News of the World

News of the World by Paulette Jiles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Awesome little book of 209 pages. It reminded me a bit of True Grit, except that Jefferson Kyle Kidd is not a drunkard. When we meet him, he has lived through three wars and has reached his seventies. His new "job" has made him a reader of newspapers and journals from all over the world. He earns his living from the coins he receives from the people who gather in various masonic lodges, churches, etc. to listen to Kidd's reports of News of the World. At one of his stops he is offered a fifty-dollar gold piece to return an ten-year-old orphan to her remaining relatives near San Antonio. She is the only survivor after Kiowa raiders slaughtered her parents and sister, leaving a little blond-haired girl to be raised by the Kiowa.

It's a long trail from Wichita Falls to San Antonio, but Kidd takes the job of transporting Johanna, who has lost understanding of the English language, to her relatives, who are German. Johanna has spent four years as a Kiowa, and at first she tries to run away back to them. Over the months of their journey, Kidd learns from Johanna, and Johanna learns from him. She learns some English and Kidd learns the ways of the Kiowa. "All animals are food, except for horses."

Kidd continues his readings along the four-hundred-mile journey, his only income. They must watch for thieves, Comanches and Kiowas. Johanna proves how resourceful and feisty she is and develops an attachment to "Kep-dun" Kidd.

No spoilers here, but the story will tear at your heart.

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Cruising During Spring Break - Good New and Bad News

Hubby LUUURVES to cruise.  When he isn't cruising, he's trolling the cruise websites looking for a good deal.  He can usually find a bargain around the holidays, and he doesn't always associate a date with the corresponding holiday.  Especially Spring Break.

Our last cruise was on the Independence of the Seas, the western Caribbean, March 31 - April 7.  We don't pay much attention to the port stops unless there is one we haven't visited before.  This time the new port was St. Kitts.  Different island, same...umm..shirt.

The big plus for the cruise was that we got a free upgrade for the first time in all our years of cruising. We could hang out in the cabin, and not be bothered by all the school kids on board.  Royal Caribbean has a program called Adventure Ocean, designed to keep the kids busy, especially on those days at sea.  The group for babies includes the parents, and there is a Kids Club for 3 - 11 year olds.  The trouble comes with the teens, because they are old enough to check themselves out of the club when they get bored.  And they do love hanging out together...especially in the elevators...pushing all the buttons...sitting on the floor.  They weren't really being bad, but there were a lot of them, everywhere.  And some parents gave their kids a lot of latitude with a separate cabin for the kids.  And even with the ship's curfew for people under 18, the kids may have been out of sight, but not necessarily under parental supervision late at night.

Hence the 2 AM announcement from the bridge (broadcast in all staterooms), "Will Shelby (last-name) please dial guest services by pressing zero from any phone."  Then repeated at 3 AM.

And, alas, it was not just the kids.  The woman in the cabin next door came in at 2 AM another night and "discovered" that her cellphone worked at sea, and talked loudly until 5 AM.  She will get her due when she sees her bill, $4.95 per minute for international roaming using the ship's satellite.

But we had fun.  We met a lot of nice people, and had a tour of the bridge and the galley.

We'll do it again next month on another ship.

The Allure of the Zip Line

We met with another Bucket List experience on our latest cruise aboard the Allure of the Seas.  The Allure and the Oasis of the Seas make up the Oasis class of ships for the Royal Caribbean fleet.  The ships are of identical design, but the Allure measures a whopping two inches longer than the Oasis. 

We have sailed both ships on itineraries we have traveled so many times, Labadee, Jamaica, and Cozomel that the ship is more the destination than the ports.  Each ship has seven neighborhoods, including Central Park with real trees, the Boardwalk, and an interior food court.  You may choose an outside cabin that overlooks the ocean or the Park, or the Boardwalk and Aqua theater.

There are many complimentary dining options as well as several restaurants that require a fee.  Each ship has a Broadway show, "Chicago" on Allure, and "Hair Spray" on Oasis.

We spent most our days aboard ship.  We had the beach party at Labadee, but we stayed only a couple of hours.  We walked around the ports at Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, and returned to the ship within an hour.  Then it was back to the Sports Zone where we conquered the Zip Line.  The Zip Line runs high above Central Park for a ride that lasts less than a minute.  Even a scaredy-cat like me can handle it, although I was shaking when I landed.  I'm glad I did it, and I don't have to do that again.

