Adventures in the USA Archives

California, here we are!

June 24, 2014 By Tam Warner 9 Comments

Beautiful Santa Barbara view from the hills.

Who doesn’t want to drive the California coast? Randy and I have always talked about it, but we never did it. Now, we are doing it. At 9 1/2 months post double lung transplant, Randy is out and about and doing very well.

The Duke greeted us at John Wayne Airport.

Our trip started in Orange County, as we landed at John Wayne/Santa Ana Airport. The Duke was waiting for us. And so was Michael Hurst, aka “Don”. We had lunch and then “Don” took us for a little tour of Balboa, including the car ferry. The car ferry takes a whopping 3 cars across a canal small enough to easily swim. It is so fun and cute, though! The whole area is just gorgeous. “Don” Hurst thinks Randy looks much better than he did in January…yes, that is true. He is much stronger, and his attitude has really turned around. We have been thoroughly enjoying our trip.

Our next stop was Santa Barbara, one of the most beautiful towns you could ever find. Beach, ocean, hills, mountains, and the flora! Trees and flowers and plants of all different shapes and sizes! Parks and hiking paths every other street, it seems like. We were very fortunate to have one of our “sons from another mother (and father, too)” come to visit us in Santa Barbara. Charlie grew up with Wes, and has spent a lot of time with us, not only in Dallas, but in Cozumel. He graduated from Harvey Mudd College a year ago, and is working in Los Angeles. We had a great dinner, and laughed the entire time. My little Charlie! What a sweetheart to drive all the way to Santa Barbara to see us.

We stayed at the Hyatt Santa Barbara, and I can highly recommend the hotel. It sits across the street from the beautiful beach. My “niece” (my friend/family relationships tend to be complicated and confusing, sorry) lives near Valencia, and she brought her two children for a beach day with me. Randy is wisely not spending much time on the beach, he is 50 times more likely now to get skin cancer, so he needs to stay out of the sun! Or wear sunscreen, which is so difficult to get him to do.

We enjoyed dinner one night at Brophy Brothers, on the pier. Dee-licious and excellent views. I walked the pier, and there is a statue of a seahorse with a boy riding on it, a gift from Santa Barbara’s sister city, Puerto Vallarta. Unusual, but hey, certainly an interesting statue.

Santa Barbara's seahorse. — Santa Barbara’s seahorse.

If you have not visited Santa Barbara, make your reservations right now! It really is stunning, with perfect weather, and gorgeous scenery. As Randy’s illness has reminded us, you only have NOW. Make your NOW count.

The Glorious California Coast!

June 22, 2014 By Tam Warner 3 Comments

I have been on the go and traveling, traveling, traveling for a week, but now I am tucked away in Shelter Cove, California, with a view of the rugged coast from right to left. Glorious! I will settle down now to write some posts, but in the meantime, enjoy some fabulous California photos!

Bird Rock, Central Coast, has lots of SQUIRRELS!

bs 14 elep seal — Rugged coast and snoozing elephant seals

Lots of discussions going on down there!

Big Sur's Elephant Seals — Big Sur’s Elephant Seals

Randy, big sur — Randy, 9 months post double lung transplant!

Travels Continue…but no more tan for Ran!

June 11, 2014 By Tam Warner 18 Comments

Randy and I returned from the Hill Country of Texas recently, and in a week we are off to explore the coast of California from Los Angeles to Shelter Cove. I’ve never been on Hwy 1, or seen the dramatic coastline of California. No time like the present! We are seeing friends and even some family along the way, and also spending some time at Lake Tahoe…and of course, I find myself worrying a little about Randy.

The Hill Country was fun, but for Randy, there is much to consider. As a double lung transplantee at 9 months post, there are issues that must be planned for. We need to be sure he has all of his medicine, and plenty of masks to keep out germs or pollution, or whatever. I wanted to go rafting on the Guadalupe, but ended up not doing it for fear of Randy falling in. Randy is immuno-suppressed so his body won’t reject his new lungs, but this opens up other dangers of infection and illness. He is not permitted in lakes or rivers, but he is allowed in the ocean. Now, what about Alpine lakes and rivers? I’ll have to research that. Besides, I’m the one who falls out of rafts and boats, not Randy. I’m sure he can stay inside the vehicle, so to speak.

