JUL 28, 13 ( 3 / 3 ).. AMTRAK.. ROYAL OAK TO CHICAGO ILLINOIS..

This short post is by no means a comprehensive photo-shoot of Chicago Illinois that is one of the largest cities in the United States.  Rather it consists of a few photos that I took in the area surrounding the downtown AMTRAK Union Station.

As we left downtown Chicago to go to Chicago O'Hare Airport to fly up to Anchorage, I snapped the below photo of an 'elderly' Church!

Well .. there-you-have-it .. three posts covering our train trip from Royal Oak (Detroit) Michigan to Chicago Illinois. 

Smiles from Cap and from Patti ..

JUL 25, 13 ( 1 / 2 ) .. CLEMENT / PATRICIA / MERLIN .. AND .. CAP / PATTI

Before I get to the photographs of the five of us .. I want to EMPHASIZE the fact that Clement has an absolutely phenomenal 'blog' or 'web site'.

http://lescheminsdemerlin77.blogspot.com/

Click onto the above link to go directly to his 'web site'.

Now I want to show you all several photographs of the five of us .. Clement and his wife Patricia and their 16-year-old son Merlin .. and Patti and myself ..

First I will start off with our visitors from France!  Clement and Patricia and Merlin.





Then a photo of Clement and myself.



And a wrap-up with Patti and myself.



OK !  OK !  And a photo of the lovely 'tiger lilies' in front of our home at '1709'.

A photo or two of our home in Royal Oak ..

Now if you will continue to 'scroll down' to Part 2 of 2 from today .. Thursday the 25th of July 2013 .. you will see the Ford Escape that they purchased to take 'on-the-road' for one year.



JUL 25, 13 ( 2 / 2 ) .. MEET THEIR 2004 FORD ESCAPE ..

In Part 1 of 2 which is the above 'post', you have had a look at the people involved here .. Clement and Patricia and Merlin .. and Patti and myself ..

Now below are photos of the 2004 Ford Escape which will carry them on their great-adventure that is about to begin!

Below is a close-up photograph of the 'logo' they have placed onto the side of their Ford Escape.

Two more photos of the Ford Escape that is 'about to leave'.

 

And NOW they are out-and-off on their trip!

Both Patti and myself had a little 'tug-at-our-hearts' as we watched the three of them in their Ford Escape slowly motor away up our street.

Au revoir to our gentle soul-mates! 

Cap and Patti



JUL 24, 13 .. WOW ! 100% TOTAL SUCCESS ..

The past five days .. dating back to last Friday the 19th of July .. have been an absolute 'whirlwind' of activity .. so much so that I simply did not have the time nor more importantly I have not had the 'focus' to post updates here on a daily basis!

When Clement, his family and I planned their first visit here to the United States .. the first and the absolute top-priority was to successfully purchase a vehicle.

This was completed Monday.  They now own a 2004 Ford Escape complete with a 90-day or 4,000 mile Ford Motor Company official warranty. 

This was a project!  We had to shop and to find the proper vehicle.  Then we had to purchase and to arrange automobile insurance for the vehicle.  With the three of them all being residents of France .. we had a 'few hurdles' to jump over.  With them being able to use my home of 76-years as their 'home of residence' here in the USA .. and with the assistance of Joe Cicala .. an experienced employee of the phenomenal Royal Oak Ford automobile dealership with their 'considerable connections' in the automobile business .. especially with regard to the purchasing of automobile insurance .. we successfully consummated the purchase of their 'new' 2004 Ford Escape. Joe .. we really needed you with your years of experience. Thank You so very much Joe!

They now have to wait for (1) the metal license plates .. they have a temporary paper license plate in the rear window of their Ford Escape .. and (2) the receipt via-the-mail of the proper title .. before the purchase is 100% complete. It will take from 7 to 10 days before this is all finished.

In the meantime .. Patti and I return to Alaska this Friday and Saturday the 26th and 27th.  So Clement and his family will remain 'based' here in Royal Oak until this final phase of the purchase is complete.

OH-BY-THE-WAY .. we now have Clement a USA based cell phone and a Garmin GPS system to guide them on their travels.

Clement and his family now plan to drive west from Detroit to Chicago tomorrow July 25th and to meet Patti and I in Chicago Friday evening the 26th as we await our flight to Anchorage on Saturday morning.  Patti and I will travel to Chicago on the Amtrak Railroad train.

Lots and LOTS more but too much to detail here.

MUCH JOY FROM .. Cap and Patti and from our French Connection .. Clement and Patricia and Merlin!
 

JUL 19, 13 .. MY ' FRENCH CONNECTION ' HAS ARRIVED ! !

IS THIS FUN OR IS THIS FUN !

Yesterday afternoon Patti and I went to Detroit Metro to meet our friends from France .. Clement and Patricia and their 16-year-old son Merlin.

On the famous zero to ten scale (zero being zero and ten being the very best) .. we broke the scale with a rating of twenty!

PERFECTION.
 
THANKS to 'News and Weather on the Eights' (each and every eight minutes news and weather on our local radio station WWJ at 950 on the AM dial) Patti and I arrived at Detroit Metro in excellent time .. 

THANKS to 'News and Weather on the Eights' Patti and I
avoided two potentially frustrating traffic tie-ups*.  We motored west out 12-mile-road to Middlebelt Road and south to I-94 and the airport totally avoiding stop-and-go traffic grid-lock at the junctions of I-94 with (1) the Southfield Freeway and  (2) Telegraph Road.

Patti doubled-parked and waited for me while I went into the baggage pick-up area at the North Terminal. Their flight was right-on-time and we met face-to-face with no drama at baggage carousel number five.

