First Ride After Europe!

When you have been out of the saddle for as long as we have, it is quite the challenge and test of endurance to get moving again.  I missed Ms Vickey when we were in Europe seeing all of the scooters there.  But I was just too tired to do anything about it once we got back.  Today was a good day to give it a go....

Ain't she cute.....:-).

We headed for a town called Cooperton (founded 1899) which we had managed to drive right past the last time we looked for it....

It was going to be about 40 minutes before we got to the turn off to the little town.

When we finally got there, just about everything had been abandoned long ago.  this used to be the gymnasium.

It is now considered a "ghost town" even though there are still (or were) 16 people still living there according to the 2010 census.  There really wasn't much left to it at all.  This is an old residence.  One of the nicer ones.

And if you can believe it....that was pretty much main street......
wow....

Ms Vicky was getting weirded out........hahaha

another derelict  home.....

 
This is a shot of main street cross section with another street which I forgot what the name of the street was.

We are almost ready to blow this joint seeing as their ain't much to see.  Also, the roads were getting more "gravely" the further we went.  I had since enough to remember that Ms Vicky is NOT a dual sport.....:-)

another derelict building.....I think it used to be a store.

this is the highway that I needed to get back on to continue our trip to the Wichita Mountains...

I know it sounds strange, but every time I see rock formations like these I think I dinosaur poo....haha.  I know!  Weird! ha

The riders were out in full force today.  I saw lots of group rides and the occasional lone rider like this guy....:-).  At least they were all friendly.....:-)

Finally!

I remember doing a lot of my Non-Commissioned Officer's Training course in these hills.......
Sheesh.....longgggggg time ago now.

The wild flowers always lend their own style of beauty to the mountains.......I wish I knew what these were.

We made a quick stop at the visitor's center to have something to drink and refresh ourselves before taking the long road through the mountains and onto the highway home.  Good thing as now, I was getting "monkey butt" from having spent too much time out of the saddle!  Yikes!

We made it back home, parked Ms Vickey and Maj and I promptly looked for an analgesic.  Don't forget to  use this before riding in hot weather again......
 

And so ended another fabulous day galivanting with Ms Vicky through the mountains.  Not too hot and not too cold....kinda like the pourage in the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  Nearly 100 miles...short and sweet, but also uncomfortable.  I have come to the conclusion after having put several thousand kilometers on this scooter that it is NOT built for comfort.  If I continue to ride when I return to Canada, I will be looking for something more comfortable, not too big and just as reliable......
  

Thanks for coming along today!

Mountain Top Experiences

It was good to be back from Europe, but for some reason I was itching to go "out" again.  Perhaps I had had enough sleep.  Don't know for sure.  We decided to take a ride to the top of Mt. Scott and take in the view.
The sun was still up but was about to set in a few minutes

Chris is pointing toward it....haha

We, of course were not the only ones who had the idea of watching the sun set from up there.....

I couldn't help but notice the "rainbow sunset" that was spread so far and wide across the sky of the Great Plains.

He is excited about taking his pictures........:-)

I wanted to take this one sooner, but it was crowded with people.

It's amazing what time and elements can do to living things....

  pointing the camera in the opposite direction gave this view.....

The sun was finally beginning to set.......going......

It wouldn't be long now before the Park Rangers would come to close the mountain and the night creatures would began to emerge....

going.......

gone..........

 hope you all have a good night!

The Czech Republic-Day 8- The long Road Home

We both woke up earlier than expected and decided to just go down for breakfast early. The sun was up and the sky was beautiful. It was hard to take in the fact that we were leaving Europe.

 I was getting really burned out with breakfast which to me was a clear indication that it was time to move on.  It was very light this morning.

Packed and ready to go....:-(.

Our host Maxim and his associate were great to us.  They arranged our cab, gave us coupons for the restaurant next door and helped us figure out the map while we were in their country.  Thanks you guys!  

And so, the cab has been called.  We are checked out and waiting for the transport to the airport.

Wow... I was expecting a cab, but it was actually a transport service that took us there.

and then the "near death" experience began!  Not kidding.......

It was raining and our driver drove like a maniac!  It was so bad that Chris started singing to Jesus!  hahaha.  I'm not lying, ya'll.....I was cracking up......

I am glad that there was not a ridiculous traffic jam like there can be at times there.  But still in all, the road was wet and the driver was a lunatic!

And one point, we were stopped at a light and a very ANGRY driver got out of his car and came over to the driver's window and cursed him out in Czech or what may have been Russian.  How do I know, you may ask.  Well, he wasn't telling him to have a great day...haha.  I'm sure of that! We were glad to see this sign....
 

And the whole ride was so nerve bending that were equally glad to see these!!

AND, then we find out that they guy dropped us off at the WRONG place...(shaken my head at this point)....We just had to laugh and get ourselves turned in the right direction.

