1997 Lindy Denissen moved from Orlando to San Diego. This is her great story about her move.
Greetings from San Diego!!
Today is Wednesday June 25 (1997) and it's my third day of work. I arrived last Friday night around 7:30 after my long 3 days drive!! I've already spoken to a few of you and told you a bit about this or that, but I figured the easiest way to return everyone's emails and phone calls (thanks by the way for all your concern and wishes) would be to write a mass-email to all my buddies. Hope you don't mind or think I'm being impersonal but for all of you out there who REALLY know me, you know that I'd never get around to writing 25 or 30 emails that all say basically the same thing!
Okay here goes!
Let's see.... Well, for all of you that know my family, you can imagine the HELL I was going through just to get out of Orlando. I was supposed to get some "help" loading the car from a member of the family (won't mention any names) but that person never showed up, so it was Lindy to my own rescue (I'm sure I have some sort of hernia from the experience!) and I ended up loading the entire car myself !! Not to mention I had another family member on the phone arguing, saying they just have too much to do (Gee try moving across country) like I needed that, then I've got my dad saying that 40 minutes was kinda out of the way for him to come over and say goodbye! Not gonna see your DAUGHTER for 6 months and 40 minutes is just too much (he later realized his mistake and apologized)? Then there's my mom, and you all know the wonderful relationship I have with her! Yes, she helped me a great deal, but not the way I wanted things done, but the way she thought things should be done, and that is questionable, if it really helped at all. So into the car goes the TV, VCR, table, desk, sewing machine, computer, luggage. Not fun. So I'm in a bad mood, stressed, running out of time, have no help whatsoever (except my friend Raymond who came over despite the fact that I bitched and moaned on the phone before he came - true friend!). Raymond helped me rope my porch chairs onto the top of the car. Then we dissembled my leather computer chair and fit the pieces into the back of the car, along with my fold-up beach chairs. It seems the family member, that was supposed to help me, got amnesia for about 6 hours, then showed up at 1:00 in the morning. Gee, thanks, but everything's already done. And then I was so mad at him I couldn't fall asleep until 2am!! So I got around 4 hours that night, before getting up at the crack of dawn to tranquilize the cats (I heard it was going to take around an hour to have any effect). Then load the last minute things (and I pretty much screwed that up!). Duh, I forgot my blowdryer, hairbrush (yes, I actually use a hairbrush once in a while although it doesn't look it), toothbrush, toothpaste, walkman to use in my stereo-challenged car, TV/VCR remote control. Obviously I'm not a morning person. So threw the cats in the back w/the litter box and we're ready to go. Quick stop at the g-parents, since they're the only people up at that hour, then off to grab some freon at an A/C place.
Hit the interstate doing only about 60, because of the drag from the porch chairs. After 4 hours of that, I cut them loose and gave them to a convenience store clerk near Tallahassee. She was quite happy about my stupid mistake. Well, now I'm flying 85mph making good time down the road. Around this time (you notice it's four hours later) the cats finally succumbed to the tranqs. They peer up at me from the passenger seat crying, wondering why they're feeling so weird. They're not able to run around the car much and are having difficulty jumping from the back seat to the front and vice versa. Around 8 hours into my first day of driving they fall asleep in their litter box. Thankfully they're out for about 5 hours, which brings us to Lafayette, Louisiana.
I go through a drive thru for dinner and decide to leave the leather chair's stand/wheels in the parking lot because they'd been hitting Sidney in the head all day long. I can just buy one of those in San Diego when I get there, right? Okay, so then three trips into the hotel room just for the cats and the litter box. The I go back out to the car and try to rearrange all the stuff, to give the cats a bit more room. After more thought, I realized that I wouldn't be able to walk into a furniture store in San Diego and just buy the stand/wheels of a chair. So out comes the leather chair and gets left on the hotel sidewalk.
