Life is a journey, not always happy or sad but always interesting. Join me as we travel the winding road via this blog, on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/mabryatpinnacol), and on Instagram (@davidmabry).
The calendar says its only late August, but the kids are all back in their sometimes air conditioned schools, the Labor Day Holiday weekend is upon us, and the stores are already sporting their Halloween merchandise so I guess Summer must be coming to a close. Only sixty or so days until the big BOO Spectacular when my neck of the prairie can see its first snow yet the temps across the country are still setting record highs and yesterday when I was out mowing the lawn (who's seasonal awareness isn't great) it felt downright hot. Only mad dogs, Englishmen, and idiots like me are out in 96 degree heat but my grass keeps growing so I keep mowing.
We were just up in the central Colorado mountains near Leadville and nighttime temps are creeping down into the 30's though I haven't seen any film of ice yet on the dogs outside water bowl. Three weeks ago we spent 10 days in South Fork, Colorado which is where Texans and Oklahomans flock to beat their sizzling summer heat. Not sure how that worked out this year as sizzling is still the adjective of choice for the temps we experienced while there. South Fork is closer to Santa Fe, New Mexico than Denver so for front rangers like my wife and I its quite the jaunt to get to explore a part of our home State that we don't often visit. What a real treat it was to see some new country and hear some new accents, y'all. And despite Colorado's ongoing love/hate relationship with Texas its citizenry overall appears to be rather nice and well, just friendly. Which makes sense I guess since the Texas State motto is Friendship. And for you Trivia lovers out there here's something new to add to your trivia collection: Texas adopted Friendship as the State Motto in 1930 and according to Ms. Google was most likely chosen because the name of Texas or Tejas was the Spanish pronunciation of the local Indian tribe's word 'teyshas' meaning friends or allies. And lest I leave out our good friends from the Sooner State, Oklahoma's Motto is "Labor Omnia Vincit": 'Steady work overcame all things'. I guess if I had my druthers, in this season of political sensitivity, I'd lean toward Friendship but to each State their own.
Some of the original rail bikes...
While in South Fork, when we weren't brushing up on trivia, we did try some new things that we had not done before. One of these was Railbiking which puts you in modern, lightweight aluminum rail vehicles that you can then easily pedal down the tracks of abandoned rail lines. The company we railbiked with, Revolution Rail Co., operates railbiking opportunities in several States. Railbiking was not only truly easy to do but it was a heckuva lot of fun. While new to my better half and I, railbiking has been around since almost as long as there have been,,, well you know, railroads. Those original railbikes looked much like... well you know, a regular bicycle, but with special attachments to fit on rails, They look a little sketchy if you ask me, nothing like the comfortable, and did I mention easy?, conveyance we rode in South Fork. The railbike tour was at our own pace and each person can pedal at whatever speed they desire. Heck, you can even stop pedaling entirely and let your fellow pedalers do all the work. Not that that's what I did. Not at all. You can see what our railbiking adventure looked like here:South Fork offers lots of outdoor recreation to sample. We went paddleboarding on Big Meadows reservoir, did some regular mountain biking, and spent a relaxing day up the road in Creede, Colorado. In Creede we drove the famous (infamous?) Bachelor Loop, a historic 17 mile drive through the mining district above the town. Beware: the East part of the drive features a steep (very, very steep) four-wheel drive road not really suitable for regular cars. I of course didn't know that at the time I was coming
Creede's Bachelor Loop
down this (very, very) steep road having done the loop in a clockwise direction and I was glad to be in a 4WD pickup. Lets just say, if its pouring rain and the dirt roads start getting a little slick, you won't be going up or down this particular section, at least not by choice. Its a beautiful drive though and we eventually made it safely back into town so perhaps it was worth the white knuckles.
Creede's main street features eclectic shops and restaurants and is only about a half-hour drive from South Fork. From Creede you can continue west over Slumgullion Pass (11,530 ft.) to Lake City and beyond but that's worth a whole trip in itself.
Given the hot temps while we were there, we spent as much time on the water as possible. Our railbiking outing offered a bike and raft combo package so we also were able to raft the placid (given that it was late July) waters of the Rio Grande river. In Spring and early Summer I'm sure the water flows a lot faster and offers some whitewater thrills but our trip was one of the last for the season due to falling water levels. Still, a nice float down a beautiful river beats a good day at work so who were we to argue? Here's a sampling of our Rio Grande experience...
