Life – Page 7 – King Rat

On the Carnival Glory

The first thing I should say about the cruise is that I hate cruises. I’ve taken two short cruises before, and didn’t enjoy them one bit. So why did I get on a ship for seven days? Because 21 of my friends were also on the ship. I very much enjoyed hanging out with them for a week. I also looked forward to a week away from the internet. I suppose I could have paid for some internet time but it was outrageously expensive. And no way was I going to try to catch up using only my phone connected to spotty wifi while in a port of call. So I got a lot of reading done.

Planned itinerary for the cruise

8 January 2012 – Embarkation

Before packing up, I checked Facebook. Everyone on the cruise was posting last minute goodbyes and whatnot. Including one from Patrick where he bemoaned the fact that the Winn-Dixie didn’t carry the San Pellegrino Limonata that he wanted to bring on the cruise for a mixer. As it happened, I had a case of San Pellegrino in my car, so I promised him I’d bring him a 6-pack. He seemed kind of amazed.

Packing up took a bit, since I brought nearly everything up to my room on the 3rd floor. Packing it all back down to the car while dodging lots of other people checking out weren’t easy. In the process, I managed to drop my phone on a chair in the lobby, but didn’t notice. That led to some frantic searching through my car, then requesting a room key so I could check my room again, then texting my phone from my tablet hoping to hear it beep, then looking at Mobile Defense on my tablet only to find out they block using the site from mobile devices. Not quite sure what to do, I got out of my car to head back into the lobby to seek additional assistance from the front desk. But waiting by the front door was the front desk gentleman along with another guest who found the phone. I thanked them profusely for finding my phone.

Next up was heading to the Hotel Astor on Miami Beach where Erin and Daniel stayed the night. I’d told Erin I would give the two of them a ride to the terminal. The plan was to get brunch first, but Erin’s need for coffee got them out of the hotel early and apparently Daniel didn’t want to walk back to the hotel just to return to the coffee place. So I had an empanada they picked up from our planned brunch spot (which was also Erin’s coffee source). Then we walked out to South Beach for a bit so Erin could get some sand and feel the ocean in her toes. Plus a bit of wandering before we realized Daniel already had everything he needed for the cruise.

The night before I looked up parking at the cruise terminal to find out where to go. In one of the first times I have ever clicked on a sponsored link, I registered for a week’s worth of parking at Premier Parking. They charged $6 a day rather than the $20 that the terminal charged. The signs for the lot weren’t easy to see though, resulting in a little bit of driving around trying to find it. And it meant we had to shuttle to the terminal. But that’s a significant cost savings. Which I ended up spending on lattés on board.

Embarkation is a little bit of a clusterfuck. The equivalent of skycaps handling luggage were operating in a large jumble of suitcases. Then a long line waiting to go through security. And then a line to scan my boarding pass. And then one of three lines to pick up my Sail and Sign card (I got the slow line, of course). And then a line to get on the boat, which also doubled as the line to get a photo that would be associated with the S&S card. I think we could get a free drink at that point, but I don’t drink and I just wanted to avoid the people milling about in the atrium on the ship, so I ducked down a corridor that didn’t have people, walked a ways down the ship to find the next stairwell, and then proceeded up to deck 7, the Empress Deck to find cabin 7-448.

Cabin 7-448 was an aft facing cabin with a rather large deck (75 square feet according to Expedia). I was a bit surprised. I had booked with the Carnival rep that Brittany (not her real name) worked through to set up the cruise, and had merely requested a balcony cabin close to everyone else. I figured on getting a balcony on the side of the ship, which are pretty cramped. I hadn’t looked anything up at all about the cruise beforehand, including what kind of cabin the rep had put me on. Having something that large was a pleasant surprise. Also, since several people possibly going on the cruise had backed out, I ended up having the cabin to myself, which meant I had a lot of room inside as well.

I don’t remember what I did while waiting for the cruise to actually begin. I know I chatted with Amanda and Andy (in the cabin next to mine) and with Brittany and John (the next cabin over) for a bit. I might also have sat on that balcony and read my book for a while. When the ship did cast off, I watched from my balcony as we headed out from Dodge Island by Miami Beach and all the other exclusive islands around there. Then I wandered around the upper decks for a bit. My luggage arrived around 7 p.m. Unpacking didn’t take too long, since I could spread out and use all the dresser space.

