Tumgik
rustyhyde · 4 years
Text
Tough Decisions Ahead
I like to think of myself as reasonably rational, intelligent, and compassionate being. I trust and care for my family, friends and neighbors. Community is important to me. I’m also risk adverse and a long-term planner. I am by any definition, a mere cog of society.
I’m at heart a data driven guy that loves hard facts and numbers. I work numbers and facts into my own planning. The problem with the Corona virus is that there aren’t any solid verified and validated numbers or facts. I suspect this is par for the course for a pandemic caused by a novel virus. In the mountains of conflicting information, whom do I believe? From information theory, its all of them. What I mean to say is, believe the aggregate of the information, being that the real number or fact is somewhere in the middle. As an , some medical authorities say the mortality rate is 0.66 percent. Others say 5.5 percent. The bulk of the numbers hover around 2-3%. I’m inclined to believe that middle number. Of course, that number is an overall mortality number for an entire population. Old people are at higher risk, younger people, not so much. Murphy’s law says that no matter the risk categories, I will always be in the high risk one.
From the mountain of dubious data, what questions would I like an answer to? They are in no specific order:
1. What is the infection rate?
2. What is the mortality rate?
3. What are the most common symptoms? FYI: Hard to believe an actual MD said a possible symptom is developing color blindness? Really? - If you are licensed- you should have your license revoked.
4. Who’s most at risk?
5. What are the treatments?
6. What do we need to do?
7. What is our national collective strategy to combat this pandemic?
Before I continue with my rant, I’d like to say that pointing fingers and saying woulda, coulda, shoulda will not help resolve this issue. Now, back to my rant.
From the disparate data, three battle plans are emerging. One plan is advocated by the health care professionals, one plan advocated by economists, and one plan advocated by the civil political leadership. All the plans have pros and cons. I’ll try to describe them with my limited amount of knowledge and weigh in on the pros and cons.
Plan A as advocated by the health are professionals. This is the complete shutdown of all physical interactions, the social distancing plan if you will. The oversimplistic description is that one can’t spread or contract the virus if one does not come into contact with other people. You effectively drive the infection rate to zero, or near zero. Note, this plan is different than a quarantine. Inside a quarantine, people are allowed to interact, thus everyone in the quarantine will be exposed to the virus. The problem with a quarantine is that they are not leak-proof. Someone will get out and infect others. So, social distancing means don’t come into contact with anyone else. To make this work some/most think this plan has to run through to al least the end of the summer (five more months). What are the pros and cons of this approach?
Pros
- Effective. No contact means no infection.
- Ideally, it is simple to implement in that it doesn’t require tools, equipment, or drugs.
- Least amount of people to die.
Cons
- Not practical to implement. Doctors must interact with patients. Power company employees have to keep the power running, grocery stores still have to operate. Unfortunately, the United States is not “Little House on the Prairie” where most people are isolated and can go long periods without social interaction.
- We’re not equipped for sudden and long-term isolation. How many people have food and water to last even one month?
- Economic reality. I don’t know about you, but most of my extended family live paycheck to paycheck. I’d predict most can get by for a month without working but after that, they will go out and do what they have to do to feed their families.
- Time line too long. After five months of total social isolation, the economy will ground to a halt and the resultant disaster will be greater that the pandemic. I’ll use us as a personal example. My boss is a compassionate person. She will hold on to employees for as long as possible. She cares for them deeply. But at some point, well before five months, without work, she will have to lay off everyone. This means no paycheck, no insurance, no nothing. That’s ten people. Those ten can’t pay bills or rent, or insurance. Now multiply that by millions of companies. Who’s going to pay for their healthcare? Without insurance who is going to pay the healthcare providers. Who’s going to keep the hospitals open without revenue? More will die from the economy disaster that the pandemic. Ultimately the social distancing plan would be a bust simple because people will run out of money for necessities and do what they must do to survive, i.e. go out and socially interact.
Plan B as advocated by the economists. This the rapid development of herd immunity. The idea being that they want the virus to run through the community as quickly as possible so that the numbers of infected and recovered people rise to a level that effectively gives the community a herd immunity. The point being that if enough people have and survived this virus, then the virus will die away because of the lack of hosts or the ability to effectively spread to non-infeccted hosts. Most economist think and health professionals believe this would take a month to six weeks. What are the pros and cons?
Pros
- At a mortality rate of around 2-3% and the short duration of the event would mean society as a whole would regain its footing by summer.
- As some scientist have suggested, the virus unlike others is genetically stable and once infected, most would people have lifelong immunity.
- This isn’t a pro per se, but Sweden is leading the charge with this approach. Curious how this will work out.
Cons
- A LOT OF PEOPLE WILL DIE. If 200 Million people in America get infected at least 5 million will dies. Most likely more, because they would be a certain percent that would have survived if they had life support.
- Social unwinding. I’m pretty sure we’ll see some horrific acts by people trying to survive and trying to save a loved one. It would not be pretty. I’m not sure we can protect those who need protection in the short-term anarchy.
- Healthcare system taking a big hit. It would years for the system to recover. Supplies would be exhausted, healthcare professionals leaving the profession. Hospitals close.
