A Basket of Pears

When I first met with my driver, Steve, we talked about the route and plans for the tour. I asked him if he knew a city guide for Dallas as the tour company hadn't included it in the tour. Since I had scheduled 4 hours free I thought that a two hour tour would work nicely, still allowing 2 hours of free time. So Steve, being a local, happened to know a couple of city tour guides and was able to contact one and make the arrangements. I presented the plan to the passengers and all were willing to pay the small fee to pay the guide.
And so it was.
After the visit to Dealy Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum the guide met us and showed us the city. One of the stops on the tour was the Dallas Farmers Market.

This is a wonderful open-air market with lots of vendors selling beautiful and delicious-looking fruits and vegetables. So everyone scrambled around purchasing goodies to snack on while on the coach.
I bought a bag of green grapes and a basket (about 6) beautiful, delicious-looking pears which happen to be my two favorite fruits. We re-boarded the coach and I placed my purchases on my seat. I then had to return to the jump seat of the bus so Danielle, the guide could assume my seat behind the driver to finish the tour. She also placed her purchases on my seat.
And so it was.
When the tour was done everyone said thank you to Danielle for a terrific and informative tour and she picked up her purchases and said good bye and left the coach. As she was waving goodbye from the sidewalk I moved back into my seat behind the driver. I quickly realized that one of my bags was missing. I searched all around my seat, on the floor, under other things that were there and only found my grapes. I knew it was unintentional but Danielle had taken one of my bags when she picked up hers. I immediately took the microphone and announced, "She took my pears!" Naturally I got a lot of comic mileage out of this. Sometimes when things are quiet on the bus I will say, "I wish I had a pear," or " I can't believe she stole my damn pears," or "I hope you enjoyed the Dallas City Tour, all it cost was a couple of hundred dollars and a basket of MY pears!"
It has become a great theme of the tour....She stole my pears! Everyone has found some way to make reference to the event and we have had a lot of laughs over it.
And all it cost me was a basket of pears!

Rodeo!!

Everyone enjoyed an evening of Country Music, Dancing, a Bull Riding show, and of course The Rodeo at Billy Bob's Texas Saloon http://www.billybobstexas.com/, alledgedly the world's largest Honky Tonk, located at the Fort Worth Stockyards. This could be true because inside Billy Bob's is a stage with a live band, a dance floor, a restaurant, a gift shop, a museum, at least 3 bars, live bull riding shows, a "Photo Bull," a casino, an arcade, about a dozen pool tables, and they offer live concerts, this night featuring Travis Tritt. The club can accomodate 6,000 people...that ain't just big, that's TEXAS Big!

We also had a city tour of Dallas and one of the highlights of that was "The Herd", which is the world's biggest bronze monument. Forty nine Texas Longhorn Steer and three cowboys by sculptor Robert Summers sprawl down a realistic cattle trail, thru a running stream and a limestone cliff. It's quite an impressive work and you can walk right among them without getting stampeded, kind of like the real Cattle Drive at the Stockyards!

We visited the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza, a National Historic Landmark. It is a collection of photographs, articles, and news programs telling the whole sequence of events surrounding the assassination of JFK, housed in the School Book Depository from where Lee Harvey Oswald fired on the President's motorcade on November 22, 1963. There are two x's in the street denoting the spots where the presidents car was when each shot struck him. We also drove past the garage door where Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby on national TV.

It was a very moving experience to relive that terrible day right in the spot where it took place.

Stampede!!!!

We traveled to the little town of Grapevine, so named for the wild mustang grapes prevalent in the area, where we boarded the Tarantula Vintage Steam Train for our journey to the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District, http://www.fortworthstockyards.org/

which is a 10 block neighborhood that consists of cobblestone streets, raised wooden sidewalks and streetlights designed to resemble gas lamps. The whole area offers a glimpse of life in Texas a century ago when the Texas Longhorn Steer drove the economy.

There is a Cowboy Hall of Fame, weekend rodeos and a twice-daily "Cattle Drive" down the main street. We were expecting a stampede of Longhorn steer. What we got was a stroll down the street by about 15 of the most docile, bored, non-stampeding animals one could imagine. The "wranglers" made sure no one stepped into the path of these huge animals but I really think if anyone said "boo" to them, they would have turned tail and stampeded in the opposite direction.

Anyway the stockyards was the place where over a million head of cattle passed thru between 1887 and 1904 on their way to the rail lines further north, or the marketing and auction blocks for sale to the meat processing companies.

The town is full of western shops, restaurants, souvenir stores, and honky tonks. It was a fun day and at least 5 of my group came away with their official cowboy hats. I exect all 28 of them will have one by the end of the tour.

Waking Up in Fort Worth

After a full day of traveling, waiting for flights, finding my driver, meeting my new group, and getting to the Hilton Hotel after dark, this morning I found myself in Fort Worth, Texas and went for an early morning stroll to see where I am.

What a beautiful, clean and friendly city it is:

The Bass Performance Hall, home of the city's symphony orchestra, ballet, and opera companies. An awesome 2,000 seat theatre.

Detail of the side of the building: Gigantic granite angels blowing 6' trumpets. The building also features a cloud-filled 80 ft wide Great Dome which soars above the auditorium.

Today we take an antique steam train to the Fort Worth Stockyards to see among other things a Cattle drive down the center of town.

This tour will take us to Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the 6th Floor Museum at the Texas School Book Depository, Dinner and Line Dancing Lessons at Billy Bob's Texas Saloon, The San Antonio Riverwalk, The Alamo, The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum and more.

This is Texas! This is a BIG tour!

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

Today one of our stops in Vermont was at the Queechee Gorge a 13,000 year old canyon cut during the Ice Age. One of the favorite things at this stop for my previous groups has been the ice cream shop at the gift shop complex after the gorge. There are picnic tables and it is a nice break to order an ice cream cone and sit at the tables when the weather is nice.
Today everything was perfect for such a break. So I told the group about the wonderful little shop with the delicious flavors and the picnic tables in the beautiful setting by the 13,000 year- old gorge. When we got there everyone on the bus immediately lined up to order their ice cream.
As I watched the line NOT move for several minutes I went over to see what the hold-up was. When I got there I realized that there was only one clerk taking orders, receiving money and scooping ice cream into cones. The process was clearly overwhelming, she was clearly unable to work any faster than she was, the group was clearly getting impatient and I could clearly see my day's schedule melting into chaos.
What to do?
I worked my way to the front of the line and said to the girl, “Can I help you? Can I come inside and help scoop the ice cream?” I really expected her to say, “No” but to my surprise and everyone else’s she said…”Yes, please.” So I went inside and quickly began taking orders, and scooping ice cream, and receiving money….Tammy even showed me how to use the cash register!
It was very funny, everyone got their cones, and when I finished with the last order, Tammy thanked me enthusiastically and told me I could have any size ice cream cone I wanted! I came out with my cone and everyone was sitting at the picnic tables in the beautiful setting by the 13,000 year-old gorge eating ice cream just like they were supposed to!
And we left the Queechee Gorge right on schedule.

