Once again, it’s the best of 2019 edition of the BLT. It's my favorite edition of all the editions. Read along and you’ll find out why.
As I left you in 2018, I was in Kosovo. After a Thanksgiving trip to Tunisia, I didn’t expect to go anywhere for the foreseeable future. Like Kosovo, Tunisia is a moderate Muslim country. I wasn’t expecting to see Black Friday advertising but anything for a buck...or in this case...dinar...I guess. We'd moved from the small St. Anthony's Church to having Christmas Masses at the Cathedral. Your Kosovo tour begins here.
As the project was winding down, our office had moved from the job site to the cramped offices at our office site warehouse. We'd sent a lot of folks to other projects or to their homes. Along with my regular work load on the Kosovo project, I worked on the Irbil Iraq project, my future project. We had our company Christmas party at the restaurant across the street from the office but we skipped the potluck Christmas dinner. I invited a handful of folks to an unconventional crockpot turkey dinner. I had one guest.
On a whim, I took up an invitation from my Tunisian friend and headed south to warmer weather...again! We tried restaurants that were new to me which I enjoyed. My favorite food from Tunisia is lamb.
It was more of the same as the previous visit but for some reason, food didn’t like me on this trip. Although I could have spent an additional day in Tunisia, I flew back on New Years Day instead of the following day so I could rest up before work resumed.
While in Tunisia, I was promised the best burger I could find. My rule about hamburgers is this: I don’t know what makes a good/great burger but I know a bad one immediately. It was a very good burger with a huge topping selection including my choice of beef or pork bacon. It was located opposite an apartment complex in the most remote unlikely business area I could imagine. It was also had the most non-business décor I could imagine. How the owner selected this location for his restaurant is beyond me. The proof is in the pudding. He’d been in the US and moved back to Tunisia. He violated the simplest business principle...location, location, location! McDonalds, in doing their homework for possible franchise locations, does extensive location studies before they ever buy a property. The other food chains simply locate their businesses next to McDonalds as their homework was done by McDonalds. This location wouldn’t pass the McDonald’s test. He sold burgers and had been doing so in this location for ten years. The Saturday night I was there, he had a well-trained staff, good product, and a good young crowd that seemed to create a good source of income for a long time. It reminded me of a burger place I frequented in Laos. The owner simply unloaded his truck load of tables, chairs, and kitchen equipment and started business on a $1,200 investment that lives today. Sometimes, you just get lucky.
Often times, when working overseas, to find a place of interest such as a store or restaurant, we collect business cards to share the location with our colleagues. Simply handing the card to the taxi driver will bring the power of recall to the driver. It has a phone number he can call to get the location as well.
Another technique I developed was collaboration. I would find a location and if I couldn’t explain it to someone, I’d tell them I’d call them when I arrived. They would go hail a taxi and call me. I would hand my phone to my waiter or waitress and they would hand their phone to the driver. The two would exchange instructions in their own language. In Morocco, I once had a colleague phone me four times because the taxi driver had difficulty finding my location even after conversing with my waiter on each call. I found an Irish pub. He was Irish and eventually, this became his home away from home.
Years ago, some friends and I were going to a famous restaurant in Winnipeg. There were four in our party. Only one of us knew where we were going but we needed two taxis to take us to the destination. Our driver didn’t know the restaurant location by name so I said: "I’ve always wanted to do this...follow that car!" This was a topic of conversation of this group for years to come.
This technique is a hybrid of the previous paragraphs. I had dropped my friend off for some appointments. She told me to landmark this drop off point on my GPS as it was New Years Eve and it would be difficult finding a taxi. I returned to my hotel. After I missed our agreed upon pick-up time...I was lost. She called me but I didn’t have the correct name in my GPS and didn’t recognize it. As I wrote previously, I lost my internal sense of direction and still hadn’t gained it back. I did a search and found a point near my home many years ago in Carthage. She sent me a text with the name of the location and I searched for it and got even further away.
My friend is getting very nervous. I can’t get a clear signal to call her. Eventually, I found a taxi parked along the roadway and I have a clear phone call. I told my friend to explain to the taxi driver exactly where she was. I hand the taxi driver my phone. They talk. He nods his head acknowledging he knows where she’s at, returns my phone, gets in his car, turns on his flashers, and drives away. I follow taking me to her without a hitch. There’s my friend smiling knowing that somehow, we’d figure it out. We both laughed. Cost of it all...under two dollars. This driver got paid for no passengers.
My GPS and I found my old church. The doors were locked and I saw no signs of anyone around it so it was just a visual. After I returned to Kosovo, I located the church through their Facebook page. Now I have Mass and contact information. Email me and I will share it with you or you can contact them through their Facebook page.
