Bushs' entered the room, the President's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Hot Damn! Look honey, they got the magic fingers bed." Bush handed one the Secret Service agents a $10 bill and ask if he could go get change.

As the evening drew to a close, Secret Service reported that the Bushs' ordered a pay-per-view movie, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and were settled in and comfortable.

Parody - Not To Be Taken Seriously

Obama To Stump For Votes Overseas

Baghdad, Iraq (RLO News Service) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama visited with some of the 140,000 US troops in Iraq on Monday as part of a vast campaign tour overseas. His latest campaign tour started off in Afghanistan and will finish up in parts of Europe.

While in Kabul on Saturday, Obama told a crowd of supporters, "It's great to be back in Afghanistan! I just got in from New Jersey and let me tell you, that place is a jungle." After a quick lunch with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Obama was off to Iraq. In Baghdad Monday morning, Obama greeted other supporters. "Let me tell ya," Obama stated, "it's great to be here in Iraq. I was just in Afghanistan, and let me tell you, that place is a jungle. There's no place like Iraq." The crowd became ecstatic and shot firearms off haphazardly in the air.

Meanwhile, back in the US, Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked by reporters to comment on Obama's wildly popular whirlwind tour. "Campaigning overseas?" McCain asked, "Huh? Huh? Iraqis can vote in US elections?" McCain's campaign staff immediately announced an overseas tour to campaign in China.

Parody. Not To Be Taken Seriously.

Bizzaro Tomatoes

Maybe this is the way they grow vegetables in the topsy-turvey world of the Bizzaro.

This planter allows for you to plant a tomato plant (or other plants) upside down. I planted what was called a "Boxcar Willie," a brand of tomato plant from country star Willie Nelson. I thought it odd because there's another country star with the stage name Boxcar Willie.

It was off to a great start as the plant was vastly outgrowing my other conventional tomato plants. Buffy has added more soil to it and we've had to relocate it once. Recently, it has started to droop and wilt a bit as I think it needs yet more soil. I can't put that much more into it. While it looks like it's doing better now, I don't know how long it will last as it just continues to grow more and expand it's root structure.

By the way, despite it's size, it has only produced 1 small tomato thus far.

A Wet Weekend

This past weekend, Buffy and I joined a group of roughly 20 other Jaycee members and friends for an annual camping and canoeing trip. We always stay at "Tree Island" at the Cherokee Village campground outside Turkey Run State Park in Indiana.

On the way there, we were running into and out of rain storms. Past Champaign, IL, we were finally out of it, but it eventually caught back up with us once we arrived and set up camp.

Buffy and I purchased a new, bigger tent along with cots for this year's trip. That was a good move! Sometime after I went to bed (2:30 - 3am), a thunderstorm came up. As I laid there, half asleep, I wondered how well this new tent will hold out the water. As rain dropped from the sky and onto the nylon tent, also equipped with an additional tarp, coupled with thunder and lightning, it made for very good sleeping weather. And the tent stayed high and dry.

Saturday morning was a muddy mess. We ate breakfast and called a few times to check on canoeing availability. We were scheduled to go at 11am and we were told to call 30 minutes in advance of that to check if any canoeing would be allowed. Our trip "leader" Kate suggested that the booze consumption be limited should go out on the creek as the water level could be high and somewhat dangerous. This would have severely hampered the entertainment of everyone at the expense of a certain member of our excursion.

We were called back with bad news. No canoeing, not only due to rain in the vicinity, but due to rain up north which was flowing our way.

As the weather cleared, many of us decided to hit a swimming pool at Turkey Run State Park. It was somewhat interesting to find many Amish people hanging out at the pool. I felt sorry for the Amish kids, especially the girls, as they wanted to get into the pool but were not permitted.

That evening, the sky clouded and the wind picked up. Thunder roared throughout the area and lightning occasionally flashed. This did not look good. The rain eventually started, but did not bring any violent weather. But at any rate, the steady rainfall brought miserable conditions as we all sat huddled under a couple of canopies placed side by side of each other.

Sunday morning, Buffy and I departed the Cherokee Village. On our way out, we crossed Sugar Creek where we would have canoed. Water completely filled the banks and was moving downstream quite rapidly. This is why the State of Indiana canceled all canoeing.

We all still had a good time and always seem to manage to do so regardless. It could have dropped to 28 degrees and snowed a half a foot and we'd still manage a good time. But maybe later this summer we might get in some canoeing yet.

Route 66 Part Two: Day Three

If you recall from yesterday, we stayed with Buffy's friend Betsy at her place near the north side of Chicago. Other than a couple of emergency vehicles running their sirens early this morning, it was fairly quiet in the big city. Once we awoke, got cleaned up and a cup of coffee for Buffy, we were on the road.

We filled up, figuratively and literally, with breakfast and fuel in Willow Springs. And in the Chicago area, fuel can be purchased as high as $4.35/gallon regular unleaded. We got a bargain today in Willow Springs at $4.22/gallon. If you're running diesel, you luck out at an affordable $5.00/gallon.

This is where we more or less planned our route back home. We decided to take US Route 6 along the Illinois River until we hit Rt 29. You'd think a river route might be scenic. Not really so along here. But what do you expect... it *is* the Illinois River. In all fairness, there was a lot of nice wooded areas, but starting out, there was a lot of industrial property. Not all that scenic unless heavy machinery turns you on.

So like I said earlier, don't expect this trip to be as grand as last year's excursion on the Mother Road to California. In all though, a good time was had. I will leave you with additional photos from concluding our Route 66 journey.



Buffy and Rick with Tall Paul, the Buyon's Giant Hot Dog man in Atlanta, IL. Tall Paul originally came from Cicero, IL, where he belonged to Bunyon's Drive-In.










Buffy pretends to refuel Ringo at a refurbished Standard Oil station in Odell, IL. It was first built in 1932 and was refurbished to what it appeared during the 1930's - 40's.






Rick reads the paper at the Route 66 cafe near Gardner, IL. This was previously a horse drawn street car. Sitting behind the Riviera Roadhouse, it was converted to a diner in 1932. It closed in 1939. Recently restored, no food is served there, but the 100 year old trolley remains so history is preserved... and that people like me can get photos like this.


More photos available at my MySpace page at www.myspace.com/rlojr.



