So on to New Mexico which I guess is a lot like old Mexico.... the thing that surprised me the most was the greenery - I expected it to be far more barren - but there is lots of green everywhere and you can see how they are irrigating the land and ditches line the road for the run off to be collected - a great example of harnessing the environment. The land is a rich red in places and on the train to Santa Fe today you could see the strata (is that the word?) of the rock and the colours in it - the mountains were rising up and from behind them poked the fluffiest whitest clouds I ever did see. Got chatting to some lovely people on the train (don't tell Julia I speak to strangers) who were keen to tell me about lots of great places to see while I amhere - i am clearly not here long enough! Included in those people was an Australian woman who told me within 5 minutes of meeting her that she was gay...why? Why did I need to know that?? I don't actually wish to ponder the question to be honest...is it normal to go around letting people know of your sexual preferences? Obviously I have led a very sheltered life...
Anyway, Santa Fe... is proper old in American terms -well in Euro American terms - Spanish arrived in 1608 but natives were here long before that but that seems a fact little acknowledged. The town is a bit Disney-fied with new buildings built to look like old ones but looking 'new' and is definitely a big shopping destination if you want tourist tat.. could have got Kizz and Ben some brilliant snow globes but resisted - I ask you, snow globes of the desert????????????
There were some great places too - the cathedral was amazing and had THE most stunning paintwork inside... I do have some photos - will try to sort them out... and great stained glass - I am a bit of a sucker for stained glass done well (like I would know if it wasn't!) AND, get this, I went on a TRAIN, because I've not travelled far enough on one of those yet this holiday...but it was just $8 return for a trip 60 miles away - definitely couldn't do that in the UK! I think it costs Tom more to get to Newport and that's 12 miles!!! So, impressed I am with Albuquerque and New Mexico in general and wish I had longer to see more things - highly recommended.
As for the Spanish, well, you hear it everywhere and it gives the place another dimension... I like it - Am off to Flagstaff, Arizona tomorrow afternoon, staying with Mike Casey and his family - more big country awaits me, I'm sure!
Wednesday 19 August 2009
Tuesday 18 August 2009
Mega blog update…
Have had a mega time in all places…. Not sure where I got up to with it all on here – writing in Word to upload when I have net access… suffice to say DC was just great – I love the place….still feel like I could spend a load more holidays there and still love it.
Left on Monday afternoon… was easy to get the train, all very civilised… great big seats with masses of legroom and a lay back chair so that you can sleep reasonably comfortably. They put little tickets above your head with your destination on so that they can wake you up at the right place, so you feel like it will be ok if you fall asleep. The train was late by about 20 minutes… I met some lovely people in the buffet car and chatted for quite a while before I went back to my seat to settle down for a bit of a kip.
I recognised Nancy straight away – we had never met and are 5th cousins – very distant, then. It wasn’t too far to the gorgeous place that they live… it’s near Brooklyn, Michigan and literally right on the side of a lake – Wampler’s Lake… absolutely beautiful. I needed a bit of a nap and set my alarm for 9 to try to catch up a bit.
We had a great few days together – we went down to where the Nobbs family settled when they first came to the US and went to the grave of John Nobbs and his wife Jane Mason, whose parents are our mutual ancestor. It gave me a new appreciation of the uphill battle these pioneers faced when they arrived here – the land was a forested swamp with malaria rife…but the lure of cheap or free land that would be their own was clearly a big pull and they were prepared to work and work until it was productive. It was most definitely not a case of ‘oh, good free land!’ with no work attached. That first winter in Ohio the Nobbs family lived in a covered wagon as they tried to get their house finished. The harshness of the seasons must have been a shock too – cold like they had never known and heat like they had never known could not have been easy. I take my hat off to them and to the life they carved out and the determination and courage it must have taken to uproot from that small Gloucestershire community and bring their little family so far – just travelling to Liverpool to get the boat must have been the biggest adventure of their lives. The fact that nearly 30 years later they were still writing to family back home, which is the letter written in 1852 that Great Aunt Em currently has, attests to the closeness they must have still felt to those family members left behind.
So I spent some lovely time there, messing about on the lake and dossing around in the hammock, snoozing and reading – relaxing into cottage life – I am uniquely adapted to slothfulness when the opportunity is presented – and all too soon it was time to be hurrying on. I was glad though, that I had rearranged my schedule to have that extra day – 3 days was not enough – we had so much to say! We have earnestly decided on another descendant reunion in 180 years although I sincerely hope to spend more time at Wampler’s Lake before then!
Have had a mega time in all places…. Not sure where I got up to with it all on here – writing in Word to upload when I have net access… suffice to say DC was just great – I love the place….still feel like I could spend a load more holidays there and still love it.