Where have all the Autumn Leaves gone?...

they've gone to raindrops, everyone....
I just finished "New England in the Fall" with group 1. The Autumn colors in Vermont were almost completely yellows and pale oranges, and many had already fallen. My Group 2 (beginning today) may be surprised to see little color in the northern portion of the tour. Massachusetts holds more promise for color, but that will be later in the week so who knows.
The week went well and the main issue we had to contend with was the weather. We had some unseasonable coldness in Boston, and some horrendous rain on the last day. So much so that we had to scrap our plans to spend the day at the wharf in Rhode Island. I took the group to an outlet mall in Connecticut instead and they enjoyed the last minute opportunity to spend whatever money they had left so they wouldn't have to bother with changing those pesky American Dollars back into British Pounds.

The Countess Lives!

Today at the Vermont Country Store I spotted a display of masks and found a perfect one to wear on the bus when next I counted the passengers.

How Sweet It Is...

...to return to America after two rainy days in Canada. Especially when we made an unscheduled stop at the New England Maple Museum in Pittsford, VT (http://www.maplemuseum.com/tour.html). We had a tour of the history and process of maple syrup production, saw a film about the process, sampled maple syrup products and jams and other spreads and naturally ended our tour in the gift shop. It was an unexpected and unplanned education and a delicious surprise.

We also had our first covered bridge siting...at Shellburne, Vermont. Even the drizzle couldn't keep the group from getting off the bus to get the pictures.

Cohasset MA to Montreal

We left the hotel in Cohasset at 8:00 AM and between the pouring rain and rush hour traffic going to Boston we were running about an hour behind the planned lunch stop in Montpelier VT. The foliage was spectacular even in the rain. Once we got past Boston the rain was intermittent but I knew we needed a rest stop before lunch. There were no services on I-93 so we exited at a town called Hooksett, New Hampshire just to find a restroom an perhaps a snack to hold us till lunch. We came to an intersection where McDonalds was the main attraction in this small town. As we sat at the light our driver, Jose put his left turn signal on and as we made the turn we could see the manager and the drive-in attendant looking at the coach with their eyes and mouths wide open in an "Oh, my God, they're coming here!" expression of panic. Everyone on the coach laughed hysterically and as we entered the restaurant there was a noticable McFlurry of McActivity. As they all McManned their stations, the manager was shouting McDirections to all of the McEmployees.

They did a great job serving everyone and we were out of there and on our way in about 40 minutes.

McAmazing!!

The Countess

One of the most stressful chores of this job is counting the people. I have to count them everytime we board the coach before we can begin the journey...that is everytime...every morning, every rest area stop, every time we board the coach again. This probably doesn't seem like a very difficult thing to do but for some reason (old age) no matter what method I use I always come up with a different answer. So this process quickly becomes a comical event on the coach.
Now my passengers have begun to call me "The Countess". I rather enjoy the title...especially when they bow!
On Monday we spent the day in Boston and on Tuesday we went to Rhode Island, visited the Marble House, a Vanderbilt mansion on the Cliff Walk, then enjoyed free time at the restaurants and shops at the wharf in Newport.
Hopefully I will have a connection at our next hotel and will be able to post some pictures.

Getting There

The internet connection was troublesome in Cohasset so this is my first opportunity to post here using the Hotel's computer.
I picked up the group at Boston Airport, all except for 2 ladies, I'll call them Susan and Christine, because those are their names. Once all of my group had arrived and boarded the coach except for Susan and Christine I waited until the flight arrival announcement was removed from the board, found out they were never on the flight and proceeded with the group to the Cohasset Harbor Resort (http://www.cohassetharborresort.com/) which is a beautifully quaint Inn situated on a small harbor in Cohasset, MA.
The first thing I usually do when arriving at a hotel is set up my computer and try to get online.
Steve, the hotel manager was terriffic and very eager to help me get online but the signal was weak in Room 112. He took me to the 2nd floor to a room that he said they use for meetings so the connection might be better. It turned out to be the hotel"s "Presidential Suite"---livingroom/dining area/kitchenette combination and a very large separate bedroom on the harbor side with a beautiful view facing the sunrise and sliding glass doors onto the the balcony. The connection didn't work here either but I didn't mind so much.

Following Fall Foliage Farther Forthwith

I'm off on Sunday, October 4th to New England and Quebec, Canada.
I'm doing 3 consecutive 1-week tours and I'm not coming back until I see every last leaf from New York to Quebec change color and fall down.
I'm really looking forward to it...what better place to experience the spectacle of Mother Nature changing her clothes than New England and Eastern Canada?
And who knows what adventures lie ahead?
Not me.

More London

When the Queen enters Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament she enters the Queen's Robing Room to put on the Imperial State Crown and the parliamentary Robes.

This is the clock in the Robing Room. And below, the fireplace.

Buckingham Palace, The Queen was not in...as evidenced by the fact that the Royal Standard was not flying.

These guys were keeping an eye on things at Buckingham Palace and in the park across the street from the Palace. (The black swan was in the park)

I Spy With My Little Eye...

...some spectacular scenes in London.

Some of these images were shot from the London Eye, the giant rotating wheel that is 200 times the size of the average racing bike wheel, and the largest observation wheel ever built as well as the only cantilevered structure of its kind in the world. The panoramic views of London are amazing from there. The ride takes about 30 minutes.

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

from the South Bank of the River Thames


The Tower Bridge from the North Bank.

Big Ben through the structure of the London Eye

9/14/09 We Did It!

We left the villa in Contignano and drove for 2 hours through every little town and village between there and Cascina (it was only 78 miles). This was the shortcut that we didn't take the other day when it took us two hours too.

The rain started about half way there and never stopped but just kept getting more and more intense. Between the switchbacks and the roundabouts and the torrential downpours we were beginning to think that Massimina didn't want to be found.
But we persevered and finally made it to Cascina and found the Stato Civile where birth records are stored.

