On The Move

I Phell in Philadelphia

2011-10-09T20:36:00.000-04:00

I phell in Philadelphia. Iph only I had been looking down instead of looking phorward I might not have phallen in Philadelphia. I wasn't even walking too phast, nevertheless I phell and now I have some pretty phancy bruises to show phor it. But I think I'll be pheeling better in a phew days! All I can say is...phalling is NOT phun!

Starstruck in Piazza Navona

2011-08-20T19:00:00.000-04:00

Our Tuscany adventure began with a 2-day detour to Roma before we headed north to Tuscany for a two-week stay at La Montalla in Contignano.

Friday night four of us went to Rome's Piazza Navona, spent some time strolling and had pizza and wine until we realized that there was a movie crew setting up for a movie shoot. As it happens the movie is Woody Allen's newest endeavor called "Decameron Bop." We watched the shooting of a scene that, if it doesn't end up on the cutting room floor, will be about 45 seconds in the film. It took about 3 hours to set up and about one hour to shoot. we got a glimpse of Director, Woody Allen and one of the supporting actresses, Ellen Page, supporting actor Jesse Eisenburg. Alec Baldwin and Penelope Cruz are also in the movie but they weren't in the Piazza that night.

What else?

2011-05-09T21:28:00.000-04:00

So the question is...Wouldn't you think that starting a trip having to meet three separate flights from 3 different airports on two different days using two different bus companies,THEN having the first bus be an hour and a half late to pick up the first group, THEN having a lady break her arm on the first morning of the trip, wouldn't you think that all THAT would be enough stress for a Tour Manager? Wouldn't you? I would. I did. But NOOOOOO...that evidently wasn't enough stress and aggravation for this Tour Manager. Because on the last day the three factions of the group were to leave on two different coaches to the airport. BUT the first coach didn't EVER show up. And the second coach was an hour and a half EARLY.
After I called 5 taxicabs to get the first 19 people to the airport I then greeted the second bus driver with the news that he would have to kill an hour and a half because I had no intention of trying to round up the second 18 people from their various activities at Niagara Falls to get them to the airport 6 hours early for their flights.
I assume everyone is where they need to be, including me. I'm at a hotel looking forward to my second of three tours which, I assume will be STRESS-FREE! Please?

OUCH

2011-05-05T00:20:00.000-04:00

I'm on a three-in-a-row week-long tour of Niagara, DC, Philadelphia, NY and back to Niagara. I took Amtrack to Toronto to meet my group. The group consists of 37 people who arrived on three separate flights, from 3 different airports in England, on two different days. So after back and forth trips to the Toronto airport to pick up the three segments of my group I finally had everyone collected and we were to leave this morning from Niagara Falls, Canada at 8:15AM. Feeling pretty comfortable that I had achieved the seemingly impossible task of gathering this disjointed group together and was ready to begin the tour I left my hotel room, took the elevator down to the lobby to meet my driver for the tour and as I stepped out of the elevator I was greeted by a gentleman in the group. He uttered the dreaded words..."We have a problem..."
My mind instantly went thru many possible scenarios in a split second and then he finished his sentence..."my wife fell while getting out of the shower and I think she broke her wrist."
Really?, First morning of the first of three tours? Really?
We were leaving Canada and heading thru NY to PA to our second hotel in Gettysburg. I really didn't want to deal with Canadian Hospitals, and make these people have to find their own way to Gettysburg or make the whole group have to wait in Canada for whatever Canada might put us through so I got an ace bandage and some ice and we headed for Gettysburg. She wasn't in much pain and some ibuprophen helped. When we got to Gettysburg at 5:00PM we dropped off the group at the David Wills House (where Lincoln slept before he delivered his Gettysburg Address) for their tour, took Fay and Norman to a walk-in clinic where we were told that their x-ray tech had just left. They said they would evaluate her but she would then have to go to the ER for an x-ray. We declined their offer and went straightaway to the ER, where I left Fay and Norman to wait for treatment. I went back with my driver to the David Wills House to get there just in time to pick up the group after their 45 minute tour and proceeded to the Gettysburg National Cemetery for the rest of their tour. Then we took them all to the hotel and got them checked in by 7:00PM. I heard from Norman at about 9:00 PM and he told me they did x-rays but had no results yet. I waited until 11:00 to finally hear that they had results, her wrist was broken in a few places, they put a cast on it and sent them on their way.
Tomorrow we leave at 8:15Am for Washington DC. The tour continues without skipping a beat, except that Norman and Fay have their own War Story to tell about their trip to Gettysburg!
Have I mentioned that I love this job??!!!