I stayed in a different hotel not far from the airport. It was more centrally located and much more expensive. The gym had a few machines but nowhere near the size and features of my usual stay. I spent less time driving and there were a lot more neighborhood features I liked. Tradeoffs I guess.
New Years Eve, I video chatted with several friends over Facebook Messenger right from my hotel room in Tunisia. To many folks, that may not sound like much but for me, to get caught up with friends I haven’t seen nor heard from in a while, it means a lot. Due to time differences, I may not be able to chat right away but if you IM me or send me an email, we can work out a time that will work for both of us. Be prepared to send me some family photos and/or selfies.
In lessons learned from my previous trip to the Tunis airport, I got to the airport four hours ahead of my flight so this experience was much better than the previous one. I had plenty of time before my flight. I flew back to Kosovo on New Years day. The airports were a lot less crowded. Perhaps, my added hour at the airport along with the holiday travel helped.
In other lessons learned, at breakfast, I actually watched the hotel chef make my omelet. Usually, I just scramble the eggs and cooked the fixings and called them skillets. My missing ingredient...cooking oil to let the egg slip away from the pan. Unfortunately, also in lessons relearned...ham isn’t part of the Muslim breakfast and I think I ate some spoiled ham that got the best of me...don’t eat what the locals don’t eat.
In previous updates, I wrote that my next project would be located in Erbil, Iraq. I wrote that I wasn’t sure of that. I’d been told by my boss that the likelihood of me going to Erbil was in question. Early one morning, I was still in bed but I checked my email. Though I’d signed a contract, the offer to go to Erbil was retracted. Do you want to go to Nogales Mexico? Kinda, sorta!
I’m totally mixed on Nogales. I told my boss of my mixed emotions and to find a project that fits my definition of an overseas project:
Bottom line...I need to be further away from home in a place that isn’t in the news so much. I generally don’t stay long enough to see the end of a project but this time was an exception. I’ve lived in Kosovo for over three years, the longest time in any one address since I graduated from high school way back when. As I’ve written before, I love living and working in Kosovo but our project is finished and it’s time to move on to new adventures in a new location.
To get to Nogales, you can fly to Tucson Arizona and drive across the border or fly into Hermosillo, Mexico. I have a few friends in the Phoenix area and it’s only three hours away.
With an unknown/floating departure date, getting the kitchen stock down was less than science. Like before, if I wanted to eat, I couldn’t go to the cupboard or the fridge and get something out. I needed to go shopping. Many items made their way to the dumpster with some of those disposed items getting recycled by the dumpster divers. I gave my bicycle to the son of my former housekeeper and my two TVs went to charity. Some of my obsolete smartphones went to friends.
Often times, the company will donate temporary office buildings, the entire buildings, to local schools and orphanages. In this case, we donated our office furniture to a local school.
All the company furnished cars and trucks were sold too. Many are sold to our local employees. The car that I used, in spite of being in a couple of fender benders, seems to be highly popular. Even forgetting the accidents, it’s a nice car with lots of pep once you shut off the AC. I’ve had three inquiries about its’ availability for sale. As long as I’m here, the company kept the car. It was used for normal business operations throughout the day and I’d use it a couple of weekends a month. With my vacillating departure date, it was hard to sell a car with a corresponding sale date so the other units sold first.
The snow started falling in Kosovo two weeks before Christmas and didn’t let up until mid-January. Walking was an adventure as not many property owners clean the snow off of the sidewalks. I believe there’s only one snow shovel in Kosovo and it’s gathering rust. The pedestrians pack the snow which turns to ice making walking a whole new adventure. Many of the sidewalks surrounding buildings were paved with stone. Even a hint of moisture turns the stone to an ice-like surface. Each step is tentative.
I had another visitor to Kosovo. The flurries fell as her flight landed. The following evening, it dumped. Similarly, she brought it to Omaha when she came there. I joke that she brought the snow with her. Her retort is that she takes it with her because it didn’t stay long. We did our best to find the worst movies Hollywood has sent to the silver screen.
I flew home on 7 February and flew to Tucson eight days later driving the rest of the way to Nogales Mexico, the flip side of the border from Nogales, AZ.
When I left Omaha for Nogales, it was 8F° outside (-13° Celsius). Eight inches (20 cm) of snow fell that day. I flew into Tucson and a driver took me across the border. On the road to the border, speed limits were miles per hour but distances were in metric. When I crossed the border, my US cellphone (Tracfone) stopped working. It should have been an omen. I'm less than ten miles from the border. Just looking around, I knew I wasn't in the US anymore. Streets aren't well maintained.