Which meant that we had to take the elevator a do a bit of walking.....elevator sounds good to me...:-)

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why they had this train there on a track that could not be ridden.  I guess it was just "art".

We walked on further and saw this display. Now, we're talking! There was some little person inside the train....:-)

Finally got to our gate and waited to board our plane, but not for long.  It was a 2 1/2 hour ride to England from Prague....

Next thing ya know (and one nap later)......we were in London.  London proved to be our last time to take a picture.  At least it was for me.  By the time we got through customs and dealt with language barriers, we had to literally go straight onto the next plane and were usually nearly the last ones to get on!
  

We got into our own city on schedule, tired and ready for bed.  The good thing is that when we got in it was 10:15 at night.  So, grabbing a snack and going to bed came really easy for us....:-). Chris was in bed and asleep before I even had a chance to really digest the fact that we were home! But, it was good to be back and to savor the idea that my home is one level and I only have TWO steps outside my door....:-) haha.  Lord knows I was tired of all those stairs!  

It has been a very full trip and a wonderful experience jumping from one country to the next in a three week period.  But I think the most rewarding part was being able to take all of you with us....:-).

Thanks for coming along with us during the good and the bad.  We are glad you came and hope you enjoyed your vacation!

See you someone else in the world!

Scooterchick  

The Czech Republic-Day 7

Should we or should be not get up and get out again was the question this morning.  We are both tired needing a vacation from our vacation!  But the idea of riding the lines to see where they would take us seemed better than walking ourselves to death.  So, we decided to have breakfast and see where the day would take us. I knew it was time to leave as I was beginning to get burned out on breakfast.  Since I am a meat and potatoes girl, eating cereal for breakfast is just not my thing unless I really have a taste for it; which I never do when visiting another country.  Scootard eats everything....ha

After breakfast, we suddenly went "blank" as to whether we were going to set out on foot or get on  the train and do the whole stair thing again.  We settled on the foot walk.  Saw this along the way.  It's a Trabant 601 model which is a car that was produced in East Germany between 1957 and 1991.

I tried to get a shot through the back window, but there was too much glare.  There are several jokes about this car on the internet such as; "When does a Trabant reach its top speed?  Answer: "When being towed!"

This was the first Veterinarian clinic I saw since being here.  Not that  needed one. Didn't have any rats yet! haha

Hey!  What's that?  We haven't been in the tunnel......Let's do it.....:-).  It says no cars or motorcycles...cool!

And we're walking......

oh dear.........:-(.  Still walking.  Did I mention that it is up hill the whole way?  That's cause I didn't know when I started out!  Help!!

what was I thinking?  This is worse than the stairs!

ok, I think I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.......literally.

There it is!!  YES!

 Drum roll..................................TADA!!!!

scooooooterrrrrrrr!!!  I miss Ms Vickey......:-(

After catching my breath for a minute we came upon this statue that turned out to be a horse and a rider.  I think Chris was thinking of climbing up on it.........

I'm sure where we were when we saw this, but I think we had gotten on some subway surface car by then.

the city is huge and neither of us knew what this was at the time.......

We got off the subway surface only to discover after a couple of blocks that we had gone in a circle...haha. Anyway, saw these guys along the way.

It became clearer and clearer that we were going to be going for most of the day and were going to need some cash to eat and get coffee.....

Here is a list with the current rates for exchange on it.

got back on the subway and decided that instead of riding the train which would require a torturous journey up and down stair, we would just ride the cars from one point to another until we got tired of it.  Saw this building along the way.....nope.  No idea what it is.......

We thought we were going some place we had not been and where did we end up?  At the opera house!  We just saw that last week! hahahaha......oh well.......:-)

And here is that beautiful building with that pink roof again.......

We looked across the street and saw what we thought was a small church.  So, we ventured over to see it.

It actually led to a courtyard that had these statues there.  One was of St. Jude Thadeus.  There was a lady standing near the statue that stood for a long while.  I wanted to get a picture and was about to ask her if she could excuse me for just a moment.  But, when I walked up to her side..I saw that her hands were clasped in a posture of prayer and she was moving her lips.  I knew not to ask her to move, so I simply stepped back and waited for her to finish and leave before taking the picture.  According to the Catholic Faith, The Apostle Saint Jude Thaddeus is "The Miraculous Saint," the Catholic Patron Saint of "lost causes" and "cases despaired of."When all other avenues are closed, he is the one to call upon, and his help often comes at the last moment.

I wondered what kind of trouble that poor women must have been having to come here and pray to a statue.

after leaving there, we stepped out of the courtyard and saw a coffee shop across the way. Just then this police van pulled up, two police officers; one being a woman came out of the van and was clearly in pursuit of "someone".

