Old and New (Campbell, NY)

 

We are staying at a beautiful campground right near Corning, NY, Camp Bell Campground, in Campbell, NY.  We spent the past 3 days going to the Corning Glass Museum and the Rockwell Museum of Western Art (not Norman Rockwell).

First for the old.  These are some videos I took on our visit to Dubai. 

Well, Ann found a Carousel and took Evelyn for a ride.

Ann on Carousel from Roy Brody on Vimeo.

Next is a video of Caroline singing to Evelyn.  Sorry, the sound quality is not the best.

Say Hello from Roy Brody on Vimeo.

When we made our way from Indiana to the Corning, NY area we made a stop in a small town on the Ohio – Pennsylvania boarder by the name of Ashtabula, OH.  It is a small town on Lake Erie.  The town is a major coal port.  

Freighters unload the coal in huge piles.  Water cannons mounted on towers spray water into the air to keep the coal dust down.

A conveyor arch brings the coal over the river to be loaded onto waiting coal trains.

We then continued on to Corning, NY.  It seems strange to see all of the cars with NY State license plates again. 

We spent the next two days touring the Corning Glass Museum.  A must see if you are in the area.

There is a gallery that just opened in March of modern glass art, 2000 to present, all light with natural light.

There are galleries dedicated to ancient glass.

There are demos of hot glass blowing and flameworking.  Please click on the previous links .

The Rockwell Museum was named for a local merchant who lived in Corning and donated his collection of American Western Art.  We were not allowed to take pictures. 

Next, onward and upward to Up Up state NY.  to visit some of the Locks of the Erie Canal system.

Life is Good on the Roan Road…

Our Next Adventure (Elkhart, IN)

Back when we were in Dubai we visited the world’s tallest building.  We were at the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa.  You can get a 360 degree view of the entire city.



There is a lot to tell everyone since our last posting.  To sum up.  After a 15 hour flight we landed in Atlanta.  We then took a connection flight to South Bend, IN. where our home is being painted.  The owners of Mike’s Custom Painting picked us up at the airport and brought us back to the shop so we could get our truck.  The coach was not finished.  We spent the next two days getting over jet lag at a local B&B, The Scottish B&B.


Since our home was not going to be finished for another week, we had to figure out what to do next.  We could stay in the Elkhart area for the week.  That did not seem very appealing.  Heidi and Jay were going to Chicago for Jay’s Cousin’s Bar Mitzvah.  Also, we could visit with our cousins, Karen, Glen, Elise and Nicole.  The best part of this plan was that it was Mother’s Day weekend and Ann and Heidi got to spend it together.

So we had a plan. Or at least part of a plan.  We made reservations in the same hotel that Heidi and Jay were staying at so we could spend some time with them.

Then would then drive to Detroit to see our cousin Bob and and our friend Naomi. We would then go back to the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) to see the Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Exhibition.  Ann has been wanting to see the exhibition ever since we were at the DIA last year. 

OK, now what to do?  I tell you, we have such problems.  Naomi suggested going to Cleveland and visit the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.  What a great idea! (We loved it!  Ann especially liked the exhibition on American Bandstand, as she was a devoted follower during her teenage years).  So we headed to Ohio and Cleveland.

At the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame we saw a new Rock Group featured on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.

 Also when in Cleveland we took a scenic ride along the  Cuyahoga Valley and visited the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.




When we retuned to the Elkhart area, our home was finished.  It looks great.  I call it New Horizons Summit 2.0.  It looks brand new.



After picking up the Coach. We spent the last two weeks in Elkhart, restocking the refrigerator because it had to be turned off during the painting.  Fixing things and getting ready for our spring, summer, fall trip.  

On Tuesday June, 2nd we leave Indiana and start heading to Upstate NY and the finger lakes area.  From there, up to Maine and down through New England.  So keep posted.

Happy Belated May Birthdays to Evelyn, Emma, Francie, Mike, Irwin and Marilyn J.

Happy 49th Anniversary to us!

June Birthdays:  Andrew (A BIG ONE), Lucy and Beverly 


Life is great on the Roan Road…

Back by Popular Demand (Dubai, UAE)

 

You asked for it, so here it is.  It’s all Evelyn!

So, here is Evelyn (the star of the show), I also included Caroline, Andrew, Ann and Me. 

Slide Show short from Roy Brody on Vimeo

 

Daddy's home from Roy Brody on Vimeo.

 

.Evelyn Eating from Roy Brody on Vimeo.

Evelyn Going to Bed from Roy Brody on Vimeo.

Life is Good on the Roan Road….

A tour of Dubai - Part I (Dubai, UAE)

 

My thoughts:

Dubai is a manufactured city.  43 years ago there was nothing but desert and a small village.  From that they built a modern city with all of the amenities of any western city.  They dredged out the harbor to create one of the largest seaports in. the world.  Dubai is one of the major centers for aircraft overhaul.  It has a state of the art airport and maintenance facility.  Planes from all over the world are flown in for a complete overhaul.

It is a city of ultra rich and upper middle class.  There are very few actual permanent Dubai residences.  A majority of the population are people who work for corporations.  They work in Dubai for about 5 years and then go home.  The rest are service workers, in low paying jobs from third world countries.  There is no middle class.  The economy is very fragile.  In 2008  when the economy fell. people lost their jobs.  They walked away from apartment leases. drove there leased cars to the airport, left the keys in the car and flew home.  Construction projects just stopped.  The constriction cranes were left and the  building(s) stood like skeletons.  Most of the building were eventually finished and more are being built.  More high end shopping malls are being built or expanded. 

