Quick note

Having lunch in a mall in Johannesburg. We pickup our tv tues then we are on Lourdes way.I have too good stories cming when I get time. Yes, we have been lost already, dam gps

South Africa-- We're Here

We arrive in Johannesburg ,ZA at 9: 30 PM Wed 26 Oct.
Now from the beginning. We left home on the 23 th and went to Todd's place were we would recheck our check list ( just kidding; we don't have check list ). Actually, we packed our belongings in 2 hockey bags unbeknown to us all bags are limited to 62 inches when measured L+W+H and limited to 50 Lbs. I knew we were well under weight but one bag was 68 inches. How to solve the problem ; remove items from the big bag and stuff them in the smaller bag, then squashed the big one into small size. Problem solved until we get to the airport.

Monday was a long day as we were now just waiting for "Lift Off" on Tuesday but the Twins had the soloution so we took them to Wal-Mart for a photo shoot. The shoot went well, for the Twins but I'm not sure if the Wal-mart Photographer wants us back. Following the photo shoot, as we headed home the Twins and Rhett started to " Chant " Donald's Donald's so naturally we turned into MacDonald's to try to wear out the Playroom. Not much was doing in the Playroom until a G/Pa and G/Ma brought in there very Shy little girl to play. ( Our Twins do not conjer up to the word Shy ) Anyhow I ask the Twins to take the little girl up the the tower and show her how to enter the slide safely. I may not have used the word Safely. Then i heard Megan coming down the slide and it was then I remmebered that I forgot to say " No Head First slides" . Megan shot out of the slide and do to a high rate of speed she "Overshot " the landing pad but managed to get stopped before hitting the wall. I immedately ran to the bottom of the slide hoping to catch the Sly little girl. I holler up to Quinn to send her down feet 1st, which he did fast. But he told her to lay down flat so she could go fast. Then he followed right behind her. I guess this operation must have scared the G/parent of the sly girl because they left with saying Goodbye.

Todd bought me an iPad2 on Friday thinking I was smart enough to learn all about it by Tuesday. I gave it a good try but on tuesday morning about 9 AM I could not get either keyboard to function. For you folks who don't have an ipad , they have an internal and external keypad. I then put in panic call to the Apple Help line. Has that phase ever been misplaced. After about 1/2 an hour on the Apple chat line I finally gave up and decide to go right to Future Shop where Todd bought the ipad2 and the "Associate " tried the keyboard , agreed it did not work and gave me a new one. Problem solved.

Our launch time was 3:20 PM but be there 2 hours early was KLM's request. So Todd dropped us off about 12:45 , a little early but what the heck. We ask direction for KLM and went to the counter as I have done many times before. Since I have not been on an Aircraft for two year the whole procedure has been revamped to speed up the loading... I think. Anyway, the KLM clerk told us we had to use the Quick and Easy Self check in computer. I took one look at the computer and thought to myself, maybe we should have started yesterday.
I ask the clerk to get us started but she took one look at me and said give me your Passports and you On-line ticket printout. Ten min later she had completed our " Quick and Easy in procedure " complete with Boarding passes. Then we followed her to the counter where she tagged our bags, ( they were both underweight ) handed us our boarding passes and said have a nice flight.
We then went to the KLM boarding lounge where we sat for 2 more hours until they loaded. I guess we were too early to say the least. The Aircraft was a brand new A3A something or other AirBus. It held 247 people, the leg room was great, and the seat were very comfortable. The in flight service was excellent and so was the food. Booze was free ( or maybe part of the ticket price ) and the fed us 2 full meals and a snack in between meals. Our flight to Amsterdam was 8 1/2 hours.
We had 1 1/2 hour wait in Amsterdam and had to be clear thru security again. I happen to get the lady who failed the " congeniality course" as she gave me heck for not having the items out of my pockets and my belt off. As she not given me a tray i ask her if she wanted me to put the items on the converer belt and she snap back saying I should have known to take the the computer out of the case. Anyway the customer behind me took somme pressure off me because was in a bitchy mood so the two of them had words.
Then we boarded our flight to Johannesburg and that was a Boeing 777-2000 and it was a"cattle car" compared to the AirBus. There was very little leg room but Carroll I had a vacate seat beside us. This flight was 10 1/2 hours and again we had 2 meals and a snack in between . However, I managed to find a comfort posn since we had 3 seats between us so I logged some sleep time and missed desert and any free booze they were peddle.
We arrived here on schedule but had to walk a mile thru a passport check, then our luggage and then thru customs where our friends where waiting.
Deane and Nick are great friends and good ambassadors as they have gotten us ready for our trip around South Africa . Today, Thursday Deane took us to the hugh mall to get a Sim Card/ Flash card/Stick to power my computer in lieu of the WiFi that Ican't get yet. I got the SIM card at Vodacom but due some computer problem both in there shop and with Telcom supplier it took 2 hours to get it activated. The SIM card and Flash stick with 3 months time cost R400 or about $ 50.00 CDN.
Carroll stayed with the computer while Deane ( this lady knows everybody and were to get the best deal ) took me to another shop to get a cell phone. They sold me a phone, the SIM card and 35 Minutes for R125 which is about $16.00 CDN.
Then Nick and Deane met us for Lunch and mapped our a large majority of our Trip. since we don't get our MH until Sunday or Monday we rented a car for 3 days to travel around this area.
I was on the Freeway today with my rental and i managed to stay on the left side of the road.

