Relentless Rain

The second day of the second trip to Lancaster PA involved sloshing thru relentless rain to the Kitchen Kettle Village http://www.kitchenkettle.com/, a charming village of boutique shops my favorite of which was the Jam and Relish Kitchen where one could spend a respite from the relentless rain tasting an amazing assortment of relishes, jams, jellies, dips, mustards, and salsas. We went sloshing thru the relentless rain to the "Miracle of Christmas" performance at the Sight and Sound Theatre, http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/ after which we boarded the bus and drove thru the relentless rain back to Long Island.
In spite of two days of relentless rain, everyone had a good time on the trip because that's what they wanted to do. They were a very sweet group of cheerful seniors who were happy to be traveling thru the relentless rain to have some fun with friends.
Did I mention the relentless rain? Holy Crap!

Filling in the Details, Part 2

I'm back in Lancaster, PA on the identical trip that we did last week but with a different group. So I'm going to tell you about day two of the first trip on day one of the second trip and then I will tell you about day two of the second trip on another day to be determined.

After a full breakfast buffet at the Country Inn Hotel we took a tour of the Kreider Dairy Farm http://www.kreiderfarms.com/. This was an interesting and smelly tour of the outdoor facilities of the farm as well as the "milking house carousel" where we saw the milking process in action. The cows are "steered" onto a carousel and as they go around it, the workers in their turn clean the udders, attach the milking apparatus, extract the milk and then the cow is "backed out" of the carousel. They explained how, since cows don't naturally like to back up, they have to be taught to perform this step in the process. This was done by spraying water in their faces at the end of the circuit so that the cow would back up to escape the annoyance. They said it only takes a couple of sprays for the cows to learn to back up. Pretty interesting but as I said...smelly.

It was so smelly that I had a few ladies in my group who went into the milking facility and made an immediate U-turn because they couldn't take the odor. They didn't even have to be sprayed in the face...they just turned tail and got out!

After the farm tour we went to the Sight and Sound Theatre and saw "The Miracle of Christmas" http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/ which was an elaborately produced dramatization of the birth of Jesus. The production was lavish--the costumes, effects, staging, and scenic designs were stunning.

After the show we boarded the bus and head for home but made a dinner stop at Cracker Barrel in Downingtown, PA.

Filling in the Details

My group is 42 people from Brooklyn and Staten Island.

We got an early start and made it to the Rockvale Square Outlets http://www.rockvalesquareoutlets.com/ in Lancaster for some Christmas Shopping and Lunch. Then we went a short distance to the American Music Theatre for their 2008 Christmas Show which was a teriffic musical variety show with beautiful scenery, great costumes and excellent performances by a Broadway-caliber cast.

If you are ever in Lancaster check out this theatre, or even make a trip to Lancaster specifically for a show at this Theatre. Upcoming performances include Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny Rogers, Lyle Lovett, The Neville Brothers with Dr. John, American Idol Pop Tour, George Jones, The Doobie Brothers, Peter, Paul and Mary, Jewell, and also from Broadway...Movin' Out, Stomp, and Cats.

Check the website http://www.americanmusictheatre.com/

After the show we checked into our hotel and went to dinner, family style, at the Good and Plenty Restaurant http://www.goodnplenty.com/. Yummy

Lancaster, PA

Tomorrow I am off to Lancaster, PA with a group for Rendezvous Travel http://www.rendezvous.travel/
We will be visiting the Rockvale Outlets, see two Christmas shows, tour a dairy farm and visit the Kitchen Kettle Village.
I will fill in the details tomorrow night.

Changing of the Guard

Our sobering visit to Arlington National Cemetery http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/ included the opportunity to witness the formal ceremony of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tombofun.htm. The staggering number of gravesites of US military personnel and their families defies description.

The understated memorial at JFK's gravesite with it's eternal flame faces an impressive view of Washington DC across the Potomac River.

Lunch in Chinatown at Tony Cheng's Mongolian Restaurant was yummy.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/washingtondc/D53628.html

We also went to the Newseum, a brand new museum of journalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newseum. It's a huge facility on Pennsylvania Ave. that provides an interactive experience of exploring media coverage of major events in world history. The $18.00 entrance fee seemed exorbitant in light of the fact that everything there is available on the internet if one is inclined to look for it. We were shown the door at the 5:00 closing time and found our way to the Metro for our final trip back to the Moose Lodge in College Park.

I am heading for BWI to return to LI and Peter is heading south, then for points west.

Before I come to Washington DC again I will buy new shoes.

Fillet of Fish

It rained hard all day so we tried to stay indoors as much as possible. We went into the National Museum of American History http://tinyurl.com/6eb4t7. We managed to spend 5 hours in this is newly-renovated-and-reopened-in-November museum. It is a 4-floor facility exhibiting the history of America's politics, culture and industrialization. Exhibits included the original Star-Spangled Banner, the Model-T Ford, Popular American Television Prgrams, American Presidents, Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet, steam engines, electricity, Julia Child's Kitchen (see Peter trying to get in), and even Kermit the Frog and Dorothy's Ruby Slippers! We didn't even see everything but we wanted to see the National Aquarium so we splashed thru the rain and the puddles to the Commerce Department Building which houses the Aquarium http://tinyurl.com/63d4mn in its basement. We never saw a single fish because while we were going thru the security checkpoint Peter was denied entrance because he carries a 3" pocket knife. He was very annoyed because this has never been a problem at any of the other buildings we entered. Peter said "I guess they are afraid I am going to fillet a fish!"

