Athens again

Athens is a city of 4.5 million people, the capital of Greece since the 1821 rebellion against the Ottomans. We took the standard half-day tour, starting at the 1896 Olympic Stadium built on the site of the classical Athens stadium.

Then on to the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier in front of the Parliament Building. The honor guard is chosen from each year's new recruits (1 year of service is mandatory for all males). Those selected must be 6'1" and weigh about 196 lbs - the perfect Greek male.

Next was the Temple of the Olympian Zeus. Here the original (475 BC) Doric columns were recut to be Corinthian columns in 131 AD. Originally this temple had 2 rows of 20 columns, but most fell in an earthquake in 560 AD.

And then we climbed to the Acropolis. Mary made it to the top, even though her knee has been painful. The acropolis (extreme city) was built at the peak of Greek power in the 5th century BC, when it was Athens was the head of the 212 city-states in the Delion league. We walked through the Propylaea, the monumental entrance to the Acropolis. At the top stood the Parthenon built over the course of 42 years completed in 432 BC. It is over 240 feet long and actually would have looked too long if seen from the old city, since the hill it is built on is only 5 feet higher. So it is positioned to be seen from the sea which is 580 feet below the Acropolis. The building looks straight but it is all curves - 4 inches taller in the center than the ends, and columns that lean inward to better survive earthquakes. It actually stood through the centuries until a gun powder explosion in 1690 during the Ottoman-Venetian wars. The Parthenon was originally built to thank Athena for victory over the Persians. But it isn't clear that it was ever dedicated as a temple, instead it served as a treasury.

The other smaller building is the Erechtheum built in 407 BC over what had been the palace of the king. It was built next to an Olive tree that legend says was given by Athena, a gift of light, light from olive oil.

The group at the Acropolis of Athens

We walked into the Plaka neighborhood, where Steven was trying to find a restaurant recommended by Frommer. We finally gave up and ate at a Greek family restaurant, Sholarhio. What luck! This was the best Greek meal we had. For 5 people, we could choose 12 dishes from a selection of 18 plus ouzo, wine, and dessert, all for 12 Euro a person. It was a great place to celebrate Mary's 57th birthday.

Everyone did a little shopping on our last day. Mark Kolhour and I did a dash through the Roman Aggora and the Temple of Hephaestus, the best preserved temple in Greece from 460 BC. We managed both of these in 45 minutes before the 5:00 PM closing time.

Temple of Hephaestus at sunset

A long day, we headed back to the hotel for showers, packing and some drinks before our short night - our flight is at 6:20 AM, wake up time at 3:00 AM.

All in all, it was a good trip. While we were disappointed with the cruise line itself and some its crazy itinerary - I wouldn't have missed Ephesus, Rhodes, and Santorini. The highlight was the days spent in Greece, extra time to explore Athens and the 4 day road trip to Olympia and Delphi. And, of course, it's always fun to do this with friends.

Kalambaka

View from our hotel window to the Meteroa

We're visiting the 14th century monasteries sitting on top of the "suspended rocks" in the Meteora area of Greece. Our first stop was St. Stephen's monastery built in 1300, burnt in 1941 and then rebuilt. It is a typical Greek Orthodox church with a Narthex for those yet to be baptized, the Nave (boat) with a dome above (heaven) and a sacristy hidden by a wall of icons and finely carved wood. The whole church is covered with icons. The Narthex was quite gruesome showing many martyrs and the last judgment. The Nave was filled with stories from the New Testament especially the Transformation and the Resurrection. An interesting belief is that the face of Christ in all their icons is based off the Shroud of Turin and the face of Mary from an icon painted by St. Luke.

St. Stephan's

We also visited the Monastery of St. Barbara with a similar church but the icons were the originals from the 14th century. There are 4 other existing monasteries and ruins of several others.

In the afternoon we traveled the 400 km. back to Athens and ended up having dinner about 9:30 PM, just like the Greeks. In all we've traveled 1400 km. in the last 4 days.

Delphi

It is believed that 6 temples have been built at Delphi, 3 of wood and 3 of stone. Why here, on the face of a mountain? The temples were built over a spring of methane gas, thus the priests who consulted the oracle were intoxicated. The last temple was built in the 4th century AD, after which Christianity took over from the Greek Gods. We entered an agorra, a market place where you could buy your offering after traveling long distances. Along the way were a series of statues, followed by the treasuries of the various city-states of Greece. All were made of local stone, except for the Athenian treasury which was made of marble. Then came the largest building, the temple of Apollo, of which only a few columns remain. Since there are both Greek and Roman ruins here, we learned to distinguish them by the columns: ridged and in layers connected by lead or brass are Greek, smooth and all in 1 piece are Roman. We also visited a theatre above the temple and then the stadium for the Pythian games with stone seats built in Roman times.

Athenian Treasury

The museum had many unique pieces. There was a Sphinx from 570 BC influenced by Egyptian art, the twins of Agros, a fine ceramic bowl of Apollo (480BC), and the Center of the Earth marker from the temple. Mythology talks about 2 eagles being released by Zeus in different directions around the world and they met at Delphi - the center of the Earth. The best piece was a charioteer at the moment of winning the Pythian games, made of bronze with eyes of enamel and ivory. It is so lifelike that you can see the muscles and veins of the hand.

Charioteer

In the afternoon, we drove to the region of Thessolonia, mostly through the mountains, which cover 60% of Greece, and then a large flat plain with lots of agriculture. As has been true in all of Greece, the skies are filled with smoke and smog. Apparently, this is because of the warm weather we've been experiencing which has winds from the South.

Olympia

Olympia, of course, is the home of the Olympics which were held every 4 years from the 8th century BC until the 4th century AD. Before and after the Olympics was a 6 month period of peace between all the city-states of Greece. Only Greeks could compete, but anyone including slaves and foreigners could watch the games (except for married women). The area was dominated by the temple of Zeus (460 BC). The East portal depicts the chariot race of Pelops and the west portico, the battle of Lapith and the Centaurs, both of these are in the museum. Second to the temple of Zeus is the temple of Hera (his wife) where the Olympic Torch is lit. Most of these temples were destroyed during an earthquake in 526 AD. We also saw the remains of many of the training rooms, the circular Philippcon, and a 5th century church, built here to signify the end of the Greek gods. Lining the way to the stadium are 16 bases of Zanes (statues of Zeus) paid for as a fine by the men and their towns who cheated at the games, only 16 cheaters in 1200 years. The stadium itself has grass rather than stone seats, because the Olympics were held at the full moon of August in the heat.

