OK, we are on our way to the airport, did you turn off the coffee pot?  No?  I thought you did!  How about the garage door?  Did you close it?  No?  Maybe we should go back and try it again!  That’s why we always leave for the airport an extra hour early just in case we need to go back home and re-leave.  No problem, we’re retired!  We don’t take anything really serious anymore.  We know if there is time for a do-over, then there’s no problem!  I love this retirement mentality!

We’ve spent the last day or so getting all four of our suitcases to weigh exactly 50 lbs. each.  I sure hope our little porta-scale isn’t off!

We get on Delta at DFW around 5 p.m. and go to Atlanta where we will change to a bigger plane for the 9 hour and 45 minute flight to Brazil.  So somewhere around 8:30 tomorrow morning I should be looking out the window at Sugar Loaf Mountain there in Guanabarra Bay in Rio.

I have made this trip a number of times but I never get used to the experience of stepping out of customs and onto the street and being bombarded with all of the sights, smells, and noise of the people.  That’s what Rio de Janeiro is all about!  I hope all of you virtual hitchhikers and stowaways brought your sunblock and are ready to get your Samba freak on!  Last one on the beach is a rotten egg!

Well, I thought my procrastinational (that’s a new word I just made up!) ways had finally caught up with me. You have to have a visa to travel to Brazil and we got our documents into the Brazilian Consol so late I didn’t know if we would make it or not.  So, just to make sure, we included the “expedite fee”, (there always seems to be one).   And just like magic, our visas arrived yesterday!!  Whoo Hoo!
We are packing 4 suit cases but three of them are full of things we are taking to our friends in Brazil. I’m sure Charlotte will find something to fill them up with for our return to the U.S.  For starters, I guess ya’ll know, Brazil is famous for it’s gem stones.  I called ahead and told H.S. Sterne, one of the largest gem retailers in Brazil, to get ready to bring out the display cases.  If she could do as much damage to the Indian jewelry market, I shudder to think of her being loose in a Sterne store in Brazil!
We are having a bit of a problem finding a hotel close to the art studio where Charlotte will be taking classes. Oh, it’s not because they don’t have hotels, it’s because you can’t find one for less than $400.00 U.S. per night!  Hey, we stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City for half that price!  And that was over the 4th of July weekend!
So, we will be leaving out of Dallas for Atlanta Sunday evening and changing planes in Atlanta to fly non-stop to Rio de Janeiro. The flight time is 9 hours and 45 minutes. The good news is we upgraded so all drinks are complimentary!  Do the math!  They better have a good supply of Crown and Diet Coke on board!
I will put on my Dr Dre headset and let the world go by! (literally!)
I sure hope some of my ’65 classmates sneak on board with us, it will be a great trip. Welcome all virtual hitch hikers and stowaways! It’s Samba time!

Well, we don’t have our visas yet but I am supposed to know something at 4:30 this afternoon. If everything goes well, we will be boarding Delta from here to Atlanta and from there to Rio de Janeiro Brazil. We will be leaving Atlanta on Sunday evening and arriving in Brazil about 9:00 on Monday morning. We are hoping all the paperwork goes well so we won’t have to delay our departure. I am looking forward to the research I will be doing on my next book while we are there in Brazil. So I am letting the cat out of the bag a little by devulging information about Brazil. I am so excited to return. It has been several years. We are returning to sign over some land I gave a girl who worked for us when we lived in Brazil. I gave her the land when we left and it was worth about $400.00 U.S. Now the property is worth more than $150,000.00 U.S. It will be a great retirement for her. We are looking forward to the painting classes Charlotte will take in Rio. This artist has never been to the U.S. to paint and we are considering bringing him here to our studio to teach a class or two. Ater a week in Rio we will be going to the state of San Paulo for two more weeks. We will take a few days for research for my next book. We have friends who will be taking time off from work to show us around the country so we are expecting a great time. Be sure and log in to the blog so I know who is riding along with us. If you have questions or ideas, speak up! This is going to be a great trip!