We're staying on the Mexico side of the border. As is always the case, my company pays for the local taxes and we pay the US taxes. With NAFTA, the Mexico occupation taxes for Americans are almost as much as the US taxes. Late in the year, we were hammered by the impact of the company paying for these taxes. My check was cut in half
As I'm closer to the US than I've ever been in my international career, I'm getting more invitations from friends north of the border inviting me to stop by. The temptation to head north of the border will always be there. I need to keep my overseas tax deduction so I'm not too anxious to make trips to the US.
Getting goods into the country isn't that easy. Even our letters get opened by Mexico customs. I'm guessing it's quid quo pro.
Getting into the country was a cinch. The border folks didn't even look at my passport nor my luggage. The lines for entry into the US are quite long. I got my TSA global entry which will reduce my waiting times into the US.
This is my second trip to Mexico. For spring break of my junior year at college, my roommate and I took a trip to LA and San Diego with an afternoon jaunt over to Tijuana. From what little I do remember, we parked our rental car and walked across the border. Folks were aggressively trying to sell leather jackets and switchblades to two very uninterested tourists. The more sales pitches we heard, the more we couldn't wait to get back on the north side of the border. We looked into a few stores and bars but kept walking until we hit the US. We probably bought a few bottles of water. If they wanted to sell us anything else, I don't remember. It's been so long ago that my memory has forgotten that short excursion.
The gas station across the street from the office has lots of police vehicles fueling up. Seeing the armed border patrols there makes me realize I'm not in Nebraska anymore. Unlike the US, there are gas attendants who'll fill your vehicle.
For the first month, I stayed in a hotel a couple hundred yards (meters are a bit less) from the job. The office is on the perimeter fence of the job site as is my apartment. My company rented the apartment but the furnishings took a while to arrive…just over a month after I arrived. You can see the temporary office and job from the hotel. The office is about a five-minute walk from the apartment. When we moved to the official entrance to the project, the time to get on the site went down to about twenty seconds. The company gave me a compact SUV to drive. With everything so close, the only reason to use it are trips to the gym, airport (Tucson), and grocery store. The items I shipped from Kosovo took a long time to arrive. Many will just sit in my spare bedroom until I get reassigned to another project. The spare bedroom is my box room.
There's lots of US Chains: Starbucks, Applebee's, AT&T, IHOP, Walmart, Sam's, Home Depot, Office Depot, McDonald's, Carl's Jr., Subway, Dairy Queen, Papa John's, BK, KFC, Little Caesar's, Chevron, ARCO, Auto Zone, Dodge, Ford, Chevy, and probably a few more I've missed. HSBC, DHL, Toyota, and Nissan are here too. The office / apartment / hotel / job location has all of those US franchises in less than a quarter mile (400 meters). Many are contained in a shopping mall which has a movie theater, food court, a casino, and a few tenants selling cell phones, cable TV, and not much else.
I don't recognize the names of the movies playing at the movie theater except for Lego 2. Movie titles are translated into Spanish. Some movies are in English but you need to check in advance. With a little bit of homework, I was able to see an English version of Captain Marvel and one other movie. If the movie is advertised with subtitles, the movie is in spoken English with Spanish subtitles. For an afternoon matinee, it cost me about three dollars. I had stadium seating though the seats weren't as comfortable as the high back stadium seats I'd used before. Like everywhere except the US, seats were reserved. There were about four others in the whole theater. The screen was high definition large screen. 3D was available but not in English. I didn't try the concession stand.
There isn't much mall business during the day but at night, it's the place to be. I often get my lunch from the food court and sometimes, my dinner too.
I know very few words in Spanish. What few I know, I picked up from my siblings in my youth. They took Spanish in high school. My father threatened to disown me if I took Spanish in high school so I took French. Why he didn't make the same threats to my siblings who took Spanish is beyond me. I've had more occasions to use French than Spanish but now that all seems futile.
In the grocery store, Googling Spanish translations is a useful tool for hunting down things I need. I'm experimenting with various apps. Grocery stores are a challenge for me. Finding certain products (generally spices and Italian foods) is a challenge. I’ve never seen an entire section devoted to making fresh tortillas until I came to Mexico. Pork based ham is another specialty section of the deli. Like other countries, I shop at a number of grocery stores to get what I need. Right now, it's a scavenger hunt for one. Some of the things I need are purchased from friends traveling to the US.
The hotel doesn't have much of a gym. There are three gyms close to the hotel. I joined one several weeks after I arrived, just before I moved into my apartment but not right away. Each has features that make it better than the others but two of the three are closed on Sundays...a big drawback. One of the crew found a gym that was 24-7 that only closes on Christmas and New Years. It's a fifteen minute drive each way. None of the gyms I've seen has a decent locker room. With barely room for one and not too clean, changing at home is my norm.
