Spring in the Desert 

1967 Update - Amman to Baghdad April 30th

"I left Jerusalem as soon as Peter dropped his change-of-mind bombshell. I went to Jerusalem so that we could stay together as a traveling team. I had hoped to get to Petra and Akaba but that idea faded as the money involved in a Jerusalem visit was too much. So,leaving Peter, I went to Amman where I met some people going East. We bought bus tickets to Baghdad @ $6.00 each. The bus was bad (think retired USA school bus) and the ride hot.

At the Rutbah, Iraqi border station the customs people caught the bus with 100 bottles of Johnnie Walker - bribes were paid or a fine?? Anyway we went on across a flat, stony desert.

At any stop the women went left, the men right - and bushes provided the privacy for our toilet needs."

Arrived in Baghdad May 1st. Amman to Baghdad is 500 slow miles

Open the Spigots Baby!

Bushie gave his energy solution last night.

Pump more oil was his main thought (am I giving him too much credit?).

He did throw a bone to conservation with his endorsement of continued tax advantages to purchasing a Hybrid car. He does love tax cuts, doesn't he.

My point is... if our consumption is up so dramatically, why not look at ways to reduce consumption? Oh, Texans in a Honda Civic???? Answered my own question didn't I.

April 26, 1967 -- Jerusalem

I spent several days here. My travel diary is silent but I remember being repulsed by the Christian rivalries being played out in this supposedly holy city. At this time Orthodox Easter was being observed. There were various processions taking place for the Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians; coordinated so they could all do the various spots with their crosses and prayers without running into each other. I was shown two places said to be the tomb of Christ, donations accepted at each.

Our Oil-Idiot in the White House II

Bushie can now claim success. The Saudis will try to pump more oil - so keep on driving that Hummer folks!

Bushies energy bill will most likely pass soon so that drilling in ANWR can go forward - we have to keep those prices down for the gas hogs.

Our Oil-Idiot in the White House

Bushie is attempting to put the squeeze on the Saudis today. "Please" he says, "Pump More Oil. My Texan and SUV owning buddies are paying too much at the pump."

Ghod forbid that they would have to drive something smaller that gets better gas mileage. Such an action would upset the Detroit auto makers who rely on their big SUVs for a disproportionate share of their revenue.

Oh no, let us not consume less - let us pump more.

BTW - our MINI Cooper with its CVT trannie is getting 32 mpg.

Here's that perfect Crema on the espresso! 

April 22, 1967 -- Damascus Syria,

"I'm not enjoying Damascus as much as Aleppo. It's just too modern compared to Aleppo. It does have some fun things going on though; Air raid drills, dog fights overhead and wonderful fresh carrot juice available at the many sidewalk juicebars. There is tension obvious here as a war with Israel looms."

Incredible Nigeria

I've received a couple of these scam emails. They are so poorly worded that it is hard to believe that people fall for them.

Here's a portion from the most recent (all spellings are original to the message):

This sum US$14,320,000.00 have been floating as unclaimed since 2004 here in Arab Bank Plc London.
According to the british law at the expiration of seventh year of the investment the money will automatically be reverted to the ownership of the British Government if nobody applies to claim the fund and the seventh year is Nov 2005.Arab Bank cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claims as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
Consequently, my proposal is that i want to seek your consent as a foreigner to stand in as the NEXT OF KIN to the decesased so that the bank will transfer the money to your designated account.

United States of Theocracy

Theocracy
n. pl. the·oc·ra·cies
1. A government ruled by or subject to religious authority.
2. A state so governed.

Bush.......Frist.......DeLay.......Dobson.......Coulter

Arrogant
adj.
1. Having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-importance.
2. Marked by or arising from a feeling or assumption of one's superiority toward others: an arrogant contempt for the weak.

You Can Have His Seat

Peter was British, I'm American. When we traveled in the mid-East we claimed non-controversial national identities. Usually Canadian or Danish worked well although in Turkey I claimed Danish in a seaport and a Turk started speaking what sounded like Danish to me. Oops!

For Syrian Independence Day we had been given grandstand tickets to the parade which turned out to feature Boy Scouts with rifles, and soldiers with rifles. NRA members - you should have been there.

