What are you doing today?

[gwand]

I’m in the middle of my trip to Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas in my quest to visit all 50 US states. We made a brief stop in Kansas on Thursday. Last night we drove into Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The village is famous for its hot springs. Staying at a hotel built in 1886. A real antique. Almost every structure in Eureka Springs is from that era. The late 19th century architecture is wonderful. Yesterday we were visiting Native American tribal sites in Miami, Oklahoma. Inadvertently we found the tiny home where Mickey Mantle grew up. Very humble origins. The trip is proving to be more interesting than anticipated. So 3 more states are off my list in my quest to visit all 50 states. Only North and South Dakota and Idaho to go but that will be on another adventure.

 

[Alice B]

I like Eureka Springs. I wanted to move there but it got too popular and my kids are Texans and I'm stuck. Wanted to move to kentucky, or even closer in Arkansas but I have come to realize i depend on having a network of family and friends and I'm too old to start over without one. so Not my most happy realization but Wednesday I planted a peony in the ground that has lived in a pot for a couple of years, and I am going to get some fertile eggs to hatch in December. Only bad part of that is the rooster count. Yes fried chicken but if they are sweet roosters that is really hard. Today I am resting after work. And drinking coffee and hoping I improve. Last night I removed the sand side from my 29 gallon tank (all cories died some time ago), put the other half of the undergravel filter plate and some nice gravel in. Need to bleach some anubias and add them as well, and feed the tank. Then maybe put a yoyo loach in it

 

[anewbie]

I like Eureka Springs. I wanted to move there but it got too popular and my kids are Texans and I'm stuck. Wanted to move to kentucky, or even closer in Arkansas but I have come to realize i depend on having a network of family and friends and I'm too old to start over without one. so Not my most happy realization but Wednesday I planted a peony in the ground that has lived in a pot for a couple of years, and I am going to get some fertile eggs to hatch in December. Only bad part of that is the rooster count. Yes fried chicken but if they are sweet roosters that is really hard. Today I am resting after work. And drinking coffee and hoping I improve. Last night I removed the sand side from my 29 gallon tank (all cories died some time ago), put the other half of the undergravel filter plate and some nice gravel in. Need to bleach some anubias and add them as well, and feed the tank. Then maybe put a yoyo loach in it

If i could move anywhere it would be the boulder region - maybe a little north past long-mont; some place where i could enjoy the mountain, clean air and less traffic.

 

[Alice B]

I am a flat lander and that does mean lander, no oceans either. Eureka Springs is a bit hilly but there is farmland outside of it.

 

[Oldspartan]

What a great trip(s) Gwand.

travel was our great retirement pastime and we spent several years on the road. The only states we missed during that adventure were Alaska and Hawaii but we had visited them on past vacations.

We began by doing Rt 66 in its entirety over a 30-week period beginning outside Chicago and ending in California. Although much of the road is now I 40 enough of it still exists to get the mid-century road trip vibe.

 

[Alice B]

I will probably never get to retire but I traveled before I turned 18 and that will do. Might work on bees today, might mow the front yard

 

[GaryE]

I wouldn't want to live away from the ocean. I've done it, and I've visited the Plains etc. I haven't been to Texas, but looking at the weather there, I also haven't died and been sent to a hot place for punishment. Texas would do for that.
If you want a big sky, sit in a small boat on the Atlantic.

I love travel, but I'm drawn to different cultures, different creatures, different environments. And even if I no longer live in an important sized city, I am drawn to busy, dynamic places for travel. The bigger the city, the better. They're different from my home, and travelling should be for difference, in my world view. It's a little hard to find, as we all tend to be similar in our ways. But it's a good quest.
I'd like to see the far north of Canada. The Labrador coast would be cool, given my family background. The west, not so much. I haven't made it right to the Pacific Coast, but I probably won't. There are too many other countries I've never seen. If a trip west happens, I wouldn't say no, but I'm unlikely to plan one.

I'm going to Italy in a few weeks, to Florence. At the end of the short trip, I'll have a couple of days in London. I intended to learn more Italian than how to swear before I left, but I'll have to learn as I go now. My comprehension isn't bad, but I can't speak as well as I should be able to.

