Puttin' On The Brakes...

Tuesday, March 8th, I tried to take Papa for a car ride into the mountains and Boone National Forest. We plotted our course and left on back roads to enjoy several hours of beautiful Kentucky countryside.

We made it to Stanton, Kentucky which is a town along the Mountain Parkway. As I pulled to a stop in this little community, I heard my car make a grinding noise. I've heard that sound in years past and it usually means the brakes are gone. Hmmm...

I told Papa I needed to find a place and check my car. We turned around and I pulled into a parking lot in front of a business with my windows down so I could hear better. Yep, that was the sound. However, my car also has a problem with the front dragging when I go over a curb or down a hill and sometimes the underside cover by the front bumper comes loose. That has happened while Papa and I were out driving once before. I got out and checked, no loose pieces anywhere on the car. This was definitely a brake issue and from the sounds it was a pretty bad brake issue.

I picked up my cellphone and called Frank Shoop, our local car dealer and where my car has always gone for service. I explained the situation and the importance of me having a car with brakes sooner rather than later. You see, we were to drive to the Cincinnati airport that night to pick up my mum-in-law and niece. Then I had a full afternoon and evening of driving to things Wednesday. Thursday we were supposed to spend the day in Louisville and then go to Bailey's play in Crestwood that night. Friday we were leaving for a weekend trip to Michigan. I needed brakes and a car that could go, go, go.

This poor fella had a full calendar of appointments for the next few days. I had already checked my calendar and told him I could come Wednesday or Thursday morning if he had the parts. He had the parts and suggested I come Thursday morning and he would 'fit me in'. Now, I have used this dealership for 11 years and I knew they know me and were doing the very best they could to even try to fit me in. I told him I would do that.

Then I turned to poor Papa and explained we couldn't finish our drive because the brakes were really bad. We couldn't be out on those narrow mountain roads with no brakes. He agreed. I got my car on the Mountain Parkway and then I-64 so I wouldn't have to use the brakes to get us back to his apartment. 

On the way back I did call back to Frank Shoop and asked if coming Tuesday afternoon would be better for them at all. I would just get back to Georgetown, drop Papa off and wait till they could help me. He said they had 11 more people coming in that afternoon and couldn't really squeeze me in. But he thought he could do it Wednesday afternoon and I should be there at 1:30pm. I assured him I would do that.

I dropped Papa off and headed to Georgetown. Those brakes just sounded worse and worse. We drove my car to pick up Bonnie and Shannon at the Cincinnati airport and then back home. We all laughed at the noise coming from my poor car. Claude and I knowing that noise meant the work would cost more to put new brakes and pads on the car.

Wednesday I was at Frank Shoop at 1:20. I spoke with the man who I talked with on Tuesday. I told him I take Papa to the nursing home to provide music for the residents every Wednesday afternoon at 3:30pm. I really needed to be at his apartment at 3:00pm if at all possible. If that was not going to work, would they please let me know so I could alert the nursing home that we would not be there. In addition I was to take Papa to get his INR test and that just wasn't going to happen on Wednesday now.

I settled myself in the waiting area, changed the channels on the television so it wasn't on a soap opera, and pulled out my crocheting. I was now ready to wait as long as needed.

In a bit the man came to the waiting room and looked at me. We grinned because we both knew it was not good. I said, "Okay, how bad is it?" He said, "Well, if green was good. Your front brakes would be yellow. I can polish this one part and only have to replace the other part and they will be fine. The back brakes are below red. They are off the charts and all of them must be replaced." I asked how much. He told the big dollar amount. I said to do it. He told me he would try to be done by 3:00pm but this was really a 3 hour job. Okay, back to crocheting I went.

At 3:00pm the man showed up in the doorway. 3:00pm on the button!! He was grinning and said, "I told you I would try and we did it just like you wanted." My car was finished and ready to rumble. I paid the cost of that repair and headed to get Papa. We made it to the nursing home and had a good time with the residents. 

