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NOT SO FOND MEMORIES OF TRAVELING
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| Moored near Fromagerie |
2008 Baines Le
Baines, France –
Bill and I were relegated to find a market and
buy supplies for a week on our self-driving boat on the old canal system near Mid-France. Before
we dropped our rental car off, we drove a short way into town and finally did
find “The Super Market”. I thought we had big markets in California but this
one had us stunned. First of all, we could not find the entry,
everything seemed to be an exit. After searching around for a while, we did
manage to get inside, whether by a legitimate entry, we’ll never know. We were amazed at all the selections., for
instance there was even a quite large selection of just bacons. We were like a couple of kids in a candy
shop. After loading a couple of carts
up, we were able to get back to the boat, unload and shove off.
The next week Joy
& I drove to Marseille and Cassis, the main reason being I had always
wanted to visit the Museo de Legion Etrangere (Foreign Legion) in
Aubane, near Cassis. These towns look
small on the detailed maps we use and the town was a veritable puzzle to enter
and find the Office of Tourisme.
And finding even a parking space near it was a long,
involved problem. We eventually got to
the counter, got a map and directions, then back to our car to further on. The Legione was on the other side of town and
after a couple of tries we finally located it, only to find the Museo was closed
on Thursday! And of course, you can
only guess what day it was. Damn! I was so looking forward to seeing Capitan
D’anjou’s wooden hand there. That survived, but he and the other 60 Legioneres were killed at the battle of
Camerone, Mexico, but not before they had fought off several thousand
Federales, dying valiently to the Lasrt man.
Well, on to
Scotland. We had booked a flight on Ryan Air to Brussels, but got caught in the
“Baggage Extra” syndrome, which cost us about $200 extra for our two
bags. Remember from now on, Flights are Cheap, but baggage will cost you a
mint.
In a public toilet
here, Joy encountered a guy drying
his false teeth on a roll type hand towel which was a new experience for her.
(Oh, Really?).
We took an
overnight ferry to Edinborough, Scotland, checked into the Hotel Premier Inn
($85 about $170),no phone, no mini-bar, no coffee maker, no coffee. Had to get
up early, get to restaurant next door for breakfast, about $20 each for a
buffet. Found out later we could get a $6 continental breakfast.
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| Firth of Forth Bridge |
After visiting the
Falkirk Wheel and the Firth of Forth Bridge, we were ready to walk up the hill
to the Royal Mile, where the famous Pubs serve the exemplar Fish & Chips.
After a very long wait near the toilet in a small hallway a table was ready. As
soon as we sat down and ordered, I was in excruciating pain and we had to leave
right away, find a taxi, and get back to our hotel so I could writhe around in
style.
We were scheduled to fly out in the morning at 6:30 but soon called a taxi that took us to The Royal Infirmary”,
whatever that was. By the time we arrived there, my pain was gone and I felt
fine. But as long as we were there I signed up to see a doctor, who turned out
to be a 16 year old blond girl. The first thing she asked was if I had ever had
any kidney stones, (nothing more than what
I found in a couple of chickens.) This really made our day, as we had no idea
what was wrong with my body, it could have been something fatal. This made us
really happy. After her exam we check in
at the counter to see how much the bill was. We were told “No charge, just be
on your way”. Glad to oblige, Maam.
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| Delft, Holland |
We flew to Amsterdam
without any more attacks, found our Houseboat on the DeCosa Gracht Canal.
Unpacked and prepared to enjoy ourselves.
This was a nice, modern houseboat located in the middle of Old
Amsterdam. Before we knew it, I was
writhing around on the floor , suffering from what we knew now was an attack by
my kidneys, trying to send a sharp stone down my tube to my bladder. This one lasted at least for eight hours,
when it was over, we should have boogied down to Rookies Smoking Bar to
load up on some dope to ease the pain.
This did not enter our minds. We were only on the boat for a few days,
then trained over to Delft, another old walled town. The first order of
business was to find the huge hospital
and see a doctor. Upon entering the
facility, a large hospital attached to the University, I was sent up to the
finance department and relieved of about $250 dollars from my credit card
before I was sent down to the doctor. (Now you know where the term ‘Dutch Treat’
came from). After a short wait, a young
man decided I should have an X-ray to find out where it hurt. I was shot a couple of times by the x-Ray and
the Doc said he would get me the print on a CD so I could show my doctor back
in the States. You probably won’t
believe this, but he delivered the CD to my hotel the next day. Meanwhile, I
was relieved of a few of my dollars from the credit I had left them with in their
office. The Doc had also given me a prescription for a capsule pill to relieve
a bit of the pain. We got this about 0400 and went out looking for the nearby
Pharmacia. It wasn’t far but was difficult to find, only to see a sign in the
window that they had moved to another location.