Results of 526 AD earthquake on Temple of Apollo

The museum here was superb with bronze offerings from the 9th century BC, the porticoes, the Nike of Paionios (the sculptor) which celebrated the victory of the Messenians and the Nasapactians over the Spartans, and a beautiful statue of Hermes. Sculpted by Praxiteles, he was the first to use human features to depict the gods in 340 BC.

Hermes with baby Dionysos

In the afternoon, we began our drive to Delphi, stopping in Patra to see the Basilica of St. Andrew.

Athens to Olympia

We collected people across 5 hotels and then headed into the countryside. Our first stop was the Corinth canal built in 1892 to connect the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, it is 4 miles long and 25 meters wide.

Lions Gate Mycenae

Then we visited Mycenae, a fortress palace built in 1300 BC. This site was explored by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1876. The Lions Gate had been exposed for centuries, but was mistakenly assumed to be of Venetian origin. Schliemann, who had already discovered the city of Troy, began digging behind the gates discovering 5 of the 6 royal graves eventually found in the grave circle. Mycenae was built with huge stones, some weighing 18 tons. In the 5th century BC, the Greeks couldn't build with stones this big, so they created the legend of the Cyclops to explain these walls. Nearby is the tomb of Agamemnon, a beehive tomb (shaped like a beehive inside) which has been preserved since 1350 BC.

Beehive tomb of Agamemnon

We had lunch in the port town of Nafplio which has a fortress in the middle of the harbor. Next stop was the Theatre at Epidourus, which seats 14000.

We spent the next 4 hours driving through the mountainous country with many hairpin turns arriving in Olympia well after dark. The hotel, Europa, was top notch with beautiful rooms and a courtyard leading to the pool.

Athens

Artemison Jockey, 140 BC

We disembarked from the Cristal bright and early this morning for the city of Athens. We must be spoiled, I can't recommend the Louis Cruise Line, they just didn't seem to respond to customer needs, whether it be our dining arrangements or mixing drinks. They sat 10 of us at a table for 8, meanwhile there were 3 tables for 10 sitting empty nearby.



We used the morning to visit the National Archaeological Museum, one of the best in the world. It contains numerous pieces of stone, marble, and bronze from the 5th C BC through the 2nd C AD. The intricacy of the bronze pieces and the true to life depictions of muscles, eyes and fingers make you realize how advanced Greek art was in the 5th Century BC. To quote from "The Greek Way" by Edith Hamilton: "No sculpture comparable to theirs; no buildings ever more beautiful; no writing superior.... Little is left of all this wealth of great art: the sculptures, defaced and broken into bits, have crumbled away; the buildings are fallen; the paintings gone forever; of the writings, all lost but a very few."

Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros 1 C BC

We checked into our hotel, the Oscar and lucked out - we have a huge suite with its own air conditioner. Everyone else is complaining about the stifling heat in their room because the air conditioning was turned off weeks earlier, but we're having 70 and 80 degree weather.

This was also our day for Greek meals. We had some chicken gyros for lunch at an outdoor cafe near the museum. In the evening, we took the Metro (built for the 2004 Athens Olympics) to the Psiri region to have dinner, Greek salad and kabobs.

Crete and Santorini

We arrived at 7:00 AM in Northeast Crete, the town of St. Nicholas and took the "Taste of Crete" tour. It started at an Olive plant where we view the old methods of pressing olives. We sampled olives and a liquor made from the remains of the olive after all the pressings. Then we visited a small village restaurant where we sampled olives, cheese pie, vegetable pie, tea, cheese, and yogurt with honey. There we were entertained by 2 men in traditional Greek dress.

Dancers in Crete

In the afternoon, we sailed into the Caldera of Santorini - what a sight! From a distance it looked life the cliff was covered with snow, but as we approached, I realized it was the white-washed buildings. We tendered in to the port and then took a cable car to the top of the cliff. We arrived in time for the sunset. Our entire group found a bar and watched the sunset from there. We did a little window shopping, but the tiny streets were soon packed with people. I hate to think how crowded and hot this must be in summer. But the weather was pleasant (in the 70's) 10-20 degrees above seasonal.

Sunset from the cliffs of Santorini

Rhodes

Temple of Athena, Lyndos, Rhodes

Rhodes is a large island of 540 square miles. We started our day by driving to Lindos with its acropolis. We climbed 300 stairs to the top, even Mary made it after being sick. (Though this appears to have damaged her knee for the rest of trip.) In Classical times, it had 3 large terraces with a temple to Athena at the top, 116 meters above the sea. From the top you see St. Paul's Bay where his ship capsized. In the 14th century, a Byzantine fortress was built on the acropolis.

We returned to the city of Rhodes to tour the medieval walled city, built by the Knights of St. John in the 14th century. These are the best preserved medieval walls in Europe. Today, it is filled with shops and restaurants, but also 6000 people live within the walls. Some of the key sights are the Palace of the Grand Masters (rebuilt 80 years ago when the Italians ruled Rhodes), the clock tower and the lodge & hospital of St. John.It is very impressive walking through the walled city.

Palace of the Grand Masters, Rhodes

Patmos and Ephesus

Our ship, the Cristal, docked at Patmos

We docked about 7 AM on the island of Patmos, a 13 square mile crescent shaped island. On the top of the hill is the monastery of St. John founded in 1088. We just wandered the small village along the port with its many white washed buildings.
In the afternoon we docked at Kusadasi and made the 20 minute drive to the home of the Virgin Mary. Here is a small chapel erected where her house was. She lived here with St. John, the evangelist, for the last years of her life. Then John went on to Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelations in a cave, the grotto of St. John.

Mary and John at Ephesus

We went on to Ephesus founded in the 11th century BC. Most of the ruins are from the Roman period when this seaport had 25000 inhabitants. Only about 13% of the city has been excavated. We walked down the main street with its marble roadway which used to be lined with columns. We had fun with a group picture at the public latrine with its marble seats. What was amazing to Mary and I was how much restoration had been done on the library of Celsus (once the 3rd largest in the world). Rather than just 1 face, the face has statues and a room behind the facade with passages to the Agorra to the right. The statues represent Wisdom, Character, Knowledge, and Judgment.

