Down home eatin'

I'm often asked what a Cajun holiday meal looks like. Somewhere between my grandparents' day and what we eat now, the Christmas meal has become very similar to what the rest of America eats. The traditional turkey and ham is accompanied by peas, corn, broccoli casserole and candied yams. The method of deep frying a turkey was developed some time while I was in the Navy I guess, because I don't remember ever having fried turkey until coming home on leave one holiday.

A few uniquely Cajun dishes add local flavor to our traditional American Christmas meal. The centerpieces of both Christmas and Thanksgiving meals are gumbo and dirty rice. Dirty rice is a combination of white rice, ground beef and pork meat, gizzards and giblets. If you have a squeamish stomach you may want to skip ahead to the next paragraph. . . Gizzards are the ground up parts of a digestive organ found in poultry (we use chicken gizzards). Giblets are ground up organ meats from the chicken, especially the liver. We almost always have two varieties of dirty rice (AKA rice dressing) at the holidays; with and without oysters. I didn't like oysters growing up, but I've developed a taste for them as I've gotten older. I'm even eating them raw on the half shell now (with a little dash of Tabasco sauce!).

Gumbo is the other unique dish you'll find available at a Cajun holiday get-together. It's ubiquitous at Thanksgiving and Christmas meals and comes in may forms. Although we all love shrimp/okra gumbo, we usually have chicken & sausage gumbo for the holidays. As you can see from this picture, authentic (at least authentic to Bayou Blue and the Daigle family) gumbo doesn't look like what you're usually served for gumbo outside of Louisiana. For some reason, non-Cajuns insist upon putting too much rice and leaving the okra in huge chunks. The okra in our our okra gumbos are cooked down so much, you can hardly distinguish the okra in the liquid. It's more like seeds and greens left over. Depending on which bayou you're from, the gumbo can be brown or red. My family never adds tomatoes to their gumbos making it red. My aunt who is of Italian lineage however, grew up with her momma's gumbos being red. The one mandatory gumbo side dish is potato salad! Quite a few folks down here like to mix their potato salad into their gumbo, but I'm a purist and like to keep them seperate. They can mingle in my stomach if they want to, but not on my taste buds!!!

The holiday variety of desserts includes pecan and apple pies, chocolate cake and cookies. The favorites in our household is usually the peanut butter and chocolate fudges, peanut brittle and pecan pralines. My sister Monica's birthday is Christmas Eve and she always requests my mom make an apple pie for her!

Whenever I get a chance while I'm home, I like to make a trip to New Orleans. Andy and I love Cafe du Monde beignets and cafe au lait, so getting him to accompany me there isn't usually a problem! Andy, his girlfriend Lauren and I all piled into the car and headed north to the city. Unfortunately, it ended up being a disappointing culinary day in New Orleans. We ate at a restaurant in the French Quarter called The River's Edge because it was directly across the street from Cafe du Monde. Lauren had a nondescript fried shrimp po-boy while Andy tried to spice up his bland gumbo and bisque with Tabasco sauce. The cup of red beans and rice I tried to eat was the worse I've ever had. How can you screw up red beans and rice? And in New Orleans!

The saving grace of the whole meal was the half of a muffuletta I ordered. The muffuletta sandwich is the delicious result of Italian immigration into the French Quarter in the early 1900s. Muffuletta is actually a Sicilian bread much like focaccia. The round loaf is sliced in half then piled with various forms of Italian meats. The version I had consisted of salami, provolone cheese and the heart of an authentic French Quarter muffuletta; a marinated olive salad.

After dutifully consuming a lunch, we marched across the street for the long-awaited beignets and cafe au lait. Man do I love that light, airy fried dough covered with powdered sugar. I used to bring Andy here every time I'd come home on leave just to wait until he got the beignet close enough to his face that I could blow the powdered sugar everywhere! After finally placing our order, we were presented with the coveted beignets. I picked one up- hmmmm, this feels kind of heavy. I take a bite- hmmmmm, it's not supposed to be crunchy! This was the ultimate disgrace of New Orleans cuisine, a bad beignet! I looked around and suddenly felt sorry for the hordes of tourist sitting around in their newly bought beads draped across their football team t-shirts. This was probably the only time they would get to taste this uniquely New Orleans original! And it was terrible. This was an affront to all that is good about the Crescent City. A so-so meal is one thing, but bad beignets?! Ughhh!

After that, we didn't have the heart to do much sightseeing. We drove back home and decided that we had better gumbo and beignets right here on the bayou. We didn't need to drive an hour for them! We did our part for New Orleans' economy, but next time we'll pump our money into Terrebonne parish by buying some of the best beignets on the bayou at Big Eddie's!!! Not to worry though, I've still got another 4 days down here, I'm sure I'll eat enough great food to diminish my disappointment over the New Orleans cuisine dissapointment!

Not sure if I'll do another post while I'm in Louisiana. I'm enjoying spending time with my family and may have to post when I get back to California!

Home for the holidays

My parents have never asked much of me, but coming home for the holidays is one of them. During my overseas Navy years, that was a hard request to fulfill, but now that Uncle Sam doesn't determine my geography, there aren't a whole lot of things I consider to be more important than for me to be in my parents' house for Christmas! As you can see by this picture of my mom & dad, they are happiest when all their chicks are in the nest (kids and grandkids)! In fact they've picked up more "chicks" over the years; Dave came with them to the airport to pick my up last Thursday! I love the way my family and Navy worlds have meshed together over the years!