South Fork, Colorado is a gateway town to other areas to explore. Drive just outside of town to the south and you'll climb Wolf Creek Pass which I've biked over several times thanks to now-gone events like Ride the Rockies. Once over the Pass you'll arrive in Pagosa Springs where you'll find, among other things, one of the southwest's great Frozen Yogurt shops, PS Froyos. On yet another 100 degree day it really hit the spot.
Having spent time in Pagosa Springs before we were looking for the road less traveled and found it further south out of town when we came upon Chimney Rocks National Monument. CRNP features the ancient homes and buildings of the Ancestral Puebloans who were associated with the folks living 100 miles south in Chaco Canyon. 1,000 years ago people built homes and Kivas, grew crops and raised families in this area. The half-mile walk to the top brings you not only to where you'll see the ruins but also spectacular views all around. On the afternoon we were there we had the ruins, and the well-informed interpretative guide, all to ourselves. The road less traveled doesn't get much less crowded than that. See some of Chimney Rock and our other excursions around South Fork here:
I know this blog has morphed into something longer than intended and for that I apologize. I hope your Summer has been as chock full of things seen and done as ours has. If not, there's still time. According to the calendar Fall doesn't begin until September 23rd so there's time to get out there and enjoy that still sizzling heat. Hot dogs anyone?
How's your summer going? In my neck of the woods (actually a piece of the prairie) a three letter word about covers it - H O T. We're expecting record breaking temps in the low 100's for the next couple of days which I know is nothing compared to what some folks are dealing with. They say "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" and they can certainly keep their 115+ temps to themselves. And that's nothing compared to Death Valley just a couple of miles to the west where they've been seeing temps in the 120's. There was some speculation as to whether Death Valley's Furnace Creek would break 130 degrees but so far that doesn't seem to have happened and as I write this its only a balmy 116 degrees according to the National Weather Service device at the Furnace Creek Visitors Center. News reports say that visitors (many from Europe apparently) are flocking to the area specifically to experience what a Heat Dome (who comes up with this jargon?) can deliver.
If you Google the hottest temp ever recorded on planet Earth you'll find that on July 10, 1913 it reached 134.1 degrees (56.7Celcius for our European friends) at the Furnace Creek Ranch which presumably had an accurate thermometer for measuring such things since the Death Valley Visitors Center wasn't opened until 1960. Interestingly the site I referenced for the past several day's temps in Furnace Creek makes a distinction between 'Hot' and 'Extremely Hot' somewhere between 110 and 114 degrees with 110 only being 'Hot'. I'll leave such nuances to those folks standing outside the Visitors Center today thinking to themselves "Hmmm, I'm feeling extremely hot at the moment..." before hopefully ducking back inside the air-conditioned comfort of the aforementioned Visitors Center.
Me, I'm just stupid. This morning I was up at the crack-o-dawn to go for a ride before it got too hot (is too hot just 'hot' or is it 'extremely hot'?). As they say, stupid is as stupid does and by the time I got home the mercury was already North of a hundred and not done rising as it was still well before noon. Some cultures have this thing called a siesta and I'm thinking of adopting that custom. Either that or I'm moving to Dawson City in the Yukon where its a chilly 68 degrees. BRRRRR.
I've been to Alaska twice now and one of my favorite pictures about Fairbanks is the one showing University of Alaska students posing in swimsuits in front of the campus temperature sign when its 49 degrees..................below zero. Does that qualify as 'Cold' or 'Extremely Cold'? Is that a 'Cold Dome'? If I was one of these six intrepid souls I'd want to head South and get a pic next to the Furnace Creek Visitors Center temp sign (if they even have such a thing) reading 130 degrees plus. A whopping (that's another technical term I borrowed from the National Weather Service) 179 degree difference. Stick that on Tik Tok and smoke it.
Back in late April/early May my better half ( who has enough sense to get out of the sun when its still only 'Warm') and I ventured to Arizona and California with the express intention of escaping the Winter cold (though we never saw 49 below... darn). We were in the Phoenix area where it was already in the high 90's before foolishly continuing on to Palm Springs, California where, yup, it was already triple-digit temps. We then spent some time on the coast where they were having a cool and wet Spring with temps in the 50's. You can join us on some of that excursion in the video below.
Wearing parkas and stocking caps is not what we went to California for but there you have it. Still the crowds were friendly, the traffic was at a standstill (30 mile traffic jam stop and go (mainly stop) leaving Palm Springs as the Coachella Music and Arts Festival disgorged its attendees back to La La Land, and the ocean was still mesmerizing as it's waves cascaded on the San Diego beaches which were closed to water contact while we were there thanks to a massive (another technical term) sewage leak.