Library of Celsus

Our last stop was the grand theatre from the 3rd century, which has been reconstructed for concerts. Here St. Paul could have preached to up to 44000 people.

Mykonos and Delos

Mary spent the day in the cabin, mostly sleeping and eating a little.

Lions of Delos

Meanwhile we arrived at Mykonos about 2 PM and took a small boat to the island of Delos. Delos is the mythical birthplace of Apollo and the real capital of the Delosian league during the 5-6th centuries BC. In its peak in the 2nd C BC, this was an international free port, home to Greeks, Romans, Phoenicians, Persians, and many other nationalities. There were temples to the Gods of all these nationalities, but the site was dominated by 3 large temples to Apollo. In 88 BC, the island was destroyed and 20,000 of the 25,000 people were slaughtered in retaliation against the Romans. The most impressive of the ruins was 5 lions of at least 9 and the mosaics in some of the houses. The House of Bacchus (god of wine) in particular had a beautiful mosaic. Under the streets was a sewer system and many of the houses had marble wells where we could see the rope marks from hauling up the buckets of water. Finally we saw the 3rd C BC Greek theatre which held 6500 people in its 43 marble rows.

House of Bacchus, Delos

We returned to Mykonos about dark and saw the windmills and narrow streets with their white and blue houses, stores, and churches.

Dohlabahce Palace, Istanbul

Our first day on the ship, we stayed in Istanbul. Unfortunately, we woke up to a rainy day, anything from a sprinkle to a downpour. Instead of going to Topaki Palace which is across the river, we decided to walk the 2 km. to Dolmabahce Palace. This palace was built between 1842 and 1853 for the sultan. It is a traditional palace along the lines of Versaille or Peterhof. We visited most of the public rooms. Unique was the crystal staircase with its crystal balustrade and big elephant tusk incense holders at the top. But the breath-taking room was the throne room or Muayde Hall. It has a dome of 25 meters and is 2000 square meters in size. The chandelier is 4 1/2 tons with 664 bulbs made from Waterford crystal.

Throne Room Dolmabahce

Unfortunately, in the midst of the tour, Mary caught the Norwalk virus and had to leave feeling sick to her stomach. We took a cab to the dock, but still had a long walk in the rain with her feeling sickly. On board, we called the doctor, she was given a short which quickly took effect. Unfortunately, she needs to say in our interior cabin for 48 hours.

Istanbul

Our Trip

Today was the start of our 14 day trip to Greece and Turkey including 6 days cruising the Greek Islands. This was Mark Guiletti's idea to celebrate the start of his retirement, but the great thing is we're going with 8 other people that we know. We're going to try out Gate1 Travel, which a few others have tried, but this will be our first experience with them.
We (Mary, Mark and I) flew from Denver to Frankfurt and on to Istanbul on Lufthansa. Good meal and Mary managed to get extra Bailey's for 'sleeping'. We met Mark, Steven, and Darcy in Frankfurt and upon reaching the Orsep Royal hotel, there were Bill and Flo waiting for us. We all went out for dinner together in a nearby restaurant to officially start our trip.
We started our Istanbul tour at the former Hippodrome, which at the time held 100,000 people. Today, only the obelisk and central columns remain. Next stop was the Sultanahmet Mosque. The interior has 17th century blue tiles and windows leading to the familiar name - Blue Mosque. The Mosque will hold 7500 with another 7500 in the courtyard.
We also paid a short visit to the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Art, a former palance which overlooks the Hippodrome. Inside are a large collection of carpets from the 17th-19th centuries and a display of typical homes and rooms across the centuries.

Interior of Blue Mosque

The Church of Divine Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, was built by Justian in the 6th century. At the time, it was the largest church in the world (today it is the 4th largest) and it's dome was an engineering marvel. In 1453, it was converted into a Mosque after Istanbul was conquered by the Moslems. Many of the frescoe tiles were plastered over bcause they depicted people. In the restoration of the church they have slowly been recovering the original tiles. An interesting feature along the walls are the marble squares, where the marble stones were cut in two and laid next to each other to form symetrical patterns.
We finished off the day at the Grand Bazaar with its over 4000 shops under one roof. We stopped for lunch, gawking at the shops, and a few of us were buying. We walked back to our hotel, and then joined our cruise ship, the Cristal in early evening. There we were met by Panos from Gate1 travel. While not a guide, he was there to help us with choosing our side trips from the cruise.

Oklahoma City, OK

Well, today was a rough ride, Oklahoma’s I-40 must be one of the worst highways I’ve been on. Our primary stop was the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The museum starts with a lot of Western Art, including many paintings and sculptures by Russell and Remington. We were particularly impressed by one painting (I don’t remember the painter) which was of a cowboy leaning in a door, it looked 3 dimensional, and his boots seemed to point at you, no matter which angle you were looking from. We particularly enjoyed the display of cowboys from movies and TV – a lot of familiar names and many memories as we watched the film shorts. They also had a sizable section on Indian art. There were also sections on rodeo events, the soldier and cavalry in the west, a model Western town, and of course, guns and revolvers. If you are into Western Art, this is a top attraction. For us, it was an interesting museum. We ended the day by visiting the Oklahoma City National Memorial, commerating the 1995 bombing of the federal building. Here between the gates of time are the 168 chairs representing the people who died in the bombing.

The Memorial with gates of time, reflecting pool, and empty chairs

From here, we’re heading home without any major stops. We accomplished our major objectives: seeing the new museums and monuments in Washington D.C. a lot of civil war battlefields, and visiting all 50 states. What sticks in our minds most though is re-living so much of the civil rights movement from the 50's and 60s.

Little Rock, Arkansas

Today’s visit was to the Bill Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas. The museum started with his campaign for president and then went through the years ticking off the major accomplishments of his administration. In separate alcoves were major themes, like health care, economics, environment, the fight against terrorism. Here they summarized their positions and what progress as made. Now to some extent this was quite self serving on the other hand, it seemed amazing how much better off we were at the end of Clinton’s term than we are now: the economy was booming, worker productivity had soared, the government was running a surplus, we had helped Kosovo and Bosnia, but weren’t in the mess of Iraq; the new welfare system was working, and we had worked on preserving Social Security. Now some of this was the luck of the times, but some credit most go to his administration. The tour ended in a duplicate of the Oval Office, which was kind of neat.