Tinker was not to be outdone.

Two broken toes, two busted suitcases, and the recurring dog dream

 

It's been two weeks since we returned from our Alaska adventure, a land tour followed by a cruise of the inside passage.  It was more fun ten years ago when we did the same trip for our honeymoon.

I broke my toes a month before the trip, and we had booked the trip last year, so we couldn't cancel.  The doctor OK'ed me to go and advised me to keep my foot elevated as much as possible.  I expected the biggest challenge would be making our flight changes on the three legs of the trip to get from Raleigh to Anchorage.  So Tinker arranged for wheelchair assists for me for the three airports.  The concourse change in Seattle was convoluted enough that we might have missed our flight if I had had two good feet walking without the assist.

By the time we reached our hotel in Anchorage, my foot had started to swell but I was prepared with an ice pack which we filled from the ice machine in every hotel stop for the whole land tour.  We traveled as a group on three motorcoaches and by glass-domed traincar on the Wilderness Express® to Talkeetna, Denali, and back to Alyeska and Seward. In Denali National Park we had an all-day Tundra Wilderness Tour deep into the park where we expected to see wildlife.  We had seen bears and moose from the train, but all the sightings in the park required binoculars.  We had enough space on the train for me to prop my foot up, but the days on the bus ended with a swollen foot.  I was happy to finally reach Seward where we boarded the cruise ship.

Since we had done a similar cruise before, we did not plan any excursions this time.  We had seen salmon hatcheries, and plenty bald eagle sightings, and there were enough whale sightings from the ship that a side trip wasn't necessary.  By the third day, my foot was down enough that I could wear sneakers on both feet, and walk a few blocks in our port stops.  Tinker did more exploring without me along with our friends who came on the trip with us.  I was content to be back in the cabin, catching up on my reading.  Our cabin steward kept the ice bucket filled so I could ice my foot.  We had several at-sea days which included getting closeup to the Hubbard Glacier and a separate day in the Inside Passage.

The trip home was two long flights, Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Raleigh.  I assessed my foot and Tinker assessed the luggage when we got home.  I didn't want to think about deep vein thrombosis, but my foot and leg were swollen up to my knee.  I massaged both feet and legs and packed the right one with ice when I finally went to bed.

The luggage fared worse than I did.  We do travel a lot, maybe three cruises and two other trips per year.  Our luggage was handled a lot more this trip than any I remember.  One large wheelie had a gash in the bottom, a second large wheelie had a busted wheel and the handle refused to slide out.  We had to decommission them both.

Now for the recurring dog dream.  It all started about six years ago, when number one son and his first wife came to visit from New York with a dog.  Tinker and I love dogs, but we don't currently own one.  We always say we'll get one when we finish traveling so much.  Son asked if they could bring the dog.  I said no, but his wife brought him anyway...a rather large puppy "Denzel" who was used to living in a small NY apartment, and going outside on a leash.  When they let him outside in the backyard, he went wild, found a space to escape under the fence and took off down the street.  They were able to chase him down in a few minutes and brought him back inside, where he continued to be rambunctious.  By the time they all went back to New York, Denzel had made a big impression.

For two nights after they left, I dreamed about the dog, and woke up thinking I had to drive him back home.  The dream was so vivid as to fill my half-waking moments with an urgency to get up and get the dog ready to go, I was in the bathroom starting my shower before I realized it was a dream.

Since that first episode, every time we return from a trip and I am overtired, as I was when we returned from Alaska I have that dog dream.  I still wake up thinking I have to take the dog back, but now I come to my senses before I get out of bed.

The Megabus Experience

The Megabus began serving "Raleigh/Durham" a few months ago. That's "Raleigh/Durham" in quotes because, quiet as it's kept, there is no city name Raleigh/Durham or even Raleigh-Durham. Raleigh-Durham is an airport. (Excuse my annoyance.)

Anyway the stop for the Megabus around here is in Durham, at the Durham Station Transportation Center which was completed in 2009. It's the hub for Durham's DATA buses (Durham Area Transit System) not to be confused with data bus ...you techies can stop groaning now. Raleigh's hub is the traffic jam at the corner of Martin and Fayetteville Streets.

