Jeanne Munn Bracken's Ramblings

29/05/2023

Low tech here and can’t get the Littleton Moms group to understand I am a member. Anyway, question: Does anybody know the route of the parade tomorrow? Does it go straight down King St from Donelan’s to Woodlawn or does it divert along Shattuck St?
My porch is in the questionable zone

16/09/2022

Yellowstone NP is awesome. It was about 32degrees this morning but warmed up and the only time it rained, we were in transit on a tour bus. We saw Old Faithful erupt, crossed the Continental Divide, saw bison and elk and a variety of winged species. The cascade is the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, forming the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
More Yellowstone tomorrow. The altitude is playing hell with my breathing😳

13/09/2022

Shots from our travels including a pic of Kathie and me atop the Space Needle. Very vertigo-inducing. Also “Sealife” at the Chihuly museum. The Rose Gardennat Washington Park in Portland. A shot of Yosemite but I can’t remember if it is El Capitan or Halfdome. Some street art in SF and the Bay waterfront in Sausalito. ( There was a bookstore right there. Life is good.)

05/09/2022

From Seattle, let’s talk about elevators. I mean, you get in, push a button, and get wafted on high, presto, right?
Um, not any more. The elevator problem started at our first hotel, in Toronto. We arrived at 3 am, not my finest hour, and the bell guy put us in an elevator from the street level to the registration desk. I was beyond exhausted, leaning on the elevator wall, until the wall moved, dumping me on the lobby floor on my butt. Took a bit of maneuvering to get me back on my feet.
Ok no harm done.
Then returning the next night again exhausted, we headed to the hotel elevator bank and pressed our floor number. Except there was no room with our number. Stumbling around wearily, we went back to the lobby and asked for help. Turns out there are TWO towers, TWO elevator banks, and NO relevant signage.
We hiked across the vast lobby, found the correct elevator bank, and entered a waiting car. Except it would not respond to our various picks, and to be honest, foul language. We switched to the adjacent elevator, where other guests joined us and blithely tapped the controls with their room key, and voila! We piggybacked on them and found our room.
Move on to Vancouver. Room on the 8th floor. Bell guy escorted us up and I failed to take notes of how he communicated with the elevator gods. So when we tried to go to the pub on the lower level, we first failed because there were two elevators and ONE DIDN’T GO TO THE LOWER LEVELS. Switched elevators again and got there. Whew, right? Nope, getting back to the 8th floor, we found the correct elevator but pushing buttons didn’t work. Tapped our room card on the controls like we finally remembered seeing someone do.
Nope. We stood there feeling pretty dumb until a pair of guests MASSAGED the card on the sensor and we were on our way.
Then, Seattle. We are on the 18th floor. The bell guy hauled our suitcases up (there is a reason it’s called LUGgage) but I did note in passing that there was an explanation next to the elevator banks.
Didn’t pay attention.
Should have.
Decided to get ice. Cursory glance at sign on our floor said ice and vending, 17th and 19th floors.
Read the directions, entered 17 on the hall keypad, was directed to Bank A. Car appeared, took me down one flight. Quickly found the vending closet. Discovered that my reading comprehension is also on vacation.
Ice is on the 18th floor. Right across from our room.
Enjoyed my ice water until we decided to go to dinner in the hotel lounge. 3D floor. Pushed 3 on the hall keypad. Got on board, looked at signage and realized the lounge is on the 2d floor. Could not correct my error since THERE ARE NO BUTTONS IN THE ELEVATOR. Went down to the lobby in the car with other guests. Started over. Put 2 on the lobby keypad and was told to go to Bank A. (The elevators had numbers but also letter bank indicators.) stood by A waiting. And waiting. Meanwhile my boon travel companion Kathie had disappeared, which was mildly troubling because she may be the only living human less technically able than I am.
No elevator appeared. I re-entered the info. Finally Elevator A appeared, laden with so many guests it resembled a clown car. When the car finally emptied, I jumped in, the elevator magically took me to the 2d floowhere I was reunited with Kathie, who had somehow ended up on the 21st floor.
That is when we discovered that the lounge is not on 2 or 3. It is on 2 1/2 and THE ELEVATOR DOESN’T STOP THERE.
We climbed the half flight, had a nice dinner, and after wobbling back down the half flight, I am proud to announce that we returned to the 18th floor without incident.
As they say, travel is educational.

