The Word for Today: "Duck"!!!!!

If Only...

We stopped by St Augustine FL today, on our way to Orlando. Never having been there before, we didn't realize what a bastion of snobby, rich, white folks it was. Man, did our 12 year old rusted up subaru fit in with the Mercedes and Volvo's.

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Apparently, on top of this very historical Spanish, pre-Colonial site somebody decided to establish the golf hall of fame. Because, hey, what's more exciting that seeing scores of little white balls...and that was just on the tourists.

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We spent the evening eating awesome Cuban food and drinking mohitos with the locals. Way better...

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Anyhow, out of here quickly, albeit the spanish fort was kinda cool. Oh, and the Fountain of Yute (with regards to Joe Pesci).

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Goin' to practice mi espanol Lumpy out

Sweet Caroline(a)...

As we drove through the Carolinas, we made a detour over to Raleigh to visit old business and work buddy, Mark "Tuuurkeeeeey" McCurry. Mark's busting his hump right now making his own IPOesque run, and a night out drinking tequila was just what the doctor had in store.

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So, we did margaritas, tried to decipher each other's accents, and discussed how when we're both rich, we'll buy a cabin together right on the Mason-Dixon line.

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Lumpy y'all out.

How Do You Know You're In The South?

'Nuff said....

DC Ahoy

TOP: John and Sabrina Coble; John left his hairline back in San Diego :-)

Bottom: The Lawrences; (NOTE Naomi has just judo slammed a waitress)

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We did a manic drive down to DC, as that 's the only adjective I could ever use for the DC beltway. 23 accidents later, 17 tickets, and 4 spinouts, later we finally made it to the Lawrence's for dinner. We elected to do a burger joint, as Lumpy loves burgers, and there's multiple people with brooms available to clean up after Stephen, who threw fries at every waitress who walked by. A boy after my own heart! They're doing fantastic, and the kids have grown significantly since we saw them last a couple years ago. Naomi is into karate, and pretty much can now kick Dave's butt on a regular basis (Pickle already could...). They're both doing exceptionally well at work, Dave at a major research lab and Diane at NIH doing brain research. Someday she'll hopefully have a disease named after her!

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Next day we visited the Cobles, old friends from San Diego who had just relocated to DC. John is working on a new political party (Unity Party) to take on the entrenched old guard, and they're very active with their two kids also. We had one of Sabrina's gourmet lunches (gourmet to us is anything NOT from McDonalds), and talked about this summers plans for our Mexico to Canada bike ride (which John will be joining me on). They are heavily into motocross, and have some beautiful motorcycles...just what you need on the beltway, as then you never even have to be on the pavement!.

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We had two great visits, and now are headed "Down South"; time to change the accent, slow the speech, and put away the big words.

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Lumpy out

Snowbird Away: First Stop, Philly!

TOP: Lumpy and Mrs. C hanging at the Broad's mountaintop chateau

(NOTE: My hair length has finally passed Kathy's)

2nd: Erika (looking fantastic not long after birthing!) and Elliot (7 months along and due soon)

3rd: Andi and Lou trying to steal yet another baby

4th: Betsy, Kathy, and Chris pretending they didn't just finish off a bottle of Jack Daniels at lunch

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We started our road trip with a drive to Philly, our last residence. In a blizzard; at 10 degrees; in January... Of course, as the gods of automobiles would have it, when we stop for the first fill up (READ: $50 to Bush), the car door molding breaks off, and from that point forward the car makes the sound of a coffin every time we open the door. Well, at least people know we're coming.

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Our first stop was a lovely dinner in Cohshohockenraldolagosmittenheimer, a cute little town along the Schuylkill River near Philly. We did thai with Mike and Laurie Toomey, Elliot and Erika Menschik, and Andi and Lou Broad. A little slice of America at it's best, 4 jews, 1 catholic, 1 atheist, and 2 muslims. at least we had Bush jokes in common!