We decided to go to the top of the Washington Monument instead. They either didn't notice his pocket knife or they didn't have any fish to fillet because we got in without a problem.

There are some amazing views from the top of the monument, the rain hampered our experience a little, but it was still worth the 70 second elevator ride.

Finally we took the metro back to Union Station for dinner at the Center Cafe http://tinyurl.com/6jjkgn/.

Back on the metro to College Park where Kingsley was waiting for us. We are truly exhausted, crocks not withSTANDing. I don't know what shoes to wear tomorrow.

Kingsley promises to be here at 10 am for our final day in DC. Holy Crap.

Comfortable Shoes...

...well, at least I thought they were comfortable when I walked the length of the coach before we left for DC on Saturday. And they were comfortable while we were at Union Station for breakfast at the Station Grill http://www.thestationgrill.com/. The "eggs florentine" were to die for. They were comfortable as we walked to the Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/index.html... the Jefferson building of the library is the most spectacular and beautiful building in Washington, and that is even before you consider the more than 17 million books to read there. (I recommended that you kick off your shoes, no matter how comfortable they are, and get an early start and make a large pot of coffee before you start reading.)

My shoes were even comfortable when I called my ITMI friend Mike and arranged to meet him all the way accross town at Dupont Circle for lunch. We took the metro there and even managed to transfer from one metro line to the other to get there, while my shoes were still bearable but getting pinchy. It was great to see Mike and hear about his adventures. Mike is a DC Guide so he was able to direct us to the Lincoln Memorial via the metro for most of the way and then via my increasingly uncomfortable shoes the rest of the way.

The Lincoln Memorial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Memorial at night is an incredible sight as is the Washington Monument http://tinyurl/62hthx

Today I'm wearing fur-lined crocks!!

We Have Graduated from Walmart

On this trip to Washington DC we have secured even more deluxe accomodations than Walmart parking lots. We will be spending the next four nights, no charge, in the Moose Lodge Parking Lot in College Park Maryland. We have been invited by the Moose members to partake in their "Beef & Brew" extravaganza. All the beef you can eat and all the brew you can drink. We politely declined in the interests of not having a red-meat induced stroke or a beer induced coma.

We called a taxi company to deliver us to the metro station so we could take the subway into DC. Our driver, Kingsley, has offered his services to us for the duration of our visit. He will pick us up at the Moose Lodge and take us to the metro station whenever we call him, no matter what time and when we call him in the evening he will pick us up at the Metro station and bring us back to the Moose parking lot for the modest fee of $20 a day.

Since we got a late start today we went into the city to reconnoiter the area and decide how we will tackle the next four days to maximize our site-seeing experience and find the most appealing restaurants to keep up our strength.

We walked on the mall from the Smithsonian Castle to the WWII Memorial, and took a quick spin around the dinosaur room of the American Museum of Natural History.

The picture included here is part of the WWII Memorial. The Freedom Wall is 4,000 gold stars on a wall reflected in a pool. The stars represent the 400,000 Americans who gave their lives during that war. Very impressive at night.

Heading for DC

I am "on the move" again with Peter in the motor home, this time heading for Washington DC. We are going to see as many sites as we can between Friday 11/29 and Tuesday 12/2. I will be flying home from DC on Tuesday so I can go on an overnight tour to Lancaster, PA with a group for Rendezvous Travel http://rendezvous.travel/ on December 3-4. More about that next week. For this weekend thru Tuesday check back here for more about our DC adventure.
Peter will be heading for Florida on Tuesday and then continuing on to his cross-country odyssey which will take him to Texas, California, Denver, Washington State, and Cabo San Lucas. Hopefully he will blog from his own site during that trip http://scatpayeverywhere.blogspot.com/

Judy & Liza

Yesterday I went to an event sponsored by Rendezvous Travel, http://www.rendezvous.travel/, at the Westbury Music Fair.

"The Judy & Liza Show" starred Suzanne Goulet as Liza Minelli and Julie Sheppard as Judy Garland. They performed many unforgettable songs by these two show business legends. Their characterizations were mostly very good and sometimes quite moving. Judy is one of my favorite performers and so one has a high hill to climb to impersonate her and Julie Sheppard did an excellent job. Liza is also an amazing performer (in her day) and Suzanne certainly captured her essence.


The trip took more than 35 busloads of approximately 1800 people to the show and to either lunch at the Swan Club, http://www.swanclub.com/about.htm or the Crest Hollow Country Club http://www.cresthollow.com/ or dinner at the Swan Club. It was a hugely complicated process to orchestrate but this is what Rendezvous Travel specializes in.


My duties involved shuffling people on and off buses, seating them in the theater and directing them to their tables at lunch/dinner not to mention enjoying the show.

The Museum of the City of New York

Today I went on another day trip to Manhattan with a group of 48 from the Bronx. We then went to lunch at The Sea Shore Restaurant in City Island.
Who even knew there was a museum called the "Museum of The City of New York?" Not me.

Its a really nice little museum that on Fifth Ave and 103rd St. that has exhibits about the history and culture of NY City. http://www.mcny.org/

Since this group was a church affiliated senior group, the exhibit we went to see was called "Catholics in NY," but there are several other exhibits that were even more appealing to me if not to these very Catholic ladies.

There is an exhibit about shows on Broadway, the history of NY Firefighters, and a few others, but the one that was a favorite was the toy and dollhouse exhibit. There were lots of antique toys and amazing dollhouses. Almost everyone saw a toy displayed that she had as a child, including me!