Next Trip ...South Africa

After the Huntsman Games we have to head home and get ready for our planned trip to South Africa ( SA) with a lauch date of 25 Oct which gives us 12 days to pack up the RV, find a RV storage are in Mesquite,NV and get home and start ( actual finish packing). Since we where knocked out of the Games on Thursday, that gave us an extra day to get home. So Friday, we packed the RV and headed 50 Miles south to Mesquite, NV where the winter temp is usually above freezing and we did not want to winterize the RV. Had we left our RV in St. Geo we would have had to Winterize it. By noon on Friday we had " Stored " the RV, had breakfast at the Virgin River Casino and allowed Carroll enough time to donate her last $20.00 to the Casino and then we headed home, knowing full well it would be 2000 KM of bordum on I-15: A Trip we have driven many many times.
Since we did not get away from Mesquite until noon, we decided that somewhere north of Salt Lake City would be far enough for the 1st day. As it turned our , we reached Layton, UT which is 35 Miles north on SLC hence we would not have to fight the morning Traffic the next day.
When we reached Layton, Ut our 1st move was to find a hotel room for the night. We have been collecting " Choice Hotel points " for a few years so we thought we would see if we could collect on a "FREE" room. Well!! you can only collect on the points by calling the 1- 800 reservation and we do not have a US cell but I do have a laptop and I do have Skype. ( Did I mention that we never Plan ahead ) Now, all I needed was WiFi signal and since a Choice hotel was within my sight I pulled into their parking area, open my Laptop, dialed in choice Hotel and I had a strong signal so i proceded to call the "Reservation " Line. Within 5 min we had a free room for the night. The rest of the evening was spent shopping as we were only a stone Throw from the Shopping Maul.
Saturday Morning: After a Free( as advertized ) Healthy Continential(where the hell did the get that word) breakfast we headed for Great Falls , Montana where we would spend Saturday night. ( There I go... Planning again ) However, we picked up a coupon book at rest stop which has "discount hotel rooms " and those words are music to the ears of all Seniors. The 9 hour trip was again boring so there no need to bore you anymore. But once we arrived at the " Discount " hotel , where we had stayed before , I ask if the had a room for the night and once the answer was "yes we have lots of rooms" I slapped down my coupon and said Can I get a room with this coupon. I think I may have startled the Clerk because she said that they did have any rooms at this price but since I had their discount coupon at $70.00 she would have to honour it. After moving in to our room we went to Applebees ( basically a excellent family resturaunt ) for supper.
If the USA is in a resession they forgot to tell the people in Great Falls, Montana. When we got to Applebees there was one parking spot left in the lot and we had to wait about 1/2 hour to get a table. Maybe resturaunts aren't the best place to judge a resession.

Sunday : After another Free, Healthy Continential breakfast we headed for home because we had a million things on our minds and other things to do before next Sunday. Our first concern was the line-up at the border and the attitude of the customs officer. When we got to the border there was "No One" ahead of us and the customs Officer was very jovial, so we were cleared in about one minute.