What say we head back to the desert, this time to Lake Havasu where the lovely ladies in their bikinis could still enjoy actually getting wet in the cold but clean waters of the Colorado River. We were there during an event called Desert Storm which is a celebration of all things bikini with performance boat racing and expo thrown in. We're talking speeds approaching 200 mph (I'm talking about the boats not the bikinis) so it was really something to see. Being humble folks of a more human-powered ilk we felt somewhat out of place and our Colorado license plates apparently (?) pegged us as Biden lovers (?) in what turned out to be very much a Trump stronghold with no tolerance for those not having yet drunk the Kool Aid. So it was fare thee well to the good folks of Havasu as we watched them fade from sight in the rear view mirror (figuratively and literally) as we made our way North through Vegas (ahead of the soon-to-make-an-appearance blistering temperatures) and into the cooler and more welcoming climes of St. George, Utah.
St. George, if you've never been, is a beautiful, though no longer small (having been discovered by Californians as a relatively affordable place to retire) community adjacent to Zion National Park. Already crowded though it was still early season, we avoided the National Park where the tourists thronged and spent our time exploring some of Utah's State Parks which are equally beautiful but generally less busy. The Road That Beckons is often best when it's the Road Less Traveled and we found that to be the case in Utah.
From St. George we continued North on I-15 and then East on I-70 where we spent several unplanned days in the little town of Richfield, Utah. What was supposed to be a one-night stopover turned into a three day visit as we fell in love with this wonderful town. Don't tell anyone, but if I was looking for a truly idyllic community to retire to, Richfield might top the list. It checks the list in terms of true affordability, a walkable downtown along with just a couple of big-box stores (Home Depot and Walmart), good restaurants, a College, and lots of recreational amenities nearby. Oh, and the high temps in the summer top out on average in the 80's and low 90's. Maybe I don't have to move to the Yukon after all.
Too soon it was time to head for home and what greeted us as we crossed back into Colorado? May.... snow showers. Welcome home.
My local Regal Theatre has come up with a clever gimmick to get patrons into theatre seats on perhaps their slowest night of the week, Monday. Once or twice a month they offer a Mystery Movie Night where for just $5 a person you can see a new release with the only catch being that you don't know what you'll be watching until the credits start to roll. A friend clued us into this and we've now seen two excellent flicks: Ordinary Angels starring Hilary Swank and One Life with Anthony Hopkins. If you're looking for something a tad more substantial than Kung Fu Panda 4 then I'd highly recommend them,
Ordinary Angels is a true story based on the book by Sharon Stevens Evans about ordinary people rising up to save the life of a sick child. One Life is also about helping children but in a completely different context and the main character, Nicholas Winton, was actually featured on 60 Minutes several years ago so I was vaguely familiar with the story when the movie started but the story is so compelling that the ending still elicited strong emotions. Here too the movie is based on a book written by Mr. Winton's wife Barbara. I only mention the books as the old adage says that 'the book is better than the movie' and if that holds true I can't wait to read both.
I did experience something completely new at last night's mystery showing of One Life that I hope is a one-off and not indicative of what is to become a new norm. There were probably thirty or so folks in Theatre #3 along with my wife, our friend and myself. As the previews started to show someone in the theatre thought it would be appropriate to light a joint and share the pungent aroma with the rest of us. I have seen patrons vape during theatre shows (not to mention a certain Colorado congresswoman caught in the act on camera) but had not had the pleasure of partaking secondhand in the ganja goodness in such a setting. I guess going forward they'll have to add the prohibition of smoking pot in movie theatres to the already present restrictions on cell phone usage. Either that or the lobby concession stand can start selling dispensary offerings along with their peanuts and popcorn. Regardless, the in-theatre experience for me is still a treat and to see two such outstanding movies for only $5 is a deal too good to pass up!
I can't wait until the next Mystery Movie and best of all during the month of March Regal Theatres is offering one every week. Hopefully see you there and if you have to light up please do so outside or in the lobby. I know you'll be hungry...
News has it that today is the day to get hitched if you’re into the marriage kind of thing. Why today? Well, it’s December 31st, 2023 and the last day of the year. Need something more? It’s 12/31/23… Still not there? It’s 123123 - 123 123. Apparently some folks with romance on their minds find that series of numbers auspicious. Granted that series of 123123 won’t happen again for another hundred years and the last time it occurred was in 1923. For the guys out there who have trouble remembering their anniversary date I guess it is auspicious as it probably doesn’t get any easier to remember than 123 123. If you forget that maybe you really shouldn’t be tying the knot tomorrow after all.
