The only reason that I wanted to come to Las Vegas was to see 'Star Trek – The Experience' at the Las Vegas Hilton. If I could have juggled it, we would have been in Las Vegas a month later for the Star Trek Convention that's happening there in August.
There. It's been said. I am a Star Trek Geek. And Las Vegas has the Star Trek Experience. The definitive Star Trek timeline and museum. Awesome rides – get assimilated by the Borg, and fight the Klingons. Backstage tours and photo opportunities all over the place. The inevitable merchandise shop as well.
We got the Admirals Pass. This is the 'all you can eat' ticket for the day. This gave us access to the museum and all displays, both rides, a backstage tour, a meal at Quarks, a whole bunch of photos, and a showbag full of goodies.
The rides are excellent – well on a par with Disney. The Borg ride uses 3D stuff and is seriously scary. Then to be able to do the backstage tour and see how it all comes together is fabulous. We got photos in the Captains Chair on the Enterprise, and Amy was assimilated by the Borg and makes a very scary (and I think cute) Borg. Unfortunately I can't post those photos here – I'll need to scan them and upload.
I've got a great t shirt collection as well as a few other bits and pieces from it. Well, maybe a bit more than that - I'll need to post it all home so that we don't have to haul it all over the US with.
We played the pokies. Amy, more so than me because I was, well, busy with Star Trek. Amy did really well and while I was touring backstage she won a few hundred dollars on a 1c machine.
It's summer here and so we expected it to be hot – but parts of California, Nevada and Arizona are having a heatwave. There are wildfires in northern California, and the temperature soars up over 100f on a daily basis. In Las Vegas it didn't drop below 110 f during the day, and never got below 85 f at night. So, we stayed indoors in the airconditioning of the Hilton.
From Las Vegas, we had no definite plans or destination - no where to be until July 19 when we hand the car back at Albuquerque. We planned to spend the two weeks in Arizona and New Mexico, but it looked like the heat in Arizona was more than we wanted to cope with. We looked at going through Utah, and Colorado to bypass Arizona all together.
But the Weather Channel changed all that for us. Flagstaff is in the mountains. According to the Weather Channel it's hot – but hot in Flagstaff is in the high 80s f.
So we checked out of Las Vegas, fired Ken up, and pointed ourselves towards Flagstaff in Arizona.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Travelling with Ken
Before we left Australia, I downloaded maps for North America onto our GPS. And I crossed my fingers. I figured that I could learn to drive on the right hand side of the road, and Amy was confident that she could get back to driving on that side of the road as well.
Our GPS has a choice of voices – Susan is pushy North American, Brian is reserved English, and Ken is polite Australian. Ken is very patient. When we miss a turn, Ken adjusts his directions. He beeps when we exceed the speed limit. He has a different beep when there's a speed camera. Of course, there was the unfortunate speed limit incident in New Zealand, when the beep was set to police sirens and scared the whatsis out of us all – but other than that Ken keeps us going where we want to go.
Leaving LA we programmed Ken for Las Vegas and crossed our fingers. Amy drove – and did an awesome job of getting us through the LA freeway system in the peak hour traffic.
The road out of LA is all desert. It's harsh, hard country. We pulled off the freeway at Barstow onto the old Route 66 for petrol and food. The town matches the desert – it look like it's a hard life there.
After Barstow the desert stays desert, but somehow assumes a beauty all it's own. The road is long, and straight and Ken tells us that we don't have a turn for well over 100 kms. I'm driving – and concentrating hard. My natural tendency is to drift to the left.
Las Vegas just appears out of no where. All those things that you hear about it being a city stuck bang smack in the middle of the desert are absolutely true. One minute we're driving through the desert and I'm concentrating on staying right – the next we're on freeway with exits and run ons all over the place, and Ken is telling me to take the next left and stay right........
Our GPS has a choice of voices – Susan is pushy North American, Brian is reserved English, and Ken is polite Australian. Ken is very patient. When we miss a turn, Ken adjusts his directions. He beeps when we exceed the speed limit. He has a different beep when there's a speed camera. Of course, there was the unfortunate speed limit incident in New Zealand, when the beep was set to police sirens and scared the whatsis out of us all – but other than that Ken keeps us going where we want to go.
Leaving LA we programmed Ken for Las Vegas and crossed our fingers. Amy drove – and did an awesome job of getting us through the LA freeway system in the peak hour traffic.
The road out of LA is all desert. It's harsh, hard country. We pulled off the freeway at Barstow onto the old Route 66 for petrol and food. The town matches the desert – it look like it's a hard life there.
After Barstow the desert stays desert, but somehow assumes a beauty all it's own. The road is long, and straight and Ken tells us that we don't have a turn for well over 100 kms. I'm driving – and concentrating hard. My natural tendency is to drift to the left.
Las Vegas just appears out of no where. All those things that you hear about it being a city stuck bang smack in the middle of the desert are absolutely true. One minute we're driving through the desert and I'm concentrating on staying right – the next we're on freeway with exits and run ons all over the place, and Ken is telling me to take the next left and stay right........
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Finally - net access!
July 2
For those of you following along at home - and suggesting that I get some stuff up here - finally tonight I've got some net access. We've had trouble with it at the hotel and I've given up, put my last two pieces on a USB stick and found a net cafe. As well as that, here are some photos.
Both of us with Mickey
Me and Donald
The merry go round.
We went on it twice. The only ride that we did more than once.
On The Mark Twain - the paddle boat in Frontierland
For those of you following along at home - and suggesting that I get some stuff up here - finally tonight I've got some net access. We've had trouble with it at the hotel and I've given up, put my last two pieces on a USB stick and found a net cafe. As well as that, here are some photos.
Both of us with Mickey
Me and Donald
The merry go round.
We went on it twice. The only ride that we did more than once.
On The Mark Twain - the paddle boat in Frontierland
More Photos
Here we are just as we went in the gate on Monday - all ready for Mickey!
This is over the bridge that we walked under as we entered Main Street. It's a great way to look at the world
Amy and Friend
Me and my mouse ears. My name is embroidered on the back.