In our house, Christmas morning has always been about the kids. For the smaller kids, it's all about the gifts. Julia & Gavin must've been really good this year; it seemed like they opened gifts for a solid 15-20 minutes! For the grown-ups, it's all about enjoying the rare event of having all of our immediate family in one place for a joyous occasion. I'm still not sure that I'm a grown-up though since I ended up at the kids' table for Christmas dinner again this year!

As usual, Christmas was an all day event of eating and visiting. Dwayne brought Julia & Gavin over in the morning and we played with their new toys until the rest of the gang showed up for dinner (that's lunch for those of you not from the South!).

You know your getting older when the nephews have to split their time between here and the girlfriends' families homes! Andy & Lauren and Philip & Jessica hung out and played board games well into the evening with us. It's become a tradition that the girls take on the boys in a round or two of the game Pictionary on Christmas evening. For the third (or is it fourth?) year in a row, the girls have been victorious. My sister's boyfriend Dean thought this would be the year for the guys, but I think he wants to switch to a sports trivia game next year. Now, now Dean, how about a game that involves mechanics in some way just to keep it fair?!

With Christmas 2007 behind us, I'm savoring my last week at home leading up to New Years. On the first, my mom will be flying back to California with me to help me unpack all the boxes and set up in my new apt. on Coronado.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a low-stress week before New Years!!! For my foodie friends out there, not to worry- I'll post some pics of home cookin' later this week!!!

December snow

De je vue. . . I'm in Colorado and it's snowing! I flew into the Springs late Monday evening for a week of meetings. The week started off in the 60s and even 70s at one point I think, but progressively got colder and wetter as the days clicked by. Today it's 16 degrees and it's been snowing since yesterday morning! I'm sitting at the airport right now waiting for my flight back to California. So far, there aren't any delays, so I'm hoping to get out of here before the weather gets any worse!

The last 5 days have been busy but fun. All USOC Performance Services team members converged upon Colorado Springs from Lake Placid, Chula Vista and Marquette. There were close to 60 of us brainstorming, team building and enjoying our once a year meeting of the minds. Although we work in what most would consider a corporate environment, our work is so unique and hands-on that it keeps us passionate about what we do. With the 2008 Beijing Games less than a year away, the New Year will get off to a full sprint start and won't let up until we're analyzing the final Games results.

I'm pretty excited to get back to San Diego. I just signed a lease on an apartment two blocks from the beach that I'll be moving into on the 18th. It's small, but I figured out a long time ago that I don't really need much space anymore. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is having to use coins to do laundry again! But hey, I'm sure I'll forget all about that roll of quarters when I jump on my beach cruiser and peddle towards the beach!

I leave on the 20th for two weeks of holiday vacation back in Louisiana; I'm soooooooooo excited! Hopefully between the move, vacation back home, and my mom coming back to California with me after the holidays, I'll have some pics to post with. Until then, have a great week!!!

November update!

Wow, time is flying by! I hate to post only narrative without pictures, but it's been a while so I figured I'd bring yall up to date even without graphics!

I'm finally getting settled in at my new work place. Furniture arrived last week and it took me three days to build it all and put it where I wanted it. Maybe it's from moving around so much during my life, but I need to have things in their place and pictures hung on the walls before I feel like I'm settled. Since my last post, I've gone back to Colorado Spring for meetings. Didn't have any time to do much outside of work, so no stories or pictures to report. I spent Thanksgiving here in San Diego with Whit & Kathie and had a good time. We did a little cooking, a little drinking, and like the rest of American, a lot of eating!

You know what they say about house guests being like fish. . . after about a week they start to smell! You'd never know it at Whit & Kathie's house, not once have they held their nose! I've thoroughly enjoyed having someone to come home and share dinner with when I'm not working late. Even though living out of a suitcase is never easy, I feel so at ease and at home with them; it's pretty much like staying with family. As fun as it is however, I need to have my stuff out of storage and a place to park my bed. I signed a lease on a cute little apartment on Coronado and will move in on Dec. 18th. It's two blocks from the beach and I'm very excited! The few years I spent in the mountains was enough to make me crave the sound of the pounding serf and the smell of salt air. My soul seems to be made of water, so it's time I feed my soul by having a tide near by!

It's been over a month since I left Colorado Springs and reduced my worldly possessions to only one mode of transportation. You'd actually be quite surprised at how chilly it's been here in southern California. I have to chuckle to myself as I ride home from work in the evenings and there's dew in the air and the temperature is in the mid-fifties. Although chilly, it's certainly better than mid-thirties and snow!!! Having the Harley as my sole mode of travel has actually been quite fun. It's only rained twice since I've been here and both times it was on a weekend. Each time, Kathie insisted I take one of their vehicles, so I've not suffered much in the transportation department!