The next morning I decided not to tranq the cats to see how they do. As I'm getting them into the car I see that my folded beach chairs are going to continue to slide around on top of the TV and may fall down without the leather chair to sorta hold them in place. The folded beach chairs were casualties #4 & #5 as I gave them to a fellow traveller in the hotel parking lot. So I'm on the road for day 2 and the cats were much happier to not be feeling so out of sorts, but I'm taking a chance that they'll be so alert and able to hop around the car. Within the first hour I was thinking I had made a mistake in not tranq'ing them. Because Dexter the freakazoid cat jumped between my legs and under my brake and clutch pedals before I even knew what he was doing. At this point, I'm thinking death is imminent. I have an 18 wheeler on my tail and I've got my foot off the accelerator trying to pull over two lanes to the breakdown lane. I coast almost to a stop while grabbing handfuls of fur and limb and tail. He got out from under the pedals only to scoot under my seat, where he surely would have gotten stuck or poked with wire sticking out down there. Now that I can stop the car completely I grab him (not an easy thing if you know how big and strong my cats are) and throw him into the passenger seat. I take 10 minutes to coo to him and calm him down, finally place him in the back where it's safer for him to be and he hops into the litter box for the rest of the day. I get back onto the highway, going 80 and 10 minutes later Sidney does the very same thing. I Repeat the process, piss off the same trucker swerving into his lane, finally get Sid in the back too and I'm off again. The rest of that day was pretty unevenful, thankfully and now I was into my third day after sleeping in El Paso the night before. Well, I'm cruising along, about 200 miles from my destination, after driving about 2700. I'm in the final few hours of my trip and I stumble into the DESERT on interstate 8.
Tip - DON'T EVER DRIVING INTO THE F____NG DESERT!!!
Picture Egyptian DESERT sand dunes for as far as the eye can see
in every direction. Well, that's where I was. Never had been this DESERT
route before and was not prepared for this burning HELL!! Well, I begin to
realize that it's going to be hot and desolate, so I stop
at a rinky dink DESERT store for a jug of cold water and
gas. My car starts to overheat as soon as I stop and I ask some local DESERT
people what the radiator trick is when you're in the DESERT. Know what they
told me??? "Turn your heat on high in the car and open the windows to draw
heat away from the engine." Okay, no problem. So here I
am in the f____g DESERT with my engine temp reading halfway, 120 degrees
outside, car's heat is on high, the windows are open.
Very funny huh?
Well, I probably would have seen the DESERT humor in it if it hadn't been
for the white sweat coming from my cats noses drying around their nostrils
while they're panting and crying. I start freaking out thinking that they're
going to die of heat exhaustion/stroke in the DESERT so
I stop at this second rinky dink DESERT place 50 miles from the first. I
get out of the car and almost step on a DESERT gecko a foot long. I bought
a huge bag of DESERT ice and another cold gallon of DESERT water. I placed
the DESERT ice in the back where the DESERT cats could lie on it and then
douse them in cold DESERT water. The fact that they didn't protest
or react when I did that scared the hell out of me, they
were so DESERT lifeless. So I am now crying, tears streaming
down my face (and turning into steam) and feeling like I'm going to pass
out and driving100mph to get out of the DESERT as fast as possible and get
the cats into UNDESERT airconditioning somewhere. I'm actually hoping to
get stopped by some DESERT cop thinking that he can help me or get my cats
to a DESERT vet or, ha ha, escort my ass out of the DESERT altogether at
100mph. No DESERT cops around when you need them!
Well, then I see the DESERT mountains looming in the distance (thinking it was a DESERT mirageee) and thank God, because I was told that San Diego is just over the mountains. We finally near the first mountain and start climbing. The DESERT car is still hot but now I am also losing lots of power going uphill, around 40 mph and in 3rd gear. I'm ready to sell my soul to the DESERT devil just to reach the peak and start going down. Cats are still freaked but have stopped panting so I'm a little tiny bit comforted by that. Finally reach the top and start going down, which cools my engine, but now I see that there are LOTS more mountains in front of me. In fact the sign for San Diego reads 70 miles!! Well, I continue to climb mountains and now the air is much cooler so I the threat of the F____G DESERT has passed and the cats seem to be better, but now I am really worried about my clutch, I was actually in second gear a couple times going up the mountains, 25 or 30 mph while other cars speed past. I can just envision myself breaking down 30 miles from my final destination after all the miles I'd come. Well, somehow my little POS car (I don't think I'll ever call it that again, I have newfound respect for it) reached down into it's little engine and found some guts. I put it through hell and back and it's still going, like the pink bunny. The mountains start to turn green and I see buildings in the distance, and an ocean haze. Relief is pouring through me and I finally make it to the end of interstate 8. A mile later I'm at my apartment complex.