Randy is 50 times more likely than you or I to get skin cancer. Yes, you heard me correctly. 50 TIMES MORE LIKELY. That is downright scary. And anyone who knows Randy knows how much he loves the sun. This is a guy who loves to lie in the sun, basking, without sunscreen. He cannot do that anymore. His skin is paper thin, any time he bumps into something or scrapes against something, he is injured. Band aids are necessary items, along with antibacterial wipes. A friend who is a diver and a quadriplegic familiar with infection risk recommended we carry the same soap and scrub doctors use, and that we used at the hospital. I think that is a great idea, and I plan to do that on our upcoming travels.

Exploring northern California puts us within range of the University of California San Francisco, a leading lung transplant center. It is good to know we’re not too far. I found a boat for a dinner cruise and to watch fireworks on July 3. I’ve also booked whale watching out of Moss Landing, near Monterey. A special tour of the Monterey Bay Aquarium is on the schedule as well. We meet friends in San Francisco who will travel with us to Shelter Cove, so we are also looking forward to that! You can bet I’ll be posting photos as I look for seals, sea lions, otters, whales, and all other animal life I can find. Maybe we’ll see a bear when we go to Lake Tahoe! If we do, I’ll be taking photos of it!

LBJ Presidential Library at UT Austin is a Must See for Texas Empty Nesters!

June 9, 2014 By Tam Warner 11 Comments

boomers, Texas, LBJ, empty nesters — **Ending the National Origins Formula, kind of ironic now.**

Ever been to a Presidential Library? Well, for a history buff like me you’d think the answer would be yes….but no, not until I visited the LBJ Presidential Library at the University of Texas Austin campus! The Library is celebrating the Sixties (which, you know, makes sense for LBJ), and wow! Talk about Boomer heaven! I was mesmerized!

As I have blogged previously, I am a 70s boomer, but seeing all of the sixties paraphernalia was a trip back in time. Magazine covers and album covers and TV show openings! Maybe I remember more than I thought I did….or maybe I’ve just seen some of these things on TV so much I think I remember them. However, I did see some things that absolutely came from my memory banks.

Such as:

–a commercial with a rabbit who tries to eat Trix! Ah, Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids!

–Bewitched’s opening!

–Lawrence Welk and his orchestra, with bubbles, doing the Pennsylvania Polka.

–Nixon on Laugh In, saying “Sock it to ME?”

–Barbie and Ken original dolls! I remember them because my older friend Holly had them, and I thought they were so cool!

boomers, LBJ, adventures, Texas Empty Nesters — **Float like a butterfly…**

–Muhammad Ali…floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee!

–Did you know Hugh Hefner started in the 60s with those stupid pajamas???

There were more serious moments in the library. The assassination of JFK, MLK, and RFK. The 1968 Democratic Convention debacle in Chicago. The Chicago 7 trial. Civil rights. I listened to the phone call between J Edgar Hoover and LBJ, when Hoover called to advise the President they had found the car of the missing civil rights workers, burned. It gave me chills.

We tend to think of LBJ as synonymous with the war in Vietnam, but throughout the Library are the reminders of Johnson’s Great Society, and the state of our union when he became President. It seems unbelievable now, but 25% of adult Americans did NOT have a high school diploma; 20% of Americans lived in poverty; and 33% of the elderly population lived in poverty. LBJ came into office with plans for his Great Society. The two main aims were the elimination of poverty (War on Poverty) and racial equality. Johnson passed four Civil Rights bills, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbade job discrimination and segregation of public accommodations. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 assured minority registration and voting. It suspended use of literacy or other voter-qualification tests that had sometimes served to keep African-Americans off voting lists and provided for federal court lawsuits to stop discriminatory poll taxes. The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 abolished the national-origin quotas in immigration law. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 banned housing discrimination and extended constitutional protections to Native Americans on reservations. Johnson passed Medicare, Medicaid and Welfare. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 gave poor children funds for materials for education, and Head Start. Clean Air, labeling cigarettes as dangerous….Johnson’s legislative victories were beyond anything we could see today from our do-nothing Congress. For more information on the Great Society, continue reading on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_society.

It is said that Johnson could twist the arm of any lawmaker. He wasn’t subtle. They called it “the Johnson treatment”. Did you know LBJ was 6’4″? He towered over people, and was extremely intimidating. He was a wheelin’ and dealin’ Texan, and didn’t take no for an answer.

