Hi everyone following us. Yesterday was somewhat laid back. We left El Paso and drove west with the good intention of meeting Linda's friends Shirlee and Terry Valo in Green Valley, Arizona for dinner. Well it didn't quite work out that way. By the time we actually got on the road, a few slow downs for construction, lunch, stops at rest areas, etc. we decided to postpone our get together until this morning over breakfast.

After we got settled into our Holiday Inn Express last night, Linda and I went to a restaurant named Solaris. Very nice, good food and I even had a couple of glasses of a Willamette Valley Pinot Gris.

After our visit today with Shirlee and Terry we will head up to Phoenix/Surprise and my daughter's house. We are butting in on their Super Bowl Party Sunday. While at Traci's we will wash some dirty clothes, visit with Traci and family, try to get together with my nephew Sam at ASU and get together with a 2nd cousin, Colonel Don Palandech, the commander of ASU's ROTC Detachment. We'll see how much we actually accomplish.

Well, need to pack up and get out of the HIE and go meet Shirlee and Terry.

Take Care!

Bob & Linda

January / February Road Trip Continued

Well the last two days have been mostly driving.  Yesterday we drove from Houston to Sonora, Texas.  Today, Sonora to El Paso, Texas.  Tonight we are staying at Fort Bliss Army base.  Nice accomodations and the price is right.

We went to a movie tonight and saw "Slum Dog Millionaire".  Interesting movie and we both enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we will drive to Tucson and hope to stay at Davis Monthan AFB.  We also want to get together with an old school friend of Linda's in Green Valley, AZ, about 30 miles south of Tucson. We will see how that all works out.

That's about it for today.

Take care all.

Bob & Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Good morning. Yesterday was a waste as far as travel goes. We only made it about 5 miles west of where we were the night before. On the other hand it was a very good day because I got my oil changed in the morning and then met up with my cousin Sandy at about 11:30 a.m. and we visited until 7:30 p.m. We determined it was probably about 1958 the last time we saw each other. Had a very nice visit. I caught her up with family "stuff" (deaths, divorces, kids, grandkids, etc.).

Tried to get back into the same Holiday Inn Express we stayed in Monday night but they were full. Ended up at a hotel five miles down the road.

Will be hitting the road shortly. Don't know how far west we will get today but no matter what, will be better than yesterday.

Take care.

Bob & Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Well we got off the ship yesterday morning at about 11:00 a.m. We got into our car and drove to a restaurant named Mandina's. This is a restaurant we went to during our last trip to New Orleans in 2005. It's a little off the beaten path and the clientele are mostly local folks. We each had a bowl of seafood gumbo for lunch. I asked the server if the had much flooding during Katrina and she said they had 7 feet of water in the restaurant.

We drove out into St Bernard Parish and Chalmette where I had wired the house a week before to show Linda the house. That particular area was a nice middle class neighborhood. Now it is about 20% occupied homes, 40% homes in various stages of repair and 40% concrete slabs where homes once stood.

We drove to the area where the Brad Pitt houses are being built and took more pictures and then headed west. Only drove for about 125 miles to Breaux Bridge, LA and spent the night. We drug most all our stuff into the room a repacked so we wouldn't have to mess with some of the clothes, etc again.

This morning we headed west to Houston. Got in this afternoon and spent the evening with Linda's cousin Garrett and his wife Dory. Went to a barbecue place for dinner and back to their house for dessert and more visiting. At about 9:00 p.m. we headed to our hotel and called it an evening.

Tomorrow we are going to meet up with my cousin Sandy who I haven't seen since sometime in the 1950's. Depending on how the visit goes will determine how far west we will get tomorrow.

I'm going to call this quits for tonight.

Take care everyone.

Bob & Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Well, our cruise is coming to an end. As I sit here writing this we are moving slowly toward the mouth of the Mighty Mississippi River. We have been going by fishing boats, oil rigs and who knows what else as we get closer and closer to the mouth of the Mississippi.

Today was strictly a sea day as we sailed from Cozumel back towards New Orleans. We got up and had breakfast at the buffet, did a "Behind the Scenes" tour, Linda went to a "Look 10 years younger in 10 minutes" talk (which was just promoting getting Botox), Bob went to an Italian wine tasting seminar and we had a wonderful dinner at our favorite restaurant on the ship called Shogun which is a Sushi and Asian restaurant.

We have opted for late departure tomorrow since we don't have a plane to catch and are in no hurry to leave the ship. As soon as we finish this blog we are going to go and pack our suitcases and call it a night. Tomorrow morning we will have their breakfast buffet and leave the ship by around 11:00. We plan on staying in New Orleans tomorrow and drive through the areas where Bob worked on the house.