Stats:

Travel Time: 5.83 hours

Miles Travelled: 182

Avg Speed: 31.22 mph

Total Miles: 486.6

Fuel Mileage: 24.94 mpg

Route 66 Part Two: Day Two

We are now in Chicago staying at the residence of a friend of Buffy's from high school for the evening. We had a charming evening having drinks on the back deck and enjoying some fine cuisine of BBQ chicken and brats. But what led us here???

We began our day leaving the Holiday Inn Express in Pontiac, IL at 9:21am for a Walgreen's (briefly) and then McDonald's for breakfast. Roughly an hour later, we were on our way heading north on 66. We made a stop in O'dell(sp) to check out a refurbished gas station, originally built circa 1932. Continuing on 66, we also stopped in Wilmington, where the "Gemini Giant" resides at the Launching Pad diner. This was another giant figure of a man, only this has somewhat of a science fiction flare as he wears a helmet and hold a rocket in his hands. After a few photos, we stayed for a milkshake.

Back on the road, we headed on into Chicago. There really wasn't much to stop at between Wilmington and Chicago. We saw a few sites, but nothing that warranted us stopping.

Our voyage into Chicago was much faster than the 4 hours of stop and go getting into Santa Monica last year. But one thing that was confirmed for me today was that Los Angeles drivers are far more courteous than Chicago drivers. If you recall from last year, we accidentally got on the LA freeway for a brief while. To my surprise, I found them to be courteous, allowing me to get off the freeway. No chance of that in Chicago. At one point, I only wanted to go straight through a green light; but the oncoming traffic wanting to turn left just went on, regardless that I had the right of way. Assholes!

Anyway, once our journey on 66 was now over, we parked the car and walked over to Navy Pier for some drinks at the Billy Goat tavern (you know, the "Cheezborger, cheezborger" place). Not knowing what we were going to do now, we started coming up with ideas.

"I wonder what Betsy is doing?" Buffy asked. "Call her up. We can party with them if they are up for it," I responded in so many words. The call was made, Betsy and her "man-friend" were not doing anything and they invited us to their place for dinner and for the night. We had another drink and then headed north to Betsy's and here we are.

What are we doing tomorrow? Check back to find out because I have no idea right now.

Stats:
Travel Time: 5 hours
Miles Travelled: 105
Avg Speed: 21 mph
Total Miles: 296

Route 66 Part Two: Day One

We left the house this morning and first stopped at the local SuperPantry to fill up with fuel... at the bargain price of $4.07 a gallon. For this trip, we opted to take "Ringo" (the name Buffy gave her car, since Ringo is her favorite Beatle). We were finally on our way at 9:30am.

Our first stop was at the Cracker Barrel in Morton for breakfast. Currently, they're breakfast special is "Grandma's Blueberry Pancakes." I highly recommend it. I also proved how dumb I was while trying to solve those puzzle games they have at Cracker Barrel. The best I could do was get it down to 3 pegs.





We finally arrived in Springfield, IL at exactly 12 noon. We parked and headed into the Abe Lincoln Presidential Library.

The place is very modern and there are some high tech stuff there. We first looked around at some of the other non-tech exhibits before heading into the high tech hologram stuff. One stop was a room that looked reminiscent of the back control room of a TV station. It showed a number of monitors as if it were broadcasting a news program. It featured Tim Russert, the now late NBC political commentator. The program it was showing was a mock TV news program from the hot presidential race of 1860. It was kind of humorous as the news ticker at the bottom of the screen claimed that France was considering allowing the new motorized cars to run on the streets.


There were two other high tech shows that were very interesting. Definitely, if you haven't been here, try to visit sometime.

We were finally done around 2:30pm and then left for Rt 66. We stopped at a few locations to check out some oddities. This would include seeing the Tropics sign in Lincoln and the giant hot dog man in Atlanta (were we stopped for a drink at Chubby's).

We finally stopped for the day in Pontiac and set up camp at the Holiday Inn Express. We went out for dinner at a local family restaurant and then adjourned to a local watering hold called Bob & Ringo's. This establishment features a number of stuffed animals, ranging from deer to bison to squirrel to rooster. It also features a number of firearms hung on the wall. And they had at least I'm guessing $15 grand in bottled booze behind the bar.

People in the joint were very friendly. We couldn't help but notice a note hanging above the cash register that says "Do Not Serve (name withheld)." We had to inquire.

Apparently, Ms (name withheld) has multiple personalities, and on several occasions, she has forgotten to take her medication, so she sits and has conversations with herself, laughs to herself and argues with herself. In all, quite entertaining, but she also causes some difficulties with the patrons. So, the management would rather not serve her at all.

This was a really cool place. After a couple of other drinks, we headed back to the Holiday Inn for the evening.

Tomorrow, we plan to get to Chicago and have absolutely no idea what to do next. We'll keep you posted.

Stats:

The stats are in the car and I'm too lazy to go out and get them. I'll post them tomorrow... sorry for the inconvenience.

Update: As promised, here are the stats...

Elapsed Time: 8.375 hrs

Avg Speed: 22.8 mph

Miles Travelled: 191

Total Miles: 191

Quote of the day: "and there's that 'ol onry John Wilkes Booth!" from an Abraham Lincoln Library worker, telling us that we could not use our camera in many of the areas of the library, but we could photograph the wax figures.

New Toy

I have ventured into the world of the Mac.  I broke down and purchased a MacBook Pro and so far, so good.  My previous laptop was a Sony Vio with a 17 inch monitor.  I got it least 5 years ago.  It was a great computer in its day and still a decent computer.  However, I pick up the MacBook and it is so much lighter than the "lead weight" of the Sony.

I got it home and the thing was pretty much ready to go.  But...  I had some difficulty using my wireless network to get on the Internet.  After some trial and errors and some research, I finally deduced that my old 5 or 6 year old Linksys router just did not work with newer technology.  So it was back to the store to pick up what Apple calls "Time Capsule."  It's basically a wireless-n router with a 500GB hard drive for backups... and they claim it's compatible with PCs.  We will see.

So tonight, after some minor difficulties, have been setting up the Time Capsule and the MacBook.  I cannot believe how much faster the Internet has been running using the new Apple router/Time Capsule.  Much faster than that old Linksys wireless-g router.  There's a couple of different quirkly little things I'm trying to get used to on the MacBook, but so far, I'm really liking it.