Decisions, Decisions

2011-04-11T23:44:00.003-04:00

I'm on a two day tour to Niagara Falls from New York City with an international group of travelers. We left Manhattan at 8:00AM and we were not on the road too long traveling thru New Jersey when I realized that our driver seemed to be a little (a lot) erratic in his driving. He would drift over the lines and then overcorrect and drift over the other line. I became very alert to his behavior and it seemed to me that he was probably distracted or tired. He was not familiar with the route we normally take on this tour which, in itself would not be too much of a problem since it is the tour director's responsibility to determine the route and direct the driver. But as I gave him directions his reaction times were also sluggish and he was often confused. He was fidgety at the wheel and continuously snacking on cakes and pretzels and drinking coffee and water. These were all red flags to me that he was too tired to be driving.
So we made a rest stop and I contacted my company and explained the situation including the fact that several of the passengers had also expressed concerns and in fact were not comfortable getting back on the bus with this driver. After contacting the bus company and "strongly" urging them to replace the driver, they agreed to do so.
So our 30 minute breakfast stop turned into 2 hours while we waited for the new driver to arrive from Staten Island.
When I spoke to the driver he admitted that he was a little tired, didn't get much sleep (2 hours)but he assured me that he would be ok and that he was a good driver, and that he just needed to sleep for half an hour. I said "Not!" I told him that maybe on another trip he might have been a good driver but not on this one, and we were waiting for a replacement to arrive.
My passengers were all in agreement with my decision and were very patient waiting for the new driver who arrived about an hour and a half later and got us on our way. Everyone is much more comfortable and relaxed and now enjoying the ride. Our new driver is very competent and well rested.
So goes the life of a tour director. One never knows what decisions one will have to make along the way but it is always best to decide on SAFETY...schedules be damned!

New England in the Fall? Really?

2010-10-16T20:46:00.001-04:00

With all of yesterday's challenges and surprises behind us, we began the day with great hope, well-rested cheerfulness, and optimism for a great day ahead.
We spent Friday night at the Stratton Mountain Inn and I was anxious to hear that the "stuck in the snow" tour bus had finally returned safely to the hotel. As it happened they were stuck at the very top of the mountain we were attempting to cross and waited there for 2 hours before the snowplows came to plow them out. So we were very happy that Randy had turned us around with is 25-point turn so we didn't have to spend two hours stuck in the snow, especially with no heat in the coach!
Well Emily's group returned safely about 7:00 PM and were enjoying dinner and I was keeping everyone informed about Randy's trip to Amsterdam and the possibility of having heated transportation for the next leg of the tour. He returned at about 9:00PM with the best news of the day. When asked if we had heat in the bus, he said "We could have a bar-b-que in there!"
Turns out the heat was fixed so good that we couldn't adjust it or even turn it off! It got so hot in the bus on our way to Williamstown, MA that women were taking off their sweaters, and some of the men were stripping down to their t-shirts! They took it in good humor though, because no one wanted to give Randy any grief since he had ridden 200 miles in the Nor-Easter to get the heat fixed. Finally, just before I fainted of heat stroke I asked Randy to stop at
a pumpkin farm to let the people off to take pictures, (really it was so they could cool off).
So everyone got off and the farmer told Randy to pull further ahead onto the grass where the ground was "hard".
I decided it would be nice to buy 50 McIntosh apples and when everyone was back on the bus I was passing them around as Randy began to pull onto the roadway. After spinning the wheels a few times back and forth in the grass and getting no traction, we determined that everyone should get back off the bus and surely it would drive right out of what was now a ditch under the front and back passenger-side tires. So now everyone is standing around on the hill, in the drizzle, eating apples, taking pictures, and discussing what Randy should do. The farmer brought his tractor around and hooked it up and as he began to pull the bus, the front bumper came off. So Randy, the farmer, and 5 passenger men figured out how to put the bumber back on and before we knew it there were 3 or 4 local guys pulling up in pick-up trucks who proceeded to pow-wow about what to do, then set about collecting tools, and gravel and boards and the passengers, as far as I could tell, thoroughly enjoyed the show. So between the four pick-up truck guys, and the gravel, the tools, the boards, the farmer, and the tractor, (this time at the back bumper) the bus finally came out of the mud.
We re-boarded the bus and congratulated Randy and applauded the pick-up guys and the farmer and continued on our way.
I am officially renaming this tour "New England in the Mud!"

New England in the Fall?????

