A peek at the REAL Thumbster

Travel Clips

Hi. Fourteen states and three provinces later, I'm back. I had a great time, (for the most part. I'll whine about the shitty flight back home first and then deal with more upbeat stuff later). Saw some great sights and experienced various experiences, (mostly all good but some not so good, like the shitty flight home). Overall most of my recent memories are keepers. It's nice to be home again though, despite this nasty cold I've now got. (Pretty sure I picked it up on the flight. Grrrrr) I dislike being sick, but doesn't everybody? Fortunately as a rule, I don't get sick very often, maybe once a year or so, and then it's nothing serious. I'm very glad I wasn't sick on the trip. I wonder if I'd have been allowed on the plane with this cough? Probably not. Then again people on the plane might not have noticed my cough at all, what with the SCREAMING baby that sat directly behind. (It brought back memories of another screaming baby I sat directly in front of on a flight from Boston to Florida) Actually I wasn't as annoyed with the crying baby as you might think, afterall, babies cry. I accept that, and it's not like it's young.mother was poking and pinching it, trying to get it to cry. I heard her constantly trying to soothe and comfort it. I figured she was doing pretty much everything she possibly could. I felt for her and her little baby. I mentally willed good wishes for them both. I imagine she must have been embarrassed for her little one disturbing everybody. It didn't help we were on a red eye. We left at 11 pm and (supposed) to land at 7 am. A five hour flight once time zones are taken into account...but it didn't turn out to be a five hour flight. It turned out to be a ten hour flight, due to weather delays and "troubles with the tower". We ended up flying in circles...literally...for part of those extra five hours, and flying to another airport, (thank goodness we didn't have to back track to a more distant airport like they warned we might be diverted to), and we sat on runways while we waited for the weather to clear. We couldn't get off the plane though, and everytime we'd attempt to take off again, the stewdardesses, (are they still called stewardesses? Maybe it's flight attendants), had to give use the "flight saftey speel", both in English and in French. The thing is, we'd already heard the talk before we took off, and we kept having to hear it, both in English and in French, everytime we even attempted to take off. It didn't seem to matter we heard it less than an hour ago. Apparently we couldn't take off without first hearing it, but we knew we had a very limited window of good weather over our destination airport, as well as the airport we were diverted to.

One last whiny sidenote on the shitty flight...my TV monitor, (in the headrest of the seat in front of me), didn't work properly. It CONSTANTLY kept blacking out. As far as I could tell, it was only my monitor that was frigged up. I could usually get it to work by poking at the screen. Heaven only knows what the lady in the seat thought I was doing. Sometimes simply touching the screen would make it come back on again, other times I'd have to poke at it repeatedly and other times the screen just stayed black until it decided to come back on again by itself. I found it would often black out simply by how the lady sat in her seat. I tried to read on the plane instead of watching TV but the baby's crying meant I'd read the same sentence over and over again. It was a very long flight.

Okay....whiny stuff out of the way.

My cat Fooseball, (even though I named him, I'm not sure if his name is spelled "Fooseball" or Foozeball" I don't suppose he cares how it's spelled), just sat on my keyboard and frigged up my screen. I was trying to catch up with my favourite author's journal entries, (some of you have written PAGES of new entries. It's taken me hours and I still haven't caught up yet). Fooseball has somehow managed to decrease the writing on certain pages while also greatly increasing it as well...on the same page. I don't have a clue how he managed that. It's most annoying. Fortunately this page hasn't been effected but that's because I had opened this window previously. I'm hoping everything will be back to normal next time I log on. Was this whiny? Probably huh? Well if I never mentioned it you wouldn't have gotten to meet Fooseball otherwise. (Or Foozeball. You choose)

I'm hungry. I've only had a bowl of cereal all day. (Now that was whiny. Yup. No doubt about it)

I wish I could save and edit this journal entry like I used to when I was upgraded. (That WASN'T a hint for a upgrade. I prefer being a free member, but there were advantages to being upgraded. That's all I meant) I used to be able to write entries in "private" and then make them "public" after I was done writing. If I save this now and come back to it later, (like after I've had something to eat), someone might read this unfinished entry and figure this was it. So far it's been pretty much all whiny and negative, and that's not me...or at least I hope that's not me. (Maybe the shitty flight has turned me into a crumpy old fart?) (Maybe I've always been a grumpy old fart but just didn't realize)

This isn't working. I'm still hungry...plus now I'd like to take a break from writing for a bit. I'm going to save this entry as is and come back to it later. If you're reading this now and there's nothing else written, that probably means I'm eating, or now watching TV, or tickling Fooseball, (or Foozeball. I really should rename him). You can either stick around and wait for me to return, or you can pop back later. I'll leave it up to you. Hopefully I'll be more upbeat and adorable when I get back.