First dinner was at 8:15 that evening, but about half of our group made reservations at the steak house restaurant. The remainder of us took up just one table (except Jason and Calissa who sat at the other 10 person table by themselves). Here was the first bad thing on the cruise. The food is awful. As in, worse than my mother’s cooking. It’s impossible to adequately describe how bad the food is on the Carnival Glory. In my entire time on the ship, the best items I ate could only be described as okay. Erin was already drunk when she arrived at the table. She and Michael were our entertainment.

The rest of the evening I sat on my balcony reading and then later listening to my audio book. I finished both either that night or the next morning, but I’d started the audio book (Nancy Kress’ Probability Moon) somewhere around Oklahoma on my driving trip and the book (Nisi Shawl’s Filter House) two weeks earlier when I was still at home in Seattle. I didn’t have a lot left to go on either.

9 January 2012 – Fun Day at Sea

My day consisted pretty much entirely of lounging on deck 10, the Panorama Deck, getting some sun and reading Charlaine Harris Dead Until Dark, the first book in her Southern Vampire series. That book turned out to be the perfect book for a cruise: entertaining and not too deep. I finished it in one day. For a while Erin and Michael joined me on the deck.

I think the only other thing I did that day (other than eat with everyone at dinner) was join a largish contingent of our group for a tea at 4:30. Unfortunately, Carnival’s idea of tea starts with Bigelow teas in the little foil packs. This is where you should mentally insert the emoticon for nonplussed face if you like emoticons.

Oh yeah, and I did chat with a cute couple from North Carolina who were celebrating their 2 year anniversary with this cruise. I was wearing my Read to Me t-shirt from Unshelved, which the woman saw. This was notable because she wanted to actually read to me. She opened my book at my bookmark and read a page. It’s the first time someone has actually read to me since I was a child, despite wearing the shirt a couple dozen times over the last two years.

10 January 2012 – Cozumel

I did not purchase a shore excursion for Cozumel. The plan to to get off the ship and wander around with folks from our group. After a bit of walking, we realized that the main part of Cozumel was too far to get to on foot, so we piled the lot of us into a minivan cab. It dropped us off in front of a jewelry store where I’m sure he got a kickback if we bought anything. We didn’t even glance at the store. We were going to wander around for a while and meet up with Keenan at a restaurant he said had a sign letter beef shirt. Keenan’s ability to give directions is a little lacking though, and we never found the place.

We did, however, find a slightly out of the way restaurant called La Candela (on Calle 6 Norte one block east of Rafael E. Melgar road). Food was cheap and delicious. I got a grilled fish taco. It’s a touristy restaurant, but that applies to everything in Cozumel.

After lunch, we walked around some more and finally made it to the main square. I bought myself a Cruz Azul jersey at one place. I was surprised at how hard it was to find Mexican football team jerseys. I think I saw a total of two shops that carried any. Meanwhile every other shop carried N.F.L. items. Why go all the way to Mexico just to buy shitty American themed stuff? That’s rhetorical, by the way. After an hour or so of high pressure touts up and down the streets, I was tired of it all and so was everyone else in my group. So we got cabs back to the cruise terminal area. I planned to get back on the boat and relax, and the rest of the crowd wanted to find a beach and hang out. As I had sweated off my sunscreen by then, that wasn’t a good option for me.

The only other thing of note from Tuesday was that I found the Creams Cafe on board. That’s the coffee bar. The evening person there was Daria, a cute 20-something from somewhere in eastern Europe that I forget. Unlike everything else on board, she made an latté that was actually decent. I found that after dinner, but on subsequent days I got my latté in the early evening and then read in the comfy chairs nearby.

11 January 2012 – Costa Maya

I didn’t sleep well overnight. That was probably because of the latt&eacute after 10 p.m. Not so much the caffeine. I can usually handle my caffeine particularly since it was the only caffeine I had that evening. Rather I woke up about 10 times having to pee. When morning rolled around, I was cranky and tired.

Since I didn’t have a shore excursion, I elected to stay on board and relax rather than test my mood against the relentless hawking of wares that I was sure to experience on shore. The ship was relatively empty, and the adults only Serenity Deck was even quieter. I alternated between reading the first volume of Wild Cards and listening to an audio book of Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. By bed time, I finished Wild Cards.

