In Tucson

We are in Tucson, Arizona. We stopped here to visit Jim's high school friend Doug and his partner Gary. Jim performed the wedding ceremony for them when they were married in California before Proposition 8 outlawed such marriages.

In Alamogordo, New Mexico

Today we made it to Alamogordo, New Mexico, via Roswell, New Mexico. We went to Roswell to see the UFO Museum and had a great time. We also went to the well Museum and Art Center which was far better than we thought it would be. We drove through a lot of sparsely populated land, and beautiful scenery. From Dalhart, Texas, we went to Clovis, New Mexico, then to Roswell, up to Ruidoso and down to Alamogordo. A very pleasant day. We even bought a bottle of New Mexico wine to try later.

In Dalhart, Texas

After three days in Topeka we are on the road again. Saturday we picked up Laura's sister Susan in Wichita and started driving to San Diego, California for Jim's granddaughter's high school graduation. After the graduation we will go visit our kids in Las Vegas, Salt lake City, and Denver. Then we return to Topeka for a while. Jim is already missing SE Asia. Since we've been home Jim has had trouble adjusting to the American diet. He has had more stomach and bowel problems since we've been home than he had on the whole trip. Dalhart, Texas, is a small town in the Texas panhandle. When you step outside the car or the hotel room you smell the feed lots. Not as bad as the one time we drove through Hereford, Texas, but similar. One nice touch is that at the Days Inn where we spent the night the waffle maker made waffles in the shape of Texas.

At Home

After a twenty-four hour trip from Bangkok, we are home!

In Bangkok

We are back in Bangkok. Tuesday we fly home. Nice to be back here to relax and get ready to go home, even if we don't want to go home.

In Saigon

We took an eight hour bus ride from Da Lat to here. This is a city that Jim doesn't like. Although, that might be because the first time he was here he had Dengue Fever. Anyway, it was another long, uneventful bus ride. The pretty scenery was around Da lat, then we got out of the mountains and the ground became flat. Saigon is the economic engine that drives Vietnam and is one bustling city.

In Da Lat 2

May is the warmest month in Da Lot and it rains most afternoons, but today it has rained all day, making the weather cool. Da lot is the coolest town on our trip. Because of the rain everyone is riding around on their motorbikes and scooters wearing plastic rain coats. We are watching the women drive their scooters with spike heels or sit sidesaddle behind the driver. All over Asia there can be four or more people on one motorbike. The motorbikes are adapted for everything from carrying fish for your fish tank, to transporting a compressor.

Today in the rain we saw an advertisement for a scooter being photographed. It was raining and yet the camera crew wanted more rain for a good shot. For the advertisement a young woman is standing beside her broken down scooter in a skirt, blouse and of course spike heels, and a guy is supposed to rescue her with an umbrella. The cameraman had another man with a garden hose shooting an arc of water on to the woman. She instantly looked like a drowned rat in need of rescuing.

Jim got a haircut today in preparation for going home. The best thing about the haircut was as Jim got his haircut he looked directly at the bottom half of a 6Omm mortar shell that the man used to store items in on his counter.

We leave tomorrow on an eight hour bus trip to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. The name was changed but the use of the name Saigon goes on. I am even looking at Saigon Kleenex in our hotel room.