03/09/2022

This is an interior and an exterior shot of Glacier Park East Lodge where we are staying 2 nights. The scenic shot is Two Medicine Lake, which we cruised today. I am running out of superlative adjectives so fill in your own!
Tomorrow we take the GOING TO THE SUN ROAD which I hear is rather scary for people who are afraid of heights. I am more worried about the altitude, since our current 4950 feet is making me tired and walking even more difficult than usual. Still, I Persevere!

02/09/2022

Arrived at Glacier Park Lodge this afternoon and have had a quiet day of rest. The scenery is just awesome. Mountains near and far. Rushing rivers with the occasional swimmer or raft floating down. The lodge is over a hundred years old and just spectacular. Huge pine beams and columns. Lots of Native American art and decor. Gift shops, restaurants and lounge. They have a shuttle from the Amtrak station, which is pretty close.
We registered at the lodge, showed my license and Kathie’s passport plus our voucher that showed we had paid. Since there is no elevator we asked for a room on the first floor.
We were sent to a voucher for dinner106 with a bell guy who toted our luggage. We were given a voucher for dinner, which surprised us. After lounging on the balcony enjoying our Mountain View, I noticed the voucher is for tomorrow night and in the names Baker/Bolton, not Bracken/BROBECK.
Long story short, we had been registered under the wrong reservation, did not get the dinner voucher, and there was a hint that the room we have might be an unintended upgrade. Bottom line, we got to keep the room and got a voucher for a free breakfast tomorrow instead.

01/09/2022

01/09/2022

Arrived this afternoon at Glacier Park East, Montana after ticking off Idaho and Montana. I am running out of adjectives to describe the rivers with bright Rafts floating down. Mountains everywhere, tunnels, pretty little towns, snowsheds over the tracks, and just genuinely nice people. The weather has been beautiful, sunny and warm. It won’t last, but we’re enjoying it while it does. The scenery is just spectacular, awesome, out of this world beautiful place. I’m sitting with Kathie on our private balcony and a lovely breeze staring out at the mountains. America the beautiful indeed! Still trying to master the photo thing.

30/08/2022

Something i never thought about. After6 days on the train, the world keeps swaying and lurching even after you get off. I am still waiting for this 16 story hotel and this city to stop moving.

28/08/2022

Here are photos. The trio are Kathie and her two old friends, Nancy from elementary school in California and her husband Ron who showed us such a good time in Toronto. The other picture is a shot of Kathie in our ViaRail home away from home.
The technical difficulties continue. No Wi-Fi on the train in Canada although Amtrak does have some service, and my cell phone which is supposed to work in Canada doesn’t. It took me a while to find out that the reason, for once, isn’t operator stupidity. Turns out that Consumer Cellular customers with T-Mobil SIM cards are good to go north or the border but those with ATT SIM Cards, nope. Guess which I have? Bingo!
Still, I have Wi-Fi here in the hotel and will be in touch with the world for the next few days at least. We did compile quite a list of topics we would Google when we got a chance, but in the meantime we have been forced to sit back and enjoy the scenery, chat with interesting people, and rely on our memories to fill in facts. Biggest challenge: the horrid noxious gas disaster in India some years ago—name the company and the gas. I can’t take credit for knowing either although I have been able to identify some actors and book titles.(Answer, which a guy in the dining car came up with, UnionCarbide; the gas, kudos to Kathie: dioxin).Extra credit if you know the town was Bhopal.
ViaRail in CAnada isn’t in much better shape than Amtrak. We wondered what the Germans aboard thought about it. Lots of delays while freight trains with priority passed. This morning they announced we would be arriving in Vancouver several hours early. They lied. (Not really, who knew?) We then sat on a siding for three hours in the dark waiting for some track repair.
Highlights of the trip so far: seeing an elk beside the tracks somewhere maybe in Saskatchewan. Pyramid Falls, which is right next to the tracks in Alberta (maybe). No photo of th elk but I have a video of the falls. Not a GOOD video, but hey! I am learning.

24/08/2022

Day two of the great bucket list trip. Getting to this point was…not easy. First I came home from the Penna puppy trip to find my newish fridge and freezer not working. Lights on, nobody home. With the combined efforts of my wonderful neighbors and the most awesome travel agent on the planet Karen Tribble Sheldon, I left home with an empty fridge and a promise to worry about it later.

