WOW!!! SO BUSY!!!

Buenos dias!

My apologies. They've had us so busy I haven't had a chance to write. Plus, this the first day since my last post that I've had WiFI.

We've had wake-up calls at 5:30 and 6:30, and in the evening after dinner we collapse in bed by 9:00.

I'll still give day-by-day postings to catch up, but it probably won't start for a couple more days.




Time to run!

Tigger.

Posted from Nana's iPad

From Miami to Peru and our first day

We got on the plane just before midnight Monday night. It was a pretty big plane.



We all got to sit together.




5 1/2 hours later, we arrived in Lima, the capital of Peru. We went straight to the hotel and took a nap. Then we got up for a meeting with our tour group. There was a guest book in the lobby where other people had written about their visits. This page had a great ball-point drawing of the Cathedral of Learning where Poppa used to work. The choir from there visited Peru this summer and signed the guest book.




Poppa looked at this sign for a while, trying to figure it out.




This is a city hall,



and the cathedral beside it.




Our group stopped for lunch. Nana and I are sitting on the right.




We went to the main square downtown. When the Spanish conquered Peru 450 years ago, they measured all distance in Peru starting at this fountain.




Poppa asked me to take this picture so you could see that he's here too.




This is San Francisco - the church of the Franciscan priests in Lima. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll see a lot of black dots all over the right side of the building. The dots are pigeons! Looks like good hunting.




Speaking of food, I learned this about Peru. In some countries, people have Guinea pigs for pets, and give them names like "Fluffy" or "Cutie". In Peru, they like Guinea pigs too, but give them names like "Crunchy" or "Chewy". I hope I get to try one.

Speaking of cultural differences, one of the first things we learned is that the wastebasket sitting beside the toilet is where you put your used toilet paper. You can't flush it down the toilet because it will clog the pipes. I wonder who will be the first one to forget.

We went to the National Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, where we learned about the early people in Peru and their development leading up to the empire built by the Incas. They had 18,000 miles of roads, fine ceramics and weavings, beautiful gold and silver articles, and huge temples. We'll visit some of the temples and other buildings later.

The Spanish Conquistadors arrive in 1532, and in a very few years destroyed the Inca empire, melted down all the gold and silver they could find to ship it back to Spain, and enslaved the Incas. The Incas were "Quechuas", the indigenous people of western South American. Now when they try to move to the cities, the Spanish descendants call them "invaders."

We'll do more touring in Lima tomorrow - and it will be a lot different than ones would expect in a large capital city.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Miami

Nana and Poppa spent weeks packing and repacking their suitcases for the trip. "Will we need this?" "Is this too big to take?" "Do you have room in your suitcase for this?" "How much does my suitcase weigh now?"

Jeez. Clothes, hats, rain coats, soap, shampoo, extra shoes, books, gadgets ...

This is how I packed: "Hey, Poppa. Do you have room in your suitcase for my toothbrush?"

So we went to the Pittsburgh airport yesterday afternoon, where I saw the plane that was going to take us to Miami:




The flight was really cool! I had a window seat and got to see the OTHER ocean - the Atlantic. We got to the hotel in Miami at 8:30 and went directly to the restaurant to get dinner and see the kickoff of the Steelers game. At halftime, we went up to our room:





Wow! A bit more room than in our trailer this summer. The disappointed look on my face isn't from the room. It's from the Steelers loss to Denver. But with a bed like that, I had a great night's sleep.

This morning, our plan was to pay a little extra to hang out at the hotel until 5:00, then go to the airport and wait to meet Kim and Joe at 8:00. Unfortunately, there was construction going on at the hotel, and it sounded like an army of woodpeckers were in the next room. No chance for a nap, so we went to the airport at 1:00.

OK, no problem. We'll check our bags and get lunch. Waited in line for half an hour, then the ticket lady said we couldn't check our bags until 8:00.

OK, no problem. Off to Chili's for lunch. After lunch, Nana found a really quiet little nook with chairs and a view of the planes coming and going. We met a couple from Florida waiting for friends to arrive from Spain. The man graduated from high school in Bradford in 1959. Remember when Poppa met Ray Dickerson in Seattle last summer, who graduated from high school in Bradford in 1959? Remember that Poppa graduated from high school in Bradford in 1966? Small world.

We talked to them until 6:00, then back to Chili's so Nana could get a snack. Now we only have an hour until we can check our luggage and go through security. You don't think the TSA is brave enough to pat down a Tigger,do you?

The schedule and long waits aren't working very well for Nana. I don't see a problem - curl up and take a nap. That's what I'd be doing at home anyway.

OK - time to board the plane to Peru!