It is necessary to take a number from a ticket machine (I think they got the idea from the US Department of Motor Vehicles.)
We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for finding the right office with 40 minutes to spare but were again frustrated when the ticket machine didn't work and the attendant who was trying to fix it left to find another one who could! Finally the machine got fixed, we got our ticket and we were only one number away from the one that was currently being helped at the counter we needed to be at. When that person left we thought surely our turn had come but the agent needed to do something at his computer that caused him to laugh and giggle for the next 10 minutes. Peter was sure he was receiving chain letter email jokes.
When we were finally called he spoke no English and although I had written the names and dates and the info that we were looking for, this guy had no interest in helping us and so he passed us off to another agent. She didn't speak any English either but was at least willing to listen to my clumsy attempt at Italian. She retrieved a large old leather-bound volume of an index of birth records from Cascina for 1876 which was the date we thought Massimina was born. There was no Massimina Barontini listed. She then called another agent over who spoke about as much English as I spoke Italian. They decided to check the years around 1876 and found a "Massimo Barontini" born to Caterina Picchi and Angiolo Barontini in 1875. I knew that was the right record even though I thought her parents were Angelo Barontini and Caterina Picchini. The agent noticed a notation in the margin indicating that the name was originally written wrongly as Massimo, wrong because the child was a girl. This is why they couldn't find her in the index. So the note corrected the name to read "Massimina." So we definitely had the right record! She further translated the address as #84 San Frediano as to where she was born. We asked how to find that address and they told us it no longer exists. Understandable, I guess.

Anyway we purchased 5 copies, thanked both women for their help and were on our way in the rain to catch our train from Florence to Paris. By the time we got to Florence we were drenched and hungry but happy to finally take Nona with us, if only on paper.
I never knew Massimina--she died before I was born so this is the closest I have been to her... we're off to see the Eiffel Tower now but I don't expect to be moved by it as much as I was this morning when I saw the original hand-written record of Nona's birth in 1875 (134 years ago). WOW!!

By the way, Massimina was born 14 years before the Eiffel tower was built.

Mazzetti Revisited

I think it was in 2005 when we made our family trip to Tuscany. It was after dark in Montepulciano and we were walking down a street when we came upon a coppersmith shop where Signore Mazzetti was working. The scene was striking because a single hanging bulb overhead shone a perfect cone of light on him in the dark as he worked at his craft.

We crossed the street to get a better look and as we stood and watched him work, he greeted us and invited us in. Moma was with us (in her wheelchair) and since she was the only one of the 4 of us who could understand and speak Italian, he began to ask her the usual questions, and as he learned who she was and about her family he began to make her a copper disk upon which he stamped with his various tools the initials of each of her 9 children with a flower to represent each in a ring around the disk with her name in the middle. He said her children were like the flowers in her garden. He then polished it to a gleaming finish and presented it to her as a gift...although we offered to pay for it, he would take no money. We then took his picture with her and went on our way. It was an amazing and memorable event.

I later sent him a copy of the picture.

Fast forward to today, Peter and I were in Montepulciano and went into Mazzetti's shop to say hello, and not only did he remember us but he showed us the picture that I sent him, hanging right there on his wall!

Another amazing and memorable event!

Grazie Signore Mazzetti!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

..we found some grapes to eat right off the vine, endless acres of vineyards, a honey of a town, and a family from Massapequa, Long Island.
The grapes were delicious, the vineyards were breathtaking, the town was Montalcino and it was having a "Honey Festival", and we met the Mauro Family at lunch at the Banfi Vineyard.

Lost & Found or "Getting Lost and Finding Stuff"

We wanted to go back to Cascina to find Nona's records and we decided to take a shortcut. Well, the shortcut didn't work so well and we got lost. None of the roads in Tuscany are a shortcut to anywhere. So even though we got an early start we at about 11:15 that we were not going to make it to Cascina before the agency which has the birth records would close at 12:30. So we decided to take a shortcut to find San Gimignano. When that didn't go so well either and we got lost again we both decided to not try to find anywhere but instead to just drive.

When we passed a beautiful vista (duhhh!) we needed to turn around and go take pictures of it. So we did. As we were getting back in the car to find a shortcut to Siena I found something unusual in the dry soil on the side of the road. It was a shell! What the #*^% is a seashell doing in the hills of Tuscany???? I decided that we must have found proof that this area was at one time, millennia ago, under water. I continued to search and found many more shells. Then as I raised my eyes from the ground to the vegetation I noticed that some of the shells were stuck to the tall plants.
Sea shells? I think not!! What I found were snail shells! Some of them even still had snails in them!!

What I learned today: Don't be afraid to get lost because sometimes when you get lost you find stuff, it's just not always what you think you found.

9/10/09 Birthplaces

Today on our way to Lucca we decided to visit the birthplace of our Maternal Grandmother--Massimina Barrontini. She was born in Cascina, in 1876 to Caterina Piccini and Angelo Barrontini. Cascina is just a bit east of Pisa. We went into the Municiple Building and were lucky enough to approach an English-speaking agent who told us where we could find records of past residents of Cascina. Unfortunately that office only has hours between 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM. It was 12:50 by the time she gave us all the information and directions we needed including where to have lunch. So we will go back there soon and see what we can find.
We did find the church that Massimina surely attended as a girl.

In searching for our lunch we found ourselves in a village called Vicopisano, built on a little hill, which was interesting for it's towers, the largest and most impressive was the medieval "Torre del Bunelleschi." We saw it but could not reach it because of the maze of steps and hills and ancient buildings (dating back pre-1407). We could see the top of it from many vantage points but couldn't get to it.

We did find the "Torre dell Orologio" or clock tower.

After Vicopisano we headed for Lucca to secure dinner arrangements for our March 2010 tour group. Lucca is best known for its beautifully preserved walls that completely surround the town-walls that took 150 years to build in the 16th and 17th Centuries. It has some beautiful Romanesque churches, cobblestone streets, lots of restaurants, and pasticherrias (bakeries) and the main mode of transportation is the bicycle. People of all ages ride bicycles everywhere.

Our two main objectives in Lucca were to find a nice restaurant for our group and I particularly wanted to find the birthplace of Lucca"s most accomplished native--Giaccomo Puccini of LaBoehm, Madam Butterfly, Tosca, and Turandot fame. Another town of mazes kept us searching for the better part of the afternoon. We weren't having any better luck finding a suitable restaurant for the group either. So I was ready to give up on that plan and resort to the internet to achieve that goal.