My San Francisco/ITMI Album

I finally finished putting my San Francisco/ITMI photos into an album presentation.
To view it, go here http://www.mypublisher.com/
Click in the upper right on "mybookshelf"
The order # is M826391 The password is 1308096

Go look.

Week Two, Day Seven..the Finish Line in Sight

Last day, we are off to Newport, Rhode Island and then thru Connecticut to JFK. We're not going to the casino this time but instead to the Tanger Outlets in Westbrook CT. It seems the Brits like shopping more than gambling.
Yesterday David (driver) asked me to change the departure time from 9:00 to 8:45 if possible, so I tried to reach as many group members as I could and ask them to come down to board the bus earlier than originally planned, if possible. So David and I went to the bus to get ourselves organized, plan our route, timing, lunchtime, biological reststops, and were about to bring the bus to the hotel entrance to pick up the group when David said, in his thick Puerto Rican accent, "Oh no, I hab to go to my ruum, I hab diareah!" So David goes waddling back to the hotel, he was literally taking baby steps thru the crowd of 50 people who were waiting to board the bus early, and he disappeared into the elevator. Everyone looked at me, understandably confused. So then I had to circulate thru the group and explain why I made them come down earlier than planned but now am making them wait to board the bus LATER than planned. Did I mention before that you can't make this stuff up?
One of my ladies, Constance Cullingford, is a retired history teacher in the UK. Great name for a history teacher, no? So she is obviously extremely interested in all things historical. Here's where serendipity makes an appearance again. She was touring the Mayflower II when she heard someone calling out..."Mrs. Cullingford, is that you...?"
She turned and saw someone she didn't completely recognize but who touched a familiar memory. It was one of her students from about 20 years ago! Amazing!!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Trouble in Paradise...resolved

Everything worked out fine. All the refugees were returned to this hotel for breakfast and they said they were treated very well, had a good dinner and they all got deluxe accomodations in this hotel for the remainder of our stay. Naturally I told them it was all at my insistence that they were compensated just so.
Mr. & Mrs. Roberts said their new room with the bed was more than satisfactory and the the whole episode was well worth the laughs they got out of it. Love them!
Tomorrow we are on to Plymouth, Plimoth Plantation and Hyannis. I can't believe the week is almost over. I have really grown attached to group 2.
I shot photos of each of them in David's (the driver) hat, that he wears when the sun is facing him. Everyone has commented about it so I thought it would be a good theme for the trip.

Trouble in Paradise

So we get to the hotel in Nantasket Beach after dark, but as it turns out that is the least of my worries. I get my stack of envelopes with room keys and begin to distribute to my group on the bus and it turns out that there is a key for a couple, the Lucas's who are not in my group. Not so bad, right?
Well the rest of the problem is that there are 4 couples and a single gent in my group who have no room assignments. The hotel is full so they need to transfer them to another hotel. They promise to have them back here by 7:00 AM for breakfast so we can then go on our guided city tour of Boston. They also promise to buy them dinner and drinks and give them delux rooms with a view tomorrow and Monday nights when they come back here.
So we get that all squared away and pack 9 people and their luggage in a van and send them off to the other hotel and I believe everything is now ok. So I go to my room and then decide to go down to the restaurant to make sure everyone is satisfied with their accomodations and I find Mr. and Mrs. Roberts at the front desk talking to the staff. I ask them what the problem is and they tell me that when they got to their room there was no bed in it! They called down to the front desk and reported the problem so the staff sent a bellman up with a bed and Mrs. Roberts had to supervise the assembly of the bed until the bellman gave up and they went back down to the desk and that's when I came upon the scene. As it turned out there was one room left ( the one that was assigned to a couple who was not in my group) and so the Roberts' are now in the Lucas's room, I don't know where the Lucas's are but they are not in my group so i really don't care about them.
Hopefully I will gather all my chicks tomorrow morning and we will procede to Boston. Who knows what evil lurks there.

A Round of Applause

Whenever we get off the bus I give the group a time that they must return and board the bus for the next leg of our journey. And when they come back I have to count everyone before we can leave. I have started a procedure whereby all of the people on the bus clap when the last person gets on the bus. Then we can begin. If the last person on the bus is late the applause is louder and more vigorous and sometimes is accompanied by verbal outbursts, everyone laughs and the last person on the bus is slightly embarassed, just enough to try to not be the last person on the bus the next time.

So tonight I made a "trophy" which I will have printed tomorrow. The person who gets recognized as the last person on the bus will take posession of the medallion until the next last one earns it.

Group 2 Does NY

So again we surprised them with a whirlwind visit to Manhattan. They took pictures furiously, shopped intensly, and met a horse in the Big Apple. Better than a worm, I guess.
They also saw The Naked Cowboy....I was so proud of my country at that moment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Cowboy

One guy in the group asked me where he could get peanut butter m&m's, he needed to bring them home for a friend. I told him I never knew of them but I was sure he meant Reese's Pieces.
So when I got off the bus I found a Duane Reade Drug store in Times Square, (not hard to do), and bought a bag of Reese's Pieces. When we got back on the bus I gave him the package, and he promptly showed me what he found...a bag of PEANUT BUTTER M&M's! Son-of-a-gun, you really DO learn something new everyday, don't you?!!