HOME !!!
Well, I find out only at this point, that I will be living in a gated
community - great!... unless you're on the outside of the gate with no knowledge
of how to get to the other side. Hmmm, well, someone finally came along and
mercifully let me in with her keycode (she was probably frightened by my
DESERT-surviving looks). Found my place but there is yet another locked door
to my building. So I'm sure that if I can't get in my cousin (who was supposed
to drive over and leave my new keys under a door mat by
my door) couldn't have either. Luckily some guys were hanging out a window
on my floor, fourth, and I asked them where my unit, 467 was in relation
to them. They were Brazilian and didn't speak great english and didn't understand
a lot of what I said. No matter, one of them came down to get me anyway.
Then brought me upstairs, gave me cool water, let me sit down, gave me the
phone and phonebook for me to call my cousin to find out
where my keys would be. (Pierre and Leondro are now my
buddies and I'm helping them with
english
and learning portugueses in the bargain.) So my cousin came over with my
keys and helped me unload the car. All is well with the apartments, great
balcony, great view, cool weather, nice neighbors, workout room, billiard
room, great pool, lakes and fountains all around, covered parking!!!
My first weekend was a blast. My cousin took me out to Ocean Beach to party at a few cool bars. Then rollerblading in Pacific Beach to see the X games (Extreme games put on by ESPN are being played a mile from my place). The beach and bay are beautiful bathed in sunset colors, a chilly breeze is blowing, gotta Mountain Dew in hand. LIFE IS GOOD. I've already got plans for this coming weekend and 4th of July weekend, parties to go to. And work is great. Young, enthusiastic people all working on this cool project. I'm testing and debugging a new AutoCAD-like software (but better) for release hopefully in before December. Which means I'll probably be home in time for the holidays.
But the one glitch, I may not want to leave by then!!
Well, friends, I hope I haven't bored you, I hope I've enlightened you, shown you that I'm safe and happy. Thanks for all your help and support and I hope we all don't lose touch. To ensure that that doesn't happen, here are my two email addresses.
Work is LindyD@visio.com
Home is denissen@bellsouth.net
HUG HUG KISS KISS
Lindy Denissen
Another great story by Lindy Denissen - sorry, no pics (yet) ......
Hey all (this is a novel! Be prepared!!)
You've all asked how my ski trip was, and of course, it was an adventure! Another crazy episode in my life to say the least!
My cousin, his friend and myself left San Diego around noon on Thursday, drove up to Escondido to transfer all goods to another friend's, Jim's, Explorer, then up to LA to pick up cousin #2 and all his gear. Driving up Interstate 15, they were all on the lookout for the State Road 395 exit, knowing exactly where they were going, since they'd all been to Mammoth, CA a zillion times skiing before. Introductions went all around (Jim and Steve didn't know my other cousin, Scott) and we're all setting in for a long drive. They cracked a few fart jokes and were all instant friends. Then out come the toys (hand-held fishing video games) they wanted to share with each other (or more likely wanted to show off how much better than can do than the next guy). We were all preoccupied with how big a Great White shark Scott can "catch" off the coast of Australia, not a care in the world. I noticed we passed some buildings saying "Victor Villa Café", and "Victor something gas station", as I gazed longingly out the window, wishing I were somewhere else rather than in the backseat between two big guys playing obnoxious clicking video games, arms flailing wildly, rocking back and forth as if they were actually reeling in "the big one". Jim's only half concentrating on the road, trying to enjoy the fishing fun as much as the rest of us (sigh).
