Tim and Neeki's on the bus

Washington DC visit with Nikki

2010-01-31T16:30:00.001-08:00

Stacie's visit and Biltmore

2010-01-31T16:22:00.001-08:00

Stacie's new kitchen!

2010-01-31T16:12:00.000-08:00

Christmas and winter snow storm

2010-01-23T06:05:00.000-08:00

Stacie's yard

2010-01-23T05:57:00.001-08:00

Kitties!

2010-01-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

Tim's recovery

2010-01-22T19:02:00.000-08:00

The recovery has been relatively quick and TIm is walking almost normal again. Stiff in the AM, and those ankles are still pretty rebellious, along with continued leg swelling. We are very thankful he did not have more significant injuries!

Disaster Strikes

2009-11-14T10:16:00.000-08:00

Have you ever had one of those days when everything was going well and within seconds disaster strikes? Tim was finishing the cleanup after painting Stacie's house when the scaffolding decided to roll over. Tim was about fifteen feet in the air and fell to the ground. Neeki turned into an EMT rushing into action; checking for bleeding, broken bones and head injury. She helped him to the car and rushed off to Mission hospital. After about 3 hours in emergency x-ray's confirmed there are no broken bones. Tim is now laid up for a few weeks with two sprained ankles, cuts, bruises and a dislocated shoulder. He can't navigate on his own, so Neeki pushes him around on a hand truck. Tim is quickly getting better through Neeki's therapy program. It takes about an hour and a half each day for message, acupuncture, Chinese herbs, salves, and icing.

Nikki's tour of DC

2009-11-14T09:50:00.000-08:00

Nikki, Neeki and Tim spent two days in DC. We walked our legs off and hardly began to see everything. I am told that if one was to spend 1 min. at each display in the Smithsonian alone it would take 3 mo. to see it all. The best part is that it's free. Well, you pay for it with your taxes - thankyou!

Nikki's visit to DC

2009-11-14T09:28:00.000-08:00

Nikki, Tim's daughter, came to visit us. The first day we drove into the beautiful maryland countryside and visited Linganore winery.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-01T09:29:00.001-08:00

Road near where we live

2009-11-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

Rain Cat!

2009-11-01T09:26:00.001-08:00

Linville Falls, NC

2009-11-01T09:25:00.001-08:00

Dormer!

2009-11-01T09:24:00.001-08:00

Chimney

2009-11-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

House painting!

2009-11-01T09:11:00.000-08:00

Falls colors on the Blue Ridge Parkway

2009-10-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

Mice! Really, Tim's "art"

2009-10-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

Stacie's basement painting....

2009-10-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Stacie's garage

2009-10-14T19:34:00.001-07:00

Lake Gaston visit with Neeki's sister Dawn and her husban d Leighton

2009-10-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Living and Working in Asheville

2009-09-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

We are living in Asheville North Carolina and house sitting until we decide to move to Raleigh. The house belongs to Stacie and she will be retiring from the Army in May, so we have time to make the transition. While we are here we are enjoying the beauty of the Appalachian Mountains and the unique offerings of Asheville. For a small city there is a lot to do. It’s been touted as San Francisco of the south. Perhaps that’s because of the eclectic population; a large gay population, tie dye clothing, a “live and let live” attitude, and lots of entertainment and jazz. Every Friday night people gather for the drumming circle in the city square. We hung out at an alive after five event sponsored by the city and danced to jazz funk, I’m not sure what else to call it, but the band sure got the crowd going. We are also doing some light construction on the house while are staying here. The pictures tell the story.

