Please check our other blog

Due to still being very busy. I am just updating our other blog at

http://alegria1976.wordpress.com/

so please look there until further notice. However, if the post there seems old, it may be wise to look here on this Blog.

Janet visits with other tourists while we are in Roswell, NM.



Thanks,
Dave & Janet

We are indeed finally on the road!

Some have asked, "Did you make it? Are your finally on the road?"

Yes, we sure did. But have been pretty busy with seeing friends, driving and trying to set up a doctor's appointment for Janet's 3 month routine check up. A simple exam and two standard blood tests, but it seems to be hard to do.

You probably do not want to hear our full sermon on "We do NOT have the best health care system in the World." You have already formed your own opinion. So, I'll just point out that various independent authorities agree that Americans pay overall, for health insurance, entitlements, fees, and everything that it takes for health care for our Nation, the most by far, per person, of any country on the planet. But that America's population is LESS healthy than more than 70 other countries and America's health care system is worse than over 30 other countries.

We have some great doctors and cool technology that often we invented, but we have an army of parasites pumping our wallets dry to "give" us substandard health care. The doctors and medical staff have usually been great, with some glaring exceptions. But the paper pushers and bean counters are usually awful, and there seem to be 50 of those for every health care person. If you think I am wrong, please look into it. If you don't look at the propaganda generated by the many Trillion $$$ industry, I am sure that you will agree with us.

OK, back to why that comes up right now. Janet could not get the only Gynecological Oncologist on her AARP Medicare Advantage from Secure Horizons to see her and his staff suggested several other doctors who "were surely on the same insurance" but were not. That took a week to work out, partially because none of these offices answer their phones. You get to leave them a message and wait days, and then they refuse to even look at the appointment book until you fax them about 40 pages of medical records.

Why not just say up front, "The doctor does not have any openings until blah, blah." Or, "Sorry but we don't have that insurance plan."

So, we will research further ahead, like Tucson, etc and see what we can do. Otherwise we will see a doctor in Seattle.

We will probably leave Dallas Thursday the 28^th for Midland and the Panhandle. Since thing happen to delay us, it is hard to give the folks that we are about to visit much warning and they have their own unexpected things happening. But, we will keep doing the best we can and see as many as we can.

Yesterday, at Taco Bell this Hot Sauce message appeared. Janet said that she'd seen it before, but it was new to me and very appropriate.

Dave & Janet

On The Road Again!

I have had a lot of trouble with counting chickens before they are hatched lately. I will spare you the details, but many times in the last month we thought that we were leaving Houston and beginning our road trip "in a couple of days" or even "tomorrow is the day!". Do you know the words to "Hotel California"?

’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

That concept has been often mentioned for the last month.
Well, at this instant we think that today is the day and we are waiting for the last load of laundry to dry.

Most of the disappointments involved our 2000 Dodge Caravan that I inherited from my mom. She kept it in a garage and rarely drove it, so it is in better than average condition. It just turned 70,000 real miles, not 170,000 or 270,000 and a lot of those we put on it since arriving in Houston in April 2010.
The most recent car problem was


1) annual safety inspection that when we drove away from the dealer, we had a "check engine" light. The free reading of the car's computer was not very useful. But, the light went away.         And then came back.       And then went away.    And so on.

2) routine oil change and ask about "check engine" light. $695 later the light is out, but there is a large puddle of oil under the car in the parking lot.

3) Back to the dealer. They need to keep the car for several days, but we were to leave the next AM and only had enough food in the motel room for that. Prognosis was a week to fix. We had to rent a car (and were shafted on the fees) to get our groceries. We drove our little roller skate to the motel to get the things we needed for shopping. As we got into the roller skate to go shopping, we were talking about the lyrics:

You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

Then, exactly like in a movie, when the car started, the radio began playing the first notes of Hotel California! We laughed a lot and perhaps a few tears, not of joy. We need some 'grins'.

4) $1,028 later and a new oil pan, the drip seems gone, and we have hope (again).