Plan C as advocated by the political leadership. This plan is hard to decipher but I think it is this. They take a little from plan A and mix it with plan B so that they can buy time (a month to six weeks). What do they hope to accomplish with this additional time? I think it is multi-layered. One, buy time to find a prophylactic treatment for the virus. They know there isn’t a cure, but maybe find something that can greatly reduce the hospitalization rate and be deployed in days or weeks. Apparently, there are several anti-virals that show promise and are already approved for human use by the FDA. Two, develop a deployable vaccine for emergency use within a month or two. I think we’ve all heard the steady drumbeat that it takes at a minimum of 18 months to develop and deploy a traditional vaccine. However, researchers have several novel vaccines in the works. They include genetic and rNA based vaccines. Both are quickly deployable and have little risk to people getting the vaccination. The million-dollar question is if they are effective. At least three candidates are in human trials now. We’ll have to wait and see. Three, test for the virus like hell, find the all the infected, and isolate them and their close contacts. This approach is working for Japan and Korea. We appear not to have the social discipline or capabilities to do that. Four, shore up our healthcare system to be able to withstand or at least blunt the onslaught of mass casualties. What are the pros and cons of plan C?
Pros
- We’re leveraging the ability and resources of all the smart people in the USA to find a workable solution within a month.
- Exploiting capitalism with vested interests. Its time for researchers and big pharma to now walk the walk. The first one with a viable treatment or vaccine wins the race and all the economic spoils that come with this. Money is an amazing motivator.
- Short timeline. If it works, we don’t suffer social or economic ruin.
Cons
- High risk approach. If we don’t find a workable solution in a month to six weeks, we’ve let the genie out of the bottle and it will be too late for plan A and plan B will be the default and with it comes all of plan B’s cons.
Optimism
What will work? Only time can be the judge of that. Contrary to popular belief, I’m an optimist. We as a species are resilient. I love and trust my fellow man. This pandemic is just another disaster in a long line of disasters we’ve had to endure. It just so happens to be our turn to be in the barrel. We may not be the greatest generation, but we’ll not only survive, but flourish. In these times I like to think what Teddy Roosevelt thought on being American: "Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as be seen as a people with such responsibilities."
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond Jun 14th
Tumblr media
We head home today.  We’ve had the time of our life with both family and friends.  We’re excited and sad to be heading home.
One last look at the stairs to the house.  I will not miss those!
Tumblr media
The ride to the airport was short and sweet. Maybe 30 minutes.  At the airport we want to print out our boarding passes.  Our flight is a Delta flight operated by Air France, so we have to check in at Air France.  I approach an Air France rep standing in the middle of a million people.  I show her my tickets and say were looking for Sky-Priority check-in. She looked and said you don’t have priority check-in. I show her the ticket with “Sky-Priority” written on it. She ignored me and pointed us to the economy check-in with it 20,000 people waiting in-line.  Well, turn-about is fair play, I ignored her and found a priority kiosk on my own and printed our boarding passes.  Took all of five minutes. Sometime the staff doesn’t recognize all the different ticket levels and perks.  Sometimes, they’re just jerks.  I think she fell into both categories. 
With boarding passes in hand, we get to go thru “priority” security screening.  That was way faster than normal! We made it to the gate and waited.  While waiting they were putting up USA flags everywhere and put a sign that said “HAPPY FLAG DAY”.  Weird I thought.  We don’t put that much effort into flag day.  Oh well.  They were into it so much they invited Max to have her picture made and gave her a sucker.
Tumblr media
After a hour wait, we boarded.  I must say that Air France have had the best flight attendants I’ve had the pleasure of flying with.  They were super efficient, attentive, and spot on with service.  I’ll definitely fly Air France again.  Here’s a pic of our early snack.
Tumblr media
Hannah and Max sat behind me and Liz.  Andy and Emma were across the plane from us.  Several points during the flight,  I look back at Max and Hannah.  Hannah is asleep and Max smiling at me watching her movies and asking the attendants for more snacks.  The crew couldn’t refuse her!  At 5, she’s already a seasoned international traveler.
After an 8 hour flight, we arrive at Atlanta.  If you don’t know much about intentional travel, coming back into the USA can be a bit of a hassle. When you land you first have to go thru passport control, then collect your checked  luggage, then go thru immigrations and customs.  All of that can take a couple of hours.
Liz, Hannah, Max, and me are part of the global traveler program. Its a Homeland Security program where you are pre-screened so that you can speed thru the above mess.  We had to fill out forms, wait, then get interviewed in Atlanta. then about 2 months later you get your Global traveler ID. Yeah.  We had our Global Traveler ID for this trip.
With our global ID. we walk up to a kiosk, it scans our passport and our finger prints. It thinks for a second then spits out a piece of paper with my picture and a bar code on it.  With that in hand we walk up to customs agent he looks at the picture and scans the bar code then waves us thru.  This took all of five minutes tops. Liz and I and the gang purposely didn’t do checked bags. So we saved the step of waiting on the luggage. Next thru immigration. Since we had little or no baggage we were able to walk right thru.  All of this from getting off the plan to standing outside was less that 20 minutes.  Andy and Emma didn’t have Global traveler. However, they did have mobile passport.  That line was short as well.  They were only about ten minutes behind us.  It all worked out.
Now we’re waiting on the shuttle to take up to the car lot. Here’s Max just chillin on her carry-on. 