We traveled up the thruway to Vermont, and the colors in the Catskills and north were truly spectacular. No idea what Vermont looks like because, needless to say we arrived after dark, because of ridiculous traffic in NY City and beyond.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Picked up my second group at JFK and arrived at the NJ hotel earlier than we did last week, so things are looking good.
I was concerned that I might not like group 2 as much as group one but I think I was wrong. These are lovely people too, in fact I hardly remember group one!
Tomorrow...Manhattan. We are going to leave early and hope we get there in time to set them loose in Times Square again.
My objective this week is to iron out the kinks from last week, there weren't many but we can always do better, no?
Tomorrow I will shoot some pictures and post tomorrow night at the VT hotel.

Wrapping it Up

Here is about half of my group on the beach in Hyannis, a short way from the JFK Memorial.
After that we went to Plymouth and Plimoth Plantation. They really enjoyed that and I really enjoyed watching and hearing them interact with the characters because they actually knew the places in England that were spoken about and there was certainly no language barrier.

We leave tomorrow at 9:00 AM to head for the Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island http://www.cliffwalk.com/ and then just in case they have any money left, as a surprise finale to the trip I am taking them to the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

Abbreviated blog tonight...have to finish up paperwork for this tour and pack and get ready to begin the next tour.

I Think....

this could be the best job in the world!


Yesterday we traveled across MA, visiting Williams College in Williamstown where we saw original copies of the founding documents---the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the British reply to the Declaration which, as you can imagine was very interesting to my group. What a treat it was to hear it read by one of my British ladies in her very British accent.
We came across the Mohawk Trail stopping at Shelburne Falls for lunch, visited the Yankee Candle Factory which has way too many candles for anyone to look at or smell. Then we drove the rest of the way to the coast and arrived at this beautiful hotel, the Nantasket Beach Hotel, which is in Hull, MA. We did arrive after dark but that just made everyone's first look at their surroundings more impressive this morning. The hotel is situated on the Massachusetts Bay just southeast of Boston. My room has a balcony facing the Atlantic Ocean. I have a working fireplace, a jacuzzi tub, microwave, coffee pot, and refridgerator. No one else is complaining about their rooms either.


Today we took a guided tour of Boston and then spent free time exploring the city and shopping.

Here are two of my favorite new expressions that I learned from my group:
One lady, commenting on how thin the pillows were in a hotel she once stayed in said she had to "stuff her jumpers" in the pillowcase. I am still laughing about this. (jumpers are sweaters).
Another lady said it was so hot she was "sweating her what-nots off!" I am still trying to determine what "what-nots" are or what "what-nots" are not.

I play music on the bus and award prizes for the correct answers to questions I pose about what we have seen or heard. Today, David our driver commented on how many Dunkin Donuts there are in this area...he LOVES Dunkin Donuts. So I promised a prize to the first person who spotted the next Dunkin Donuts and shouted it out. (I had secretly bought a bucket of Munchkins while in Boston) and when someone shouted out "Dunkin Donuts!" I walked thru the bus and gave everyone a Munchkin. It's really true that "little things mean a lot".

Why are Covered Bridges Covered?

On Friday touring thru Vermont we stopped at a few of the 104 covered bridges that still exist in that state. OK, so the first question I get is the obvious one...Why are they covered? Do I actually know this? No. I actually never thought to ask that question myself! So I give it my best guess....they were covered to protect the bridge floor and the people crossing it, from the elements.

When I got back to my room I googled "why are wooden covered bridges covered?" Turns out they are not covered to protect the people or the flooring. The people would get rained on or snowed on before and after the bridge so that doesn't make sense, and the floor is relatively inexpensive to replace when needed and in fact the bridge tender would usually keep the floor of the bridge covered with snow to allow sleighs to get accross.

They were covered to protect the structural components-the trusses- which were made of heavy timbers and much more expensive to replace. If the trusses fell apart the bridge would fall. An unprotected wooden bridge would last maybe 10 years, a covered one will last for centuries.

Timothy Palmer built the first one in Philadelphia between 1800-1804. Over time there have been something like 10,000 covered wooden bridges built but today fewer than 800 still stand.

The dwindling number is not due to weather conditions but to "progress"....heavy traffic and heavy trucks, and also to teenagers burning them down for fun.

So that's the long and short of it. I took my newly acquired information onto the bus this morning and explained why indeed covered bridges are covered.

I can't wait till next week when they ask me the same question, I'll be ready....of course they probably won't ask. But I will tell them anyway.

Promises Made, Promises Kept

After the harrowing day we had yesterday, my main objective today was to get back to the hotel before dark. I knew this is what the group needed and it was definitely what I needed. Our day was nicely laid out and turned out to be a very managable schedule. We went to the Vermont Country Store which was a big shopping and food tasting hit. We saw a beautiful waterfall and I took a group picture in a great settng...
We traveled on to Woodstock where we happened upon a bar-b-q on the village green. I think I spotted the ghost of Norman Rockwell. We then saw the Quechee Gorge and had ice cream at some picnic tables before we boarded the bus and went on to Hogback Mountain for a spectacular scenic view. My ducklings are very happy and I am certainly not quacking up. We got back to the hotel at 6:30 with daylight to spare. Some went into town to explore and some stayed at the hotel to unwind and prepare for tomorrow's journey into Massachusetts which will be an intense travel day with a stop at Williams College to see America's founding documents such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and The Articles of Confederation. Then it's on to Shelburne Falls and finally the Yankee Candle Factory before we head across the state to end up at the Nantasket Beach Hotel in Hull, MA for three nights.
PS...the meds arrived from London. So all-in-all a good day...no getting lost, no late arrivals and no passenger strokes.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly....and the Scary

The Good: We left the NJ hotel at 7:45 to allow for traffic into Manhattan for our scheduled 9:30 3-hour guided tour. Call it serendipity or whatever but we arrived in the Big Apple with one hour to spare so I set the group free in Times Square for 45 minutes. The were so thrilled at this bonus excursion that I think nothing for the rest of the day could mar their spirits. The guided tour was even more excellent and when I played my cd of Ella and Louis singing "Autumn in NY" and Billy Joel's "NY State of Mind" on the way out of the city up Madison Ave., they would have been happy even if I took them back to the airport at that moment.