Anyway, I arrived late to the grandstand. The parade had begun and the seats were full. An usher asked me my nationality. "British", I replied. "Oh, no problem" he replied. "You can have his seat", he said, pointing at Peter "He's an American" I declined his offer still laugh about it today. Peter had stated that he was an American that day.

April 16, 1967 -- Aleppo Syria, the afternoon

"The Aleppo Bazaar is the greatest. The bazaar is said to take up 6 square miles. Fantastic local color with animals such as donkeys and dogs in abundance. Men & Women dressed colorfuly - many of the women wearing quantities of gold representing the wealth of the family. Machines humming and working in the narrow confines of the covered shops and passageways. Light filters through the haze of smoke and dust providing a glimpse of times long gone in our sanitized American life. Here I purchased a small quantity of supposedly 24karat Gold Sovereign coins, forged replicas of the British Sovereign coin - I intend to smuggle these to India and sell them at a profit.

Tomorrow Syria celebrates its independence from the French. We have tickets to the parade.

Our impressions of Syria are good. The people we've met on the street and in shops are friendly and open, although it is best not to mention being American or anything about America. Our hotel has about 8 rooms, our room has three beds for the two of us at 2 pounds ($.50) a night. The room is swept and tidied each day. The toilet down the hall is the usual clean but smelly Turkish type (hole in the floor with two footprints)."

Much of the bazaar in Istanbul had been made pretty and tourist friendly, not so Aleppo. I loved the feel of authenticity of the place.

Gaggia, Baby!

I think as soon as I tasted Espresso I was hooked. It might have been the strong coffee in Denmark, or an inner caffeine drug dependency.

I started with one of those funky Italian espresso pots that makes coffee via a inner funnel that contains the ground coffee and when placed on the stove boils the water in the bottom compartment and the resulting pressure forces the water through the grounds into the top section. Pretty good stuff but I needed something more.

I then bought a low-priced Krups espresso maker at a local department store. It was a pump machine, meaning that a pump forced the heated water through the ground espresso coffee and into a cup. This worked pretty well but I still needed something more.

Enter Baby Gaggia. This is an Italian machine that provided a major improvement from the Krups. Crema is one of the marks of a good cup of Espresso, and I now have good crema. What is crema? It's a brown froth at the top of your cup of coffee. It rather reminds me of a root beer float where you have partially mixed the vanilla ice cream and the root beer.

One has to fiddle and experiment to get a perfect cup. The grind of the beans, the pressure you apply whilst tamping the coffee into the basket of your machine, what beans to use, the humidity of the surroundings and other mysteries too profound to express.

More on this subject in future postings.

April 14, 1967 -- Aleppo Syria, the afternoon

"We traveled steadily from Alanya to Antalya. About 40 kilometers out of Alanya our rides ran out and we slept by a stream. In the middle of the night a loud chorus of frogs awoke me. The next day we caught a bus to Mersin. One night there and on to Adana by Mototren. Adana to Iskenderon by afternoon train. A night there and on to Aleppo. We took a taxi close to the Syrian border from Iskenderon and then walked the final several miles, during which a farmer shared some of his lunch. At the border the guards closely examined our passports. If only they could have read English they might have understood our nationalities. As it was, they had no idea. We then took another taxi from the border into Aleppo The two taxis cost us two dollars.

In Aleppo we found that the Youth Hostel had been ordered closed. A small Arab boy led us to a small hotel.

Turkey was a very nice experience. In Antalya we met Mustafa, He played the black market while at the same time being a member of the National Tourist organization. Mustafa gave us tours of Alanya and Antalya. We saw belly dancers with him, and met an American prostitute at the same establishment (we did not use her services but she was very affordable).

Mustafa also gave us one of our most interesting evenings. In the dark we drove out of town in a Jeep. Well out of town we cut our lights, then the engine and coasted to a stop on a muddy, dusty road where some farmers were awaiting us. The farmers had dug up a tomb and were selling statues from it. Some were fairly large, greater than a foot high and seemingly of museum quality. Mustafa bought several but they were too large for Peter or I to consider."

Crash!

Almost every morning during the cool season we have hot air balloons floating nearby. They launch somewhere in Tucson and head our way. Yesterday a crash took place. It sounds like the balloon was too low (Pilot error?) and grazed one of the nearby peaks. The envelope ignited and down they crashed. One tourist dead, another in critical condition.