Memphis, TN

In the morning we visited the Shiloh National Battleground. Here General Johnston and Beauregard of the Confederates attacked Grant’s Union Army to stop their advance into Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi. As in many of the other civil war battlefields we visited, one army delaying another army made the difference. The confederate army had come up from Mississippi without being seen, until a chance encounter at 5 AM in the morning. They took the Grant’s army by surprise, but one line in the center that held a low road, managed to hold off the Confederates for over 10 hours. In fact, it took the largest artillery bombardment so far in the war to weaken them, enough to be dislodged. They were finally over-run, but that gave Grant enough time to form a second line of defense further back near the Tennessee River. Even more important it gave a second army enough time to reinforce Grant’s troops. That night the Union cannons shot into the Confederate troops all night, not allowing them any sleep. The next day the Union soldiers with their superior numbers attacked and the Confederates had to retreat. One of the inventions of this battle was the first field hospitals, saving many lives by having doctors so close to the battle to handle the wounded.
In the afternoon, we visited Elvis Presley’s Graceland. The audio tour of the mansion was well done, displaying the public rooms on the 2 bottom floors with stories from Elvis or Lisa Marie to go with each room. But probably the highlight of the tour was seeing the many gold records, awards, and especially the costumes – all with your favorite Elvis tunes in the background. They finish up with a video tape of one his concerts in the 70’s. It makes you appreciate what an emotional singer he really was. We also toured his cars, including the famous pink Cadillac, and his airplanes. It was an enjoyable afternoon of reminiscing.

Elvis Outfits

Huntsville, AL

Our first stop was the NASA space and rocket center in Huntsville. I’d have to say that I was disappointed. While this is where they have space camp with lots of simulators, not much of that was included with admission to the museum. They did have two Saturn V rockets, one of which was laid out horizontally so you could examine all the rocket engines, and the Apollo capsule, another mounted vertically outside. Most of the museum seemed to emphasize the role of Werner Von Braun and the Huntsville center in building the rockets used in the 1960’s space program, with a little on the Space Lab and shuttle. We learned a lot about the rocket and Space Lab hardware, but except for Von Braun, the human aspect seemed to be missing (compared to the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Florida).

Later in the day we visited the Rosenbaum home in Florence, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The home is built next to the river and consists primarily of cedar and red brick. The home emphasizes its horizontal lines to fit into the terrain. Inside are 20” doors, lots of windows (which double as doors) and lots of cedar and red colored tile. As in most of Wright’s homes, he also designed the furniture and part of his architectural agreement is that you can’t use other furniture.

Birmingham, AL

We arrived here about noon from Atlanta. First stop was the Arlington Antebellum plantation. This house had been built in the 1850’s and had been through 4 owners before becoming a museum in 1954. Not much of the furniture was original, but saw and heard new things: A corner chair was designed for men with swords, so they could wear the sword while sitting, or for a lady with a hoop dress. There was a piece in the reception hall that had a low mirror, so the ladies could see if there petticoats were showing before they left the house. Then there were stairs to one of the beds (because it was so high), that also stored the chamber pot. Since ladies often had pock marks from small pox or chicken pox, they would wear beeswax on their face to hide the blemishes. This led to expressions like “cracking a smile” or “don’t melt your beeswax”.
Our second stop was the Civil Rights Museum. This followed up very well with our Martin Luther King visit yesterday. Birmingham was one of the hold-outs to desegregation, and had a large share of violence. Here was where Rosa Parks didn’t give up her seat on the bus, eventually leading to the desegregation of public transportation. Downtown businesses remained segregated for years, until over 800 youths were arrested in a march. The businesses finally backed down. Here too, was a lot of violence, when the freedom buses rode through town. Freedom buses were ridden by a mix of black and whites in accordance with the court decisions. Unfortunately, about half the museum was being renovated, but I would highly recommend this museum if you’re interested in the history of black gaining equality.

Atlanta, GA

Stone Mountain

Our campground is in Stone Mountain Park, which is largely a tourist trap, but because it is the off-season things are relatively quiet. (I'd highly recommend this campground, beautiful sites and close to Atlanta.) We got a view of the carving of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on the mountainside. I must admit I wasn’t impressed compared to Mt. Rushmore or Crazy Horse. We saw it briefly at night and then again in the morning.

Mary and the Coke Polar Bear

Our highlight of the day was the World of Coke – it gave quite a lot of the history, particularly about how it was a marketing miracle. They put the Coke logo on just about anything, since everyone needed a calendar that was the most common item. They also had several movies showing many of the famous Coke advertisements from around the world, including the famous ones with the little boy offering his coke to Mean Joe Greene, and the “I want the world to sing…”. Of course, they had a miniature bottle plant and then ended with a 4D movie trying to find the secret ingredient of coke (unique taste, universal availability, uniform quality, and you).
Then we spent a brief time at the Martin Luther King Historical site, near his birthplace. They did an excellent job of covering his life, largely through video clips and in his own words. Though I had remembered how he advocated non-violent protest, I hadn’t realized that he had actually studied Gandhi’s use of non-violent protest in India. He concluded that it was the best method to gain civil rights in the U.S.
That evening we visited with a college fraternity buddy, Bob Biagioni. We hadn’t seen each other since 1981 and since then he had moved to Germany, several places in the U.S., divorced, remarried, had a daughter, and retired. So we had a lot to catch up on.

Charlotte, NC

Last night, we found a superb Italian Restaurant, DeMarco's Italian Grill, 1741 Gold Hill Road near the Charlotte/Fort Mill KOA. They had a very tasting house dressing, which was different from anything we'd ever had, and the bread! Delicious! And the main dish was great too.

We opened the Museum of the New South this morning in Charlotte. The museum covers the history of this area from the Civil War through the Civil Rights movement. Economically, this area went from primarily tenant farmers growing cotton to entire families in mill towns working in the cotton mills. After the civil war, the restrictions that you had to own at least 100 acres to vote went to universal suffrage for males, allowing quite a few blacks to hold office. Then in the 1890’s, the poll tax ($2 paid in the spring, when you needed money to plant), and literacy tests (what does the right habeas corpus mean?) were added, preventing blacks and most poor whites from voting. In the early 1900’s the official segregation began – different schools, and public accommodations. The museum spent a lot of space showing how typical people lived from unpainted wooden shacks to company housing. After World War II, blacks started going after their rights, through a series of court decisions and defiant actions (sit-ins at lunch counters) they eventually gained equality. Charlotte has become the second biggest banking center in the U.S. with Bank of America and Wachovia two of the major banks headquartered here.