Next thing you know, like a lion smelling a gazelle upwind, four heads turn towards the left lane as a carful of girls edge by us. Fishing games are forgotten, beeping and clicking, waiting for their next moves. Jim rolls down the two windows on his side, so we can all see how pretty the 3 girls are. Then starts the "toodling", waggling fingers under their chins in the girls' direction. They speed up, then fall back, they want us to follow them, luring us on. They change lanes to pull directly in front of us, then one girl yanks down her pants and moons us all, shoving her ass up against the glass. Picture four manly men falling into fits of laughter and surprise, cackling like old hens and pointing. I sit and roll my eyes, stifling a giggle. "Go, Jim, go faster, get alongside them" Billy screams. So Jim pushes the Explorer up around 80, now we're adjacent to them. Another girl, not the "moonie", pulls off her top, and is sitting braless, topless in the passenger seat. Now the screaming begins in earnest and Jim pulls abreast (no pun) of their car. Their windows are only slightly tinted, but they can make out the girls chest jiggling, as she sits there giggling. They pull ahead again, teasing. So we follow, of course (had the car been out of GAS, they would have Fred Flintstoned it up to 80mph to see the naked girl). All the while they're yelling, "God, I can't believe she didn't shove her boob up against the glass like the first one did", "Well, I didn't see a nipple, so maybe she's got weird tits". We pull alongside again and this time "moonie" has her blond head in the lap of "no-nip" (well, between her legs would be more accurate) and I finally say "You guys! They're lesbians and they're just getting off on your responses!!!" After that, they piped down a bit and didn't follow so closely behind them. They start the obligatory nit-picking "well she had no nipples anyway, what the hell?", "Well that blond chic had fuzzy hair like bozo the clown!" and so it went, until they ran out of complaints and fell silent.
Finally the conversation turned to how far we were from the 395 turn-off, saying it should be somewhere around Victorville. I said, "Well, we passed Victorville a while back, I think, before the "lesbian adventure"". They all said no way, couldn't have been so far back, and it should be coming up soon, as the "Las Vegas 120 miles" sign loomed large (we'll be in Vegas quicker than we'd be back in Victorville). I sit back resignedly, because I don't know the way and I must be wrong, right? They're MEN, they can figure out how to get anywhere!! We come upon the town of Baker and only then decide to consult a map. Gee, lookie here, Victorville is all the way back here, almost two hours west of where we are now!! Checking our options (all two of them), we decide not to backtrack to Victorville, but turn north here in Baker on State Road 127, which turns into 373, runs into Nevada for a while before turning west again on 266, through the mountains, finally reaching State Road 395 very close to our final destination, Mammoth. Okay, we're all agreed, it will be a couple hours out of the way, but we'll do it - after we stop off for 45 minutes to eat at Inn and Out (yuk, I bring in my tuna sandwich and get a coke).
Settled back into the Explorer, heading north on 127, we're all quiet and sleepy with full stomachs. The sun is setting and it's almost completely dark on the desolate two-lane highway. We eventually see a sign that we're entering Nevada, and billboards advertising a casino up the road. Out of nowhere, we see tons of blazing lights (well, "tons" is relative, there wasn't another light source for miles). A neon-laden building is sitting in a huge field, called Longstreet Casino. What the hell? Parking lot is empty, we'll be their rush for the night. We stop in, all throw down $20 on the blackjack table, order a drink, play for 15 minutes, lose all our chips, and leave. Boy that was fun. Back on the road, we begin to see red lights ahead, thinking it's a cop. The lights look to be a Christmas-like string, but all red. Scott yells, "Omigod, it's got to be a brothel, they're legal in Nevada! I saw brothels in Europe - you could walk in and ask for a menu of the girls!!" So now they're all pumped up about seeing a brothel. We get closer to the red string of lights and see a sign reading "Angel Lane Brothel". So it really was a brothel!! They want to turn in but Jim keeps driving (thank God). They're disappointed and fall quiet.
Twenty minutes later, Scott yells and points to another string of red lights up on the right. Jim flies past "Shady Lady Ranch", despite the protests. As we're approaching the junction for 266, we see a third set of lights, knowing that this is yet another brothel (they have no gas stations, no fast food joints for a hundred miles, but they got brothels all right).
By this time they're bursting at the seams to stop and check out this phenomenon. We pull into the empty gravel parking lot of the "Cottontail Ranch", and Scott's practically jumping out before the car stops, saying "I'm going in to ask to see a menu!!". I say that it might be better to ask for, say, directions, as they might not be Europe-sophisticated here in podunk Nevada, and have no idea what you mean when you ask for a menu. He disappears through the mobile home's door, held open by a middle-aged, short, pudgy, lady dressed in leggings and a button-down shirt. Less than 3 minutes later he emerges running at full speed, frantically pulls at the car door handle, saying "She's ancient, man, let me in!!" We speed off down 266 laughing our asses off while Scott describes the "red" brothel. Red walls, red carpet, red furniture, red bar, red lights. He sees no other lady except the one that let him in. He's eyeing the place, mentally taking notes so he can describe it to us, while he appears to be listening to the lady's directions for getting to Mammoth. So no we're on yet another desolate road, we see a sign saying Bishop and State Road 395 is 85 miles away, the brothel fun is over, and we settle down for a long ride through the looming mountains.