But I was determined not to leave Lucca without finding Puccini's birthplace. The map told us it was adjacent to Piazza San Michelle which is the site of the beautiful church constructed largely in the 11th and 12th centuries but the work continued until the 14th century. The facade is richly decorated with 4 tiers of a variety of columns-some carved, some inlaid, others in colored marble. So we found the church and took pictures of it and then continued our now obsessive search for the Maestro's house. After about 3 wrong turns we finally found the piazza where his statue is the centerpiece, there is a hotel named for him and we finally found the small street which contained the 2nd story apartment of the family of Giaccomo Puccini.
Mission Accomplished!!

I felt the same way as I did when we walked the streets of Cascina-to know that Nona walked those streets, attended that church and perhaps sat on those stone steps over a hundred twenty years ago was a moving experience for me like no other. I am as happy as I can be without actually finding her house.

So now I can imagine Giaccomo walking down this street, or sitting in the piazza, perhaps whistling the theme from Madam Butterfly. As I hum the theme from Madam Butterfly I am again a satisfied and happy traveler.

So here comes Karma again...satisfied that we had accomplished one half of our mission in Lucca we were turning to leave the street of Puccini's birth when I noticed a restaurant called "Ristorante Puccini" directly across the street. I said to Peter "lets check this out for the group in March."
It's a beautiful restaurant with an English-speaking waitress who immmediately helped us with ideas, plans, prices, menus, and showed us the room so we basically made the deal with a handshake, details to follow and confirm thru email.
This restaurant has the right ambiance and the right setting and the right name to set the scene while we play some favorite arias from Madam Butterfly and LaBoehm and have a wonderful dinner across the street from the Puccini residence.
It was an amazing stroke of luck (or Lucca) and I certainly have Maestro Puccini to thank for it.

Oh, and Giaccomo, thanks for the music too!!
And Massimina, thanks for being my Nona!!

Traveling in Style...

...thanks to Hiroko for getting us upgraded to Business Class on the flight to Rome, the flight was not as tortuous as it can be when you are scrunched between two people in tiny seats and the person in front of you has to recline his/her seat all the way back. We were served champagne, an excellent meal (better than the average plane food) and best of all we had full reclining seats with a blanket AND a pillow. Nice.
We arrived at 7AM local time, got the rental car and began the drive north to the villa in Contignano. On the way we decided to stop and visit the town of Orvieto and maybe find some pasta to hold us over until we got to our destination to have pasta. That worked just fine.
We spent the day planning some of the details of the March tour. Got set up for a Pizza night at the villa, a tour of Giuseppe's basement including history of the town, villa, farm and an olive oil processing lession and tasting. We then went to the restaurant where we will have a cooking demonstration and a dinner with the group in March, had a wonderful dinner there and then came back to the villa to get rest up for our busy day tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will post some pictures, I'm too tired now to do it...
Ciao...

Tuscany-Paris-London

Peter and I are leaving for Tuscany tomorrow (9-8-09). We'll spend about a week there planning the tour that I'll be doing in March of 2010. We need to make dinner arrangements with several restaurants for the group so we will have to sample pasta at many different places in order to secure the most delicious arrangements for our future guests. It's a hardship on us but we feel it's the least we can do for those who put their trust in us.
After our time in Tuscany we will take the overnight sleeper train to Paris where we will spend one day exploring and then take the "chunnel"(tunnel under the English Channel) train http://tinyurl.com/p6t2t to London. We'll be in London for about a week. I will post pictures and report on our adventures here.
Stay tuned...

Had some...

... connection issues when we left Canada and returned to the US via the Champlain Islands (http://tinyurl.com/m43fk3) in Northwestern Vermont. We were at the Apple Island Campground in South Hero for two nights. It was a very nice campground in a beautiful setting, the only problem was that I had no WiFi connection...so, although we are back on Long Island, this post will serve as the last post before the next post which will be posted when I go to Tuscany and London in September.

The weather was beautiful but very hot, so we relaxed at the campsite except for a two-hour walk we took looking for an orchard that someone told us was "just a little way down the rural road." I guess Vermonters idea of "just a little way" is different from my idea of it because we walked to exhaustion and heat stroke and never found an orchard. We did find some pretty things along the way though...

And this "mother and child reunion"...

Street Performers

Today we took the bus to Quebec City. What a great city to explore. It has the feel of a European town, from dining under umbrellas on cobblestone streets to historical buildings to georgeous natural scenery to street performers with their hats or cups on the street for donations. Here are some that we saw today:

The next two come with a story. After lunch Peter wanted ice cream so he went to a little shop and ordered a small cone for me and a large for himself (see first picture.) The large cone had such an enormous amount of ice cream on it that as we walked down the street people stared, laughed, and commented on the size of it. As we passed a few people dining at a restaurant they were laughing so hard that Peter immediately took a position on the side of the street like a street performer and continued to lick his ice cream cone while they all laughed and cheered. I went to one of the tables and dumped the condiments out of its little china container and put it on the street in front of him, (see second picture). No one gave any money so I guess eating a piggish amount of ice cream isn't really a talent, not even for a street performer.

Oh Canada! Oye Canada!

We left the Essex Junction /Champlain Valley Fairgrounds at 2:00 and drove north into Canada and then east on route 20 toward Quebec City. We are staying at a KOA campground in St Nicholas, Levis, Quebec, just a few miles from the City.
We arrived here at about 6:30 PM and have been experiencing a comedy of errors and frustrations since we turned off the ignition key. First the electrical outlets didn't work and after checking all the switches, knobs, dials, transistors, resistors, diodes, circuit boards, buttons, plugs, capacitors, wires, toggles, and fuses to no avail, we discovered a GFI reset button on the receptacle in the hallway. So after an hour of troubleshooting every other possible option Peter hit that button and voila! Power. He said that never happened before and now the next time it happens he will know where to start.
Next he turned on the Direct TV and got no picture. We tried calling DirectTV but you can't call 800 numbers on a cell phone from outside of America, so we went online to find a real phone number that is dial-able from Canada. No such number on the website.
I googled the question "How do I call DirectTV from Canada?" And the answer I got was..."use SKYPE".
That worked...but Peter has now spent the past 45 minutes trying to get thru the extremely annoying and frustrating automated system.
The automaton asked for his phone number, he said "631-728-6462", she said "623-651-6314, is that correct?" he said "no," she said "please say your phone number," he said "631-728-6462," she said "756-834-2365, is that correct?" He began pulling out large chunks of his hair. One more time...he said "631-728-6462," she said "631-728-6462, is that correct?" He said "Yes!"
I said, "Yippeee we are finally getting somewhere"...BUT THEN....the call dropped!
He tried this procedure 2 more times with exactly the same result but with different automatons and even a real person.
Next he tried moving the coach 2 feet forward....but we were still in Canada.
My mother's words came back to me in a flash when Peter finally accepted the reality that there would be no TV tonight. What are those words, you ask? Whenever I would complain of having nothing to do she would say... "Go read."
Thanks for the advice, Ma.
Tomorrow at 9:00 AM we will take a bus into Quebec City and spend the day exploring, and hopefully be tired enough when we get back to not care that the TV doesn't work.