There is construction everywhere,  I mean everywhere. 

The number of big boats, and I mean BIG, are astounding.

Some are are even bigger.

This is the largest yacht in the world, The Azzam. It is owned by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayan, president of Dubai.  Docked at the Sheikh’s private Island.

Some boats have outboard motors.  Most have two outboards. 

Some have three. 

Some even have four.  I guess you never can have enough outboard motors.

There are more Lamborghinis' and Ferraris' then anywhere else.   We were stopped at a hotel on the bus tour, 3 Lamborghinis pulled up. 

 

There are speed bumps on many major streets. It is amazing to watch these high end cars speed along the street, then come to a complete stop because they are so low to the ground they have to go very slow over each speed bump.

Everything is expensive.  Everything has to be imported.  Domestic water is super expensive.  A gallon of water is more expensive than a gallon of gasoline.  There are some local wells, but most of the water is gotten from desalination. Bottled water is imported. 

If you look carefully at the construction pictures above.  All of the buildings in Dubai contain no wood or steel super structure during the construction.  All building are constructed using concrete and rebar.  Rebars are thin steel rods, inside the concrete form to give it extra strength.    All interior wall are concrete or cinderblock. 

We toured the city on a “hop on, hop off” tour bus call the Big Bus. One of the many stops was the Dubai Museum (if you click on this link and use Chrome. It will automatically translate the text).  It was a recreation of the way things were from 1930 to the present.  

This is the Dubai Marina Canal.  The entire canal was dug out of the desert.  It is completely man made.

More to follow.

 

Life is great all over the world on the Roan Road…

Evelyn Rules the Roost (Dubai, UAE)

 

 

We left South Bend, IN on time for the two hour trip to Atlanta arriving around 7:30 PM.   Two hours later we left Atlanta for the 13 hour trip to Dubai. The trip, long.  The food, lousy.   The plane, a new Boeing 777, packed.  But we made it!   Andrew had made arrangements with Marhaba, an agency that meets you at the gate.  Takes you through passport control on a special line, and helps you with your baggage.  It was worth it.   At passport control the lines for the common people were at least 50 deep.  We then met Andrew who was waiting for us. 

Dubai is a modern city.   The same as New York, Chicago or Paris.  Except for the street signs, which are in Arabic and English, you cannot tell that you are in the Middle East.  Everyone here speaks English. 

Evelyn and, of course, Caroline and Andrew live on Palm Jumeirah.  That’s the island that was created in the shape of a palm tree that juts out into the Arabian Gulf.

Scenes of Dubai.

 

             Before Evelyn                                      After Evelyn Arrived

 

And now for the star of the show. The one everyone has been waiting for.

Life is Great, anywhere we are, on the Roan Road….

And Away We Go (Elkhart, IN)

 

Tomorrow we bring in our coach and leave for Dubai. 

On our way from Chattanooga to Elkhart we passed by Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.  Since we can’t pass up stopping at a National Park and we haven’t stayed in Kentucky we decided to make a stop. 

The park has many cave tours.  We decided to take two tours.  The first is “The History Tour”.  and a second tour “ Domes and Dripstones Tour”  the next day.

The History Tour is 2 miles and 2 hours.  We talked it over and said, “we can handle that”.  Big mistake.  First we are not as young as we used to be.  Second it is dark, with uneven walk ways and squeezing through tight spots.  Not to mention all of the steps, mostly UP.  Add to that, Ann does not see well in the dark.   The Rangers on the tour were great.  Well informed and waited for everyone to catch up before explaining something new.   

Before the tour was over, Ann informed me she was done with cave tours and she was going to return her ticket for the next day, and if I wanted to go, she would wait for me.   Back at the Visitor Center, I checked out the tour.  It is a shorter tour, but much more strenuous, so I returned my ticket too.

We still did enjoy the tour.  But it will be our last Cave Tour.  Period.

Next day, on to Elkhart.

 

  Visitor Center

Cave opening

Cave Tour

This is the way it looks when you are in the Cave

These pictures were taken with a very high ISO (sensitivity) so it look very bright.

This is Graffiti  from before the Cave was taken over by the National Park Service.

Life is Great on the Roan Road…

Getting Out of Town (Elkhart, IN)

 

We are here in Elkhart Campground in the final stages of leaving the country.  We had some repairs done to the coach before we will bring it in to Mike’s Custom Painting to have a new look!   After we drop off the coach, we are leaving the truck at Mike’s and they will drive us to the South Bend Airport.  We then fly to Atlanta where we will get the plane to Dubai.  I will try to make some blog entries from Dubai.

After our stay in Kissimmee we spent two weeks at Cedar Key RV Resort.  We liked the RV park so much we made reservations to go back next winter.  For how long is still being debated.  Right  Ann?

Here is an overview of Cedar Key.

CEDAR KEY from Roy Brody on Vimeo.

We bought fresh clams from a local distributer that were harvested that day, and made Manhattan Clam Chowder.  We have not been able to find any anywhere.  So we made it ourselves.  It was the best!

 From Cedar Key, we left for Chattanooga to check out an RV park to see if it is suitable for a rally.  We are Rally Masters for the New Horizons Owners Group.  It turns out the RV park and Chattanooga are great places.  So in May of 2016 we are going back.

Chattanooga is a great town.  Lots to see and great restaurants.  We did not get to see everything we wanted because of some repairs.  We will be back next year for the New Horizons rally and we will spend some more time in Chattanooga.

Life is great on the Roan Road…