Tumblr media
I definitely knew we were back in the USA when I see all the University of Alabama sports gear, the hats, shirts, pants, and glasses.  By the way, I got a War Eagle on the trip.  It happens every time!
We make it to the lot. We load the car and head out. Everybody is starving right now. Its dinner time back in Paris. We stop at a Taco bell and load up. Everybody gorged themselves on tacos and burritos. We make it back to the ‘Ham by about 5:00, just in time for dinner.  I think we all ate something light and fell asleep by 7:00 pm.
WHAT A TRIP.
Stay tuned. We already planning our next trip.  We’re heading to Viet-Nam next summer and travelling with Andy’s family.  See you then.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 13th
I left off some fun pictures from yesterday, all Very cute.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Our big event for today is a lunch cruise along the Seine. Just saying that makes me feel so french.  Emma and Liz are big fans of dinner cruises and I have to admit, I enjoyed the tea cruise in London.
Liz of course spent a little extra and got us the best table and the best menu.  I love that girl.  We start out the day with a leisurely stroll around the docks, looking at the boats coming and going.  I love the water and I could stare at the sea/marine life for a very long time.  We’re about 30 minutes from our appointed boarding time so we make our way to the check in point.  I wasn’t sure how to dress. Liz said it was smart casual (no shorts or t-shirts, or workout wear.  I put on a button front shirt, tie, and nice slacks.  All the girls wore very nice dresses.  Point of this that the very first people we see queuing up are men in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. They looked like they were going to Ted’s Shrimp Shack. I guessed they were Americans. The minute they starting talking, we knew it. Anyway, everyone else  showed in nice smart casual attire.
I’m putting on my snobby hat, but as a rule, most Americans dress just like they fell out of the homeless shelter.  I mean t-shirts, shorts, and ratty shoes. You can see them a mile away.  Plus American women smack the hell out of gum.
The cruise was amazing.  The food was wonderful and the sites breathtaking. below is a pic of me and my girl. I look drunk in this picture.  If so, I drunk on love with my wife (brownie points for me!).
Tumblr media
A pic of the tower from the boat.
Tumblr media
A pic of the Statue of Liberty.  Max played a joke on me during the cruise. She said “Pots, we’re in New York, - See the Statue of Liberty.”  How many 5 year olds know enough to know that the Statue of Liberty is in New York.
Tumblr media
After the cruise, the girls were feeling fiesty and wanted to shop some more. I bailed on them and went back to the house. I wanted to plan for our departure tomorrow.  Below, is three of the four amigos.
Tumblr media
The girls “Striking A Pose” in front of Louis Vuitton. They crack me up.
Tumblr media
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 12th
Tumblr media
Versailles
Versailles - I was not looking forward to it.  I’ve heard all the horror stories about the queues and how packed it can get with people.  Plus, the forecast called for rain.  Nope- didn’t want any part of it. However, being, the good husband and father that I am, I did what I was told, sucked it up, and got into the van.
Liz decided to go all out and get a private tour for us.  She said it was essential, otherwise we could be stuck for hours in lines, in the rain. Her private tour included a van that would pick us up from the house.
The van arrived on time (good sign). The driver spoke little English but was courteous and offered us water. The drive from the house to Versailles was about an hour.  We pull up to the gate and our guide, Natalie, meets us.   As we go thru the gates I see a line that I’m not kidding, must have been a quarter of a mile long.  The picture at the top of this post shows a very small fraction of the line.
Being the Eeyore of the group and after the Eiffel tower queuefest, I commented “Oh my God, take me back”.  The family shot me a dirty look and Natalie said don’t worry.  Off we go.  The queue for private tours was probably twenty minutes long. Natalie parks in line and she said she’d be back in a minute.  About a minute later she’s standing at a side door and waves us over.  She guides us into a side entrance, says a few words to a guard, and volia, we’re in. Wow.  We head to the gardens outside the palace grounds. I’m not easily impressed, but I was awed by the sheer scale of it all.  Natalie said the gardens extend for about a mile. 
Tumblr media
In the picture above, you can see that it extends into the distance.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
After the gardens,  Natalie takes us to a cafe on the grounds to catch a bite to eat and go to the bathroom. She’s on her game.  After lunch, we head into the palace.  The place is amazing.  We’re seeing about everything everybody else is seeing and more.  Natalie, asks us if we’d like to see off-limits areas of the palace.  We say yes. She walks up to a guard, says something, the velvet ropes are lifted and we’re now in areas off-limits to the typical tourist.  How is this happening?  I ask Natalie and she says she used to work here and that she knows all the guards and supervisors.  They in essence have given us unrestricted access.  She takes us to Marie Antoinette’s private opera. Cool.
Tumblr media
We get to see the King’s mistress’ apartment. cooler
Tumblr media
and the place (courtyard) where the king filed dressed the deer he killed. coolest.
Tumblr media
After the palace, we head off to the “Hamlet” the king built for Marie Antoinette.    Because Cheryl is in a wheelchair, she can’t go with us. Natalie drops Cheryl off at a cafe.   We walk about twenty minutes in the rain. We’re troupers and enjoyed ourselves. Natalie takes us to a cafe to dry off, get hot chocolate, and munch on a snack.  