Posted from Nana's iPad

On the road again!!

Hola!

Remember when I was studying Spanish during the summer?





Well, it paid off! Nana and Poppa didn't study at all, so now they need me as an interpreter on their trip to Peru. We leave today and I'll get my first ride in an airplane. We'll stay overnight in Miami and meet Nana's sister, Kim, and husband Joe tomorrow for the flight to Peru.

I'll try to post something each night about our trip, if I can get a WiFi connection. Wish me luck.

Poppa got a neat app for his iPhone, just in case I'm busy with something. He can speak into his phone in English and the app will display what he said in English, then display it in Spanish AND speak it in Spanish!



OK, time to go pack. Talk to you later.

Posted from Nana's iPad

OK - catching up on Glacier!!

Oh, in my last post, I said that Kim and Rick and Rosa and Henry live in Waukasha, Minnesota. Actually, they live in Eagle, Minnesota.

Now I'll try to get caught up on our days in Glacier National Park. Remember that Poppa wants to spend 6 weeks there?

On Wednesday, June 20, the weather was still iffy, so we hung out near West Glacier.

The Fish Creek Campground, Loop D, may be the absolutely NICEST place to camp in the park! Primitive camping, but excellent scenery of Lake McDonald:




We visited the Apgar Village and saw this sign:





Wives wanted? The little guy looks almost as nervous as the cat.

On Thursday, we had sun, sun, sun!!! We drove west on the Going To The Sun Road - Poppa said "I drove this road in the fog on Tuesday?" Nana sat in the back seat behind Poppa so she wouldn't have to look down the steep cliffs.

The scenery was beautiful:






Logan Pass - we didn't even see this when we drove through in the fog on Tuesday:



When we got to Logan Pass, I found a ground squirrel taking a nap. It looked so cozy that I took one too!

















Poppa's friends from Florida had told him about a nice little stroll to Iceberg Lake, so Poppa decided to try it.



We got to the start of the trail and found this sign:



OK, OK, Poppa made me write this sign. But, really, the trail was still snow-covered and the lake was still frozen. We decided to take a different trail to Red Rock Lake:




And we found the answer to the old question "Does a bear poop in the woods?" No, he poops on the trail! And we started to keep close to people who were carrying Bear Pepper Spray!



The night before we left Glacier, Nana and I were relaxing in front of the campfire (our first), when we had some visitors:




From left to right, with apologies if I'm wrong, Zaya from Mongolia, Keryn from China, and Shannon from China. Zaya is in her third summer of working for the KOA where we were staying. Keryn and Shannon had just arrived for their first summer. Zaya is the de facto "mother" of the group. Nana and I had a great time talking to them about their experience of being in the US.

I hope they had a great summer at Glacier! We have email addresses, so we might find out.

There are just too many things to say about Glacier - I hope I've touched on the highlights for you. You have to be there to understand.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Saturday - across Minnesota and Wisconsin

I mentioned yesterday that Sioux Falls didn't live up to their advertising phot. The quartzite rock around the falls really is beautiful, and I'm sure the falls are in Spring or when it rains.

On Friday we drove across most of Minnesota to Rochester. On Saturday, we crossed the Mississippi River into Wisconsin. Remember Gretchen in Seattle? Her cousin, Kim, lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin with her husband Rick. They have two kids, Rosa (12) and Henry (8):




They live in a really neat house made of cobblestones:









Poppa parked the trailer in their yard for the night, and we had a really nice visit. On Sunday morning, they took us to Rick's parents' house where Nana and Poppa had a chance to cool off in the swimming pool before getting back on the road. I hope we get to visit them again. They like to camp,so Poppa invited them to come to Pittsburgh so we can show them Ohiopyle.

Sunday was the worst travel day of the entire trip. We tried to go south around Chicago on I-294. If you're going from Wisconsin to Indiana, go north to Sault St. Marie, maybe into Canada, and back south through Michigan. Or, go west to Iowa, south through Missouri and Arkansas, then up through Tennessee and Kentucky. DON'T take I294 around Chicago.

They are doing a lot of construction on I-294, but still have the nerve to charge money to drive on it. AND charge you again. And again. Every few miles we were forced to leave the road and cross 3 or 4 toll lanes to the "$ only" lane, wait in a long line, and be told "That'll be $4.25" or "That'll be $2.75." Then we had to merge back onto the highway. Then we got to an unattended toll booth - exact change required. Poppa threw a couple dollars at it in disgust. He thinks he'll probably get a nasty letter from Illinois asking for more money.