Every now and then, the universe allows a little piece of my Navy past to merge with my present USOC life. A couple of days ago, a Navy buddy that I used to fly with rolled into town for a conference. We met up for dinner and had a great time telling sea stories and talking about the good old days. I always feel like a young kid posing as an adult when I say we reminisced about the "good ole days", but as Sloper and I hung out telling stories, it occurred to me that the stories we were remembering were from over a decade ago! Once again, it was an enlightening experience for me to catch up with someone I haven't seen in a while and hear about the "good ole days" from a different perspective. I'm usually struck by how unique we all are, and how our shared experiences are viewed through the filters of our past. I have a lot of respect for the men I've served with and for the paths their lives have taken since our paths have parted, especially those who have continued to stay in the Navy. For some reason, I feel strangely obligated to staying in touch with these shipmates from my past. Not an unwanted obligation, but one which I welcome and continually learn from. These random meetings always leave me a better person than I went in.

Tomorrow I take a flight back to Colorado Springs for a week of meetings. I can't say I'm looking forward to being at altitude during winter, but I am excited about seeing friends and checking in on my house (which still hasn't rented yet). I'll try to take some pics and do a post to keep everyone up to date. Until then, have a great week and drink in the surroundings in which you find yourself, you'll never be in that exact moment in time again in your life1

Happy Veteran's Day!

Wow, I can't believe I've been in San Diego for two weeks already! Work has been keeping me busy, so I haven't had a whole lot of time for sightseeing or house hunting. No worries though, life at Whit & Kathie's has been great! We all do our own things and enjoy the time we do spend together when we're all home at one time! At least that's my perspective, you may get a different story if you were to ask them! They're in Hawaii right now and will get back just in time to see me head back out to Colorado for some meetings back in the Springs.

Before I went to work yesterday afternoon, I decided to commemorate Veteran's Day by visiting the USS Midway. The aircraft carrier that was the flagship of the Persian Gulf air operations in Operation Desert Storm was decomissioned in 1992 and has been turned into a museum and is permanently docked in San Diego harbor. I only had about an hour and a half, so it was a quick once through- just enough to make me want to go back with more time to spend on board.

Folks are always amused when they find out I spent 8 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy and never stepped foot on a ship! What can I say, P-3s are land-based!! After touring the berthing areas of the USS Midway yesterday, I'm kind of glad I never had to live on a ship!

Since it was Veteran's Day, there were quite a few former crew members of the ship on hand to answer questions and tell sea-stories! Up on deck, there was a former carrier pilot telling stories about his experiences of landing on a carrier. He was a great story teller and had some really good graphics on what the flight deck looked like from the aircraft as it was approaching for a landing. It was very informative and entertaining!

I think I learned more about military history when I was deployed to Diego Garcia than I did through the academic classes in boot camp. AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio & Television Services) controlled the 1 or 2 channels we had access to on the island in 1991. We loved to make fun of AFRTS commercials as military propaganda, but I always learned something new through those commercials. I thought I had learned the origins of most nautical terms used by the Navy, but this sign shows one that I didn't realize had Chinese origins. Who knew that "Geedunk" was a Chinese word?! OK, probably lots of sailors, but I certainly didn't. I'm such a geek, but I really enjoy word history!!

Tomorrow morning I head back to Colorado Springs for a week of meetings. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have any snow to report on a post from there!

To all my military friends and family out there, both veterans and active duty, I say "Thank You!" Never forget. . . All gave some, some gave all.

From snow to fires!

I left Las Vegas yesterday morning in the chilly morning desert air for the final run towards the west. The sky was pretty hazy, but I figured since it was chilly, it must've been precipitation (in the desert though?!). I got about 30 miles outside of Vegas and started to smell the smoke. It didn't get really bad until I was a little north of Los Angeles when there was actually soot falling out of the sky. Amazingly, about 10 miles south of LA, the sky cleared up and I could hardly tell that there were fires burning out of control behind me.

As I rolled into Whit & Kathie's driveway in the late afternoon yesterday, I couldn't believe that I had ridden over 1500 miles through 5 states! It passed so quickly! OK, the day riding in 40 degree temps didn't pass by that quickly!!! My Harley ran beautifully and mercifully, I didn't encounter any precipitation the whole trip! Once again, I have to marvel at how little we actually need in this world. Two bags on my big plus saddlebags contained all I needed for the week I spent on the road. Admittedly, the key is having a functioning credit card!!! As I left an electronic transaction trail of my journey through the southwest, I thought about how easy it would be for someone to track my path. It's hard to imagine back to a time when folks had to pay cash as they made their way out west! I consider myself pretty flexible when it comes to traveling, but I have to admit to getting annoyed the few times I pulled into a service station that didn't have a pay-at-the-pump pumps! How inconvenient to go inside to pay!!!!

Since I've been in my new state of residence, I've spent my time hanging out with Whit & Kathie. I'm afraid it won't be long before Whit tires of Kathie and I ganging up on him! The presence of my Harley in their garage was the catalyst Whit needed to finally take in his Victory cruiser for service to become road worthy again! He has a sport bike, but I think he realized that we won't be doing many roadtrips if Kathie has to ride on the back of his sport bike for long periods of time!

As always during moves, I'm feeling a bit unsettled. I'm a creature of habit and I get a little frazzled when my things aren't in their "place". I'm going to try to enjoy my last day off the work grid tomorrow before Monday when I'll have to face the hundred or so emails that piled up in my work mailbox during my week on the road. The rest of 2007 will be pretty hectic as I travel back and forth between Colorado and California during this transition time. The saving grace is that I'm in warm weather now and have some friends around me who have incriminating stories about me dating back to my Navy days!!!