2010-10-15T16:40:00.020-04:00

I am on a tour called "New England In the Fall". The tour starts with a guided city tour of New York after which we head up the NY State Thruway until we get to Albany where we take a right turn and head into Vermont where our hotel is situated in the beautiful Green Mountains. On the NY State Thruway we got a taste of what was to come as far as beautiful and colorful fall foliage. So much for expectations. At about 3/4 of the way to Albany the heater on the bus malfunctioned which wouldn't have been so bad except that along with the heat, went the windshield defroster. The rain was pretty intense so I spent the last 2 hours of the trip to Stratton Mountain Inn standing in the front of the bus wiping the windshield with paper towels so our driver, Randy could see where he was going in the dark and the wind and the rain. We made it to the hotel and everyone was happy about that and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Bentley's restaurant at the hotel. We thought we had gone thru the worst of the storm.
This morning our plan was to leave right after breakfast to head to the Vermont Country Store, then continue on to Woodstock, Quechee Gorge, Hogback Mountain and return to the hotel tonight. So breakfast went well. And we got to the Vermont Country Store with little trouble, although the wind and the rain was gradually turning to wind and sleet and eventually wind and snow. At the Vermont Country Store we bought a squeegee on a telescoping handle so that I could keep the windshield clear from my seat by reaching over Randy's head and swiping the
condensation off the windshield. So as we continued in the snow/sleet/rain/wind toward
Woodstock a few cars traveling in the opposite direction were beeping and flashing their
lights at us. Finally, a car signaled Randy to stop and told us that there was at least six
inches of snow accumulated on the mountain ahead of us and in fact another tour bus was stuck
in the mess. We decided the smart thing to do was to turn around and head back for the hotel,
and everyone on the bus was in agreement with the decision. So Randy made a 25 point turn
around in a 45 foot bus to head back down the mountain. Him driving, me squeegeeing and 46
passengers assuring us that they were not nervous and not freezing.
When we got back to the hotel, I quickly discovered that the restaurant would not open until dinner time, so how to provide lunch for 46 people became my next issue. There is a small sandwich restaurant in the town about 15 minute's walk from the hotel but by now the wind/ rain/sleet/snow was at it's most intense so I diplomatically convinced the hotel desk person
that he needed to shuttle my group to town or have a complete mutiny if 46 hungry, cold people
in his lobby. So shuttle he did, 15 at a time to the sandwich shop and back. The whole
process took about 2-3 hours. So everyone got fed and warm and settled in to enjoy the
windy/rainy/sleety/snowy view through the huge wall of windows of the hotel's restaurant. Later in the afternoon, Randy left on a hundred mile ride to Amsterdam, NY to get the heat and the defroster fixed and we found out that the bus that was stuck in the snow was there for two hours until a snowplow came and released them from their windy/rainy/ sleety/snowy hell.
So I am officially renaming this tour "New England in the Winter"

Tales of Whale Tails

2010-10-08T19:14:00.004-04:00

Today was the highlight of our "New England Fall Colors and Whale Watching Tour". The tour has provided some wonderful sights and experiences including a city tour of Boston, a cruise on Lake Champlain in Vermont, and some beautiful fall foliage scenery through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. We've had a mixed bag of weather to deal with including wind, rain, and fog, temperatures ranging from the 50's to the 70's.

But today all the best forces of nature converged on Cape Cod when the weather and the whales put on a spectacular show for us! We cruised from Barnstable Harbor on the "Hyannis Whale Watcher" in bright sunshine under perfect blue skies to about 35 miles out into the ocean to "Stellwagen Bank", a Marine Sanctuary which is evidently the ultimate "Food Court" for whales before they head to their winter in the Caribbean. What a life!!

We began the ride with some skepticism, doubting that we would actually see whales and expecting the day to be not much more than a pleasant day on the water. Boy, were we wrong! We saw whales, whales, and more whales. They surfaced and dove and waved their fins at us. They flapped their tails for us. The ship's crew was wonderful at helping us to spot the clues and where to look to see the always brief sightings, whales don't pose for you, you have to be looking in the right place at the right time, and to take a picture of them is even more of a challenge. But see them, we did. And we even got some pictures.

At some points during our whale-sitings it actually felt like the creatures were playing with us as they would dive on one side of the boat and come up on the other. It seemed like they must have enjoyed the silly sight of a hundred people running from one side of the boat to the other just to try to capture their antics! I truly wondered who was watching whom.

Well it really doesn't matter and I hope the whales had as memorable an experience as the people did!