All of a sudden, seeming to materialize from thin air, a hitchhiker with a backpack appears at the right side of the road with his thumb out, illuminated by our headlights. Jim swerves, not so much to avoid hitting him, but because the hitchhiker scared the shit out of him, hell, out of all of us. Your mind plays tricks on you in the dark middle of absolutely nowhere, and when one of your imagined spooks appears, you freak. We're all yelling (they, manishly trying to cover their fright) and cursing some man standing on a deserted highway, scaring the shit out of the tourists. As soon as we recover from that, we pass our a "town" (the only one we'll see for 85 miles). The sprawling city consisted of a one-story stucco strip motel, a tiny building labeled "Ice Cream" with two frozen people standing on the curb and an old man in a fedora standing stiff on the steps of the Opera House. We sped through at 50mph, noting the lack of movement in the town's three residents, appearing to be frozen in time. There are two explanations for this: 1) they were stupefied stiff at seeing a car speeding by or 2) we truly had passed through "The Twilight Zone". We all stick with #2. After the "Hitcher" and the "Twilight Zone" episodes, we were really spooked. To top it off, we were entering some really high mountain roads, and began to see snow piling up on either side of the road. We climbed higher and higher, the temperature readout dropping from about 48 degrees to about 29. Gradually, the two-lane highway became a one-lane highway, sheer mountain rock closing in on us. At one point the road was barely wider than the Explorer, but we nudged through slowly and the pavement widened again into two lanes. We all seem to breathe a little sigh of relief, sitting back against the leather seats. After a few minutes, I notice a small red light illuminate on Jim's dash, a pretty obvious glow in the very dark car. So I ask "Jim, what's up with the red light? What does that mean?" "Oh", he says, "that's nothing, no big deal". So then Scott asks, that is the red light on for, dude? Finally he says, "Well, that's the gas gauge indicator". He didn't need to say that the reason it came on was because we were almost out of gas. We haven't passed a car or a building in almost an hour now, and now we're running out of GAS??!!!
We finally see a sign for the town of that we're only 13 miles from Bishop, Jim assures us that we'll have enough gas for 13 miles, the gauge was just low because the car was at an angle. Yeah, okay.
Gassed up and heading towards Mammoth, we finally hit a few snow flurries, then piles of snow on the roads. We stop to put on the chains 3 miles from Mammoth and continue on to our condo, trying to follow directions and a map. In 10 minutes we get to the street our condo is on, but spend the next hours trying to find it. The snow is falling hard and the drifts are so high, they cover the street signs and make it impossible to see anything at all. We finally go back to the town's main street and attack it from another direction, and find it pretty quick. The others arrived hours before and are settled in the other condo in the next building. We go over, explain, tell the stories, then back to our condo to claim bed space (I end up on the couch! But it was next to the fireplace so not so bad).
Next day we hear on the news that a blizzard is hitting around noon. They all go off towards the lifts, while Alison and myself hop a shuttle bus into town. I am totally unprepared for this weather (like, I'm like from Florida, and like I totally just brought a mini-dress and sandals!!) and spend $116 on warm clothing - thermal leggings, waterproof boots, gloves, hat and wool socks. I wear all of my new stuff out of the shop, good thing 'cause the blizzard is kicking up. We wait for the bus at the kiosk, but it doesn't come. I see my cousin (I see the glow of his cigarette through the snow!) and his friend Mel across the street. We all fight our way to where they parked their car, about a 20 minute walk, heads down, all holding onto each other. The truck is buried under a couple feet of snow, but it's a kick ass, big ass Chevy and it gets us back to our street, where we yet again spend an hour trying to find the entrance to our condo (this becomes a standard in trying to get home). The truck slides in the ice several times, hitting snow drifts and almost another buried car. Then we just start sliding down the hill by our condo, Mel finally gets it stabilized as we all jump up and scramble up the stairs. We're all frozen, start the fire up, snuggle in for a nap and wait for the others.