I'm not sure what the next adventure will be, but hopefully I'll be reporting that my house in Colorado Springs has rented and that I've found a place to move my things into here in California! I'll go back and add pictures to the posts I did from the road on my blackberry when I can, so feel free to revisit those posts to see how well you visualized my trip!

I'm a winner!

Day 7

This place is a circus! So much going on 24/7 it borders on sensory overload! Yesterday morning I went to the coffee shop in the hotel casino for breakfast. Just like everything in Vegas, it was ridiculously over-priced, but the location at least was great for people-watching. Right out in front of the coffee shop by the slot machines was a film crew shooting a movie. It was around 8:30 a.m. As I walked out, I saw it was Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher shooting a scene. Wow, I thought, they seem to be having lots of fun while working in their chosen profession. Even between takes they were cutting up with the crew.

Down the strip I went to take in the sights. For those who don't like to travel internationally, you could visit most countries right here! The Eiffel Tower is just down the street from gondola rides through Venice inside and outside of a hotel! I watched the water show in front of the Bollagio and wondered what in the world the snapping of the cards meant by the hard-luck folks trying to shove "girl to your room in 20 minutes" cards into the hands of people walking by. Tourists strolled by with drinks in their hands and beads around their necks; kind of like a subdued Mardi Gras without the music.

Right next door to the hotel at which I stayed (Planet Hollywood) was the Harley Davidson Cafe. There's an huge, awesome American flag painted on hanging chains with a couple of real motorcycles hanging from the ceiling in front of it. It was a really cool place with lots of Harley and movie memorabilia.

Around 1:30 p.m. I came back to my hotel to take a little break from walking around all morning. As I passed through the casino, I was surprised to see Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher still shooting the exact same scene! Wow, maybe their jobs aren't so easy! Crowds of people standing around watching them do the same 2-3 minute scene over and over again. They acted just as enthusiastic as they had been acting the scene when I walked by at 8:30 in the morning. As I continued on to my room I decided to throw a few bucks into a slot machine just so I could say that I gambled in Vegas! I played the $1 slots and quickly got bored. I took the $5 left from the $20 I had decided to gamble and put it into a $5 slot machine. I won $25!! Now you're probably thinking that I should capitalize on that luck and play some more. What I did was take my voucher to the cashier window and collected my money! Nothing in life comes for free, so I feel like these little gifts in life should be appreciated but that trying to exploit it will only end in losing (one way or another). So now I'm leaving Vegas as a winner!!!

Last night I went to The Blue Man Group show. I had no idea what is was when I bought the ticket, I had just heard from friends who had seen it that it was worth going to. What a great time!! It's a cross between a comedy, a concert, an optical illusion show and a techno concert! This picture is from the wax museum and not the live show! Oh, before I left for the show around 7:00 p.m. Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher were still out there shooting in the exact same spot! It was a different scene, but they looked like they were still having fun. Actually, they seemed more slap happy than two people having fun! I can't imagine having to be "up" for every scene when you do dozens of them in a row. I have a hard time staying "up" for each presentation when I have to do more than two of them in a day!!

That's all from Vegas. Looks like the fires will not impede my journey west, so today I head for California.

Vegas Baby!

Day 7
Sorry about being a little behind on posting. Tuesday was an off-bike day. Eric and I hung out for a bit, then he dropped me off at a movie theater while he went to work at the airport. I didn't feel like sightseeing around Phoenix, so I decided to relax and watch a movie since I haven't had much time for that lately.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a go-cart race track and raced go-carts that went 45 mph! It was a blast even though Eric beat me by a lap!!

Yesterday I pulled out of Phoenix and started for Las Vegas. Eric's son, Elias, is a little over a year old and didn't know what to think about my Harley when I cranked it off. I assured Eric that if his boy was anything like my brother's kids, he'll be begging for a ride on it in a couple of years!

It was only 300 miles from Phoenix to Las Vegas, but it took pretty much the whole day to get here, since it was smaller roads than interstate. There was a section where I started seeing more and more of some strange looking trees. After a while there was a whole forest of them and then I saw the sign for Joshua Tree National Forest. I had only heard of "Joshua Tree" in the context of rock climbing, I didn't realize it was a real tree!

As I was rumbling down the road towards Vegas, I looked up and saw a sing that said "Next services 75 miles". Wow, even though I had just tanked up and knew I can get close to 200 miles out of a tank, I got an eerie feeling as I gazed up miles and miles of desert for as far as the eye could see. For the first few miles I kept listening for strange noises coming from the engine. About 15 miles into it though, I relaxed with the thought that I take good care of my bike and that I had just checked the oil at the last stop. Besides, how could I not feel calm with an 87 degree breeze rushing over my knees?! I was riding in jeans and a t-shirt as opposed to the 4 layers I was forced to where for much of this trip. I had to chuckle to myself as I spyed huge cactus along the road that looked like they were waving at me. You know the huge ones in the Road Runner cartoons that stand tall like a person with big sausage shaped arms bending up towards the sky?! I felt like stopping and putting a cowboy hat and bandanna on one just so us motorists would feel like there was actually someone out there!

One of the coolest sights of the day was the Hoover Dam. It didn't look like I had expected for some reason. It's huge and it was pretty cool to get to drive over it. I couldn't believe how blue the water of Lake Meade was! It's pretty impressive to see such a huge, gorgeous body of water in the middle of the desert.