North, South, East, West

2010-09-18T06:44:00.000-04:00

My current tour required me to travel north and west to Toronto, Canada to meet my group coming west from the UK. From the airport we board the coach and drive to our hotel in Niagara Falls on the Canadian side for a one-night stay after which we cross the border into NY, drive south through NY, PA, MD, Washington DC, then north through MD, PA, NJ, NY, then east to Long Island, then west to NYC and finally further north and west to Niagara Falls, Canada. I will deposit my group at the Toronto Airport for their flight east to the UK and I will take a flight south and east back to Long Island.
I arose at 4:00AM to travel west to the airport and caught my 6:30AM international flight.
When I got to the Airport in Toronto I had to walk east through gigantic terminal 1, turn North to find the luggage carousels, continue west to enormous terminal 3, go north to arrivals to meet my group at which time I found the flight information screens and found out that their flight was delayed 2 hours.
At about this time my energy level went SOUTH!
So I settled in for the 5 hour wait, made some friends in similar situations, i.e. Other tour managers waiting for their groups. My group arrived on time (two hours late) and we were ready to begin the journey....stay tuned for more.

Witnesses and Weddings

2010-05-28T21:17:00.004-04:00

On Tuesday of week #2, I met my group for a night tour of Las Vegas. One of the couples, John and Ellen were very excited to report their adventure of that day. They were waiting for the Deuce, the bus that travels up and down the strip, on their way back to Freemont Street and our hotel to get ready for the evening tour. While they were waiting they were approached by a couple who asked them to be witnesses to their wedding at a Las Vegas chapel. It seems the witness they originally planned on had to catch a bus back to his hotel so couldn't stay for the wedding! So John and Ellen gladly volunteered to witness the nuptuals. They did the deed, shared a toast with the couple, exchanged adresses and caught the next bus back to the hotel! As they reported it to me they were so thrilled and excited that they had experienced such a unique event on their first trip to Vegas and America.

So that was a memorable event, and everyone enjoyed hearing the story and John and Ellen enjoyed telling it over and over.....until today when we were on our way to the Airport at the end of the tour.

It seems another couple in the group raised the ante on John and Ellen.

Teresa and Leslie actually got MARRIED! They didn't tell anyone but another passenger, whom they asked to be their witness. Before the tour they had a plan to do it but weren't sure it would happen because they didn't know if they could get a license or accomplish all the requirements. But they did bring their outfits and were able to get a license....this is Vegas after all!

So when I heard the news I made an announcement on the coach and dedicated Frank Sinatra's version of "Love and Marriage" to the happy couple, who look forward to getting back to England to tell their families!

Good luck with that, and have a happy life Teresa and Leslie!

Seeing Stars

2010-05-20T16:03:00.013-04:00

It is the last day of the first tour, it's been a busy week including lots of travel time. We went to Hollywood and saw some stars, and we saw some star's stars. We even walked in the footprints of some stars.

After that we were off to a night in Laughlin Nevada to spend a night at the Aquarius Hotel on our way to the Grand Canyon.

Day 4 presented us with our best photo opportunities as we visited the spectacular Grand Canyon, which, no matter how many times I see it I am amazed again. Ironically it "never get old" for me. Definitely one of America's star attractions!

Las Vegas was the last destination on our tour. I haven't seen too much of my group since we got here...everyone has free time here so they are seeing shows, gambling, eating and shopping and shopping and shopping.
We are staying at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino on Freemont Street...very nice hotel and the "Freemont Street Experience" is an impressive light and music show that goes on for hours.
We're a short bus ride from the Las Vegas Strip so many of my group are venturing from Freemont Street by bus or cab to experience the spectacle that is "Disneyland for adults".
Tonight we finish up the tour with dinner and a show at the Plaza Hotel..."The Rat Pack is Back," ...Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. impersonators give us one more chance to see the "stars."

Westward Bound

2010-05-14T12:40:00.002-04:00

I'm leaving tomorrow (Saturday, 5/15) for two tours beginning in Hollywood to check out the Walk of Fame www.hwof.com/tv, then we'll be traveling to the Aquarius Hotel and Casino in Laughlin NV for one night, then to the Grand Canyon AZ and finally 4 nights in Las Vegas NV. Its a busy tour packed with lots of great optional excursions.
I'll blog as often as possible to keep myself away from the slot machines!