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At dinner, Elliot and Erika's new baby was crying quite a bit, and they couldn't get her to settle down. Andi swooped her up, held her to her voluptuous bossum, and, BAM, the baby just purred for the next hour. Which, in and of itself is pretty amazing, as her own daughter (who I'll be taking as my second wife once we move to Utah) has NEVER stopped talking since the moment she was born!

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After dinner we headed over to the Broad's mountaintop chateau in Brn Mawr. A lovely place, and Lou proceeded to humiliate me at multiple games of pool over the course of the evening (Only a precursor of what is to come, wait till we do cards in FL). I blame it on the bottle of port that we drank. Glad I wasn't on his table for surgery the next morning!

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The next day I had lunch with the Cappy boys, so we could talk about hunting, fishing, and voting republican, while Kathy went with her old work crowd. When I arrived to pick her up several hours later, they were doing shots. Did I mention that she was able to quit AA after we left Philly?

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All in all, a wonderful time catching up with some great friends, and even the weather held out for our drive. Next stop: DC

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Brotherly Love Lumpy out

New Years Hiking with "The Boys"

"The Boys": Chris, Jerry, and Gill wooping it up at the campfire on Italy Hill
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In a tradition dating back several centuries (at least), my buddy Chris and I take a 2 day New Years hike into the Finger Lakes (NY) backcountry. As I'm leaving for my next adventure on the 2nd, we decided to close out this year instead of opening the new one with our hike. Usually it's cold, snowy, blustery, and a night that would be far better spent inside, next to the fireplace, with a bottle of wine and a good book. But, we instead choose to freeze our patooties off in a lean-to, during a snowstorm, with whatever booze we can pack in.
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This year friends Jerry and Gill (she of Gilli the Giraffe - Africa Kilimanjaro trip - fame) accompanied us on the trip. It started out nice...nice that is if you like trying to hike over a frozen lake, holstering a 30 lb pack, with Chris singing bizarre backcountry songs. I fell twice in the first hour, beating up my knee then my hip. But, none of that mattered, when we finally arrived at the lean-to atop Italy Hill. It was a work of (camp) art, with dual bunks, a picnic table, and a fire ring. Plus, somebody had left camp chairs for us to use, Gill brought 2 liters of her homemade wine, and I had about 20 lbs of my homemade chicken and shrimp paella. Jerry had dry oatmeal and some kool-aid, which by Jerry standards is fine cuisine.
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We spent hours sitting and chatting around the campfire, watching the snow fall down, listening to the coyotes, and just enjoying the world. What more could one hope for to close out what for us has been a very special year, one full of adventure, travel, new friends, old friends, and wine.
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Chris's videography of the trip can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9k_Q7MweTk
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We leave tomorrow for our next adventure (Florida, via the entire East Coast, then California). I'll be blogging along the way as I get connectivity, and hope to continue to entertain you with "Tales from the Lumpy Road".
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Best to all for a safe, happy, and prosperous 2008. Happy New Year!
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Lumpy out

December, 2007: Home again

TOP: Carl receives his Erie Canal Kayak Finisher award at Xmas

2nd: Niece Joanna gets her birthday Hanna Montana tickets. If ONLY I could have been so lucky...

Pooped, but energized by the trip, we head home to the US. What a great few weeks in Africa and the Central EEU. And now, back to reality...no income, but a happy home, great friends, and an incoming winter in Rochester. We bedded down for a few weeks for birthdays, anniversary's, hannukah parties, xmas parties, and new years parties. 7 weeks to catch up on our "lives", the we're off to the next adventure. But first....

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Homebody Lumpy out

EEU: Parting Thoughts

Kathy finishes like she started...with a good beer!