Appomattox Court House

McLean House at Appomattox Court House

Today, we went to the town of Appomattox Court House where General Lee surrendered to Grant. Now I always thought that meant he surrendered in the Court House, but no that was the complete name of the town. He actually surrendered in the McLean House in that town. This was after Sherman’s troop had captured the last of 4 railroads entering Petersburg, VA. This was the primary rail center that supplied Richmond. At the same time, Grant’s army had stretched out the smaller Army of Northern Virginia, allowing them to attack through the thinned lines. Lee had to move his troops west, trying to get resupplied with food and then rejoin the other Confederate troops outside Danville, VA. But the Union army moved faster and managed to capture their supplies before the Confederate troops could reach them. Meanwhile, Lee lost about a 1/5 of his troops fighting the Union on the way. Finally, at Appomattox, they ended up surrounded on 3 sides with a swelling river on the fourth. The fight was over. General Grant was generous, he asked that they lay down their arms, and then he would parole the Confederate soldiers allowing them to return home, as long as they promised not to renew the fight. Both sides treated each other with dignity through the surrender. We learned a lot through the combination of 2 films, a talk from a confederate solider, and touring the grounds.

We ended the day just south of Charlotte, NC. On the way, we paid a short visit to Cannon Village with a small museum on the textile industry here (Cannon towels). It was not worth the time.

Richmond, VA

We had decided that one of the themes for this trip, was the Civil War, so today we visited two battlefields in the morning, Spotsylvania and Chancellorsville.
Chancellorsville occurred in May, 1863 as Lee was moving his troops North eventually to get to Gettysburg (Harrisburg, PA was his target again, just like in 1862). The brilliant move by Lee, was to have Stonewall Jackson to a quick march around the Union’s flank and attack them. This allowed them to roll up the Union army, but in the process, Jackson was shot by his own troops.

Spotsylvania occurred in 1864 as Grant was moving his troops to take Richmond. It was a several day battle and resulted in both sides losing about 20% of their troops. Grant kept on attacking because he had superior numbers, but Lee managed to hold throughout. In the end, Grant disengaged, and worked his way around Lee.

Our final stop was the Confederate museum, including the Confederate White House. The white house was most interesting. Even though most of it’s contents had been sold at auction in 1870 and the house converted to a school for 30 years, they managed to restore it, and get back much of the furnishings (including a bed, purchased on Ebay in 2004). Something we hadn’t seen before was a removal floor covering in the receiving area. It looked like a stone flooring, but was actually a carpet, so that they could remove the mud and dirt dragged into the house. The Confederate museum, had many swords and uniforms from various confederate officers. What it did best, however, was to provide a chronological line of the various Civil War battles.

Holocaust Museum

Today we spent about 3 hours in the U.S. Holocaust Museum. After visiting the holocaust museum in Jerusalem, and the documentation museum in Nuremberg; we were quite amazed at how much we learned here. The top floor of the museum provides a lot of background on how the Nazi party blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Jews and Communists. When Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, the Nazi’s quickly took power, outlawing all the other parties, and began their crusade against Jews, Gypsy’s, homosexuals, and the mentally retarded. What was sad was hearing how countries refused to accept the Jews - they didn’t want to import a problem. This background was better done than other museums, we’ve been to. The next floor was on the war years – all of the Jewish ghettos and death camps. They had many artifacts from the piles of shoes, to a table where gold fillings were removed. The final floor told the story after the war, and how many Eastern European Jews were fearful to return to their homes because of discrimination, thus began the move to Palestine. Again, most countries refused to accept the many people who were displaced and lost everything during the war. We finished our day by going to the World War II Memorial and a special exhibit in the Smithsonian about Jim Henson and the Muppets.

World War II Memorial

International Spy Museum

We had to wait for the repair on our trailer which was completed about 1:30 PM. It turns out that a spring on the trailer brakes had broken, eventually causing damage to the drum and the tire.
Then it was off to the International Spy Museum. This was a fun museum. It starts with the tools of the trade: disguises, cameras, microphones, lock picks, radios from World War I to the present day. Then a section covers spy history – this starts with the Trojan war and includes our Revolutionary and Civil War, and then finally the 20th century, especially during World war II and the Cold War. As part of the gimmick, they give you an identity and a mission which you have to remember as you go through the museum. We spent over 2 1/2 hours there, well worth the price of admission.

Washington, D.C.I

Iwa Jima Memorial

I spent these days at the World Congress for Software Quality. My talk was the first day, it went well. I had a few people come and tell me how useful they found the talk, and others who referenced it during their talks. Mary spent the first 2 days at the trailer, working to get the drum on our trailer repaired (one of the studs was completely sheared in West Virginia). On the 18th, Mary went to the brand new “Newseum” which just opened this year. It provides the history of recording the news from early papers, to TV national news, to the latest blogs. The FBI has also moved a lot of their museum here, so you can read about their big cases. On Thursday night, we took a tour of the monuments at night. The key stops were the Iwa Jima memorial, the Korean, Vietnam, and Lincoln memorials, Jefferson, and the Roosevelt memorials. I actually don't recommend this night tour – while you need to see Washington at night; the Vietnam and Roosevelt memorials should be seen in daylight.

Antietam, Maryland

Before heading to D.C., we stopped at the Antietam Battlefield. We learned a lot about this battle, since we watched 2 movies, heard the ranger talk, and then took the car tour around the battlefield. The battle occurred on September 17th, 1862. This was General Robert E. Lee’s attempt to bring the war to the North. His target was Harrisburg, PA, but McClelland’s army caught up with them here. They could have ended the entire war here, because Lee had split up his army in order to capture Harper’s Ferry, but McClellan thought he was outnumbered by Lee. The Union army was not well organized, and they made 3 separate attacks, and Lee moved his troops around to hold his lines from each attack. They could have been caught against the Potomac, but just when all was lost, the troops from Harper’s Ferry arrived behind the Union army. The battle ended a draw, but 23000 soldiers were killed, the bloodiest day in the war. Even though it was a draw, most of 1862 had been Confederate victories, with this battle, Lincoln felt he could now proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

Virginia

Mary with John and Betty

Today is primarily a drive and visit friends day. We started off with a scare, however. When leaving the campground, I looked behind me and noticed my trailer wheel was wobbling. The entrance to the park was 10 miles of very winding road, and it must have loosened the nuts on one of the wheels from all the bending back and forth. One of the bolts was actually sheered off, but I managed to tighten the other 5 nuts and we rode the rest of the day without incident (checking the lug nuts at every rest stop).
Tonight, we had dinner with John and Betty Calabria, whom we had met on the Machu Pichu trip. We had a delicious dinner primarily fruits and vegetables from their garden with the family recipe for Italian sausage. Of course, we shared travel stories for most of the evening and witnessed a beautiful Appalachian Mountain sunset.