Horsing Around

2010-04-30T10:01:00.004-04:00

Before the tour I asked Steve, our driver, to find a ranch where we could take our guests horseback riding. He found the Rocking B Stables near Austin. So we offered horseback riding to them and we got 5 takers and about 15 passengers who wanted to go just to see a real working ranch.
So after we dropped off half of our group on Austin's busy 6th Street to shop, dine and explore the live music scene we took the "horse people" and the "horse lookers" as I called them to the Rocking B.
We met Bruce (the B in Rocking B) who showed us around the ranch...which raises goats, chickens and cows and boards horses. He then got our riders ready for their adventure. It took close to an hour to get everyone acquainted with their horses and saddle and bridle them up, (the horses, not the people) and then they went giddyup onto the trail for an hour while the rest of us relaxed under a big tree and waited for them to return. They returned with big smiles on their faces....and as far as I could tell the horses hardly noticed.
All in all it was a great adventure for everyone....when I asked Susan, the first-time rider how she liked the experience she said...."Brilliant!"

Stonehenge Texas Style

2010-04-26T23:56:00.005-04:00

Today we visited San Antonio...everyone explored on their own. There were those who waited their whole life to see the Alamo, those who took a leisurely stroll along the Riverwalk, and those who took advantage of endless shopping opportunities at the Rivercenter Mall http://www.shoprivercenter.com/ and mostly everyone enjoyed the myriad of shops, galleries, arts and crafts displays and the multitudes of wonderful restaurants that can be found in this unique city.

After their free time we all enjoyed dinner at Mi Tierra, a Mexican restaurant full of colorful decor and delicious food. We were even serenaded by a 3-piece Mariachi band while we dined.
On the long trip back to the YO Ranch Resort Hotel in Kerrville, everyone was tired but very satisfied with the full day they had and the delicious meal they enjoyed so they wondered why we passed right by our hotel until I told them that we had a surprise for them.

In the town of Hunt, Texas there is a 60% scale replica of Ancient Druid Monument, Stonehenge, which is in England, and in fact most if not all of my UK guests have seen the original. So I thought it would be fun for them to see one Texan's version of this Ancient wonder. An area local, Al Shepperd had been given a slab of limestone, 5' tall and 8" wide, that was left over from a patio construction job. He placed it in his field near the road. After a while he began mowing larger and larger circles around it and in time he asked his friend, who had given him the slab, to build the riplica of Stonehenge. The result is a 92' diameter hollow plaster-covered steel replica flanked by 2 Easter Island statues.

Al died in 1994 and his ashes were sprinkeled on the grounds of Stonehenge II.

The group was surprised to see it and enjoyed wandering among the pieces and commented that it is not possible to walk among the pieces of the original Stonehenge so it was fun to get up close and personal!

Back in Texas!!

2010-04-23T07:46:00.003-04:00

After watching and waiting and wondering what the Iceland Volcano would do to my UK group's chances of flying over the pond for our Texas tour, the suspense was finally over on Wednesday morning when I got word that the skies were open again. I think they were one of the first planes to take off from Heathrow Airport when the ban was lifted.
So here we are, after a greuling day of travel for them and for me, in the Lone Star State to see Texas in the Spring. Only one lady has arrived without her luggage. I have no idea how this could have happened since they were on a non-stop flight, one plane from London to Fort Worth. Her luggage is either still at Heathrow or it ended up on a plane to some other destination. Hopefully it will catch up with us at our first hotel in Fort Worth which is where we arrived last night at about 9:30.
Today we're headed for the the Fort Worth Stockyards via the Grapevine Vintage Railroad Train http://tinyurl.com/m57wx4
We'll spend some time at the Stockyards, then head into Fort Worth for dinner.
I've heard that three tornados touched down in Texas yesterday...I see no tornadoes but although it rained earlier this morning the sun is shining now and Texas is in full spring bloom. I'll post some pictures later.