Next week, Beth and I plan to travel the section of Route 66 we have not been on, so I will have the MacBook with me to travelblog.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks Buffy's and my 10 year wedding anniversary! And we have nothing really planned.

It was Friday, June 12, 1998 (photo on left) when at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas, NV we said "I do." It's sort of difficult to believe it's been 10 years. A lot has happened since then... built a new house and moved in, gained an extra nephew, lost an array of family members, job changes, made new friends, terrorist attacks, war, got a mid-life crisis, started a band, became a blond. Yep, we're now just your typical old married couple.

Our anniversary was somewhat overshadowed by Buffy's parents 50th wedding anniversary last weekend. All the family came in town for happy hour on Friday then a dinner the next night. But, we are tentatively planning to finish our Route 66 trip for our anniversary, perhaps next week. If you recall, we followed Route 66 for over 2 weeks last year (which was travel-blogged about here). We got onto 66 just north of Springfield, IL. So we plan to go to Springfield and check out the new Lincoln Library, then follow 66 north from Springfield to Chicago. It will only be about a 3 day trip.

UPDATE: We wound up going to dinner at Tavern on the Water and then to the first night of "Scumboat Days" for our anniversary.  We met up with Ted Sumner, Dubby and Rusty Greene and watched Rachel's Hippo play. 

Nootril Drop To Play At Oliver's

Just wanted to leave a quick, shamless post to plug a Nootril Drop gig on May 30, 2008.

Nootril Drop to play live at Oliver's Pizza, 1231 Samual in Peoria Heights (near the corner of Samual and Prospect) on May 30, 2008. The band is scheduled to play in the outdoor beer garden from 8 - 11pm. Bring your friends! Bring your family! Bring the kids! Bring your wives/husbands and girlfriends/boyfriends (recommended not to bring them both, whichever the case may be)!

Hope to see you there!!

Did You Sleep Through The Earthquake?

Surprisingly enough, I woke up and asked myself the question "Is this an earthquake?" I normally sleep through anything; severe storms, tornadoes, loud parties,etc.

This morning around 4:30, a 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit New Salem, IL and could be felt as far away as Chicago, Indianapolis, Iowa and Georgia.

I awoke at this time as the bed rocked back and forth in perfect rhythm. I first thought to myself "Is this an earthquake?" I could also hear one of our doors intermittently bang against a wall. I then thought it was Buffy with a nervous twitch in her leg or something that's causing the bed to rock. She then woke up to secure the door and close a window or something (we had the windows open last night). I want to say the bed still moved a little even though she got out of it (isn't the bed suppose to rock when we're both in it? ha).

I asked what she was doing. She claimed she was moving stuff so the wind wouldn't bother it. We were expecting storms last night... which never materialized.

I got up like I normally do, took a shower, fixed my oatmeal and then logged on the Internet. By this time, I've completely forgot about the experience at 4:30 this morning. Then I saw the headline Quake Shakes Parts of Midwest. I knew exactly what happened at 4:30 this morning.

The only other thing to report from last night was my dream of being at a Paul McCartney concert. Paul was sporting a mustache like from the Sgt Pepper album and he was playing his bass right handed (Paul is left handed). I have got to get qualified for the McCartney Liverpool show giveaway on 93.3 The Drive!

Playing at the Opera House at Expo Gardens

I've seen this video a few times at a couple of other websites. The Who, live at the Opera House in Peoria on March 10, 1968. I've also heard that Ted Nugent and the Kinks have played there too.



This weekend, the Peoria Jaycees International Beer Festival is taking place in the Opera House. Waterstreet and Stepdown are the featured acts this year, which will be playing in the Opera House.

Elvis Needs To Re-Enter The Building

This was a little disturbing to read this week. Pop-star Mariah Carey has surpassed Elvis Presley in the quantity of number 1 songs on Billboard magazine's charts. Madonna, has also surpassed the King of Rock n' Roll in the number of top ten hits. Apparently, Mariah now has 18 number 1 songs compared to Elvis' 17 and Madonna now has 37 top ten hits compared to 36 from Elvis. My all time favorite, the Beatles still have them all beat with 20 number 1 hits... and that was done between 1962 to 1970 (8 years). The group broke up before any of them were 30 years old. Then factor in their post-Beatle/solo number one's and top ten hits... but I digress.

Just let me say this. In many years to come, we will still know who Elvis was and could name a number of his songs. I could name over 20 just off the top of my head. And he died when I was 12. But, in those many years to come, we will say "Mariah who?" I couldn't even name one song of hers. Madonna years from now, we'll for sure know who she was. But we probably won't know much more about her past Like A Virgin, Material Girl and her bad acting abilities (Elvis could fit into the latter category).

I guess this was bound to happen since there's hardly any decent new music out there these days. Just wait until Nootril Drop busts out on the scene!

Oh Canada! Part Three

Well we are home now, but this is how the rest of the trip turned out.

On Tuesday (March 4), Beth slept in as her cold was not getting any better. Bill scheduled most of the day for a massage (without the "happy ending"). So Pam and I headed out on a hike up to the Chateau Lake Louise. I am guessing it was a good 3 miles to hike up there, and it was uphill all the way. At least the trail had a gradual incline. Once we arrived at the Chateau, we called Buffy to come pick us up in the rental car.

In the afternoon on a couple of occasions, we went to the hotel's piano bar. It is complete with a fireplace and mounted moose head over the mantle place. The drinks are bit expensive, but a good atmosphere. We'll find someplace to eat, but many times went back to Pam and Bill's room where they have a fireplace. We purchased our own beer and/or wine and drank there several nights.

On Wednesday (March 5), we left the Post Hotel, Lake Louise and the Banff National Park for Calgary. Since our flights leave very early on Thursday, we've scheduled lodging at the airport hotel this night. On the way to Calgary, we decided to take the Province Highway 1A and visit Johnston Canyon between Lake Louise and Banff. It was a good hike for about 2.5 km (approximately 1.5 miles) to see the upper falls. The lower falls was cool to see too as you got to walk through a short tunnel to get there. Most of the falls were frozen. The hike there could get a bit dangerous and tricky as the trail is not maintained in the winter and many sections are very icy. Tim would of had a field day with his camera here.