The hamlet is a working village that the king built so that Marie could pretend to be a peasant. Weird, right? People going around acting like the queen is a peasant. Below is a picture of one of the buildings in the hamlet.
Tumblr media
After touring the hamlet, we made our way back to the gate and our ride home.  I must say Versailles was a highlight of the trip and Natalie made all the difference in the world.  I would definitely recommend her.
Our ride back to the house was uneventful.  We’re dog tired from all the walking.  The stroller we bought back in London for 50 euros was the best money we ever spent, otherwise we would have had to leave Max in the hamlet. (not really. I would have had to carry her.)
Back at the house it was dinner and bed.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 11th
Tumblr media
What trip to Paris would be complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower? None.  That was the plan for the day. See the Eiffel Tower.
After breakfast, the plan was to take the Metro to the Champs de Elysee, walk part of it and stop at the Arc de Triumph.  We did.  I have to admit that its pretty impressive, the Arc de Triumph, I mean. The Champs de Elysee has all the store brands we see in all modern cities, even Disney.
Tumblr media
The arc is cool.  However, as in Paris there is a queue for everything.  It was about an how to buy a ticket and ride the elevator to the top.  We passed on that.
Tumblr media
After the Arc, we began our walk to the Eiffel tower. Per google, it was a 30 minute stroll.  It was.  I’d like to point out that this side of town is a crush of tourist, to the point of being uncomfortable.
At this point we were hungry and needed to pee.  We found a nice little bistro just across the river from the Tower. The food was quite good.  The waiter had an Elvis type hairstyle. It looked a little strange with all the other short, spiky hair styles around.
Most of us headed to the bathroom only to find that it was coin operated.  We went back to the table and dumped all our change on the table. We had coinage for two people.  Off went Max and Hannah.  I asked the waiter for change for the toilet. He looked at me strange and handed me a piece of steel the size and shape of a coin, a slug if you will. We quickly learned that if you eat there, you can get the slugs for the toilets.  Nice to know.
Liz bought us skip the lines tickets for the Eiffel Tower. She said it cuts the time down by a ton.  We were to meet the Tour guide at his office, a few blocks away.  We quickly grouped up with our guide and made the walk to the Tower. Recently the french government added a security fence around the Eiffel tower, essentially enclosing about 10 square blocks.  Surprise, there was a huge line to go thru security.  Our guide said that we had about a twenty minute queue even with the skip the line access. No biggie.  We made it thru.  Once inside security, I saw the lines to get into the Tower. I would not be exaggerate to say there were multiple thousands waiting to go up.
Before going in, the guide gave us a great history talk and took us to the physical center of the tower.  The picture below is look up.
Tumblr media
Cool.
We made our way to what we thought was the head of the line.  Our skip the line got us to the head of the next security point (skipping about three hours of waiting). From there it was about an hour before we could take the elevator up to the second floor. Queues!  The view from here was pretty amazing.
Tumblr media
Next we got into the line to go to the top of the tower.  This queue was about 2 hours.  I’m amazed that Max held out so well. what a trooper.
The view from the top was spectacular.
Tumblr media
Here’s me and my babe.
Tumblr media
Here’s Hannah.
Tumblr media
Andy doing Andy.
Tumblr media
M and L
Tumblr media
Maybe its trip fatigue, but the waiting even with skip the line tickets was borderline not worth it.  Yes, it amazing, but the sardines in can feeling was rough.
After the Tower, we took the metro back for supper.  We fixed a quick dinner and got ready to head to the USA vs Thailand game in Reims, France. During dinner, I was getting the timelines for the train. Yesterday, the train ride was estimated at an hour and five minutes, now its quoting 2.5 hours. What gives?. Apparently, the crush of people trying to get to the game have slowed the trains down.  Plan B, go with Uber. Its way more expensive but for goodness sakes, it’s the USA playing. Looking at Uber, we found one ride and it was estimated at three hours?  Google maps shows the road to Reims to be completely red.  Essentially, a parking lot.  We would get there about half way thru the second period. BUMMER! We bailed on it.  On reflection, we should have headed to Reims early in the day, toured the town, then go to the game. Lesson learned.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 10th.
I don’t remember much about the start of this day.  It was pretty casual with a slow start.  I do have notes from later in the evening.  We (Ron, Cheryl, Liz, and I) went to a women’s world cup soccer game. As luck would have it, we happen to be in Paris during the World Cup. Pretty lucky.
Knowing that football (soccer) is big around these parts, I was expecting big things. I wasn’t disappointed.  The soccer venue in the western part of Paris was beautiful and part of a tennis, rugby, football complex.  They indeed take their sports seriously here.
Below is a shot of our seats. We were under the canopy and very close to the field.
Tumblr media
Below, is a pic of me and my wonderful bride!
Tumblr media
The game was okay. Both Japan and Argentina were lackluster and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.
By the way, everything is in English.  That has got to peeve the french some. I guess we know who spends money here.
They served hot dogs and cokes. Both were excellent and very inexpensive. It worked out to about $15 for three hot dogs, two cokes, and chips.
The Uber ride home was an experience.  The drive was texting constantly, swerving in traffic. He scared the hell out of us.  No tip for him.