Living in a hotel for extended periods presents unique challenges, mostly what to eat. In this case, the aforementioned restaurants. You get into a rut and that gets routine. From what I've read on the web telling that folks who dine out eat more than those that eat at home. I don't have my scale but I have no doubt that I've put on a few pounds since I've moved into the hotel. There's also a lot more free time as I don't have to cook or clean.
One of my first ventures into what we'd call "Mexican" food wasn't too good. I couldn't decide on what I wanted. I ordered a burrito, taco, and borro…all carne asada. Being an international road warrior, when I eat something bad, I get rid of it in an hour after consumption. This time, I cramped up. It took seven hours for me to get the courage to try and eat something. In this case, McDonald's. I'm not the only one on our staff who got the same thing. At this establishment, for us Americans, it's not a question of if you'll get sick but when.
Several weeks later, a colleague took me to a "Mexican" restaurant that had good food that wouldn't make me sick. It checked the boxes of a good restaurant with no problems with dysentery. FYI, every restaurant is "Mexican"so long as it's located in Mexico. Here’s a collection of photos of some of the Mexican foods I've eaten...keep clicking.
No, I haven't tried the tap water but I’ve eaten the ice...no problem. We're told the water comes from north of the border. I do rinse my teeth when brushing but don't swallow the water. Some servers will ask if you want ice in your drink and some won't. I'm told that reliable water pressure can be a problem.
The boss showed me the Catholic Church where Mass is in Spanish. I have the translated Mass on my phone so I follow along.
There's a short, steep, hill on the road to the Church. During my boss' tour, I told the boss that it would be a big problem if this place, and specifically, this road, would ever get snow. Six days later, we had snow. As I posted on Facebook, a week after I arrived, we got four inches of snow. It started melting that day. Storm sewers aren't used with great abundance so the runoff was in the streets. That night, the temps got down to 20F° (-7° Celsius) so ice was the problem. Walking anywhere was a challenge.
There were no traces of snow the day after it fell. It took a week for the weather to return to normal with the temps rising up to 70F° (21° Celsius).
For the most part, there hasn't been much rain since I arrived. We were warned that the rainy season was coming...actually, there were two with an inch of rain total for each season. It would be a hard rain for about fifteen minutes. Our first big rainfall lasted an hour with nearly an inch falling. Our weather station accurately stated that it was raining cats and dogs. (Yes, it really said this.) Someone posted a video on Facebook.
Summer temps reached about 95F° (35° Celsius) during the day and upper sixties (20° Celsius) at night. Winter temps would go to the upper sixties (20° Celsius) during the day and near freezing (0° Celsius).
The Mexican Peso is worth about a nickel. Figure seventeen pesos to the dollar. I get Pesos from the ATM a few doors down from the office. The ATM gives me the option of withdrawing US Dollars or Pesos. Occasionally, businesses will give me change back in American currency. Strange, being so close to the US and yet so far away where I wouldn't want USD. Pesos are coins from the half-peso to the ten Peso coin. I thought I had an American dime but I had a half-peso coin. Ditto for the US quarter and the two Peso coin.
Conversely, I've seen many people use USD as their everyday currency.
Mexico doesn't move the clocks here when everyone else does so what was one hour of time difference between my home and the home office now was two hours difference.
For Easter, I met a friend in Rome. Travel-wise, it was the trip from hell; something akin to the Murphy's Law of travel. I'm going to great detail so if that bores you, skip over the next several paragraphs.
I told my friend I was flying out on 12-April and so she reserved her flights to Rome for the same day. She didn’t realize my flight would land the next day. You can get direct flights from Tunis to Rome only on certain weekdays and they didn’t fly on the 13th. To fly other airlines would require more flights with harsher flight schedules and / or more money. I booked her a hotel for the wrong day and so Expedia fixed it cancelling the first night for the second night.
The week before I left, I was getting cash out of the ATM near the office. In a bout of absentmindedness, I left my ATM card in the machine. I contacted my bank requesting a new card be sent to their Tucson branch where I'd stop on my way to the airport. They cancelled the old card. With the aid of a translator, I checked in at the bank office that owned the ATM. They said nobody had turned in a lost card.
Despite clear instructions from the bank representative I spoke to on the phone, the card was sent to my home address. There was time to recover and send another card to the branch bank. Same song, second verse. It got sent to my home address again.
I got a temporary card at the branch bank. The bank said it would work abroad in both business transactions and ATM transactions. I had some success with this card though some ATM locations wouldn't accept the card.
As I was leaving Nogales to Tucson, paying more attention to my GPS, I turned off of my apartment road and drove over the high curb startling two pedestrians and myself. Nobody hurt. I found out later the rim was bent but it drove fine for me during the rest of the trip.
