A trip of a lifetime

On September 27, Nancy and I started a trip most people will never do. A trip to AFRICA. A photo safari which would take us into the "bush" for 12 of our 17 days. We would view SO many wild animals, by the time we came home, it seemed the norm. We stayed in 5-star tents (yes, 5-star), ate chef prepared foods and where guarded by armed guides. OK, OK, it was a tour...but a GREAT tour. We stayed in four different wilderness camps for 3 nights each. Our last one even had a swimming pool where the Elephants would drink out of when no human where around. Each camp had guides which took all 11 of us out on morning and afternoon game drives in African style Land Rover vehicles looking for animals. Each day we had three meals cooked by a local chefs, camp staff would turn down our beds, clean the tents, wash our clothes and pour us drinks. They were absolutely friendly and willing to do anything to make our stay great. And yes, everyone spoke English. The weather was fairly warm because it was going into their summer temps, but also their dry season. The animals usually sleep during the day and are out as the Sun goes down. Activity was amazing! Some animals are awake during the day like Elephants, Antelopes, Leopards, Cape Buffalo and Hippos. Lions and Hyena are night creatures. So, when they wake, the action starts. Our guides were great. They knew the body movements of each animal so we always knew how close we could get. They tracked game like it was a computer game. They joked with us like we were family. And that was what it felt like. Like being in an episode of National Geographic or Wild Kingdom. Truly, a trip of a lifetime.

The Bauer kids

My daughter is very good at getting pictures taken, at least once a year, of the grandkids. This is (in my opinion) one of the best. This captures their personalities. Cody is the oldest and the other two, Emily and Grady, have to do whatever big brother does. Sometimes that causes problems, because he does not want to be followed...especially by his sister. But she persists anyway. Cody is 8 (9 in December), Emily is 6 and Grady is 2. They are our love, like ALL 7 G-kids, each one is a different gem.

A trip to San Francisco

We have driven through San Francisco a couple times and stopped to grab a quick sour dough bread bowl of clam chowder and continue down the road. This time, we drove there to see San Francisco and a couple we were with in China two years ago. It was a great trip. Jason and Joline showed us the docks, a chocolate factory, Muir Woods (Redwood forest), beautiful views of downtown SF and the Golden Gate bridge and treated us to good restaurants and great company. I especially thank Jason for driving us around in the traffic. I honestly don't know how people can drive in that everyday. When they had to go back to work, Nancy and I took the public transit system (BART) into SF to Chinatown and walked around. It was cold, like it usually is, so we stopped in a TEA ROOM. A lady insisted we have a Ginseng tea for me and Ginger tea for Nancy. When we got warm we walked up to the Cable Car Museum and continued exploring on foot. So many restaurants, so when our bellies growled, we just ducked into a small place for some awesome food. We still had a two day drive back to Phoenix but we had fond memories of a wonderful visit with friends and a great city by the bay. Oh yeah, I DID get a bread bowl of some awesome clam chowder too. Thank you again Jason and Joline!

10 year old trip

Nancy told the grandkids, "When you are 10 years old, you can go on a vacation/trip with us." So, our oldest (Nicole) turned 10 in April. Since she loves horses, Nancy arranged and 5 day stay at the end of June at a Dude Ranch in southern Utah. This was mostly a girl's trip, which was fine with me. Nancy and Nicole cleaned the stalls, fed the horses, rode the horses, raced the horses in the arena, herded cattle and horses, went on remote horse rides, had an entire dinner cooked on a campfire in Dutch Ovens, sat around campfires and sang, sang in a pond, did some line-dancing to country western music and so much more. There were people from Holland, Germany and all over the US, including another Grandmother granddaughter, which Nancy and Nicole were drawn to. Nicole and Taylor became good friends and hung-out everyday. My favorite story was when Nicole taught the couples from Holland and Germany how to make S'mores...and they LOVED them. After the 5 days of Cowgirl-ing, they drove south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where I was waiting with our RV. We camped for 3 nights and, of course, visited the Canyon. I truly hope and know this trip with be remembered by Nicole, and us, forever fondly. The stories are still drawing laughs and smiles.