We are starting hot weather this week, so the balloon rides are nearing an end 'til next November. Pretty steady 90's right now with our first 100 day sometime within the next 4 weeks.

They don't get it, do they?

Cardinal Bernard Law leads a Mass for the dead Pope. Do we need another sign that the Catholic Church is out of touch? Michael Jackson could be the next Pope for all they care!

Tucson Komen Walk

Yesterday 11,000 of our friends were at Reid Park for the 5K Run & walk for the Susan Komen Foundation. A beautiful clear day, in the 70's so it was ideal for the runners.

April 8, 1967 – Alanya, Turkey -- the afternoon

"We departed Istanbul by boat to Bandirma March 31st. From there we caught train to Izmr and spent April 1st in Izmir. My main memory of Izmir is the fantastic shoe shine benches. April 2nd we left for Selcuk. Morning of April 3rd we viewed ruins of Efes. Left Selcuk in the afternoon by train to Denizli. Spent April 4th in Denizli walking around town. Departed April 5th for Antalya. April 6 and 7 were spent in Antalya, arrived in Alanya the afternoon of the 8th.

So much for where I was when. Peter and I are again traveling after sitting in Istanbul for two weeks. First Peter had the flu – then I caught Dysentery. We’re well now and making our way along the beautiful coast toward Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

Money is starting to be a problem. I’ll be able to reach India okay. I’m intrigued by the idea of working in Japan or Thailand as an English teacher (btw - nothing came of this idea). Supposedly the money is good from such work; I’ll have to investigate."

Not too exciting a diary entry was it?

First Day Like Summer

It was already 60 when BBC news came on at 5:45. I think this will be our first official 90 degree day of the year. It gets hotter later on of course but then the nights are hot too. Right now it cools at night and we leave our door open all night - we have a steel mesh security door that makes this possible.

Watched Closely Watched Trains today. This is a Czech film that won best foreign film back in the 60s. Very enjoyable still.

Where Was I On This Date?

Back in 1966 I had graduated from Whittier College and didn't have a clue what to do next. More School? Not a chance as I'm not really the scholarly type. Start Working? No, anything but that, please.

So, I worked at Sage's that summer and took off for Europe with a youth hostel card and no real itinerary.

From time to time I will post entries from my travel diary. Nothing too profound as that is not my forte.

Slow Day in the Desert

We were supposed to have our first 90 day today but it has turned out to be cloudy and dull.

Watched Like Water For Chocolate on DVD and found that I enjoyed it more in the theatre. Is that because it wasn't such a pleasant surprise, since I had seen it before? Anyway it was good but not as thrilling as the first time when I left the theatre wanting food and sex! Or, am I a boring old fogey now ..... that's a thought.

National Pope-lic Radio

I'm cranky today. Listening to NPR has brought back the torments of Reagan-week when all the news seemed to be about the dead prez in the process of being idolized by the Conservative Right.

Now we have the same process with the dead Pope. OK, he was a good man and did some godd work. But he also was responsible for a lot of wrong ideas on birth control, women, AIDS prevention, gays, priest abuse issues - should I go on?

Are we due for two weeks of this?

We just planted this small Prickly Pear last fall. This spring there a lots of small pads indicating a happy transplant. 

closeup of our Bottlebrush 

Impossibly Bright on a Sunny Spring Day

MINIhune's girlfriend, Hulagirl
What's this Hawaiian Stuff All About? If you've spent time on the islands you know what a great place Hawaii is. Hawaii also happens to lead the USA in consumption of SPAM! As kids we ate SPAM for some of our meals, a war time cost savings I'm sure. Discovering that Hawaii was SPAM territory - Spam & Eggs for example, made Hawaii seem like home to me. After being married in Hawaii it seemed a natural progression to Hawaiianize our MINI Cooper.

Mifune Kafooie

I have something like 108 movies on my Netflix queue. Some of them I don't know why I added them to the queue. Case in point: Mifune, a Danish movie. Anyway the first copy arrived in my mailbox broken in several spots of the disk, I ordered a replacement from Netflix and a couple days later the replacement DVD arrived - also broken! There must be a black cloud over this movie.