The Bad: One of the gentlemen lost his dental bridge down the drain. He's cute without that tooth.

The Other Bad: At breakfast in the NJ hotel one of the men told me that his wife left her "blood-thinning" meds home and had enough for one more day and so the possibility of her having a heart attack or stroke was an issue. He called her doctor, he said they may need to see a doctor here to get a prescription. My solution was...forget that noise, I don't feature finding a doctor and then telling 49 other people that we need to go to doctor and then a pharmacy so how about you call your son in the UK and have him FedEx her meds to the Vermont Hotel. They were thrilled with that solution and the meds will be here tomorrow. I also bought her an entire bottle of aspirin and told her to take all of them immediately upon the onset of a stroke or heart attack! LOL

The Ugly: see picture on right side.....

The Scary: was trying to find the Stratton Mountain Inn in the dark on winding hilly roads with minimal signage (Vermont allows no billboards or advertising signs so there are no landmarks other than red barns and trees), and do it in time to be able to get 51 hungry people to dinner at the restaurant that closes at 9:00. Got there about 7:45. Wheww!

Tomorrow we leave a 8:30 to go to the Vermont Country Store http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/Shop, Woodstock, Quechee Gorge, Hogback Mountain http://www.flickr.com/photos/62463008@N00/2699507535/and whatever else we see when we see it.

As for tonight...I am one happy TD!

I survived Day #1

The flight was about a half hour late, the "meet & greet" went well. Two passengers were not on the flight. But at least I didn't lose them. We made good time to the hotel in NJ but still didn't arrive till 10:15 or so.
We have a 9:30 am Manhattan City tour so we have to leave here at 7:45 and hope we make it in time.
After the city tour I take my "leaf-peepers" up thru the NYS Thruway and into Vermont.
I suspect I will be spending most of tomorrow learning the "English" language. Very nice people but they talk funny. ;-)
No pictures yet. Tomorrow I will take some.

The Real Deal...

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 8th, I am off to New England for the real, as opposed to the practice, Fall Foliage Tour with real UK Tourists, as opposed to Peter, and real hotels, as opposed to Walmart parking lots.
I have driven myself crazy researching and planning and routing and re-routing so I am almost ready. I will have more to say about that in a few days.
I have two one-week tours, Oct 8-14 and Oct 15-21. Each group has 53 people, all approximately my age so I should be able to keep up with them.
I will sleep when I can, blog when I can't sleep, and collapse when I can't blog.
Wish me luck and stay tuned...I am once again...
On The Move!

Plimouth Plantation is Better than Walmart

This day requires two posts....here's the first...

On Tuesday we went to Plimouth Plantation, the amazingly authentic re-creation of the 1627 village where the Pilgrims settled. If you haven't seen this, it's a "living museum" where everything is exactly as it was 380 years ago. The structures, the costumes, the tools, the food, and the people are all as they were.
The people are modeled after real people who came over on the Mayflower, so they tell of their lives in the language they used. You can interact with them but they never come out of character, so you can ask them about their experiences and their lives...it's an amazing technique that makes history so understandable and interesting.

Peter actually tried to get this guy to come out of character by asking him where he really lives when he is not working here. The guy said, "Where else could I live? Out there? In the wilderness?"

Everything, I mean everything they say and do is in character. After a while you feel like you are actually living in 1627. He talked about the clothes they wear, that they brought them over with them from England and they are no particular size...he said "it's not that we can't make our own clothing, we are very skilled at that in our homeland but we just don't have the time because we have so much to do to survive here in this new land, and we have the women and children to protect from the natives." I finally had to drag Peter away from this guy since he was hell-bent on getting him to break character.

There are also present-day crafstman who produce the utensils, pottery and furnishings for the village using the techniques and tools that were used in the 17th century. While they worked they answered questions and talked about what they were doing.

Here is a potter...and a carpenter.

If you are ever looking for a place to go on vacation I highly recommend Plymouth and Plimouth Plantation. It's a great place to take the kids too. I have no jokes about this place...it was simply amazing and way better than Walmart!

The Tale of Dolly & Donna...& Charley

Here's the second...

After a day of site-seeing at Plimouth Plantation and traveling, at about 5:00 PM we were on Cape Cod and realized we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We required seafood. So we found a restaurant called "Clancy's" in Dennisport on the Nantucket Sound. It was very crowded, so not wanting to waste time waiting for a table, we decided to sit in the bar and order dinner.

Throughout the whole trip Peter and I have been thinking of songs about the places we have seen that I can play on the tour as we travel..."Old Cape Cod", "New York, New York", "Falling Leaves", etc. So Peter mentioned a song but couldn't remember the name of it.

It's about a guy named Charley who "rides forever 'neath the streets of Boston", "and his fate is still unlearn'd", "he's the man who'll never return"...these are some of the lines that we could remember. We kept coming up with snippits of the song but never the title.

We asked the waitress...she didn't know.

