Deciding Where You've Been

Written by Adam

It sure is interesting to discover what comes up in conversation when you are simply chatting with a waiter.  It was just after he brought us the bread and butter while we were dining in Nice, France.   Upon learning that we were visiting from California, the starstruck waiter regaled in telling us about his desire to some day visit Hollywood.  He then proceeded to recount many old movies starring such classic Hollywood starlets as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.  Of course, most might consider these actresses to be photogenic symbols of the Hollywood of imagination, fantasy, and a place that to a European represented much more about America than it probably does today.  We were actually in Hollywood just this year, but I did not have the heart to tell the waiter that the only star we saw there was a guy in a Spiderman suit standing on the corner posing for pictures with the tourists.  

Meet Our Little Guy - Hyundai i20

Written by Karen.
As the days pass, we are really warming up to our little guy, the Hyundai i20.  After a bit of an antagonistic start to our relationship, Adam and I have reached an understanding of sorts with the little guy.  Bottom line?  We've accepted our mechanical limitations and re-adjusted our expectations.  We'll stay off the super fast highways and autobahns as much as possible.  Our little guy just can't hang with those fire-breathing monsters - much to my chagrin - we get blown off the endlessly smooth black asphalt each and every time.

The Italian Art of Parking - Part Three

Written by Karen.

This is the final segment of a three-part story.

We began walking down the street in a dazed jumble of thoughts and reactions. Adam asked rhetorically, "Can you believe it? He just ripped it into pieces!" All I could muster was, "Unbelievable!"  Adam continued unabated, "And then he crumbled everything up and threw it in the gutter!  Who does that?! "Unbelievable," I offered my contribution to the conversation.  "Unbelievable!" I could see our unpaid simple administrative, no-big-deal 28.50 euro parking ticket multiplying over time as quickly as a happy pair of rabbits.

In Case You Missed It....Sunset Over Lake Como

The Italian Art of Parking - Part Two

Written by Karen.

For the next five days, we made a daily evening trek over to our hidden parking place to make sure that our little guy was still there.  We breathed a sigh of relief when he was and there were no parking tickets plastered to the window.  Maybe white and yellow parking areas were just like white parking areas?  In any case, it looked like we were home free.  

Checking Out La Dolce Vida - Back Roads Style

Written by Karen.

Now that we're off the high-speed highways, our little guy, Hyundai i20, is starting to grow on us.  Sometimes you have to go down an unknown road for awhile before you can actually decide if you are going in the right direction.  

The Italian Art of Parking - Part One

Written by Karen.

This is the first segment in a three-part story.

"It might be a little 'forbotti', but I have never had any problems. EVER!", Isabella said with extra emphasis.  I looked over at Adam, who was also trying to process the broken and rapid-fire mixture of English and Italian.  What does forbotti mean? We raised our eyebrows at each other and shrugged.  Isabella impatiently grabbed my arm and said, "Andiamo!"  Let's go!  

Cinque Terre, Italy

Written by Karen.

Along the rugged western Italian coast lie tiny fishing villages that hang on the rock outcroppings like barnacles in the sea. The most well-known villages in this area are called Cinque Terre, or the Five Lands.  These historically old villages still plant and harvest vegetable gardens, herbs, olive trees and grapes on the old, rocky terraces carved into the cliffs to supplement their bounty from the sea. And although old, these villages are beautiful in both their natural surroundings and with their ancient traditions.

Driving Slowly Up the Italian Coast

Written by Karen.

We drove into La Spezia, Italy during the magical evening twilight hours and promptly decided to try and find a place to spend the night. La Spezia, a port town, was exactly like the images that I harbored in my imagination and hoped for in reality: families and couples quietly strolling down the paved pedestrian strand alongside the Mediterranean Sea; tiny shops offering gelato and espresso for sale; and, people sitting on benches under the gently swaying palm trees surrounded by gardens of scented flowers looking out on the endless horizon - talking, thinking, dreaming - as the soft orange sun slowly begins its descent into the intensely colored turquoise sea water.  

The Tapping of the Keg

Written by Karen.

There was a feeling of jovial festivity that permeated the early morning air.  Even without our cup of coffee, we could sense the upcoming occasion, the anticipation, the expectation of good times ahead.  Today was the day - the opening day - of the annual celebration held in Munich, Germany: Oktoberfest.  

Crash Course on the German Autobahn: Pass or Fail

Written by Karen.

"Okay, here we go," I said, mostly to myself.  We had just picked up our little rental car from Tegel Airport in Berlin, and suddenly, without much time to figure out who should drive the first leg of our road trip, there was the blue sign for the Autobahn.  

Start Your Engines!

Start your engines everybody!  We're driving south starting in Berlin, Germany.  We will cross through Austria and head towards the western coast of Italy.  After meandering north up the Italian coastline, we will drive through the Provence region of France. Our first European road trip will end back in Berlin.  

Black Gold

Written by Karen.

The Smith Mine. Montana.  We quickly put the two pieces of the puzzle together as we saw the small memorial sign up ahead and pulled over.  There wasn’t much room alongside the two-laned highway, but we found a little patch of gravely-dirt and stopped.  

Heart Mountain

Written by Karen.
"But, I'm an American citizen....how could this happen?"  We had just walked into the interpretive center of Heart Mountain, just outside of Cody, Wyoming.  The recorded voices and life-sized pictures of men, women and children of Japanese ancestry greeted us at the front door, and the sharp gut kicks that resulted as we wandered throughout the interactive exhibits came hard and often.  

Picking Up The Pen Again

Parker, Colorado

Written by Karen.
Dear Readers:

It wasn’t supposed to be this long.  This period of time when I laid down my pen...errrr... shut off my computer for awhile.  But, somehow the days turned into weeks and finally into a month, and now here we are - in the beginning of September.  Phoof!  There just went August!  

Promises Made. Promises Broken.

Written by Karen.

It seems inevitable that the ability to negotiate peace between two distinct cultures now occupying the same space would fail.  There was never really an equal playing field.  And, as we saw while walking through the very well done reconstructed national historic site of Fort Laramie, Wyoming, the confluence of quickly changing - and nearly simultaneous - historical events of the Civil War and the overland emigration irrevocably changed the western landscape of the now United States.  

Leaving Marks

Written by Karen.

The white-hot sun is blazingly relentless and the white sandstone that surrounds me reflects the dry and intense heat.  We have pulled off to the side of the road outside of Guernsey, Wyoming to see and learn a bit more about the history behind the journey of heading west on the Oregon Trail during the 1800's.  I am standing at the bottom of carved out wagon wheel tracks that in some places are up to my shoulders.   

HEADLINE: Pulled Over in Lusk, Wyoming by Officer Toby Keith.

Written by Karen.

We criss-crossed across the small town of Lusk, Wyoming several times as we met people who could help us with our current mechanical predicament. 

Uh Oh. Part Deux

The sunrise as we left Colorado

Written by Karen

While we were staying outside of Denver, we noticed our temperature gauge on our VW Vanagon was getting a little squirrelly. So, knowing that we couldn't be really overheating a mere two minutes after turning the ignition key, we took Chinook in for a little mechanical TLC.

A True Beauty

Written by Karen.

From a distance, the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel looks like the shiny aluminum ribs of a metal animal that has languished in the high desert sun long picked bare by scavengers, or the evenly-spaced metal ribs of a large and unfinished boat.  In any case, the architecture of this chapel is unusual and dominates the sprawling and manicured Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.