And we will go read!

Lake Champlain, Lobster Rolls, Ice Cream & a Tree Farm

This afternoon we decided to explore the area a bit. So we left the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds and just outside the main gate we found a bus stop. We got on the first bus that came along and it took us to Burlington and Lake Champlain.
The lake begins in NY, is 110 miles long and flows north to Canada. The NY/VT border runs down its center. At it's widest its 12 miles wide and it's greatest depth is 400 ft. Lake Champlain is the 6th largest lake in the US. Burlington is celebrating 400 years since Samuel de Champlain sailed south from Canada in 1609.

We had a great lobster roll for lunch at a lakeside restaurant..."Splash at the Boathouse" http://tinyurl.com/llzscv

We walked along Church Street, which is a pedestrian-only street, until we happened upon Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream store...This area is where it all began about 30 years ago. We enjoyed a tasty treat and continued our "people-watching" journey until we caught the bus back to the campsite.

We sat and visited with our next door camper guy, Bob Williams, who is a tree farmer from New Hampshire. I never met a tree farmer. I asked him how long it takes to grow a tree before you cut it down to sell it to the mill. He said it takes about 70 years, so the trees he is harvesting now were planted before he was born and the trees he has planted in his lifetime will be harvested after he's gone...WOW!

What's it All About?

Today we spent the day looking for FMCA Rally activities. It turns out that many of the scheduled activities don't happen till tomorrow...I guess it's really a weekend thing.

There is a big section of the fairgrounds that has new coaches on display, so I was nervous when Peter started "shopping." I had a case of deja vu and thought we would come back to Long Island in another new and improved coach. Fortunately he found a little something wrong with each of them, like the countertop or the shower...or the price, so we will be coming home in the Diplomat.
We found The Blue Ribbon Pavilion where they were setting up for a huge "yard" sale of donated items for some children's charities. We scoped out the whole warehouse-sized room to see if there was anything we couldn't live without. Peter found a 10" Calphalon saute/crepe pan that he knew sells for about $85.00 and they were asking $3.50. When he tried to buy it the attendant said that they are not open yet, they are still setting up and we sould come back on Saturday and she even gave him a coupon for $1.00 which he could use on Saturday to get the pan for $2.50. Naturally this was unacceptable to Peter because he is accustomed to getting things when he wants them so he went to another attendant and made her an offer she couldn't refuse, he offered her $5.00 if she would sell it to him right now.
I'm thinking crepes for breakfast tomorrow.

Essex Junction, VT

Peter and I left Long Island at 9:00 AM heading for Essex Junction, Vermont. We drove the coach to Port Jefferson and made it just in time to be the last vehicle on the Ferry to Bridgeport. The first mate Bryan, asked all the usual questions about the coach and posed for us. It was a beautiful day for a ferry ride. We drove north thru Connecticut and Massachusetts into Vermont. Essex Junction is just northeast of Burlington near Lake Champlain.

Vermont is called "The Green Mountain State" for good reason!

The weather was perfect for the drive and the rain didn't start until we were all set up at the campground. We're at a Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally. I'm not really sure what that is but the best I can tell so far is that a bunch of people who own motorcoaches meet for a few days at some location and look at each others coaches and decide if theirs is better than the other guys'. We got here a day early so I'll know better tomorrow when the activities actually get underway what this is really all about. But I'm pretty sure that we have the best coach.

Check back here for details.

Spend a Penny

While talking to a group of guests on the tour, one of the ladies was remembering an incident on one of her previous holidays. She was talking about something she had needed to do but she first had to go "spend a penny" before she could proceed. At this point I stopped her to ask what she meant by "spend a penny". She explained that many years ago, in order to use a public toilet in England, it was necessary to put a penny in a small box attached to the stall of the toilet. Thus, when Nature calls they say they have to "spend a penny".
And by the way, contrary to what you may be thinking, this anecdote did NOT come from Mrs."P"
I remember pay toilets in America but it was never a penny!

Grand Ole Opry

When we checked into the hotel in Nashville yesterday a few of us decided to try to get tickets to see the Opry. The hotel sells tickets and transportation to the show which is quite a distance from where we are. They couldn't get thru to the box office for some reason so we decided to take our chances. We took the transportation part of the package and hoped that the ticket part would be available to us when we got there, if not we would just wander thru the museum, the giftshop and the Opryland Hotel which is so huge that people who stay there never leave during their visit because they think that IS Nashville. http://www.nashville.com/gaylord_opryland_hotel/

So we get to the box-office and indeed we actually get tickets to the 9:30 show. The Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio show in the country. It's performed on stage in front of a live audience and it's alot of fun. There are singers, dancers, comedians and of course music, music, music. We had no idea who was performing and were pleasantly surprised. Among others we saw Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Little Jimmy Dickens, Brad Paisley and Steve Martin , that's right the comic Steve Martin who is an amazing Banjo player in his first-ever performance at the Grand Ole Opry. It was a great show and I'm sure it was the highlight of the trip, although unplanned, for the Brits I went with. Not even the Chattanooga Choo Choo trolly ride can top the Grand Ole Opry!

Greece or Nashville?

If you've been following this blog for the past 2 weeks you probably have guessed that this is in Nashville. It's a full-scale replica of the Greek Parthenon built for the 1897 Nashville Centennial Exposition. Besides "Music City", Nashville had been called the "Athens of the South" because of its many institutions of higher learning. So this was built for the Centennial Celebration and has been preserved since as a museum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon

Counting the Days

One day on the bus I was talking about the schedule. I forgot what day it was, so I talked a little about when traveling we tend to lose track of the days. We don't know if we've been on the road for one day or 4 days...all the days run together, especially when it is a hectic schedule and a lot of activities. So I came up with a method for keeping track of what day it is, and I shared my method with the group. I told them if they ever don't remember how many days they have been traveling to just count the number of those little hotel shampoos, soaps or lotions they have. So every morning when we board the bus, I ask how many shampoos we have! It's Friday!