That night we get together for spaghetti and roast chicken dinner in the other condo, end up playing drinking games (so this is how people up north live during the winter!!?). The Chinese drinking card game (compliments of our new friend Chien) hit me the hardest, I lost 2 out of 3 hands. There were only 3 out of 13 of us left standing and awake, so Steve passed out on his bed (the couch), and Jim and I left for our condo. I guess we jumped into the snow drifts (like Mel and I had done earlier, before I was stupid drunk) but this I don't remember. Jim insists it was my idea (not surprising) and says he pulled me out of the snow several times, buried as I was up to my fingertips and eyelashes. Then we pass out in front of our fireplace.
Saturday was relatively clear, enough to get our snowboards and hit the lifts. A gnawing sensation began in my stomach, realizing that I'd be strapped into a slick board intended to carry me at speeds up to a zillion-mph down a snowy mountainside. Did I really want to do this?? We get to the lodge, pay for our lift tickets (Ulrika and I opt for the cheaper, beginner lift tickets, since she's a beginner too). Now, I feel cool carrying my board (as all you surfers and snowboarders out there will surely understand), but my knees are shaking, thinking it's their last few moments connected to the rest of my legs in a natural way. I'm starting to voice my reservations about what we're doing. We walk up to the lift lines, and look around at the other snowboarders and skiers. We see that you're supposed to put one foot into one of the bindings, and walk with the other foot dragging the board (this really looks retarded). I'm telling Ulrika that maybe I shouldn't do this, I mean what if I break my neck?? She's not allowing me any time to change my mind, pulling me towards the front of the line, and we sit down in the lift seat. It carries us up the mountain. An old pro since yesterday, Ulrika says to put your other foot under the board so it doesn't hang and hurt the leg that is attached to the board. Great, I know I'm going to break something. My sister couldn't walk for months from a ski accident, what in the hell am I thinking?? How in the hell do I get off this lift??
After 10 minutes the lift comes to an end and Ulrika says to just push the board like you would a skateboard off to one side so we can put our other foot in the binding. We find a place on the snow, and fiddle with our boots and bindings. A class of snowboarders come off the lifts and we listen in on their lesson, gleaning some excellent tips. See, we were too dumb to actually sign up for a class, we'd rather wait until we're at the top of a mountain, complete ignorami, ready to roll down like 5'2" snowballs (well, she's taller than me, who isn't?). The class has left the mountain, and after 20 minutes we really can't delay any longer (people are beginning to stare). I say, okay, let's do it! It takes 15 minutes but we actually are standing up on the boards, ready to go downhill. I go five feet, whoosh, into the snow, 10 minutes later, I finally get up again, 7 more feet, whoosh, on my ass again. Damn, I think, I'll only be able to do this one run all day. Concentrating, I only take 5 minutes to get up this time, then fly down the mountain about 100 yards!! Woah!! Going too fast for my own good, I dump myself into a powder bank. Well that wasn't so bad. I repeat this process about 1000 times more down the mountain, with Ulrika right alongside, doing the same thing. At the bottom, I'm so exhausted I'm shaking. But we head up again, this time, I'm a pro, right? I only fall about 3 times, taking the mountain in thirds. My cousin and company are stopped up on the lift above us and they hear Ulrika calling me, then spot my brilliant green jacket surfing down the mountain, switching back and forth between my left and right feet out front. "Go Lindy, alright!" God! At least someone got to see how good I was doing!! Damn! That means I can't really embellish when I tell them all how great I did - oh well, don't need to embellish too much anyway. I can do this!! Finally, something I'm GOOD at!!! It's such a high, to surf down a freaking snow-covered mountain!!! (I felt like I was in a Mountain Dew commercial - I knew if I drank it long enough I'd be the star of one of their cool ads!!).