I left Nogales early in the morning having heard horror stories from colleagues telling me of marathon waits trying to get into the US. Thank the Good Lord that Trump didn't shut down the border. It took me a half-hour to cross when I arrived at the border just after 0600. Depending on time and day, I’ve crossed in ten minutes and I've crossed in three hours.
When I crossed the border, the GPS on my international smart phone went out. My American phone wasn't working either. It's not hard to make it from Nogales to Tucson but I had no clue where my intended Tucson stops were without my GPS. About a half-hour later, I got my international phone working along with the GPS. I was in business. I had to tear down and reassemble my American phone but it started working a bit later too.
First stop on this weird tour was San Xavier Catholic Church. A former colleague recommended this stop. It was impressive. Here's a bit of information from Wikipedia.
It was the first time I've spent any significant time in Tucson. I had a cultural shock with parking meters. I left all of my American coins back in Mexico and didn’t realize parking meters now accept debit cards. After the bank, I went to the computer repair shop for work on both of my laptops. One needed a new keyboard and the other needed screen repair.
I did a bit of shopping for food at Wal-Mart that I'd take back to Nogales upon my return. Off to the Mall where I bought some more items needed for the trip.
I stayed at a casino hotel not far from the Tucson airport. It was a nice, new facility but it had a few idiosyncrasies like an inadequate casino exhaust system that left the casino smelling like an ash tray. Las Vegas allows smoking in their casinos but it's nowhere near as bad as I found in this casino. I made my exploratory lap through the casino but didn't stop to play the machines. In my pre-trip exploration of their web site, I studied their restaurant menu and found it to be very interesting but found alternate dinner accommodations due to the smoke. I had to step outside to breathe. Full disclosure: the majority of the casino hotel stay was paid by Expedia points. The bathroom had a whiff of urine to boot. It wasn't mine.
Early the next morning, I got an email from American Airlines telling me that my first flight was late and that I needed to pick another flight from Dallas to Rome. I talked to American Airlines who'd be willing to refund my entire flight...nope! Without asking, I wondered just how many direct flights are there from Dallas to Rome? Yup! Me too...probably zilch! I was hoping they'd reroute me somehow to Rome via another airline with the same one-stop trip I thought I had. Hold onto that thought. I called Expedia who suggested taking an earlier flight from Tucson to Dallas. Expedia would confirm the earlier flight and I'd get ready in hopes I could make my flight. Now, it's about five-ish in the morning and the proposed flight was 0715. Time to do the morning shower routine in record time while I'm on hold with Expedia's hold music blaring from the speaker of my phone. American took my alternate reservation but I had to skip breakfast and bolt off to the airport.
I got to the gate with a boarding pass but no seat assignment and the gate was looking for volunteers to give up their seats for an AA travel voucher...guess I'm on standby...I'm travel toast...not going to make this flight. Though I sat in the middle seat, I was cramped but happy to be on the airplane making it to Rome without incident.
American Airlines should change their name to "Nickel-Dime" Airlines. They said my ticket was so cheap that they had to charge me for the basics like wanting to change my seat from a middle seat to an aisle seat...$120. I passed on that option at first but changed in Dallas for a more reasonable $12. Call me weird but I think it's wrong to charge someone to move to an aisle seat from the middle...not a class upgrade...still in coach. I paid about $1200 for the whole ticket to Rome. I don't consider that to be cheap or economy but AA does. The one checked bag was under weight limits but they wanted $60 for it each way.
Through Expedia, I booked a two-bedroom apartment similar to Air B&B. Trouble was that the local phone number of the apartment manager wasn't answered. I spent six hours waiting for the official check-in time before Expedia would act on my complaint. Expedia called several times and I called at least 26 times calling the landlord who never answered. Adding to the stress is Mother Nature raining on my vacation. She didn't help the morale. Around four pm, I got tired of babysitting both my luggage and the entrance to our building and went to the first available hotel. As luck would have it, they had rooms for that night but no more. I let Expedia find rooms for the rest of the stay.
I booked the trip not realizing it was over Palm Sunday lasting well into Holy Week...there would be throngs of folks in Rome. This made the hotel search even more challenging. I could tell that the Expedia representatives weren't exactly road warriors when it came to travel. To their credit, they helped me tremendously even though these problems were created by others.
The room I originally booked along with the rooms I stayed in were very close to St. Peter's Square. All were supposedly four-star rooms. I wouldn't say the rooms (a B & B) we got in haste after the first room fell through was a four-star room. The last hotel was a B&B and I'd give it four stars. I paid for the fall-through hotel and Expedia picked up the cost difference between what I'd already paid and what the higher rate was for the second location.
My first full day in Rome was Palm Sunday. The police weren't letting anyone in St. Peter's Square until those that attended the Palm Sunday open Mass had left the square. They finally cleared out and folks got in the square around 130 in the afternoon. That evening, I was flipping through channels on my hotel room TV and I spotted that Mass on local TV. Here's the Youtube link of that same Mass.