I had the opportunity to be the Russian chauffeur Pikop Andropov ("pick up and drop off") from the Car Talk show this weekend. The Megabus website said the bus stop for Durham was at 275 Jackson Street across from the Durham Station Transportation Center. So I got my directions to take the Durham Freeway to the Duke Street exit and turn right on Jackson Street. The only problem was the Duke street exit was closed for construction. So I had my passenger enter the address in the GPS, after we took the Chapel Hill Street exit. I could see the Transportation Center in the distance, but I had no idea which side was on Jackson Street. The GPS lady seemed to have me going in circles until she finally said, "Turn right on Jackson Street...you have reached your destination."

I drove up and down that block hoping to see a big blue bus, even entered the Transportation Center where it said "Buses only," and asked a pedestrian, "Can you tell me where the Megabus picks up?" "Sorry, I don't know." I finally found a woman who told me, "You just passed it. It's that sign on the left with the Yellow Man on it."



Sure enough. The bus stop is a sign. You can see the Durham Transportation Center behind it, and the Ligett & Myers Tobacco Company on the hill above it. Just about that time the big blue bus turned the corner, and several other cars converged on that block to do their Pikop Andropov. My passenger crossed the street and boarded. Who rides the Megabus to/from Durham? I saw some of everybody. Some looked like they might be students at the local colleges, Duke, Chapel Hill, NC Central. The exchange happened quickly and the big blue bus was on its way in a short time.

I haven't ridden a public bus since my college days when Greyhound and Trailways ruled the road. The Megabus provides express service between a growing list of cities. The price to ride from Durham to Charlotte is $21 each way. That's cheaper than the cost of gas, and you can sleep through the traffic.

I went back today to pick up my passenger from his overnight visit. This time the Duke Street exit was open and a line had formed at the bus stop, waiting for their ride to Washington, DC.




The American Tobacco Historic district was behind me when I took the pictures of the bus stop.



The Megabus will be expanding to Atlanta on November 16 and will be offering free seats for travel between Nov. 16 and Dec. 16. The free seats will be available on departures to and from Atlanta and the 11 expansion cities. Use the promo code ATL10K when booking (subject to availability on select dates, routes).

Wild time at Maho Beach

We just returned from a two-week Southern Caribbean cruise. Since the itinerary included islands we had visited before except for one, we took the opportunity to visit the beach as many days as possible and work on our tans. The first port stop was St. Martin/St. Maarten where we took a taxi to Maho Beach, also known as "Airport Beach." It's adjacent to Princess Juliana International Airport, and it is popular for people to watch the planes come in for a landing.

You can't say we weren't warned.

It's wild and crazy when the planes come in.

The Great Pat Down

Thanksgiving is over, and we didn't travel this weekend. When we did travel on November 13, that was my first experience with the full body scan at RDU airport.

Dear hubby had a hip replacement a couple of years ago, and he has gotten in the habit of requesting a "male assist" as soon as we get to the security checkpoint. He leaves me to keep up with his carry-on backpack and shoes while they pat him down. I have my own backpack with my assorted electronic gadgets, medications and "jewels"....important stuff. So I have my own shoes, backpack, and mini-PC to keep up with as well.

Before I entered the scan machine, they reminded me to take everything out of my pocket. I had a tube of Chapstick that had to go on the conveyor belt. I forgot I was wearing my money belt. It's not like I have big bucks, but I get nervous if I have more than $40 in my purse. When I travel, I stash the rest of my cash under my clothes.

After the scanner detected stuff under my clothes, I volunteered to take the money belt off, as I did on a trip through Heathrow airport a few years ago. But the female attendant, said no she would just pat me down. UGH. She really was very polite, and did it quickly, touching my underwire bra with the back of her hand, while I was trying to keep an eye on our stuff going down the conveyor belt. Then she had to dig into the front of my jeans to feel my money pouch....hmmm. But it was so quick, I was just glad to get out of there with all our stuff.

I know there have been lots of complaints across the country about TSA inspectors doing some really invasive feeling, and requiring passengers to remove prostheses, but my experience wasn't much worse than the old security inspection. I'm willing to give up some privacy for the sake of security.