The view down Main Street
As I write this, I'm sitting in a net cafe on Harbor (it's really hard to leave out the 'U' in Harbor, but I'm doing my best) Boulevard. Disneyland is on the other side of the road, and nightly fireworks are happening. The display goes on for 40 minutes and is spectacular.
We picked up our first rental car this afternoon. It's a convertable - I've been saying all along that I wanted a convertable for this part of the trip - and is very cool. I've been driving and Amy says I'm doing okay. I haven't hit anyone, or had drivers yell at me, or blast me with their horn. Frankly, it's easier driving here than it is in Sydney. Big wide lanes plenty of signage, and people are just so damn polite.
Mickey's Waiting..........
July 1
We arrived in the US on Sunday, got the Disneyland Express from LAX to to our hotel and slept. A lot. Somewhere in there we went down the restaurant at the corner and had a bite to eat........and then we slept some more. We both woke up at strange times during the night......and went back to sleep again.
Disneyland is at just down the street and around the corner. It's maybe a kilometre away, tops. So, after breakfast we put our walking shoes on and took off.
Disneyland is awesome! There's no other words to describe it. It describes itself as The Happiest Place on Earth -and it's right. There's no choice but to grin, and then smile widely, and then laugh.
There's something for everyone.
Main Street is the bit that you enter as you come into the park. It's a long street of shops and eating places and attractions – come and see the original Mickey Mouse movie from 1928 – with trolley cars running up and down. it's also where Mickey and Mini and Donald Duck hang out. They appear out of no where, a queue forms for photos and autographs, and they vanish again.
Tomorrowland is full of, well, full of tomorrow. That's where the Star Tours ride is – a virtual ride inspired by Star Wars – kind of the roller coaster that you have when you don't actually go anywhere. And Space Mountain – the roller coaster that you do have when you do go somewhere. In a lot of darkness, broken up by starscapes that leave you feeling as though falling through space. There is also Autopia, where you drive cars around a track full of ups and downs and ins and outs.
Fantasyland is full of littlies. It's got princesses, and little people style rides. A gorgeous merry-go-round, full of mirrors, every horse is painted differently. We went on it twice. There's the Storybook Land Canal Boats. They were one of the original Disney rides – canal boats that travel past tiny villages from Pinocchio, Aladin, the Three Little Pigs and just about every other fairy tale you can think of. Fantasyland also has the Matterhorn – another serious roller coaster. I screamed myself hoarse. Amy said that if I wanted to go on anymore roller coasters, she was very happy to wait for me at the end of the ride.
Frontierland is built around a lake. In the middle of the lake is Tom Sawyer's Island; the Mark Twain – a 3 tiered paddled steamer takes you around the lake and the island. All around the lake there are the most amazing and realistic scenes on the shores.
New Orleans Square sits firmly on the edge of the lake as well. This is where The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and the Haunted Mansion are. The Pirates ride is great - we sat in a small boat and went for miles inside a huge darkened cavern with all sorts of pirate stuff around all the bends, and a few mandatory drops down in the carriages so that there was some good splashing. The Haunted Mansion is full of things that look ghostly – they look like three dimensional holograms from a sci fi show – at one stage we had a ghost sitting in the carriage beside us!
Adventureland is smaller - everywhere at Disney is an adventure! - and here we went on The Jungle Cruise. We sat in a boat that looked like it was straight out The African Queen and navigated our way through the jungle. We got squirted by elephants, chased by hippos and had arrows shot at us by a tribe of headhunters.
The best ride in the whole park is Splash Mountain. We sat in a tiny boat that looked like half a log turned into a canoe and went through caves with the most wonderful characters and stories from Brear Rabbit. It was great. And at the end we dropped 50 feet - that's what the signs say - and splashed into the water at the bottom. It should be called Drench Mountain - we were at the front of the canoe and were so soaked that we headed back to the hotel to change.
Disneyland is truly amazing. There's a reason that everyone is smiling. From the moment that we walked in the gates in the morning, till the time we went home at night we kept smiling. Even standing in line (I keep joining queues, but here it's standing in line) is an exciting experience – Disney handles lines by making them part of the ride. So while we waited for the Star Tours ride, we were entertained by C3PO, and watched robots building androids. One of the robots decided that he's had enough and stopped working. The boss robot threatened to cut his power off, and so reluctantly he began again.
The Disney people move queues really well. There never seems to be a long wait -unless you stand in line for the Finding Nemo submarine ride. And if you are tempted to stand in the Nemo line – don't. It's the only dud ride in the place and afterwards we wondered why we'd bothered.
We've gotten into a pleasant routine – get up and get to the Park by the time the gates open at 8am. Stay until early afternoon and then come back to the hotel. hang out in the air conditioning, or around the pool until early evening, then head back to Disneyland until late – it closes at midnight.
Andy's Tips for Disneyland
1. Go early, stay late. Skip the bit in the middle. At this time of the year it's hot. Skip the hot part of the day.
2. Wear shorts. Everyone wears shorts. I could pick the Australians in the queue this morning waiting for the gates to open at 8am – they were the only people wearing long trousers.
3. Split meals. I've never seen meals as big as they are here. We get one meal and 2 sets of cutlery.
4. Wear comfortable shoes and walk lots. Our hotel is walking distance to the Park, and so we can come and go as we please.
5. Skip 'Finding Nemo'. By the time I'd found him, we found him, we wondered why we'd bothered. Maybe it's best that Australians don't go to rides that are all about the Great Barrier Reef.
6. Buy the T shirt. And the sweatshirt. And Mickey. And another T shirt.
7. Get wet at Splash Mountain. Very wet.
We've got one more day here in Anaheim and we're hoping to make it to the other Disney park – yes, there are two of them. Across the square from Disneyland, is the Disney California Park -more Disney! Yay! In the afternoon, we collect the car, and then the day after we head off to Las Vegas.
We arrived in the US on Sunday, got the Disneyland Express from LAX to to our hotel and slept. A lot. Somewhere in there we went down the restaurant at the corner and had a bite to eat........and then we slept some more. We both woke up at strange times during the night......and went back to sleep again.
Disneyland is at just down the street and around the corner. It's maybe a kilometre away, tops. So, after breakfast we put our walking shoes on and took off.