‘23 will soon be in the history books and some might say good riddance. There’s certainly some fond memories (especially if you scored tickets to see Ms. Swift’s concerts) but like most years there was a fair share of the bad to balance out the good. After all this is Human history we’re talking about. What say we take a quick look back at some of what’s happened in good ole’ ‘23… See if you can tell which ones really happened:
On January 2nd Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin collapses on the field after making a tackle and needed to be resuscitated. After a remarkable recovery he would return to the football field in November.*
Mary Katharine Campbell is crowned Miss America.*
Ke Huy Quan wins the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”.*
The first report on the Teapot Dome Scandal is published by the U.S. Senate.
In March the first former President to have ever been charged with a crime is indicted by a New York Grand Jury.*
The self-winding watch is patented and the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio is founded.^
The bloodiest war between Israel and Hamas begins.*
16 people die on the second day of the Beer Hall Putsch.^
The first Presidential address is broadcast on the radio in the U.S.^
Barbie becomes the highest grossing film of the year.*
Nepal gains independence.*
The “Fate of Frankenstein”, based on the 1818 Mary Shelley novel Frankenstein opens at the Royal Opera House at Coventry Garden. The author of the novel attends the only performance based on her work that she will ever see.
Hugh Glass is mauled by a grizzly and has to crawl 200 miles for help.
Bruce Willis is diagnosed with dementia and Rosalynn Carter dies after receiving a dementia diagnosis earlier in the year.*
Simon Bolivar is named President of Peru.
Southern California beats Penn State in the Rose Bowl 14-3.^
January sees the first penalty-free game played in the NHL.^
Time Magazine publishes its first issue.^
Time Magazine names Taylor Swift its Person of the Year.*
A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the closest between 1226 and 2874, occurs on July 16th.
So a lot has happened in ‘23. You may have picked up that not all of the above happened last year, but in fact they all did happen in '23... just not in 2023. Those with an * happened in the year just past. Those with an ^ indicates events from one hundred years ago: 1923. And if you knew Simon Bolivar, Hugh Glass and Mary Shelley hearken back to 1823 then you’re a true history buff. With your good memory, and you’re single, you might just want to take that marriage leap on 123123. For the rest of us, as the old adage goes, “the more things change…”
As 2023 draws to its inevitable, and at times interminable, close we’re starting to see the usual end of year lists. Time just announced that Taylor (do we even need to use her last name anymore? Hasn’t she reached or surpassed the levels of other single moniker divas such as Cher and Madonna?) as Person of the Year. If you’re not in the know about all things Taylor I’d recommend you read the excellent article. I’d be last in line to say that what Ms. Swift accomplished with her Eras Tour and subsequent movie wasn’t incredible but her naming is as much a commentary on the lack of standout nominees this year as it is a recognition that Taylor, at the end of the day an entertainer, was the most deserving of most important person of 2023. Just look at the list of folks (or groups) she was up against: the Hollywood Strikers, Xi Xinping, Sam Altman, the Trump Prosecutors, Barbie, Vladimir Putin, King Charles III, and Jerome Powell. Ho, Ho, Hum. Admit it - reading the list you probably had to stop and think to yourself - why was this person or group even in the news this year? Either the fleeting half-life of the news cycle or the ho-hum nature of most of this list is what swiftly moves Taylor to the top of this increasingly less-than relevant award.
Did you see Taylor’s movie? I did. It was outstanding. I saw the movie because, perhaps as you already guessed, no one would confuse me for a Swiftie, and I was not going to spend $254 for a hard stadium seat that I probably wouldn’t have spent much time actually sitting in. Heck, even at the movie showing folks were hard pressed to remain seated. Instead, singing and dancing in the aisles between the very comfortable and perfectly adequate stadium seating, thank you very much, was the order of the day.
At the opposite extreme of Time’s list of the famous and infamous is the sad recounting of who the world lost in the last year. 2023’s losses were anything but ho-hum. Way too long to list here but I’ll mention just a few: Sandra Day O’Connor, Henry Kissinger, Rosalynne Carter, Matthew Perry, Norman Lear, Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, and for those with the ability to dance or at least an appreciation of those that can, Len Goodman. Can Barbie or AI (Artificial Intelligence aka Sam Altman) compete?