12 January 2012 – Roatan Island

For Roatan Island in Honduras, I purchased a shore excursion that promised to be a nature walk in Gumbalimba Park. Unfortunately for me, Gumbalimba Park is not a nature park. I was expected a somewhat canned short walk with a guide pointing out things that were pretty much on placards. In other words, not expecting much. My expectations were too high. There is nothing natural about Gumbalimba Park. The streams run in concrete culverts. The caves are created out of concrete. The tour showed us just four kinds of wildlife: iguanas, capybaras, monkeys, and several varieties of parrots. All of them are tame and some are chained or in cages. Line up, get a couple of photos with a bird on your shoulder. Line up, get a couple of photos with a monkey on your shoulder. If you don’t have someone with you to take the photos, you get to pay Gumbalimba for a few photos from their photographers.

The most interesting thing about the tour was the drive to and from Gumbalimba Park from Mahogany Bay, where the ship docks. The island looks like a lot of fun with lots of nature that can be reached quickly and lots of places to hang out and eat or just relax. I would like to go there some day and just toodle around.

After the excursion, I got a latté and read C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner on the Promenade Deck for the evening. Mary Rose joined me for a time as well.

In the evening, we all joined on the deck to watch as the ship departed the dock. We did that at Cozumel and Costa Maya as well. The bonus is you get to watch people who didn’t watch the time well run to catch the boat before they pulled in the gangways. On both of those ports, the dock is quite long so the people have to run a bit. But on Roatan Island, the dock is pretty close to the cluster of shops so the walk is very short. Still, we witnessed someone miss the boat. It looked like she just spent way to much time in the duty free shop that everyone who disembarks is forced to push their way through to enter or leave the boat. She stepped out just as the ship was pulling away, leaned up against a railing and then put her face in her arms in disbelieving resignation before turning around and heading back into the shop to figure out what to do next. Keenan got photos. We are awful people.

13 January 2012 – Grand Cayman

The Glory didn’t arrive at Grand Cayman until about 10 a.m. A group of us got off the ship (via tender, no dock this time), grabbed a cab, and headed to Seven Mile Beach and ended up at Calico Jack’s, a tourist restaurant on the beach. After eating, they didn’t have much natural shade so I rented an umbrella and chaise lounge and sat on the beach and read Foreigner some more. It was bright, and there were many pretty women in bikinis, so I only got 30 or so pages read in 3 hours. I am easily distracted by people walking around, particularly when they are good looking members of the opposite sex. If they are just sitting someplace, I do better. But the flicker of movement at the corner of my eye makes me look and I keep looking if it’s something interesting (attractive person, family having fun, intriguing tattoo, etc.).

After a while I found it hard to keep my lounge chair in the shadow created by the umbrella and I didn’t trust that I still had much in the way of sunscreen on. So I gathered my belongings and headed back to ship. Where I changed and joined Mary Rose on the Promenade to read some more and drink lattés.

After dinner, our group had planned to have an international version of Hardcore German Sparkle Party. However, the main instigator of this plan was Keenan. On our way to dinner, he’d stepped off the elevator then turned the other way telling us that he’d catch up to us in a minute or two. He never made it to dinner. After dinner, we found him passed out on his bed in his cabin. So we postponed our mini sparkle party to the cruise’s final day.

Keenan is SEXY (Photo by Dominique Ryder)

14 January 2012 – Fun Day at Sea

The Glory was in the Florida Straits for most of the final day. The weather was cloudy and windy. I spent much of it reading on my balcony, which was sheltered from most of the wind. I wanted to go up to the Serenity Deck but it was closed due to the strong breeze. It got more sun, what there was of it.

Brittany brought Apples to Apples and started a game of that in the Cinn-A-Bar lounge with most of our crew. Mary Rose didn’t feel like joining, so I relaxed with her on the Promenade Deck and read as well. But after the first game finished, Brittany returned to our couches and talked Mary Rose into joining, so I joined as well. That game took nearly 3 hours, as a game of Apples to Apples is not short when about 18 people are playing. We had to take several breaks for people to use the facilities too. They were all trying to finish off the booze they’d smuggled onto the Glory.

After dinner, I donned my sparkle party gear, which wasn’t all that elaborate. I wore the shirt and sequined pants I wore for Sparkle Party 2010, and the sequined hat I wore for Sparkle Party 2011. As the on board night club, White Heat, didn’t open until 10 p.m., I killed some time by strutting around the ship to see what kind of reaction I would get. I got quite a few strange looks, as well as a number of thumbs ups, and a few approving comments. The highlight was a mid-40s Greek-Canadian woman (she told me her name, but I forget — I know her nationality because I overheard several of her conversations with the guide on the Roatan Island excursion) wanting to get her photo with me from one of the myriad Carnival photo people on the Promenade Deck. Her husband stood by and glared as we had a couple of photos snapped. I don’t know this really, but he looked like he hadn’t relaxed and had fun the whole trip.