 

[gwand]

One the perks of an academic life was world travel. I attended conferences or gave talks throughout Europe, India, Southeast Asia, China, S. Korea and South America. I hope to see Antarctica before I no longer have the ability to travel.

 

[Alice B]

I don't want to travel alone, and I can't afford to. So my interest in travel is pretty much limited to driving range. I went to my HS reunion, over half of us are still alive, most still live in that area. I live in a metropolitan area, big city, 24 hour grocery stores, privacy fences and mcmansions, and I am not fond of it, but my little 1/3 acre with chickens and bees that are remarkably legal in city limits, I like that. The area where I grew up, in Western Michigan, has no privacy fences, no mcmansions. Huge yards. it rains there. But my support system is my kids, and friends and they are all in Texas and I am getting too old to strike out on my own and tame a new property and a new house, much as I wanted to move to Kentucky or Arkansas, I'd have no support system. Except my dogs and they don't always mind. So I am kind of stuck, but I am accepting being stuck. I flew to the reunion and I really am not a fan of crowded planes and air ports. If I went to Europe I'd like to see Greece, but I think not in this lifetime.

 

[anewbie]

One the perks of an academic life was world travel. I attended conferences or gave talks throughout Europe, India, Southeast Asia, China, S. Korea and South America. I hope to see Antarctica before I no longer have the ability to travel.

Yea that is a perk; went to amsterdam to present a paper was a lot of fun; my dad was a big wig in research and must have visited over 50 countries - japan and china were multiple trips (he was a medicine so nothing of military interest ); i made one non-academic trip to Japan and i doubt i would go to asia again - nothing wrong (Kyoko is a nice city) but not for me (and i had a definite dislike for Tokyo but that would be true for any large dense congested city with illogical street layout). For me the weirdest thing about Kyoko was that the streets are not in numerical order the girl i bumped into said it was based on when things were built but then how do you find an address ? She said you just walk the street until you decide it was the other way. As for living near an ocean; never too humid.

 

[Alice B]

I dislike humidity. I dislike desert aridity. I like the middle.

 

[anewbie]

Today I am watching this very young doe eat grass in the rain in my backyard. As water drips down its neck it goes yum yum yum.

 

[gwand]

Yea that is a perk; went to amsterdam to present a paper was a lot of fun; my dad was a big wig in research and must have visited over 50 countries - japan and china were multiple trips (he was a medicine so nothing of military interest ); i made one non-academic trip to Japan and i doubt i would go to asia again - nothing wrong (Kyoko is a nice city) but not for me (and i had a definite dislike for Tokyo but that would be true for any large dense congested city with illogical street layout). For me the weirdest thing about Kyoko was that the streets are not in numerical order the girl i bumped into said it was based on when things were built but then how do you find an address ? She said you just walk the street until you decide it was the other way. As for living near an ocean; never too humid.

What topic was your paper on?

 

[Oldspartan]

Have not done much international travel. We took my mom to Italy to visit her parents family in Palmero and while there visited a bit of Italy and Switzerland. Amsterdam to meet with a group that was buying our company and saw a bit of the Low Countries. We did see the Canadian Provinces in our travels.

Not much interest in the old countries. They have an interesting past to learn about but not impressed with their present.

Probably to parochial I suppose.

 

[GaryE]

Anywhere I go, I try to to consider how I would live if for some reason I were transferred there. Since the whole exercise is a mind game, how this could happen and how I could afford to live in these places is immaterial. In my game, I assume I have good health and no need to work. Possibly, I'd still be young and good looking. That's another great mental exercise.
Let's say I could win a lottery where I had to spend living in any country but my own.
I could find my way in most of northern Europe. Southern Europe is too hot. I haven't been to Asia, so I can't fantasize about there. A lot of it looks interesting, but how I would like it is a question.
Nowhere else in North America appeals, except for Newfoundland, and the summer's too short for me.
What I've seen of Africa was beautiful, but watching the corruption and lack of opportunity for people would get to me. The same would be true of Central America, with the added feature of a lot of violence.
Australia and new Zealand are movie settings so far. I'd like to travel there. Indonesia as well.
I would really like to live in the EU, with the ease of movement between great places. There's so much to be explored. I might even have the time to do it. Money's the issue. I can't find that who wants to be an exiled millionaire lottery, and I'd probably lose. anyway...