We toured the square but left the Basilica tour for the next day when we could get an early start and hopefully beat the line. No such luck! The line beat us but we waited for just a short while. We took a cheesy bus tour around Rome skipping the Colosseum again in hopes of beating the line early the next day. No luck here either but we made the tour anyway. For the record, there was only one day, Monday, that I didn't have to call Expedia to sort through something for me. Again...none of this was their fault but they came out like champs for me.
Strange...my friend is from Tunisia and not more than two hours from her home, there was a scaled down version of the Roman Colosseum in El Jem. I'd seen it but she hadn't. Truth be told, I found the construction/renovation of the colosseum to be fascinating but most folks were like: "been there…got the selfie...next..."
Next travel skirmish was with the airport taxi who required that Expedia tell them that I'd changed hotel locations so they could pick me up at the correct location.
I've ridden in Uber taxis before but never as the one who paid for the ride. I tried Uber on Easter Sunday where I found an English Mass. There was a taxi stand outside the door of the hotel but I wasn't sure I could get one from the church. My only complaint was that their cars were Mercedes and BMW and they were almost double the cost of a regular taxi. They did come in handy when the taxis were screwing around with me wanting almost ten times the regular fare. They thought they were doing me a favor when they cut their fare in half. Sorry guys! I'm a tourist but I'm not stupid! Uber to the rescue!
Bluelou travel tip...when the driver wants to haggle over a fare, always insist on using the taxi meter unless you KNOW the actual fare. Remember that a deal is made when both sides think they got a fair negotiation. Chances are, the only one who got a good deal was the driver. If the taxi driver refuses to turn on the meter, get out. There's a good chance the driver is going to rip you off if he doesn't use the meter!
One comment I have for Uber (as if they're readers of the BLT...) is also a thought for the BLT readers. In overseas business, employees are compensated better than the US and aren't so dependent on tips. I've been told that Americans over-tip in restaurants and other businesses. The Uber tip scale is too high for abroad.
I forgot to call the bank holding my credit card. They thought they saw some suspicious action on my card so I got a couple of automated phone calls from them…another Bluelou travel tip...always call the banks and tell them they'll see international action on your plastic and not to worry.
The return trip got interesting for me as I was going to miss closing time at the computer shop. American boarded the passengers for the final leg from Dallas to Tucson only to deplane everyone claiming the airplane needed diagnostic work. Couldn't they do this before boarding the plane? A dedicated employee of the computer repair shop went in after hours to get me my computers so I wouldn't have to make another trip into Tucson to pick up my computers.
Another stop at Wal-Mart. This trip was for perishable goods I couldn't find in Mexico. Now comes the fun part. In my teens, I'd ridden with my neighbors across the Canadian border into the US. Now, the game has changed. Though I didn't show my passport to the Mexican border folks when I arrived in February, you need passports to cross the border and I had mine handy if asked. With all the goods I was carrying, I thought I'd be searched/taxed for the goods I was carrying. I was as nervous as a long-tailed rat in a room full of rocking chairs. I had nothing illegal; food, appliances, toiletries, and clothing, but I don't need the hassle. The Mexican border patrol didn't even look at me and I drove right through the border without being waived to stop. Heavy sigh of relief!
I spent one day at work before the Easter work holiday (three days). Yes, I could have taken another day of vacation and extended my holiday by a total of four days but finding a room in Rome during the Easter holiday would have been difficult. My friend didn’t want to extend the trip and I didn't want to go anywhere else other than home. I was very tired and a bit of boredom allowed me to rest and recover from jetlag that never seemed to hit me. It was a wise decision. Unfortunately, the gym said they only close for Christmas and New Years but they were closed for the Saturday before Easter and Easter Sunday...rats!
Weather...for the first part was an even mix of rain and shine. After we moved into the final hotel, the sun came to stay for the remainder of the trip.
Yes, I was in Rome many years ago so I didn't update the photo tour which begins here. For the rest of the story, click here. Of all of my best of BLT issues, that is by far my most favorite because I'd been to Rome, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Tel Aviv within a few weeks of each other. I call that part of my life, my Holy Roller tour. It's a great read if you ask me.
I was supposed to combine the Rome trip with my trip home. I called my dermatologist to reschedule my appointment by a day and they told me he'd be unavailable for about three weeks (including my originally scheduled date) so I delayed the home portion of my trip by a month.
I did enjoy my trip to Rome but I think the travel complications will remain in my mind rather than the stay in Rome itself.