So, I am writing this at the motel and we have not actually left, BUT I will remove it from the blog if disaster strikes again.

Wish us luck. The song that we prefer is "On The Road Again" by Willie Nelson. A friend also sent us a link to it online. We hope to be hearing it soon.

Dave & Hairy

Our plans July 6

We have not posted for a while, because we are not sure when we will
begin our road trip. We are thinking San Antonio, Austin, Dallas,
Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, AZ, CA, OR, WA, BC.

Well, we hope to get out in the next day or two, but are delayed
waiting for some places that we are sending things, to get back to us.
We have some vintage Inuit/Eskimo carved ivory, to send to an auction
house and some historical Air Ship info that is waiting for the museum
to answer us.

But, it will be soon. Watch this space.

Now, will the rest all fit in the van????

Dave & Janet

Our friends on 'Tomboy' in the South Pacific

We met Tom & Janis on Tomboy in the Gulf of California back in about
1983. They had a smaller Tomboy then. They bought their present
Alajuela 33 'Tomboy' in the 1980's also and have cruised a lot on her,
but this is their first South Pacific Trip. They left Mexico this
Spring for the Marquesas, Tuamotus and are recently at Tahiti. They
recently posted photos on

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63269583@N06/

With a few exceptions, the newest are the first ones that you see.
Leaving Mexico is at the far end. The numbers, like 4-16 are the
dates. Click on a photo if you want it bigger.

Janet, Dave, Mike, Olga and Brad were there in 1978 aboard Alegria and
it looks much the same.... BEAUTIFUL!

Dave & Janet

Nice web article about Turkey

I don't always agree with Huffington Post. Heck, I don't always agree
with any website. But, I really like this nice piece about Turkey.

And I would add to the "Cradle of Civilization" part that MUCH older
ruins of civilization were found in Turkey. Try 13,000 years before
present.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

But be sure to read this

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronen-paldi/10-surprising-facts-about-turkey_b_863035.html

Dave & Janet

Janet is Fuzzy now.

Hi!

Sorry to make some of you wait so long, but we are really busy and
there have not been many clearly defined changes to report. We are
both doing well.

Janet is clearly Fuzzy now. Think Marine Corp Boot Camp haircut
without the tattoos. Her eye lashes are coming back and even the
eyebrows are starting to be more than 5'oclock shadows. This is all
much too slow to suit her, but what else in new?

Dave is really feeling the pressure to get the remaining important
items sold or sent to good homes. For example, Dave's dad was also
interested in Lighter Than Air (LTA). Not the Hindenburg, but more
intelligent designs like the ZMC-2. This was greatly stimulated when
he met and became close friends with Ralph Upson, one of the major
pioneers of LTA. It was like knowing one of the Wright Brothers.

Ralph gave my dad a large roll of blueprints for the ZMC-12, yes 12,
not 2. (This is what Google is for, right?) and a thick packet of 8.5
x 11 papers, and two plates (like dinner plates, with beautiful glazed
paintings of important pre-1700 balloon flights) that were made in
about 1710 and were prizes Ralph had won in balloon racing.

Most of you that don't just say, "So what?" will say, "How can you
RACE unpowered balloons?"

Well, few can. Janet & I went on a hot air balloon ride in Central
Turkey. I already knew how, from my dad and Ralph, but even I was
amazed at how our balloonist was able to cause us to fly over to a
miniature Grand Canyon and descend into it and even deliberately get
so close to the walls that we could and did touch them with our hands.
All was done with a balloon that he can ONLY make go up or down or
stay the same. Only!

Basically, the idea is that the wind at different layers is usually
going in different directions. The Balloonist must know which way
these layers are going in advance and put the balloon in the correct
layer for the correct amount of time to get the desired result.
Hopefully, you see that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Like
saying that I am going to invent from scratch a 300 miles per hour
Ferrari, because I was just told that when I burn something, it causes
the air to expand.

If none of that makes any sense, don't feel bad, There is no quiz and
it won;t be on the Final Exam.

And, I need to get back to being busy,

Dave & Janet