Disneyland is awesome! There's no other words to describe it. It describes itself as The Happiest Place on Earth -and it's right. There's no choice but to grin, and then smile widely, and then laugh.
There's something for everyone.
Main Street is the bit that you enter as you come into the park. It's a long street of shops and eating places and attractions – come and see the original Mickey Mouse movie from 1928 – with trolley cars running up and down. it's also where Mickey and Mini and Donald Duck hang out. They appear out of no where, a queue forms for photos and autographs, and they vanish again.
Tomorrowland is full of, well, full of tomorrow. That's where the Star Tours ride is – a virtual ride inspired by Star Wars – kind of the roller coaster that you have when you don't actually go anywhere. And Space Mountain – the roller coaster that you do have when you do go somewhere. In a lot of darkness, broken up by starscapes that leave you feeling as though falling through space. There is also Autopia, where you drive cars around a track full of ups and downs and ins and outs.
Fantasyland is full of littlies. It's got princesses, and little people style rides. A gorgeous merry-go-round, full of mirrors, every horse is painted differently. We went on it twice. There's the Storybook Land Canal Boats. They were one of the original Disney rides – canal boats that travel past tiny villages from Pinocchio, Aladin, the Three Little Pigs and just about every other fairy tale you can think of. Fantasyland also has the Matterhorn – another serious roller coaster. I screamed myself hoarse. Amy said that if I wanted to go on anymore roller coasters, she was very happy to wait for me at the end of the ride.
Frontierland is built around a lake. In the middle of the lake is Tom Sawyer's Island; the Mark Twain – a 3 tiered paddled steamer takes you around the lake and the island. All around the lake there are the most amazing and realistic scenes on the shores.
New Orleans Square sits firmly on the edge of the lake as well. This is where The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and the Haunted Mansion are. The Pirates ride is great - we sat in a small boat and went for miles inside a huge darkened cavern with all sorts of pirate stuff around all the bends, and a few mandatory drops down in the carriages so that there was some good splashing. The Haunted Mansion is full of things that look ghostly – they look like three dimensional holograms from a sci fi show – at one stage we had a ghost sitting in the carriage beside us!
Adventureland is smaller - everywhere at Disney is an adventure! - and here we went on The Jungle Cruise. We sat in a boat that looked like it was straight out The African Queen and navigated our way through the jungle. We got squirted by elephants, chased by hippos and had arrows shot at us by a tribe of headhunters.
The best ride in the whole park is Splash Mountain. We sat in a tiny boat that looked like half a log turned into a canoe and went through caves with the most wonderful characters and stories from Brear Rabbit. It was great. And at the end we dropped 50 feet - that's what the signs say - and splashed into the water at the bottom. It should be called Drench Mountain - we were at the front of the canoe and were so soaked that we headed back to the hotel to change.
Disneyland is truly amazing. There's a reason that everyone is smiling. From the moment that we walked in the gates in the morning, till the time we went home at night we kept smiling. Even standing in line (I keep joining queues, but here it's standing in line) is an exciting experience – Disney handles lines by making them part of the ride. So while we waited for the Star Tours ride, we were entertained by C3PO, and watched robots building androids. One of the robots decided that he's had enough and stopped working. The boss robot threatened to cut his power off, and so reluctantly he began again.
The Disney people move queues really well. There never seems to be a long wait -unless you stand in line for the Finding Nemo submarine ride. And if you are tempted to stand in the Nemo line – don't. It's the only dud ride in the place and afterwards we wondered why we'd bothered.
We've gotten into a pleasant routine – get up and get to the Park by the time the gates open at 8am. Stay until early afternoon and then come back to the hotel. hang out in the air conditioning, or around the pool until early evening, then head back to Disneyland until late – it closes at midnight.
Andy's Tips for Disneyland
1. Go early, stay late. Skip the bit in the middle. At this time of the year it's hot. Skip the hot part of the day.
2. Wear shorts. Everyone wears shorts. I could pick the Australians in the queue this morning waiting for the gates to open at 8am – they were the only people wearing long trousers.
3. Split meals. I've never seen meals as big as they are here. We get one meal and 2 sets of cutlery.
4. Wear comfortable shoes and walk lots. Our hotel is walking distance to the Park, and so we can come and go as we please.
5. Skip 'Finding Nemo'. By the time I'd found him, we found him, we wondered why we'd bothered. Maybe it's best that Australians don't go to rides that are all about the Great Barrier Reef.
6. Buy the T shirt. And the sweatshirt. And Mickey. And another T shirt.
7. Get wet at Splash Mountain. Very wet.
We've got one more day here in Anaheim and we're hoping to make it to the other Disney park – yes, there are two of them. Across the square from Disneyland, is the Disney California Park -more Disney! Yay! In the afternoon, we collect the car, and then the day after we head off to Las Vegas.
On the Way
Sunday, June 28
Here we are at Syney Airport, waiting for our hotel bus to pick us up.
I'm writing this at 33,000 feet somewhere over far north Queensland, according to the in flight map.
We're on the way.
Despite the best efforts of the Qantas engineers and the coincidence (not!) of their strike right on the eve of the school holidays, we got as far as Sydney last night. Got the bus from the airport to the hotel, which was driven by a fellow who was mistaken – he thought he was driving a very fast car in the Grand Prix, and not the elderly 12 seater mini bus that the rest of knew that we were on. No matter – we got to our hotel a good minute or two earlier than we would have. The hotel lounge was full of a tour bus of middle aged Australians cheering on the Wallabies in their test against the French, and young women who'd come in on the bus from the airport with us and who kept coming into the bar and trying to buy booze to take back to their rooms – and who kept being politely declined. The Australian rugby team was doing well, so the lounge was a cheerful place. At 5pm this morning when their tour bus left they still looked – from the hotel window at least - to be a cheerful lot.
We weren't far behind them and got the 5.30am bus from the hotel to the airport. Schumacher the bus driver wasn't on duty at that time – instead we had a grumpy fellow who didn't believe in lifting bags.
Sydney International is always busy and at 5.45 am it was all go. It's renovation is nearly finished and that means that there's plenty of space and plenty of signage and it's easy enough to find your way around.