Something I admired

At the end of May, Nancy and I drove (trailering my 51 Chevy Street Rod) to Springfield Missouri for the National Street Rod show. We stayed with Odell and Juanita Shell, my first cousins. The hospitality was overflowing. Of course the rest of the family in Springfield came over a couple times to visit. Always love visiting them all. We all went to the car show and saw a ton of great cars, and then cruised down the main drag in town like the old days. What a kick. One evening as we all sat around and talked about our younger days, Odell had something he wanted to show me. When he came out of a back room, he unwrapped something I had not seen since 1974, my Grandfather's pocket watch. My Uncle Fred had it setting on the console TV suspended inside a glass dome display case for many years. I always wanted to have the watch as a bit of my history. When Uncle Fred passed, it was given to Uncle James. When Uncle James passed, I assumed it went to his son Ray, and I would never see it again since I moved away from Cincinnati to Arizona. When Odell revealed the watch, I was touched that he was honored to be the keeper, and happy for him. The watch was bought in 1920 and originally sold for $55. It could be bought for $2 down and $4.22 a month. Today they sell for nearly $900 on eBay. It was a very quality watch with 21 jewels and a double roller (whatever that means). These watch (Model 992) were used heavily by the train industry for keeping the trains on schedule and sold over 1 million. But the true joy was to see this watch again, and to know it was being kept by a family member who would take very good care of it. And when the time comes, it would go to another caring family member.

Friends

As I get older, I guess my eyes open wider to see things I never saw when I was young. Some call that wisdom with age, I call it realization of life. Not all good things last. A good job, favorite relatives pass and you and your good friends part. Friends are dear to me. As my youngest son says, "You don't get a chance to pick your relatives, but you can pick your friends." I, like everyone else, have had many good friends, and some have become BEST friends. Some have lasted the over the years, but others have parted from me for reasons I never understood. Naturally, I blame myself for doing "something" that rubbed my friend the wrong way, other times ... I just don't get it. Those are the ones that really hurt. I like to stay in touch with my friends. Some yearly, some monthly, some weekly. But one thing, I believe, friends should do is be honest with each other. If you are not, your are NOT a friend at all, and probably never were. Good friends are few in your life, best friends are ever less, and are 'true to the bone' with you. Losing a true friends can be as devastating as a bad divorce. I know ... I have lost a few, and it hurts, especially when you do not see it coming.

TOO much

Not much surprises or impresses me anymore. Maybe because I am getting old and the "been there, seen that, done that" attitude. Not that I know everything, just keep my eyes open. This is especially true when you think about the topic of sports. In reality, a football game takes approximately 45 minutes. But now, throw in the commentator's comments, analyzations, previews, predictions and personal feelings...now we are talking about 2 to 3 hours. But on Super Bowl Day, it's all day. OK, I understand, it's a big day, the last day for the football season...I get it. I recently went to the TPC Phoenix Open golf tournment in Scottsdale AZ. After driving into serval hundred acres of empty desert utilized for parking, we all were hearded to buses and transported to the front gate, where we (again) were hearded through a guntlet of vendors peddling everything from golf equipment to message chairs to resort timeshares to shots of Jack Daniels. The grills were smoking preparing for the lunch rush and sales ladies dressed in low-cut T-shirts and VERY short shorts cornering you in the hopes you buy their products. Thirty minutes since we left the car, we arrived at the first green. Finally, we can watch some golf, right? As I looked around, there were maybe 20 people, out the hundreds there, actually watching the game. Others were laughing, joking and partying-up. It was no different at each hole we went to. Now, do not get me wrong. I am not saying you should go and just watch the golf and do nothing else. My whole point is how a simple game can be made into a HUGE commercial event where the game gets lost in the mountains of vendors and party-goers. I love the Super Bowl, as I do the Phoenix Open (eventho it happens in Scottsdale). I do not hate either of these events, I am merely making an observation. I would have loved to watch the Super Bowl, but I would have loved it more if the was not a or two or three commercials in-between each play. Do you see what I mean? Commercialization is good for the economy, but sometimes a bit much. All-in-all, I enjoyed both. It was a good football game and Mickelson rocked the Open. Vendors made a bunch of money and we all saw some cute and entertaining commercials. Yeah, and I did try the shots of Jack Daniels and enjoyed getting cornered by a young girl wearing VERY short shorts. I guess the day was not all bad.