At 10 p.m., several of us headed into White Heat and started dancing (and some drinking). Most of our sparkle party crowd didn’t arrive until 10:45 or so. However, from then until midnight we owned the dance floor making a complete spectacle of ourselves. Through having and obvious good time as well as some female persuasion we managed to get another dozen or so people on the dance floor.

Phil and Erin sparkling (Photo by Dominique Ryder)

I bailed just before midnight so I could get out of my sparkle wear and get it into luggage that was supposed to be picked up at midnight by Carnival staff for disembarkation the next morning. My carry on bag was my laptop backpack, which isn’t built for clothing. I wanted all my clothes but what I planned to wear to be in my luggage rather than have to be stuffed in awkwardly in the backpack. And putting sequined pants in the pack would have meant I’d be seeing sequins come out of it for years afterward. Also, I’m old and like to be in bed early.

Thus endeth my cruise. Actual disembarkation story to appear in the next post.

Mell Pell to Miami

4 January 2012

The morning of the fourth I woke up in Amarillo, Texas. You know that part of Texas that sticks up and lies between New Mexico and Oklahoma? It’s flat and boring. It’s part of Texas because New Mexico and Oklahoma didn’t want it. Also, Texas does not believe in rest areas. Instead, they have picnic areas. The difference is that there aren’t any bathrooms. If it weren’t for McDonald’s I’d have had to drive all the way across the state without urinating.

Oklahoma is also flat. But not quite as flat as north Texas and it has trees to decorate it in places. The only other thing of note this day was that I stopped at Logan’s Roadhouse in Oklahoma City for dinner. The schtick at this restaurant is that they give customers peanuts to snack on, and you can throw the shells on the floor! Which people seemed to be doing with abandon. But the gimmick seemed very look ma I’m throwing peanuts on the floor! rather than a big amount of pent up desire to throw food on the floor.

I stopped for the night in Maumelle, Arkansas, just outside of Little Rock. A long day of driving, but relatively easy given that the interstate was very straight and traffic was pretty light.

5 January 2012

The 5th was to be a lax travel day by intention.

First thing on the agenda was to head just south of Little Rock and visit the Pinecrest cemetery and look for a relative who might be buried there. I’d found a reference online that said the wife of my grandmother’s cousin was buried there. The office was able to quickly look her up and found where she was buried. When I got out to the location, my grandmother’s cousin Leo Reichle was buried there as well. I was hopeful I’d find him there, but wasn’t sure. He was born in Illinois and lived in Ohio after the war. So far as I know, his only connection to Arkansas was that his wife Geneva was from there.

Anyhow, that trip was quicker than I expected, so I had some time to kill. While I was driving through Little Rock I saw a sign for the Clinton Presidential Library, so I turned off the interstate to visit. The building looks quite impressive. However, the exhibits were a little more canned than I prefer. The one interesting things was that they have all of the President’s daily schedules in binders for public perusal. Redacted in a fair number of places, but still cool to see.

After that, I headed to Jonesboro. It’s a little off the direct path to Miami, but my friend Renay lives there and I wanted to meet her in person. She’s a former book blogger who still keeps her toe in the pool writing at Lady Business, which is a great feminist blog that focuses mostly on books and media. I had a great visit with her.

Then I was on the road to Memphis where I planned to stay for the night. Memphis freeways are confusing and seemingly under a lot of construction. The lanes are narrowed for that work, light was dimming right about then, and there was lots of traffic on the road. All that combined to make me really uncomfortable driving there. In on incident, a car pull up at a red light in the right hand turn lane. He sorta veered right but kept going straight at a high rate of speed, right through the red light. Also bypassing the long line of vehicles waiting at the light. Dangerous and assholish.

But as I got to Memphis it was about 6 and I realized I could drive some more. So on to Tupelo a few more hours down the road. Tupelo is a hilarious name, so I was chuffed to stay there.