Right on the other side of the dam is the border between Arizona and Nevada. The "Welcome to Nevada" sign quickly followed by a casino set the feel of this gambling state right off the bat!

This morning I'm waking up to a beautiful day here on the strip in Las Vegas. Since I'm not much of a gambler, I don't know that I would ever come back here for vacation, so I figured I'd splurge a little and stay right in the middle of the sights and lights so I can just walk to everything. The traffic here was pretty bad when I rolled in last night, so I'm hoping to keep the bike parked for the day and get a little exercise. I'm keeping my eye on the California fires and will decide when to keep heading west based on the advice of my friends in San Diego.

Running south!

Day 4

I woke up yesterday morning to 22 degrees in Gallup, NM! I had breakfast and hung out until around 10:00 a.m. when the temp finally hit 30 degrees. Visions of a warm ride into Phoenix prompted me to ride into the 30 degree morning. Needless to say, I stopped quite often to warm up.

I branched off the interstate onto exit 311 for the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. What a breathtaking place! The pinks and cream colors looked like someone had poured cans of pastel paints over the landscape. It reminded me of how the Grand Canyon looked 4 years ago on a similar road trip, just in miniature form. According to the sign at the lookout point, I was seeing a mountain range over 100 miles away as I gazed into the horizon over the desert.

Further into the National Park, there was an old rusted out car alongside a row of vintage phone poles with no wire connecting them. Although the road itself had long since been removed, the old poles mark what used to be historic Route 66. I'll do a whole other post later on the vintage Route 66 places I encountered along this pathway.

Finally, I thought as I started heading south, I'll get out of these low temperatures associated with altitude. 50 miles into it I realize that not only am I not descending in elevation, I think I'm climbing again! Just as my fingers turn totally numb, I see a sign that confirms my suspicions- Elevation 7700. Are you kidding me?! That's higher than Colorado Springs!!! Note to self...next road trip get a map that clearly shows elevations!!!

Finally, I find myself roaring downhill! By the time I roll into Phoenix, I'm out of the rainsuit and head stocking and enjoying a warmth I'd been longing for for days. I find Eric's house and roll in about dinner time, so we head out to a restaurant for some food and a cold one.

Ironically, I hadn't seen Eric since my last road trip that took me through Arizona 4 years ago. As we reminisced about old shipmates from our Hawaii days we realized that Eric is one of the few of us who still work on airplanes. Eric has his private pilots license but is "between planes" at the moment! So he calls one of his friends who meets us at the airport in a half hour (with his dog Schmedley!) and before I knew it we were flying over the lit up Phoenix landscape. We did something I hadn't done in over a decade: a touch-and-go!!!!

So today I'm hanging out in Phoenix and enjoying the warm weather. I'm in no rush to move on since the wildfires raging in my new home base have everything shut down, including the highway I was going to come in on. I'll roll out of Phoenix tomorrow, though I'm not quite sure where the next destination is yet!

Born to be wild (and freezing)!!!

Day 2

So I guess it's only fitting that since I'm trying to run away from winter that it would follow me! We woke up in Santa Fe to a chilly morning. By 9:00 a.m.we had eaten a quick breakfast and were heading our separate ways. We had tuned into the weather channel before breakfast and were trying to beat the weather challenges facing each of us. Denver had dropped 20 degrees in less than an hour and was getting heavy snow. Suzanne and David needed to get home to their 6 kids before the mountain passes closed. I was trying to beat the 40 to 50 mph gusting winds that would peak late morning.

As I rode the 50 or so miles from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, I debated the route I would take when faced with the choice of continuing south on I-25 to go all the way around the mountains or to swing west when I got to I-40. Recalling that the weather channel showed temps in the 50-60s range, I decided to take a chance and went west.

About 20 miles into the west, I recalled just how unreliable weather guessers can be. Although the winds were gusting enough to push me around my lane, it was mostly a head wind with a little NNW action to keep me on my toes. I think the gusts were just as strong as yesterday, but the direction of them made it easier to navigate. The temp hovered right around 40 degrees and caused me to don long johns, jeans, long sleeved shirt and fleece, leathers and a layer of rainsuit to help block the wind.

I stopped at an Indian trading post somewhere around 50 miles west of Albuquerque and pulled out the map to reevaluate my plan. A hot chocolate and a cup-o-soup later, I still wasn't sure what to do. Then I check my voice messages and listen to a voice message from a Navy buddy named Eric. I had emailed him a few days ago to let him know I would be traveling through Arizona and asked him if he still lived in Phoenix. I called him back and we made plans for me to head towards Phoenix tomorrow. Warmed up and with a sense of purpose to my westward progress, I headed for Gallup, NM about 30 miles away.

I kept seeing billboards for the El Rancho hotel and recalled that it was one of the historic landmarks on old Route 66. I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel-motel and knew that this would be a better experience than staying in nondescript chain lodging. I went in and was cheerily greeted by a woman who recognized that I needed a warm room ASAP! I asked her if there was somewhere safe to park my bike and she told me I could bring it inside. "Um, mam, it's not a scooter, it's a pretty big motorcycle." She walks me to the foyer of the hotel lobby and asks me if it would fit in the corner. "Yes it sure will!" is my amused response. "Well just pull it in right through these double doors, but kill the engine once you're inside, OK?" Okee dokee!!!

