THE END

FAT BOY SEATS 2

Well, here I am jetting across the Atlantic and towards home to end the 2008=60 Tour.  It has been a great year. The whole idea came to me because the government said at age 60 as an airline pilot, I would be too old to do anything. So, I decided I had better get with it and finish some things. (They changed that rule at the last minute, Dec. 2007, but I chose to ignore it.)

We got the James Dean Byrd Foundation school built and open. I worked with bikes for the poor and a couple of new projects, as I wanted one on one contact with those in need.They were all great experiences.

The travel was fantastic.  Meeting friends in Grenada for the big mid-year party for all of us who had something to celebrate and those who did not. Just another reminder of how precious true friends are.

The extended stay in France and the language school where great learning experiences. I learned that France is way to cold for me to live in year round and that the government may be right, I may be to old to learn french, but I can still have fun.

The art classes were an eye opening experience.  Even though there is art I do not like, I now at least appreciate that it took talent and time to create.

By far the best trip was the Motorscooter diaries.  What a wonderful way to see American and meet the many different people in it.  I am already planning the 2009 trip. 

Watching the most amazing election ever to take place in the U.S.A. That, in so many ways, united the people of America and the world again, but sadly at the same time has created a deeper and more vicious divide in the people in the States..  Hopefully, it will be all for the good in the future.  Only time will tell in what is going to be I thnk a very bad economic time.

So, thank you for letting me share this experience.  It has been very kind of  you to come along for the ride.

Ken

DECEMBER 17

As we headed northeast from Royan to Saumur in the Loire Valley and away from the water, the landscape assumed a very winter look.  Not to far into this journey, we began to see frost  on the pumpkin, a sheen of ice on the ponds, salt on the road and the little bell in the car (the one that took us so long to figure out last year in Croatia), begining to chime a warning for verglas (road ice).  Nothing brings a scare to a Floridian at the wheel of a car than veriglas and salt on the road.  Fortunately the verglas did not materalize (this time).

 

 

 

Our orginal plan had to been to spend at least a week in Saumur, but the apartment we wanted was occupied and the allure of the ocean kept us from seeking an alternative.  It would have been a great choice.  What a nice town!  Everyone from the girls at the tourist office, to Rene Dalac and his Chinese wife, owners of the Hotel Voluney (http://www.levolnoney.com/) to the lady at Combier Liquers, rated as some of the nices people we have met.  And the town was the perfect size and beautiful on the Loire river. They even rolled out the red carpet for Vicki and turned on the Christmas lights.

 

 

 

Rene was an old Asia hand, so we had mutual stories of interest to tell.  He could not do enough for us in our short stay in his hotel. One of his great recommendations was to visit the Combier Liquer factory.  It was a short walk down the street so we popped in for a few quick shots.  They make fruit liqours, a grand marinier and a triple sec that are excellent.  The processing center was closed to tours but the lady in the store gave us the whole tour anyway.  A rather young plant for france, dating from the mid 1800's.  The copper refining pots that Michael was shinning for the Christmas open house where from 1901.  All their fruits are fresh from the Loire valley area. Despite being very busy, the young lady, part of the owning family, seemed to have all the time in the world just for us. Their main market is export to the USA.....or was.

 

 

 

 

The next day, despite a great urge to stay, we pressed on.  The day went from beautiful sunshine to fog, depending on our location to the river.  There are thousands of châteauxs in France and this is an area with some of the grandest. (these are just quick shots as we drove by)

 

 

 

We decided we should visit at least one and one of the grandest is Chambord. Started in the 1600's and sold to the french government in 1930, it has been the home to kings, including the exciled king of hungary in the 1700's and abandoned for long periods of times.  Since "the word Chambord is used in advertising, sepacially in America, to indicate luxury" , according to the brochure and is one of the largest, we chose it to visit.  The views where great, especially of the gardens, so I decided to share them with you.

 

 

 

 

We actually encounted other tourist here.  A bus of Japanese students and 4 Americans, Jacob, his wife Precious and her parents Illen and Earl.  Jacob and Precious do not really qualify as tourist since they have lived in France for 8 years.  He is a professional basketball player here (yep, pro-basketball and it is pretty popular). Lucky for us, our Picaso has lights that flash with the unlock button or we may have never found it in the growded parking lot.

