TRAVEL PLANS FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS

Now I know things come up and plans change.

We were going to to Nova Scotia this last summer--didn' get there I had a triple coronary by -pass instead.

Now that I have new batteries, don't need to see my heart doctor for a year and am free of the pancreatic surgeon for 18 months, it is time to celebrate.

Nova Scotia this summer. England in May, 2010--we will fly over and cruise back.

In March we will go to Michigan to care for our grandkids. Return home in April then drive to Michigan and Nova Scotia in August.


What are your plans?

I'm tired out reading yours.

My plans are to absolutely stay out of Michigan in the winter.

For us, it will be the beach from March through August, and then we'll go to the beach from September through February.

Not sure exactly what beach just yet. We've tried a lot and loved them all. Our kids are wanting to cruise to Cozumel and that sounds like a great plan to me. Look out Allegro Resort, here we come again.

Hey Alice,

I LOVE your new picture!! What happened to your plans to come to Massachusetts? Unless it's happening between Michigan and Nova Scotia.

I'll be in Michigan, too, in July for my mom's 90th birthday!

Don, you have the best plans of all. And very wise to stay out of Michigan in the winter.

My mom's 90th birthday is September 15, and I may go to Michigan. Before then, it will likely be either Washington D. C. or Atlanta, GA in March; Michigan in April; Panama City, Panama in April or May and perhaps a cruise European way in the summer.

I was saving for retirement and lost everything I had invested. Now, I'm spending. I'll just never retire, but I'm going to have fun on vacation days and never again think I can invest money and fill the retirement income gap. Nope, I'll just have my retirement every weekend and every day off from now until I drop and spend everything I earn. When it runs out, I hope I have a movie contract to see me through the golden years.

I can't let the summer go by without at least one trip to Savannah. I'm retired, and my wife will be in about three years. We're looking at maybe moving somewhere in the Savanah area, but no plans as to where just yet.

It's one of my favorite places in the world, and I think it's just about as beautiful as a city can be. Love the old squares and the river walk, and Tibee Island and all the rest. Dang, I've just about talked myself into leaving for there tonight.

Why is everybody so down on Michigan? You sound like a bunch of Ohio State fans singing:
We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan,
The whole state of Michigan, the whole state of Michigan,
We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan,
We're from OH -HI-OH.

I've been to Savannah on several different occasions and always succumbed to its charm. Somewhere I have a short story that started with meeting the chef of the art school who had penned a cookbook I had him sign. I can close my eyes and see the squares with moss hanging from the ancient tree canopies, dripping with shining dew as the early morning sun tried to penetrate and spread freckles on the pavement. Yes, you have a good choice in Savannah.

I'm close enough to the beach to ride my bike, and that's always a hard location to leave. I do enjoy Panama City, however, where nothing is flat.

In fact, if my mother wasn't visiting and refuses to get a passport, I'd go to Panama City for my 3-day holiday weekend this month - Florida is too cold! I don't think I was ever this cold in Key West. Brrrrrrrrrr

You're talking about Panama City, Panama, right? We live in Panama City Beach, FL, and love it here, but it is really flat. For an old farm boy from the rolling hills of Middle Tennessee, it's been a real change. We lived most of our lives on the top of the Cumberland Rim, and that part of the country is also right up there in the most beautiful category.

When I was a very small child, about a year old I think, my family relocated to Detroit to work in the defense factories, at least those that didn't go into the Army did. I learned to talk in Detroit, and I've always blamed my smart mouth on that fact. I was using a fair amount of cuss words by the time we went back to Tennessee, but by then I was already almost four, which was plenty old enough to cuss, smoke, and drink and occasional beer. C'mon now, don't tell me I'm the only one here who had stopped drinking, smoking and cussing by the age of five.

And for those who are wondering, sex came along later. How much later I won't say, but I was the coolest kid in the second grade. Also the tiredest.

Way too much info, huh?

If you think that sometimes I stretch the truth, here's an excerpt from The Last Of The South Town Rinky Dinks that shows I learned from an expert. The man I'm talking about, Bud, was a hero of mine, and this little story shows why.
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Over the years, Bud did just about as much free work as he did paying jobs. He could never turn anybody down. I said that's a fault, and I know most people think it is. Especially a lot of successful people who wouldn't repair a hole in their mothers roof if it was raining cats and dogs unless she paid them for it. But it really wasn't a fault. It was a gift. Bud was a rough man, loud and ready to fight. He drank and he raised hell, and he never had much money, or at least he never kept much money. But Bud had a heart bigger than three or four ordinary people.

To this day, I don't have much use for a man who has to be paid for everything he does.

When I first started hearing the term, "Good old boy," it was used a little bit different than it is now.

Someone would say something like...

You know Bud Bollinger, don't you? Saw him last night up town. He was drunker'n a skunk.

Yeah, but he's a good old boy. He'll give you the shirt off'n his back. Do anything in the world for a man if you ask him to.

That's a fact.

Yeah it is. And won't take a penny for helpin' you, neither.

I know it. Ain't worth a damn, is he?

Naw, but he's a good old boy.

And that's the way it was.

Bud was a good old boy, and he would give you the shirt off his back. That's the reason he didn't have a lot of money, or a big fine car, or a nice house, or, for that matter, a hell of a lot of shirts. He did too much, for too many, for too little. And the thing is, while Bud did a lot of work for his friends and neighbors who needed help and couldn't afford it, a lot of the time the folks he was doing for were better off than he was.

And many of those were the same folks who looked down on Bud. Of course, they were the same folks who looked down on almost everybody in South Town.

Another of Bud's strange little quirks was that he liked to lie a lot.

