Scribble World Travel Blog

Virtual China

While it may not have been possible for me to physically be in China this week, I saw no point in depriving myself of a little Chinese fun-so I opted for a virtual Chinese experience instead. How did I go about this amazing feat you’re probably asking yourselves….well, I can’t give away all my secrets…but my first stop didn’t even involve leaving the coziness of my kneeling Yoga-Chair.

The fascinating world of E-Bay transported me all the way to the sights and sounds of the tempting Shanghai Silk Marketplace where I learned all about momme weight-(the official measuring system for a fabric so fine) as well as the many varieties and lusters to choose from.  I found, what I believe, will make a most luxurious silk filled comforter topped with a 19 momme Charmeuse duvet cover.  I am ecstatically and impatiently awaiting it’s arrival.

To make my Chinese trip even more authentic, I found an Asian Market in Tucson, called Grant Stone.  There were enough varieties of tea to fill a whole aisle. I’m experimenting with two kinds I’ve never had before-one is called Gohyah tea which comes from a bitter melon.  The information that came with it is mostly in Chinese, but it states that it is good for the liver, bile, and digestion among other things.  I gave Chris some the day after he’d had a few beers and wasn’t feeling so hot.  He didn’t like the taste too much, but it seemed to make him feel better.  I kind of liked it, it’s an unusual taste, unlike any other herb I’ve tried.

I’m also trying Hawthorn tea for the first time. It has a nice mildly sweet berry flavor, and according to my herb book, Hawthorn tea has been taken as a heart tonic and to enhance circulation.  I also found an old favorite, a box of Gunpowder tea, also from Shanghai.  I’m going to attempt to make my own version of a boba tea (bubble tea) drink with it.

Add to that list some yummy hot and sour soup and it wasn’t half bad for a virtual trip!  Now if I could just get a massage…

Catnip For The Cats, But What’s Next For Us?

June has begun, the weather is great, the pool is warm, and now we find ourselves contemplating where the road will take us next.  We haven’t been to Mexico in a while, a day of shopping and exploring sounds fun, but I keep thinking about the movie we just watched called Border Town.  Scary!  As tourists we never seem to hear about that side of things. 

Meanwhile, there are other interesting possibilities-hot springs, waterfalls, hiking, Oregon, Colorado, Canada, China, Australia, Costa Rica, Thailand?

Trader Joes sells these delicious freeze dried fruits from Thailand.  I am quite infatuated with them- freeze dried mangosteen, freeze dried banana slices (they’re really sweet and nummy-lots of thin little slices), rambutan, mango, pineapple slices….I’m on the look out for a place that sells them in larger quanties to save some bucks.  They seem like the perfect snack.  I love how they start out so lightweight and airy, the coolest texture on the tongue.

Anyway, I was looking into a flight and hotel deal to China the other day. The advertised price was just $899 for 10 days.  But then in the fine print there were all these extra possible fees, so I’m not sure the price quoted was all that accurate.  By the time I added up all the possible extras it was quite a bit more.  I’ll have to get more organized and research what all these fees actually mean…like when it says “up to $200″…that’s rather vague. 

Life is a bit disorganized right now.  We’re slowly but surely being re-integrated back into society more or less-you know, re-buying those things most people take for granted.  Our living room has pretty much been turned into a storage facility for boxes and packaging materials. We don’t want to get rid of them for a while in case we need to return something.  It’s amazing how much stuff we’ve re-accumulated in just under 2 months though-from desks to dishes…  We’re striving to keep our load light but things don’t always go according to plan. 

I bought some fresh organic catnip for Ox and Paws which they loved! Today has been a fun day, it felt like my birthday because I got 5 packages in the mail!  I have new healthy herbs to make tea with, a printer, a free beach bag from a credit institution for spending so much darn money, and my mom was wonderful enough to send some love in the form of some kitchenwares and my beloved ol’ foot massager (I gave it to her when we hit the road and wasn’t expecting to ever see it again, so it’s an unexpected treat).   

Life is good.  I do miss the road though and I hate how much gas prices are now.  Chris was looking at these plans the other day for building a device that uses water to somehow extend the life of your fuel.  If it works, that sure would be awesome!

Best Cats In The World

These are our crazy travel cats-adjusting to life beyond the van!  They’re such good sports. We think Ox and Paws are the best cats in the world. Just look at them-they’re cute little fuzz monsters, what’s not to love?  Sure, some people might like dogs, but dogs are smelly and they drool.