On early Thursday (March 6) , we began our trek back home. Getting through Customs and security was not bad at all. By 6:30am, we were sitting eating a couple of donuts and waiting for our departure at 8am. While waiting, I got out my iPod to listen to some music. It starts up just fine, but moments later, it shuts down. The battery is completely dead! Shit! Shit!! Pam did bring a battery charger for iPods and I meant to power it up earlier in the week. I just kept forgetting to do it. Now I've got no music for the way home. Shit!!!

We got into Minneapolis early so it made our layover 4+ hours. I was careful when using the rest rooms there so I wouldn't get caught up in some gay solicitation operation or get hit on by Sen. Larry Craig.

I hope to have some photos up on my regular Internet site and/or my MySpace page.

Other Canada trip tidbits:

• I'm still trying to find the black diamond run I took on Sunday on the map. It doesn't appear to be there.
• Buffy never freaked out when I would say the temperature is minus 0 (she knew Canada used the metric/Celsius measurement).
• We never saw any moose... or much wildlife for that matter.
• There were no crowds when skiing during the week. Many of my lift rides were solo.
• The Banff channel is on 17 and is nothing but documentaries about Banff and surrounding areas.
• We lost the ice scraper for the rental car we had and forgot to replace it. I don't know what the charge for that is.
• We didn't get any stamps in our passports when entering Canada.
• The iPod is a indispensable piece of equipment for skiing.

Sample of songs on the iPod when skiing:

• All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
• Buck Cherry - Crazy Bitch
• B-52's - Roam
• Elvis Presley - Burning Love
• The Killers - Somebody Told Me
• Tom Petty & Heartbreakers - Runnin' Down A Dream
• Matchbox Twenty - How Far We've Come
• Loverboy - The Kid is Hot Tonight
• Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
• Weezer - Hash Pipe
• INXS - Pretty Vegas
• Sheryl Crow - Superstar
• Nick Lowe - Cruel to be Kind
• Brian Ray - I Liked You Better
• Modest Mouse - Dashboard

Oh Canada! Part Two

Things have been great in Lake Louise Canada.

On Sunday, I was the only one who went downhill skiing. Beth, Pam and Bill headed into Banff to see what was there. They came back and reported that there was not much there. They did drive by the infamous Grizzly's restaurant. This was an establishment that I had visited 12 years ago. A fondue joint that took us nearly 4 hours to finish dinner.

They also checked into cross country skiing lessons. I stressed that we didn't need them; simply rent the equipment and go! However, all the lessons had been booked by large groups so they decided cross country skiing was out for this trip. And that was one of the reasons we came out here.

Meanwhile, I spent the entire day downhill skiing. The only place for breakfast we could find was at the Lake Louise Ski Area. After breakfast, Buffy, Pam and Bill saw me off as went to get my lift ticket. That was around 10am. I took the Glacier Springs lift first just for a warm up. The sun was shining and ski conditions were near-perfect (could have used a little more snow). Then I later took the Top of the World Lift which takes you close to the top of the mountain. It is also nicknamed the "6-pack" as it is a 6-man lift.

It was pretty windy on top, but the view of the mountains is much better than seeing it from a car. I eventually headed on the Grizzly Gondola and wondered over to the Lange area, where there was less wind.

I spent most of the time on the blue runs. But the Wolverine run, which was labeled as blue, turned out to be false advertising. This should have been a black diamond. I ran into another skier who admitted the same thing. Like me who stated "I didn't sign up for this," this gentleman stated "I'm getting too old for this much work." We were able to ski off to the side and avoid the steep moguls. I did do a couple of black diamonds, but just not into that much anymore.

And the lift lines in this area were almost not existent during lunch time. But by 3pm, I had enough and headed into the Powederkeg Saloon to meet up with the others. It was about 3:30pm by the time I arrived. Over 5 hours skiing. I was wiped.

However, Pam and Bill decided to give downhill skiing a try for Monday. They signed up for lessons starting at 9:15am. On Monday, Beth stayed in as she has not been feeling good this week. Pam, Bill and I had breakfast at the ski area again. After breakfast, I headed out to the lifts; Pam and Bill went to "get learned."

I came back around 11am to see how they were doing. Pam was having problems breathing and I knew this was going to be short lived. Bill was doing pretty good as a student and actually stuck with it until 3:30pm. Pam quit at lunch time. I came back around 2:00pm to see how he was doing and skied a bit with him on the bunny hill. I was hoping I could get him on the real lift and try a green run down but no dice. By this time Beth and Pam were in the Powederkeg.

Today we are taking it easy. Tomorrow we plan to leave Lake Lousie and spend the night in Calgary since our planes leave early Thursday.

Later

Oh Canada!!

Coming to you live from the Post Hotel in Lake Louise, AB, Canada today, from the complementary computer of the hotel.

We left very early yesterday from Peoria, with our flight leaving for Minneapolis at 6:15am. After the routine strip search and cavity check from the TSA, we were on our way. After a couple hour layover in Minneapolis, we headed for Calgary. There we met up with Beth's sister Pam and brother in law Bill at an airport pub. Beth had some difficulty reading military time. She thought their plane was delayed a couple of hours. It was due to land at 2:41pm and the airport used military time. Comfortably seated in the bar, she began to question herself. Beth told me the arrival time stated 14:41. And I said, "Yea, that's 2:41."

"No it's not, that's 4 o'clock."

"No, 12 noon is 12 hundred hours. Add two hours. Fourteen hundred hours is 2 o'clock. Sixteen hundred hours, now that's 4 o'clock."

All's well that ends well as Beth headed out to Customs to meet them.

Then it was ground transportation from Calgary to Lake Louise... a short 113 mile jaunt. We finally settled into the Post Hotel, just right across the interstate from the Lake Louise Ski Area.

This morning we had breakfast and looked around the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and the lake itself. We later got into the car and headed out north on 93 and check out some other frozen lakes, glaciers and mountains.

Tomorrow I plan on heading out to do some downhill skiing. It's been snowing on and off today. I'm hoping we get a good amount of snowfall tonight and sunny skies for tomorrow. I don't have a clue what the others will be doing.

Neither Bill nor myself have our laptops this week, so travelogue-blogging will be light.