6 January 2012

This was the longest driving day of the trip. My plan was to drive to Orlando and crash the night there. However, the night before I was looking at the web site for the Florida Turnpike to figure out what kind of change I needed to have for tolls, and what lanes to avoid and which ones to take. I didn’t want to get stuck in a Sunpass only lane because I didn’t know what they looked like. Unfortunately, their web site is crapola and I couldn’t figure it out. I posted that on Facebook, and a high school friend responded that I should head to St. Petersburg where she lives. As that meant a night not having to check into a hotel, that became my new plan. Also, it avoided the turnpike.

The drive to Montgomery was easy. But after that Google’s directions took me a way I probably wouldn’t go again. See, there’s no interstate from Montgomery toward eastern Florida. I should have headed directly south, but Google thought heading east through Georgia would be the fastest route. Normally I’m finding that Google’s estimations are about 15% to 20% high. But in this case the estimate for driving time was spot on. The roads through southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia were windy and slow. While not exactly picturesque, it was a nice drive. But as I didn’t want to pull into St. Petersburg at midnight, it was the wrong choice.

So when I finally got to I-75 and headed directly south toward Florida, I pushed the driving hard. Normally I’ve kept my speed under the speed limit and stopped regularly for breaks. On this section I was going over, and I only stopped once. I pulled into St. Petersburg about 9:45 local time, and found Stephanie’s place around 10.

Her family has a really nice house on Treasure Island, which is an upscale area on the water. Her three boys and husband were already asleep, so we chatted a bit before both of us crashed.

7 January 2012

Since the drive to Miami from St. Petersburg was only about 4 or 5 hours, I could sleep in a bit. When I woke up, Stephanie was already back from her job. She was still handling the phones via her cell phone though. She is an office manager type for her husband’s medical practice. Her boys really wanted to show off their Nintendo 3DSes, but I have to say that was pretty boring. More fun was the giant map of the world her oldest has on his bedroom wall. They played a game with me where they named a place on the map and I had to find it. They managed to stump me about half the time.

I got driving just before noon. I took the Sunshine Skyway toll bridge south instead of a toll free route. It had spectacular views and the other route didn’t.

The only item of note from the drive is crossing Alligator Alley, I-75 pretty much straight east to Miami through the Everglades. No real exits. Only a couple points of interest. The watery swampy part seemed to start about halfway across. I suppose there are places one could get off and go exploring the Everglades, but I wasn’t going to be doing that this trip.

Once in Miami, I decided to stay at the Quality Inn near the airport. This was based on having stayed at a couple of other Quality Inns already and finding they had reasonable prices and good Wifi. This one had neither. I used the guest laundry to wash everything I’d worn on the trip so far, and re-packed my bags so that I wouldn’t be taking some items on the cruise with me. No need for the heavy jacket that was necessary crossing Idaho and Utah.

I’d hoped to be able to Skype with a group of people from Community for Youth that were doing a reunion back in Seattle, but that didn’t happen. Not sure the Wifi could have kept up anyway. It was awful.

Dinner was at a fast foodish joint called Taco Beach just up the street. Not quite fast food, but not really an actual restaurant either. I can’t think of a comparable type of place in Seattle. The enchilada was delicious though, and they had a match on the televisions from the Mexican top flight. The match turned out to be not particularly well played.

And then sleep.

Pell mell to Miami

I haven’t had a lot of time to write the blog entries I promised myself I would. Although I had a fair amount of free time on the cruise, I haven’t had free time otherwise. Until now. Upcoming (including this one) are a few catch up posts.

One administrative item to note first. I am maintaining a Grand Road Trip travel map on Google Maps. It has all the stops and points of interest of the trip. Not a whole lot in the way of notes though. It’s mostly for me to remember things along the way, and for other folks to get an idea of where I have been. I am not adding much in the way of details of what I did at each place.

Also, it’s a very useful companion to these blog posts, as I don’t plan on writing up the exact routes in them.

1 January 2012

The trip started off quite well, though really a bit too late. Deirdre hosts a New Year’s Day party most years where she serves Hoppin’ John. I needed to be on the road well before that, but she wanted me to stop by anyway. I got loaded up and headed to Deirdre’s about noon. There she served pancakes (I think, I’ve forgotten already) and bacon, and packed me some cookies and a ginger brew for the road. Actual departure time from Seattle turned out to be about 1:15 p.m.

Of course, I freaked out and thought I might have left my door unlocked. Luckily, I could stop, email my building manager from my phone, and ask her to twist my doorknob and make sure. I got a reply a few hours later. I had locked it up tight.