Buses & Trains & Planes & Carts & Waiting

2010-03-28T10:07:00.003-04:00

Our One-week tour of Tuscany ended with a lovely afternoon visit and dinner in Siena. We got back to our villas in Contignano at 8:00 PM, completed our packing by stuffing our final purchases in our luggage and went to sleep both dreading and looking forward to our return to the US. The trip home after a fun vacation is always a relief as well as a source of anxiety. This return trip turned out to be more anxiety than relief.
We got an early start, leaving La Montalla at 7:00 AM. The 2-hour bus ride to Florence was uneventful and so we were all feeling pretty comfortable and secure in the notion that all would go according to plan. Not so much.
We made it thru long security lines at Amerigo Vespucci Airport and finally arrived at gate 7 for our 50-minute flight to Rome with about 1.5 hours to spare. So we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed some reminiscing about the highlights of our week. Before we knew it, it was 11:00 and we were beginning to wonder when they would announce the boarding time for our 11:30 flight to Rome. They didn"t. We waited some more. Finally at 11:40 an airline representative told us that due to high winds the plane that was to take us to Rome could not land in Florence and was deverted to Pisa.
So we wait for them to load our luggage onto 2 buses for a "quick" one hour and 15 minute bus ride to Pisa to catch our 11:30 flight to Rome.
We arrived in Pisa and had to wait in even longer security lines so we could be loaded onto a bus that would take us to the plane that would take us to Rome for our 2:30 flight to JFK. The bus got us to the plane at about 2:10, we waited on the plane till about 2:55 and began our 50 minute flight from Pisa to Rome for our 2:30 flight to JFK. We arrived in Rome at about 3:40 and were met by 2 attendants who were to walk us through endless terminals to catch our 2:30 flight which was waiting for us.
Most of the group followed one attendant but Peter and I brought up the rear with Peggy and her mom, Mary who with the help of her cane, was struggling to keep up. We walked through more endless terminals at Mary's pace until our escort got the four of us a golf cart for 3 which we piled into like so many college kids in a telephone booth challenge.
We rode the golf cart through still more endless terminals to the tram stop to board the tram at 4:00 to take us to our 2:30 flight from Rome to JFK. We thanked our escort and offered him a gratuity which he graciously refused stating that..."it's not over yet!"
We boarded the tram which wizzed us between endless terminals finally to arrive at gate 9 at 4:15 to board our 2:30 flight to JFK.
We took off promptly at 4:30.

Arrivederci Roma!

Wednesday-Thursday...Pizza Night/Cooking Demo...Relaxing and Not So Much!

2010-03-26T02:22:00.006-04:00

These 2 days were designed to be relaxing in the morning with two fun and delicious activities planned for the afternoon and evening. The guests at each villa would do each activity on alternating days. Our group is occupying 2 villas and we had scheduled a "Pizza Night and Tour" of Contignano's ancient wine making/olive oil production facility located in the basement of Giuseppe's home which is the castle of this small village. The "pizza night" part of the event was back at LaMontalla where Giuseppe and his wife Paola had presented all the ingredients for the making of individual pie--all we needed to do was choose the items we wanted on our individual pie and they then cooked them in the wood-burning oven in the main dining area.
The Cooking Demo took place at Fattoria La Palezzina in Radicofani under the direction of Silvano and his wife Eliana, she being the Italian-speaking chef and teacher, he being the interpreter. After we learned to make various pastas and tiramisu we sat down to a scrumptous dinner consisting of the things Eliana demonstrated, as well as a main course of pork fillets and fresh spinach cooked in olive oil and garlic. YUM
So on Wednesday of this 2-day event we had he morning to take a group of guests to the supermarket to get supplies, (no alarms sounded when I entered the store but I did sense many security eyes on me as I shopped).
When we came back with that group we spent the rest of the morning shutteling people to and from the town and to and from the 2nd villa (San Antonio) until it was time to deposit each of the groups at their planned event. Not so much relaxing but both events were a great success for each of the groups on Wednesday.
Now surely Thursday promised to be a relaxing morning because no pick/ups or drop/offs or supermarket trips were scheduled . Everyone was happy to stay at their respective villas until it was time to go to "Pizza Night" or "Cooking Demo Night".
So Peter and I left in the van to take care of some things we needed to do and returned to La Montalla to finally relax until the afternoon shuttle pick/ups and drop/offs were to begin---to get each of the groups at 2 villas to either the pizza night and tour or the cooking demo and dinner that they were scheduled for.
Everything was going nicely and everyone was relaxing nicely and looking forward to the evening's activities when someone came in and said..."Do you know that ther is a flat tire on the van?"
So much for relaxing on Thursday---I had to recruit 3 men in the LaMontalla group to help us figure out how to get the spare tire out from under its compartment of the 9 passenger van we had and then change the tire before we could move on to the pick/ups and drop/offs to either the pizza night and tour or the cooking demo and dinner.
Well the tire got changed and we got everyone where they needed to be....but not everyone had a relaxing morning...whatever.
I guess we'll relax on the flight home!