Maybe I could sugar coat it a little and say that he liked to tell tall tales, but that just ain't the way it was. Nope, Bud just plain old liked to lie. I'm sure he liked it, because I know for a fact that he did a spectacularly good job of it. Old Bud was a twelfth degree black belt in stretching the truth. He stretched the truth to proportions that the truth seldom sees. Bud would walk ten miles through a hailstorm to tell you a lie, when he could have just as easily told you the truth without leaving the shelter of his own front porch.

For years I thought Bud told the stories because he just wanted to see how much he could make folks believe. And I still think that's how it started. But later on I think he started to believe the stories himself.

But that's not too strange, is it? A good liar can make a lot of people believe a lot of things. People will believe things they know aren't true, if the right person tells them they are. And Bud was that kind of person.

He could make folks believe things.

Panama City, Panama - South America. I think the Panama canal is flat. If you're in Panama City, Florida, you must really be cold the last couple days. I think that's S. Alabama? I lived in Madison, FL (S. Georgia).

On February 16th, we're going first to Virginia to see our daughter, and then down to north Florida for a few days, and then to Hilton Head, South Carolina for the month of March.

And we will go to Savannah while staying in Hilton Head. I love Savanna. My husband and I lived in Beaufort South Carolina for three years in the sixties and will visit there as well.

I can't wait. I have already started to pack as they are clothes I haven't worn for months. It has been very cold in Wisconsin, very, very, cold.

Carol

Helen Wisocki wrote:

Hey Alice,

I LOVE your new picture!! What happened to your plans to come to Massachusetts? Unless it's happening between Michigan and Nova Scotia.

I'll be in Michigan, too, in July for my mom's 90th birthday!

Don, you have the best plans of all. And very wise to stay out of Michigan in the winter.

Helen,

You guessed it. It will be between Michigan and Nova Scotia

E. Don,
I loved you story about liar Bud.

Alice, I've had a better response from the Rinky Dink book than from anything I've ever written. The complete story about Bud is there, as is the story about Mama that I posted in another thread. It's going really well back home. Glad you liked it. Take a look at this site.

http://www.southtownrinkydinks.com

E..Don,

How amazing and the best part is you are having fun wth it.
Now I will have to get one of those books too.

Alice, you have a PM

I am glad so many of you are going on trips--doesn' t sound like the travel industry is too hard hit yet.

Dave and I love to travel. We love adventure and especially like to go somewhere we have read about.

Several years back we read about Senator Kennedy and the bridge accident.

I had read Jack Anderson's account years ago and was and still am convinced he did not kill the girl--was not even in the car when the accident occured and was late reporting it--because until the car was discovered he didn't know what happened.

Anyway, we became so interested in the wreck we decided to go to the bridge and check it out oursleves.

Some friends told us we coudln't get there , which of course, made us even more determined to get there.

We took a boat to Martha's Vineyard--rented bikes and rode to Edgartown. Crossed on a ferry to Chappaquidick rode out to the bridge--took pctures of ourselves at the bridge--then went looking for the house where the party had been held.
Some dogs came after us, so we turned back and rode into a forceful wind back to our hotel.

We were tired we had gone 18 miles . We decided to relax in the pool. The life guard ordered me to, " Swim aound the pool. "

I am not a super swimmer and said, "I am tired."

"That is because you are out of shape," she siad.

I let her statement stand and did not bother to confuse her with the facts--some People!

Funny Don, yet not so funny with age or illness.
As for traveling, I've done so much of it that just the thought of getting onto a plane makes me tired. Early check-ins with security checks, sometimes both on departure and arrival, the long lines, etc., has taken pleasure out of flying.
I prefer to drive where I want to go. America is a big country and driving can be tiresome and time consuming. I have an advantage where I live. Within a five hours, I can be in the Alps, in Paris or in Amsterdam. Even getting to London is within a days drive. Driving in Europe is similar to driving from State to State in the US.
My trips are six hours or less, otherwise I don't want to go. The exception is an annual visit to my family in the States that takes 8 or 9 hours by plane. Waiting time and/or change of planes can bring the total travel time to 12-14 hours.

Hi Alice wishing you a safe and exciting trip. Take a laptop along so you can keep in touch.

I haven't been able to even get down the driveway to the mailbox for months, and am so excited about the trip we are about to take, but feel like I need to hibernate until we leave so nothing happens to keep me from traveling.

I love to travel, but plane rides are impossible, so we take the car since we can stop when we want (or need) to. My husband loves to drive, and sometimes forgets about the need to stop more frequently than in the past.

Alice, we planned to go to Nova Scotia about twelve years ago, but had to forgo that trip as we discovered Tom's retirement money had been lost in cyberspace and we had to return home. Scary!

But you know where you are supposed to stop on your way!! We'll be waiting!!

Love, Carol

Don,

Get your kidney to behave and you will be ready to go again
Your wife will be a different person when she reecovers from her hip replacement too.

70 is not old. --you have 30 years to go before you reach 100.

More and mrore folks are making it now.

Abe,

I hear you about airport secrurity--you would think I was Bin laden's wife by the time they get through with me. I just laugh it off and figue they are trying to make everyone safe.

Carol,

Did you ever recover the retirement funds?

This summer me, mom, and the kids have been invited to North Carolina to visit with my deceased (2/11/2008) stepfather's family. We haven't decided for sure yet. It will probably depend heavily on the gas prices this summer.

It will be an exciting adventure for the kids if we can go. They haven't been any farther than Kentucky and West Virginia.

But for the short term I'm on my way a few miles north to go to work. =)

deceased 2/11/2008

I don't know why that smiley face came up???