Left on Monday afternoon… was easy to get the train, all very civilised… great big seats with masses of legroom and a lay back chair so that you can sleep reasonably comfortably. They put little tickets above your head with your destination on so that they can wake you up at the right place, so you feel like it will be ok if you fall asleep. The train was late by about 20 minutes… I met some lovely people in the buffet car and chatted for quite a while before I went back to my seat to settle down for a bit of a kip.
I recognised Nancy straight away – we had never met and are 5th cousins – very distant, then. It wasn’t too far to the gorgeous place that they live… it’s near Brooklyn, Michigan and literally right on the side of a lake – Wampler’s Lake… absolutely beautiful. I needed a bit of a nap and set my alarm for 9 to try to catch up a bit.
We had a great few days together – we went down to where the Nobbs family settled when they first came to the US and went to the grave of John Nobbs and his wife Jane Mason, whose parents are our mutual ancestor. It gave me a new appreciation of the uphill battle these pioneers faced when they arrived here – the land was a forested swamp with malaria rife…but the lure of cheap or free land that would be their own was clearly a big pull and they were prepared to work and work until it was productive. It was most definitely not a case of ‘oh, good free land!’ with no work attached. That first winter in Ohio the Nobbs family lived in a covered wagon as they tried to get their house finished. The harshness of the seasons must have been a shock too – cold like they had never known and heat like they had never known could not have been easy. I take my hat off to them and to the life they carved out and the determination and courage it must have taken to uproot from that small Gloucestershire community and bring their little family so far – just travelling to Liverpool to get the boat must have been the biggest adventure of their lives. The fact that nearly 30 years later they were still writing to family back home, which is the letter written in 1852 that Great Aunt Em currently has, attests to the closeness they must have still felt to those family members left behind.
So I spent some lovely time there, messing about on the lake and dossing around in the hammock, snoozing and reading – relaxing into cottage life – I am uniquely adapted to slothfulness when the opportunity is presented – and all too soon it was time to be hurrying on. I was glad though, that I had rearranged my schedule to have that extra day – 3 days was not enough – we had so much to say! We have earnestly decided on another descendant reunion in 180 years although I sincerely hope to spend more time at Wampler’s Lake before then!
So, on to Chicago – we had to get up at stupid o’clock (3.15a.m.) to catch the train – AND then it was nearly an hour late so we went for waffles – what else can a girl do? THEN I tried to get on the wrong one! The train managed to arrive in Chicago another hour behind schedule – I was beginning to wonder if we would be days late by the time we got to LA but it has all been on time since then (I’m on my way to Alberqueque as I write)..
Chicago, Chicago…. What a great city…. I walked around from Union Station to the hostel which has a great position near the lakefront, through massive towering buildings that dominate the skyline. I took the obligatory bus tour and thought I would melt in the heat – it has been an unusually chilly summer in Chicago this year bit it has perked up of late and it was HOT! Too hot to sit on the top deck of a tour bus but a good way to get an overview of the city. The buildings are magnificent and a mix of all different styles and even heights but it gives the city a vibrant feel. The river winds through the middle of the city, crossed by numerous bridges that give access and then the whole city is topped off by the elevated train that snakes around, above ground, forming weird tunnels over the streets and forming strange light and dark pools, as the trains thunder their way to their destinations. This is all crowned by the glory of ‘The Lake’, which was shimmering an almost unreal blue on the days I was there, and gives a holiday feel to the whole place. There was an air show on the weekend so there was the additional excitement of air force jets screeching and diving, weaving in and out of the buildings, looking for all the world like they were too close for comfort.
I took a bike out along the lakefront trail on the Saturday afternoon and the beaches were tightly packed with people enjoying the water, the sunshine and the air show. I will never again imagine beaches at home to be packed – these were literally cheek by jowel. Saturday morning I took a walking tour from the hostel with a volunteer who told us he wasn't going to give us the history of each and every building and then proceeded to do just that! After, we all went back for a cold glass of lemonade – well, that powdered stuff that passes for lemonade – and biscuits and it was a good chance to chat to people. I made an arrangement to meet up with some of them for a real Chicago pizza that evening. We went to a recommended place and the pizza was good – if a little over large, even for the young lads in the party who had hearty appetites. What made the evening tho was the waitress who was a real card – she started off by thinking that Chris, a lad from Merthyr, wasn't even speaking English! Well, maybe he wasn’t – so they had a charade about draught and bottled beer…the service was dreadful, but the food was good and the company was excellent. We walked down to the lakeside for the fireworks – there was an open air Beethoven concert we wanted to catch but we stopped before that at an open air swing dance to listen for a while, by which time the classical concert was finished.
The fireworks didn’t start until 10.30 in the event – during which time I discouraged Chris from mooning to passing boats (you can take the boy out of Merthyr etc…)…
Sunday morning I went up the Sears Sky Deck with Jess and Charlie (big shout out, girls!) and was SO not able to go out onto the clear, perspex decks that hang out of the 103rd floor! The view was amazing tho and had to be done! So I 'let' the youngsters do it and *I* selflessly took the photos!