We asked the bartender...he didn't know.

I told Peter to "call Jack in California, he knows every song ever written"...he didn't know.

As we finished our stuffed shrimp dinner and were getting up to leave we tried once more and asked two women at the table behind us. Peter sang the part of the song that we knew and one of the women, Donna, said..."Was the guy in the song named 'Charley'"?

We said yes it was. So she took a card out of her wallet...an "MTA Charley Card"...used to purchase multiple trips on the Boston MTA. On the card is a cartoon character named Charley on a train. (Did I mention serendipity?)

So we struck up a conversation..."where are you from?", "where are you going?", "what's your name?" and on and on and on.

Donna's cousin Dolly said she is visiting from San Francisco. I told her I just came back from San Francisco, and why I was there, and what does she do there, and on and on and on. Then we all said our goodbyes--they went to their table for dinner and we went to the coach to leave.

Before we left I googled the song and found out that the name is "Charley on the MTA" by the Kingston Trio. I printed the lyrics of the song, http://www.mit.edu/~jdreed/t/charlie.html, and we went back into Clancy's to deliver the lyrics to Dolly and Donna. Again we had a big conversation about where we are going, and what everyone does for a living, and on and on and on. I told Dolly about my blog and that I am writing about the trip and if she looks at it she will see the posts about my San Francisco trip too.

At that point I decided that tonight's blog will be about our new best friends, Dolly and Donna.

So as we sit in the coach parked in the East Falmouth Walmart parking lot I raise my glass of wine in a toast to Dolly and Donna...

and to Charley, whose fate is still unlearn'd.

Springfield Walmart to Plymouth Walmart

As we continued the Great New England Walmart Tour of 2008, we left Springfield this morning and drove the rest of the way across Massachusetts to a little southeast of Boston to the Nantasket Beach Hotel http://tinyurl.com/5zvaju%20whichwhich is on a little peninsula in a town called Hull. Talked to the person in charge of groups, got info, brochures and had lunch.

Then we drove on to Plymouth. There we saw the Mayflower II which is an exact full scale replica of the original Mayflower. I think this should be Nancy and Bruce's next boat. It was built in 1957 and there is a plaque commemorating the transatlantic voyage of 33 men who made the same trip from Plymouth, England to Plymouth, MA. I wonder if they got scurvy.


We saw Plymouth Rock where the Pilgrims first set foot on land in America, except that the structure that houses it is under renovation and we could not see it really well.

Across from the rock is the monument to the women who came over on the Mayflower in 1620, called "The Pilgrim Mother."

We got here too late to see the Plimouth Plantation, we will start out tomorrow and go there first then on to Hyannis and Cape Cod.

Tonight we spend the overnight in the lap of luxury as we park in the extra large parking lot of the Plymouth Walmart SuperCenter. This is the cadillac of Walmart free parking lots and we are feeling pretty elite. After all, is this not the land of the Kennedys? This is really living!

Update: We just found out that this is the Walmart that the Pilgrims shopped in when they landed at Plymouth Rock...amazing! There is even a frozen turkey still in the freezer case left over from the "First Thanksgiving Storewide Sale". I told you this was a SuperCenter.

Serendipity and Walmart

This morning we left Hidden Acres Campground and crossed the border into Massachusetts and drove the Mohawk Trail, http://www.mohawktrail.com/, a beautiful scenic drive that goes thru several small picturesque towns. The first one we stopped at was Shelburne Falls. Of course we saw the falls,
and the Bridge of Flowers which is America's answer to Florence's Ponte Vecchio only without the gold jewelry.

I spoke to a local shopkeeper about bringing my tour group there in October, got brochures, maps and lots of good information. We drove on to Claremont where we saw the monument to Native Americans created by Italian Sculptor Joseph Pollina called "Hail to the Sunrise", a beautiful statue and an impressive number of memorial stones to Native Americans.

All of this so far has been fabulous but I guess you are wondering where the serendipity comes into play...well, the next town we drove to was Stockbridge, where I needed to find the Yankee Candle Store because it is on the October Tour itinerary. After making a wrong turn and backtracking what amounted to 9 miles we found Stockbridge and the candle store. Right next to Yankee Candle is The Red Lion Hotel, where we noticed a lot of activity involving video equipment and lighting and sound checks. As we soon found out they were preparing to shoot tomorrow's (Monday) episode of Good Morning America.

So we stood around a while watching the activity, I talked to the manager about possibly taking my group here for lunch in October and who did we see get out of a bus in front of the hotel but Diane Sawyer, Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo and James Taylor!

We took lots of pictures then got back in the coach to proceed on our journey, simply amazed at the "serendipity" of having made a wrong turn that brought us back to the place we were looking for just in time to walk into the middle of Good Morning America!

Tonight we are spending the night in the Walmart parking lot in Springfield, MA.

Like I said before...You Can't Make This Stuff Up!!!

Vermont is Better Than Walmart

Today we did some serious traveling and site-seeing and tour-planning. After we left the Bennington Walmart behind, we traveled on Rt 9 east to Willmington and then north on Rt 100. We found the Stratton Mountain Inn, which is where my tour group will spend 2 nights. I went in and introduced myself to the desk person and picked up some brochures and maps, took some pictures and continued on to find Woodstock Vermont. On the way we stopped at The Vermont Country Store which is a destination in itself. It's actually about 6 buildings of stores selling everything from hand crafts to candy to clothing to rugs to hardware, souvenirs, maple syrup, maple candy, jams and jellies, cheese, toys, books, gadgets, nice stuff, silly stuff, fun stuff, boring stuff, edible stuff, and every other kind of stuff you could ever want and never need. Definitely on the agenda for my tour group.