Both of our cats come when we call them.  Some people say they have a hard time getting their cats to come and that cats are aloof and anti-social. Again, you just have to understand a cat’s psychology. Knowing how to do a good kitty call also helps.  Now if we could just teach them to use the toilet…(and flush afterwards) although, nevermind, I just remembered an article I once read about cat poop being toxic and hurting some marine creature if flushed down the toilet.  Ok, litterbox it is. 

Whole Hog Cafe Review, Little Rock, AR

Whole Hog Cafe
5107 Warden Road
N. Little Rock, AR 72116

The Whole Hog Cafe was reasonably priced with large and tasty portions, our group enjoyed trying the different kinds of barbeque sauces. Suitable environment for families and pretty much anyone. Plenty of room for all. Paper towels at the table and wet wipes at the ready-no place to fuss about making a mess. Comfortable atmosphere, food ready fast. To give you a sense of the price, I ordered the Regular Pork Plate, a side of baked beans, a side salad and an iced tea. It came to $8.64. Recommended!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Paws wants to know if you’ll be his Valentine…?

The Chicken Bone

It has been a delightful and charmed existence~the good and the bad, I have loved all the ups and downs for they are the sugar and spice of life.

I swallowed a chicken bone (sharp)-by mistake obviously.  I wondered what dammage it might cause internally.  We walked around for a while and I put it out of my mind.  But now it has been a little over an hour and there is a sharp sickening pain in my stomach, and it is cold outside and I am sweating.  What happens when you swallow a sharp object?  The body is just tissue, flesh, acids… What defense does it have?

Other thoughts occur-would I go to a hospital if it meant saving my life?  Yes, but only if I knew i would otherwise die-otherwise, a false alarm would be too devastating a price monetarily. 

We hung out on the beach for about an hour, but it was cold and windy, so we didn’t swim today.  Sure was fun yesterday though-it’s hard to describe in words just how fun tackling waves is for me-it’s so easy, I feel so strong and capable-just soaring over the waves as they crash to shore~wondering why I’m the furthest one out~and why Chris is still watching nervously from the shore-worrying about sharks.

At the Theater of the Sea, an employee said the chances of getting bit by a shark are about 1 in 600,000-you have a greater chance of getting struck by lightning (1 in 30,000 I think).  And the rare shark bite is usually a case of mistaken identity-thinks you’re a sea turtle or something and when it realizes it’s mistake, it spits you back out. 

10:34 So I feel a little better now-maybe my body can overcome this little chicken bone matter afterall-people have survived stab and bullet wounds afterall.

Looking at a monstrous piece of chicken, Chris said, “Do you think somehow the kids in Ethiopia caused American obesity?”  haha..you know-eat your food, there are starving kids in China/Ethiopia…don’t be ungrateful by wasting it..

Chris went for a bike ride today.  We saw a really skinny girl that didn’t have a butt. Oh, and we watched some windsurfers-looks like they were having fun. 

What Did You Expect? Tamiami, FL

We’re at a park in Tamiami waiting for the pool to open at noon so we can swim and take showers.  I was sitting at a picnic table nibbling on a cookie but feeling somehow dissatisfied with the experience-it didn’t live up to my memory.  I tried to eat another more slowly still to see if I could recapture that magic-and got to thinking~sometimes there is like a shadow or an echo of a taste-that we do not always need the full flavor.  Our memory kicks in and taste is an autopilot function that many of us are not actively engaged in-we do not always look for subtle differences or register that an experience is not what one thinks it is.

For example, in Austin I was drinking a small bottle of unpasteurized orange juice just raving about how it was the best orange juice I’d ever had.  When it was gone, I refilled the bottle with pineapple juice, and the next day sat drinking it.  Chris asked for a sip-thinking it was the the orange juice I’d raved about.  I played along & handed it to him, trying to keep a straight face.  Afterwards, I asked what he thought & he nodded in approval and said it was good.  Later, I offered him some pineapple juice but he refused, “You know I don’t like pineapple juice.”

“What if I told you that orange juice you had earlier was pineapple juice?”

“I’d know the difference,” he assured me.  Well apparently not.  The minds power of expectation…drinking “orange juice” and expecting something good-that is what you get.  Drinking pineapple juice and expecting something-likewise, that is what you get.  Taste your food as though for the first time…you might be surprised. 