Claude, Bonnie and Shannon came into town and joined me at Panera Bread for dinner. We had a lovely visit. As I pulled up to Panera Bread, they were already in the parking lot. I asked Claude if he could hear me coming. He said no. I said, "That's a very good thing!"

Shannon stayed with me and we went to the Church for me to teach the Institute Class. Claude and Bonnie went to run and errand and then home for the evening. Shannon and I got home to find them watching the Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond. We all finished watching that before bed.

Whew. What a Wednesday!!

Just Too Cute...

My hubby came home the other day and left me a gift on the breakfast table. It was a turtle. I love the word 'turtle' and have a little collection of all kinds of turtles all over the house.

When I found this turtle, I asked him if he knew I already had one just like it that was smaller. He did not remember that. I assured him our little Bailey was going to have a fit when she saw these two turtles together. Bailey loves to play with all the stuffed animals I have collected. 

I grabbed my cell phone and took this picture of a mommy and baby turtle together. Then I eMailed it to our Bailey. She was really happy with the picture. 

They will come while the kids have Spring Break in a few weeks. I do believe these little cuties will be part of her what Miss Bailey carries around while they visit.

To Caucus or Not To Caucus...

This year was a first for me. That is always interesting to think of when one is 65 years of age. It's nice to know there are and will still be 'firsts' even as I get older.

This year we are enduring, and I do mean 'enduring', the race to find a nominee for the Republican and Democratic parties for the presidential elections. November 8, 2016 will be the next election for the President of the United States. 

This year Rand Paul, who is a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, wanted to run for U.S. Senator and President. He could not do this with the regular Primary elections we have had in the past. He managed to get the change made so that Kentucky held 'caucuses' instead of 'primaries' allowing him to fulfill his dream of running for both the U.S. Senate and the President at the same time. All that change and he dropped out before they even held the caucus in Kentucky. Bitter, party of one, that is me regarding this. 

Saturday, March 5th, Claude and I went into Georgetown to cast our ballot for the Republican nominee for the Presidential election. There was only one polling place in each county. People were confused and many went to their regular polling place only to find no one there. Then they had to research and learn where they were supposed to go to vote. Notice was sent out. I posted on my Facebook page with a link to help people understand about the caucus voting. There was still confusion.

In addition, we had a race for State Representative in our area. Our previous State Representative was elected as Commissioner of Agriculture for Kentucky. Someone needed to finish his term. So, on the Tuesday following the Saturday caucus, a special election was held for portions of Scott County to fill this vacancy. This only added to the confusion. 

The other thing that was very different in a caucus was the opportunity to speak with people politicking for their candidates. There were tables set up right in the room where you received your ballot. At any other polling place there is not be be any of this within a specified number of yards from the polling place. I even noticed brochures for a candidate right on the table where we got our ballot. 

Rebecca Johnson was there. She is our Scott County Clerk. I said to Claude that I bet she had to be there all day. That is when he explained that the caucus is run by the Republican Party in this case and not the Clerk for the area. Rebecca didn't have to be there but she was probably very curious and she is very conscientious. A number of our elected officials from Kentucky were there which Claude and I know and we were able to chat with each of them.

We made it through our line to the table and received a little paper ballot about the size of a quarter of a sheet of typing paper. On it was the entire list of names of all the Republicans running to be the Presidential nominee, even though many of them had already dropped out of the race. There was a circle before each of their names. We went to a room with round tables in it and boards (like science project boards) put up on tables to provide privacy as you filled in the circle before the candidate of your choice. Then we went to a box at the front of the room and dropped our little ballot into the slot. Very old school.

Claude and I then went out for dinner. Truly the highlight of the experience.

I just want to state for the record this is absolutely the worst set of candidates I have ever seen in any years I have ever voted. 

At this point on the Democrat side is Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  I don't trust Hillary Clinton as far as anyone could throw her. Bernie Sanders is a declared socialist. I'm appalled we have a socialist out there gathering delegates. 