As we continued on to Woodstock we saw a covered bridge or two and the Quechee Gorge and various other scenic wonders and Vermont vistas.

Tonight we are staying at the Hidden Acres Campground which is a few steps up from Walmart.

Tomorrow...on to Massachusetts!

First Stop....Walmart!

We left Farmingville at about 3:00 PM, and head for the NY Thruway. It rained all the way. We hit a lot of traffic thru the Bronx but things started to loosen up after the Tappan Zee Bridge.

By the time we got to Troy NY and head east on route 7 toward Vermont, it was pretty dark and still raining so we decided to get to Bennington VT, where there is a Walmart with a giant parking lot.

I am not even kidding, Peter has a catalogue of all the Walmart's in the US where Motor Homes are allowed to park overnight for no charge. So we parked the coach, went into a pizza restaurant, ordered dinner, went shopping in Walmart, went back to pick up our dinner and back to the coach for salad and stuffed shells.

You can't make this stuff up!

New England Practice Tour

Today Peter and I are headed upstate thru NY on the thruway to Troy where we will make a hard right and go into Vermont. We'll see the green mountains while they are still green, go to Woodstock, the Quechee Gorge, http://tinyurl.com/0 ,The Bridge of Flowers, and who knows what else.
Then we will head down to Massachusetts on 91 and drive the Mohawk Trail http://www.mohawktrail.com/, then down to Stockbridge and across MA to Boston. We'll see Plimouth Plantation, Hyannis, and Cape Cod.
Stay tuned to this blog for updates and pictures.

A Good Time Was Had by All: South Street Seaport & Lunch in Little Italy

I met my group of 48 at the pick-up stop in Plainview and we set out for our day in Manhattan. Our group was scheduled for early lunch at Sal Anthony's Restaurant on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. It was drizzling nicely when we left Plainview and by the time we got to the drop-off 4 blocks from the restaurant it was torrentially pouring. So with me leading my ducklings thru the rain and the puddles we marched with our umbrellas, canes and walkers to dry off and have a great lunch--salad, pasta, main course, desert and coffee. So far so good, no one lost, no one injured.

After lunch we made our way back to the bus, and headed for the South Street Seaport.

We had some free "shopping, strolling, ice-cream eating" time before our boat ride to see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the man-made waterfalls under the Brooklyn Bridge...

We saw all four of the falls created by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. It is a temporary exhibit which will only be available for about another month.

After the boat ride we returned to the seaport for a little more "independent exploration" and "biological interludes". Then back on the bus for the trip home to Long Island.

All in all it was a good day, not too stressful, and a lot of fun with some adorable senior citizens.

I'm a Day Tripper...oh yeah...

Tomorrow (9-9-08) I'm escorting a group to Manhattan's South Street Seaport, including a boat ride to see the NYC Waterfalls exhibit http://nyfalls.com/nycwaterfalls.html. Then we go to Sal Anthony's Restaurant in Little Italy for lunch. This is a trip organized by Rendezvous Travel in Merrick (www.rendezvous.travel). Check out their site, they have lots of great trips and events.
I will post pictures when I get home.

My First Assignment!

I got a job!! Just two days after I came home from San Francisco I got a notice from ITMI that there is a company in California booking for a UK Tour Company and looking for a Tour Director based on the east coast. I sent my resume and got the job. Yayyy!

It's two seven-day back-to-back fall foliage tours of Vermont and Massachusetts, with a city tour of Manhattan and a city tour of Boston.

Here's the link for the brochure of the tour: http://tinyurl.com/5apwg6

Both tours are a full coach of 52 people. I have been routing and researching since Saturday and will continue to do so until the night befor the first tour! The first one is Oct 8-14 and the second is Oct 15-21.

I am going to do a practice tour with Peter in the Monaco coach on Sept 12th-17th just to see the areas I will be touring in October with the British group. I need all the help I can get, and I will be more confident after I have actually traveled the route and seen the sites.

I will naturally take lots of pictures and post them with daily updates on this blog.

Heading Home...

Well, it's been a helluva ride. The course is over, my resume is ready, said goodbye to all my new best friends with promises to keep in touch and I even set up a blog for our ITMI class #248 to do so.
It's was a great experience and a great preparation for what I hope is going to be the next great chapter in my life.
For now I can't wait to get back to Long Island and see all my beautiful babies...Kento, Riku, Kai, Kaylee, Kelsey, Kevin, Eva, and Luke. Also their mommies, daddies, uncles, aunts, grandpas, grandmas, and friends.
San Francisco is a great city and I hope to return someday, maybe I'll lead you all on a tour!

I love all of you and I'll see you soon.

Graduation...Elation!

Ok, The class is over, no more tests, route maps, commentaries, note-taking, citi-tours, overnight trips, endless classroom days. On Sunday we had the last class from 12:00 to 5:00. We had about an hour to go back to our rooms and get ready for the Graduation. When we returned the staff- members each had something to say to us, mostly congratulatory, and encouraging. We then received our certificates and our much-coveted ITMI lapel pin...

We then went up to the 25th floor of the hotel Nikko where we had a fabulous dinner and more of Ted's recommended wines.

We had a very nice time, and the hugs and promises to keep in touch ran rampant. Then we left and split up to find our own celebrations. The young kids went where young kids go and my group of new best friends and I went to a rowdy bar that featured "dueling pianos". We had drinks and sang-along at the top of our voices even if we didn't know the words because we have been taught how to do that at ITMI.