Elvis Frenzy

If it's at all possible my group 2 is even more crazy for Elvis than group 1 was. One lady began to cry when she saw the streetsign for Elvis' Birthplace!
We had dinner at Club 152 http://www.club152memphis.com/, on Beale Street in Memphis. The Elvis impersonator is excellent...During the show he throws out a couple of scarves to the crowd and naturally the audience goes wild and whomever doesn't catch one is devastated. After the show a couple of ladies in my group cried to me "We want a scarf...." So I ran to where "Elvis" was signing autographs and posing for pictures and asked if they had any more scarves. They told me they had plenty but they were $5 each...I grabbed a bunch of them and ran back thru the crowd and began tossing them to whomever offered $5.oo. It was a frenzied cacaphony of Elvis love. What a riot. I never saw such a happy bunch of people in my life!
Oh, and when I handed "Elvis" a fistfull of money I got a free "Elvis" scarf for my efforts.

Today...Sun Studio and Graceland

Group 2

After the infamous Choo Choo ride with group 1 we had to make a 2+ hour beeline for the airport. As we got on the coach one of the gentleman passengers asked if he could use the microphone, so after I finished my update on what was happening next I gave him the mic. He made a very sweet speech about what an enjoyable tour they had and thanked Danny and me for such a good job. The speaker was none other than...you guessed it...Mr. Worth! So in the end I have to say that the Worths were definitely Worth waiting for!
We got to the airport with less than an hour to spare before Group 2 arrived, so after we said our goodbyes, while Danny cleaned the bus, I ran into the terminal to fetch group 2. Everyone made it thru customs this time and after I collected everyone we got underway to our hotel in Montgomery, Alabama.
We had a night's rest and were ready to roll at 7:30AM. I ensured that all 46 pieces of luggage were on the coach and proceeded to count the passengers. When I was sure that we had all 44 of them I gave Danny the OK and we were off. Do you see where I'm going with this? We were a few miles down the road toward the interstate when I got a call from Maryann, the manager of the hotel to tell me that I left 2 passengers there!!! So back we went to collect Mr. & Mrs. Beckett, who were waiting at the front door of the hotel. I went to greet them and told them..."The good news is...we have your luggage!"
Needless to say Mr. & Mrs. Beckett are never the last ones on the coach anymore...I guess you could say they are always at my "Beckett call".

Choo Choo

The last leg of the tour went from Nashville to Atlanta Airport with a lunch stop at the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Terminal Station. This is the train made famous by the Glenn Miller song. So the train is on display at the end of Track 29 just as it's supposed to be. Everyone took pictures of the choo choo. The guide books recommend visitors take a ride on the trolly that goes around the Terminal Station complex. We see the authentic-looking yellow electric trolly car, we each buy a two-dollar ticket and we excitedly que up for the ride, expecting an interesting and scenic tour of days gone by. What we got was a a 7-mile-an-hour bumpy clickity-clackity-clunkity ride on a horseshoe shaped track that circumnavigated the parking lot. Every 30 or 40 yards the "conductor" would point to a place on the pavement where a train-related artifact used to be. When we got to the end of the horseshoe the "engineer" moved to the back of the car, told us to push the backs of our seats to the front of the seat and sit on the other side. Then we traveled in the reverse direction to the beginning of the track where we started! When we reversed our seats everyone was hysterical at how absurd this tour was, and from that point on it was nothing but raucus and rowdy laughter and wisecracking with "Mrs.P" as the loudest and rowdiest ringleader. She kept shouting..."It's a tour of the bloody car-park!" It was truly the silliest and funniest experience of the whole week-even funnier than her getting peed on by an aligator. By the time the "tour" was over we were literally weak with laughter. At least it was cheap!

Music City

Nashville is aptly called Music City. There is literally music coming from everywhere. You can walk down Broadway and hear live or recorded Country music seeping out of closed doors and blaring out of open doors of all the Honky Tonks and shops along the way. What fun! I enjoyed live music during lunch at The Stage on Broadway. While standing at a corner waiting for the light to change I heard music coming from a street sign!

We toured RCA Studio B, http://tinyurl.com/pxe612 where so much of country music has been recorded and produced including 14 years of Elvis' recordings including "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"

The Country Music Hall of Fame http://www.countrymusichalloffame.com/site/is a fantastic museum of the history of Country music. There are thousands of gold records on display and clothing, instruments, and memorabilia from all of the greats of the genre. Then everyone scattered to downtown Nashville to visit the honky tonks, have lunch and shop. We returned to the hotel for a while and then went to the Wildhorse Saloon for drinks and line dancing, and of course...live music.

I have my new British friends, including "Mrs. P" to thank for my new favorite expression...whatever I don't like, whether it be a meal, a restaurant, or anything disagreeable...it's RUBBISH! Very fun time.

Tomorrow we head for Chattanooga Choo Choo and then to Atlanta Airport to say good bye to group 1 and hello to group 2.

Graceland

Today was Elvis, all Elvis all the time, totally Elvis, Elvis here, Elvis there, Elvis everywhere, Elvis to the max. We saw Elvis keychains, Elvis CD's, Elvis books, Elvis t-shirts, Elvis jewelry, Elvis museums, Elvis cars, Elvis clothes, Elvis movies, Elvis sweatshirts, Elvis pocketbooks, Elvis DVD's, Elvis planes, Elvis magnets, Elvis baby clothes, Elvis bookmarks, Elvis teddy bears, Elvis Radio, Elvis gravesite, Elvis house, Elvis living room, Elvis kitchen, Elvis awards, Elvis piano, Elvis couches, Elvis jumpsuits.
We spent 5 hours at Graceland and saw, heard and lived Elvis util I could not take another step in an Elvis giftshop or look at another Elvis trinket.
So then we went to the Peabody Hotel to watch the ducks march from the fountain in the lobby down the red carpet into the elevtor to return to their duck penthouse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peabody_Hotel
After that we went back to the hotel to freshen up so we could go back to Graceland to take more pictures of it at night!
The Elvis experience at Graceland was pretty remarkable, in fact it transcends the normal tourist attraction--it's more of an over-the-top memorial that will overdose and exhaust even the most ardent Elvis fan.

Elvis Lives!