On the Republican side they have narrowed their field to three candidates: Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich. The only one of these that even seems feasible to me is John Kasich. Throughout all of this process there has been such un-President-like behavior from all parties. Kasich, who is the current governor of Ohio, is the only one of the final three candidates that has not participated in this. I believe there are some hints at him doing a bit of it lately but not like the others. Donald Trump is just a pompous, narcissist who seems to be used to telling people what he wants and then them doing it. I am appalled he is even seriously being considered. Every time I hear him state he is going to build a wall to keep out illegals I think back to the Berlin Wall and the efforts to 'Take down that wall!'. And now people cheer that he is going to build a wall. Not that something should not be done...but a wall? Ted Cruz is just the default guy with maybe enough momentum to trounce on Trump. I listened to Ted Cruz deliver an address after winning one of the Primary's and I just didn't get anything out of what he said. It seemed like words to fill the space and time and sound like you really knew things and had a plan but nothing at all concrete. Just fluff.

I find myself this year very, very concerned with where we are as a country. This will be an interesting election. I freely admit I am not the most politically astute person. But I have a good sense of when someone is sincere and when they are full of baloney. I have strong feelings and impressions about things and will go with those feelings. This process has served me well for 65 years.

Many years I have heard people say, "I will vote for this person. They will be better than that person." This year, it seems there is no 'lesser of two evils' for which to vote. It seems like we will end up with Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side and Donald Trump on the Republican side. Heaven help us. We will need it!!

There, I usually don't get really negative with my Blog. There is enough of that in the world. But this election process is driving me nuts this time. Just plain nuts.

Monday, February 22, 2016 - Guatemala City

Final day as a tourist. It's at this point of any long trip that one begins to think about getting back into 'normal' life again. You want to eek every bit of vacation you can out of the time you are gone but you just can't help mentally and emotionally beginning to step back in to whatever is your daily reality at home. Kind of a bit bittersweet. 

We had the morning in Guatemala City before catching our flight home at 7:45pm. Because we would be going back to the United States we had to be to the airport early. So we were grateful this last bit of time in Guatemala was spent visiting some points of interest in the city.

When we awoke we peek out of hotel room window. Since we arrived in darkness the night before, it was nice to look out and see this blend of old and new right outside our window.

After a yummy breakfast buffet, our bus took us to the Guatemala City Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This was a grand treat for those of us who were members in the Church. The grounds were opened so we could roam and take pictures. We couldn't go inside as there was not enough time. But we totally felt the Spirit as we walked the grounds.

We drove past the Peace Fountain on our way to the Cathedral.

As with other cities the Cathedral was on one side of the Central Plaza in the city. On another side of the Central Plaza was the Palace. It also housed some government offices. 

These are pictures of the Cathedral in Guatemala City.

Our next stop was truly unique. A man made a 'too scale' model in 3-D of the country of Guatemala. You could walk all the way around and, in addition, there were two towers you could climb to view it from above. It takes lots of pictures to get still shots of the entire thing. I also took several short videos of the model. Here are two still shots of the model showing large portions. The first is along the coast. The blue is where the coral reefs and islands are located. Beyond that you can see the lowlands. Behind that is the volcano and highland regions. The second picture is of the volcano region. This map really helped us visualize the description of Guatemala as having three distinct regions. That along the shore, the lowlands after that and then that mountainous portion full of volcanoes.

I also took two pictures zoomed in on two key places we visited. The first is Lake Atitlan in the volcano region. The second is Tikal in the lower flatter portion of the country.

To end the picture portion of this Blog, I will post two pictures of the beautiful flowers in Guatemala City. The yellow is a hibiscus and the red is a bottle brush tree.

After this final bit of touring we were taken to a place for our final Guatemalan meal. I am not exaggerating when I state this was my favorite meal of the trip. It was a beef place that also served some chicken. The menu was totally in Spanish and our tour guides were doing a lot of table hopping to help us know what was available and then communicate that to the servers. I ordered some type of barbecued chicken. Claude ordered a steak. It was juicy and the lightest most flavorful sauce I ever tasted. Big chucks of cooked veggies were the side dish. I was truly in heaven. 