 

 

 

It was dark by the time we got to our hotel in Blois.  A quick cold walk around another nice town and dinner at Chez Vicki and that was a day.  So, far in 2 days, we had covered less than half of a 9 hour trip to our destination. Tomorrow we should get an early start and be on the road by 9AM.

 

 

Ok, this is a very rare picture.  That is the Princess Vic standing in front of a sunriase! Not something she gets to see often.  Granted, the picture was taken at 8:15AM.

 

 

 

Today would be a road day with some great winter scenery and a stop in Montargis for a quick lunch and walk around the Marchi de Noel.  There we found one of our favorite vendors this time of year...the vin chaud (hot wine) man.

 

 

We arrived in Hautvillers late afternoon.  A nice, but cold place, on a hill looking out over the valley toward Eperney and all the grapes of the champagne houses.  The sun went down..........and then the freezing rain began.

 

ps: want to know what that Steak the Cheval looks like?  Tastes like chicken for some reason, best served with a cold beer. (just for you Bob)

      

Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.

--Regina Nadelson

DECEMBER 10

We made a hasty exit from Biarritz in the gale headed north on the Autoroute.  As I have said this is not our normal route, but I figured driving the slow road in hurricane like conditions would not add much to the trip.  The weather report had said there was sun north of Bordeaux and that was direction of the next stop anyway.  Two hours into the trip we turned off the wipers and three and half hours the sun broke through.

 

We had a quick lunch at Chez Vicki in Blaye on the banks of the Gironde river.

 

 

At about 3pm we pulled into our destination Hotel le Trident Thrsye (www.letridentthyrse.fr)  in Royan on the coast north of Bordeaux.  We where glad to find that it was still open for the season, but there was no one in attendance and the sign had a telephone number and said they would be back at 6pm.  Having washed my cellphone with the last load of laundry we where with out mobile communications so we headed for the tourist office.  The lady kindly called for us and I talked to Francois. He told me what the door code was and the we would be in the "Radoub Theleme" room and just get the key from behind the desk and he would see that night or the next day. That is why we liked staying here before.

 

The plan had been to spend a week in the Liore valley, but François had a nice waterfront apartment available at a good price, so we decided to just stay here. The view of the ocean and off season feel of the town kept us here.

 

 

The town of Royan is probably the only town in Europe without an old church.  The place was "bombed flat" in WW II, almost everything was re-built in the 1950's so the architecture is much different than the other towns.  The Hotel Trident, built in the early '50's is a very funky art deco interior and the church is a modern design. Before the bombing François's grandparents, MM. Louston, had a grand villa on the location much like some of those still on the street and the one next door. Most of villa's have been "condoized" now.

 

 

They do, however, have a church just for us aviators.

 

 

 

Just a few kilometers north of Royan is the oyster growing district.  There are thousand and thousands of salt water ponds where they farm them.  They are first grown on steel structures in the water and then harvested and put in baskets to mature.  We thought we would find lots of oyster eating places but there really where none.  In the small village of Mornac we found a restaurant, Le Petit Phare (www.leptitphare.com)  open, the only one open we had seen all day.  It was a little more upscale then our normal lunch locations but we decided to splurge.  The only oysters on the menu where raw.  They are served in their juices, i.e. salty water, and not a saltine or bottle Tabasco to be seen, a little dish of dried pressed tuna and butter. 

 

 

You have to love a people who set a formal table at low tide and dispense wine out of a gas meter by the liter.

 

I think there is a French law that says there has to be a "round about" (traffic circle to you) every 300 meters, as there are a lot of them.  But they work.  Many towns decorate them with themes representing the town.

 

 

And if you are tired of that old horse that you never ride....crank up the barbeque baby!

(cheval=horse)

 

 

DECEMBER 3

Well, time to abandon the Mediterranean coast for the Atlantic.  Before we left we said goodbye to our friend Jacque.  Jacque had come to us before Halloween in St. Raphael and we had intended to make him into a pie.  He protested strongly and said he wanted to travel some more before passing on.  So, we dragged him around, but now he has a little mold, it is time to for him to leave. All most immediately he continued on his travels as a big white truck stopped and picked him up

 

 

 

 

We had made a side trip to Barcelona for the day to visit friends Paul and Maria.  Paul is in the yacht business and Maria, well, we don't know what she does but whatever it is she really likes it and gets lots of time off.  They live in Barcelonita an old tenement neighborhood near the water.  It is an area of four story identical apartment buildings covering about a 5 block area.  It has come from a slum to a trendy place to live, but not for yuppies as the apartments are very tiny and the stairwells are even tinier.  They have to use a block and tackle off the balcony to bring up their luggage and large items.  We went to lunch in a great little locals place in Barcelonita, La Graza , that we had eaten with them before.  It is great!.  So small and crowded I could not even get a good picture. While eating, three strolling minstrels playing a guitar, violin and accordion came in  and never missed a beat as they lifted their instruments as the waiter squeezed by.  Though it was a bit chilly in Barcelona, the skies where a deep blue and no wind.