Troubling the Waters

I blogged before (here) about going to Labadee for the Beach Party on our Cruise. We went last week on the Celebrity Solstice, cruising the Caribbean. The final port was Labadee, Haiti.

I decided I wouldn't feel guilty about being there, even knowing that just over the mountain, there are people still without a roof over their heads in Port-au-Prince. Royal Caribbean and Celebrity ships stop at Labadee every week, and since the earthquake, have brought emergency supplies with every visit.

Since we had been there before, we knew to expect a large space for the local artisans to sell their wares. Hubby came prepared to "stimulate the economy," buying wooden carved stuff, and wicker woven stuff, and assorted objets d'art.

I was fine hanging out on the beach for a while, but the winds were high, and the shore was rocky. I had a hard time keeping my hot dog and ribs from blowing off the plate. I started feeling troubled. The spirits were calling me.

It was the same dizzy claustrophobia (even in an open space) I had in the slave dungeons at Elmina Castle, in Ghana. The spirits of the dead were calling me from under the rubble on the other side of the island. Will our dead ever rest in peace?

Labadee - Do or Don't

Is it insensitive to go on vacation when other people in the world are suffering? Is Hawaii OK when people in Port-au-Prince are living among the rubble of an earthquake. What about a day at the beach just 60 miles away from Port-au-Prince.

My husband and I travel a lot. We cruise two or more times every year. We book next year's cruise while aboard this year's cruise, earning discounts and on-board credit. When we first started cruising the Caribbean it was common for cruise lines to have a beach party day at a "Private Island" somewhere in the Bahamas. For Royal Caribbean and Celebrity the "Private Island" is not an Island, but a private beach known as Labadee on the northern peninsula of Haiti.

We booked a Caribbean cruise for April, 2010 last year, long before the earthquake in Haiti. The seven-day cruise aboard the Celebrity Solstice includes a day in Labadee.

The internet buzz about Labadee started immediately after the earthquake, because Royal Caribbean and Celebrity both stop at Labadee. Between the USA Today travel site and the Cruise Critic forums, the comments have become heated on both sides of the argument. Click here for article.

We have been to Labadee several times before. It is usually a good day at the beach. Will we get off the ship in April? We'll think about it.

Packing Light

We're going on a 7-day Caribbean cruise next week, and this is all I'm taking. One bag under 50 pounds. I'll also have a small backpack for carry-on...my meds, book, music, and one-quart ziploc bag with allowable liquids. The airlines forced us to do this when they started charging $25 to check a bag. Depending on our frequent-flyer status, we sometimes get by with no extra charges. We haven't figured out why we might have to pay outbound, but not coming back. Tinker just got back from 14 days with one bag, so he has it down to a science.

The last time we sailed out of Miami we drove, and had a total of four bags. We took advantage of the early walk-off at the end of that cruise, so we could get the car and be on our way home before 10 AM. That always feels like a cattle stampede with a couple hundred passengers trying to get to the door with their bags. There was this one couple ahead of us who appeared to have only their carry-on luggage, one small bag for her, and a small back-pack for him. The cruise staff asked them several times if they had all their luggage. "You won't be able to get to the other luggage through this door." The couple insisted that they travel light. We really wondered how they managed the week with two changes of clothes, since that's about all that could fit in those bags. We guessed they didn't go to formal night, or even ate in the main dining room. They could hang out by the pool, and go on excursions. They probably had a good time.

So we're paring it down this time. It's easier to do for a warm climate, since we won't need coats and heavy sweaters. I'm packing mix-and match tops and bottoms, including formal wear for two nights. One pair of black shoes, one pair of waterproof sandals, and the sneakers on my feet. I even packed sunscreen and insect repellent. Belize here we come.

Getting online in Vegas

Usually when we go to Las Vegas, we don't even think about getting online. Besides, the Hotel/Casinos on the Strip don't want you to be getting online. They want you out of the room, spending money. That goes for "on the Strip." If you stay at a smaller hotel like Hampton Inn, you get free internet the same way you would get it anywhere else in the country.

Tinker used to go to Vegas at least three times every year, and after we got married, we continued that for a while, then it was down to one or two times a year. We didn't go last year at all. The last time we went, we took the laptop with us, and the hotel charged $12.99 per day for internet access. That's shameful.