Korean Air is gorgeous. It's staff are relentlessly cheerful and helpful. Even in economy there are all the little things that make a longish – 10 hour – flight bearable. And the biggest thing – the legroom is good. Even though the person in front of me has their seat down I'm able to stretch my legs in front of me. We're 4 hours into the flight, and so far so good.
So – onwards. Next stop Seoul, and then LA!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Oh Canada!
In mid May we did all the paperwork – and that means ALL the paperwork – to apply for our Marriage License in Canada.
In fairness, the paperwork's not huge and nor is it particularly onerous. But for a control freak like me it's nerve wracking to fill in papers, pop them in the mail and send them to the other side of the world. I want to fill them in, hand deliver them, check that they get there, check that they're all correct and then hand deliver them to the next stop. I don't want to trust my papers to anyone but me.
But that was never going to be possible for our wedding ceremony in Toronto. So, in late May, we filled in the paper work to go to Bruce the lawyer. He needs to write a statement recommending that Amy's divorce be recognised in Canada. He needed picture ID -so we sent copies of our passports and drivers’ licenses – and an original – which means with the actual seal stuck to it – of Amy's divorce papers.
So we filled in the paperwork, and off we went to the Geelong Police Station. It all needed to be certified by a Justice of the Peace, and there's a JP who sits in the foyer of the police station every morning for a few hours and signs stuff.
He's a funny wee man. Turns out that he's a retired magistrate, and he takes this business very very seriously. As we'd decided to take care of a lot of stuff in the one go, we had a pile for him. As well as all of paperwork for Canada, we weren't happy traveling without our wills sorted out, and financial, legal and medical powers of attorney in place. So we had all the paperwork for those as well.
Lots of folks seem to think that there's little, if any, difference for me and Amy. I like to think that's because they don't see any difference between us, and their other friends who are married. They don't make any exceptions, they don't treat us any differently – and they don't run up against the legal system. On a day to day basis, things aren’t much different. But there are a whole heap of differences that come into play the moment that anything untoward – like illness – happens.
See – the stupid thing about all this is that we wouldn't need to do this if we were straight, if one of us was a man. Medical Guardianship takes care of the hospital thing. If either of us gets sick, or has an accident, we'd want the other to be making the decisions for us. Legally, at present (without the medical guardianship) the folks who'd make those decisions for me would be my adoptive family, the Howards. That's right – the folks who told me not to bother to contact them anymore over 10 years ago, and who carried through on that – would be the people making the decisions. Not Amy. As well as that, they'd also be the folks who would control my assets. Things like our home. They could block Amy out if they wished to. Any hospital that I was in could prevent Amy from seeing me or being involved in my care. They could toss Amy out of our home, and sell it out from under her.
So, we had all of that paperwork as well. Applications to have Amy's divorce recognised, so that we could get a Letter of Authorisation, and with that get a Marriage License, two wills, and four separate powers of attorney – one medical and one financial/legal for each of us.
The JP hadn’t seen the paperwork that Canada requires before, and being a fellow who takes it all very seriously, he went through it all very carefully. And being an elderly fellow, of a different generation so to speak, the application for marriage license paperwork certainly raised his eyebrows. To his credit, he didn’t raise them too far, and gave barely a pause as he plied his way through our paperwork. Amy chatted with him while we got the whole lot done – seems he spends a lot of time in aged care facilities sorting out various powers of attorney for old folks and their families.
Anyhow, in the end we got it all done. All signed and sealed – well, signed and stamped.
Then it was off to the post office. This is where my control freak bit got really freaky. I’d looked at courier companies – FedEx, DHL, and the like – but there were no guarantees of secure delivery there. So I sent it International Express – cheaper and safer than anything else I could find.
And then I waited.
And waited some more.
I sent an email to Bruce to let him know that everything was on its way to him. He emailed back that it hadn’t arrived at his end.
I waited some more.
I considered getting another set of papers together, traveling to Richmond in Virginia to get another sealed copy of Amy’s divorce papers and then traveling to Toronto to hand it all to Bruce in person and cursed that I didn’t do that in the first place. I checked out airfares.
And then Bruce emailed. It arrived. As far as he could see, everything looked in order. A few days later, a letter arrived in the mail from Bruce advising us that everything appeared to be in order, and that he’d forwarded it all to the Canadian Registrar General so that a Letter of Authorisation can be issued and we can get a Marriage License.
Now we wait again to hear from Bruce. He’ll let us know when the Letter of Authorisation arrives – we’ve asked that it be sent to his office. From there, we pick it up when we get to Toronto, take it to the City Hall and get a Marriage License. With our Marriage License we can get married.
And then, in five – and maybe six if California manages to hold its ground – places in the world we won’t have to worry about all the powers of attorney, and medical guardianship papers.
Where the spiritual and emotional commitment that we’re making to each other out of a deep and abiding love is recognised and valued.
In fairness, the paperwork's not huge and nor is it particularly onerous. But for a control freak like me it's nerve wracking to fill in papers, pop them in the mail and send them to the other side of the world. I want to fill them in, hand deliver them, check that they get there, check that they're all correct and then hand deliver them to the next stop. I don't want to trust my papers to anyone but me.
But that was never going to be possible for our wedding ceremony in Toronto. So, in late May, we filled in the paper work to go to Bruce the lawyer. He needs to write a statement recommending that Amy's divorce be recognised in Canada. He needed picture ID -so we sent copies of our passports and drivers’ licenses – and an original – which means with the actual seal stuck to it – of Amy's divorce papers.
So we filled in the paperwork, and off we went to the Geelong Police Station. It all needed to be certified by a Justice of the Peace, and there's a JP who sits in the foyer of the police station every morning for a few hours and signs stuff.
He's a funny wee man. Turns out that he's a retired magistrate, and he takes this business very very seriously. As we'd decided to take care of a lot of stuff in the one go, we had a pile for him. As well as all of paperwork for Canada, we weren't happy traveling without our wills sorted out, and financial, legal and medical powers of attorney in place. So we had all the paperwork for those as well.
Lots of folks seem to think that there's little, if any, difference for me and Amy. I like to think that's because they don't see any difference between us, and their other friends who are married. They don't make any exceptions, they don't treat us any differently – and they don't run up against the legal system. On a day to day basis, things aren’t much different. But there are a whole heap of differences that come into play the moment that anything untoward – like illness – happens.