Later

Death Race 2000

One of the first movies I saw when we originally got HBO in the late 70's was this fine motion picture. Released in 1975, it was an early Sylvester Stallone movie of a cross country race where racers ran over and killed pedestrians for points to win. It's morbid, it's horrible, it's bad but in a good way.

I was checking the on-screen TV guide tonight and then noticed it was on DirecTV Free 101. I decided to watch it as I hadn't seen it for more than 20 years. I think I can still recite most of it line by line like I could from the multiple times I've seen Smokey and the Bandit. As I watch it, I can't help but get plenty of good belly laughs.

In the beginning when the race is about to start, Stallone who plays the bad guy, gets booed by the audience. He responds by taking a sub-machine gun and shoots at the crowd.

In another scene, a group of 3 punks try to play chicken with one of the racers who will undoubtedly try to run them over. They open a man hole so they can escape quickly. The first punk goes underground, followed quickly by the second person. The second person, unbeknowst to the third guy, closes the man hole. This left the third guy out there by himself. The racer comes around the corner and the third guy tries to jump straight into the man hole. Too late. "Oh Shit!" he says only moments before he's run over. Next, the two other guys stick their heads out of the man hole to see what happened. Another racer (Stallone, as "Machine Gun" Joe Vaturbo) comes from the opposite direction and runs them over too!!

At the end of the movie, the hero, named "Frankenstein" played by David Carridine, runs into the platform where the US president gave a speech and kills him.

Good stuff, man!!

Tonight on Free 101, they cleaned up all the profanity and nudity. Every time someone cusses, they bleep it out with the sound of a car horn. All in all, it's still worth watching.

Dog Show

Well, the Labrador retriever got screwed again.

Monday and Tuesday nights were the 132nd Annual Westminster Kennel Club dog show, which Uno the beagle won Best in Show. I was kind of rooting for him last night because 1) the beagle has never won the event and 2) I liked his personality. But I would have been happy with Duce the Australian Shepard or Marge the Weinereiner.

But another dog which has never been Best in Show in this event is the beloved Labrador retriever, nor the Golden retriever. Both of these dogs are the most popular dogs in the world. The Lab falls into the sporting group catagory... and I've never seen a lab or golden win this group either.

But like I said, I'm happy for Uno and also happy that a poodle didn't claim the accolade.

Stacks of Wax

The latest project in the home is one of Buffy's... converting old vinyl LPs to .mp3 files and eventually CDs. She has a number of songs that appearently have never been put on CD or she's not willing to spend the money to buy the entire disc for only one song. So she wants to break out her old records and convert them into a 21st century medium. Of course, I said to her that if these songs have not been converted to CD by now, well, there may be some things best left on vinyl.

Note for the kids: Vinyl LPs, or commonly known as records, was how we listened to music back in the day. There were no .mp3s, iPods, CDs, DVDs, etc. We took basically a wax disc, placed it on a turntable (which is now a musical instrument for the hip-hop crowd to do scratching), placed a needle on the disc and let it play. It came complete with scratches and pops so you had to be careful how you handled the record. And I'm not even going to get into 8-track tapes.

This past Saturday, I dug out my old JVC turntable of about 25 years. After about a couple of minutes of use, the first in essencially 18-20 years, it worked! I ran the RCA cable to the sound card in her computer. Now, I needed something to play on it. Looking through a few old records, I found The Who's 1982 album, It's Hard (now keep your thoughts clean). I thought, "hey, I don't even have a CD copy or .mp3 of any of the songs from this album."

I loaded up the record, started the wav editor program on the computer and started playing around with converting the music. It worked, but the volume level was very low. After recording the song into electronic format, I could adjust the level of the volume, but it also adjusted up all the hissing and pops and scratchs from the source album.

Recently, there has been some sort of revival of the record album. Even a story was featured in the Journal Star last week. Upon listening to this vastly inferior sound reproduction, I thought to myself, "Who in their right mind wants to go back to this?!" But Buffy said to me, "Oh, I like all the hissing and pops in the song." Whatever!

While converting some of the songs off of this album, I took a moment to look at the album cover and artwork. It then hit me. On the cover of It's Hard, there's a kid playing a video game. I wondered if that could have been the modern day Tommy. For those unaware, in 1969, The Who produced a 2-record album called Tommy. It was billed as a "rock opera" and was about a deaf-dumb blind kid who could play some mean pinball. Hence, he was deemed the Pinball Wizard. So was the kid on 1982's Who album a video game wizard?

I have to admit, I do miss having the big album sleeve with the artwork and lyrics. While you do get some artwork with the CD jewel cases, it is so small that you will ruin your eyes trying to read and look at it. But I guess you can't have everything.

The Dubby Dance

This is the dance Dubby performed after the last NE Patriots touchdown in Super Bowl XLII. With less than 3 minutes left in the game, Dubby (as well as many others) prematurely believed they had the game wrapped up. Instead, the NY Giants won, 17 -14. Sorry, Dubby.

The Year of the Floods

The 2008 year is shaping up to be one of a number of floods. Lately that's been one of the top stories this week.

Dennis' and my new rental property suffered a bit of water backing up into an office from all the rain the other day. I think we found the problem there as water from the downspout was draining too close to the building. That was easily correctable.

But the big flood that I encountered was last week and wasn't even caused by rain. Last Friday, I awoke and went straight to take a shower. Beth came in later, not for a little fun, but somewhat panicked, told me to hurry and rinse off. I first thought we had to leave immediately because someone got hurt, killed or some other emergency. No, she said she had to shut the water off. A pipe had burst in the laundry room and was leaking all over the place. I relaxed after that... only a minor emergency I thought.

I started drying off and then realized that the laundry room was directly over the basement guest room. If the water had been running for some time, water would probably leak to the basement. On the closet shelf directly under the laundry room is where I kept my Grandpa Harvey's and my Dad's guitars. These guitars are 50 years old, worth a lot of money and most importantly, what I consider family heirlooms. I quit drying off. I wrapped the towel around me and bolted downstairs.

When I got down there, it looked like it was raining. Sure enough, water was dripping down from the laundry room upstairs. I feared the worst. Walking through the freezing water now drenched into the leopard-print carpeting, I went to get the guitars. Surprisingly, there was not a drop of water on them (even though they were in cases). The shelf was recessed back far enough to where the surface tension of the walls sent the water in the opposite direction. I felt much better now. The guitars are safely tucked away in my office.