Granted, we’re only a couple of years removed from the pandemic which for many of us will be remembered as perhaps the most ho-hum period of our lives. Too many of our recent years look best in the rear view mirror as they rapidly disappear from memory.
Our politicians promise, as they always do, better times ahead and even that jaded promise seems ho-hum given the condition of the world today. I watched the Republican Debate the other evening (I think it was just me and one other guy in Boise and I think he slept through most of it). The ‘Hollywood Strikers’ who made the Times list would have been hard pressed to have come up with anything remotely close to the political farce that was on display.
My wife and I, both getting into our ‘Golden Years’ (whatever that means), both agree that it is perhaps time for a younger generation to try their hand at running a very complex and difficult world. Not that we believe that a newer generation necessarily has any better answers than any preceding generation did. If that was the case the world’s problems would have been solved long, long ago (remember the ‘Greatest Generation’?). Still, if what was on display was any indication of what the 'next' generation is offering it's no surprise that the winner of the debate, at least according to the pundits, was the one person who most should have been on stage but was conspicuous by their very absence. Ho-hum.
Speaking of entertainment, we were in downtown Littleton a couple of days ago perusing the retail Holiday offerings and had a chance to meet Mr. Claus sitting in his updated sleigh. We also chanced upon some Carolers who treated us to a rousing rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. They raised the bar from ho-hum to Ho! Ho! Ho! at least for this jolly old elf (me). The Carolers will be making the rounds in downtown Littleton every Saturday and Sunday in December between noon and 3 if you're in the mood for this kind of Holiday cheer. I love Christmas Carols so I'll leave you with a short video of one of my favorites - Silent Night sung by Sinead O'Connor who also sadly left us in 2023. Hopefully in 2024 there will be less of the ho, ho-hum and more of the Ho! Ho! Ho!
In my neck of the woods, actually more like my neck of the prairie that Denver, Colorado really is, its leaf raking season and has been for, oh, the last month and a half. And, at least in my backyard, leaf raking season is still far from over.
The local T.V. (For those of you who still actually watch such a thing) weather prognosticators had forecast a winter storm to pass through last night and into today with wind and a mix of rain and snow. Instead we woke to sunny skies and dry conditions and nary a breath of wind. The only movement of the leaves outside my window are from the intrepid squirrels going about whatever their business is this time of year.
What was Einstein’s definition of insanity?
I was counting on the wind to finally (did I mention its been a month and a half?) knock down the final leaves off our trees so that I and my beautiful wife could put the finishing touches on having a leaf-free yard before the serious flakes start to fall.
Not that anyone’s counting, but I’ve now raked the leaves that have fallen at least four or five times. I’m sure the garbage man that collects our lawn bags full of leaves is wondering if we have a leaf production facility in our backyard and the answer is yes, yes we do and it has been operating in overdrive this very mild late summer/early fall that we have been experiencing this year.
And still when I gaze upward into the branches of our willow, oak, and ash trees I still see a plentitude of leaves just waiting to tumble down and cover my lawn anew. I grew up in New England where leaves know how to behave. When its time for them to fall, they fall. You rake them up into big piles, the kids run and jump into those piles, you rake them up again, and then you’re done.
Perhaps I should mention that I don’t just rake my leaves. Ours get special treatment. I mow them, blow them, vacuum them and mulch them before they get bagged. The only thing I don’t do is wash and dry them. Back in the day in New England we’d burn the piles after raking but I’d guess in today’s world that’s now taboo. And here in the West burning of anything, especially in one’s back yard, is a serious no-no.
A couple of years ago my beautiful wife had the brilliant idea that we should put river rock around our backyard deck as it would make lawn maintenance easier. What she, and yes I, failed to consider come Fall was trying to get the fallen leaves out of said river rocks. Granted it did make LAWN maintenance that much easier as there is less grass to mow, but the work involved in removing the leaf litter from the rocks has me thinking it may be time to invest in a chain saw and eliminating the heart of the problem - trees. When we moved into our humble abode many years ago our backyard was not landscaped unless you consider mud your thing. So we dutifully laid sod, created flower gardens, and planted trees. Small trees. Very small trees. I’ll let you in on a secret - just like kids, trees tend to grow (and grow, and grow) and before we knew what hit us we were in the leaf making business big time. If they taxed my leaf production Prop HH (if you’re not from Colorado, never mind and be glad) wouldn’t have needed to be on the ballot.