See – the stupid thing about all this is that we wouldn't need to do this if we were straight, if one of us was a man. Medical Guardianship takes care of the hospital thing. If either of us gets sick, or has an accident, we'd want the other to be making the decisions for us. Legally, at present (without the medical guardianship) the folks who'd make those decisions for me would be my adoptive family, the Howards. That's right – the folks who told me not to bother to contact them anymore over 10 years ago, and who carried through on that – would be the people making the decisions. Not Amy. As well as that, they'd also be the folks who would control my assets. Things like our home. They could block Amy out if they wished to. Any hospital that I was in could prevent Amy from seeing me or being involved in my care. They could toss Amy out of our home, and sell it out from under her.
So, we had all of that paperwork as well. Applications to have Amy's divorce recognised, so that we could get a Letter of Authorisation, and with that get a Marriage License, two wills, and four separate powers of attorney – one medical and one financial/legal for each of us.
The JP hadn’t seen the paperwork that Canada requires before, and being a fellow who takes it all very seriously, he went through it all very carefully. And being an elderly fellow, of a different generation so to speak, the application for marriage license paperwork certainly raised his eyebrows. To his credit, he didn’t raise them too far, and gave barely a pause as he plied his way through our paperwork. Amy chatted with him while we got the whole lot done – seems he spends a lot of time in aged care facilities sorting out various powers of attorney for old folks and their families.
Anyhow, in the end we got it all done. All signed and sealed – well, signed and stamped.
Then it was off to the post office. This is where my control freak bit got really freaky. I’d looked at courier companies – FedEx, DHL, and the like – but there were no guarantees of secure delivery there. So I sent it International Express – cheaper and safer than anything else I could find.
And then I waited.
And waited some more.
I sent an email to Bruce to let him know that everything was on its way to him. He emailed back that it hadn’t arrived at his end.
I waited some more.
I considered getting another set of papers together, traveling to Richmond in Virginia to get another sealed copy of Amy’s divorce papers and then traveling to Toronto to hand it all to Bruce in person and cursed that I didn’t do that in the first place. I checked out airfares.
And then Bruce emailed. It arrived. As far as he could see, everything looked in order. A few days later, a letter arrived in the mail from Bruce advising us that everything appeared to be in order, and that he’d forwarded it all to the Canadian Registrar General so that a Letter of Authorisation can be issued and we can get a Marriage License.
Now we wait again to hear from Bruce. He’ll let us know when the Letter of Authorisation arrives – we’ve asked that it be sent to his office. From there, we pick it up when we get to Toronto, take it to the City Hall and get a Marriage License. With our Marriage License we can get married.
And then, in five – and maybe six if California manages to hold its ground – places in the world we won’t have to worry about all the powers of attorney, and medical guardianship papers.
Where the spiritual and emotional commitment that we’re making to each other out of a deep and abiding love is recognised and valued.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Grand Tour Itinerary
I don't like travel agents. I'm just too much of a control freak to hand it all over to someone else. Amy and I've been talking about and thinking about this trip for the better part of a year and we knew what we wanted, where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to see and and do. So thank goodness for the internet - a control freaks greatest friend. Off I went onto the world wide web. I found all sorts of websites and ways of booking bits and pieces. Amy, trusting soul that she is, let me go to it.
Unless you like fiddling around a lot and can be pretty organised about it, I wouldn't recommend the do it yourself approach. But if you're a control freak, there's no better way to travel!
Here it is - the final version of our itinerary. The bits that don't have accommodation listed, or that just say 'Arizona' or 'Washington' are deliberately up in the air. We're looking forward to just having the freedom to figure it as we go.
The Grand Tour
June 28 – August 19
June 28
Depart Melbourne
Qantas, QF 458 Tullamarine: 18:00. Arrive Sydney 19:20
Accommodation:
Airport Sydney International Inn
Address: 35 Levey Street, Arncliffe 2205 NSW,
Phone number: +61 02 95561555
June 29
Korean Air, KE 122 Sydney: 08:00. Arrive Seoul 17:40
Korean Air, KE 11 Seoul: 19:30. Arrive LAX 14:30
Arrive LAX. 14.40
Travel to Disneyland
Los Angeles Airport Shuttle to Anaheim Area Hotels: 17:00
Accommodation:
Anaheim Quality Inn and Suites
Includes 3 day Disneyland pass.
June 30 - July 2
Disneyland.
Collect car 12:00, July 2
Budget, Los Angeles Anaheim Disney.
Star Ford Mustang Convertible.
July 3
Check out of Anaheim Quality Inn and Suites
Drive to Las Vegas
Accommodation:
The Las Vegas Hilton
July 4
Las Vegas – The Star Trek Experience
July 5
Check out of Las Vegas Hilton
Hit the road to Arizona and New Mexico
July 19
Return car
Albuquerque Airport, New Mexico, 12:00
Fly Albuquerque to Birmingham, Alabama
Southwest Airlines, WN1094. 13:10
Arrive Birmingham at 18:00
Accommodation:
We’ll figure it out when we get there.
July 21
Fly Birmingham to Richmond VA
US Airways US 2236
Depart Birmingham 10:40
Arrive Charlotte North Carolina: 12:58
US Airways US 2290
Depart Charlotte: 14:29
Arrive Richmond Virginia: 15:35
Collect Car, 15:00
Alamo, Richmond International Airport
Chevrolet Equinox SUV 4 door automatic
Accommodation:
Best Western Governors Inn
9826 Midlothian Turnpike, Richmond.
July 24
Check out, 12:00
Hit the Road travelling north
July 30
Return Car
Alamo, Washington Union Station 06:00
Train to New York
Depart: Washington Union Station, (WAS) 06:35
Arrive: New York, Penn Station (NYP) 09:59
Accommodation
We’ll figure it out
August 1 - 3
NYC
August 4
Collect Car:
National, New York Manhattan West 77th. 06:00
Head to Toronto
August 5
Arrive Toronto
See Bruce the Lawyer
Bruce E. Walker
65 Wellesley Street East
Suite 205
Collect Marriage Licence
Toronto City Hall
Accommodation:
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto Hotel
475 Yonge St
August 6
Wedding 1:30pm Toronto Civic Wedding Chambers
August 7
Back on the road again – travel to Chicago
August 10
Arrive Chicago
Staying with Robin
Return Car
National, Chicago, Downtown, 20:00
August 14
Train to LA
Southwest Chief
Depart Chicago Union Station (CHI)
15:15
August 16
Arrive LA
Los Angeles Union Station (LAX)
08:15 am
Accommodation:
We’ll figure it out
August 17
Depart LAX
Korean Air, KE 18 Los Angels 12:30. Arrive Seoul: 16:55
Korean Air KE 125 Seoul 19:25.