Next crisis: turns out we had to fill out an online Covid entry form for Canadian customs that involved tech skills above my pay grade. Again, Karen Sheldon to the rescue.
My boon traveling companion and I ran some errands Monday morning, had some quality time with my favorite neighbors, and got a ride to the Amtrak station in Worcester.
We got there over an hour early(thanks, Eleanor Picard. The main station is represented by a huge gleaming open space. Very little signage, no benches, and NO AMTRAK people, not even sweepers.
A couple of nice folks sitting there told us to go up in the almost hidden elevator and turn left. They suggested it was a ways.
Boy howdy did they not lie. It was at least a quarter mile on uneven pavement dragging a heavy suitcase. Not a single bench or other seating along the way.
We made it with the help of other early passengers and when the train came we lumbered on and found seats sort of near each other in the crowded car for the 15 hour trip.
We were only about an hour late arriving in Buffalo, found the private car to drive us to Toronto and through customs where the guy DID NOT EVEN ASK TO SEE THE AFOREMENTIONED COVID FORMS.😡😡😡

Next: some thoughts on Amtrak and Toronto.
The picture is of my friend Kathie and her old friends Nancy and Ron.

21/08/2022

The D hour for departure is almost here. My BFF Lucy Ivy Bixby Cooper and I took a trial trip, a fast shot to Honey Brook, PA (which is near nothing) to pick up another puppy for the Cooper clan. Little Mavis will certainly make her appearance on FB soon. I am qualified to discuss the trip, however. We left Friday mid morning and I juggled two AAA trip tix and two full size road maps. I had tried to figure out the route but given the two main MUSTS (avoid Hartford and the Big Apple), we threw in the towel and checked with the experts. Welp, we missed Hartford and the Big Apple but missed very little else in the tristate are. We came back a different route, again avoiding the Big A but shooting right through Hartford at 7 pm on a Saturday. Piece of cake. We didn't get home til 9 pm (me in Littleton) and nearly midnight (BFF in Maine.) The real bottleneck on the way home was the Lehigh Valley tunnel in PA. Apparently there was an accident in the tunnel. We waited almost within sight of the tunnel entrance for more than an hour, with 3 ambulance squeezing their way through the not-very-cooperative traffic.
We did have plenty of time to evaluate other drivers. The world may call us Massholes (and not without reason, but still...) but there are some real contenders out there. Most of them have Jersey plates. They zig and zag and buck and weave at 80 mph, missing the opposition by mere centimeters. My friend Mark Hickox says they should be called Jerksies. That works. Or Joiserks?
On the other hand, when we left the interstate to wander the back roads of Pennsylvania, we spotted a different phenomenon. It really is lovely country, beautiful farms, stone houses, just defines bucolic. PA drivers have a different response to their fellow motorists. The speed limit on the back roads were maybe 40 mph, but we found that driving maybe 45 was just not good enough and EVERYBODY passed us over double yellow lines, damn the hills and curves coming up. We were not passed by any of the Amish horse and buggy teams, but it was a close thing.
As for the Amish, fascinating people. We did see an apparently Amish fellow on the road driving a fork lift with a bale of hay on it. I wondered how fork lifts are ok but cars aren't. I am sure there is a good explanation. And no, we didn't pass him, either. He exited at the next farm
One other comment from the interstate. The closer you get to NYC or Philadelphia or DC, the bigger and fancier the cars at the rest areas. (Yep, we hit them all.) (The rest areas, not the luxury cars.)
Forget Teslas, there were maybe a Lamborghini or its cousins.
Even the mighty have to use the potty.

16/08/2022

The hour cometh for our departure on The Great Bucket List Train Trip of 2022. My friend Kathie Brobeck and I are leaving in less than a week for an epic railroad journey. Seems like a good time to try blogging again. Since we will be gone from August 22 to September 30 (Lord willin' and Covid don't rise), I thought of calling it "40 days and 40 nights without an ark in sight." Then I decided to just go with the phrase so familiar to anyone who has read a guidebook, visited a museum, looked at a venue map or just thought about hitting the road: "Exit through the gift shop." I am still figuring this out and hope to be able to add photos as we go, although that might be a wee too high tech for me. Join us, virtually, as we cross Canada and return by Amtrak, visiting national parks and friends along the way. The amazing Karen Tribble Sheldon has put together the trip of a lifetime for us. There will be glitches, but neither Kathie nor I are prima donnas so don't expect a lot of Drama Queen angst. (She says now...)
The big question at the moment is whether the tour we booked in Utah will happen, and if not, what will we do for three extra days in Salt Lake City? Suggestions from those in the know are welcome. So, stay safe and lean back. Enjoy the ride.