Well, after spending four days in an all inclusive resort in Cancun, we are packing up for a three week trip to Brazil. This trip should be a great one. We have a lot of things planned with several different people and places.  After a week of art classes in Rio de Janeiro close to Ipanema Beach, we will be driven around Brazil by one of our Brazilian friends who is a professional driver for international company executives.  He knows his way around the country fairly well.  So,  get your bags packed, your passports and visas ready because we’ll be pulling out of here on the 7th of October!  Who’s with me? (or as they would say in Portuguese, Queim esta conmigo?)

I think John Denver said it best, “Hey it’s good to be back home again!”.  After almost a month on the road, it sure feels good to enjoy the “home rituals”.  Some of which would be getting up at 2 or 3 in the morning and going into the living room and checking to see what good movies may be on.  Or, going to the refrigerator and opening the door and just standing there looking in for a few minutes to try and decide if there is anything in there you may want to try for a late night snack.  Or, maybe just get into the old trusty recliner and watch the big screen from between your two big toes.  And all of these activities are done while clad in boxers and an old worn out “wife beater” tee shirt.

I did notice it’s time to go grocery shopping.  The way I always tell is if I can open the door on the refrigerator and nothing falls out, it’s time to go shopping!  Jello Snacks and a few cans of whipping cream sure make the late night rituals a lot more fun!

Now here are these breath-taking statistics I promised from The Trip.

1.  We traveled 5,074 miles round trip.

2.  The total cost of gasoline was $1,041.51

3.  The cost of fuel per mile was $0.20.

4.  The old truck got a respectable 18.13 miles per gallon on the entire trip.

5.  The total gallons of gas bought was 279.93.

That was just about what we had calculated before the trip started.  I had figured we could do it for $1,000.00 in gas but we ran into Edge’s high-priced buddies in Williams, Arizona and that drove the cost up somewhat.

Well, I think I have found and removed all the dirty laundry that was crammed in every empty space in the truck.  Febreze has already contacted us about shooting a commercial in the truck cab.  Last I heard we were next up after Kazackistan wrestlers.  A little income from there would sure help offset the REAL COST of the trip which was Charlotte’s attempt to single-handedly revive the Indian jewelry market from Gallup, NM to the Continental Divide in Colorado, clean down to Taos, NM.  It finally came down to space in the truck.  If it didn’t have dirty laundry stuffed in it, it was full of Indian jewelry.

Like I said, it’s good to be back home again!

Well, my free-loading virtual hitch hikers, after 5,074 miles the old truck pulled us safely into the drive at the house! And guess what? Charlotte and I are still speaking to each other! Even in a hospitable manner! When we started out on the road almost a month ago, I had my doubts as to how long she could live in that close of a proximity of yours truly. But, she surprised us once again and exhibited the real grit it takes to stay hitched 47 years to the same dude! She even had a birthday on the road! Even though she came back off the road a year older, she seems to have handled it pretty well. I thought it was pretty awesome we calculated our total miles to within 74 of being right on the money! I kept every gas receipt and did all the other nerdy things like figuring gas milage on each tank, gas price per fill up, etc., etc. Like anyone really cares. I will be posting the totals on the blog tomorrow under Day 1 After The Trip. I’m still searching for my little milage book through all the dirty laundry that has filled up the back of the truck as well as most of the cab. We will be doing laundry for a while. Then, it’s off to Mexico in September and on to Brazil for the month of October. Thanksgiving will be in “The Big Easy”, New Orleans if it survives this latest hurricane. After Christmas in Texas, we are planning an east coast version of the west coast/northwest road trip we just finished. I figure by the middle of January I can talk Charlotte into getting back in the truck for a run over to Savannah, GA with stops along the way.

I think the last couple of days of this trip wore out even the most avid virtual hitch hiker. (It was either my conversation or the truck full of dirty laundry) but there has been no sounds coming from the back seat so I think everybody is still over in Taos eating those great chicharonnes we had at La Meze!

Anyway, thanks for making the trip with us, I’m going to walk quite a bit these next few days and see if I can get some feeling back in my tailbone. Let me hear from you as to the trip and for those of you who are the “real road dogs”, we will be taking seat assignments for the east bound trip after Christmas!