Well this week we are off to Italy again. This time we landing in Milan and staying for a few days, our first time seeing the city. This is a trip looking and signing the paperwork on a home’s in Italy ( for my sister in law )
Frigidaire
I bought a Frigidaire fridge about 3 years ago and in the 3 years that that I owned it it has broken down 3 times in 3 years. And it was not a problem because I got the extended warranty. As soon as the extended expired it broke again… DON”T buy Frigidaire.
Back to work…sorta
A long time ago I started driving trucks and mixers were my first, after that came computers. Well I tried going back to driving a Mixer for 3D Concrete in the last week and it was so much fun knowing I didn’t forget how and I could still do it. My body was sore for a day or 2 but I will live.
As for 3D Concrete, they are hurting for drivers but after a few days, they wanted me to finish an 8 hr shift at 2PM and wanted me to come back in at midnight that same day for another shift. This should not be legal and I know it’s not safe driving a 60 to 70-thousand-pound truck half asleep.
This is why they can’t get drivers.
His first time in Italy
And we are off again, this time it was a trip with Grandma and mom. It was my Grandson’s first time in Italy and like all 13-year-olds, the flight was too long. The battery on his devices ran out, and we were flying into Venice, something we had never done before. We had arranged transportation from the airport to “close to our B&Bs”. But due to the weather, the boat ride had been moved to the car and then the boat. We had been told that our first stop would be my sister in laws stop by the company that booked this, seems the driver of the boat didn’t get the message. He dropped us off on the other side of the island and we had to find our way from there, in the dark and rain.
The B&B that the wife booked she “thought” had a lift, but we found out it didn’t. 3 flights of stairs to get to the flat. After a long flight that was a disappointment. The flat had a patio where you could see the tower in St. Marks square so that was a plus. We had 4 days in Venice and by the time we left the grandson could navigate the allies on his own. I think he gets it from his grandma.
The next trip was by high-speed train to Florance, it is so much easier to go by train in Italy than flying anywhere. I think I was more impressed with the train than he was, even though I had made that trip before.
Florence is so much smaller than the other cities we were going to see so it didn’t take much for him to learn his way around.
Then there was Roma, a city I have been to many times before and I wanted to show him everything but with only a few days it was not possible. We saw the big sites and even got lost a few times in the rain, and had to walk from the train station to the Pantheon. That was fun, my phone was giving some odd directions so as a test I let him navigate from where we where to where we wanted to be. In a city with his phone he got us there and I was so proud.
Some of the places I have had so much fun in he got to see, the restaurant that we eat at where I had took his mom years before remembered us as always and we are famiely to them so they always treat us right. Now from the Phanton to our B&B was not that far, and at 13 years old and seeing how he did so well on other streets I asked if he could walk me though going from here to there. After the 2nd day with some corrections he got it correct and could do the walk without us, another proud moment if you know the streets of Rome you know what I mean.
All in all I think everyone had a good time on this trip and its one I will not forget, I hope his mom and him go back and visit without us and see and do what they want.
It’s been an odd summer
With the cost of travel going up and up we have had to look into more domestic vacations or should I call them “staycations”. My wife had planned a trip to Greece for her birthday but thanks to Expedia.com and British Airlines they screwed that up big time.
So late July we decided the grandson wanted to go visit his uncle in Arizona, with the cost of airline tickets we thought it would be a better idea to make it a Grandpa and Grandson road trip. Now to save fuel I chose to take my 2011 Mini Cooper at 45MPG this would be best for fuel mileage.
Things I had to think about,it had 80K miles plus miles would it make it, the cooling system had just been rebuilt and I just put new tires on it so I said let,s give it a try. From Reno, I knew it was going to be getting hotter the farther south we drove.
Plan was Reno, Tonopah,Las Vegas,Phonix then Tuson AZ. My daughter came home from work with the covid so it was a pack and go so we didn’t get it. If you have ever driven from Reno to Vegas you know there is not much to see.
Our first stop was the clown motel and they have the option of getting an EMT device to look for ghosts. After looking around the town we waited for the sun to go down to go to the cemetery they have next door to the motel. Donta was looking around with the device and saw that there was a ghost nearby and all the adults nearby watching yelled”because you are standing on his grave” that was funny.
Our next stop was Las Vegas somewhere Donta had never been, I let him know it was going to be boring until he turned 21. I like Freemont St for the light show and the Casino so we stayed down there. It was not planned for us to leave so early so we had a few days in Vegas. He was not that impressed with the light show on Freemont ( teenagers ). He did get to ride on the “Deuce” the double-decker bus while surfing on his phone so he liked that.
The next day we took the “Dam tour” and just like my kids he liked making the “Dam jokes”
Now we had been in Vegas for 2 days and I still didn’t need gas in the car that I filled up in Reno, but on the way back from the Hover Dam we fueled up. It’s been anywhere from 106 to 110 degrees since we got into Vegas. We tried the pool at the hotel but the white tile around the pool was so hot we couldn’t get to it.
After talking with the wife ( Grandma ) she said it would be ok to do the night Helicopter tour of the strip before we left. I don’t know why I have never done this before but it was so cool. Youtube video can be found at https://youtu.be/pfK0B_KcE4w
Next stop Williams AZ, oh and have I told you the roads in AZ suck, potholes the size of my car. Now I have never driven this route before and leaving Las Vegas for Arizona was just what I expected, desert and a lot of nothing. As we passed Kingman AZ we started to climb and once we got up In the hills everything started turning green. The temperature started to drop, and I was wondering why anyone would anywhere else in Arizona. The town was so small and cute and route 66 is right in the middle.
After this it was into more heat and Phonix to drop him off at my son’s house for a week.
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