As most shops closed at 0500, we went searching for their new location,
which we found just as they were closing, which meant pulling down steel
shutters (They did have drugs in here). Fortunately,
a local lady came up and was able to get the m to open just to fill my meagre
prescription for some kind of pain killer.
After all that hassle, I don’t believe it was much more than a
placebo. However, also, the doc had
advised me to catch the kidney stone next time I peed so we found a small
kitchen appliance store still open, nearby to seek out a small sieve of some
kind. When the saleslady asked what I
was looking for, I improvised some small lie or another as it just didn’t seem
right to state that I was straining my piss with her small sieve. Actually, that was a waste of time, as I
couldn’t balance it all and hold my pants
up to hold the sieve to catch any rocks in my pissing stream. Being a male, I never considered sitting down
until later (and too late). Oh well, we were at a hotel and not an apartment so we
didn’t need the damn thing anyway.
JUST A REMINDER
Regarding the
“National Anthem”, The U.S Supreme Court made the decision in 1943. The high
court ruled that our government cannot force anyone to participate in patriotic
rituals, including listening to the Pledge of Allegiance. No one can legally
force anyone to stand or say the pledge. They cannot punish you for
refusing to participate. Our
constitution also states that “ no official, high or petty, can prescribe what
shall be orthodox in politics , nationalism, religion, or other matters of
opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith wherein”. (The
Suprem4e Court announced tis on Flag Day). Even by
1941, students saluted the American flag with what was called “The Bellamy
salute” or to us, the “Sieg Heil” salute. When this got too embarrassing, it
was changed to “ hand over heart’. Later, even
that became a problem as Compulsory unification was doomed to failure
and was antiethical to the values set forth in the First Amendment”. Freedom of Speech. We can thank the Jehovas Witnesses for
being pests and balking at the concept
being forced into obedience initially.
BOOK REVIEW
‘Memoirs of a
Geisha” by Arthur Golden will help you Westerners understand the concept and
activities of the famous Japanese Geisha.
We can hardly believe there was not much sex involved, but I’m sorry to
relate that some famous Geisha didn’t get kissed until they were about 30!
However, there was of course some great concept that very rich men could bid on
de-flowering 15 year olds but it was a one time thing. This was called Mizuage, the cost could exceed what a
laborer earned in a year(About $50,000 in todays money). There was another
system called, a Danna, where another
very wealthy man would kind of buy
or sponsor a geisha for life but it
would cost a great deal as he would have to give her lots of expensive gifts as
well as Yens. All the wealthy business
men wanted to do after work was hang out with beautiful women, drink sake and get
silly. The wives didn’t seem to be phased by these shenanigans, as they felt
secure in their role as wife.
BE PREPARED
Before I get too
excited before seeing Bladé Runner,
2045”, I wanted to review the original first. Originally written as “Do
Androids dream of Electric Sheep’, (Ray Bradbury?) this movie used the Ennis house by F.L. Wright plus the
Iconic “Bradbury building as the prime sets.
Please notice the concrete blocks in
H. Fords’ pad and the multi story atrium in the Bradbury building (Los
Angeles) where all the mayhem took place at the end.
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| Some early US Truck Designs |
Or lack of it. I always get excited when I see a well designed modern European truck. Because in
stark contrast, we build big, ugly
trucks all the time. However, the Europeans
have got it. The big rigs are so beautiful,
I’ve even wrote a small book about it. (See “The Little Book of Big Trucks’). Every time we stopped at an Aire or rest stop
in France or Italy, I Ran around shooting pictures of all the trucks in the
parking lots. Our designers experimented in the early days of trucking but just
didn’t get the concept like the Europeans. Maybe the French had hired Industrial Designers to give them some
panache, eh? The above shows some of our
early stabs at design and below show what a real truck looks like.
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| Get your Copy Now! |
PHOTO
OF RENAULT
INFLUENCES?
I’ve been asked what
are some of the influences for my work and I have to think about that. But an important
part of my education was as ‘House sitter’ for the Upton Residence for a
year and a half, I have to say it was my dream come true and left an indelible
mark on my soul. This was built in early
Scottsdale in 1949 by an Architect named
Paul Schweikher ( for the Maytag Owner, Louis
C. Upton.). The model is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York. It consisted basically
of concrete stonework, redwood and glass. The house sat empty as it was too rugged for
the Owners. It was being vandalized so I convinced the Realtors that my
presence there would protect this marvelous residence. Later, it was converted
to a nightclub, and tragically was mistakenly demolished lain the 1970’s.
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| Upton Residence - Scottsdale, AZ |