Back at the house, we went up to the roof top patio. Cool place. Enjoyed the last of the evening before bed.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
also, below is the smallest car I’ve ever seen. It all electric and not much bigger than a motorcycle.
Tumblr media
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Video
World Cup soccer June 10th - Japan vs Argentena. Pre game stuff.  I think our seat were great, under cover and out of the sun.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 9th
Tumblr media
I’m really looking forward to today.  We’re going to Disney-Paris!!!!  The entire gang was psych’d and ready to get their Micky going!
Last night we searched the route out.  Disney Paris is about an hour by Train from the house.  The train station is a short five minute metro (subway) ride. Great. 
Next morning everyone had the usual “eat anything in the cabinets” for breakfast. I had a baguette with cheese and ham.  I think Andy ate a small child from next door. Cheryl ate plain pasta.  Liz, Hannah, and Max had the more traditional and shall I say boring, eggs for breakfast.  During breakfast we semi-planned the day.  Gates open at 10:00 so, let get there a bit early. plan to leave the house at 8:30. Oops already missed that deadline. Out the door by nine. Because Cheryl was nursing a bad hip, they took an Uber to the train station and said they would meet us at Disney. By the way, Cheryl is going to have hip surgery the week after we get back. What a trooper!
The rest of us walk to the Metro and ride to the station.  Unfortunately for Emma since she speaks french,we ask her to do all the mundane tasks like buying the tickets.  After about a ten minute discussion, Liz and Emma come out and say the ticket lady had a hard time understanding Emma and that we couldn’t get there the way we thought.  We had to ride the Metro to a different train station and go from there. None of that made sense. 1) Emma speaks flawless french. All the locals remark on how she speaks without an american accent.  2) I can read a rail map. It says we can get there from here.  Anyway, we go with the ticket agent plan, hop the metro to another station and make the ride to Disney.
The train ride was pleasant, though we did go thru some of the seedier parts of Paris, places I would not want to walk around.  When we pulled in the station, we immediately saw the lines to get in.  As it turns out, its the security line with metal detectors and the whole smear.  We talked with Ron and Cheryl, they beat us there by 30 minutes. They took the train I wanted to take.  I think the ticket girl was having a bit of fun with us Americans.  Ron and Cheryl made it thru security and as was at the customer service desk.
Because of her hip, Cheryl was going to get a wheelchair and hopefully a handicap pass, the “golden ticket”. If she get the handicap pass, her and four other can go to the head of the line at all the rides. Wow!
While inching forward thru the security queues, we notice the occasional person walk up to what appears to be another security check point off to our right.  They would do the security dance and go thru. I’m thinking it might be a VIP security line. After a few minutes of moving only inches forward, I asked Hannah to drop out of line and head over to that security point and see if a kid in a stroller would get us through security.  Hannah was reluctant considering how long the line was. Liz and Emma said they would hold our place.  Hannah, Max and I went over there.  The security agent, waved us over, didn’t say a word. He inspected us and waved us thru. Liz, Emma , and Andy make a dash over and cleared security.  As it turns out, it was a normal security checkpoint., just nobody queued up to it.  Again, we humans do have a herd mentality.
Even though we cleared security, we had to go thru the main park entrance. With tickets in hand we inched forward. I will say this about the french, they’ve never met a queue line they wouldn’t jump.  It seems its a sport in France to cut in line.  If that were to happen in the States, they would have been dragged out of the line and beaten to death with a stuffed Mickey Mouse.
Once thru the line we got to eye main street.  This Disney has a weird look to it.  Its as if it’s a 5/8 scale version of the one in Florida.  Disney Paris is smaller, tighter, and shorter. The same look of Disney World, only in miniature.
Tumblr media
Inside, we hook up with Ron and Cheryl.  They did it. They got the Golden Ticket!!!
First thing we did was do the paratrooper ride.  Max was excited. We strolled up to the front, waved out golden ticket and was ushered to the front of the line.  We rode and had a great time.  Max squealed with delight.
Cheryl, below, at the photo-op place.
Tumblr media
Next stop, Ttower of Terror.  That is my all time favorite ride at Disney. I’m hoping this one with thrill me as well.  Again, with the magic ticket, we went to the head of the line.  Once in, the ride was familiar but smaller.  I will give a shout out to the ride attendant, she spoke both french and english. Every instruction was given in french then english.  Once in the ride I was expecting the elevator ride to be crazy.  It turns out to be about half the ride of the one in Flordia, fun , but not crazy fun. So, instead of Tower of Terror, it should be called “Bump of Mild Discomfort”.
Here’s Emma in front of the Bump of Mild Discomfort.
Tumblr media
I will say the ride that did impress us was Ratatouille. It was an amazing combination of physical and technological sophistication.  You really felt like a mouse running thru a kitchen.
We took the required pictures at the castle.