I then called a plumber, insurance agent and Menold's Restoration. We picked up a wet/dry vac to get the place cleaned up and put fans all over the place. We now have a commercial dehumidifier and even more fans in place. In all, the damage looks minimal and the risk of mold is pretty low... I'm told. Some of the base boards and/or door frames took some water stains and that is probably the biggest damage. Some of the dry wall will need to be repaired/replaced and we'll probably open up some of the basement ceiling to ensure there's no water or mold. It might require tearing up some wallpaper in the basement bathroom. Beth is hoping it doesn't have to come to that.

In all, I think we got lucky because that could have easily happened when we were away for a period of time. And that is our flood story of 2008.

Just Schocking!!

I usually don't get around to reading the paper until the evening. Yes, I know, it's old news by then. But it's the relaxing thing to do after dinner while watching yet another rerun of Seinfeld. RLO Today has always been a blog without any political comments... until now.

On the front page of today's paper featured a story stating that US Representative candidate Aaron Schock is now claiming that his position of selling nuclear weaponry to Taiwan "was in jest." What dope is this kid smoking? First he makes this reckless position. Then he retracts it. Now he says it was a joke. If I remember correctly, didn't he present this position when he announced his candidacy a couple of months ago? If this was really a joke at that time, you would think he would say "Just kidding," or something to that effect and then explain his real position. But he didn't. And with his candidacy announcement, you would think there would be a lot of people watching.

Since I don't live in Peoria or in the 92nd District, I've never had to vote for or against him. But I've had a brief encounter with the "boy wonder" in the past. As a member of the Peoria Jaycees, I volunteered to co-chair the Distinguished Service Awards Banquet in 2004. It was my last year until I aged out and wanted to chair one last project. The DSA Banquet is like a 40 under 40 awards program. Of the categories awarded is in government.

Aaron Schock was nominated and selected for the Good Government Award. In coordinating with his nominator for dinner arrangements at the event, she stated that Schock could not attend do to a conflicting event. I said that was no problem as we've had these problems from time to time in the past. I asked if he could have a family member, friend or co-worker accept the award for him. I was told that there was no one available to do this on that evening. "Not one person can accept this for him?" I asked. "No" was the answer I was given. I was actually dumbfounded.

I then said, "You mean to tell me that out of all the people he knows, with all his connections and popularity, there is not one person who can attend the dinner and accept an award he is winning?" Schock's nominator said, "Tell me about it." I could sense some disgust about him the way she said it.

We held the event and all went well. I think we basically told the audience that Aaron Schock won the Charles C. Schlink Good Government Award but was unable to accept it or make arrangements for someone to accept in his behalf. Basically, we told them the truth. Shortly after, I get a call asking if we can present the award at the District 150 School Board meeting. Wanting to keep the Peoria Jaycees in a good light and positive image, I agree.

My co-chair and I presented the award to Schock and he was very sincere and thankful. He seemed very honored and appreciative to win the award. We then went our separate ways. Now fast forward to 2007. Aaron Schock refuses to go to any debate if any his opponents will be video taping the session. He claims he's afraid that his opponents might use something he says out of context. I begin to think that may have been why he did not want to go to the DSA Banquet that February evening in 2004. Someone might have been video taping him. Instead, he was seen by several as a no show. If you're going to be a public figure, you have to get use to people using recording equipment on you.

If our boy wonder keeps up all this odd behavior, the real joke will be him. And I'm speaking from experience!

2007 Christmas Letter

It seems more and more, people send some sort of Christmas letter with their Christmas cards. I know some people hate them because, as they claim, all they do is showcase how great their lives are. I did a tongue-in-cheek Christmas letter about 10 years ago, with the same name as this blog. I chronicled the not-so-positive events of that year... an investment club with capital losses, playing on a losing softball team... you get the idea. But I think people really want to update those who they don't see very often of what has been transpiring in their lives.

2007 started just like any year for us. But about 3 weeks into it for me I suffered from a bout with the flu. Of course, that's when my new 32 track digital recorder finally arrived, so I'd have to wait to play with it. I have since used it over the past year to record music. Some of which you can hear at my MySpace page.

One of the high points of 2007 was in May when Beth and I drove across country on America's Mother Road, Route 66. It was a 16 day odyssey following a path taken by millions of others before us to the Pacific coast. We saw some interesting and bizarre sites, met very nice and very strange people and had a great time. Once in California, we stopped to visit Tom & Kim Stevens. Luck would have it, Tom's band Midnight Sun was playing. We stayed an extra day so we could see them. I was even invited up on stage to play a couple of songs. I hope I didn't do the band any damage. The trip was blogged about right here, so feel free to check the past posts for our misadventures along Rt 66.

The low point of 2007 was in March when we finally had to say goodbye to Trixie. At 12 years old, she was still energetic and playful. Fortunately, no arthritis or hip dysplasia. However, a tumor emerged which caused her spline and liver to enlarge and there was nothing we could do for her. Luckily, she was not in pain; maybe a little uncomfortable. 2007 was not a good year for the dogs of our family and friends. Beth's friend Jennifer Brackney lost Lexie, Beth's sister Pam and her husband Bill lost Rutherford and just in the last couple of days, we hear Beth's sister Kerri and her family's dog, the Muffin dog, has been diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis is not good. Of course, Dennis and Shari continue to lose their cats to coyotes. A moment of silence please...


The band Nootril Drop had a number of good gigs this past year. We actually hit gig #30 this past September. We did probably 3 or 4 benefit shows in all, but still a good year and playing better all the time. Concerts I checked out this year include The Police at Wrigley Field. I heard that this was the 2nd concert ever held at the stadium; the first being Jimmy Buffett. I also got to see ZZ Top for the 2nd time... and from the center 3rd row. I also saw John Mayer, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan.

And if playing in a band and driving a sports car is not enough for my mid-life crisis, I'm now coloring my hair blond. It really hides the grey hairs and I get a lot of comments on it.

Beth has been keeping busy with her new hobby... sewing... if you can believe that. Mom has been doing well. At the start of the year, we were under the impression that she would need to start kidney dialysis. Turns out she doesn't need it, yet anyway. Keep your fingers crossed. Jack is now 7 years old and in the second grade. Dennis and I have been going into business together more and more. This time in the field of property management, becoming landlords of commercial property. Good livin' thus far. We hope to keep it that way.

