Travelogue

11:29am Monday 11th February 2008

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*Disclaimer- Please forgive the American spellings, but after all..I AM American.

January 18th - I leave for LA. Get to Amsterdam via Teesside, and plane is "boarding". I "run" to gate and barely make it.

Later on, after landing in LA and finding the Super Shuttle "Big Blue Bus", I get a migraine. Fast forward to brother Hal's place where he makes me a nice cup of tea and I promptly get sick. (Thank You, Hal) A hot shower and a few hours of sleep and I'm OK.

January 19th - Hal and I go to the Post Office to mail Stepfather's precious quarters. Missed dinner and my $10 Martini at the Abbey last night because I was sick.

Eat at the Tango Grill which is good food, but no Margarita as they only have a wine and beer license. I swear a lot...

January 20 - We go to the Beverly Center to kill time and then to El Coyote to eat lunch and wait for Lizzie who is driving from San Diego to fetch me. Trip to SD is uneventful, thank God.

January 20 - January 25. Life on the boat is fine and I watch lots of DVDs as there is no TV. (NO TV?? Aye Carumba!) January 26th - Very bad storm rocks the Marina in San Diego with wind gusts of 50 mph, rain and hail. Lynnie gets sick again after three hours sleep, and the skylight over my bed leaks. Lizzie comes to rescue me after I spend over four hours in the storm....getting sicker.

We get ready to leave for Tucson and I can't eat anything and am getting a migraine again. I'm too dense to take anything, drugwise, which proves to be a fatal error in a few hours.

On the way to Tucson, the migraine kicks into high gear and I'm sick again. Three sick stops later, we arrive in Tucson. Once again, hot bath/shower and I have to go to bed. No food and no drinkies for me.

Lizzie dines alone and has a Bloody Mary in my honor at the Doghouse Saloon. (Lynnie isn't a happy bunny at this point) Doorbell rings at our casita and a cute cowboy comes to the door with soup and crackers for me. Sadly, I have no makeup on and am in my jammies and look like the wrath of God, or worse. Cowboy is most likely frightened. Ding dong, it gets better. Cowboy comes BACK to room to pick up dishes and I STILL look and feel horrible. Poor cowboy and POOR me... Oh, and I might add that we had monsooning rain and fog the whole way to Tucson and all night after we got there. Our room sprung a leak and furniture had to be moved.

January 28th - I'm feeling MUCH better now. I'm able to enjoy the beautiful scenery, the food AND the Doghouse Saloon, which we proudly open at 5 PM. (nothing like waiting at the door with our tongues hanging out ) January 29th - Lizzie and Lynnie visit Ulta and Walgreens and manage to find a Starbucks. Or did this all happen the day before? Who knows and what does it matter?

January 29th -I spend the day, after Larry the cowpoke drives me to the house, with my Aunt and Cousin. We go to Macaroni Grill for lunch and then go get our collective nails done.

January 30 - I spend quality time with the laptop and enjoy more ranch food and atmosphere. Lizzie is off at the Spa and I'm just not a Spa person.

January 31st - We go to the San Xavier Mission where I take lots of pictures and an old man named Harvey tries to pick me up. Why do old men like me????

February 1st and 2nd - Lizzie gets up at 4:30 AM and decides to start back to San Diego. I get up a couple hours later and finish packing. I go to breakfast myself only to find our reserved table has been given away as they "thought we had left".

It's OK...I go back to the casita and wait for my driver to arrive. Larry arrives fifteen minutes early and we go to the office where several crazy men wearing cowboy hats get in to leave for the airport also.

We get a mile down the road and are called back for "one lone cowboy who missed his ride". (The ranch calls everyone a "cowboy or cowgirl".) We dutifully turn around and go get the idiot. Get to Tucson Airport and sit around for about two hours waiting for the plane.

Flight to Minneapolis takes around three hours and as soon as we land, I call John and head for Starbucks. I then have several hours to kill and have a big conversation with a lady in the waiting area who is heading to Cairo.

Board the plane and we wait, and we wait, and we wait some more. Finally we're told the GPS has gone out and we wait for a mechanic. We finally leave an hour late only to find out that the in flight entertainment system at each seat...isn't working.

Oh goody, eight hours with nothing to watch. I try to sleep, but am by the bathrooms and can't sleep listening to "FLUSH" every few minutes. I finally sort of , almost, get to sleep when a disembodied voice says "Ok everybody, time to wake up!" People jump up and stand in the aisles as no one knows quite what to do. Seems the head Flight Attendant meant to wake up the crew and she mistakenly announced over PA to "everyone".

Oh gee, that was funny...NOT!!! Get to Amsterdam and immediately head for Murphy's Irish Bar where I just don't care anymore and order a pint of beer.

HA!! I also have a sandwich and call John who is amused but not surprised as to where I am. Go downstairs to my gate and am sitting amongst ten Germans who are babbling away and probably calling me an idiot, but how would I know? I'm fighting to stay awake at this point.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ I look up at the board and CRAP!! We're delayed ten minutes. Could be worse I guess. FINALLY, the bus comes to hauls us out ten million miles to the plane. Fast one hour flight to Teesside where it's cold and windy and already Saturday afternoon. (I left Tucson on Friday afternoon) YAY....there's John Boy standing there waiting to pick me up. Have to hurry so we don't have to pay for parking!!!

I go home and make friends with my cats again and fall asleep during CSI New York. I give up and go to bed and sleep fifteen hours!!! I feel a bit better today and mananged to cook Sunday dinner.

The End...until April and the next trip.