I do like the location of my apartment...about five-hundred steps and I'm home from the office for whatever reason...primarily lunch. Slowly, the missing pieces to the apartment are falling into place. The mall with the food court, several exterior fast food restaurants, and movie theater are also across the street. It took many months of waiting for my apartment shipment from Kosovo. I wasn't in desperate need of anything but I got tired of buying things I already have. As Mexico uses the same voltage as the US, the appliances I used in Kosovo won't work. I bought all new crock pots, air fryer, and grilles.
Going home in May lead me to the general conclusion that my travel luck has faded and the travel gods are frowning on me. I planned on leaving work at noon but restlessness got me out of the office at ten a.m.. It took me an hour and forty minutes to get through the border. I made it to Tucson without incident. I planned on going to Best Buy near the airport for a bit of shopping upon my return but I had time to kill so I went before I hit the airport. I did lunch not far away from Best Buy. This adlib was very smart given how my trip was about to go. I made it to the airport without incident. I was at the gate two hours before my flight was to leave the airport.
At the time the plane was to board, United asked for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for travel cash. In my younger years, I would have jumped up and been the first in line but I had medical appointments the next day and rescheduling would be difficult if not impossible. For safety reasons, to avoid bad weather, United elected to reroute the plane and had to lighten the weight of the aircraft to make this possible. Thus, ask for passengers to give up their seats. My only reaction was why this couldn’t have been done earlier. When I got into Denver, my first connection, I got a text from United telling me my flight left without me and to contact the courtesy desk to reschedule.
For a multitude of reasons, Omaha was the place to be so flights were full. I spent the night in Denver and flew to Lincoln the next morning. I drove from Lincoln to Omaha. What was foremost in my mind was the purpose of my trip; medical appointments. Last time I had to rebook my appointments, I had to cancel my flights from Kosovo because I couldn't get new appointments for a MONTH! Lucky for me, my sister rescheduled my appointments.
The interstate between Omaha and KC just opened from the flooding but the side roads were iffy. Any detours, in all likelihood, would delay my return to work. With rain in the forecast and newly rescheduled appointments along with one tired me, I postponed my KC portion of this trip and stayed in Omaha.
When I was in Denver, I sent a text to a friend. Just after I hit the enter key, he called and started heading to the airport. We talked well into the morning. I got about three hours sleep.
Theresa noted that the owners of my former home are flipping this place. I drove by noting the for sale sign an someone working in the garage. The outside didn't look any different but the photos on the Zillow site made it look like an unlivable doll house. It's theirs to do as they please.
When I was rearranging my flights with United, they told me I could fly my original flights from Omaha to Tucson leaving at 0615 in the morning. If I couldn't arrange for my rental car drop off in Lincoln, I could fly out of Lincoln six hours later than the Omaha flight. I dropped off my car in Omaha and headed to the airport. The counter clerk could find no evidence of the Omaha flights. Once again, like Rome, Uber to the rescue. Uber, after a McDonald’s breakfast drive through window stop, drove me to Lincoln where I waited for my flights. I came to the general conclusion that the Lincoln airport hasn’t changed since my college days.
I was not a happy traveler. Seems that the once friendly skies are friendly no more. Regardless of my travel maladies, I did get in my five F's…food, family, friends, finances, and fhysicians. All went well and the warranties were extended another six months.
Having traveled internationally for as long as I have, I didn’t really think I needed my TSA Global Traveler until I moved to Mexico. In the five trips I’ve taken from Mexico into the US, the time to cross the border into the US has been ten minutes to three hours. Crossing back into Mexico has been zero to five minutes. I tell everyone that I travel far when I do travel but not often. It really wasn't worth the time to complete the application process for the Global Entry. The Customs and Border Patrol agent who interviewed me was amazed at how many places I've been...about half because of work and the other half for pleasure. I left off a couple of places in my application...one forgotten and one I'd been to since I filled out the application. No, he didn't need to correct the information.
We took one day off for American Independence Day. Actually, a half day on the fourth and a half day off on the fifth of July so we could have a long weekend. Most folks hit the road but I had a friend come to visit. We just hung around.
In September, I flew into Paris to meet a friend. It was the first time I’d used my TSA Pre-Check. I had mixed results. The Sentri line into the US was about a mile long in the early morning ten minutes after it supposedly opened. I chose the conventional crossing knowing it's a forty-five-minute wait on average. As luck would have it. Ten minutes after I was in the conventional line, the Sentri line was open and moving. I snuck between the concrete lane dividers and I was golden.
I had errands to run in Nogales AZ and Tucson before I left around noon. My worries about a close connection were for naught. FYI, the shuttle train between the O’Hare terminals has been closed for upgrading for some time and it's not supposed to reopen until Christmas. They have a shuttle bus system but it’s much longer. Then, there’s security which my TSA pass would help. My flight from Tucson landed in the same terminal as my departure flight to Paris. It got delayed an hour but I didn’t care. I had a wait in Paris until my friend arrived. We were going to a hotel near Euro Disney. I’d arranged for a prepaid taxi but they refused to honor as they’d waited an hour in a total mis-understanding on my part. We found another taxi.