What brought Johnson’s presidency to an ignoble end was the escalation and disaster of the war in Vietnam. The escalation of the war intensified the war protests, and Johnson announced that he would not seek, nor accept, the nomination of the Democratic Party for President in the election of 1968. Bobby Kennedy was running against him, and if he had not been killed in June 1968, Kennedy would have been the nominee, and most likely, President. Nixon, of course, won the 1968 election.

Seeing the library, hearing conversations that LBJ had with Jackie Kennedy, MLK, and J Edgar Hoover was a remarkable experience. I would love to go back, and spend the entire day, looking carefully at everything, and listening to every conversation available to visitors. Floors 5-9 are archives, filled with the documents of the times. Fascinating. I highly recommend a visit. The 60s were iconic times, turbulent times, tragic times, violent times, and a time of love and peace. I wish I could remember more of it, but seeing it in the library was astonishing. I’m very happy I made the trip.

Photo Friday: The Hill Country of Texas

June 6, 2014 By Tam Warner 10 Comments

For non-Texans, the diversity of Texas scenery may come as a surprise. From prairie to mountains to coast to piney woods to desert, Texas landscape changes are frequent. Right now Randy and I are in the heart of Texas, the Hill Country. The Hill Country encompasses Austin and San Antonio, Kerrville and Fredericksburg, San Marcos and New Braunfels. We have been driving the region this last week, enjoying the deer herds, the hills, the buttes, the college campuses, and the quaint village of Gruene.

Lady Bird's wildflowers — Lady Bird’s wildflowers

The movie "Michael" was filmed here — The movie “Michael” was filmed here

sch 14 billy gene's kerrville — Billy Gene’s in Kerrville has great food and a great view.

My mother-in-law greets us in Fredericksburg! Miss Betty is missed.

Visit the Hill Country, y’all!

Road Trip to Bossier City, LA???

May 20, 2014 By Tam Warner 10 Comments

The Horseshoe Resort and Casino in Bossier City, LA

Yep. I took a road trip from Dallas to Bossier City, LA. In case you don’t know, Bossier City is just across the Red River from Shreveport, LA. And it has gambling casinos….lots of them! I am true to Caesar’s Group, so I stayed at The Horseshoe, a very nice resort located on the river. Actually, all of the casinos are on the river. Why? Because gambling (with a couple of exceptions like New Orleans) is only allowed on riverboats. The Horseshoe Casino is built as a “riverboat”, and they even start the engines once in a while as law requires. It is, however, attached solidly to the rest of the resort. It looks pretty funny, doesn’t it?

Riverboat is on the bottom left, and downtown Shreveport across the Red River

Heading east from Dallas is depressing given my Ohio born and bred sensibilities. Dallas could not be any flatter, or less appealing as you drive the labyrinth of expressways to get out of the city. Ugh. Concrete and more concrete. It is mid-May and the wildflowers are mostly gone, though a few remain as one drives farther east. The land around Dallas is dry, flat, with short trees…and although I left Ohio 30 years ago, I still miss the green, rolling hills and fields of cattle and crops…corn, wheat, tomatoes, strawberries, pumpkins…trees hundreds of years old; tall, reaching for the sky. My favorites were always the Blue Spruce pines. They are so beautiful, and huge, and yes, they really are blue-ish.

It gets better as one drives into East Texas. East Texas is filled with pine trees, none as tall and glorious as the Blue Spruce, but some pines are better than none. There are lakes, and taller trees, and even some inclines in East Texas! The green of East Texas is soothing and pretty heading toward Louisiana.

I spent two nights at the Horseshoe, and happily played video poker for hours and hours, leaving a winner! I was introduced to video poker when I was 23 years old, by my compulsive gambler mother (though she was not compulsive at the time because my dad was still alive and able to drag her away from her beloved slots). Of course, if he hadn’t been there she wouldn’t have left, so perhaps that compulsive gambler was always in there. Digression. I love poker, and hate the slowness of the poker tables, so video poker and I are happy companions. I have studied the statistics of the games, and adhere to my poker strategy. I was certainly lucky this time!

Like Kenny Rogers says, “you got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em”…and “I found an ace that I could keep”. Here are MY aces!

IMPORTANT! Facebook has decided to charge pages like Travels with Tam a fee to share posts, even with people who have Liked our page. I have over 3,600 fans, but only 47 saw my Mother’s Day Post! This sucks, right? If you are on Google +, so am I, and if you’d like to get my posts you should subscribe via email, on the upper right of the page. I will be so so happy if you do!!!!

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