So I park my bike and bring my bags up to my room and look around a bit. There are a ton of autographed photos of movie stars who have stayed here. Most are from the 40s and 50s, but I recognized several from the Westerns I used to watch with my dad. I walk down the hall and stopped in my tracks and broke into a chuckle and grin. The background song playing was "Born to be wild"!!!

After a scalding hot shower and some very tasty hot tomales in the hotel restaurant, I'm ready for another day on the road!

Roadtrippin!!

Day 1
Well, I'm officially on my way to California!

Suzanne and David accompanied me in their Ford Excursion down to Santa Fe, New Mexico. They wanted to ride their Harley's too, but the weather is supposed to turn pretty bad in Colorado for their return trip (snow). I got out of Colorado just in time!!

It wasn't long into the road trip before they were thankful that they were in an enclosed vehicle and not exposed on their bikes. The wind from the west was unbelievable! I was literally leaning the bike to my right side into the wind to keep from getting blown over. David said that at some points it looked like I was leaning at a 30 degree angle! That was definitely the hardest I've ever worked on my bike and I was pretty exhausted by the time we pulled into Santa Fe 6 hours later. Minus the hour we stopped for lunch, I fought the wind for the majority of the trip.

Once in Santa Fe though, we had a great meal at one of Suzanne and David's favorite places here. I took pics, but I'm doing this post from my Blackberry and am unable to download pictures [I've added them at the end of the trip!]. So if you don't mind the story without pictures and a few misspelled words, check back in for updates on my progress towards the West!

Today Suzanne and David head back to Colorado and the weather report this morning will determine if I go through Flagstaff or if I have to go south some more all the way around the mountains. Keep your fingers crossed for me for a little less wind today. I'm not complaining though, I'll take wind gusts of 40 mph in 80 degree temps any day over a light breeze and 40 degrees!!!

Pikes Peak and Road Trip

The last 8 days have been beyond hectic.

Friday (Oct 12): full day at work, fly out to Los Angeles at 5:30 p.m.. for a High Performance summit with beach volleyball players

Saturday (Oct 13): full day of presentations and individual sessions, team dinner

Sunday (Oct 14): morning of presentations and individual sessions, arrive at airport for scheduled 5:30 pm flight. Several delays and two airport meals later, we arrive in Denver too late to catch the last flight to Colorado Springs. We rent a car and drive in the rain from Denver to colorado Springs and arrive at home finally at 1:00 a.m.

Monday (Oct 15): day starts at 9:00 a.m. with the women's national water polo team training camp. Pack up most of my office.

Tuesday (Oct 16): full day of meetings that end at around 6:30 p.m. Finish packing office and bring to transportation to be taken to Chula Vista.

Wednesday (Oct 17): arrive at OTC at 5:15 p.m. for team building hike up Pikes Peak. Realize i don't know where my purse is, assume it's in my office and think to myself that I'll look in my office when we get back from the hike. 6.5 miles into the hike, we find ourselves at Bar Camp at 10,000 ft. Half the group decides to continue on to Pikes Peak and the other half of us hang out at Bar Camp to wait for the cog railway up to the summit. We played Pictionary and hung out in the warm cabin as the snow began to fall. The summit team is forced to turn around due to weather and the cog train picks them up to join us on the ride down. It was 16 degrees F with 40 mph wind gusts at the summit. We get back down to the Springs around 5:30 p.m. Go to my office to pick up my purse. It's not there! Tear apart my office, the room where the presentation was on Tuesday night, my car, my house and every path between all these. Give up the search and go home to finish painting. Get to bed around 10:30 p.m. after a mini melt-down.

Thursday (Oct 18): Cancel all appointments for the day and spend the day contacting security and lost & founds on complex. Realize the purse won't turn up and start to cancel credit and debit cards and change PINs and website passwords (all in my purse because I was moving). Borrow a truck, donate bed and VW Fox. Hire cleaning lady (finally admitted I just don't have time to do it myself) and get repairman over to my house to do check-up on furnace for the winter. Finish packing up house. Pack Harley and move to Suzanne & David's house.

Friday (Oct 19): Go into work by 7:00 a.m. and start meeting with athletes at 8:00 a.m. Go to DMV to get new driver's license. 12:00-3:30 p.m. team building with co-workers. 4:00 p.m. get call from post office. Somone put my purse in a mail deposit box and they have it for me to pick up. Say very quick goodbye to few co-workers I run into on my way out the door as I run out to the post office. $100 in cash in purse was stolen, everything else in purse still there (including now cancelled credit and debit card and driver's license!) Have dinner in the evening with riding friends and here I sit updating you on why I haven't been in touch with friends and family! Sorry that i don't have any pictures to accompany this story, but my laptop is on it's way to California!

Tomorrow morning the road trip starts. I've decided to leave later in the morning so I can catch up on some much needed rest and so it'll warm up for the ride. The first segment of the road trip adventure will be from here to Sante Fe, New Mexico. The weather at that point will determine where I go from there.

Stay tuned for the road trip. . .

Pack-out day!

Although most of the readers of this blog are voyeurs (read but don't comment), I still hear about it in phone calls when I'm falling behind! I figured I'd post in pictures my excuse for not keeping up lately! This first picture is of my living room on any normal day (OK, after I've straightened up a bit anyway!).