Tumblr media
Lunch was an an adventure. At Disney Paris they have a centrallized area for the restaurants.  Its more or less like a food court in a mall.  All the restaurants line the walls, with seating in the middle. Being good southerners, we wanted to eat lunch early.  So around 11:00 we make our way over to the food court.  With such a large group we thought it prudent to snag a large table. We found one, and Emma, Andy and I went for food.  The lines were incredibly long even at 11:00. We jumped into the shortest one. The lunch choices were your standard Disney Fare except more fruit options. Nice.  After, no kidding, 45 minutes in line, we get our food and sit down.  As usual something was missed on the order but we didn’t want to go back and deal with it. We just split what we had amongst us. By this point, there was nowhere to sit. People were piling on top of garbage cans, sitting in the aisles. The way everyone was looking you’d thought, we were at a red cross relief center.   Within an hour we noticed no lines for food.  I thought, “Hey, I’ll get another order of Fries”. I walk up and I now know why there were no lines. The restaurants closed at 1:00.  They have a 2 hour window to eat lunch?! How bizarre, how French. That would never fly in Florida.  
After Lunch we did some thrill rides.  Well, actually not thrill rides, more like moderately bumpy rides. Again the scale is is smaller than Disney World.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
We decided to call it a day at around 4:00, with the goal of eating dinner around 6:00..  We load up and head out. As usual, the tickets we bought would not open the turnstiles to the train gate. After several tries, Liz and company head back to the ticket office. Fortunately, the ticket person said that the tickets get demagnetized quite easily and re-issued us the tickets.  We board and we’re off.  After the train and metro rides, we’re walking back and decide to eat out. Everyone is tired and didn’t feel the need to cook. We stop at a rather upscale, restaurant and ask for a table for 6. The maitre d smiled and lead us to a table.  He didn’t see Hannah and Max with a stroller. Once he saw them, the color and smile drained off his face.  He made it clear he didn’t want the “baby” in his restaurant. Being arrogant Americans, we sat down anyway. The waiter had a pained look on his face, thinking he has to deal with us Americans.  Emma began talking to him in french and suddenly he was all smiles.  Service went well, the food was great. We pulled back from the brink of disaster.  The Maitre d would walk by with a snear. We answered with a pleasant, condescending smile that said “bite me”.
After we dinner, it was short walk back to the house.  We sat down at the table, played Unno for and hour and retired to our separate chambers. Quite french.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 8th
Between me, you, and the lamp post, I need some me time.  I’ve had way too much close personal contact with a bunch of high energy people.  I need a break!
The gang woke up and wanted to do some power touring of Paris. I will have none of it.  I opted out of the adventure, getting a bunch of frowny faces from the family.
Off they went.  i stayed behind and decided to explore the neighborhood.  It seems like a high-end place and I thought I’d check it out.
Did I say the house was on a hill?  It is. The picture below is one of the stairs you have to climb to get back to the house from the shops.
Tumblr media
Can you imagine carrying a couple of bags of groceries up that?  I know why there aren’t any fat Parisians in this part of the woods.
There’s a small park across the street from the house. If I dreamed of a small parisian park, this would be it. Beautiful landscaping, quaint benches, a modest statue, birds singing, and a pile of kids running around playing. Here’s the short path to the park from the house.
Tumblr media
The picture below is just a few yards from our house. It probably the prettiest street on the block.
Tumblr media
We had a running joke that me and Andy were going to go to the Moulin Rouge while the girls went shopping.  For those that don’t know, the Moulin Rouge is a famous burlesque show (strip joint for those in the south).  While it had a fairly good run in the 1930′s and 40′s as a see and be seen place, it fell into hard times by the 70′s. Now the place is a caricature of its previous self, catering solely to tourist by having second rate strippers flash boobs and other privates. Anyway, that was funny for about a nanosecond and the girls said, nope, not going to happen.
So whilst they were away, I looked up the place. As it turns out, it only a 15 minute walk from the house.  How convenient.  I loaded the address into google maps and off I went. 15 minutes later, there I am., standing in the full glory of the MOULIN ROUGE!
Tumblr media
As it would have it, the Moulin Rouge neighborhood is classy, as you can tell by the two stores down the street. I think the “sexy store” is super classy!
Tumblr media
Also the poster looks quite inviting...
Tumblr media
As part of the gang’s power touring, they came across a museum called the Louvre. Maybe you’ve heard of it.  It had a small painting called the Mona Lisa. I can’t believe they got that close to it.
Tumblr media
Andy, Emma, and Max looking very french today!
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
After all the touring and excitement.  We had a hearty dinner and began a super competitive game of Unno.  We play the German rules combat version.  We first started playing this in Germany back in the early 2000′s.  Now we’re are the world undisputed champions of the game.  (back in the day, Maw-Maw was master of the game as well). We need to play it more in the States.  By the way, Little Max at 5 yo is showing great promise at the game. Maybe, she’ll be better than all of us.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 7th
Tumblr media
Today we’re heading to Paris via Train.  If you remember from a previous post that we called and reserved a taxi to take us to the train station, and that I didn’t have a good feeling about it.  Well, we call early this morning (6:00 am) to confirm. a 7:00 am taxi.  The dispatcher said he might show up and if he doesn’t, we’d need to make other arrangements.  Pretty damn funny... Other arrangements? That’s the whole point of “reserving” a taxi.  The Caen taxi system is awful.  I think I’d have a better chance of getting a Jewish taxi in Baghdad. Guess what? The taxi was a no-show.  Plan B kicked into action.  We head to the bus stop.  The house owner said it was a 30 minute ride from the stop to the station.  Hannah’s google maps said it was a thirty minute walk.  We elected to walk.  Mind you, it is a light rain, with luggage and a 5 year old.  What could go wrong?  As it happens, nothing.  The walk was great, and we got to see some additional sites like the river, the race track, a huge farmer’s market, and a little more of downtown.