This time, I'm taking the mini with us (I have a couple of Facebook Scrabble games still active). I found out our hotel is charging $14.99 per day for ethernet...and an additional charge for use of a cable if you don't have one. I'm taking one with us, but I also did a little research on free wifi in Las Vegas. The Venetian (on the strip) has free wifi in the food court and in the lobby. Then there are places where they expect you to buy something to get "free wifi." That includes Starbucks. There's a list of really free hot-spots here: http://lvfreewifi.net/ (click on "The_List" button on the left)

We'll probably visit the library on our early morning walk. And there's always the airport when we're on our way home.

A Weekend in New Jersey

What a weekend! New Jersey is a long way from North Carolina for just a weekend. I would only consider it to visit with some special friends, my classmates from the class of 1967, Drew University. So it all started in New Jersey.



We had our first mini-reunion three years ago when Karen invited us to her house in Charlotte, NC for the weekend. I live the closest, so it was an easy trip for me. This time she invited us to her summer cottage in South Seaville, NJ. For years I had heard her tell of summer in South Seaville, at the Camp Meeting. Karen's late father was a Methodist Minister, so it was easy to imagine summer revivals at a place on the coast. I thought "Camp Meeting" was an event. It turns out that "Camp Meeting" is also a place. It dates back to the 1800's when people came together on this camp site and pitched tents and had a revival. The tents evolved into cottages, and the revival tent is now an open-air Tabernacle.





We stayed at Karen's cottage, that was built by her father when she was a little girl. Her parents retired there. Only a few of the cottages are approved for year-round occupancy, so the tradition of a summer place continues through the generations. It's like a little village that surrounds the Tabernacle. Children play in and around the cottages that resemble a miniature Martha's Vineyard. Everybody knows everybody else, and we were welcomed as Karen's friends.





One of the requirements of ownership in the Camp Meeting, is membership in a Methodist Church. Methodism is strong in that part of New Jersey, as well as in Delaware across the bay from Cape May. Many of the Camp Meeting people have a connection to Drew University as well, since Drew is associated with the Methodist church, and has a Methodist Theological school. We did some Drew reminiscing with the new people we met.

We didn't stay through Sunday, so we missed the Camp Meeting in the Tabernacle Sunday night. But it was a full weekend all the same. We laughed a lot, played 60's music, and ate too much. It was a bit chilly at 75 degrees to go into the ocean but we did go to Boardwalk at Ocean City nearby.

My New Zealand Friend Will Love This

Somebody from Christchurch, New Zealand has been following my blog this week. I hope you find this one interesting.

We had an excursion from our cruise ship that took us to a working farm outside Christchurch. The farm has sheep and cows. Sheep raising has not been a profitable business lately, so they are gradually selling off the sheep for meat, and increasing the herd of cows. Meanwhile they are a popular stop for tourists who want to see sheep being sheared and herded by dogs. We watched a border collie lead the sheep from high up in the hills down to their pen.

The video shows the shearing.

Living in an Alternate Universe

Having a vacation "Down Under" was an adventure. The experience of seeing indigenous people performing their native customs is always enlightening. We saw the major tourist attractions, and we tasted the local critter cuisine. We logged a lot of air miles, and had another piece of luggage mangled.

But we realized early in the trip that there were other adjustments we had to make, being so far away from home and in the other hemisphere.

Signal number one: We left home on a Tuesday morning, flew for about 28 hours and arrived Thursday night. What happened to Wednesday? We got the missing day back when we came home. Fortunately we only had to call back to the US one time, and had to figure out what day and time it was back home. I did some text messaging to family, and didn't have to think about whether they were awake or not.

Signal number two: They drive on the "wrong" side of the street. We knew that!! We've been to countries in the UK or formerly in the UK before, but it's always an adjustment. There's that feeling of panic if you sit in the front of the van or taxi, and it's careening around the round-about and you can't anticipate where it's going.

Signal number three: We boarded our cruise ship on Sunday, February 1. On Monday, February 2, we went on an excursion, and when we returned to the ship, people were watching the Superbowl...LIVE.