For the veteran readers of the BLT, I went to Euro Disney in 1997. August is the month where most Europeans go on vacation. I think some were thinking as I did that if I went in September, we'd avoid the summer rush. Wrong! I bought my passes through Expedia who told me we'd get expedited processing through the line. Ditto wrong! We got tired of the lines doing a ride through the haunted house, Big Thunder Mountain, and the newly titled Hyper-Space Mountain instead of Space Mountain, I've given up on rollercoasters but I always liked Space Mountain. A very sudden lock up the brakes type stop at the very end of the ride did me in.
We left Disney early as we needed to take the train into Paris to the same hotel we stayed in while in Paris last April.
Like London, the Paris subway is ideal for travel while in Paris...except when carrying luggage. It has too many steps. It’s much cheaper than taxis. It just takes a bit of homework.
I'd never seen the Notre Dame Cathedral. Due to the recent fire, we got to take photos from the outside.
At the suggestion of our Hard Rock Café bartender, we went to Montmartre where an incredible view of Paris was available to all. Near to Montmartre, was the La Basilique Du Sacra-Coeur De Montmartre.
We did a lot of walking especially along the Champs de Elysees.
This was my third trip to Paris. Paris is becoming like London to me...an expensive place to relax and hang out. A plan to repeat our visit is already in the works.
I was ready to say nice things about American Airlines as they were good to me on the flights to Paris but their nickel-dimming continued on the way back to Tucson.
Old and new, your Paris tour begins here.
When I do travel, I always forget something! For this trip, I forgot my medications. The pharmacy wanted the prescriptions sent by email. My doctor's office said they can't email them. It took a few visits and a couple of phone calls but the pharmacy settled on the names and dosages of each of my medication. Why can't medicine in the US be this simple?
Fortunately for me, the temps dropped to fall levels upon my return from Paris.
The company gave us Mexican Independence Day, September 15, off for an extended weekend which fell upon the tail end of my Paris trip. If I could have worked it out, I would have. I just relaxed and recovered from all the time changes.
I added a couple more pictures of Dad's projects. One of those projects was the local bank. They noted that someone was taking pictures of their bank. They had to come out and ask what I was doing. For the whole album, click here. There are many, many more projects my father was involved in than what I've captured but I can't remember them. If I find any other projects and have time during my trips, home, I'll post them...trouble is that my resources are tapped.
The company had a very successful bid season. I’m hoping to be relocated to a more distant location with a bit more international flavor.
The family reunion was very good. Our family reunions generally center around weddings but with no weddings to be had for the past several years, the sisters started planning this one early this year. We communicated by Facebook messenger and a few actual planning meetings.
I tied the actual reunion trip to my semi-annual warranty inspections. My warranties were extended another six months. This trip hit four of the five F's skipping finances...food, family, friends, and fhysicians. The trip to KC didn't happen as I had to cut my trip short.
The sisters started talking smack on Facebook about a pie baking contest a month before the reunion. We all got to be judges for that. There was a campfire cookout wienie roast and a smoked BBQ dinner with ribs and turkey. Held at Mahoney State Park between Lincoln and Omaha, the park had a zip line, miniature golf course, driving range, viewing tower, bike trails and other amenities. There were lots of nearby attractions. The majority stayed in the cabins but I had a room in the lodge. I stuck pretty much to the family activities.
It was a three-day event with photos on the last night. Getting the whole clan together tied in a photo session, sisters and their husbands, children and their spouses, and even grandchildren created total chaos...but a loveable chaos. I've heard nothing about a sequel. They aren't consecutive so you'll have to go through them all but the updated family photos start here. Posted on Facebook, here are some pictures of the reunion. Note that not all folks may be able to see the FB pictures.
The company rented a venue for deep fried turkey on Thanksgiving. We found an inexpensive caterer too. It was combination pot luck/catered meal. If it would have fallen through, I needed short notice to drop my turkey in my crock pot but it went as planned. (I even bought boxed stuffing just in case.)
In December, I flew to LA to meet a friend for NFL football. A week later, I flew home to spend Christmas with family and friends. For New Years, I have no plans to go anywhere subject to change in the next five minutes. You’ll read all about it in the next edition of the BLT and/or the 2020 Best of Edition of the BLT.
Starting off 2019 in Tunisia...Kosovo...US...Mexico...Rome...Paris...LA...quite a trip! I hope 2020 is just as interesting.
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Happy Kwanza! Happy Chanukah!