We wandered over to The Bean near the Art Institute – Chicago does street art better than anywhere I have ever been and spent a lot of time marvelling at the many ways it reflected.
Then it was time for me to assemble myself for the train station….en route the handle on my suitcase fell off, leaving me feel like part of a Rhod Gilbert sketch – look it up on Youtube! – not quite sure what to do with the separated handle – so chucked it. Makes moving my stuff more difficult but I can still manage thanks to the bungee cord I got from Ron – how did life happen without bungees?
Uneventful trip to Kansas City,Missouri, which summed up the whole time in Kansas – was raining when I got there, storming when I woke up and when I hired the car to go out to Independence there was a severe weather warning and a get off the roads message – so I returned the car to Hertz and wondered what to do – soon found out there was little to do in a wet town – went to the pictures and saw Julie and Julia which I enjoyed and then looked in vain for a book shop – had fnished dawn French and couldn’t face the 18 hours to my next stop on the train without a book – NO shops in downtown Kansas! ‘None, not a sausage, bugger all’ to quote Monty Python! Did find one eventually, way out of town - brave expedition to get there and then back again. Spent time updating emails and stuff in lounge of hotel which I can heartily recommend.. so if you ever find yourself in dowtown Kansas City,Missouri with nothing to do, well don't say you haven't been warned! But Hotel Phillips did cushion the blow somewhat!
Uneventful trip to Kansas City,Missouri, which summed up the whole time in Kansas – was raining when I got there, storming when I woke up and when I hired the car to go out to Independence there was a severe weather warning and a get off the roads message – so I returned the car to Hertz and wondered what to do – soon found out there was little to do in a wet town – went to the pictures and saw Julie and Julia which I enjoyed and then looked in vain for a book shop – had fnished dawn French and couldn’t face the 18 hours to my next stop on the train without a book – NO shops in downtown Kansas! ‘None, not a sausage, bugger all’ to quote Monty Python! Did find one eventually, way out of town - brave expedition to get there and then back again. Spent time updating emails and stuff in lounge of hotel which I can heartily recommend.. so if you ever find yourself in dowtown Kansas City,Missouri with nothing to do, well don't say you haven't been warned! But Hotel Phillips did cushion the blow somewhat!
Was great actually to post a Facebook status update bemoaning my fate and within minutes got a phone call from Deb Barry - what a star! That brightened me up and then Julia phoned too -Hurrah for FB!
The train left Kansas at 11.00 p.m. and I mamanged to get a double seat to myself all the way to Albuquerque - my, that's hard to spell - so managed to sleep reasonably well and drifted in and out of sleep all day really. The scenery was pretty samey through Colorado until we got to some mountain bits but then the train guard announced we were in New Mexico... The soil started to change colour and those strange flat-top outcrops started to appear...
Thursday 6 August 2009
Thursday
Just getting ready for the farewell dinner - the week has flown and my brain feels like it is about to explode with information.. so much to take in... lots of it has been really useful, interlaced with bits of rubbish but that has been the minority of the time.
Have taken half a bus tour of Washington DC - we dumped it at the Capitol building - is it wrong to do that just because the guides voice was too irritating and she had very little of real interest to say.. we walked down through the Mall to the Art gallery, then to the Sculpture park - see the link on my facebook page for the truly amazing Lichtenstein house that turned while standing still... fabulous, it really was.
Walked down to the Lincoln Memorial one veening - that is a very imposing monument and was all lit up - although it was past 9pm, there was loads of people around and it all felt very safe. Also have taken a walk down to Georgetown whihc is the older part of the town. Hoping to take a trip to Mount Vernon on Saturday or Sunday.
Mindy Coon came and picked me up from the hotel last evening about 5 and we went out to hers..
Just getting ready for the farewell dinner - the week has flown and my brain feels like it is about to explode with information.. so much to take in... lots of it has been really useful, interlaced with bits of rubbish but that has been the minority of the time.
Have taken half a bus tour of Washington DC - we dumped it at the Capitol building - is it wrong to do that just because the guides voice was too irritating and she had very little of real interest to say.. we walked down through the Mall to the Art gallery, then to the Sculpture park - see the link on my facebook page for the truly amazing Lichtenstein house that turned while standing still... fabulous, it really was.
Walked down to the Lincoln Memorial one veening - that is a very imposing monument and was all lit up - although it was past 9pm, there was loads of people around and it all felt very safe. Also have taken a walk down to Georgetown whihc is the older part of the town. Hoping to take a trip to Mount Vernon on Saturday or Sunday.
Mindy Coon came and picked me up from the hotel last evening about 5 and we went out to hers..
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