I love my little house with the open living area and hardwood floors and the great pergola out back, but I just don't like the geography in which it sits. Not just the dead lawn, but the latitude! The crispness in the air and the fact that I woke up 3 times last night freezing all served to remind me why you see all my belongings in the second picture in boxes! My relocation to San Diego isn't only official, it's in progress!!! For the last few weeks, I've been purging my belongings and boxing up the items that have passed muster. Basically, I purged with one basic fact in the back of my mind: that I'll probably be moving from 1000 sq ft of living space to about 700 if I'm lucky. Square footage in San Diego ain't cheap!!!

So, on top of packing, I've been doing due diligence as a homeowner and making sure all the maintenance is up to date before I roll out. This last picture is my living room empty. I had everything packed up and ready to go for when the movers arrived at 10:00 a.m. Even after all that purging, I still ended up shipping just over 3000 lbs of goods. For those of you who have done military moves, you know that isn't a whole lot. In fact, it's about the same weight of stuff I shipped back from Spain! I guess I haven't collected all that much stuff in the last decade! I had to chuckle though as I approved the shipping documents- 1/2 of the boxes were filled with kitchen stuff and 1/4 were filled with photos, photo albums, and pictures of my travels that I had blown up and had hanging on the walls. Hmmmm, wonder what that says about me?!

I'm in town until Friday, then I head out to Los Angeles to work with beach volleyball again. I get back Sunday for a full week with a team in town, then I roll out on my Harley heading towards California on the 20th! Time is getting short and so is my window of snowless opportunity! Stay tuned for the road-trip saga!

Washington, DC

Wow, what a sightseeing day this turned out to be! I was a little hesitant to take the rental car all the way into DC since I had heard how horrible it was to park a car there. I had been to DC a few times in the past, but I hadn't driven. The last time was when I was running the Marine Corp Marathon in 2003, so there were a lot of new things to see.



I drove straight to Arlington Cemetary and parked the car there for the day. Arlington is always such a grounding experience, especially watching the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldiers. It was a beautiful, though crisp day, so I hung out and waited for the changing of the guard. I was so caught up in the whole experience that I just about jumped out of my skin when I heard someone's cell phone ring shattering the silence. Then the realization hit me, IT WAS MINE! Not only is my ringtone a country song (Summertime), it's on loud because I'm a little hard of hearing and I have a hard time hearing the ring. As I rip my purse open and start scrambling around for the offensive electronic device, my ringtone gets through a full verse before I put my fingers on it and hold down the off button in horror. So, I'm usually the one who glares at a person who's cell phone goes off at an inappropriate time, and now it was me. I wanted to shrivel up and disappear in embarassment. Especially as a veteran at such a revered event on hallowed ground. The universe sometimes has the most effective ways of reminding us that we are all human and make mistakes and that none of us are perfect. . . OK, lesson learned!!!



As I recovered from my humbling experience, I walked around the grounds (with cell phone firmly OFF), I ended up at the Women's Military Memorial. If you ever find yourself at this memorial on the edge of Arlington Cemetary, you have to go in and check out the computer registry. I registered a few years ago, so I pulled up my profile inside. What a strange feeling to be in such a historical place and see my own face and military career summary on a big screen on the wall! If you know any female veterans, make sure you get them registered in this living history data bank.



Just across the Potomic River is the National Mall with all the memorials and government buildings (map). The first memorial you come to after crossing the bridge is the Lincoln Memorial. At the top of the stairs, you can look out across the reflecting pool and see clear down to the top of the Capitol behind the Washington Monument.



From there, I walked through the Korean War Memorial with it's larger than life soldier sculptures walking through a field. Directly across the Reflection Pool is the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. Just as when I saw this black granite wall for the first time, I teared up. As I gazed at so many names on the wall, I had to choke back a sob as I recalled one name I am so grateful that isn't up there. My Pyran (Cajun for Godfather) Wayne served in Vietnam and made it home where he met the hippie who's had a profound effect on my personality, my Aunt Ruth. I'm so glad this memorial was put here for us to remember, both the fallen and the ones who returned.



The same could be said for all the memorials in DC, especially for the World War II Memorial finally built just a few years ago. It's a majestic tribute to those who both participated and were devestated by WWII that's flanked on each side with columns representing the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of operation. Tall pillars all around the memorial represent each of the states and territories.



The last memorial on my foot tour was the U.S. Navy Memorial. Somehow I had missed this one on previous visits. The statue Lone Sailor stands watch on a granite 100-foot diameter map of the world. Water taken from all seven seas cycle through the fountain pools at the foot of the map.



You may notice that the White House was not part of my tour. That's because I had already gotten a great tour back in 2000 by Whit when he was stationed there!



All told, at the end of my walking tour, I had covered a little over 7 miles. With so much walking, I had worked up an appetite and it was time to meet a shipmate for dinner.