As we wind up our 6 weeks over here in EEU, some closing thoughts.
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Things I liked the best about EEU:
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- Awesome, interconnected, sane, clean, inexpensive mass transit. In 6 weeks we only used a taxi twice, and rented a car for 2 days. Try that anywhere in the US outside Manhattan island.
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- Sidewalk bistros. Everybody eats outside as the weather permits, and every meal is an adventure. 1-2 hours for lunch, 2-3 hours for dinner, many courses, great wine and beer everywhere we went
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- Art: Even for a neanderthal like me, the art was incredible. Florence and Venice especially, but everywhere there was more artwork that you could ever take in during one visit
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Things I didn't like about EEU:
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- Smoking....everywhere, often it seemed like everyone. A disgusting habit, and it ruined several meals and visits for us.
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- Graffitti: Everywhere also, some "artsy" but much just crass and crude. Not just on things like trains or in ghetto's' everything was tagged including museums, palaces, and parks. And, interestingly enough, much of it was in english...go figure that one out
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- Rudeness: The further south you went, the ruder the people got. Thankfuly we didn't make sicily, where I here the priests cuss out your mother when you get off the ferry from the mainland. No understanding of queuing anywhere, but again much worse the further south you went. Every pushes and shoves, cuts in line, overtalks you, never say please or thank you, and on and on. Pretty uncivilized for a "civilized culture"
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Best meals:
- Florence: Il Latina...and it wasn't just the swedish stewardess feeding me
- Capri: Il Tragliano (sic), best Pasta e Fagioli ever tasted anywhere by a long shot. $5 wine bottles, great waiters.
- Siena: La Mangia, right on the main square. Pricey, but an awesome meal, and first-class wait service (something seen in few places throughout EEU)
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I'd go back to:
- Venice (just to walk the streets and smell the smells)
- Capri, for the views and the food
- Brussels, if I had to live somewhere in the Central EEU. Good food, great beer, English speakers, and belgium waffles.
Trip "moment": The view from Capri towards the mainland, looking at Mt Vesuvius. Priceless...well, except for the impact on our Visa card...
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Thanks all for reading and your comments, more to come on our next "Adventures with Lumpy!"
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Lumpy Hemingway out

Last Stop: Brussels...Where are the Sprouts at?

TOP: Red carpet outside the grand palace

2nd: Gary gorging on "Mussels and French Fries", surprisingly the Belgium national dish

3rd: The main square in Brussels

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After another loooooong overnight train ride, we arrive in Brussels to complete our circut of Central EEU. We really didn't know what to expect from Brussels, and after 3 weeks wandering around Italy, we were actually sick of pasta. Luckily for us, we discovered both mussels and french fries, and belgium waffles.

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Where M&FF came from I can't even imagine, but everyone eats them. You sit in a little sidewalk bistro, and the waiter brings you out literally dozens of mussels in a huge bucket. And, to make (intestinal) matters worse, the mussels are soaked in garlic...tons of garlic. They blow through you faster than a hollow-point .357 magnum. You walk down the street and all you can smell is garlic seafood, coming from every orifice in the human body. OK, you get the drift.

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Belgium waffles were the totally unexpected culinary treat of the trip. Unlike here in the US, they are (a) not a breakfast only food, (b) not topped with fruit and whippped cream, and (c) are sold at every restaurant, bistro, and sidewalk kiosk in the city. They are incredible, coated in chocolate, stuffed with caramel or sugar, and only about a buck. One day I ate something like 4 of them...before noon!

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Belgium was a surprisingly civilized place, everybody spoke english, cars stopped for pedestrians, people smiled, all in all a most wonderful country. Here, I could live...and might have to if Bush doesn't get out of office soon!

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The Wafflemesiter out

What? Tuscany has Wine?

Today we went on a formal "wine tour" of Tuscany. Our driver, a lovely local gal, picked us and our tourmates up at our hotel. The couple with us were from Alaska, on their honeymoon. Nice gig, slightly better than our honeymoon in South Buffalo. But I digress...