Anyway, hope all is well to whomever is reading, have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2008!

Have A Wonderful Christmas Time

Wishing all Happy Holidays, I wanted to post Tom Petty's Christmas All Over Again. Apparently, there is no 'offical' video for it. Paul & Wings will instead wish all a wonderful Christmas time.

What's The Deal With All These Lists?

For the past few years, I've noticed several networks, especially all the music and entertainment channels, running programs counting down something. You could call this debacle "When Kasey Kassem Goes Bad."

Sure, it was somewhat amusing at first. We got to see William Shatner count down the top 100 one hit wonders. Some other network informed us of the top most-shocking moments in rock and roll. But any more, these lists are getting ridiculous... and I should know something about lists. I spent a good part of the 90's writing David Letterman-style top ten lists for the Peoria Jaycees newsletters.

The latest countdown I've seen was the Top 40 Softlicious Soft Rock Songs of All Time. I don't remember what network brought us this informative program. It listed things like America's "Horse With No Name," 10cc's "I'm Not in Love," and REO's "Can't Fight This Feeling." Many of the songs were from the 1970's. I could only stomach about 30 minutes of this crap until I had to turn it off.

And another question, who are the judges who decides on this shit?

Anyway, it's been a while since I composed a top ten list, but here we go:

Top Ten New Countdown Shows For '08

10. Top 70 Oddest Celebrity Baby Names
9. Top 20 Lindsey Lohan's Fave Things About Rehab
8. Top 60 Wildest Hillary Rodham Clinton Pant Suits
7. Top 100 All Time Greatest Spam E-Mail Messages
6. Top 33 Lame Reality Series
5. Top 12 Really Bad Hair Bands
4. Top 5 OJ's Other Crimes
3. Top 30 Lead Filled Toys From China
2. Top 20 George Bush-isms
... and the number one New Countdown Show for '08...
1. Top 69 Sex Positions

Heather's New Hat

Peoria, IL (RLO News Service) - Heather Zech is at it again. This time she wants to set the new trend in hats... maybe better explained as an old trend in hats.

At a recent holiday event, Ms. Zech was sporting a black feather hat, reminiscent of a 1940s era style. "Yes, I'm bringing it back," exclaimed a jubilant Zech, who is no stranger to attempting to start new trends, not that she's exactly successful at it. "The 70's is so old school, 80's is overdone anymore, the 90's is way to soon," Zech explained, "so I'm bringing back something we haven't seen in a long, long time." Zech's current boyfriend, Chuck is preparing to launch an "old is new again" line for men's fashions with the 1950's zoot suit.

Heather Zech became a follower and disciple of radio personality Art Bell and began an extensive campaign to educate the public about a 1947 UFO crash in New Mexico and ensuing government cover-up. Zech is a staunch proponent of uncovering the government's knowledge on the event. Odd, the hat she was wearing that day could have come right out of 1947.

Bad Boys... Bad Boys... Whatcha Gonna Do

This post is a bit late in reporting, but well entertaining.

Randy and I headed down to the Illinois Jaycees General Assembly in St. Louis a couple of weekends ago to meet up with some fellow Peoria Jaycee members. We first met up with Mary, Dave, Kate, Danielle and Steve... sounding like a line up of the usual suspects already... on the Landing at the Morgan St BrewPub.

Earlier this year, for whatever reason, Kate would get Randy's and my name mixed up; so for the weekend just to screw with her, I became Randy and Randy became Rick. We also clued everyone else on it to to push it further.

We eventually made it to the Marriott where the GA was held. Rick and I belligerently crashed the invite-only Presidential Cocktail Hour for the state president. At that point, we ran into Becky, Roxy, Gretchen, Scott and other Jaycees we know around the state. Rick and I then crashed the banquet dinner where we had no ticket for a plate. While seated with our Jaycee friends, Rick commented in a manner to transmit guilt, that the fried chicken sure looked good. Rick had just finished consuming the complementary lemon slices for the glasses of water in a feeble attempt at fighting hunger. While I resorted to drinking beer to accomplish this, at least Rick won't suffer from scurvy.

Once the buffet line subsided and entrees replenished, Rick and I went up to sneak a dinner plate for ourselves. We only got as far as placing green beans on our plate when someone from the Gateway Region Jaycees (the GA host organization) came up and busted us. They claimed a dinner ticket would cost us somewhere around $37 and we said "No thanks." They confiscated our plates with the green beans and took it back to their table. We walked from the buffet table still hungry and empty handed while the adjacent table had two plates of only green beans.

The awards ceremony was next, where I'm happy to say the Peoria Jaycees cleaned up nicely for the 3rd quarter of 2007. The libations of New Castle Brown Ale flowed into the night as well until around midnight for me. This is when Mary suggested I should retire and offered to escort me back to my room. It really didn't make any sense to me at the time, but in hindsight, it was a very good move as it probably eased lingering symptoms on the day after.

Rick however partied on for at least another hour. With our sober friend Bob, he chauffeured Mary and Rick to a local White Castle for some sliders. And what happens when you change from Brown Castle to White Castle... hey, what goes on at a GA stays at a GA.

The next day was rough for Rick. But yet we still stopped at a White Castle so I could get some breakfast. Rick had only soda.

On the way home, we were pulled over by whom I called "Ponch" for doing 75 in a 65. Around Hopedale, IL, the road curved to the right, and while I just finished passing another car, I saw the elusive motorcycle cop put away his radar gun. I knew he already had me. Shit! Shit! My 16 year hiatus of speeding tickets was over. And I had just told Rick's wife the day before that I hadn't had a ticket in many years... especially, I jinxed myself.

But alas, we finally made it home for much needed rest. Until the next GA!!

Homecoming 2007

Well, I'm back safe and sound from my college/fraternity Homecoming at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. And anyone who knows me at all, Homecoming is an annual pilgrimage every October. There was a different twist for this year's event; it was my 20 year reunion. Yikes! Twenty years since I graduated college... doesn't seem right.