Till then.

I'm back. Now about the trip...crossed the Mighty Mississippi, (first time for me), almost ran out of gas going up and down the Alleghenies, got lost in Chicago's Chinatown, (the Sears Tower was VERY impressive but the traffic wasn't), breathed in wonderful, clean, crisp moutain air going up the Bighorn Moutain range, (I had never heard of the Bighorn Mountains, nor the BearTooth Mountains. They're big though. Over 8,000'), was EXTREMELY impressed with Mt Rushmore, (the scenery there is some of the most stunning scenery I've ever seen), wandering around Gettysburg battlefield, broke my glasses in Maine, travelled across three states to see Yellowstone Park only to discover the park had closed that very morning for the season, (I was positive nothing about the park closing for the season was mentioned on their website, which I had repeatedly checked out beforehand), got to meet in person someone from the internet...my very first "real life internet friend meeting", (hi Squish), , saw a HUGE prison complex in Connecticut. (It was like a small city), saw oodles and oodles of wildlife, like herds of pronghorn antelopes, some bison, Texas longhorn cattle, a flock of wild turkeys, (which I'll wager was a rare treat), and lots of deer...especially dead deer. In fact we saw more dead deer on the trip than I've ever seen before. (Killed on the highways) Probably ten or so a day. What a shame. Saw some truly spectacular scenery in Wyoming, (pretty sure it was Wyoming. Easy to get the states mixed up though)...a huge canyon we went to the bottom of, with sheer mountain cliffs on each side of us. I've always been impressed by dramatic scenery. I like looking at landscapes, flora and fauna and also architecture. Some of the houses in back country Massachusetts were gorgeous. It just so happened we were there over Halloween which really added to it's appeal. Only had to turn the car wiper blades on once the entire trip and that was in Banff and at Lake Louise, (snow), but once we were back in Calgary the weather was great again. We saw people in shorts and T shirts everyday of our trip.

Best hotel along the way...a tie...one in Scranton Pennsylvania, (that's where The Office is filmed), very cozy...and the other in Spearfish South Dakota, (it had a three story atrium with a free form pool at the bottom. Very impressive) Worst hotel on the trip...Sioux City, South Dakota. Nice town but least appealing hotel of the trip. (Numerous problems, none of them major but annoying nevertheless)

Quick impression of Minnesota...black soil, endless huge power poles beside the highways and "island farms", (farm buildings and house and trees surrounded by black soiled fields).

Quick impression of Wisconsin...muted brown and yellow leaves, (when we were there, I'm used to reds and more vibrant fall foliage), "water parks", smaller farms and LOTS of corn, (many states had huge corn fields. I suppose it's grown to be turned into ethanol and used as fuel).

Quick impression of Illinois...LOTS of people, lots of "triple tractor trailers" (eighteen wheelers pulling not one but two trailers behind. I don't see those where I live), and also lots of corn fields in the country.

Quick impression of Pennsylvania...again, lots of people, lots of communication towers, many older red brick buildings, (such as in Scranton), along with the newer buildings, lots of highways cut right through mountains, which I found impressive, plus we went through a VERY impressive tunnel there too.

Quick impression of New Hampshire...poor New Hampshire...we were only there for something like 17 minutes. Hardly got to see anything from the interstate. I've been there before several times and always found it to be a very pretty state.

State that made the best overall impression on me this trip...that's a tough one, but if I had to chose I'd probably say South Dakota. I was very impressed with the diverse landscapes, some of which was VERY spectacular, (and others, like the Badlands, and sagebrush prairies which I found interesting but I wouldn't want to live there). Seems I have many memories of South Dakota...strong winds atop a treeless hill looking out for miles over treeless prairies...nice visitor welcome centers, (some states didn't seem to have any, or at least none that we found)...strong winds that almost took my hat off while pumping gas in Rapid City...running over lumber that had just fallen off a truck in front of us outside Spearfish...wandering around Wall Drug, (a very interesting "variety mall") in Wall SD. I wish I had of spent longer looking around there. I'm very pleased with the stuff I bought there, (mostly gifts)...Mt Rushmore was VERY impressive. (I'd like to go back just to see it again.

America is a very rich country. They have much to be proud of...and so does Canada. We really loved looking around Banff. It's good to be home though.

Thumb



"Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor
"Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor
"Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor

Check This Out "The Amazing Race Club"  Check This Out