The setting for this restaurant was a really nice Mercado. So, after we ate we roamed the shops for one final chase to spend American dollars. Claude and I didn't even exchange for Guatemalan money. We did use Peru's money when there but not in Guatemala. We really didn't intend to purchase anything. However...I came across sandals made out of that lovely woven fabric. I may have resisted but they were mostly purple!!! I asked what they cost. She said $10 American. I asked about my size. She asked what it was in American sizes. I told her and she pulled out a bag full of shoes in my size in all kinds of colors. I tried on the sandals. Claude pronounced them cute. By now some of the ladies in our tour group stopped to see what I was trying on. They pronounced them cute and assured me I should get the purple ones. Swayed by my own desire and the urging of others I succumbed and purchased my final souvenir from Guatemala... purple sandals. Isn't life grand?!?!

The flight home was not without incident. We were at the airport plenty early...and that was a very good thing. 

It turns out Avianca Airlines had our names in their computer but they had canceled our our reservations. Here we were again 44 people with a valid reservation that they had canceled in their computer. We were standing in the queue again at the ticket counter waiting as the hour ticked by. Alan was right up there with their head ticketing agents working to get a plan for us to get home that day. The airline acknowledged it was their error. There were other people waiting, with tickets they thought they also had, to get clearance to board the plane. 

Claude and I happened to be at the counter when this adventure started. The ticketing agent we had was singing like a bird about what was going on behind the counter and in the back. Alan could see her talking to us and the people in the queue wanting to know what she said. He kept coming by and saying, "Ignore her. They are working on it." This agent told us there were only 19 open seats on the flight we were supposed to be on and it was the only flight they had to Los Angeles each day. 

After what was forever, they started calling for people to get their boarding passes. They were working in alphabetic order so Claude and I came up pretty quickly. After getting our boarding passes, Alan told us to go on through security and to the gate and to watch Leah as they had her go first. Off we went. Made it through security and to the gate. Found a shop and purchased a bottle of water for us and a treat. Then we went to our seats. Every so often another of our tour group would join us. 

Then Ida Mae, Alan's wife, joined us with new boarding passes. It seems there were seats in First Class. They started at the first ones they gave boarding passes to and printed new boarding passes for First Class. Ida Mae told Claude and me and a few others to tear up our previous boarding pass in front of her and she then gave us the news ones. If this flight took off, Claude and I would fly First Class back to Los Angeles. 

Then the weirdest thing happened. Avianca Airlines set up a temporary security check just outside the gate area seating. The put those posts with the cloth strips around the seating area as a barrier. We were all told to get up and get in the queue to be rechecked in. Everyone. We all went through the temporary security where our already checked bags were opened and rummaged through and everyone was patted down. Our new water bottles were taken as that can't go through security. Later we realized they were just being sure they had the right tickets and no duplicates. But that really could have been done without going through another security screening and pat down. Just saying. Goodness. 

We were very, very fortunate that they made seating for all 44 of us on the flight. Alan said later that they actually bumped people from the flight that had booked after us. I cannot tell you the guilt I felt as the rest of our group walked past us to coach class. Claude and I never fly First Class and it was very nice to do this at that point and time. Spent the 5-hour flight going through my pictures on my camera and deleting the bad ones, straightening the ones that were taken with the camera turned and cropping some down. 

We arrived in Los Angeles after 11pm and were not to our hotel until after midnight. Our flight back to Louisville didn't leave until 1:25 the next day. We were able to sleep until our bodies wanted to wake up. Claude suggested we not eat the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Instead we went to Denny's and ordered real American pancakes and bacon. Yummy!! I even had an Amarillo Suave! 

We arrive back in Louisville to rain. Drove home arriving about 1:30am Wednesday morning. Tired but happy to be home in our own bed. 

This was a great trip. We visited all the sites we were promised when we booked the tour. We had adventure none of us expected to have and we survived it all. So happy and grateful my sisters came to be with Papa so I could enjoy this and not worry about his care. So happy and grateful Claude and I got this trip with all its climbing and hiking done before we just get too old and decrepit to do this kind of thing. Happy I have lots of pictures and video so that, in those years when we don't get to travel in the future, we can watch and remember this great world our Heavenly Father prepared for us. Feeling richly blessed.

