Arrival in Turin

Twenty four hours after leaving Albuquerque, Schlepp is in Italy. It was a long but uneventful trip. Got to the strangely named "Jolly Hotel" around 4:00 PM European time. After a brief lie down, it was still sunny outside, so we took a walk, had our first gelato, and basically tried to keep from falling asleep too early.

Here's a chocolate gelato, before...
















and after...

Thanksgiving in Ne w Mexico

Schlepp went north to visit the Horaks and Ramsays (Karl's brother's wife's family) for Thanksgiving. The forecast was for a good bit of snow and it did not disappoint. Here TS helps dig the Prius out. For scale, remember that he's just an 8" bear.

Luckily, the snowplows had stayed on top of things and the roads were slick in places with a bit of snow pack, but easily traveled if you used some bear sense.

By the time Schlepp had shoveled Dad's driveway, it was 10:00 and time to leave -- we wanted plenty of time to get back to Albuquerque because the road conditions in Santa Fe were an unknown quantity.

As it turned out, the roads were turning slushy by ten and only a few icy bridges greeted us in Santa Fe. The Interstate was somewhat wet but not at all snowy from Santa Fe south. So the Great Thanksgiving Snowstorm of 2007 turned out to be not so horrible and everyone's back home, safe and warm.

Terrance, Newport and Schlepp

Terrance was out for a stroll the other morning. I found him behind the rosemary, so I brought him a plate of strawberries (his favorite food). Afterwards he checked out Newport, Schlepp, and Roberta (off camera left--you can just see an ear).

Since then I've only seen Terrance in the vinca, probably because its been too hot in other parts of the yard. As we move into September and things cool off, he'll start using the rosemary bed more often because of its early morning warmth.

Eight Years of Travel Schlepp

Its January 26 and this is the 8-year anniversary for Little Schlepp. It was on Karl's birthday in 1999 that Travel Schlepp arrived from the Bears Cookie Den in Seal Rock, Oregon. The very next day he was whisked off to Vienna for his first international adventure.

Here's one of the first photos taken of TS while traveling. Karl had his new Kodak digital camera (a 1-megapixel DC-265) and the maid at Hotel am Stephensplatz had placed Schlepp in the sconce of the bedside light.

In no time Schlepp was heading out with Karl to historic and picturesque sites all over Europe. That first trip included a stop in The Hague to meet with the OPCW. In the past 8 years he's visited Paris, Venice, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg, Bonn, and Bratislava, as well as toured parts of England and Ireland. He's gone to Cairo, Vancouver, Mumbai, and Ankara plus coast to coast in the US.

Next month he'll take his first trip to Amman, Jordan. There he will help out with a Middle East Regional Workshop on Emergency Preparedness. Its a long flight, but he's used to it. Expect several posts while he's on the road.