Larceny in Tuscany

2010-03-21T11:36:00.002-04:00

We arrived at DaVinci Airport at 7:05 AM after a reasonably comfortable flight across the Pond. We met our Rome City Guide, Franco who was entertaining and informative, showing us the drama and history of the Colesseum and the remarkable site that is St Peter's Square at the Vatican. Time constraints did not allow us to go inside St Peter's but just the experience of being in that square stirred emotions so deeply that at least one of our group members was brought to tears by the magnitude of the historical significance and a lifetime of hearing, reading and seeing pictures and movies about it. Someone else was so moved to "walk in the footsteps of Tom Hanks, (i.e. DaVinci Code)!! LOL

So after our quick tour of the Eternal city came to a conclusion and everyone was greatful to sit down finally in the coach for the 2.5 hour journey to Tuscany.

Here's where the day's journey took a "larcenous" turn...when we reached the exit for Contignano we stopped at a supermarket so everyone could get supplies, snacks, food staples, wine, cheese, fruit and anything else they could load in their carts in the 30 minutes time I allotted them for the task.

Peter and I did our shopping too and when we were checking out, the cashier needed a price check on a bottle of milk we were buying. While that was being done and while I was distracted by someone's question the cashier proceeded to bag our entire order (except for the milk) and when I turned back to the counter, Peter had all the bags in the cart. I assumed he paid the bill, he assumed I paid the bill---do you see where I'm going with this? That's right-we left the market with our cartful of un-purchased groceries! We loaded our bags into the coach and everyone waited on the coach for the last 2 people to come out.

They were taking much too long so I went back in to find them (mother and daughter) and they were at the same check-out that we had just left. I walked them out with their cartful of purchases and got them onto the coach.

By now the driver, Marco was outside the bus in a heated discussion with the store manager and about 3 members of the security team--Marco called me out and after much sign language and attempts at translation between me, him, them, and us, I finally understood that we left the store without paying for our groceries. The mother and daughter were held up because the cashier was busy alerting security that Peter and I "escaped" without paying!!

After all the confusion was over I went back in with the manager and paid for my groceries, the cashier actually apologized to me for making the mistake of not having us pay for our purchases!! Talk about "the customer is always right"!

So our first day in Tuscany has given us some unique memories and has caused my passengers to keep a closer eye on me when I shop. They also enjoy lots of "jail" jokes and police references at my "expense".

P.S. We never did get our bottle of milk!

Tuscany-Bound

2010-03-18T17:59:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, March 19th I am leaving for a one-week tour of Tuscany. I'm taking a group for Get Up and Go Tours, we're landing in Roma and taking a guided tour of the Eternal City. Then we will travel north to Tuscany, where we will stay at two villas.
We'll visit Florence, San Gimignano, Siena, Pisa, Montepulciano, Lucca, and Montalcino. I will post here as often as I can providing there is a good internet connection at La Montalla.
Ciao.

Philadelphia Flower Show, March 2010

2010-03-13T19:55:00.004-05:00

A large group of amateur gardeners, flower lovers, and happy travelers decided to Get Up and Go with us to the Philadelphia Flower Show at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
The show was packed into 10 acres of indoor display space showcasing beautiful plants and the art of gardening.
We strolled through lush garden displays and explored creative garden designs and flower crafts.
The theme of the show this year was "Passport to the World", international exhibits of flowers, plants, and garden designs from around the world including Brazil's Amazon Jungle, Blooming Dutch Bulbs, Orchids of Singapore, Flowers of South Africa and many more.
There were opportunities to attend demonstrations of state-of-the-art techniques, cooking, organic growing methods and indoor and outdoor design tips. And of course there were plenty of shopping opportunities!

Tonto National Forest

2010-01-31T01:10:00.011-05:00

Yesterday we took a road trip along the Apache Trail thru Apache Junction, past Superstition Mountain and thousands of Saguaro Cacti to Canyon Lake, known originally as Mormon Flat Lake,
which is one of the man-made lakes in Arizona formed by the construction of the Mormon Flat Dam (completed in 1925) and Roosevelt dam on the Salt River in 1911, which at the time it was built was the largest dam in America. It is the smallest of the four lakes in the Salt River chain. The other lakes are Apache Lake, Roosevelt Lake and Saguaro Lake.
We had lunch in the old town of Tortilla Flat (http://tinyurl.com/yhfhmgc) where every wall of the restaurant is covered floor to ceiling with dollar bills left by customers from all over the world.

Side Trip To California

2010-01-26T11:14:00.004-05:00

I've been in Mesa, AZ since last Thursday, decompressing after Symposium. Spent some time visiting and relaxing and then got on the move again to Riverside California. The 4-hour drive through the desert seemed endless but Palm Springs showed off her Windmill Farm (http://tinyurl.com/yhwzzgr) and a beautiful view of snow on the distant mountains.