After a few runs, we all gathered in the hut to store our skis and boards and have lunch. All the falling down and cold was helping to bring to the surface the hangover that I knew I was back there somewhere. Pounding headache, couldn't lift my head, much less my body to do any more runs. They all left to go back up, and Alison and I stayed. As we watched the mountain was almost obliterated by a blizzard. We're very glad that we're getting ready to leave on the shuttle bus. Before I head downstairs I say "Wait, I gotta get my board". I stopped dead in my tracks and turn back to Alison and said "That sounded really cool, didn't it? 'I gotta get my board'". We die laughing, get the stuff and go out to catch the bus, taking pictures of our cool selves with the board while we wait, the locals probably snickering at us under their knit "bank robber" masks. Who cares?? The blizzard is getting worse as we get on the bus and head home (we're not the ones driving this time so it only takes 10 minutes).
All of us out to dinner that night (minus 5 of the guys who, against their will, according to them, got a ride from some girls back to their place for a jacuzz - the poor things). No drinking games tonight, plus we gotta get up early to head out, unless the weather reports are right and we get 4 feet of snow that night, and are snowed in by morning.
Hmmm, fun. Sunday dawns beautiful and clear, the sky gleaming blue, we can see the mountains all around us for the first time. We take pictures by the condos and cars before we pile in and return the ski gear and check out of the condos. The ride home was uneventful (well, anything would be compared to the ride up there) although we hit Florida hurricane like rain after dropping Scott off in LA, remaining with us the entire way down to SD. Jim's hands were frozen to the wheel, his knuckles white (these Southern Californians are not used to the rain), but he did great and we all made it back in one piece.
Now that you've been right there with me during my trip, you're
probably exhausted. Go have a rest, I'll email you all individually
when I get a chance. Sorry for the mass email, but it was the quickest
way to get it to everyone, and I've been so swamped at work, I wouldn't
have had the time!
Take care everyone!!
Lindy :-)
In 1998 Lindy Denissen made a trip to Korea
So, Korea was COOL! Seoul is pretty much where I spent most of the time. I did the courier thing, really easy. At LAX, the courier co. guy was there to meet me, got my boarding pass and told me where to go (I paid $400 for my ticket, as opposed to about $800-1000 for a regular fare). I only took a stuffed backpack on the plane. I got there to Kimpo airport (after a 12 hour flight), went through customs and all (thank God an English-speaking Korean was sitting next to me on the plane and gave me a briefing of how to walk through everything once I got off. It helped lot). My cousin Gina met me outside customs and we took the subway to the army base Yongsan, in order to catch the bus back to Osan air base. Basically crashed when we got back to the barracks, so tired after such a long flight. Next day, up early to catch the bus back to Seoul, took the subway lines, then walked to Changdokkung (palace). My cousin had been to yongbokkung and said this one was supposed to be larger and more spectacular. We took a Korean-speaking tour to avoid waiting a couple hours for the English tour (we had an English pamphlet and some of the signs turned out to have English on them as well as Korean). It only cost 2,000 won for the tour, about $1.50 US. The first thing we saw on the tour was the main palace, about 5 stories high, completely covered in scaffolding. Understandably we were thinking, Oh please don't let everything be under renovation!! Turned out that was the only thing in that condition, everything else on the tour was fantastic! We walked through almost 2 miles of grounds and palace buildings and lagoons for almost an hour and a half. Since we didn't understand the tour guide, we lagged way behind to take pictures without any people in them (except ourselves of course!!). A little Korean man was apparently supposed to bring up the rear of the group, and became friendly with us, practicing his English. Gina and I ran to everything, snapping pictures and gaping, and gasping, and pointing, and running up stairs we weren't supposed to (the little pavillions and doorways had signs saying "keep out"!!) The little man would stroll by us saying under his breath laughingly "Keep out...keep out...keep out" but let us take all our pictures. Each building or pond we saw was more spectacular than the last. I'll try to scan a pic of that place. After the palace tour we went to the famous Itaewon shopping district. Although we saw everything on sale you could possibly want, Gina said the prices at the town outside