We make it to the train station in plenty of time.  I bought first class tickets for an additional $5 euro each. A nice touch for the ride.
As a side bar, we noticed a big difference in the way the UK handles transportation and the way the french do.  The UK will require a ticket to get on the train, they will walk by and do a ticket check halfway thru the journey, and will require a tick to exit the train.  By god, you will have a ticket.
The french on the other hand, don’t. They didn’t check our tickets getting on, not during, or when getting off.  In fact we think they was a guy getting free ride from Caen to Paris.  He sat in a seat near us.  As people came on the train, he was constantly having to move. The train filled up and he wound up sitting on the luggage rack. I thought surely someone would bust him. Nope, not a nary check.
After a fairly peaceful 2-hour ride, we arrive in Paris. We left the station and immediately got an UberXL for all of us. I was a bit gun-shy about public transportation.  In Paris, the Uber, public transit situation is all good.  We made it to house.  It was up a million steps. Not bad, just steep. As it turns out we’re near the highest point in Paris. In fact, we’ve just a few blocks from Sacre Coeur, A very large Basilica at the highest point in Paris.
We arrive at the house around 1:00. We can’t take possession until 3:00 but they let us drop our bags off. We head out in search of food.  We find a great little Vietnamese restaurant. Comfort food for Andy, great food for us.  After lunch, we explore the area. We did a good job of picking the location. Its upscale with lots of shops, cafes, and parks.  We’re definitely out of the tourist mainstream. We make it back to the house around 3:00 and link up with Ron and Cheryl.  We pick rooms and look the place over.  Not bad, not great either. I’m not sure I’ll do an AirBnB again. The house is functional, but worn.  I do have to admit that the court yard and surroundings were fantastic.
After the tour of the house, we head up to Sacre Coeur.  We walked up hill, steep, for four blocks.  Once there, we decide to go to the top. Its three hundred steps up spiral stairs. Wow.  I thought my legs were about to give out.
Our effort was rewarded. Look at the view!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I had a great picture of the Eiffel Tower from here, just cant find it. :-(
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 6th
Today is the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. What better way to celebrate that to go to the D-Day museum in Caen.  It supposed to be one of the largest and best WWI museums in the world.  I’m excited!
Per google maps, its only about a 30 minute walk from our house.  So, Hannah, Max, Liz and I head out.  As we’re walking it is curiously quite. There’s very little activity on the streets.  I chalk it up to being early (8:30) for the french.  As we’re getting closer to the museum, I strart to notice an ever increasing police presence.  Policemen and women standing around with automatic weapons and body armor.  We cross over a major highway and there is zero traffic.  We can see motorcycle police cruising the deserted highway.  We’re now about 10 minutes away from the museum and now I see large formation of actual military troops, some tucked away behind large walls. Others are out in the open.  I see the police now have lined the roads with officers about 20 feet apart as far as the eye can see.  We’re the only civilians on the street except for the stray people walking a dog. We’re now about 2 minutes away and now see military everywhere. I glance in hole in wall and see what I think is a rapid response force. The antennas and racking of the weapons gave them away.  Whatever is going on, these guys mean business.
We arrive at the museum and there’s a bad sign. there aren’t any cars in the massive parking lot, except for a single armored troop carrier.  We’re pretty sure at this point the museum is closed, but since we’ve walked all this way, we’d thought we ask.  There were several very serious people in suits near the front door. Liz, never shying away from opportunity to talk with “bigwigs”, thought she’d ask about the museum. She was immediately told in a brisk tone that the museum is closed and go away. Here’s a pic of the museum. It is huge!
Tumblr media
Funny, of all the days the D-Day museum could be closed,they chose  the 75th anniversary of D-Day! Something is up.  Little Max is less than cheerful. so Hannah finds a park close by on google maps.  Its about a five minute walk further away from the house. We make the walk only to find the park closed. Hannah asks a cop. He said “closed”, but in a very nice way. By the way, the walk there way quite nice.
Tumblr media
At this point we decide to pivot and return to the house and regroup.  We speculated that with all this security, some pretty big hitters were coming to the museum. As we’re heading back, I asked a seeming senior cop, if Macron and Trump were visiting here. He hesitated for a couple of seconds then said No, just a low level French minster.  I thought to myself, “Right- they would do all this security just for a dog catcher...”
We make it back to the house and make the command decision to go to the town square for a lunch.  That was the best decision of the trip so far.  We had a wonderful french lunch in that it last about two hours where we have great food and wine, great conversation, and beautiful surroundings.  It was all so relaxed and chill. Best lunch of my life.  He we are at the lunch table.
Tumblr media
me in a blissful state
Tumblr media
my beautiful child bride loving life...
Tumblr media
Andy and Emma looking dapper.
Tumblr media
During our lunch, I notice a couple of news crews around.  Something is up.  While waiting for our meal, I decided to do a walk-about.  The police headquarters is just a few blocks away.  When I get there, The street are closed to traffic with what seems like a million cops and troops milling about.  Just about that time several military helicopters come flying in and land behind the fence of the police compound.  About two minutes later, a convoy of vehicles comes flying out.  It’s French president Macron and his wife.  We in the crowd get a little wave from them as they drive by.  At this point I’m sure they are heading the D-Day museum to meet President Trump.  Later that day, we did, indeed, learn that Trump and Marcon met at the museum.  I took some pictures, thinking it was cool. It turns out to look like a bunch of normal cars.