2009-09-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

Our never ending summer took us through Las Vegas and we saw a GREAT Cirque Du Soleil called "Ka". Believe me, it’s well worth the cost of a trip to Vegas. We were home for a day and out again to Maryland. The relaxing duo is Dawn, Neeki's sister, and their mother Christy. We went to Washington D.C. and toured the Holocaust museum - it's hard to imagine anything so horrific happening in the modern age. Tim was surprised to find out that the Smithsonian is not one building, but many museums dedicated to science and the arts. If you've been to DC you've seen all these sights. For Tim it was a new experience and it was fun seeing it for the first time. We rented a car and drove to North Carolina to look for a place to live. We visited Durham, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh. Raleigh is a mid size city in the research triangle. It's recession proof, low crime rate, lots of vibrant construction, downtown city life, arts, international airport and according to Forbes it is one of the best places to start a business. We decided to make the big move to Raleigh.

Grand Canyon National Park

2009-06-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon ended up being Tim and Neeki's last national park since the tour group hired a different coach company to finish their tour of America. Neeki returned the rental car in St. George, took a shuttle to Las Vegas and awaited Tim's arrival. They obtained a great hotel suite in old town and are "debriefing" for a few days before they hop to Boise then to Washington DC.

Monument Valley and 4 Corners

2009-06-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Tsuji and Mexican Hat.

The tour company represenative, Sam, met the coach at Hoover Dam and picked up Neeki to take her to St. George so she could rent a car (at her expense) since the tour company cited legal liability reasons for wanting her off the bus. Later it was discovered the original complaint (alteraction witht he guide) was true and once we arrived in the Grand Canyon there were additional complaints of Neeki following the bus with the rental car and demands were made to make Neeki stay away from the group completely. We still have no idea what the offense was.

Having a grand time with each other and the beauty of this great land.

Mesa Verde National Park

2009-06-17T12:17:00.001-07:00

Arches National Park

2009-06-17T12:11:00.000-07:00

Bryce continued

2009-06-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

Bryce Canyon National Park

2009-06-17T12:03:00.000-07:00

Sunny days for the rest of the trip.

Tsuji

2009-06-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

This is Tsuji (Sue Gee), our Japanese tour guide. He refused to introduce me as the coach host and reserved that position for himself and Ayumi (I You Me). The tourists didn't respond well to having the driver's spouse along and did not comprehend that I was asked by the company to come along as the concierge. I proved all sorts of fruits, food, water, and medicine (at my personal expense) to the guides for our guests and here is the result: someone called Tokoyo and demanded my removal from the bus and complained that they had witnessed an altercation between myself and a guide, which was a complete lie!

The worst part is that there are so kind and friendly to your face, so you have no idea what is going on or who is the mean spirited one.

The bus leaked during our three days of rain and we think that is the real reason for the actions - to get back at the bus company for the bus problems thru its employees.

Since we were in such a remote area I was relagated to the back of the bus, out of sight and out of mind. Geez.

Zion National Park

2009-06-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

Next to Zion National Park!

National Park tour - update

2009-06-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

So much to say! We arrived in Yellowstone National Park and it rained and snowed for 3 days solid.

2009-06-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

On the bus June 3-4

2009-06-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Tim and Neeki pulled out of Boise Idaho on "the beast" (bus)dead heading for Bozeman, Montana, (to pick up 10 Japanese tourists) when we promptly had to return to the bus depot for some last minute repairs and paperwork, so our early start turned into a late start. We passed thru a severe storm with hail and tornado warnings in east Idaho where we discovered the bus windshied and overhead leaks!

The GPS took us to Bozeman on the state highways instead of the interstate, but we arrived so late (midnight) that we didn't get to see any of the beauty of the area. We stopped in a tiny town to get dinner at the Pond Lodge and the owner, mayor and newspaper owners pounced on us wanting to know who we had on the bus (no one) and how to get more coach business in town. The gave us free samples of their food, which was excellent BBQ.

We were awakened by Mr. Tsuji, the Japanese Tour Guide at 9AM, who wanted to inspect the Beast. we told him about me (Neeki) acting as the bus host and he was surpised and wanted to make sure I paid for my own meals ;-).

We pick up our guests from the Bozeman airport at 3PM today, take them to dinner, then the hotel. Tomorrow at 7AM we start our National Park Tour with Yellowstone.