The only other person who matches my record is a fellow fraternity brother, whom we will just call "Magilla." Several times in the past, Magilla and I would rent an RV so we could park and party close to house and be near all the action. Then the college caught on and started placing "No RV Parking" signs all over the place. Did that stop us... not really. We know some people who live about 2 houses from the campus, so we'd park the RV in their back yard. The vice president of development would become annoyed with our antics. It was one Homecoming we heard that he was going nuts because he didn't know where we were parked and he couldn't keep an eye on us. We also later found out that the No RV Parking signs were a direct response to us, let alone anyone who wanted to follow our footsteps.

I could actually write an entire book on all the stuff we've done over these 20 years. But for this year, it was really low key. Instead of an RV or sleeping in the fraternity house, we opted for the local Super 8... which I claimed to everyone we were staying in the Presidential Suite of the Monmouth Super 8.

Friday evening was a good steak dinner, followed by drinks at the Pub 83 and then karaoke at The Well. Unbelievably, they didn't carry my standard Just A Gigolo so I sang Love Stinks and Little Sister. Saturday we slept in and missed the Homecoming parade which started at 10:30am. We miss this parade every year. But after a brief visit with some friends who live in town, we stopped by the house to check out what was going on. The beer started flowing about 1:30pm when the football game started (at least they say there's a football game... I never go to it). Hanging at the house during the game is sort of a quasi-tailgate; other alumni show up and we tell the undergraduates some war stories.

Well after the game, we headed out to Danny's Tap which was a popular place to be back in my day. After a couple of drinks their, we realized that we're going to need something to eat, so we went in for a meatball sandwich across the street. This would be our only intermission from the party. Upon finishing dinner, back to Danny's. Then it was off to the local Legion Hall for a "reunion party" where I really didn't see a lot of people from my class. But I did spend some time to chat with the few that did return. Then it was off for Pub 83, which was quite nice as it wasn't very crowded. We were a bit entertained by some of the bar-hoppers being dressed for Halloween.

At 2:00am, the bar manager kicked us out and claimed that they had to close. Magilla and I headed back to the Presidential Suite of the Monmouth Super 8 and crashed. Sunday morning we met up with some friends at their place in town for breakfast and then got the hell out of Dodge.

Despite no virgin sacrifice or taking advantage of our female party guests, we still managed a good time and non-stop belly laughs through the weekend. I probably came home with an extra laugh line on my face.

A Legend Visits Bloomington

... and we were there to witness it.

Dave Cookson and I travelled to US Cellular Coliseum last Saturday night to see Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan. The show opened with Amos Lee, whom I'd never heard of before; but he put on a good show.

After a quick intermission, Elvis Costello took the stage, with him and only his guitar. The guy can really sing. He engaged the audience between songs with stories about his dad. It was Elvis who provided us with our brush with greatness earlier that evening.

We sat in section 102, which was lower bowl, but close to the stage. For those few sections, there is the Jack Daniels Lounge, complete with easy chairs. As Dave and I sat awaiting for the show to begin, I watched the Coliseum employees go in and out of an adjacent hallway that had glass walls separating it with the lounge. Then I saw an individual dressed all in black, with a black coat, hat and the recognizable horn-rimmed glasses. It was Elvis walking towards an elevator meeting up with someone else. I frantically point and exclaim to Dave, "Check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out.." I couldn't even think of his name and thought Dave might miss out. Dave slowly turned around and asked, "Is that Elvis Costello?"

They got on the elevator and disappeared. Moments later, they reappeared only to discover they were on the wrong floor. I guess that can happen to anyone.

Elvis finished up his set, which featured of course Allison and Peace, Love & Understanding. Bob Dylan then took the stage after another intermission. And as I joked before seeing Bob Dylan, we couldn't understand a word he was singing. Dave and I must have laughed all the way through the first 2 songs he did. I only knew 2 of the songs he performed that night.

I was never a big Dylan fan, but I do respect all that he's done. He is a good songwriter and his band that night was excellent and tight. They proved that they could rock. And there were plenty of energetic fans in the audience. There was a couple, probably around 18 years old, dancing around like hippies from the 60's to most of Dylan's songs. It was entertaining to watch.

Dave and I skipped out on the encore, which I hear was only 2 songs. It was getting late and we were tired of trying to make heads or tails of the unintelligible lyrics that were sung. But in all, a good evening with a living legend.

This & That

A fellow Jaycee and blogger, Tim Sheets asked me a few nights ago about when I'm ever going to blog again or put something up on my main web site, rlo.com. Well... here we go...

Sleeping Good
Last week, Beth and I finally got our sleep number bed. If you recall, we had the experience of sleeping on one out in California during our Rt 66 trip. It was great. I would wake up with absolutely no aches, pains or stiffness and an abundance of energy. The original Bionic woman tells no lies on this!

Our previous mattress we purchased about 3-4 years ago and was a complete piece of shit. It was one of those space-aged, memory foam, astronaut beds. Yea, right. The thing lost all of its memory and we slept in worn out, sagging holes. I think it was plain foam that they give prisoners to sleep on. Good riddance.

My sleep number is on 100. I think Buffy's is around 40 or 50.

ZZ Top
Dave Cookson and I attended the ZZ Top concert a few weeks ago here in Peoria. The show was scheduled for a Sunday night. The Wednesday before, I stopped at the Civic Center box office and inquired about tickets. At this late date, they could get me center floor, row 3, aisle seats. Any closer and we can run our fingers through their beards. I asked the girl, "Did they sell any other seats and will this be a private show for us?"

The dudes are aging a bit, but still put on a great show. They opened with Got Me Under Pressure and played most of their hits, Cheap Sunglasses, Legs, Lagrange, Tush, Pearl Necklace and Sharped Dress Man. There were a couple of other songs I wish they played, but didn't.

The other entertainment was watching the really drunk chicks try to get closer to the stage, only to be stopped by security.

Fall Bash '07
Last Saturday, Beth and I held our annual Fall Bash. It was a good turnout and good time. Our niece Sara commented that all our friends who once became drunk reminded her of kids in her middle school. Yes, we never grow up.

Someone either slipped me a mickey or I purchased an extra fermented case of Heineken as I was out for the count by midnight. And the next day was not good... beer and especially Heineken doesn't drag me down that bad (that's why I drink it). That was on top of a sensible dinner as well. Occupational hazard I guess.

There are currently photos at http://www.rlo.com/.

Homecoming '07
Only 14 days until ATO Homecoming 2007. Yikes! This will be my college 20th reunion.