Finally, at another toll booth with an attendant, Poppa had to pay another $2.75. Poppa asked "How many miles will this buy me?" She said "This is the last toll booth in Illinois." Poppa said "Thank God! Get me out of Illinois!"

(That's not exactly what he said, but I'm not allowed to type the real words.)
Poppa was happier to get out of Illinois than Nana was to get out of the desert.

We stopped in Richmond, Indiana for a few days so Nana could visit her mom again:





Finally, on Thursday, July 12, we got home to Pittsburgh! Our trip was 2 days shy of 3 months, and covered 13,073 miles! And Poppa finally found the beer with the picture of a fish on it:





I'm glad he found it, because he had worked so hard looking for it. Nana celebrated the homecoming too:





And I celebrated it with a friend:




On Friday, Siggie and I sat back and watched Nana and Poppa run around the house:
"Where does this go?"
"Why don't we have enough hangers?"
"Look at all the weeds in the flower beds."
"All the grass is brown."
"Look at the wasp nest by the garage door."
"There goes the groundhog past the trailer."
"The turkeys are all over the back yard."
"Where does this go?"

So, my story is almost over. I still owe you pictures of Glacier, and I'll post some again when we see Autumn and Brenna on Tuesday.

Posted from Nana's iPad

Happy 4th of July! (and 5th and 6th)

(We had no phone service Wednesday evening and almost no WiFi. Thursday in Sioux Falls and Friday in Rochester MN it was too hot to do any blogging.)

On the 4th of July, hotter than a firecracker, we drove through the Badlands. They are well named, as you can see:









One brochure talked about "vibrant colors", but I don't think so. Remember ROY-G-BIV from our talks about rainbows? The spectrum here is more like RTY-T-TTT: a washed-out red, a tan, a washed-out yellow, and four more shades of tan.

The sculptured shapes are interesting. It looks like a pile of sugar that would melt in the rain. The history of the landscape is interesting and a lot of early mammal fossils have been found here.

I did find one vibrant green rock and thought I'd sit down for a rest:





Whoa!!!!




Leaving the Badlands National Park, we stopped at a museum commemorating Wounded Knee. It was very well done, very sad, and made the new Americans look pretty bad with the way they treated the old Americans:




On the other hand, Poppa is reading "Last of the Breed" by Louis L'Amour, in which a modern Sioux Indian is asked if he hates the white Americans. He replies "Why should I? My people came west from the Minnesota-Wisconsin border, and we conquered or overrode all that got in our path. We moved into the Dakotas, into Montana and Wyoming and Nebraska. The Kiowa had come down from the Black Hills, driving out those who were there before them. Then we drove them out."

So I guess lots of people have been mean to lots of other people. That's sad.

It's interesting to learn about this when we have just been in Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, the Black Hills, and tomorrow will cross the Minnesota-Wisconsin border - the places this happened.

But I digress. The Wounded Knee museum is in Wall, South Dakota, population 818. Wall is known for "Wall Drug", a drug store purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Hustead in 1931. They needed a gimmick to get people to stop here, so they advertised free ice water, which was nice in 1931 when people didn't have air conditioning in their cars. They kept inventing gimmicks, and Wall Drug became famous. Now Wall has a block-long street with a dozen souvenir stores, several of them always advertising "going-out-of-business" sales.

Do you remember those cute little Miata sports cars that I saw in Moab back on May 6, "Moab to Virgin"? Well, Nana's cousin Mary Ellen and her husband Tom met us in Wall. They had driven their Miata from Indianapolis to California for their son's wedding and were driving back to Indianapolis when we met them in Wall. They had just driven through the Badlands on a gravel road with the top down!










Notice the license plate. We all had a nice lunch and did some souvenir shopping. Tom bought a nice jackalope ornament for their Christmas tree. I even got a ride in a covered wagon with Poppa chasing me:






We didn't get a picture of Tom, but Mary Ellen said she has a nice picture of him wearing a cowboy hat. I'll post it as soon as Mary Ellen sends it to Nana.

They left for Indianapolis and we headed back to our campground. On the way we stopped at a restored homestead from the early 1900s. This was similar to what Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in "Little House on the Prairie". It was a pretty hard way to make a living:





















On Thursday we drove to Sioux Falls. Poppa had seen a picture of a suspension bridge in a travel brochure. It looked really neat, so we drove country roads 30 miles out of our way to see it. Here it is (Nana isn't really smiling, she's gritting her teeth):





Friday morning, before we left Sioux Falls, we went to see the falls, which looked really big and beautiful in a travel brochure:





I think there's a lesson to be learned here about travel brochures.

Poppa asked me to post this winescape for Rich and Dave:




Posted from Nana's iPad