Off and on, I dabble in family genealogy on my father’s side. I have traced his maternal grandmother’s line going back to the 1100’s in Wales. 
I Googled my grandmother’s name to see if anything new has popped up and found her maiden name plus her parents and so on in the database of a website that is devoted to listing people related to the outlaw Jesse James. There are 17,000 plus names in this data base. The horrid news is not that I’m related to Jesse James. Out of 44 people who have been president of the United States so far, I had to be related to ………… george w. shrub.
Month: August 2011
Steve’s Progress
As of last night Steve had driven about 1000 miles and was in Nappanee, Ontario. He said he will be very happy to cross into the U.S. today because of the high prices in Canada. But the route he is taking is the most direct to drive to Wisconsin so there wasn’t much choice. Unfortunately this also means he must drive through Chicago.
My mother and I went to Pueblo yesterday to get a copy of the police investigation report and check on Kathy’s house. The report was shoddy crap. I did more thorough detective work when I was 19 years old employed in a credit bureau where my job was finding people who skipped out on paying their bills. I’ve never seen a police report before but each law enforcement officer writes what they did and saw, who they talked to, and what various persons said. They contradicted each other several times with very hard core facts. We just have to try and forget it all and go on. Nothing anyone does now can bring Kathy back to life.
Eventually I’ll get around to taking pictures here in Manitou Springs and writing about our town……..maybe next month after the tourist traffic lessens. It’s a busy little town right now as there has been something going on every week. Last weekend was the annual Pikes Peak Marathon. A 47 year old local won it for the 6th year in a row. This weekend Manitou Springs is having a Mountain Music Festival. I just have to open a few windows or sit on the deck to hear the music – that’s how close we are to the action.
Tulip Is Fine
An automated phone call from United Airlines awakened me this morning with a message that said Steve’s flight out of Las Vegas (I think airlines need a geography lesson in their routing from Colorado to Nova Scotia) was delayed and therefore his next leg from Washington D.C. was changed to a different flight on Air Canada. I understood the message to say he would arrive at 8 am tomorrow which would have been two nights in a row traveling. He missed the plane in D.C. but then luckily it came back because of engine trouble and they put everyone on another plane so he landed in Halifax at 2:32 pm. He took a taxi to the Wallenius shipping office and then walked to customs and everything went just fine. Customs only wanted to know if there was liquor, tobacco, or firearms in the motor home. Customs then called a cab to take him to the Autoport. He paid the cab and it left. It was 4:28 and the building was locked! Steve said he banged on the door for five minutes until a lady came. He begged her to help him get our motorhome otherwise he was stranded. So she called someone who drove it up front, checked his paperwork and he was on his way. What a relief!
I had been trying to call Steve all day and visa versa but the prepaid AT&T phone which is supposed to work calling to/from Canada isn’t cooperating. He called me collect from a pay phone at Walmart just outside Halifax where he is spending the night. At first Steve thought the front hubcaps had been stolen but they were sitting on the front floor board. Nothing is missing except that he can’t find the license plates which he had removed and hidden. He’s looked in all our hiding places except the furnace compartment. In the meantime he put on the laminated copies we had made prior to going to Mexico in Dec 2009. They have an expired date on them but our registration shows we’re up to date in case he gets stopped.
When we dropped off Tulip in Zeebrugge the agent warned us very strongly against having anything inside the motor home but said the outside compartments should be fine as far as theft. In addition to packing the outside compartments we hid our things in the following places:
1. Steve took the panel off the ceiling that curves down to the overhead bed in the very front. There is a LOT of space there and we used it for clothes and shoes.
2. He took off the speaker on the wall below the refrigerator and that dead space has only wires. We put quite a few small items in that area.
3. Underneath one of the dinette benches is the furnace. We used some of the extra space and screwed the lid down.
4. There’s a cabinet under the other dinette bench that we packed solid with books. First Steve took the lid off the bench and then cut the red and white striped bicycle warning board to fit in the opening of the cabinet door. Then he screwed that lid down.
5. The box frame for the bed has the biggest area for storage and many screws secured the top down good. Actually nothing was stolen from there on the trip over to Europe.
6. Steve even stashed quite a few things in the water pump compartment that is underneath an outside cabinet. We didn’t bring back anything that was illegal – everything was hidden just to prevent theft. And I mentioned previously that Steve chained the spare tire to the bike to the lawn chairs to the toilet with a long cable lock.
Wanderlets 