Now as we headed for home we started thinking about a list of project that had to be attended to before next Sunday. Christmas present for the younger G/kids and Christmas cards complete with a cheque for the Teenager G/Kids. It is amazing the number of things you to have remember; like the Insurance is due on the RV on 1Dec but we would not rec the notice until late Oct or early Nov. So we were glad, for some reason it popped into Carroll's head. And since we are not coming home after SA we would never have thought of it. Anyway, to this thought to bed, suffice to say, there are many things to think about before you vacate the "Homestead" for 6 months.
Well, tomorrow, Sunday we move to Todd's place and get ready to lauch to SA at 3 PM Tuseday. My next Blog will likely be from SA but not for a few days while I get my bearing. cheers. tom

The Huntsman Games at St. Geo, UT

The Huntsman Games are a facinating place to be; not only to play "your " sport but to meet others from across the country. It is kind of unfortunate they we are so busy with our sport that we do get to see other interesting sports like the "Quick draw-- Six shooters" as an example. These guys participate with all the regallan , like the " Wyatt Urpe " long coat and Cowboy boots and hat " and they sure look the part.
The softball participation is no doubt the largest sport by the number of players as there was around 350 Teams ( Men and Women ) and when you consider that there is 14 players per team; well you do the math. I was advised that there was over 11,000 participates thisyear. What really surprised me was that Volleyball and Bowling was over-subscribed they organisers had to be limited number of teams , as they did not have anymore facilities.
Golfing is another huge sport and they do have many excellent course. As one gentleman told me that he comes every year because he get to play a minimum of 3 games for 70.00 entery fee on some of the best courses in the US, so he does have a point.
I would like to point out that there were 42 Mens Softball Teams in the 70 + Division ( 11 Teams from Canada) therefore if you do the Math that means that at least 550 Senior Men where not in a Senior Care home this week. ha ha
The Huntsman Corp also has a Free Health check area set up where anyone can come in during these games and get several different test such as Blood test for Chorlestrol, Bone density, Ultrasound on your Arteries, AFib and a few others that I can't remember and they send a full report to your home for you to pass to your doctor. Furthermore , they give you an appointment so there is NO waiting like back in Alberta.
During the first week of the games they host an opening ceramony where all the atheletes ( Participates) get to march into the University Stadium around the track to a cheering crowd and every sport is introduced. I even got "Goose Bumps" the first time it I marched into the stadium. However, I must admit that after 10 years of coming to the Huntsman Games , the "Goose Bumps" are gone.
The games start on a Monday and every team plays 3 games on Mon and Tues as these games are to "Seed" each team to its' division ( level of ability ) where they will be competitive. Starting on Wed we start playing 2 or 3 games a day as this is Double Knockout. By Thurs 1/2 of the teams are eliminated and the finals are played Friday morning. Althought the winners only get a "Gold Medal" it is a great feeling to stand in the middle of the ball field when it is over and you recieve the Gold around your neck and you can say that we beat everyone one in our division. However, by winning Gold you will be moved up a division next year so winning Gold two years in a row is extremely difficult. We were knocked out in 6 games this year but there is always next year and it is fun to play guys from all over the USA and Canada.
Are we going to the Huntsman Games next year..... Is the Pope Catholic.