August 19
Arrive Melbourne 07:20
Unless you like fiddling around a lot and can be pretty organised about it, I wouldn't recommend the do it yourself approach. But if you're a control freak, there's no better way to travel!
Here it is - the final version of our itinerary. The bits that don't have accommodation listed, or that just say 'Arizona' or 'Washington' are deliberately up in the air. We're looking forward to just having the freedom to figure it as we go.
The Grand Tour
June 28 – August 19
June 28
Depart Melbourne
Qantas, QF 458 Tullamarine: 18:00. Arrive Sydney 19:20
Accommodation:
Airport Sydney International Inn
Address: 35 Levey Street, Arncliffe 2205 NSW,
Phone number: +61 02 95561555
June 29
Korean Air, KE 122 Sydney: 08:00. Arrive Seoul 17:40
Korean Air, KE 11 Seoul: 19:30. Arrive LAX 14:30
Arrive LAX. 14.40
Travel to Disneyland
Los Angeles Airport Shuttle to Anaheim Area Hotels: 17:00
Accommodation:
Anaheim Quality Inn and Suites
Includes 3 day Disneyland pass.
June 30 - July 2
Disneyland.
Collect car 12:00, July 2
Budget, Los Angeles Anaheim Disney.
Star Ford Mustang Convertible.
July 3
Check out of Anaheim Quality Inn and Suites
Drive to Las Vegas
Accommodation:
The Las Vegas Hilton
July 4
Las Vegas – The Star Trek Experience
July 5
Check out of Las Vegas Hilton
Hit the road to Arizona and New Mexico
July 19
Return car
Albuquerque Airport, New Mexico, 12:00
Fly Albuquerque to Birmingham, Alabama
Southwest Airlines, WN1094. 13:10
Arrive Birmingham at 18:00
Accommodation:
We’ll figure it out when we get there.
July 21
Fly Birmingham to Richmond VA
US Airways US 2236
Depart Birmingham 10:40
Arrive Charlotte North Carolina: 12:58
US Airways US 2290
Depart Charlotte: 14:29
Arrive Richmond Virginia: 15:35
Collect Car, 15:00
Alamo, Richmond International Airport
Chevrolet Equinox SUV 4 door automatic
Accommodation:
Best Western Governors Inn
9826 Midlothian Turnpike, Richmond.
July 24
Check out, 12:00
Hit the Road travelling north
July 30
Return Car
Alamo, Washington Union Station 06:00
Train to New York
Depart: Washington Union Station, (WAS) 06:35
Arrive: New York, Penn Station (NYP) 09:59
Accommodation
We’ll figure it out
August 1 - 3
NYC
August 4
Collect Car:
National, New York Manhattan West 77th. 06:00
Head to Toronto
August 5
Arrive Toronto
See Bruce the Lawyer
Bruce E. Walker
65 Wellesley Street East
Suite 205
Collect Marriage Licence
Toronto City Hall
Accommodation:
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto Hotel
475 Yonge St
August 6
Wedding 1:30pm Toronto Civic Wedding Chambers
August 7
Back on the road again – travel to Chicago
August 10
Arrive Chicago
Staying with Robin
Return Car
National, Chicago, Downtown, 20:00
August 14
Train to LA
Southwest Chief
Depart Chicago Union Station (CHI)
15:15
August 16
Arrive LA
Los Angeles Union Station (LAX)
08:15 am
Accommodation:
We’ll figure it out
August 17
Depart LAX
Korean Air, KE 18 Los Angels 12:30. Arrive Seoul: 16:55
Korean Air KE 125 Seoul 19:25.
August 19
Arrive Melbourne 07:20
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The Geeky Stuff List
We're on the countdown now. My diary has the number of days until we leave. I'm excited. Amy's excited. We're beginning to do all the last minute – well, the last 3 week – things that need to be done. I'm making lists. I get to do the Geeky Stuff List.
There are all sorts of bits and pieces that you think about when you're going to be away for a few months. A few weeks – easy. You can wing it and make do on a lot of things. But two months leaves me reluctant to just make do. Especially when you're traveling around as much as we are, and have big chunks of time on our itinerary labeled 'we'll spend time in this state' with not much else - like somewhere to stay – planned for it.
Most mobile phone networks work on the 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies – but in the US they use the 850 and 1900 MHz frequencies. So if we have a quad band phone – one that works on all four GSM frequencies - we can use the US network. And with a quad band phone we can use any other network in the world as well. With a US prepaid sim card, we get a US phone number and pay local call rates for calls in the US. We could have used my phone - but that gets expensive and inconvenient. It means we make international calls every time we want to make a local call in the US, because my phone will come back to it's network in Australia, and then call the US. So even if we're calling the pizza place down the street in NYC, it'll be an international call. Or I could get a US sim card and put it in my phone – but that's a nuisance because there are folks that have that number for contacting us in the US – like the marriage ceremony folks in Canada.
I found this neat website that sells US prepaid sim cards and quad band phones that'll work in the US. I've ordered a quad band phone and prepaid sim card for T-mobile, and all being well, it should arrive in the next day or two. That gives us a US cell phone number. (see – I'm getting in the swing of things – Australians have mobile phones, but Americans have cell phones).
Then there are the travel books and guides. I've got a pile of them on the bedside table at home. Big, with pretty pictures and lots of detail. Most of it’s really useful detail. And as heavy as.......well, really very heavy. I could use up all of my luggage allocation on travel guides and pay excess costs to bring a spare pair of knickers and a clean t-shirt. I thought about scanning and then transferring to my laptop, but that seemed like an awful lot of work. And then I visited the Lonely Planet website. And there it all is – all ready to download a chapter at a time. So I burned through some bandwidth and now I've got the lot on a USB stick.