Day 1 was about 10 hours of driving. I stopped for a quick break at the Selah Rest Stop on I-84 near Yakima. That’s where the bridge photo below was taken. It’s kinda pretty for a bridge. I stopped for a couple of quick rests and one gas station before finally deciding to call it a night in Mountain Home, Idaho. The drive between Seattle and Boise is one I’ve done many times, as I loved in Boise for about a year (1998).

2 January 2012

I didn’t get an early start, but it was much earlier than day 1. A quick (and free) breakfast at the restaurant adjacent to the Best Western and I was on the road. The route to Salt Lake City is one I’ve driven 3 times before as well. I do like the views from the interstate in southeast Idaho as a driver turns southward toward S.L.C.

S.L.C. has traffic and lots of it. To me it’s a good illustration of what happens when a metro area invests heavily in roads. People fill roads to their available capacity in cities. If more are built, people move to places and use them. There really isn’t unused highway capacity in a city. Also, S.L.C. did not pay for those roads by themselves either. Those are new and pretty and got a lot of funding from the federal government.

Around Provo I got off the Interstate and took US 6. The road is mostly a 2 lane highway, and it also has some incredible views. I stopped in Price and got myself a grilled sandwich at a little drive in called Sherald’s with a very overworked waitress. It was a damn fine sandwich. While waiting, I chatted with a couple of adolescents who were waiting for their burger. They were not particularly bright, but enthusiastic and charming.

Unfortunately, the evening was already upon me by the time I reach I-70 near Green River. That meant I didn’t get to see what must have been great scenery as I drove by Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah. Moab looked like a nice town, though a bit touristy. I drove through and made it to Cortez, Colorado for the night, where I got a room at a really cheap motel. The temperature was in the high 20s, which seems downright cold to me as I write this from balmy Fort Lauderdale with a temperature in the 80s. I actually brought my road beverages into the room at night because I didn’t want them to freeze in the car and burst.

3 January 2012

I woke up pretty early and drove into the main part of Cortez from the outskirts for a breakfast at the El Grande Cafe. It is the kind of place where the old farts for their breakfast every day and the breakfast waitresses all call you honey. The people were friendly, but the huevos rancheros were awful.

Day 3 was the first day I did any actual sightseeing at all. I figured my chances of being in the area again anytime in the next few decades were pretty slim, so I was gonna take the opportunity to stop at 4 Corners, and stand in the one spot where I can be in four states at once. The road to 4 Corners goes through the Navajo reservations in New Mexico. There’s really nothing there. Just a small plaza with a survey marker in the center at the exact spot where the states touch. The local tribes have set up booths around the plaza to sell trinkets to tourists. I bought a bunch.

Afterward, the road took me into Arizona briefly before I hung a left toward Shiprock in northern New Mexico. My original plan had been to drive a more northerly route from Shiprock to Albuquerque and then take a left. Just cause. However, Deirdre presented another option when she was serving me bacon. Her hometown was Tohatchi, which is about an hour south of Shiprock. It’s on the way from nowhere to nowhere. So I routed through that town to see what makes a Deirdre.

The highway south of Shiprock is a four lane divided highway. I don’t know why. About 5 miles north of Tohatchi it abruptly narrows to two lanes undivided. Five miles south of Tohatchi, it becomes a four lane divided highway again, and continues that through Gallup. Very odd.

I did stop and pull into the Tohatchi High School parking lot to get a quick phone snapshot before continuing on my way. At the edge of Tohatchi I saw a fellow hitch-hiking on the side of the road. Since I was going that way I pulled over and let him hop in. I saw 4 other hitch-hikers shortly afterward. Deidre tells me that’s a way of life on the reservation. I just thought it would be nice to help a guy out (I’ve even given rides to gutter punks in Seattle before. The guy’s name was Rick, and he needed to get to the hospital in Gallup, though I’m not sure why. He didn’t appear to be injured himself. His accent was really thick, so I couldn’t understand much of what he said, and neither of us are the talkative sort anyway.

After dropping Rick off and swinging by the post office in Gallup to deposit a batch of post cards, I headed east on I-40. New Mexico had a lot more elevation changes than I expected, particularly dipping into Albuquerque and then climbing the ridge east of that metro area. The earth in the state is very reddish as well. Once I crossed into Texas though, everything flattened out. Final stop was at a Quality Inn in Amarillo.

More later…

2011 Year in Review

No family members died this year. I did not have to take care of any family members.