Trip to St. Geo, UT/ World Senior Games

The Huntsman World Senior games are in their 25 th year.Huntsman's are a Morman family Corporation that dos research on a cure for Cancer besides providing other health Services. One of the Huntsman's sons was also the Governor of Utah ( Republican ) and Obamo ask him to be the Ambassador to China but he is now in the race to become the Republican candidate for President.
These games have grown to 25 different Sports for both Senior men and women. The Games are spread over 2 weeks in Oct and attract in excess of 10, 000 athletes ( I guess Bridge would be more like participates than Athletic ) from 56 different countries. As a point of interest, in our division which is 70 + there were 42 Teams and 11 of them were from Canada and since the USA is 10 time our size we were well represented.
St. Geo, UT is approxi 2000KM from Medicine Hat or Calgary, depending on your start point. Therefore the aim is to reach Idaho Falls, ID the 1st day out, before dark and it is a 12 hour drive with 2 fuel stops. There is a friendly Wal-Mart waiting for us to camp for the evening and as usual we spend 50.00 for groceries, chips and Beer. A case of 30 "Bud " is only 15.00 so it is a bargin even if you don't drink it all, which is unlikely.
We started this trip from Todd's place in Okotoks and it is 3 hours to the Border where we stop to pick up the 2 Perverbal bottle of Crown Royal for 19.00 each. From here we move to the US Customs and this time the Customs Officer was quite friendly and the Q and A only lasted about 2 min.
We are now on I-15 and it will take us to St. Geo, thru Great Falls, Helena , Dillion and then to Idaho Falls. We do leave I-15 at Boulder, MT for 100 miles to go around the mountains at Butte. I don't like Mountains and the curves in the roads at this time of year as they can be "greasey ". As per our schedule, we arrived in Idaho Falls at 6:30 PM. We have done this trip 10 times , twice a year so it is getting pretty boring but there is no other route to travel.

The next morning we topped up the fuel tank for the 3 rd time at 100.00 a copy and headed for St. Geo knowning that we would arr around 5 PM , depending on our Pit Stops. We always stop for lunch at the Cracker Barrel south of Salt Lake City. Talk about " Creakers of Habit", that's us.
I believe the Inter State thru UT is reconstructing every bridge and paving every road and or highway. The must have a massive spending spree on roads which leads to very slow moving traffic in many areas.

We pulled into St. Geo and the " Temple View " camp site at 5:30 just as they were closing so they gave me my site number and said to sign in tomorrow. The name Temple View is so called , because you can plainly see the huge Morman Temple from the camp ground. Did I mention the camp site was own and operated by the Mormans... surprize surprize. After we got setup which takes us about 1/2 hour, mainly because we are now Pro's after all these years. Also two unlookers ( there is always Onlookers to supervise your Parking ability ) at my ability to back in with very little difficulty. Carroll and I have it down to a Science but I took the credit anyway. ha ha.
After the setup completed we had to report to the Dixie Center to sign in because nobody can participate until they have sign in and rec there " Bar Coded " card. First you line up behind letter of your last name but there was no one ahead of me so that was quick. Then they check you drivers licence to comfirm you age and Name. Then you move to another room to pickup your " goodie" bag and the Tee shirt that comes with the 70.00 enter fee. I now have ten , $70.00 shirts in my closet with the words " Huntsman Senior Games " embroidered on the pocket. That and 79 cents will get me a Seniors coffee at MacDonalds.
Now for the " coup de Grace" we move to the room where all the money is spent or made, depending on which side of the table you are on. This room as every style of Sweater, Jacket, Tee shirt, hat, coffee mug ( you get the picture ) With the words " Huntsman World Senior Games" on every item, that all seniors need and they don't give them away either. I purchased a 15.00 hat mainly because I only brought my ball cap and besides a Huntsman hat is more noticable.

Now, back to the RV to setup the satellite as we never every leave home without and besides the ball games were on, and we always want to watch the CBC news.
Good night folks. The Games begin tomorrow ( Monday ) and we drew the late games which is just fine with me.

