Journal

Ever since Jeanne started heading for Florida there was a lot of email activity about whether the planned golf weekend for Tim's birthday would happen in Florida. Sure enough, Jeanne blew right over the golf resort three days before the six golfers were to fly to Florida - so don't book anything in Florida during hurricane season.

I got to be an observer reader of all the emails going back and forth (thank god for email!) about what to do - first to just find out if the Florida resort was hit, although once they couldn't reach the resort by phone or cell phone, it was pretty obvious. Monday/Tuesday there was talk of Arizona but by Wednesday they decided on Las Vegas and added another member to their golf group. So they all changed their flight reservations and flew to LV on Thursday - the guy that gets the flexibility trophy is the one that flew from London.

And the winner of the best email sound bite is Ray - in response to a heavily worded email from the lawyer in the group, Ray replied - "If that doesn't sound like lawyer talk, dip me in shit and call me honey". I think I may have to print out the emails as a book - it will be something funny to read when we're in our rockin' chairs on the porch.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD MAGDALENA RIHA!! All reports are that you are a beautiful baby. Our best wishes to you and your parents - am looking forward to seeing you.

And now for the old...I went to my 45 year high school reunion last night. I didn't really graduate from there, but I went to school there from kindergarten through sophomore in high school and I hadn't seen most of these people since then. I picked up an old school friend and when we got to the reunion site, we were looking around to see where to go. I saw a group of people and suggested this was our group; my friend said, "You mean all of those old people". Yup, 'fraid so. I was surprised at how many people I didn't recognize; most of them I remembered their names but a lot a people that I knew a lot better weren't there and I think I would have recognized them. My best friend from that class died 15 years ago of AIDS. Although most of the people were local there were a few that came some distance - one from Delaware, one from Oregon and one from Oklahoma. There were no startling revelations - they went around the room and asked each of the 20 to 25 classmates to say a few words - that got pretty tedious - how long you've been married, how many kids you had and how many grandchildren. So all in all, I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity and probably won't need to do so again.

After viewing different options, we decided to take a train from Montpellier where we had spent a week, to Nice and than take an overnight train from Nice, France to Venice, Italy. We had delayed making arrangements thinking we might be able to get together with a cousin who lives in Italy but that didn't happen, so by the time Pat made train reservations all of the 1st class Eurailpass sleeping compartments were full. We ended up with a "couchette" not really knowing what that meant - now we know.

Our train from Montpellier to Nice was supposed to arrive 1 hour before our train from Nice to Venice departed, but Voila! the train was delayed (the French conductor's comment - "It ees normal - heh, heh, heh") and we arrived in Nice five minutes before the train left. We sprinted down the platform in the rain, glanced at the board to find the right track and sprinted again for the train. Found the right track and tried to find our car number but with seconds to spare we just climbed on a car behind several young Americans. Chaos in the passageway; none of us could find our car. Finally a bored conductor looked at my ticket and said "You are on the Rome part. Venice - five or six cars that way." Gridlock in the aisle - nobody moved for awile until some people stepped inside compartments. Finally we pushed ahead - still no sign of our car. I pulled a paper sign off the window and found we were close to our car.

Finally our car but what a surprise. A couchette it turns out is a chair car that converts to bunks at night and is reserved to whoever wants them. We shared our couchette with a ski instructer from Colorado who was taking a break from working and traveling with her New Zealander boyfriend who was taking a break after completing his degree and met the ski instructer in Colorado - they took the top two bunks taking pity on the old folk. Our fifth couchette companion was Marisa who either lived in France and was traveling to visit her family in Croatia or lived in Croatia and had been visiting in France - language barrier prevented any in depth conversation. Pat and Marisa had the bottom bunks and I had a middle bunk - we could have had a sixth person! I felt like I was either on an operating table, in a scene from "Coma" or a sailor on a ship. We were given paper pillow covers and paper sheets.

Pat & I watched the lights of Monaco from the window on the train. Then to bed - I obviously got some sleep because I did not hear him get up and get off the train in Genoa where we waited for an hour. He also got some sleep after Genoa. We arrived in Venice at 8:30 and found our way to our hotel and a very welcome shower.

Tomorrow we take an overnight to Vienna but not a chouchette!