Bang! You’re dead.

5:13 A.M.  “What does it take to get her up to write this early?” the watching world wonders- apparently, my own death.  It was a dream without plot.  One minute Chris & I were fighting because he wanted to go on this tour and have the van re-tiled.  It sounded good until I saw the pricetag in the thousands.  The ridiculous price meant nothing to him-he had made up his mind based on feeling, not practicality or logic.  It seemed we were going to go our separate ways-he was trying to sell the van, even though I was in it. 

Suddenly, two big trucks came up, said they’ve been looking for a van like this-and then start blasting the crap out of the van and us without motive.  We didn’t have a chance-they had a missile, machine guns, and to take all sport out of the matter-they had bullet proof glass.  It seemed so senseless yet real and final. It’s interesting, I’ve heard people say you can’t die in a dream.  I was shot dead and everything went white.  I also heard that you can’t read in a dream, again not true.  Black letters appeared on the white screen:

“Bang! You’re dead,” like a computer game-then I woke up.

I woke up feeling afraid-like life is so tender and short-and we can die for the most senseless of reasons.  But then I suppose that’s what computer games are like too-the player might start out with a goal and then there are all these obstacles to get around.  And like a game, life can be very absorbing, randon, full of surprises, and we all know- life can seem unfair. 

So, if life is a game and we exist but temporarily inside this matrix, I wonder what the goal of the game is.  To have fun?  To win? To get the highest score?  Or perhaps to convince other would be “players” (livers) that it’s a good game worth playing.

Chris is gently snoring.  All is still dark, I’m writing by the blue glow of a mini flashlight.  Roosters are crowing-prematurely it seems… yet it is somehow comforting to know I am not the only one whose awake. 

Traveling, I have seen all these memorials-be it for hurricane victims from 1935,  or a deceased, but loved county commissioner, or a wealthy old couple who donated piles of money or land to a park or library-and have their picture there with gracious thanks for their generosity-it all seems so meaningless when these people existed before my birth.  It’s nice to have the park, but does it really matter who made it possible? 

It’s of mild interest, particularly if there’s a story behind it-but for the most part, these monuments that say, basically, “I was here, I existed,” seem silly.  They make the family and friends feel like they’re doing something to keep that person alive and relevant for a while.

These monuments could be destroyed, or replaced with new monuments, dedicated to different people, and the world would just move on.  New life would come, the cycle of life continuing, the focus staying on the young-the relevant.  And that’s what monuments are-an attempt to preserve a bit of our youth & relevance-a lasting display of our life’s work.  But while billions of others go on existing, living, and striving after a bit of their own relevance, it feels like an impossible task to appreciate everyone all at once. 

We forget and we move on with our own life stories.  We wonder to whom and for how long our life will be relevant.  We carve our names in trees, dump junk in landfills, kill strangers overseas—millions live, millions die-we seem quite capable of carrying on regardless of what great or terrible thing came before us.  We start new-as though the world has only just begun existing with our own set of experiences.  Thrashing, tearing, striving, racing toward the unknown finish line.  5:50 A.M. 

Help, We’re Locked Out of Our Van!

Ok, so around 3:30 we stopped at a Starbucks.  Chris had been driving, but my keys were in the ignition-I ran inside to use the restroom, taking for granted that he had the keys.  We ordered our drinks and were on our way back out when Chris got this concerned look on his face and asked if I had a spare key-I thought he was joking.  Turns out he had taken the keys out of the ignition, then opened the side door to get something-set my keys down next to his, then forgot BOTH sets of keys.

I’m irritated, he’s defensive-things are escalating-he’s determined to fix it ourselves-not to pay someone a bunch of money for a careless mistake. He’s trying to figure out a way to get through the window, or open the hood in hopes of triggering a fuse that might unlock the doors..I’m worrying he’s going to make things worse…things are getting tense and neither one of us wants to be the one to ask for help…plus our cell phones are in the van.

Then Mike came along…this guy had the patience of a saint-he stood with me for 2 hours as we worked things out.  I said how we didn’t have much money & mentioned how our cargo box had been hit and it seemed like we were having a bit of bad luck.  He had suggested AAA, then had another thought-what about the Honda Dealer?