I call him a shipmate, but he was actually my Commanding Officer when I was in VQ-2. I have to admit that even after being a civilian for a decade, it's still weird to call my old skipper by his first name!! I had tracked down Rob a little over a year ago to send him a thank you note. On a flight back from a det to Souda Bay a little over 10 years ago, he took the time to discuss my plans for the future with me and encouraged me to follow my college degree seeking aspirations. I've said many times that I have been very fortunate both in the military and as a civilian to have had some strong mentors and advisors. Rob was one of those, so I sent him an email letting him know that his decision to let me out of the Navy a few months early turned out to be a great decision and that I had turned out alright. I'm sure he usually hears about his sailors who have gotten out and haven't done so well for themselves, so I wanted him to hear from someone who had taken advantage of all the opportunities the Navy had opened up for her and was fairly successful in her career.



We met up at a tapas restaurant called Las Tapas where we had a nostalgic (and authentic tasting) meal reminiscent of our Rota, Spain days. I love catching up with old shipmates to see where their paths took them after the duty station we shared. I especially love catching up with those who's paths turned out to be very successful as Rob's had.



After dinner, I made an uneventful drive back down to Virginia Beach where I finally did a little work on this trip! Since my return to Colorado Springs, I have been swimming in work, both professionally and personally. I'll post later and catch you up on those! As always, thanks for checking in!!

Virginia Beach

I'm in the process of packing up my house and office for my relocation (I'll post on that later!), so I'm way behind on the happenings in my hectic life. Four days after I got back from New England, I got on a plane headed for the east coast again. This time it was business and I was headed to Virginia Beach, VA to work with the women's Field Hockey Team. In true Karen-fashion, I arrived in Virginia Beach two days before I needed to be there in order to do a little sightseeing.




One of the best side-benefits of being in the Navy for two tours was that I made friends who are now strewn across the U.S. There aren't many towns I can roll into that I don't have an old shipmate's number in my cell phone. As luck would have it, Virginia Beach was one of the duty stations of my Navy nurse friend Stephanie (see previous post to see what she's doing now!). So I pull over in my rental car and call Steph on my cell phone.



Steph, I'm in Virginia Beach and I want some good seafood. Any suggestions?


Where are you exactly?


I just passed Fort Story on Shore Drive.


Are you kidding me? I still own a house just a couple of miles from there!! Keep driving along Shore Drive and right before the Lynnhaven Bridge, take a left and go to a place called "Chick's Oyster Bar". All the locals go there, you'll love it.


I pull up and immediately know that this is going to be some good food. I sat out on the back dock and had the most amazing blue crab crab cakes I've ever eaten! They were grilled, not fried and were so moist and had that distinctive blue crab sweetness that it didn't need any type of sauce or dip. Scrumptious I tell you! Sorry about not having pictures of the crab cakes. Sometimes it doesn't feel right to whip out my camera and start snapping pictures of my food. This was one of those times, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

I sat on the back deck which was a docking pier and enjoyed the sunset over a scene that could've been along any bayou in South Louisiana. Man do I love coastlines!!!!

Unfortunately, the weather turned chilly (figures!) and it wasn't such good beach weather. No worries, I'll drive the 3 hours up to Washington, DC to do a little sightseeing on my day off!

New England triathlon: Chowda, Beeuh & Lobsta

I love to travel and I love to eat! Lucky for you (or unlucky since you can only experience these things virtually!) I love to post about them! We saw a t-shirt in Boston that summarized our culinary pursuits throughout the trip (clam chowder, locally brewed beer and lobster rolls).



Upon our arrival to Boston, we made a beeline to the harbor for some clam chowder. On a recommendation, we went to the No Name Seafood restaurant (yep, that's really its name!) located at the Boston Fish Pier. As I excitedly dug into my steaming bowl of chowder, I was disappointed at the bland spoonful of thickness that greeted my taste buds. It reminded me of poorly made biscuit gravy. Although disappointed in the chowder and the similarly bland calamari we sampled, I soldiered on and dug into the scallops I had ordered. What a pleasant surprise!!! Tender and delicious, we've struck foodie gold here folks!!!



Even though I was excited about the tasty scallops, I was determined to experience a true New England clam chowder before I left the east coast. One of the stops along the Freedom Trail (for us anyway) was a bar/restaurant called Cheers. Yep, it was the same bar from the popular TV show, but this was not the original location (Norm was nowhere to be found!). We ducked in for a beer and bite to eat while we penned post cards home. Hey look, there's clam chowder on the menu. I'll give it another shot while we're still in Boston. Yummmmmmy! Even though I'm not from the north-east, I have a strong suspicion that this is what New England clam chowder is supposed to taste like! And that Samual Adams sure went well with it!


The route back to the hotel was lined with shopping establishments of every sort. Larry was pretty excited about the "Life is Good" and Patagonia stores! Hey, what do I see up there between the purses and clothing stores? It's an ice cream shop called JP Licks!! Not only was my hot fudge sundae scrumptious, we got to sit in a teacup while we enjoyed our frozen desserts!

OK, so now I've had the chowda and beeuh, I've just got to have a lobster roll to complete the triathlon. On Joe's recommendation, we had dinner at the Red Parrot while in Newport, RI.
In the picture, I'm eating this restaurant's version of a lobster roll minus the bacon (lobster salad, Roma tomatoes, and fresh field greens on a toasted basil focaccia).

With our culinary tour complete, I came back to Colorado Springs for all of three days before I boarded a plane and headed back to the east coast. Now that I've gotten yall caught up to two weekends ago, I'll start posting on my trip to Virginia Beach and Washington, DC.

Until then, thanks checking in!