On Monday we will start heading West. Don't know exactly how far we will get but we have each contacted our cousins in Houston. Bob contacted his cousin Sandy who he hasn't seen since the 1950's and Linda contacted her cousin Garrett who we saw in 2006 on a trip to Houston.

We will continue to update this blog as time and connectivity allows. Hope all is well with everyone. Bob and Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Well today was our last port of call. We were in Cozumel, Mexico. Cozumel is a small island off the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and fairly close to Cancun. We had been there before on a cruise back in 2005 so all we did was walk around some and stop for a bite to eat and something to drink.

Tomorrow is a day at sea. We have a behind the scene tour where we get to see some stuff normally not available to passengers. It still doesn't include some of the stuff I would really like to see since I worked in the shipyards many, many years ago. Oh well, better than nothing.

I think I'm also going to do an Italian wine tasting. That should be fun and maybe I will learn something about Italian wines.

Linda and I are talking about what our next cruise will be. I must say I do enjoy kicking back and doing nothing, eating and drinking too much, not having to drive and just plain relaxing.

About thirty six hours and we will be back in New Orleans and back on our road trip and starting the long trip home. I think we will spend one more night in New Orleans just to check out more of the Katrina destruction.

Linda called her cousin in Houston and we plan on getting together with him and his wife for a visit. I also called my cousin, Sandy and left a message. Hopefully when we get back into New Orleans, I will have a message from her on my cell phone and we can get together with her also while in Houston.

That's about it for today.

Bob & Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Today our Port of Call is Belize City. Unlike the other ports, the city doesn't have a dock that can handle cruise ships so we had to be ferried back and forth to the city. It takes about 15 minutes each way. When we finally arrived at the dock we were met with many, many locals offering us tours. It was overwhelming so we took off walking into town. We did get to what was the "downtown" but really there wasn't much there so we walked back to the dock. We stopped at a restaurant and had a coke and a beer and then We took a city tour with a tour company and we really liked our driver whose name was Mel. We were the only people in his van so we had our own private tour. Mel drove us all over town and told us many facts about Belize City. It was about an hour and a half and we enjoyed it very much. After that we looked the stores over back at the dock for about another half hour and then took the boat back to the ship.

We had a wonderful lunch on board and then we sat on our balcony and read. It is perfect weather. Sunny and warm and not too hot.

I decided to go to a show put on by the Second City group. Bob went on a brisk walk-10 times around the Prominade deck, for a total of 3 1/2 miles!!!

Then at 6:00 we both went for a foot and ankle massage. Both of us really enjoyed that. For dinner, we decided to just go to the regular dining room as it was so late. We had shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, soup and baked flounder.

After dinner we went to a show put on by the Second City group. All the skits were improv and it was very funny. They really are talented. We enjoyed it a lot. Bob is suffering from his walk and he keeps falling asleep. Will close for now and put him to bed.

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Well, time to catch up again. Yesterday was a day in port. But, we spent most of the day watching the inauguration on CNN. The ship set up a room with a projection TV tuned to CNN and we sat in there and watched. Of course we did take a break to eat.

We were in Costa Maya, Mexico. Costa Maya is a small city that has developed a nice concret pier for cruise ships. At the shore end of the pier they have restaurants and lots of shops to sell to the passengers of the cruise ships. It actually was a very nice area. We browsed for a while, stopped and had a drink and then went back to the ship. We just weren't into any of the extended excursions the cruise ship offered.

Today we were in Santo Tomas de Castilla, Guatemala. This time we docked at a regular port where frieghters dock. Lots of containers, cranes, tractors moving containers, etc. etc. Again, we didn't do any of the exotic excursions. Just went to an area provided for cruise ship passengers and relaxed for a while and drank Guatemalan beer.

Tonight and last night we ate in an asian restaurant on the ship. I love asian, sushi and sashimi. Norwegian Cruise Line has what they call "Free Style Cruising" with various restaurants on the ship. Also last night and tonight we attended shows in the ships theater. Last night was a troop of comedians from the Second City Comedy group from Chicago. Tonights show was a magician.

Tomorrow we will be in Belize City. Plan to spend more time ashore exploring.

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Arrived in New Orleans Wednesday afternoon after a short 200 mile drive. We stayed at the Astor Crown Plaza in the French Quarter. Parking was $31.50 a day if I paid through the hotel. I was cheap and parked the car myself in a parking garage around the corner for a mere $25 a day.

Got settled into our hotel room. Found the registration area for my conference and checked in and picked up my packet, name badge, etc. Lots of hugs and handshakes as I ran into old friends from the previous 11 years of attending this conference.