the base, Pyongtek, were better. Back on the early bus to Osan and a bit of time to check out some Pyongtek shops. I went to a seamstress and got measured for a Korean style dress (around $28!!). Next day, back to Seoul. We went to Lotte World, Korea's Disney like amusement park. Lotty and Laurie are racoons (racoons, mice - what's the difference??) and half of the amusement park was all contained indoors, under a huge 10-story windowed dome. We did the flume ride, Drunken Basket (Disney's teacups ride but in a basket!) indoor upside down rollercoaster, space mountain-type rollercoaster, the hot air balloon sky-tram thingie, river rapids (Pirates of the Caribbean mixed w/Busch Gardens wild river ride). Then outside to the rest of the park, a castle just like Disney, more rides and another rollercoaster. Really cool place! Oh, and before we left we HAD to find the donkey that shot chocolate out of his butt (we had heard a rumor, had to find out if it was true). Sure enough, we see this mechanical, sleepy-eyed donkey. Insert 500 won (about 40 cents) and the tail lifts up, and a hockey-puck like disc filled with chocolate shoots out the ass of this donkey (real quick, we had to do it twice toget a picture!!! Ha ha). What a riot. After Lotte World, we stopped at the Olympic Stadium and village. Very impressive, as huge a stadium as you can imagine! The grounds were dotted with little park areas and statues and buildings. Then onto Tongdaemun (heard they had wholesale fabric there, for my sewing NEEDS! Must make a dress!!!). Tongdaemun is one of the 9 or 10 gates to the ancient walled city of Seoul. Now there is a stadium built there and the largest indoor/outdoor shopping market in Asia. We only scratched the surface of this market, finally found the fabric on the second floor of this gymnasium-sized building - wall to wall bolts of exotic fabrics!! All I can say is WOW! Finally, after dragging Gina around this sauna, found the perfect fabric for 6500 won (about $4.50) a yard!!! Blue satin embroidered w/Korean symbols and flowers. Left there to catch a taxi to Seoul Tower (on Namsan mountain). Look out Seattle, this place put the Space Needle to shame!.
This place rocked! 360 degree views of the entire Seoul area, and across the river and the distant mountains covered with mist. Just in time for sunset, red fire ball tinting the Han river orange. We could see the Changdok palace and city gates and Olympic stadium and everything from the observation deck. Really incredible. Back to Osan by subway and bus again. Got off into Pyongtek to grab some food. Tried BBQ chicken (yes, it WAS chicken) on a stick for about 40 cents!! Really good but really spicy, my lips were a ring of fire, I had to dash in to a store for a Coke!! Next day it rained all day. We geared up for wetness and went downtown Pyongtek outside the base gates. My dress was ready for pick up by then, really beautiful. The seamstress was so sweet, told me my "husband" could help me w/the buttons on the dress (they were hard to fasten). I said I had no husband, she said "you get husband with this dress"! Ha ha!!I At another store, picked up an entire bed comforter/sheets set. Black satin embroidered comforter, 2 shams, 2 cylinder pillows and cases, plus gold/bronze colored satin sheets and pillow cases. All for $65!!! Amazing! Again the lady at that shop was terribly sweet to us. Next stop was the luggage shop to buy a roller suitcase to bring all this stuff home!! Got a great deal on a little bag, got the whole comforter and sheet set stuffed into it!! Next stop was a mink (synthetic) blanket shop. Got a beautiful SOFT huge blanket (lion colored) for $20!! We kept lying all over the blankets, petting them, saying how soft they were. As she was packing up my blanket, I told her how soft the pillows were. She threw in 2 square SOFT pillows for a buck each, walking around waving her hand, mimicking me saying "you Americans, everything 'sof, sof, sof", gotta have SOF blankets". She liked me - ha ha! Wow, almost out of money (okay, well the rent is basically going to be late this month!), but dashed into a shop for a couple bottles of Soju, Korean vodka, for $1.50 a bottle!!! Wanted 20 bottles, to give as gifts but limit was 2 to bring into the US. Darn.
Then next morn I caught the two-hour bus to Kimpo airport, did the reverse flight (a bit shorter this time w/a nifty tailwind). Back to LAX and a two-hour drive to SD. Home to my kitties (they missed their mama). I dressed the bed in my new comforter set and sheets and the cats would NOT get off the satin!! Ha ha ha, they're so spoiled!!
That's it. Had a great time with my cuz. The Koreans seemed like happy,
sweet people. I wish I'd had more time to spend there seeing the
countryside. Oh well...next time.
Take care all!
Lindy:-)
Lindy Denissen
QA Engineer
Visio - San Diego
619 596-5990 ext.338