Even the wind hasn’t cooperated this year. Usually if I wait long enough a strong wind will come along and make my leaf problem my neighbor’s leaf problem which in my book means problem solved. Of course if the wind changes direction his problem becomes my problem but at least I have a 50-50 chance which are better odds than you’d get on our beloved Broncos.
You’d never know that I mowed yesterday
They taunt me. I’m sitting here writing this and I see them, one leaf at a time, slowly fluttering down. I can almost hear the trees laughing at me. You’d never know by looking at my lawn that just yesterday I had mowed them all up in anticipation of the winter storm that was not to be. Just in the time it took you to read this sentence I could fill two or three bags full of leaves.
I know, I know. Just suck it up, pull out my big-boy rake and get after it. Which I’ve put off long enough while writing this blog. I mean, it’s either that or move to the coast and buy a boat.
From my house to yours Happy Raking and may the wind always blow towards your neighbor.
A common enough question, at least in a sane world, but becoming increasingly problematic given the seemingly ever-increasing global turmoil.
Like one heck of a lot of retirees my wife and I had envisioned doing some traveling in our ‘golden years’ (whatever that means) and so far we’ve been moderately successful save for brief interruptions from things like COVID. We often get asked the question of where we’re from out of most folks natural curiosity or simply as a conversation starter. Innocent enough on the surface but more challenging than ever to honestly answer. Why? What’s wrong with simply saying “We’re from Denver, Colorado!”? The short answer is that it immediately shares our nationality - American.
Years ago we were on a trip that stopped briefly in Nicaragua that to put it mildly has had an interesting relationship with the good ole’ U.S.of A and were told that if asked where we were from we probably didn’t want to acknowledge our true country of origin. So, just like that, I became Canadian, eh. If anyone pressed, especially since I don’t really sound Canadian, I was from Vancouver, just across the border from Seattle. Point being that most Nicaraguans are perhaps not up on their Canadian geography and more importantly Canadian accents to truly know what someone from the beautiful city of Vancouver actually sounds like.
Why Canadian? Well, most folks like Canadians and for the last couple of centuries Canada hasn’t dominated global happenings and all the political and military baggage that comes along with that. Simply put, Canadians are usually not a target when traveling. Americans are.
This Spring, while on a cruise in the Caribbean, I was again asked the “where you from?” question. I thought I’d try the “Canada, eh” response and see if I was any more successful at convincing this nice Antiguan (or whatever the proper designation is for someone from the paradise that is the island of Antigua) than I had been with the Nicaraguans. Now, he didn’t immediately tell me that I didn’t sound Canadian. Instead, what he did tell me, was that I didn’t look Canadian. Hmmmm. My travel advisor hadn’t trained me on how to look Canadian or conversely, not look American. Stereotypes aside, what does a Canadian look like? I mean, granted I’ll never be confused with Wayne Gretzky, but can you tell that William Shatner, Michael Fox, and Justin Bieber (and many more very famous and accomplished people) are all from the Great White North just by looking at them?
We were in Morocco last year, the city of Marrakech to be specific. Depending on the political climate at any given time Americans might or might not be welcome in this beautiful country at the northern tip of Africa. Wandering the streets of the old town we were approached by two young men who, speaking English, wanted to take us on a tour (notwithstanding the fact that we were already on a tour!). I pretended not to understand them and inevitably when they asked, in English, where I was from, I immediately proclaimed “Deutschland!” (Germany) and in my best 7th grade German asked them “sprechen sie deutsch?” (Do you speak German?). They didn’t buy my being German any more than the Nicaraguans or Antiguans bought my being Canadian, eh, Fortunately our Moroccan Tour Guide (did I mention that we were already on a tour?) intervened and we were on our merry way.
All this is a long way of getting to the fact that we are scheduled to head to Europe in December to take one of the trips on our retirement bucket list (“bucket list, eh!” - see… I really can pass for Canadian!) and with the state of world affairs are starting to recognize that once again we may well be persona non grata (unwelcome) based on our nationality. As our State Department points out: Due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. Meaning don’t stand out in the way you look or sound. If our travel history and my laughable efforts is any guide that will be easier said than done.
Anyhoo (as one of my former coworkers used to say), I thought I’d share a short video of a trip we did this Fall much closer to home where no one asked us where we were from. Granted it was only a couple of miles from where we live but the bottom line is that it was a glorious Fall day to get out and see the autumn colors from a different perspective. While you watch the video I’m going to be busy digging through my closet to find my toque (stocking hat) that proves I’m from beautiful Banff, Canada, eh!