We left New Orleans and drove north thru Mississippi to the Birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo http://www.elvispresleybirthplace.com/. We toured the house he was born in...this tour was literally no more than 15 steps in the front door and out the back door of his "shotgun house." How small was it you ask? It was so small you had to go outside to change your mind...It was so small that only 10 people could go in at a time. It's called a shotgun house because if you shot a shotgun thru the front door it would go straight thru the house without hitting anything (assuming no-one was standing between the two doors). The house is a bedroom and a kitchen. It was SMALL.
We also saw a short movie in the church where Elvis and his family attended services. The film is very well done...three screens...one in front showing the pulpit and the preacher and one on each side showing the congregation so the effect is that as you sit in the pews you feel as though you are in the crowd. This is the church where Elvis was inspired to sing gospel music, and so was the beginning of his rise to become "the King". My group was more than excited to visit Elvis' birthplace...some of the ladies were literally squealing and bouncing with excitement to finally be "there". This was, afterall, why they travelled 7,000 miles. Amazing.
After Tupelo we journeyed to Memphis, TN, checked into the hotel, re-boarded the bus for our dinner reservation at Club 152 on Beale St. Holy Cow...the dinner was informal and excellent...the entertainment was...you guessed it...ELVIS! One of the best impersonators I have seen put on a great show...there was screaming, and dancing and such excitment as I have not seen since Elvis appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. Very Fun!
After that we strolled down Beale Street which gave us more of a show than the show. My group scattered here and the bunch I stayed with (including "Mrs. P") were so excited and ready to experience whatever was to be experienced that it made for a riotous evening. They were dancing in the street, approaching policemen for picture taking, talking to anyone and everyone they met, and posing with perfect strangers, and laughing riotously. It was truly joyful.
Today we visit Sun Studios, and Graceland....I can only imagine.

Karma

My introductory talk when we first board the coach at the beginning of a tour includes a discription of the coach features...one of these being the "restroom" that is available for the guests biological needs. I always stress that it is there for "emergency use only", which means, "if you really, really have to go...go." I mention that we make rest stops frequently so, for the olefactory comfort of everyone on the coach, only use the coach toilet if absolutely necessary. Now, I think that leaves a lot of leeway for any individual to decide if they need to use it or they can wait. Everyone acknowledged that they understood the concept.
So the next morning after the first night at our hotel a gentleman comes to me and says..."We have a problem..." I immediately think..uh oh, here we go again. So he proceeds to tell me that his wife has bladder issues and because she wasn't allowed to use the toilet on the coach she is in serious pain and they are considering renting a car for the duration of the tour so they can stop when they need to.
The wife then came over and was, how can I put this, quite "pissy" with me. I apologized and explained that she should have used the toilet on the coach since that was obviously an emergency. She was eventually appeased and got over her annoyance. Later that morning on the coach I clarified the directive..."Only use the coach toilet in an emergency...and YOU decide when it's an emergency."
Fast forward two days to this afternoon on the Swamp Tour. The guide had a little real live aligator with its mouth taped shut which he was passing around the boat so people could hold it and take pictures with it. The little fellow made the rounds and when it was "Mrs. P's" turn she held him up where she sat so hubby could snap the picture.
I guess the poor little guy was stressed or nervous because he immediately relieved himself in her lap! She began screaming and everyone on the boat roared with laughter. I managed to get a few shots in spite of my own hysterical reaction. When everything settled down I went over to her and said, "I guess he has "bladder issues" too!"
Did I ever mention...you can't make this stuff up?

Was This Just One Day???

This morning we left Montgomery at 8:00 with New Orleans in our sights. After the Worths caught up with us at the hotel (they got in at 3:00 AM) we drove toward New Orleans. We stopped at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi on the Gulf Coast http://www.beaurivage.com/for their $12.99 lunch buffet. The group was very happy about this...the Casino is georgous and the food selections were wonderful. We left around 1:30 to head for New Orleans. After driving around the block a few times to try to figure out how to get the gigantic bus close to the Bienville House http://www.bienvillehouse.com/ we finally got checked in with about an hour and a half to get ready for our Riverboat Natchez Dinner Jazz Cruise along the Mississippi River. http://www.steamboatnatchez.com/. We had an excellent buffet dinner and strolled the decks of this mighty vessel as we listened to "The Dukes of Dixieland". The weather was perfect for such a cruise and having the Worths with us made it all the more Worthwhile! (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

Worth the Wait

Out of the clouds of NY and into the sunshine of Georgia...it's already WORTH the long tiring day I had HURRYing up and WAITing. I left home at 6:30 AM to WAIT for an 11:18 AM flight from LaGuardia to Atlanta GA. When I arrived there at 2:00 PM, I HURRIED up to get my luggage so I could meet my driver, Danny and load my luggage onto the bus...and WAIT for my group to arrive at 5:50 PM. I spent the afternoon WAITing and discussing the tour plan with Danny and then at 6:00 PM I HURRIED up and got to the baggage-claim area where I was to WAIT for my group. So I WAITed and WAITed and WAITed until the group started to HURRY up to me to find their luggage and HURRY to board the bus and WAIT for the rest of the group to get thru security. I was WAITING for 40 passengers. Only 38 of them HURRIED up to WAIT for the last two...Mr. and Mrs. WORTH.
At 8:00 PM, with 38 people WAITING on the bus, I decided it wasn't WORTH the WAIT to WAIT for the WORTHS, so I HURRIED up and got on the bus and we began our 2.5 hour journey to our hotel in Montgomery, AL. About 2 hours into the trip I got a call from the hotel to tell me that the WORTHs were still WAITing at the airport. It seems that Security didn't feel it was WORTH letting the WORTHs into the country until they scrutinized them more thoroughly. So the WORTHs had to WAIT for a Greyhound bus to bring them to the hotel where we will WAIT patiently for them to join our group. I hope they are WORTH the WAIT. You can't make this stuff up.
Tomorrow, we head for New Orleans.

Heading South

Tomorrow, May 18th, I begin a two back-to-back tours of the Deep South. I'm doing the tours for Newmarket Holidays http://www.newmarketholidays.co.uk/ and my two groups are from the UK. Our tour will take us through the region of America where the "Birth of the Blues" is not just a song title, and where they put the "country" in country music. The area is rich in Civil War history and much of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's took place there.

We'll travel through 4 states: Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. I pick up the first group at the Atlanta, GA airport and we travel to Montgomery, AL to spend one night. In the morning we head south through Alabama and then drive west along the Gulf Coast into Mississippi. We travel on to Louisiana and "The Big Easy" where jazz was born with the help of people like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Pete Fountain. We spend 2 nights in New Orleans and we'll enjoy a Dinner Jazz Cruise aboard the Steamboat Natchez, a guided City Tour, and a Swamp Tour of the bayou. We'll explore the French Quarter, maybe visit a jazz club or two. Hurricane Katrina left her calling card here but New Orleans is back in action.