Signal number four: The television in our cruise ship cabin had a weird green color on the left side. At first we thought it was just a problem in our cabin, and since we don't spend a lot of time in the cabin, we weren't going to complain. But about the third day on the cruise we were standing in line at the Guest Relation's desk, and we heard the couple ahead of us complain about the green TV. They were told that it was because the TV was manufactured in the northern hemisphere, and it doesn't adjust to the southern hemisphere. Tinker and I looked at each other with a look that said, "what kind of BS is that?"

The next day there was a notice in the daily cruise news that said:

Many television sets have been affected by the crossing of the equator.
please note that the transportation of many color television sets from the hemisphere in which they were manufactured to the opposite, is known to have purity problems because of the local magnetic fields.
As our television sets are from the northern hemisphere, many are currently experiencing challenges related to the southern hemisphere's magnetic field.

Signal number five: This was totally unexpected. Tinker was flipping through the dial on the TV, and came to a horse race in Australia. The horses were running right to left around the track.

~~~~~

When we came back home, and landed at LAX, we spent the night to give us a break on the jet lag. It was such a relief to see cars moving on the right side of the road again.

South American Cruise Videos - part one

We're still recovering from our last trip. The getting home part is always the worst. We're still catching up on mail and laundry, and still organizing the hundreds of photos. Meanwhile here are some videos.



ONE - Aboard the Splendour of the Seas off the coast of Chile. The sea was really rocking on Easter Morning.





TWO - Porto Montt, Chile. Dancers at the Sausage and Wine Tour





THREE - Chilean Fjords. Anybody want a taste of 2012?

The next trip

Friday we leave for our next cruise. We fly to Santiago, Chile where we board the Splendour of the Seas, and go south from there, through the Strait of Magellan, then north to Argentina and Brazil. We fly home from Sao Paulo. The first challenge for this trip will be having the right clothes for changes in climates. It will be chilly in Chile, then it gets colder as we head toward Antarctica. Then coming back up to Brazil it gets warmer. And we have to pack it into 2 suitcases each.

The next challenge will be going without the daily news of the Presidential campaign for two whole weeks. News junkie that I am, it will be hard. We'll probably be able to see CNN aboard ship, but it's never the US version. It will probably be the UK version. That ought to give us the perspective of what the rest of the world thinks of our "democratic" process.

Report from Ghana - Inside the Slave Dungeoon

Seven years ago, I visited Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle, and the experience shook me. I heard the voices of my ancestors calling out to me in that deep dark place of the slave dungeon.

This time it became even more personal. We visited only Elmina Castle, built in 1482 by the Portuguese. Initially the main booty was gold from the Gold Coast, acquired in trade for guns. The warehouses held the gold as well as cloths, blankets and linen from Morocco. The fortress was built to protect their bounty from traders and pirates from other countries. Then the price of gold slumped, and they found that it was more lucrative to trade in humans.

This time, as our guide described the female slave dungeon so vividly, the hundreds of bodies in that small space, in the dark, with no toilet, the smells of urine, and feces, and blood, and tears, I was there. I was there surrounded by bodies of other women who did not speak my same language, did not come from my village, and I was alone. I could hear my mother's voice singing that song she always sang.


Mother died when I was twelve years old. She died of breast cancer after four years of being in and out of the hospital, for double mastectomies, and radiation therapy. Chemotherapy wasn't widely available back then. Sometimes when she had a good day, she and my sisters and I would all be in the kitchen cooking. When Mother was busy at the sink washing vegetables, or at the table stirring up something, she would sing. Her song was always the same, Sometimes I feel like a Motherless child, a long way from home. She would sing softly to herself, moaning and swaying.

I never heard first-hand the stories of my grandmother and her Mother. These became the stuff of family reunions after Mother died, when I learned that my grandmother, Mattie had lost her mother in childbirth. Mattie had been raised by a series of stepmothers who never treated her as part of the family. There was so much pain wrapped up in that one song, the pain of not being wanted, pain of being alone, and pain of never knowing that you are loved.

There I stood in that dungeon, with the other tourists, but alone with that primeval pain, moaning and swaying.

free hit counters

We'll be leaving Friday for another cruise. This time it's the Western Mediterranean leaving from Barcelona, with stops in Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Gibraltar, and the Canary Islands. You don't even have to ask about pictures.

See ya when we get back!!