Tumblr media
Just as we’re finishing lunch, a convoy of about twenty police trucks, cars, and armored vehicles put up right beside our table!  They open the doors and just sit in the vehicles.  All the guys ready for bear.
After lunch, we walk around and see a huge crowd gathered at a nondescript  intersection.  The intersection is small one of narrow cobblestone streets. From what I can see, its Macron’s wife meeting and greeting folks, hence why the huge police present in stand-by mode.  I’m sure her being there was a thrill for all in Caen.
After much walking, we head back to the house for our last Dinner in Caen. I’ve posted a separate video of that.
Also, with Emma’s help, I arrange for taxi to take us to the train station tomorrow. I don’t have a good feeling about that.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Video
Our Last Dinner in Caen. Great food and conversation.  We enjoyed our stay!
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 5th
Today is a rest day for all of us.  We’ve been pushing hard to get in as much as we can and after yesterday's emotional roller coaster, I needed a break.
After breakfast, we headed downhill into Caen’s village square.  It was decorated with flags from all the allies, and planters by students celebrating the day.  You could tell something big was in the air.  A lot of activity going on. People milling about, cleaning windows, sweeping, touching up paint.  I think Caen is about to be on display to the world.
Tumblr media
The ladies in my life were quite happy.  (Max’s pict was from the next day, but I had to include her). Andy looking dapper as always.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
A short walk from the town square was a gigantic former abbey that now houses the admin offices for the city.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
To say this town is beautiful would be a understatement.
After some exploring for the day, we made our way to the “Wal-Mart” style store in Caen to pick up a few things for dinner.  A superstore is a relativity new concept in France and you can tell.  People generally have a scowl on their faces, the shelving is a little disorganized. People tend to be very buggy aggressive. It like they don't quite know how to shop in this type of store. For us, it was a breeze.
I will say that we like the older style of shopping where you would go to individual small shops for bread, wine, meat, vegetables. We avoided the Wal-Mart as much as we could.
We made it back to the House.  Andy said that his watch indicated that we walked over 10 miles. Yikes!  No wonder I’m tired.  We had a great dinner and went to bed early.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Video
Little placing a flag at the bridge her great-grandfather fought. 
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Text
D-Day and Beyond June 4th
Tumblr media
This is a tough day for me.  I have a lot of emotion thinking about the invasion and the experiences those men and women went though, especially my grandfather.
We hooked up with our tour guide, Ezzedine Hosni.  He has a PhD in history and is a WWII buff, the absolute perfect tour guide.  His car is rather small even for European standards.  It was a tiny Renault. However, it had a third row back seat! Amazing.  The funny thing is that when we got in or out, it looked like a clown car, seven people for heavens sake.
Ezze asked us what we were interested to see.  Most chimed in with seeing an invasion beach, the american cemetery, and possibly where the 82nd airborne operated at.  I told him about my grandfather, Joseph Alexander Dobbs, a member of the 82nd airborne and that there was a bridge he fought and was wounded at. He thought for a moment, and said he had a great little plan for us. 
We piled into his car and off we went.  Since the crew was hungry, we made a stop in a little town called Bayeux.  This town was relativity unscathed during the war.  The cafe was quaint and charming in a very french sort of way. I did some exploring and I found a large church.  The church had a large military presence and to one side a buch of black SUVs lined up in the court yard.  Apparently there were some french and british VIPs getting ready for the parade.  We noticed the locals starting to line the streets. About this time Ezze comes running and says we need to leave or we’ll be trapped by the parade. We pile in and we’re off.
There’s no way I can recount what all we saw and did that day.  i’ll hit the high lights.
We went to the church in Sainte Mere Eglise. This is the church made famous in the John Wayne movie, “The Longest Day”.  Here some of the 82nd airborne dropped into the church and surrounding grounds. The drop is celebrated in stained glass of the church. (see below). Ezza siad that only Jesus and Amreican paratrooper are depicted in the stained glass.  It puts a lump in my throat to think of highly regarded Americans were to the French. 
Tumblr media
Hannah lit a candle for those paratroopers.
Tumblr media
We moved on in the tour.  Ezze had a surprise for us (mainly me).  He took us to the bridge the 82nd fought to capture and hold. History says capture of the bridge was a vital to the success of the invasion and was to be held at all costs.  Against overwhelming odds and relentless counter-attacks by the Germans, the 82nd held until relieved.  My Grandfather was part of that. Below is a picture of that bridge.
Tumblr media
We placed american flags at the foot of the bridge in honor and memorial of those men (especially my grandfather).. 
Tumblr media
He’s a plaque at the memorial across the street from the bridge.
Tumblr media
That’s all I have to say about that.
As if that weren’t enough, we made our final stop at the American cemetery. Any words I would have would not do it justice.
Tumblr media
What a day. I could go home right now and this trip would be an overwhelming success.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Video
The train from London to Portsmouth.
0 notes
rustyhyde · 5 years
Video
The ceremony on the ferry.
0 notes