Down the stair they went.  Chris said maybe they were going after the dead beat that had taken his wallet! ha.  At any rate, I hope she didn't mess up her hair going after the guy.  The girl had a mean hair cut!  Very nice indeed.....:-).

The King's Court Hotel had a bistro area outside where we stopped to get coffee, look at the map, and see where we wanted to ride to next.

then of course we decided on desert.  Chris had all of these truffle thingees on a brownie served with zest of lime and ice cream sitting on brulee' crisp.

I had cheesecake sitting on some kind of apricot custard stuff with these really weird cookie things on top that when you bite in to them take on the texture of sweet......air. haha. And the yellow stuff tasted like a mild lemon power of some sort.  At any rate, coffee and desert in the Kings' Court cost of more than dinner on an average night!

hahahaha.....he cracks me up when it comes to deserts......hahaha.  I guess staring at it is half the fun! haha

This is the second half of the fun........,hahaha

You saw it here first, folks!  At the King's Court.........:-)

Gotta make a trip to the little girls room before we leave since we don't know where we are going next.
 Wow.......

Deluxe.....no kidding! Nothing wrong with having an audience with The King!

It is amazing how much stuff is packed into a few feet.  We looked across the street and low and behold,  a Mall.....What!  Where did that come from?....haha.  Off we went....:-)

We walked around on the ground floor for a bit before taking the escalator upstairs. I did a point and shoot with these pics as I got nauseated when i looked down.......:-(.  Glad they turned out alright.

Hey!  It's Egypt....in a mall!  

ohhh.... turns out to be a casino.  No thanks!  I'll take my gamble with the map and the subway surface cars....

by now, it is time for a break and perhaps to get more money changed since our last snack cost us our dinner money. Behind this wall looks like a good place to "retrieve" my stash......:-).

ok, back on the subway surface car to see where it will take us........:-)

gotta love the view.....:-)

I like bridges, doors and pathways.  It speaks to me of transition.....:-)

The hillside reminded me of Budapest on the Buda side of the river.......

 A view of the Vltava River.......

This little guy looked like he was on a mission.  I didn't want to creep him out, so I waited until he wasn't looking before snapping his picture. I told Chris I wondered if he was running away from home.....

Well, I tried to get this whole thing, but manage to decapitate the poor guy.......:-(.  Sorry, dude.

Another shot of a beautiful building here in Prague....(or "Praha" as the Czechs call it).

Chris wanted me to take a picture of this building.  I have no idea why or what it is....ha.  Ok then.

Shot of a main street with something that we SHOULD have seen at the very end of it!  Wonder what it is....

These lady were on the same subway surface car we were on....Two sisters on an adventure holiday....:-).

and low and behold, the subway surface car took us literally just steps away from our hotel.  You have got to be kidding me!  hahaha....Had we known that.....well, you know.  Anyway, here my dear friends ends our tour of Prague. We rode all of the main lines that we could and took in as much as our tired bodies would allow.

It was only about 3:00pm.  Too early to think about dinner, but we did have these.....:-).  And a coca cola that we needed to get rid of in the meantime while working on my daily blog post.  Just about blew the top of my head off! lol....wow!

It was 7:00pm and it is was past time for dinner.  We talked about where we should go, if we should venture into town since we still had a 24 hour transit pass in our possession. And we would be losing light soon...
I wanted to get another picture outside of our hotel window before going knowing that it would be my last evening here......

After all of the talking about using our transit passes, we saw an Asian restaurant right around the corner on the way to the transit stop and decided to stop there.

It was quite a large establishment and it wasn't that busy either which was good.  this is a shot from behind me.

Chris is sitting in front of me, but I didn't want to pan the camera and look like a tourist....haha

We ordered some miso soup, spring roll thingees that looked quite different and came with some "sauce" in a bowl with vegetables.  The spring rolls liked like something you should send back, but Chris said they looked exactly like it did on the menu.....

I order...."something".  It was all in Czech.  So, I picked a picture that looked like prawns and veggies with rice..... BINGO!

Chris ordered chicken with veggies and rice. They were both very good.....:-)

 after finishing our dinner and paying the bill, we tried to go out the back since it was closer to the street we needed to get back to and found ourselves locked in by a large gate and controlled parking, and beautiful flowers. Soooo, we went back through the front door and started the short walk back to the hotel.

Krizicova is the street that our hotel is on.  You can barely see it on the subway sign that is in yellow in this picture.  I could not believe we were near the end of our journey in Europe.

Less then 25 feet away was our hotel with our luggage all packed and ready to go in the morning.  It has been a wild ride and we still have to get home.....

 The hotel has reserved us a cab to take us to the airport in the morning. I'm not sure I will be able to sleep tonight.  But if not, I can always stick some ear plugs in and sleep on the plane I guess.  There will be one more post after this one to end this trip.

See you again soon.....:-)