We'll take tons of photos – but I've heard too many horror stories of stolen cameras, and SD cards that fail to rest easily with that. Problem solved – 160 GB portable hard drive. And some spare USB sticks just to be sure.
None of this is any use without a computer to run it through. So, I’ve got a tiny Asus EeePC. Weighs less than 1kg, has flash memory – so it it’s a bit sturdier than one with a hard drive, even though it doesn’t have a lot of memory. A 7inch screen is fine, and the webcam and internet connectivity do their respective jobs beautifully.
Then we need something to put it all in. I'm a big believer in the just the right piece of luggage idea. This works along the lines of don't make do – get the bit of luggage that will do the job right. And have as few pieces of luggage as reasonably possible. This means that Amy and I've been having long discussions about camera bags. Well in fairness to Amy, I've been having long discussions and she's been listening. I reckon that if we're going to be on and off all sorts of planes and trains and automobiles and doing a lot of walking and wandering around – then we wants something that's easy to carry, and won't drop and droop all over the place. And I wanted it to keep all our stuff safe – Amy's Nikon SLR, my little waterproof, droproof, indestructible Olympus, the video camera. And all the assorted cards and drives and stuff that go with them. And there's also the tiny laptop. And the portable hard drive for backups. We've looked at things on eBay. We've looked at things in hiking shops. We wound up at the camera shop and got a nifty backpack. It's got a part for the cameras, with little bits for all the storage cards. It's got another padded bit just for laptops, that'll make it easy to get it out at the x-ray things for security at airports. And there's another bit that's normal backpack, so we can out bits and pieces in that as well. It looks like an ordinary back pack, so I'm hoping that it won't be a target for theft. Just The Right Thing.
In the end I couldn't help myself and decided that I wanted a new Crumpler bag as well. Yeah – I could take the grey Crumpler that I bought in Singapore. Or I could take the grey and brown Valaguzza laptop bag that I took to Harvard. But I wanted a bag that was 'the bag I got for our big US trip'. And heck – new bags, new camera bag. New Crumpler bag too.
So the geeky things are sorted. Yeah - we'll pack some clothes and stuff. I'm lucky that Amy's great at sorting all that, and she's having conversations about shorts, and jeans and t-shirts. But the important things are all sorted.
There are all sorts of bits and pieces that you think about when you're going to be away for a few months. A few weeks – easy. You can wing it and make do on a lot of things. But two months leaves me reluctant to just make do. Especially when you're traveling around as much as we are, and have big chunks of time on our itinerary labeled 'we'll spend time in this state' with not much else - like somewhere to stay – planned for it.
Most mobile phone networks work on the 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies – but in the US they use the 850 and 1900 MHz frequencies. So if we have a quad band phone – one that works on all four GSM frequencies - we can use the US network. And with a quad band phone we can use any other network in the world as well. With a US prepaid sim card, we get a US phone number and pay local call rates for calls in the US. We could have used my phone - but that gets expensive and inconvenient. It means we make international calls every time we want to make a local call in the US, because my phone will come back to it's network in Australia, and then call the US. So even if we're calling the pizza place down the street in NYC, it'll be an international call. Or I could get a US sim card and put it in my phone – but that's a nuisance because there are folks that have that number for contacting us in the US – like the marriage ceremony folks in Canada.
I found this neat website that sells US prepaid sim cards and quad band phones that'll work in the US. I've ordered a quad band phone and prepaid sim card for T-mobile, and all being well, it should arrive in the next day or two. That gives us a US cell phone number. (see – I'm getting in the swing of things – Australians have mobile phones, but Americans have cell phones).
Then there are the travel books and guides. I've got a pile of them on the bedside table at home. Big, with pretty pictures and lots of detail. Most of it’s really useful detail. And as heavy as.......well, really very heavy. I could use up all of my luggage allocation on travel guides and pay excess costs to bring a spare pair of knickers and a clean t-shirt. I thought about scanning and then transferring to my laptop, but that seemed like an awful lot of work. And then I visited the Lonely Planet website. And there it all is – all ready to download a chapter at a time. So I burned through some bandwidth and now I've got the lot on a USB stick.
We'll take tons of photos – but I've heard too many horror stories of stolen cameras, and SD cards that fail to rest easily with that. Problem solved – 160 GB portable hard drive. And some spare USB sticks just to be sure.
None of this is any use without a computer to run it through. So, I’ve got a tiny Asus EeePC. Weighs less than 1kg, has flash memory – so it it’s a bit sturdier than one with a hard drive, even though it doesn’t have a lot of memory. A 7inch screen is fine, and the webcam and internet connectivity do their respective jobs beautifully.
Then we need something to put it all in. I'm a big believer in the just the right piece of luggage idea. This works along the lines of don't make do – get the bit of luggage that will do the job right. And have as few pieces of luggage as reasonably possible. This means that Amy and I've been having long discussions about camera bags. Well in fairness to Amy, I've been having long discussions and she's been listening. I reckon that if we're going to be on and off all sorts of planes and trains and automobiles and doing a lot of walking and wandering around – then we wants something that's easy to carry, and won't drop and droop all over the place. And I wanted it to keep all our stuff safe – Amy's Nikon SLR, my little waterproof, droproof, indestructible Olympus, the video camera. And all the assorted cards and drives and stuff that go with them. And there's also the tiny laptop. And the portable hard drive for backups. We've looked at things on eBay. We've looked at things in hiking shops. We wound up at the camera shop and got a nifty backpack. It's got a part for the cameras, with little bits for all the storage cards. It's got another padded bit just for laptops, that'll make it easy to get it out at the x-ray things for security at airports. And there's another bit that's normal backpack, so we can out bits and pieces in that as well. It looks like an ordinary back pack, so I'm hoping that it won't be a target for theft. Just The Right Thing.
In the end I couldn't help myself and decided that I wanted a new Crumpler bag as well. Yeah – I could take the grey Crumpler that I bought in Singapore. Or I could take the grey and brown Valaguzza laptop bag that I took to Harvard. But I wanted a bag that was 'the bag I got for our big US trip'. And heck – new bags, new camera bag. New Crumpler bag too.
