Miscellaneous Forum

This last trip to Indian Rocks Beach,FL I didn't even want to go home. Maybe in 3yrs I'll just go to Florida and that will be home.

tee hee hee........Not a bad idea Maynard!!! :-) The Florida Kid

The U.S. trains are ok, but as you pointed out they only go to very specific cities with not very good connections. We have now taken trains to not so major cities in Switzerland and Italy and with a couple of very good timed connections made our journey very comfortable and easy to get to. And of course I love the high speed and smooth trains between London and Paris and on our recent trip between Rome and Florence.

I missed a big one. I miss our sky! There isn't any sky in other places and I feel so closed in.

Walmart?? That is an interesting thing to miss. . >>>> Let me explain this one: we ALWAYS seem to forget something we need on a trip, or something just isn't available in another country we would like to have. If we forget something here, there is always a Walmart nearby where you can buy whatever it is for not a lot of money. There is no such thing in other countries. I remember us searching for a cheap coffee machine and an alarm clock all over the Scottish highlands, no go! No Walmart, no nothing like it. No more dry socks on a trip? You can get a bag of 6 for like5. Couldn't find decent regular white socks ANYWHERE we looked in Germany. Cheap suitcase if one breaks? Walmart and so on

This last trip to Indian Rocks Beach,FL I didn't even want to go home. Maybe in 3yrs I'll just go to Florida and that will be home. >>> Want to buy our house in 3 years? :-)

Lee - know what you mean about that Montana sky. Not sure it is different but the lack of tall buildings sure brings out the best in that sky.

Buildings and trees I am afraid. :) I had funny occurrences because of 2 trips to the Catskills. The first one was my friend who picked me up in Albany to go on Retreat 5 years ago. It was cloudy, but was not raining. As I got into the car I said, "Well at least it isn't going to rain anytime soon." "How do you know that? Did you hear the forecast?" "No, the clouds are not low or black enough." "YOU CAN READ THE SKY?!?!" I was somewhat taken back as this is just part of life here, "Um yeah." The second one was this past weekend at the end of the retreat. I saw the repair guy for the hotel go up to a window I had seen him priming the day before. "It is going to rain within the hour." I told him. He kept going. It started to rain within the 5 minutes of when I said that. LOL. He thought I had jinks him, I said no, that the clouds had gotten lower and darker.

Same in Alaska. You just aren't going to venture out on the ocean in a small boat without understanding the weather. Read the NOAA weather forecast and then decide if you buy their forecast.

Florida's post about looking for white socks in Germany reminded of our trip to Germany several years ago. It was actually still cold and snowing in late April. I had lost one glove. We went to several stores in the towns on the Romantic road and could not find any warm gloves. I was told the winter season was over and I guess all the gloves had been packed away :-)