Sunday, February 21, 2016 - Yaxha

More Mayan ruins!!  There is another location where they are uncovering more Mayan ruins that is not as well known as Tikal. It is named Yaxha. The name comes from the Mayan for 'blue-green water'. 

But first a little story...on Saturday Leah Stinquest came and sat at the back of the bus. We all shifted seats throughout the trip and at this point Claude and I were sitting on the very back row. Leah sat on the single seat by the window in front of Claude. Leah is 86 years old and had been on all the hikes and climbs that everyone else did. She piped up and got everyone's attention. She thanked us all for all the help she had received on the trip from collecting her luggage to directing her and all the little things that people on the tour had done. She was just feeling grateful and wanted to be sure everyone on the bus heard and knew of her gratitude. When she finished those of us on the back few rows got to talking. Now, Claude and I knew she was from Washington State. The lady she was traveling with was her daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law was Claude and my age. She was also from Washington State. In the course of the conversation, Leah said something about being originally from Tremonton, Utah. I looked at Claude and he looked at me. Claude is from outside of Tremonton in a little bend in the road called Thatcher. He always tells people he is from Tremonton because more people know where that is and the mailing address for Thatcher is Tremonton. Hmmmmm... I mentioned that Claude was from Tremonton and grew up in Thatcher. Leah then stated that she was related to Ruby and Earlo Christensen and had spent many happy visit with them in Thatcher. I looked at Claude and he looked at me. I told Leah, "Ruby and Earl Christensen are Claude's grandparents!"  It seems that Leah's mother and Ruby were sisters. Leah was indeed a relative of Claude. They probably saw each other at family reunions many, many years ago. I told Leah I wanted to get a picture of her with Claude before we left the hotel Sunday morning so I could eMail it to Bonnie, Claude's mom. It is indeed a mighty tiny world. 

Our first stop Sunday morning was the meetinghouse for the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We would attend Sacrament Meeting only (like a worship service in a Protestant congregation). This was a real treat. Everything was said in Spanish so we only caught a word or two here or there. We sang the hymns in English though. It was wonderful to visit this congregation. 

We left for Yaxha and had another surprise along the way. We were driving through the region in which our guide was born and raised. He was saying things like, "That is the house I was born it." "There is my uncle." Then he had the bus driver stop as he looked between buildings. He got out of the bus and walked to the opening between buildings. There was his grandfather coming to meet him. They embraced and you could tell is was mutual love and respect. Our guide brought his grandfather to the bus and we all said hi and talked just a bit. Then his grandfather went back to the yard to wave goodbye as we drove away. Our guide was telling us that he grandfather was the one who originally settled there and then got the government to construct the homes out of concrete for the residents. He was an amazing man who had done so much for this little community.

As we drove further we passed many other places I found interesting. Here are three of them. The first is just another example of the housing in which the people live. The second is an example of people putting up a shed and making a grill. Then the lady can cook up things to sell to the passers bye. The third one I took for Katelyn, our first-born grandmonster and the mother of our first-born great grandmonster. This church was a lime green and that is Katelyn's favorite color.

Pretty soon we were at Yaxha. As we walked through the jungle again, I took this picture of a hill. While it is not as thickly covered in vegetation as others, it is a good example of how dirt and growth cover a building and you can look at the hill and know there is something under that dirt.

We arrived at the temple. There were wooden stairs up the side so we didn't have to climb their stone steps. The view from the top was amazing.

The sound of howler monkeys filled the air. Those little critters are loud. Our guide said they are the loudest animal in all the jungles. I can believe it. 

These are the wooden stairs to get down from the top. 

And this is Claude and me in front of the temple.

When we left we passed several other parts of the ruins of Yaxha.

And I focused a little more on the vegetation.

We had to leave to make our flight on time. The bus took us back to Flores and we caught the little plane back to Guatemala City. We stayed in a very nice hotel our last night in Guatemala. 

One thing I like to get a picture of when traveling is the license place of a country. I really liked this on in Guatemala. It has Temple I from Tikal on it.