After we closed that bar we searched for a diner where we had breakfast because we knew we would be sleeping long past the time when free "continental" breakfast is offered in the hotel.

I know you are wondering if I will keep blogging after my trip is over. I will continue to blog here periodically but since it was designed to be a "travelogue" of my travels, I will probably keep it to news of my progress in getting a job now that I am certified and the when I do get a job I wll again take you along on my trips.

Thanks everyone for you support and encouragement. Writing this blog helped me to unwind after each busy day and to summarize the day. And it also gave me something to look forward to as I woke up to read your comments. I hope you all enjoyed my trip and my blog.

Thirteenth Class...Please!...

...foot and mouth disease!
This morning started out with an interesting set of activities for me. I was up late last night preparing my Colorado itinerary and got up early this morning to start on my Morocco itinerary and commentary for the written and oral final on Sunday.

When I realized that so much time had passed that I had only about 20 minutes to get dressed and ready to leave at nine I started rushing around to get ready. I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth and decided that I had not enough time for a shower. So not wanting the maid to know that I didn't take a shower (she KNOWS who I am, I see her in the hall all the time!), I quickly ran the shower for a few minutes threw the towels and washclothes into the tub and opened the cabinet where I keep my toiletries and sundries and grabbed for my specialized GM Collin face cream that was especially selected for my unique skin type by my professional skin care specialist, only instead of that I grabbed my Kerasal foot lotion that was especially selected by me at CVS for my crusty achy feet, and proceeded to slather it all over my face. I actually smoothed it all over my face and neck before I realized the error of my ways.

It so freaked me out that I immediately jumped in the now steaming shower and did what I should have done at the start. At least now I wouldn't have to avoid eye contact with the maid should I meet her in the hall. I got out of the shower and dried myself with the already wet towels.

Now I was REALLY late so while rushing around straightening up the room (I always do that for the maid) I was putting away things from the kitchen counter while dressing at the same time. I put my deoderant in the refrigerator!

Well, I finally go out of the hotel, never did see the maid, and made my way down the hills to class. It was a full day of classroom note taking again but about 2 hours into it we get to take a quick "biological" break, as we call it in the business, but instead of that I made a beeline for the lobby of the hotel to get coffee which I didn't have time for before I left, one of my classmates, Mattie, caught up with me and said in her beautiful Arkansas accent, "Did you leave in a hurry this morning, darlin? Your shirt is on inside out!" So I took a detour to the ladies room and reversed my shirt and so had no time to get coffee. Some days you should just Stay in Bed!

So I apologize for my lack of inspirational or humorous blogging last night but I hope you get a feeling for the state of my stress level. Now, I am not complaining, this has been a most amazing, stimulating, and exciting experience but it has pushed me to the heights of my endurance, which I am sure is good preparation for Tour Directing.

Tomorrow...Morocco!
Tomorrow night...Graduation!

Twelfth Class...Busting my ass...

Today was another full classroom day about Train Tours, Student Tours, and Cruises. I'm not even kidding..I have no time to blog tonight. I have to map and route a Colorado Tour for tomorrow and prepare a tour for Morocco, which is the written final exam and an oral presentation for Sunday. So talk amongst yourselves and I will check in tomorrow.

Here are some more pictures of the Sundial Bridge..

Day Eleven...I have no more rhymes...

Just returned from our 2 day trip. It was pretty exhausting. The intention was to have us experience first hand what it is like to be on a tour as guests, but we also had to observe and learn how the tour leaders and guides handled the tour.

Today we left the Red Lion Hotel in Redding which is way up in
Northern California and we traveled east to Burney Falls:

We had a picnic lunch at Lassen Volcanic National Park:

We traveled past some awesome scenic vistas and saw amazing natural wonders.

While we were traveling over the road from one site to another we took turns presenting our 5 minute tour commentary to the group.

So it took the whole two-day trip to hear commentary from all 35 students. We had about a day to research and prepare our topic and present it in a way that was interesting and relevant to the area we were traveling in. Here is a link to my commentary if you care to read it http://tinyurl.com/6gtb79. Keep in mind that this is just the jist of what I wrote, my actual commentary was improvised...a lot.

Tomorrow is a classroom day again, when we will review the trip and the topics we learned about such as luggage handling, hotel check-in and check-out, driving directions, scheduling of rest-stops and meals...these are all things for which the tour director is responsible.

Then for Saturday we have to prepare and route a similar trip to Colorado...that is, map the route and prepare the schedule.

The day after that we get to do the same for a country...in my case, Morocco.

Wow!

Day Ten...On the Road Again...

Today we left the hotel at 8:00 am for our trip to Turtle Bay. Made a few stops along the way and listened to about 13 presentations. My turn didn't come up so I will be presenting tomorrow morning.

We saw the Sundial Bridge which is an amazing piece of architecture and the only working sundial bridge in the world...

We explored the Turtle Bay Exploratorium and saw the aviary and the butterfly house. The butterfly house was really beautiful. The aviary was really noisy.

We had dinner on the outdoor patio next to the Sundial Bridge, drank wine and watched the light slowly illuminate the bridge from below.

Tomorrow we go to Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic National Park, including Summit Lake, Kings Meadow, Helen Lake, Hot Rock, Bumpass Hell, Little Hot Springs and the Sulfur Works. And then we go back to San Francisco and collapse in our hotel rooms.