Next thing I know, I’m back in Starbucks using their phone book to find a Honda dealer & and I get ahold of a nice guy who says, “no problem, happens to all of us, I can get you a spare for $5, where are you?”  Only it turns out the unfamilar city I’m in is more than an hour and a half away, so he goes online and gets me another number.  Only the next guy is more concerned with red tape-he says he needs proof of ownership-my ID and insurance card are not enough.  I say I’ve got the title in my van..he talks to his manager and calls me back to say he’s sorry but they can’t.  I’m breaking the bad news to Chris & Mike-Mike says I should call back and ask to speak with the manager-to be persistant.  This I do, but am still getting the same story.  I’m about the hang up, Chris reaches for the phone, “so if I pull up our registration online, will that suffice?”  Finally, the guy relents, but we still had to get there.  Mike’s car was full of stuff, but he pointed to a car from Montana with a bike on the roof, “he’s got a bike, you’ve got a bike….worth a shot.”  And sure enough, the guy from Montana comes out, is real nice and agrees to give Chris a ride to the dealer.  Mike waits with me and keeps me entertained with travel stories, stem cell research, a restaurant he walked by in South Korea with a cat chained to the oven, his soft spot for animals and the 3 cats he’s adopted, among other things.

A guy from the Honda dealership gave Chris a ride back, and we had a spare key for just $3, (plus the $4 it had cost to pull up our proof of ownership)-but all in all, way cheaper than the alternatives.

It’s funny how things can just sort of work themselves out. The lesson of the day was persistence.  I never would have thought to pick up that phone and call again after being told no.  Plus, in a funny way I got what I had wanted-to stop driving, spend some time outdoors and get to know someone.  Kind of reminds me of The Secret.

A word from Ox and Paws…

Meow-weee, Hey folks! We’ll have to make this quick,  We’re  busy guys you know….lots of windows to keep an eye on, food that needs eatin’, water that needs tipping over, blankets to fuzz up, kitty litter to scatter, massages to purr through, suitcases to claw, catnaps to take, humans to train… We’re swamped! Some days I just don’t know how we manage,  but that’s what they’re feedin’ us the good stuff for.  Speaking of which….*gasp* we’re almost out of food! Help a cat out,

PurrBallFully,

Ox & Paws *kiss kiss*

12:03 A.M.

I look at my watch, just now, as the desire to do something with purpose arises- the desire to be productive-to build toward something tangible.  And when I see the lateness of the hour, it is not relief I feel-to be spared the burden of this task-but a twinge of disappointment-that it would be nice to stay up late, thinking & writing.  We are housesitting, however, and the dogs will need feeding and to be taken outside around 6A.M. 

I wonder why I make so many unsatisfactory decisions-especially with money…like that taco salad that was far from the fresh mixed greens experience I had hoped for-a nasty fried tortilla shell smothered with sour cream-one could hardly call it a salad.  And why did I let myself get suckered into getting that silly back scratcher from Mexico? 

Birthday dinner at Lake Elmo Inn

Lake Elmo Inn, known for its pampering service and delicious food, is independently owned and operated.  It’s also the first place I ever worked. Back in the day, I fell in love with their wild duck soup, which I was pleased to see is still on their menu and just as good as ever.

Other options include roast duck, rack of lamb, mouthwatering steaks….delicious pasta, and lots of other choices.

My favorite day to work at Lake Elmo Inn was Sunday.  That was the one day I actually got to sit down for a rushed 10 or 15 minute break and chow on the delectable brunch buffet offerings….all the expected breakfast fare, and a whole array of unbeatable dessert offerings too-like the classic Sin Of The Inn.

When I make it back to Minnesota, it’s cool when I have an excuse to go to Lake Elmo Inn as a pampered guest-kind of a ”Yay! It’s my turn!” moment.  Pretty slick of me to have my birthday in MN this year, made for a perfect excuse to go, and my Mom was kind enough to pick up the check-even better

Just a side note, but Lake Elmo Inn is one of the only places I’ve seen an automatic seat cover changer in the bathroom…you push a button and a new plastic seat cover spins out.  And that’s even before those paper ones started popping up everywhere.

And another innovation, now they have a coat attendent to give you a pickup ticket for your Minnesota bulky winter coat.  As a special birthday treat, our table was offered our choice of complimentary champaign or sparkling grape juice also.