Much that once was is lost... |
...recounts the retirement travels of Mark and Vicki Sherouse since 2008...in Asia and the Pacific, New Zealand, Europe, South America, and Africa, as well as the US and Canada. Our website, with much practical information, is: https://sites.google.com/site/theroadgoeseveron/.Contact us at mark.sherouse@gmail.com or vsherouse@gmail.com.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
$2.49 Chuck
The world is changed, I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Winter Solstice Greetings And Annual Message of Hope
Belated, I know. But better belated than never. Besides, I always like to wait and make sure the days are getting longer. More sun-light. You know what I mean.
We are still here in Menlo Park, grand-parenting Penelope while daughter Rebecca and her husband Jeremy work. Rebecca chairs the English department at Castilleja Girls School in Palo Alto now, and Jeremy continues his tech consulting, mostly at Simply Hired in Sunnyvale. Penelope is wonderful and figures largely in my last several blog posts, of course. Daughter Rachel and her husband Will just bought and renovated a house in DC, where they live. Rachel is manager of governmental affairs at Amgen there, and Will is on the staff of Montana senator Max Baucus. The big news for Rachel, apart from the house, is her new master's degree from American U. And much more time to devote to interior design.
We are much enjoying our little travel respite in Middle California. The weather is pleasant, if occasionally on the cool and wet sides of the spectra. Our little cottage is cozy but comfortable. There are both natural and human sights and sounds of interest nearby...beaches, mountains, and forests, The City, with all its culture, and Stanford shopping mall, of course. The little downtown parts of Redwood City, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto, all nearby, are very attractive. The Bay Area is a foodie's paradise, and, of course, we love to cook. Thai basil and galangal root and kaffir lime leaves are all at Nak's, a mile away on Santa Cruz Ave. Besides, one can live pretty well on 2$Chuck and Costco's pintxos and poulet roti.
We plan to return to Europe in April and resume our travels from Toulouse, see more of southwestern France, then more of Spain, up the Atlantic coast generally all the way to Calais, and then across to Britland. The UK of GB is still part of Freedonia, and we'll spend 90 very pleasant days there before returning to Schengenia. The next 90 days we'll pass leisurely through France and then concentrate on Italy, perhaps all the way back down to Sicily. Heaven. And then we'll confront the periodic issue of whether and how to ship the Grey Wanderer back to the States. In any case, we'll be back in the States in the late fall of 2013.
It's a great year to look forward to, and we hope our readers' 2013 will be wonderful as well.
We are still here in Menlo Park, grand-parenting Penelope while daughter Rebecca and her husband Jeremy work. Rebecca chairs the English department at Castilleja Girls School in Palo Alto now, and Jeremy continues his tech consulting, mostly at Simply Hired in Sunnyvale. Penelope is wonderful and figures largely in my last several blog posts, of course. Daughter Rachel and her husband Will just bought and renovated a house in DC, where they live. Rachel is manager of governmental affairs at Amgen there, and Will is on the staff of Montana senator Max Baucus. The big news for Rachel, apart from the house, is her new master's degree from American U. And much more time to devote to interior design.
We plan to return to Europe in April and resume our travels from Toulouse, see more of southwestern France, then more of Spain, up the Atlantic coast generally all the way to Calais, and then across to Britland. The UK of GB is still part of Freedonia, and we'll spend 90 very pleasant days there before returning to Schengenia. The next 90 days we'll pass leisurely through France and then concentrate on Italy, perhaps all the way back down to Sicily. Heaven. And then we'll confront the periodic issue of whether and how to ship the Grey Wanderer back to the States. In any case, we'll be back in the States in the late fall of 2013.
It's a great year to look forward to, and we hope our readers' 2013 will be wonderful as well.
At Brix in Napa; Jeremy's dad Robert treated us all to a great Xmas dinner |
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Goin' To The Zoo, Zoo, Zoo*
So Thursday Rebecca, Penelope, Vicki and I went to the San Francisco Zoo. The zoo by the sea, near Daly City. It was cold, cold, cold. But P appeared to love it, especially the zoo-choo-choo.
*Raffi; also Peter, Paul, and Mary
Flamingos...winter in Middle California |
Napping primate friend |
On the zoo choo-choo...a 1925 baby steam engine |
Toot-toot |
Meditating Montana grizzly |
Morning after polar bear |
At 20 months, Penelope is learning her alphabet; and here has spotted the P and W together...her letters |
A black swan |
Our party, momentarily resting |
Lions resting |
Hippo showering |
Rhino sauntering |
Tiger pacing |
Penguins feeding |
Near the pachydermarium |
Our party on the move |
Fellow primate |
Ditto |
Feeding the giraffes |
And a final peacock |
*Raffi; also Peter, Paul, and Mary
Monday, December 24, 2012
Milford Sound, 2009: We Return You Now To Our Regularly Scheduled Travel Blog
So, as chronicled earlier, we did New Zealand's Milford Tramp in January of 2009, stayed at the lodge in Milford for a couple rainy days, watching waterfalls come and go, the kea and the sand flies, and then did a half-day kayaking tour of Milford Sound. The latter is one of the South Island's best-known fiords and is indeed a world-class sort of place. For the kayaking trip, we had purchased a disposable water-proof marine camera and used up nearly all its film taking pix of the marvelous sights. We left the camera with Rebecca when we returned to the States in March of 2009. Then we departed for Europe.
But some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half years, the camera passed out of all knowledge.