Guinevere got sick and I had a lot of ups and downs with her. I decided to put her down earlier this month. It was cruel to keep her alive any longer. She was 20+ years old and I’ve had her for 14 of them. I won’t say she was an exceptional cat, but she was my companion for many years. I’ll miss her. North Seattle Vet Clinic and their staff were rock stars. Thank you especially to Natalie who texted me photos of Guinevere when I boarded her there for a few days to aid her recovery. I also want to thank Kim for handholding me on Guinevere’s last day. Kim’s one of the smartest and funniest women I know. There are times when she gets fed up with me, but she was still very kind to me.

I miss a few friends who aren’t as much a part of my life as they used to be.

I spent a lot of time on genealogy. I spent a lot of time cheering on the Sounders.

I took a part time consulting job. Working again hasn’t been the easiest adjustment.

My sister moved back to Seattle, so I get to see her and my nephew more often. Joe announced that Sara is pregnant. My initial response was Holy Shit! I vow to be the bad uncle as much as I possibly can. Dad had surgery for cancer, which has gone mostly well.

I made some resolutions early this year. I failed in all of them. My only resolution at New Year is to enjoy my two month road trip and Caribbean cruise.

I started hosting Pie Night at Voxx Coffee instead of my place. 2011 was the most successful year for Pie Night ever. Spring will be the 10 year anniversary. Everyone should come! I want that one to be hella good! I’ve made many friends through Pie Night.

I’m sure there’s something more that I’ll think is important for this after it’s been posted, but for now, that’s it.

Thing I forgot #1: I participated in the Feminist Science Fiction Book Club through June before that kind of folded. It was a great experience and I wish I could talk books like that more. Also, I did Semi-Social Read Night a couple of times. That was fun too. I want to do more book stuff with friends.

Cross Country Road Trip

I might as well announce it to make it easier to explain why I won’t be attending your event in January.

After mom died in 2008, I wanted to relax and travel before getting back into the swing of life. But almost immediately afterward Gramps had a heart attack and so I put off any extensive travel so I could drive Gram & Gramps when they needed it, and then their health deteriorated. After that, I was doing some work and being the personal representative on their estate. I also had an increasingly aging and sick cat to care for.

All those will no longer be an issue come January. I am going to take some time and get out of Dodge.

Some time ago, Brittany (not her real name) planned a Caribbean Cruise for the 8th through the 15th of January, 2012. I had already booked my place on the cruise. Instead of flying to the departure point in Miami, I am going to drive.

Map of Google's suggest route from my house to the cruise terminal in Miami — Google Maps suggested route from my house to the Miami cruise terminal

I have only a loose plan at this point. I will fill in more details of the plan soonish, but most of the plan will remain undetermined until I get to wherever. I don’t know wherever is. I won’t know until I get there.

The loose plan: I think I will leave January 1st after I recover from New Years Eve debauchery. That will give me 7 days to drive to Miami. According to Google Maps, it’s about a 54 hour drive by their preferred route. That’s about 8 hours per day. On my own, I can usually go 10 to 12 hours each day. I might even have time to stop and see a thing or two.

From the 8th through the 15th, I will be reading books on a big fucking boat.

After the cruise, I will drive back to Seattle. On the itinerary are the following: Springfield, Illinois, a couple of places in Iowa, and Brule County, South Dakota. I want to research some family history in those places. I also want to also visit a few book bloggers (who, to my knowledge, do not live in those particular places) and buy them coffee and talk books. Other than that, I am giving myself the freedom to change my route because I see a sign saying This way to the world’s largest ball of twine! or National Mustard Museum, 100 miles ahead in Mount Horeb! Want me to visit along the way? Send me your details and if the whim strikes me, I will.

When will I be in those places? I don’t know. What other places will I go? I don’t know. How long will that return trip take? I don’t know. I will most certainly be back in time for the Sounders home opener in March. There’s a good chance I will be back in time for Losers Dinner on February. But I may skip that.

I will send post cards. If you want post cards, send me your mailing address. Either comment with it here, on Google+, on Facebook, or email it to me if you are squeamish about it being public. If you don’t have my email address, use spamforphil at kingrat.biz. (Note: I don’t check that email address very often, so put POSTCARD in the subject so I can pull the appropriate emails out easily.) I will also likely blog and Google+ a fair amount. Suggestions for things to see and do are welcome on any of the travel related posts.

So. There it is.