Last Day with the Twins

Friday; 7 th Oct. This is the last day for the Twins to get the Royal treatment from G/ma and G/Pa because Mom and Dad return home later this evening and it will be back to normal. So, what will we do today... Of course we will take the Twins swimming to the Wave Pool in Calgary because they love the pool and especially the slides. So off we go for the 1 hour ride to the Pool( Todd live on an arcerage 1/2 hour outside of Calgary ) and before we are 1 km down the the Twins are sound asleep but we have seen this " Movie " before and once they hit the pool they will be raring to go.
The pool prices are very reasonable ; 2.50 for kids under 5 yrs and 5.00 for us old folks. Once we hit the pool the Twins want to go directly to the slides. We started on a little slide with one 90 degree curve but that wasn't challenging enough , especially for Megan the Daredevil. She spotted the higher slide with a 380 degree corkscrew turn . While I started to read the Rules " which said you must be 42 inches tall to ride alone " she was gone. I kind of panic and holler down to Carroll to catch her assuming she would take on some water when she hit the bottom. While Carroll and I were holler back and forth, Megan comes shooting out the bottom, laughing all the way saying " That was Fun" . Quinn was not so sure about going alone, at least for the first time so I went with him as did most parent with there young kids. But after that , both Kids had to go it alone so I stood at the top to make sure the "Big " kids did not jump the cue and Carroll stayed at the bottom to retrieve them as the exited the slide as the big kids came out quite fast.
After 20 or so Runs the Twins now wanted a bigger challenge but this slide require G/Pa ( definitely not G/Ma ) to go with them as there was a 4 ft pool at the landing. Since we had to climb about 50 steps I limit this excises to 3 times each. I did mention that i was 70 yrs old but I'm sure that fell on deaf ears or maybe they just did care. Anyway I was too tired to climb anymore stairs to the slides so we convinced the Twins that "they" wanted to play in the Kiddie pool so we could rest.
After 1 1/2 hours or so in the pool we decided to go....but convincing the Twins was another matter. So we use another , well used "Ploy" called MacDonald's . They could play and we could have a coffee and get so rest. As soon as we mentioned MacDonald's they start to holler , Donalds, Donalds, we want Donalds. Apparently they are now using this familar phase with Mom and Dad and of course it is Grandma and Grandpa fault. ha ha. So off to the "Golden Arches " we go and we let them play for about hour with a few minutes of rest to eat some chicken McNuggets and Fries. Apparently that is the main food Group at Macdonald's.

Now, the day is done and we head home for supper and hopefully, early to bed for the tired Twins . After Grandma read a few books, they laid down to sleep, but we could hear them talking for about 15 minutes, then all was quiet. About an hour latter I decide to check in on the Twins and there was Quinn sound asleep in bed with Megan and she was hugging a big doll. Quinn was actually only half in the bed so I move him into his own bed but he was too tired to even move.
Now, we would sit and wait for Mom, Dad, Emily and Rhett to return home from their trip to Disney World.
Carroll and I left at 6:20 Sat morning for St. Geo , UT to the Huntsman World Senior games where the weather was gorgerous. We sure did enjoy the Twins even if the did tire us out.

Last two Days with the Twins

Thursday was a terrible day weather wise as it had been raining steady for over 24 hours so the Twins and the "sitters " where restricted to the house. That meant Grandma and Marjore would be inandated with continuois request to watch TV or read a book or can I have a popsicle. I, on the other hand found some patch and painting that needed to be done so, out to garage I go to find the tools and the paint and Patch material. Grandma decided that the Twins would enjoy riding their Quads around the garage since it was raining outside. Now, Todd does have a 3 car garage but anyone knows a 3 car will hold 2 car at best but mostly there is only space one car. In Todd's garage that is even questionable at times.

In order to make a path for the Quads to circumvent the garage I had to clear a path by moving all sorts of bikes, carts, boxes, ladders and even the work bench. I then ask Quinn to do a "dry run" so could make sure they would not hit anything. I might as well talked to the wall because Quinn only knows one speed which is to put the accelerator to the floor. Althought his Quad has a speed limit of 5 KMH, that may look slow when he is driving around the 1 acre yard, but it is "Indy " speed when he is navigating around the obstacles in a 3 car garage.
Shorty thereafter, Grandma decided Quinn was hungry so she bought him a sandwich right out to the "Track" . Quinn would take a bite out of the sandwich , then do one lap, then take another bite and do another lap until the sandwich was gone.

By this time I had found all the tools and material I needed so I proceded to the house to do all the nec repairs. By this time the Twins were tired of the Quads so the decided to help me. That's were Grandma came to my rescue and took the Twins away so I could paint without their help.

After I finished the repairs we decide to take the Twins for a ride to Calgary and we also took the recycle material to the Bins which i might add where filled to the brim. Then we took the Twins to Boston Pizza for supper. After supper we were driving by MacDonald's and the Twins started to holler Donald's; Donald's so we knew that wanted to hit the playhouse in MacDonald's so we turn in so they could play for a 1/2 hour or so. Besides , this is a good way to tire them out so the would be ready bed when we got the home. Now the day is done and the twins when quietly to bed