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We did two wineries, with tastings at both. Unlike in the US, each winery did at least 7 tastings, and each tasting was a full glass of wine. So, we did something like 15 full glasses between the wineries. We get back into the van to leave, drunk as skunks, and the honeymooners pull out yet another bottle of wine...one for the road. Nothing much else to do up in Alaska but drink I guess, and they were certified professionals. We drink that bottle on the way back to the hotel, increasing our inebriation. Then we go out to dinner with them and down 2 more bottles.

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Needless to say, when we awoke about 2pm the following afternoon, we hurt...a lot...

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Signing up for AA as soon as I get home Lumpy out

Siena: The REAL Midieval Town

Heading off into the Italian wine country, Tuscany, I basically just threw a dart at the region and picked a city to triangulate from...that city turned out to be Siena, and a better dart was never thrown.

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Siena is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and for good reason. It is a true midieval town, with the big stone walls, a sunken central square, and a way of life that harkens back to the 1500's.

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We planned to stay there one night; we stayed for 3. Best story: Day 2 we decide we're going to rent a car (our first and only time in EEU) so that we can go see the Tuscany countryside (as there are few mass transit options into the countryside). We leave the town and drive off to visit some wineries, and take in the hills. Plan was to get back before dark, as the roads were pretty windy...and totally unmarked...with absolutely no grid, signage, highway markings, or any sense of driving regulations. So, we get back to the town walls around 3pm....at 7pm we get back INSIDE THE TOWN WALLS!!!!! We drove around for hours trying to find our way back inside...between one way streets, dead ends, "roads" that become pedestrian only, "roads" that become busses only, "roads" that stop becoming roads...it was perhaps the most painful driving experience of my life. I was in total meltdown mode, and at one point considered just crashing my car through the stone wall either to enter the town or destroy the car so I could just walk back. Anyhow, that was the end of our driving time in Tuscany...but, thankfully, not the end of our time inside the walls of Siena.

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Inside the Walls Lumpy out

I Went All the Way to Pisa, and All I Got Was This Picture...

The Vatican in Pictures

TOP: Tile floor (Moved tile by tile from Israel)

2nd: "Representative" fresco'd hallway

3rd: "Fig Leaved" statue

4th: "Representative" dome fresco

The Vatican

TOP: St Peter's Square

2nd: St Peter's Basilica fresco

3rd: Pope (Paul) under glass

4th: Fighting his way out of hell

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The Vatican was probably the one place that I was most interested in visiting. Even though I had problems with it from a religious and moral standpoint, it truly is one of the great storehouses of mankind's treasures. We spent an entire day there; we probably could have spent a week and still just touched the surface.

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My favorite vatican story....Some pope decides that he can't have any nude statues in the vatican, so he hires a sculpture to put fig leaves on every statue in the place...something like, oh, 10,000 or so. After a year of work, there's still something like 9,000 to go, even though the guy has been busting his butt. So, the pope grabs a hammer and chisel, and proceeds to walk through the vatican for days on end chiseling off the "manhood" of every statue in the place. SOMEBODY had a little problem there, eh! Then the guide tells us, "And the best thing is that they NEVER throw anything out around here...". We pee'd ourselves laughing.

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Of all the places we visited on this trip, this is the one that is on my "Must return" list. I can't recommend it highly enough to everyone.

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Pope Lumpy IX out

Hangin' in Roma

TOP: Arch of Constantine (or maybe some other famous guy)

2nd: "Arnold" at the Coliseum

3rd: The Pantheon

4th: Main rotary monument

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Rome was just overwhelming with the sheer volume of statues, monuments, churches, and ruins. We spent 3 days there, and could have easily spent 3 years and still not have seen everything. At some point you go into "ruin overload" and you're just wlaking from place to place mindlessly.

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One of the funny stories that we heard was that they are trying to build a 3rd subway line across Rome. Well, at least they've been trying for something like 20 years, since every 100 feet or so they go they come across another ruin, and the state archeologists shut down the dig for 3 months while they sort everything out. You'd almost think Washington was somehow involved...

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Tomorrow we hit the Vatican, which should be a most interesting day.

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(a very tired from walking 12 hours today) Lumpy out