Guinevere – Nov 30, 2011

I got Guinevere from a shelter in June 1997; they estimated she was 5 to 7 years old. I needed a mouser when I had a built-in-1905 farmhouse in Deary, Idaho. She did great at that, and when I moved to apartment living to chase jobs in Boise, Bremerton, Redmond, and Seattle, she adjusted well to a new life. She liked people, but hated other animals in her old age. Mostly, she just snuggled in beside me when I was working on the laptop or reading a book. Not a bad gig if you can get it.

She’s been sick. Hyperthyroid and when that was treated it revealed her kidneys were in severe decline. She had been getting somewhat better, and I was hoping she was in a state of the illness that was manageable. Not to be though, as she got a lot worse this weekend and it was clear I would be cruel to keep her alive. I made the appointment and took her in today. The vet put her in my lap and I got to hold hold her and pet her as the vet put her to sleep. It took about 30 seconds. She just laid her head down.

Kim babysat me this morning. This is the photo she took of me and Guinevere, waiting for the time to leave.

I don’t know quite what to do with myself (time to post to the Internets!) and I miss her.

Google Movies

Last night I tried out watching a movie through Google’s movie service on my Xoom tablet. Was super easy and I think will facilitate more impulse movie watching. It would be great for traveling, as movies can be downloaded for watching when not connected to a network. Maybe I’ll get back to watching more movies now, like I am getting back listening to more music. Convenience, I like it.

Mood momentum

Last summer was really rough for me. While taking care of my grandparents was stressful, a lot of the time I could power through the part where it brought me down. I had stuff to do and people’s lives depended on it. But after they died, I went into depression for months. I couldn’t deal with other people hardly at all. For example, I stopped checking if people wanted to take my extra ticket to the Sounders games. I didn’t want to negotiate over whether they could go, where to meet before, etc. So I just went alone.

That passed somewhat in the fall, but I’ve been been up and down since then. Over the years, my mood swings were smoother because I had close friends who I was able to call on. When I was in Idaho, it was the people I sobered up with. Here it has been Jason. Without those daily influences, I hole up a lot. It’s not a deep depression. I’m able to function. But a lot of stuff doesn’t get done, and I tend to do only the things that need doing now.

I’ve actually had a few days in a row now where I’ve felt good. I have a side job that I can focus on, for one. I’ve gotten myself out walking. I cooked today. (I know, I wrote I was going to cook 3 times a week. I’ve not stuck to that.) I’m about to suit up and go out for the evening. The last month I’ve generally felt better.

I don’t know if the momentum is something that builds on itself, if doing something help me do something else. Or perhaps it’s just that my moods have a natural frequency and not a virtuous cycle. I really hope it’s the former.

Coffee Delivery

Ever wonder why there aren’t any places that deliver coffee to you? Some days I’m not capable of contemplating going to the coffee shop until I’ve had my coffee first. It’s just too much.

A Cup of Coffee by Maxime Seguin (CC By-Nc-Nd)

Today, I relieve the dilemma for you. Comment here (or on the Facebook thread to be posted when I wake up) with your coffee order(s) and delivery address*. I will deliver to you free of charge. You know you want it.

* within Seattle metro area

Insert Cirrus word play here

Earlier today John posted that he needed to do a quick run to Skagit and asked if any of his funemployed friends wanted to ride along. For those who don’t know him, John owns a flight school training people to fly small planes. So a quick run to Skagit with John means hopping into a small plane, rather than driving. I’ve done that trip driving many times, it’s not so exciting. Flying it probably isn’t for John either. But I’ve only been in small planes twice that I can remember, and once in a helicopter.

So I hopped in my car and drove to Boeing field. I watched John and Chase pull the plane out of a hangar barely big enough to hold the plane, and go through what appeared to be a very thorough checklist. John had me sit in front, rather than Chase. Which meant he explained to me how to kill the engine and deploy the plane’s parachute in the unlikely event that he went unconscious and we were headed toward the ground. (Which he did not.)

Plane ride was uneventful, other than the normal taxiway in Skagit being closed so we had to take 5 to 10 extra minutes to go the long way around to get to the airport buildings.

On the flight back, John let me fly the plane for about 10 minutes. I don’t think I showed it, but I was hella nervous beforehand. I played Microsoft Flight Simulator in like 1991 and things did not go well. But I figured he wouldn’t be letting me do anything I couldn’t handle, so what the hell. It was fun. If I was that kind of rich, I’d totally blow money to buy a plane and learn how to fly.