So the geeky things are sorted. Yeah - we'll pack some clothes and stuff. I'm lucky that Amy's great at sorting all that, and she's having conversations about shorts, and jeans and t-shirts. But the important things are all sorted.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Across the desert laughing
My dear friend Robin lives in Chicago. We talk more than friends who live 10 minutes way. Not because my local friends and I are poor at keeping in touch, but because Robin and I are sufficiently geeky to give Skype a very good workout. Skype is an online message thing. We can type messages to each other, but more importantly, we can sit in front of our computer screens with our web cams turned on and chat to each other. The time difference gets a bit tricky, and the changes from day light saving can be really perilous, and it was easier when I worked at the University and could leap on the web cam in my lunch break but nonetheless the skype lines from Chicago to Highton have continued to buzz. Robin's the reason that we're spending a week in Chicago, she'll meet us in Toronto for our wedding, and we're talking about meeting in New York as well.
Anyhow – what do you send a friend on the other side of the world for her birthday? It's not easy to send a present half way across the world. What can you get in the postal or courier service? Robin got it so right and she gave me a truly marvellous birthday present. She sent me a voucher for 24 hours hire of a serious motorbike. It’s valid just about anywhere in the US.
These guys – the bike hire guys - are Harley specialists so while there are the usual BMWs and Honda Gold wing armchairs, more than anything, they’re all about Harley Davidson and all the different variations and models.
In the last few years, I've grown pretty disdainful of Harleys. Once upon a time, I'd have loved to ride a Harley, and in lots of ways I would still love to. But by the time it came time for me to buy a new bike last year they'd turned into a middle-aged cliché. It seems every male middle aged baby boomer in Australia who's finally got the house paid off and the kids off his hands and now he's got a few bucks to spare is out there reliving his adolescent fantasy of being a rebel on a Harley. He's got no idea what he's doing and is managing to raise the injury and fatality statistics for middle aged bike riders - and he's going to do it on a Harley. Harleys have turned into the little red sports car of mid life crisis. So, when it came time to buy my new bike, this 25 year experienced rider wasn't going to be mistaken for a middle aged crisis, and I got my much loved Triumph instead.
But riding a Harley in America – that's a different story altogether. Harleys are as American as apple pie, and peanut butter, and lots more fun besides. So, 24 hours of Harley rental is a marvellous birthday present.
Then there's the big decision – where to hire? I suggested Chicago to Robin, so that she could join in the fun, but she said that there wasn't much in Chicago to make it worthwhile and that I should chose someplace else. So, it came down to Arizona/New Mexico for the desert and wide spaces, or Virginia for lots of windy stuff.
Amy's never been on the back of my bike. There's no reason that she hasn't, other than we haven't got around to it. Oh and maybe a bit of apprehension on my part – it's been a long time since I had anyone riding pillion, and even then it didn't happen too often.
Yesterday was sunny and warm. There's been fog in the morning, but it was one of those days that you just know are made for riding a bike, once the fog lifts. Amy got on the back of the bike and with a wee bit of hesitation on my part, off we went.
By the time we got to the bottom of the street, I could see Amy grinning in the rear vision mirror. Another km and I didn't need to look – I could hear her laughing. Round the river, up through town and back around the river again. By then the fog was coming down for the night, and it was getting chilly. Another km or so home, and by then we were both laughing.
It's the freedom, the closeness to everything else and the feeling that the wind is blowing through my soul and clearing everything away that does it.
Oh – and where to ride? We’re going to ride across the desert in Arizona laughing.
Anyhow – what do you send a friend on the other side of the world for her birthday? It's not easy to send a present half way across the world. What can you get in the postal or courier service? Robin got it so right and she gave me a truly marvellous birthday present. She sent me a voucher for 24 hours hire of a serious motorbike. It’s valid just about anywhere in the US.
These guys – the bike hire guys - are Harley specialists so while there are the usual BMWs and Honda Gold wing armchairs, more than anything, they’re all about Harley Davidson and all the different variations and models.
In the last few years, I've grown pretty disdainful of Harleys. Once upon a time, I'd have loved to ride a Harley, and in lots of ways I would still love to. But by the time it came time for me to buy a new bike last year they'd turned into a middle-aged cliché. It seems every male middle aged baby boomer in Australia who's finally got the house paid off and the kids off his hands and now he's got a few bucks to spare is out there reliving his adolescent fantasy of being a rebel on a Harley. He's got no idea what he's doing and is managing to raise the injury and fatality statistics for middle aged bike riders - and he's going to do it on a Harley. Harleys have turned into the little red sports car of mid life crisis. So, when it came time to buy my new bike, this 25 year experienced rider wasn't going to be mistaken for a middle aged crisis, and I got my much loved Triumph instead.
But riding a Harley in America – that's a different story altogether. Harleys are as American as apple pie, and peanut butter, and lots more fun besides. So, 24 hours of Harley rental is a marvellous birthday present.
Then there's the big decision – where to hire? I suggested Chicago to Robin, so that she could join in the fun, but she said that there wasn't much in Chicago to make it worthwhile and that I should chose someplace else. So, it came down to Arizona/New Mexico for the desert and wide spaces, or Virginia for lots of windy stuff.
Amy's never been on the back of my bike. There's no reason that she hasn't, other than we haven't got around to it. Oh and maybe a bit of apprehension on my part – it's been a long time since I had anyone riding pillion, and even then it didn't happen too often.
Yesterday was sunny and warm. There's been fog in the morning, but it was one of those days that you just know are made for riding a bike, once the fog lifts. Amy got on the back of the bike and with a wee bit of hesitation on my part, off we went.
By the time we got to the bottom of the street, I could see Amy grinning in the rear vision mirror. Another km and I didn't need to look – I could hear her laughing. Round the river, up through town and back around the river again. By then the fog was coming down for the night, and it was getting chilly. Another km or so home, and by then we were both laughing.
It's the freedom, the closeness to everything else and the feeling that the wind is blowing through my soul and clearing everything away that does it.
Oh – and where to ride? We’re going to ride across the desert in Arizona laughing.
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