Frankfurt, Kentucky

John Brown's House

Our primary stop today was Liberty Hall in Frankfurt, Kentucky, the capital city. We got a little lost because of poor directions and road construction. But when I stopped to figure out where we were, we were right in front of Liberty Hall. We tried to stop at the Frankfurt cemetery to see Daniel Boone’s grave, but there wasn’t any parking for our trailer nearby, so we returned to Liberty Hall for the noon tour. The first house was built about the turn of the 19th century by John Brown. He was instrumental in Kentucky becoming a state. For a while, some had considered becoming part of the Spanish empire (remember the land west of the Mississippi was claimed by Spain at this time). He also became the first senator from Kentucky, re-elected twice. The house he built was the first brick mansion of Frankfurt. What was amazing about the house, was the fact that most of the furniture was still the original furniture that John Brown had bought. Our tour guide was knowledgeable about the house and family to a fault – he went on for too long. We also toured the house next door, built for Orlando Brown, his son. The Brown family played important roles for many years, both nationally and in Kentucky.

Tonight, we’re just inside West Virginia at a Beech Fork State park. It has over 200 sites and we’re living in luxury with air conditioning on, water and sewer. It’s been over 90 degrees, so the AC is needed.

St. Louis

Gateway Arch

We continued traveling east on I-70 to St. Louis. Here we visited the Jefferson Memorial Park, better known as the Gateway Arch to the West. Of course, St. Louis was the gateway to the West for many years, when the primary means of travel was originally the Missouri river, then the wagon train. It’s the Jefferson memorial because he completed the Louisiana purchase and commissioned the Louis and Clark expedition. We watched the National Geographic special on this expedition while we were there.
With the advent of the railroad, the gateway to the West moved to Chicago, because the trains went west from there, crossing the Mississippi at Rock Island, Illinois. St. Louis to regain its status decided to build a bridge across the Mississippi. The Eads bridge still stands today, at the time it was a fairly new concept, a cantilevered bridge, with 3 huge spans across the river. You can get a good view of the bridge and the entire downtown area of St. Louis from the top of the arch. To get there, we took these claustrophobic tram cars, each of which sits 5 people. Mary closed here eyes as went up. When we were ready to go down, we had a ‘red alert’. The tram we were planning to use stopped part way up. They finally made it to the top, but we were asked to use the North tram as they inspected the South tram for problems. This really increased Mary’s confidence in the system.

We camped in a beautiful National Forest campground with electricity that evening. We asked for a restaurant for dinner and went to a tavern in Leopold, Indiana about 5 miles from our campground. Since it was Friday night, the place was packed with locals out for the evening. (The ribs were very good.)

Kansas City

We’re on our way out to Washington, D.C. because I’m going to give a paper on software quality at the World Congress on Software Quality next week. So we decided to make this an RV trip to Washington and then pick up our missing states (S. Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama for both of us, and Arkansas and Oklahoma for me) to have visited all 50 states. So this will be a quick trip out to the East Coast with a more leisurely return. Yesterday, was all driving through Colorado and Kansas. Today, is our first tourist stop, the National World War I museum in Kansas City, MO.

This museum is not quite 2 years old. We’re here because last year, we found out how little we knew about WW I, when we visited Canada’s War Museum. The museum starts with a glass bridge over 9000 poppies, each representing a 1000 lives lost in WW I. An introductory film leaves you with the impression that no one is really certain why WW I began – yes, there were a lot of secret alliances built between countries over the previous decades, a lot of countries had built a lot of war munitions, Europe was beginning to taste more democracy rather than being ruled a monarchs, and, of course, there was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Slovakia. But it seems like it just started, and then escalated quickly to a world war because of the alliances.

Germany’s plan was to quickly conquer France by going through Belgium to conquer Paris, then handle the Russians on their Eastern Front. But they got bogged down north of Paris, and the French counter-acted through a hole in their lines. This led to the trench warfare of the western front. The combination of several lines trenches, barbed wire protecting them, and machine guns meant little forward progress was made by either side for years. While there were many offensives, they were costly in the lives lost, and seldom were permanent gains.

Another movie explained how the U.S. finally entered the war. It was partly the German U boats sinking passenger ships, but mostly the Zimmerman letter to Mexico asking them to go to war with the U.S. This finally persuaded President Wilson and congress to enter what they considered a European war. The combination of American troops and tanks that could clamber over barbed wire and protect the soldiers from machine guns allowed enough of an offensive against the Germans to end the war.

World War I Tank

South African Wines

We're on our way to wine country which is just north of Cape Town. It took about 45 minutes to drive out of the city and into farms and vineyards which bank against the Dragonstein Mountains. On the way we stopped into the oldest Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. The KWV winery was in the town of Paarl. This was a huge complex. They showed us their underground concrete tanks, which were used before the stainless steel vats. We tasted about 7 different wines incluing a Pinotge, a bright purple wine with a unique flavor. Then we spent a little time in Franschhock, the french corner, a delightful town with more dutch architecture. On our way to Steelenbosch we stopped into a small winery which primarily made wine blends. There rose' was judged best in South Africa this year and tasted so. In Stellenbosch we had a nice lunch in the 1802 restaurant and then explored the town and did a little shopping.

KWV Wine Gallery

On our way back, we passed a lot of townships. Here you find a lot of 2 bedroom homes which were built for the blacks, and lots of shanties primarily made of bricks and tin. A mix of dirt poor and those doing better.