Some Visions of Arizona

2010-01-20T16:57:00.010-05:00

Tucson: I spent the last 6 days at ElConquistador Hotel in Tucson, the ITMI Symposium has kept me busy networking and job interviewing but I did find some time to shoot some local scenes.

Desert Sunsets

San Xavier Mission

Into the sunshine....

2010-01-15T22:34:00.003-05:00

It's 10:30 New York time, 8:30 Arizona time. I left Islip at noon on the 6 hour flight to Las Vegas, where I only lost $10.00 at a slot machine in the airport. Not bad.

Here's my first view of the Rocky Mountains and hopefully my last view of snow for the next two weeks.

It certainly looks beautiful from this distance, doesn't it?

I caught another flight from Vegas to Tucson and I finally got to my room at the El Conquistador Hotel in Tucson at 8:00 PM.

I'm pretty tired from the trip and all I have to say is..."Hello...Room Service..."

Arizona

2010-01-15T06:41:00.003-05:00

Today I'm getting out of the cold of Long Island and into the warmth of Arizona. I'll be attending the 23rd Annual ITMI Symposium in Tucson at the Hotel El Conquistador http://www.hotelelconquistador.com/ for about a week and then spending some leisure time in Mesa. Check back here for details and pictures.

A Basket of Pears

2009-11-11T06:46:00.005-05:00

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!!

2009-11-09T09:00:00.011-05:00

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!!!!

2009-11-07T18:27:00.008-05:00

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

2009-11-06T10:24:00.007-05:00

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

2009-10-21T19:32:00.004-04:00

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?...

2009-10-19T08:31:00.005-04:00

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!

2009-10-10T21:25:00.005-04:00

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...

2009-10-09T21:26:00.006-04:00

...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

2009-10-07T19:35:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-06T18:50:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-06T18:37:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-02T15:58:00.007-04:00

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

2009-09-19T17:27:00.011-04:00

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...

2009-09-16T18:02:00.009-04:00

...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!

2009-09-15T18:46:00.007-04:00

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

2009-09-13T14:30:00.008-04:00

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...

2009-09-12T16:23:00.006-04:00

..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"

2009-09-12T04:02:00.006-04:00

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

2009-09-11T18:18:00.016-04:00

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...

2009-09-09T15:31:00.002-04:00

...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

2009-09-07T08:53:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-08-19T09:34:00.012-04:00

... 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

2009-08-15T19:53:00.016-04:00

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!

2009-08-14T20:51:00.011-04:00

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

2009-08-13T21:12:00.018-04:00

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?

2009-08-12T21:04:00.005-04:00

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

2009-08-11T18:31:00.011-04:00

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

2009-06-05T23:33:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-31T07:23:00.005-04:00

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?

2009-05-30T19:24:00.006-04:00

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

2009-05-29T22:59:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-29T08:36:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-27T07:12:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-25T22:54:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-24T20:06:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-23T00:54:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-05-22T06:10:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-21T00:35:00.002-04:00

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???

2009-05-19T23:38:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-18T23:13:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-17T07:03:00.005-04:00

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

2009-04-20T09:49:00.009-04:00

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...

2009-04-18T19:29:00.004-04:00

...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

2009-02-04T13:39:00.013-05:00

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

2009-01-26T19:14:00.004-05:00

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

2009-01-23T18:31:00.003-05:00

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.

Relentless Rain

2008-12-11T22:53:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-10T22:09:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-03T21:18:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-02T20:03:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-02T07:41:00.007-05:00

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

2008-11-30T21:39:00.011-05:00

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...

2008-11-30T07:33:00.010-05:00

...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

2008-11-28T20:21:00.007-05:00

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

2008-11-27T22:19:00.004-05:00

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

2008-11-12T09:29:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-29T20:08:00.009-04:00

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

2008-10-28T08:29:00.006-04:00

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

2008-10-21T07:05:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-19T22:27:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-18T20:47:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-17T22:50:00.009-04:00

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

2008-10-17T06:50:00.008-04:00

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

2008-10-15T23:55:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-13T23:07:00.006-04:00

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....

2008-10-12T21:43:00.005-04:00

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?

2008-10-11T07:11:00.008-04:00

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

2008-10-10T22:36:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-09T22:19:00.011-04:00

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

2008-10-08T23:20:00.002-04:00

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...

2008-10-07T17:34:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-16T23:19:00.014-04:00

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

2008-09-16T20:58:00.014-04:00

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

2008-09-15T20:31:00.014-04:00

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

2008-09-14T21:33:00.019-04:00

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!!!