Then, in Mississippi again, we'll head north to Tupelo and visit the Birthplace of Elvis Presley. We'll then enter Tennessee and spend 2 nights in Memphis. We'll visit the blues clubs on Beale Street and take a tour of Elvis' Graceland and Sun Studio where he recorded his first hit, "That's Alright".

After Memphis we head for Nashville, the Capital of Tennessee and the Capital of Country Music. We'll tour Studio B and the Country Music Hall of Fame, and there will be some major shopping opportunities at the Opry Mills Outlet Mall. After two nights in Nashville we head south back to Atlanta Airport where I say goodbye to group 1 and greet group 2 and do the same trip all over again.

It's a jam-packed tour and I will post here each night so check back for pictures and details.

Philadelphia

Our day in Philadelphia, where the US government was born, gave us a little history, a little shopping and a little eating...and the desire to return to the "City of Brotherly Love" for more of each.

An early departure and very light traffic got us to our lunch reservation at Moriarty's Restaurant/Irish Pub (http://tinyurl/dh9jel), in a building constructed in 1830 when Philadelphia was the largest city in the United States. Back then the population of America was just over 12 million. Today the population of Pennsylvania is just over 12 million. Moriarty's bills themselves as Philly's favorite Irish Pub and I found nothing there to dispute that, since it's the only one I've been to, but the food was definitely delicious, the atmosphere comfortable and the service was excellent.

After lunch our step-on guide, Mike joined us for a 3-hour tour of the city's historic highlights, such as the Liberty Bell, (http://tinyurl.com/2558ex) which announced America's birth as a new nation in 1776, and Independence Hall (http://d464ao/) where our forefathers hammered out the founding documents of America...the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution.

After the tour we had some time to explore The Bourse (http://www.bourse-pa.com/) for some souvenir shopping and refreshments and to stock up on goodies for the ride home which put us in some pretty heavy traffic, enough in fact to watch two full-length movies on the coach.

I escorted this tour for "Get Up and Go Tours" at 2100 Deer Park Ave. Deer Park, NY 11729, phone 631-595-1144. If you are on Long Island, contact them, they offer some excellent trips at very reasonable prices and have 4 convenient pick-up points along the Long Island Expressway.

Heading to Philadelphia...

...tomorrow.

I'm taking a group to tour, lunch, and shop in Philadelphia, PA for "Get Up And Go" Tours, a Long Island based company.

Check back here for details and pictures soon.

Symposium Stresses and Airport Antics

The interview process at the Symposium was quite a unique experience. Let's just say it's the closest thing to speed-dating that one could experience except without the possibility of dinner and a movie.
ITMI's version of connecting tour directors with tour companies is called Marketplace. There were about 40 tour operators arranged in market-style in a big conference room at the hotel. The process began with "Open Marketplace" which lasted for 25 minutes. When the announcement was made that the marketplace was open, we had the opportunity to deliver our resume and introduce ourselves to as many companies as we could, we were allowed to spend no more than 30 seconds with any one company's representative. I managed to talk with about 5 companies.
After "Open Marketplace" was the time to have more extensive interviews with companies we had chosen...by more extensive I mean 8-minute interviews! When the interview number was announced we had to go into the room, find the company we were scheduled with, talk to the representative for 6 minutes, hear a 2 minute warning bell and complete the interview in a total of 8 minutes! This is where I hope I made a good enough impression with someone for them to remember me among the 250 other interviewees and decide to hire me instead of them! WOW!
The Symposium provided many opportunities for networking, socializing, learning and discussing relevant topics. There were several meals included and a closing night bar-b-q at a ranch nearby. All-in-all a great experience....hope it works!
On the last day we took a tour of Austin, Texas after which we were deposited at the airport.
None of this was more stressful than traveling home from Austin. For scheduling reasons I will not go into here I was scheduled to fly from Austin to Orlando on jetBlue and from Orlando to Islip on Southwest. This normally wouldn't be a problem but for the fact that there was only a little over an hour between landing in Orlando on jetBlue and taking off on Southwest. This necessitated me to get off the plane, go down the hallway, get on the shuttle, go to the terminal, walk thru about 3 hallways, down the escalator, wait at the luggage carousel, claim my 59 lb bag, load on top of it my 12 lb bag, my laptop case and my camera, go thru the terminal, up the elevator, thru more of the terminal, check my 59 lb bag at Southwest, go thru security, take off my shoes, take my laptop out of the bag, collect my stuff, go thru the terminal onto the shuttle, thru the terminal, go to the ladies room, find the gate and board my plane...I did this all in 45 minutes and had 15 minutes to spare! The other option was to sleep in the airport and take an early flight the next morning. Holy Crap!

Back in The Saddle

Well day 2 at ITMI Symposium 2009 is over and as you may have guessed it has turned out to be just as jam packed with activities and networking opportunities as was the ITMI training course in San Francisco. Evidence of this is the fact that this is the first opportunity I have had to post here. Yesterday we left the hotel at 8:30 AM for an 9.5 hour tour of San Marcos and San Antonio. We "remembered the Alamo", visited the San Antonio Botanical Garden http://www.sabot.org/, the Witte Museum of Art http://www.wittemuseum.org/, the McNay Art Museum http://www.mcnayart.org/?act=libr as well as the Buckhorn Saloon & Museum http://www.buckhornmuseum.com/ which displayed huge assortment of, you guessed it, buckhorns. Also on display were mounted heads of all sorts of animals...even if this is not your idea of a worthwhile "hobby" it is certainly a representation of a time in history which is factual and interesting.
We finished the day at the San Antonio Market Square which satisfied anyone's shopping issues and provided some wonderful " local color." After the tour bus deposited us back at the hotel a few of my August classmates and I went back to San Antonio for a stroll along the Riverwalk http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/ which is sort of a little bit of Venice in Texas and provided us a dinner of the most delicious steak I have ever had. Texas Beef...Yeee Hawww!
Today was a full day of speakers and networking oportunities and now we are on our way to the Welcome Party in the Spring Lake Ballroom at the San Marcos Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center http://tinyurl.com/59o4ks.
Tomorrow...more speakers, more networking, more research, and more exhaustion.

Symposium in San Marcos, Texas

I'm on my way to Texas for the annual ITMI Tour Director/Tour Operator Symposium. There will be many informational and networking events to attend as well as two tours of the area. One is of San Marcos and San Antonio. And the other is a tour of Austin.
I'll be there from Jan 24th thru the 29th.
Check back for details.