We had a home dinner with Edgar and Mollie, a colored family (mix of Indian and white) with 3 grown kids. Edgar is a school and tour bus driver, Mollie a cook for the nursery school. Edgar explained that there life hasn't changed much - whites used to control things, now blacks do. And their form of affirmative action favors the blacks getting job over coloreds. They are fearful of the new ANC leader who may become president next year - a common thug (which we've heard from others). Yet they were also hopeful of the mayor of Cape Town, a white woman who is color blind and gets things done.

Cape of Good Hope

We started our day by visiting the Kirstenbosch Gardens. The southern tip of Africa is a unique plant zone in the world, called the Cape Floristic Region. Since it's winter, there were only a few flowers in bloom, but we saw a large variety of protea and aloe and a Cycad, a prehistoric plant that predates most plant species.

African Penguins

We then visited an African Penguin rookery. As usual, he penguins were fun to watch and so was their video "City Slickers" which won an academy award. It traced the life of 2 penguins an their baby from this colony. An oil slick threatened a third of the entire African penguin population, but thanks to heroic efforts only 5% were lost.

We had a superb lunch nearby fish wrapped in bacon, then on to the Cape of Good Hope, the most southwesterly point of Africa. The wind was wild there and the surf was high. We also went to the top of Cape Point nearby where you can view the Cape of Good Hope. On top was a lighthouse to warn ships of Bellow Rock below, a rock that just under sea level. But they had to build a 2nd lighthouse lower down because the top lighthouse was often obscured by clouds. The cape is all park land and looks a lot like tundra with the plants being unique, of course. On the way out we saw some bontebok, a South African antelope.

Cape of Good Hope

We had dinner at La Palma, a nearby Italian restaurant - a superb meal and it only cost about $25 for the two of us.

Cape Town

Cape Town and Table Mountain

We started the day by taking the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain which dominates the city. From there we could look down 2000 feet to Cape Town or across to Lions Head, a rocky formation. The wind was blowing and after about 10 minutes the clouds blew in, destroying the view. Table Mountain consists of granite on the bottom, then shale, and finally sandstone at the top.
We also did a tour of downtown, a mixture of historic buildings and new. The old fortress, Castle of Good Hope, is now inland due to the filling in of Table Bay to expand the downtown. We passed a number of museums and the Parliament building.
In the afternoon we toured Robben Island, where the political prisoners were kept during the apartheid years. This tour was one of the most gripping, we've ever taken. It started with a 35 minutes bus tour around the island to see the historic buildings. Our guide was very articulate, funny and praise worthy of the countries who had helped South Africa. The island was a leper colony from 1845 to 1931, when Irish priests and nuns settled in Irish Town to care for the lepers. From 1931 to 1939 the island was deserted. From 1939 to 1959 it was a military base for the British. We saw a number of battery formations, guns, and cannon. From 1960 to 1991 it was a prison island with 4 different prisons: the old prison, the medium security prison (which is now a school), the maximum security prison, and the Sobukwe house, where Robert Subukwe was imprisoned for 6 years, never allowed to speak or be spoken to.
One of the last stops was the lime quarry where the prisoners worked 8 hours a day. We could see a cave, which served as their latrine, lunch place, and the 'university', where the educated prisoners (30% were literate) taught the others, and also discussed politics. Next to it was a pile of rocks, laid their in 1995 when former political prisoners reunited on the island.


Our last stop was the maximum security block, home to Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment. We met Modisac, who was sentenced here for 5 years, arrested as a student activist at age 16. This was at a time, in 1961, when you could undergo unlimited time in detention, followed by a prison term for even mentioning "ANC" or "Mandela". Modisac told us of some of the torture he endured, having his tongue stretched with a pair of pliers, pins put under his fingernails, and having a stick put up his penis. He contemplated suicide 3 times, but thoughts of his family and especially his mother kept him going. The prisoners could write one 500 word letter every 4 months and have a 30 minute visit every 6 months. Modisac said that at the end of 5 years, he was filled with hate and wanted revenge against his captors.
This is where I began to understand what a powerful leader Nelson Mandela was. He preached that the prison wardens are not your enemy - they had been conscripted and taught how to torture, that what South Africa needed was freedom for all South Africans. We could not afford a violent struggle, we must negotiate for our rights, we must forgive, otherwise violence would beget violence and destroy the country.
The cells were designed to hold 20 people, and would have 40-50 prisoners with concrete floors and 2 buckets. The prisoners only wore shorts and a shirt, winter or summer. In 1974, they were given mats to sleep on, then in 1978 they got bunk beds.
It was a powerful story and had most of us in tears - we couldn't help but see the parallels between South Africa then, and Zimbabwe now. Yet South Africa, ended up with a powerful new leader in Nelson Mandela, who performed miracles with his truth and reconciliation boards - where the truth came out, but people were forgiven, and South Africa has thrived since then.

Livingstone to Cape Town

Devil's Cauldron (Victoria falls from Zimbabwe)

Our travels started by crossing the river into Zimbabwe. We spent 1 1/2 hours touring the falls from this side. You can see about 2/3rds of the falls from here, even though only 1/3 of the falls is officially in Zimbabwe. We had a lot of mist obscuring the falls in the sun, but we didn't get as soaked as the Zambian side.


On the way to the airport, we stopped where we had left our bags 15 days earlier. It was also a chance for Chamu to stash his cash some of the food staples. he had bought in Zambia. It was a 'mock' election day in Zimbabwe. Because of extreme violence, the opposition candidate against Mugabe had withdrawn from the race. There have been a lot of killings and violence from the police.


Now that we've left the country, I feel I can write some of the stories we've heard. Our trip leader is from Zimbabwe, he completed college and became a game warden here. A lot of his job involved tracking poachers which is very dangerous since the wardens are unarmed. He became a game guide before becoming a tour leader, which is an upper middle class job here. But there are few food staples in the stores and meat is scare. That's why Chamu tired to buy food in Zambia and Botswana. Inflation is ridiculous here - the Zimbabwe dollar went from 3.5 billion to $1 US to 10.5 billion to $1 US in the 15 days we've been traveling. Our guide is fearful for his children, they probably won't get the education he has and their future is very uncertain. His wife and brother were threatened with arrest several months back. They had saved $2000 US for an electric generator. His wife called his brother to exchange US$ to Zimbabwe$ to buy the generator. The conversation was overheard and the police grabbed both of them, but for $2000 US the problem disappeared.