But it turned up again in the summer of 2012, during cleaning and reorganization of Rebecca's garage, and, within only a few months, I took it to the Santa Cruz Avenue Walgreen's for developing. (I hesitated because I did not believe anyone was still developing film). Anyhow, below are a few pix from the kayaking trip. Memories of the great beauty of the place, of its incredibly still waters, a giant walled inlet of the violent Tasmanian Sea, of high peaks and glaciers towering above, of changing from street clothes into a wet suit, outdoors, on the beach, in a cloud of sand flies, still haunt me.
But some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half years, the camera passed out of all knowledge.
But it turned up again in the summer of 2012, during cleaning and reorganization of Rebecca's garage, and, within only a few months, I took it to the Santa Cruz Avenue Walgreen's for developing. (I hesitated because I did not believe anyone was still developing film). Anyhow, below are a few pix from the kayaking trip. Memories of the great beauty of the place, of its incredibly still waters, a giant walled inlet of the violent Tasmanian Sea, of high peaks and glaciers towering above, of changing from street clothes into a wet suit, outdoors, on the beach, in a cloud of sand flies, still haunt me.
Milford Sound, Mitre Peak, etc. |
Looking back to the interior |
Us, kayaking; I remember asking the guide whether this might be a good place to set my altimeter, and his replying, straight-faced South Islander, that yes, we were indeed at about mean-tide |
The waterfall; we had just seen Sutherland Falls and so were not all that impressed |
Up closer |
So what do you do with a few remaining frames from a four year old disposable camera? That's right, take pix of your current abode... |
Sunday, December 23, 2012
ChooChooFanning with Penelope
Approach of a Baby Bullet |
Baby aboard the Baby Bullet |
With Grandma at the station |
Another station, with Grandpa |
Riding with Grandma |
Bye-bye, Baby Bullet |
*I have subsequently learned that the Baby Bullet is not merely the sleeker locomotive, but those that run the express route, with very few stops
Happy Halloween
Some words of explanation. We are still here
in Menlo Park, our European travels suspended for a few months,
helping care for grand-daughter Penelope again while her parents
work. Penelope is now 20 months old, and beginning to talk in
complete, well-formed sentences. She started with the usual "mama" and "daddy" and "hug" and "duck" in the late spring and early summer, and, by the
time we were back from Europe in September, her vocabulary had grown
considerably. At 18 months she had about 70 words, mostly nouns. In
the last several weeks, she has begun putting gerunds and nouns
together, and then verbs, and pronouns, and adjectives, then full
sentences. “I see Grandma.” “Grandpa make oatmeal.” Etc.
Well, Hemingway well-formed sentences. Not Shakespeare, yet, but she
definitely knows her Shakespeare doll from the Unemployed
Philosophers Guild, and calls it “Shakespeare." Every
day we are astounded at what she has picked up and is using. I could
not possibly put a bound on her vocabulary now. She parrots
everything. We have to be very careful what we say. ("Grandma fart!") She became fairly adept at Baby Sign Language this fall,
and still uses it a bit, but it has been superseded. It is wonderful
knowing more fully what is on this little person's mind. And she is
not reluctant to share.
Anyhow, one of the words she had
learned by the time we returned in September was “happy,” as in
happy face. Any face became a “happy,” and by early
October, all pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns were included as “happies.”
Our daily walks around the neighborhood and elsewhere became searches
for “happies.” Thus “Happy Halloween,” for us, in small part
recorded in the following pix.
Behold! Happies! On one of several visits to the pumpkin farms near Half Moon Bay |
Riding horsie |
Some happies are edible |
Surfing with Grandma at Moss Beach |
At the Menlo Park Halloween Parade |
For the parade, she is a wizard |
Confronting the Great Happy |
Conferring with other wizards at Fremont Park |
"Happy!" |
Finally finding where Grandma hid the last of the chocolates Aunt Carole left for us! |
For Halloween she is a dragon (here with Mama as Huck Finn (always literary)) |
Checking out the haul after visiting Maggie's next door; no candy! |
Finally, the Mother Lode, at Engine House #5 |
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Pomona RV Show
Another weekend rolled around. We'd been wanting to go to an RV show, and the California show, reputedly one of the largest, was beginning in Pomona, not even 400 miles away. So we took off Friday afternoon, drove to Pomona, spent the night with Tom Bodett, took in the show on Saturday, and drove back Saturday evening. Alas, the show was not what we'd hoped for, only about half the size of the Tampa show we saw a few years back, but we picked up quite a few new ideas and leads, and driving through LA afforded me the opportunity to recite some lines from my favorite movie.*
*"But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, like-wise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'. They call Los Angeles the City of Angels. I didn't find it to be that exactly, but I'll allow as there are some nice folks there. 'Course, I can't say I seen London, and I never been to France, and I ain't never seen no queen in her damn undies as the fella says. But I'll tell you what, after seeing Los Angeles and thisahere story I'm about to unfold--wal, I guess I seen somethin' ever' bit as stupefyin' as ya'd see in any a those other places, and in English too, so I can die with a smile on my face without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me."
Not "the best RV show," actually, but good enough |
Tow-car of dreams... |
*"But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, like-wise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'. They call Los Angeles the City of Angels. I didn't find it to be that exactly, but I'll allow as there are some nice folks there. 'Course, I can't say I seen London, and I never been to France, and I ain't never seen no queen in her damn undies as the fella says. But I'll tell you what, after seeing Los Angeles and thisahere story I'm about to unfold--wal, I guess I seen somethin' ever' bit as stupefyin' as ya'd see in any a those other places, and in English too, so I can die with a smile on my face without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me."
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