I had Clement talk-in-French to Patti in our truck and surprised by an incoming call in French .. Patti 'nearly' but did not 'hang up' the phone thinking it was a wrong number call.  With a similar telephone call ..  Clement and I did NOT fool 'Zilla .. who has spent decades of his life living overseas. In response 'Zilla came right back with a "Hi Clement!" 

Our trip back to Royal Oak was met with a monsoon rain and I smiled and told our French visitors .. this is 'rain'.  Crocodile Dundee agreed!  "This is RAIN mate!"

Giving our visitors some 'space' .. Patti and I left them here at our home to 'settle' and we two ate a nice dinner out and went to a meeting.  They have a six-hour jet lag so they were early to bed and early to rise this morning.

Today we go 'car shopping' and 'cell phone sim card exploring' and 'you name it' ..

MUCH JOY .. Patti and Cap

* Clement is from France.  Clement did NOT know what a traffic 'tie-up' is.  For those of you in India and elsewhere when you are 'tied-up' you cannot move.  So IF you are 'tied-up' in traffic you cannot move.

IF ALL OF THIS HAS CONFUSED YOU .. please just scroll-down to yesterday's post for more details!

JUL 18, 13 .. TODAY IS A VERY SPECIAL DAY FOR PATTI AND MYSELF ..

IF (oh that BIG IF !) you would like to re-live with me the entire story below (my August 2008 travels in the Ladakh Region in the extreme north of India) that I only touch-upon here .. please do the following:

1.  Go to my dot net website. Use the link to the right or use Google to go to .. baba kaps doxology.

2.  On my baba kaps doxology website .. go to the archives you will find on the right side of the posts and click the year 2008.  There you will find parts A, B, C and D of my wonderful adventure.  I consider my 2008 visit to Ladakh and the Zanskar Valley to be one of my top five India adventures!

3.  Here on THIS website .. use the archives to the right and go back to 23 February 2012 and view that post titled .. FEB 23, 12 .. CLEMENT .. MY FRENCH CONNECTION ..
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

On Thursday, August 7th, 2008, I was hitch-hiking in the extreme northern part of India.  I was up in the Ladakh Region, south of the border between India and Pakistan, at the 14,000 foot level of the mountains near Mt. Nun, near the village of Parakachik. 

A couple from France, with their son,  riding motorcycles .. stopped to pick-me-up.

THAT event was a key part of one of my greatest adventures of my 22+ years traveling in India.


Today .. Thursday the 18th of July 2013 .. God Willing .. in a few hours Patti and I will be going out to Detroit Metro International Airport to meet the above couple with their son that I met back in August of 2008 ..  Clement and Patricia and Merlin .. and we will host them here with us in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Do you want an enormous WHEW !

During their stay with Patti and myself .. they will purchase a vehicle.  Then they plan to spend one year traveling (1) here in the United States and (2) motoring south to the southernmost tip of South America!

"What's that you say Crocodile Dundee?" ..

"Now that's a WHEW Mate!" ..

I will try to keep you all somewhat-updated on their travels by furnishing links to their websites here on this website.

Smiles .. Cap and Patti ..

JUL 1, 13 .. ALASKA .. THE CITY OF ANCHORAGE ..

I have been 'doing this web-site thing' for some time now .. and you-tell-me just exactly 'where' a document goes that you have saved and saved and saved .. again and again and again.  I just lost one of them AFTER I published it. Then I took it back-down to add to it.  Shows-to-go-you!  Just leave well enough alone.  

Captain if it isn't broken then don't fix it.

Tomorrow .. which will be Tuesday the 2nd of July .. on a late-night 'red-eye' flight .. Patti and I will fly south from Anchorage to Chicago arriving into Chicago early Wednesday morning the 3rd.  To save our sanity and to enjoy the train-trip from Chicago to the Detroit area .. the two of us will then stay overnight in Chicago on Wednesday night the 3rd of July.  On Thursday the 4th of July the two of us will ride the Amtrak train from Chicago to Detroit arriving in the early evening.

You all 'have-to-give-it-to-me' to some degree.  When I got back from India and Hong Kong on May 21st .. instead of pulling my usual post-trip TOTAL COLLAPSE .. I put up sixteen (16) consecutive posts (May 21st to June 4th) not missing one single day.  I then missed June 5th.  Then I got right back-in-the-saddle on June 6th.  On June 7th I wrote of our friend 'Atta' suddenly passing away and my slide into an energy slump began!  The terrible flooding in India that I posted June 17th and 18th really took-me-down further 'mood wise'.  I am in-touch with friends in India and the dimensions of this natural disaster are just horrific.

Sadly (perhaps it is a good phenomenon) life-must-go-on. 

So I wanted to post up some remaining photos from last May.  Since we had 17 days in June with temperatures above 70 F degrees .. the snow still visible in May has melted. 

What I hope you are able to see in these somewhat 'mundane scenes' below is the incredible beauty so visible in and around Anchorage.

Oh YES!  You have seen other photos from other angles of some of the below photos.  But they are still good examples of what I am trying to show you of our beauty here.   

The below photos taken from the main library are 'just photos' of ordinary Anchorage.    

Take a moment to study the below photo .. what a nice scene!

Like the above photos .. the two below photos are 'just photos' of ordinary Anchorage.  The beauty is not too ordinary is it?

Anchorage is the largest city in the State of Alaska. In comparison with many other United States cities it has a somewhat 'rural feeling'.  Its population of 298,000 includes the smaller neighboring cities of Eagle River to the north and Girdwood to the south.

Again I am sorry to have been so remiss here at my humble website but you have to admit that I did 'fight-the-good-fight' for three some weeks following my return on May 21st.

Keep 'scrolling-down' for another post I also just posted but back-dated it to June 30th.