 

 

The planned route to the Atlantic was through the lower part of the Pyrenees mountain range dividing France and Spain.  We wanted to meander through the upper mountains, but there was already snow on the ground and more to come so we planned to stay in the lower section and traveled through Foix, Lourdes to Biarritz on the Cote de Basque. We left the Mediterrian coast at Perpignon and headed west. The first part was as we had seen for most of the coast, vineyards with the addition of steep rocky mountains.  Not much going on in the fields now but pruning the vines.  All over the hills in the distance you see the little Renault trucks parked and usually just one man pruning.  Most are using electric pruners now that run off a battery pack.  Some use tractors with attachments, but not in the "real vineyards".

 

 

A lot of the mountains had chateau, forts, or castles depending on what you want to call them.  We drove up to a few not to see them but for the view we got.  These type of pictures only show well in full sunlight which we did not have. We spent the night in Foix at the Hotel Lons (http://www.hotel-lons-foix.com/) a nice place right on the river with much larger than usual rooms.  It was your typical small town, of course with a château, castle, fort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, there is always OS and wonderful scenery.

 

 

 

 

The second night we spent in Lourdes and in the morning the skies where clear and blue.  So, I decided on a little deviation in the route down south through the higher mountain, sort of making a U and coming back to our route a little further west.  After about 25 minutes of travel we came to signs telling of 2 passes, one OVERT (open) and one FERME (closed). About 25 minutes later we came to another sign repeating the information. This time we able to pull off and study the map and yes FERME was on our route.  So, we reversed course and headed back toward Lourdes.

 

 

We have a tendency to stay off major highways and take the route  less traveled and continued this thought out of Lourdes.  So, as we where cutting across country we came to a sign saying the bridge ahead was out.  We looked at the map and saw lots of ways they could detour us, so we pressed on.  Almost immediately we came to the DEVIATION sign and away we went.  This is the type of thing that brings the adventures.  We meandered one lane tracks out through the hilly rural country following the "deviation" signs and met some nice people along the way.

 

 

 

 

Back on the main road we where on our way to Biarritz on the Cote de Basque.  The weatherman had said it would be rainy and windy.  This time he was right.  The closer we got the harder it rained. In town we begin a search for the hotel we had chosen, but not written down the address.  Not that it would matter as we did not have a map of the city. We roamed centre ville some, which was not big, and then stopped at the Saphir Hotel.  They lady was very nice and it was an attractive place but no internet and we needed internet.  She sent me on to our chosen hotel the Hotel Argi Eder (http://www.hotel-argieder.fr/) just around the corner.  Our timing was good as the owner and family where just about to leave.  After a rest Vicki says, "looks like the rain has let up lets go for a walk".  I had learned to say nothing and dressed for the inclimate weather and in fact I was ready for a walk.  We headed down hill and there was nothing but rain and wind.  We went up the hill and there was nothing but rain and wind.  I said lets walk over to the ocean.  When we got close to the ocean I came to a dead stop.  The wind was blowing so hard, 130 km/h (80 mph), I could go no further.  I wanted to get Vicki to take a picture of me in the wind, but when I looked for her she was beating a retreat or being blown back to the hotel.

 

We checked the weather on the internet and it forecast the same for at least 4 more days.  We left Biarritz the next day at 9AM.

 

 

 

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.

--Susan Heller

ps: If I have given the impression that the weather has been bad most of the time that is incorrect.  We have had far more good days than bad.  The comments on weather is because that is what people talk about.  These have been the normal weather patterns for this time of year, just some of it, like the heavy rain in St. Raphael, the wind in Bages and the rain and wind in Biarritz, the 4th worst flooding of Venice have been to the extreme. 

When we moved from the higher up areas the grapes gave way to your normal farm animal