Met up with some other folks from Portland. We went to dinner at Deanies, a local place, a couple of blocks from the hotel. Good food! Good company! Good night!

Next morning we had to be downstairs at 6:15 a.m. for the first of two community service project days. I went with a group of electricians, all from Oregon or Washington. We went out into Saint Bernard Parish to Chalmette to wire a house that was being refurbished by the St Bernard Project. www.stbernardproject.org - I urge you readers to go to their website and find out about them. They are doing and excellent job with volunteers, donations and grants, to help get homeowners back into their homes. They say they can do it for about $12,000. Of course that is after the house has been cleaned out, all sheet rock, electrical, plumbing and HVAC is removed and has been pressure washed inside and out.

The house I worked on belongs to Will Staggs. I actually met him. He came by to provide some additional information to us. He and his family have been out of the house since August 2005. The spray paint marking is still on the front of the house. The house wasn’t searched until a month after the hurricane on 9/29 by a team from Georgia and they found 0 bodies. After our two days, the house was about 98% roughed in and almost needing the electrical inspector to check it out and approve for cover so it can be sheet rocked.

On Friday night, my union took the Portland group out to dinner. I think the count was 18 people. Had a nice meal with a bunch of good people.

Saturday was the opening of the conference. Pretty much an all day session until 4:30 p.m. That evening we had a banquet, some entertainment and dancing until about 11:00 p.m.

Sunday morning I went to the conference session and stayed until about 10:30 a.m. Said my final good byes and went to our room, packed up, checked out and headed to the dock to start our next adventure.

Haven’t done much exciting since boarding yesterday other than eat and drink.

Today is a day at sea. Tomorrow we will be in Costa Maya, Mexico for the day.

As I write this, Linda is in the Spa having a facial and enjoying herself.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Bob & Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Arrived in New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon after a short 200 mile drive. We stayed at the Astor Crown Plaza in the French Quarter. Parking was $31.50 a day if I paid through the hotel. I was cheap and parked the car myself in a parking garage around the corner for a mere $25 a day.

Got settled into our hotel room. Found the registration area for my conference and checked in and pi cked up my packeet, name badge, etc. Lots of hugs and handshakes as I ran into old friends from the previous 11 years of attending this conference.

Met up with some other folks from Portland. We went to dinner at Deanies, a local place a couple of blo9cks from the hotel. Good Food! Good Company! Good Night!

Next morning we had to be downstairs at 6:15 a.m. for the first of two community service project days. I went with a group of electiricans, all from Oregon or Washington. We went out into St. Bernard Parish to Chalmette to wire a house that was being refurbished by the St. Bernard Project. www.stbernardproject.org - I urge you readers to go to their website and find out about them. They are doing an excellent job with volunteers, donations and grants, to help get homeowners back into their homes. They say they can do it for about $12,000. Of course that is after the house has been cleaned oout, all sheet rock, electrical, plumbling and HVAC is removed and has been pressure washed inside and out.

The house I worked on belongs to Will Staggs. I actually met him. He came by to provide some additional information to us. He and his family have been out of the house since August 2005. The spray paint marking is still on the front of the house. The house wasn't searched until a month after the hurricane on 9/28

January / February 2009 Road Trip Continued

Today went well. We drove from Sonora to Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Went to dinner at a local restaurant named Pat's of Henderson. Linda had broiled catfish with a salad and sweet potato. I had the Crab dinner which consisted of crab etoufee, a crab ball, a soft shell crab, crab stuffed bell pepper, crab file gumbo, a stuffed crab and a green salad. Way to much good food!

Tomorrow, the final 200 miles and about 3 hours of driving and we will be in New Orleans.

Another beautiful sunny day today.

Bob & Linda

January / February 2009 Road Trip

Well, our trip is going good so far. We left home on Thursday, January 8th at about 2:30 p.m. and drove to Bend. First stop was to see Mom, say hi, see if I could get her printer working and say good bye. Next stop was dinner with Kathy and David at Zydeco restaurant. Yum! After dinner we went to Kathy and David's and spent the night.

Next morning after breakfast we loaded up and headed south. Drove to Stockton, CA and spent the night. Next day, Saturday the 10th, we drove to El Centro, CA. We had about an hour visit with Susan as we passed through Burbank and gave her some Christmas presents we said we would deliver.

Next day, Sunday the 11th, El Centro to Deming, NM.

Today, Monday the 12th, We drove from Deming to Sonora, TX.

Other than snow falling as we drove over Mount Hood on our way to Bend the first day, weather has been sunny and dry.

More to come.

Bob & Linda