We flew from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg and then on to Cape Town arriving at our hotel at about 9 PM. A long day- we're ready for bed.

Helicopter over Victoria Falls

We had our first helicopter ride this morning over Victoria Falls. The wives did a 15 minute trip in a figure 8 around the falls and up the river to view the wildlife in the park. They actually let me volunteer to wait for the next helicopter for a 30 minute ride - I also got to go down through the Zambezi river canyon only 50 meters over the water with the canyon walls around me. All of us were awed by the falls, never seen anything like this drop into a canyon.

Victoria Falls from the helicopter

In the afternoon, we did a sunset cruise on the Zambezi. Highlights were a set of 4 water monitors and then seeing a crocodile with a water monitor in its mouth.

Sunset on the Zambezi

On to Livingstone, Zambia

Hippos resting

We went out for a short game drive in the morning. It started with a puff adder on the road just outside camp, apparently they don't have a good antidote to the venom. Our guide told us about a child in his village who got bit on the ankle, she lived, but can only walk on one side of her foot. We primarily spotted birds, the prettiest being the scarlet chested sunbird. We apparently just missed seeing an elephant (there are only 5000 in this 26000 square kilometer park, so they are hard to find). We ended at the hippo pond where hippos were resting their heads against the bodies of other hippos to sleep.

About 1:30 PM we flew to Livingstone. The pilot got permission to fly over Victoria Falls- what a unique falls. It crashes into a canyon, which causes the spray to fly straight up on the air currents. The natives called this Mosi-o-Tunya, the smoke that thunders. The falls drops 98-108 meters and is 1.7 kilometers or 1 mile wide. Upon landing, we did a walking tour of the Zambian side of the falls. We would see about 1/3 of the falls from this side, though during the dry season, this side dries up. We wore our ponchos to walk through the spray on the jutting peninsula opposite the falls. It was quite impressive.

Victoria Falls from the air

Everyone was nervous about where we would stay, but what a surprise. Toka Leye Lodge is a new (opened in May) wilderness camp in the Mosi-o-Tunya National Park outside Livingstone. Beautiful tens with glass windows and best of all: air conditioning and HEAT! We even had blankets for our legs while eating dinner in the outdoor pavilion.

Zambia is a country of 11.5 million people whose primary industries are copper mining, agriculture (we saw large irrigated fields of wheat, corn and bananas). They can grow 2-3 crop per year. The country has people who speak 73 different languages. But like all the countries around here, most people live in small villages and the unemployment rate is about 75%.

More sightings in Kafue NP, Zambia

This morning's game drive was rather quiet - we only saw things we had seen before: our pride of lions, kudu, puku, impala, and lots of birds. We did add a new beautiful bird the woodland kingfisher. About 10:30 we dashed back to camp as the tsetse flies came out.

In the afternoon, Chamu gave us a quiz. Some of the more interesting questions were social in nature. "Why its difficult to move people to create a national park?" They have to leave their buried ancestors. "What do you say to encourage these young democracies, how do you stop the poaching of elephants and rhinos?"

After our quiz, we took a cruise and had a unique sighting (none of the guides had ever seen), a kudu swimming across the river. Probably chased by a predator, it was at great risk of being found by the crocodiles. For the rest of the cruise we saw birds - white-fronted bee-eater, senegal coucal, giant kingfisher, and green backed heron (which attracts fish by dropping fish into the water).

Giant Kingfisher, Woodland Kingfisher, Green-backed Heron, Senegal Coucal

We then drove back finding 3 cheetahs on our way. We stopped for sunset and had a campfire waiting for us with a portable bar and hor-d'oeurves. After dark, we spotted white tailed mongoose, jennets (another mongoose that looks like a cat) and some bush rabbits, all nocturnal animals.

The 3 wives (Ruth, Cindy, Mary) and John at sunset

Cats and new antelope, Kafue NP, Zambia

Early on we saw defassa waterbuck, puku (like an impala without the white streaking and M on its butt) and oribi, only 2 feet tall at the shoulder and about 30 lbs.
But as we were jeeping I saw the silhouette of a cat in the bushes next to us. We had come upon 6 cheetahs walking through the brush. Neither our tour leader nor any of the guides had ever seen more than 4 at a time, so this was a rare sighting.


Four of our six cheetahs

We saw a variety of birds and trees and then on the way back found a pride of 4 lions, a young male and 3 females. This pride had been commonly found about 1/2 mile from our camp.


On the evening drive, we revisited our lion pride and then were discovered by tsetse flies. They became a constant nuisance, everyone slapping them away with an occasional bite until the sun finally set. We returned in the dark, searching for leopards. Just before reaching camp there was a leopard in the road. We called the other vehicle and together followed it through the brush, getting several sightings of the leopard. Six cheetah, 4 lions, and a leopard all in one day (not to count the hundreds of tsetse flies).

4 Lions watching the antelope

Where in Zambia will we end up?

Today will be an adventure since even Chamu, our tour leader, doesn't know exactly how we're getting to our alternative camp in Zambia. We started with a chilly drive to the airstrip, then a flight to Kasane, we were bussed to the Chobe river, where we took a small boat across to Zambia, then bussed to Livingstone where we boarded 3 planes to the Lufapa river camp outside Kafue National Park. Having left at 7 AM, we reach our camp about 3 in the afternoon.

While we were travelling we saw a lot of bush fires from the air. When they created the park, they gave fishing rights to the native people. When the river floods the fish go downstream to spawn. The natives set poles in the river to wedge the fish and spear them. As they are walking the land they set fires ahead of them to drive the animals away and see better. The fires primarily burn the grass, sparing the trees.

In the evening we took a cruise up on the tributaries of the Kafue river. Lots of birds, a water monitor, crocodile and a pod of hippos. We startled a hippo near the boat as he came up for air, in turn we were startled as he quickly submerged.

Hippos in the river

A little about our camp, Lufapa. The camp was scheduled to open on July 1st. OAT called and made arrangements for it to open 2 weeks early. Wilderness, the vendor, grabbed employees from other camps in Zambia, and sent them here 4 days ago, since the eventual employees and managers are on holiday (after building this camp over the last 5 months). Some of the toilets were just installed, the food arrived hours before we did, and a lot of little things are missing like waste baskets and tissues. They seem to have done an amazing job in just 4 days of pulling this together.