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Clary to America - itinerary to fix

 
 
Clary
 
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 04:05 pm
I hope to have enough courage to book a 3- or 4-month trip to the Americas, leaving England a few days after my mother-in-law's 90th birthday bash next January 2006. I want to go to warm bits first, so will expect to fly to San Jose and stay in Costa Rica, then Mexico, emerging into the USA around mid-March. I want to get an Amtrak pass for 30 days and go hither and yon and see as many of you A2K people as possible!

If I post this, it might make me do it.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,696 • Replies: 18
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sozobe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 04:58 pm
Wow!

Are you looking for any specific recommendations?

3- or 4-month trip! Impressive!
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littlek
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 05:12 pm
Hmmm... hopefully Amtrack will get you where you want to go. Check to see which cities and states it travels through. I hope you make it to Boston!
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 05:31 pm
While in the U.S., there are many must see things for you to cover, so many, that i despair of you accomplishing them all.

To start, as you will be in the west, you will need to see if you can sight the wild and cunning jackalope . . .

http://www.jackalopelakeside.com/Images/Jackalope.jpg
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 05:37 pm
If you happen through Kansas, be sure to visit The World's Largest Ball of Twine

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/towns/Cawker/images/twine.jpg


Gosh, there are so many things you just have to see and do, i hardly know where to start . . .
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 05:40 pm
You want to be sure to see the world's smallest church. .


http://homepage.mac.com/smaurer/pics_fast/Day30_Church.jpg
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 05:47 pm
The World's Largest Basket is a must see ! ! !

http://www.worldslargestthings.com/easterntour/basketbuildingSubheader.jpg
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dyslexia
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 05:48 pm
you will need a special visa to enter New Mexico and it's only good for 5 days but no one I know would be willing to pick up up at the train station.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 06:29 pm
Except moi, I should be there sitting pretty by then. Besides, dys'll be there with the truck for all your travel items... no matter how he dissembles (she says obnoxiously presumingly).

I do hope you come to New Mexico, it is on the Amtrak route. So is Los Angeles and San Francisco, and I can imagine meeting you at either of those places if that is where you go.

Amtrak has a coast starlighter or some such name that goes between LA and SF, but not all that often back from SF, as I tried to take it on one of my Abq trips - or maybe it was just that week.

I'd hate to have you miss San Francisco, if you haven't seen it, 'tis a lovely city. Then there's Seattle and Piffka and pals, and Amtrak goes there too, although you could talk to JJorge about that, re timeliness of the train arrivals.

Oh, this is exciting. I plan to meet you for sure, somehow.
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 12 Jun, 2005 06:34 pm
Also, it's strange, I just typed a comment on the Dys-Diane-Chaco thread that you could combine a Costa Rica New Mexico trip, and then deleted it, since I've already highjacked that thread a bunch. A few minutes later I find this thread... ooooh oooooh.
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 Jun, 2005 02:06 am
I love those suggestions. Especially those very big and small things. We are not a country of extremes, here.

I'd better come clean, I have visited many of the big sites/sights already; I am actually looking for an odyssey of people more than places - so Albuquerque is right up there on the list even though I have been before. And Boston, thanks! I imagine there will be buses or even hire cars in between some of those trains.
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BumbleBeeBoogie
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 Jun, 2005 06:57 am
Setanta, can can visit Jackalope
Setanta wrote:
While in the U.S., there are many must see things for you to cover, so many, that i despair of you accomplishing them all.

To start, as you will be in the west, you will need to see if you can sight the wild and cunning jackalope . . .

http://www.jackalopelakeside.com/Images/Jackalope.jpg


You Don't Know Jackalope
Michael Barrier

Many small-business owners find themselves making a disagreeable tradeoff as their companies grow. The owner who loves working with his hands, for example, may find himself spending much of his time behind a desk.

Darby McQuade, though, has found a way to maintain a growing business and his love for prairie dogs, too.

McQuade, who turns 58 in October, founded a store called Jackalope, in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1976. What is a jackalope? Think of a jackrabbit with miniature deer antlers--but don't think too long, since they don't exist (or do they?). Jackalope specializes in handmade goods from around the world, Mexican pots foremost among them, but the inventory includes clothing, jewelry, furniture, tinware, and rugs. McQuade buys many of the products himself on trips to places like Indonesia, China, and Morocco.

In keeping with McQuade's own unique background--he abandoned a career as an investment banker to become a hippie in the 1960s--Jackalope has always been an amiably eccentric retail establishment. You don't go to Jackalope just to buy merchandise: You go for the whole experience. Thus, there is live music on weekends, a petting zoo, and 40 prairie dogs that inhabit a "village" at the center of the store complex.

Even so, McQuade has never been indifferent to business realities. He brought in a management consultant about 10 years ago to help boost his profits, and he hired a professional manager soon after that. In 1994, he began expanding by opening more stores. To protect the original store from debt, he created a separate company, Jackalope International; he opened the new stores by raising $1 million through a public offering limited to New Mexico residents (and thus not subject to federal scrutiny).

Three new Jackalope stores have since opened, two in Albuquerque, N.M., and one in Denver. The 60-employee Santa Fe store, which benefits from tourist traffic, had $7 million in revenues in 1999. The new stores, with about three dozen employees, had combined revenues of $4 million.

As sole owner of the original store and majority owner of Jackalope International, McQuade was CEO of both companies at first. Eventually, though, McQuade was thrown off the horse by ill health, and his general manager, Bruce Barr, had to take charge.

McQuade and Barr had trouble "adjusting to roles" during his recuperation, McQuade says. "We finally realized that Santa Fe is different; it's really a very personal thing for me. It's really run more as my personal creative expression." The other stores--without the tourist traffic and prairie dogs--are more traditional businesses.

"When I finally got back on my feet," he says, "I really wanted to do it my way" at the Santa Fe store. He says that while he's concerned about a worthwhile shareholder return on the publicly held company, he's the only shareholder in the original Jackalope store. His priorities for the original store, then, were different than those that would concern the newer stores.

His solution was to make Barr the CEO of Jackalope International. Based now in Albuquerque, Barr manages the stores there and in Denver, as well as Jackalope's Internet site www.jackalope.com, and he'll run any other new outlets.

So the two companies are each blazing their own trails.

McQuade remains the CEO of the original Jackalope, and he manages the Santa Fe store himself--the way he wants. "We realized that this was a different business," McQuade says. "In the public company, there's a lot more emphasis on numbers." Of the Santa Fe Jackalope, says McQuade, "This is my show."
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 13 Jun, 2005 10:26 am
Very Happy
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Jun, 2005 03:52 am
NEED TO KNOW if there are concessions for over-sixties travellers in USA!
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Jun, 2005 03:56 am
There are concessions to those in an advanced state of decripitude such as youself--but they are often tied to an organization, such as the AARP. What you will find is that stores and restaurants will have signs to advertise that they offer such discounts, although one is often required to have something such as the "Golden Buckeye" card which is used in Ohio. Menus in restaurants often include a "Seniors" selection of certain dishes which are offered at a reduced price. As these offerings are also usually a reduced portion, the savings are putative.

Motels and hotels also often offer such discounts, but once again, usually to the members of an organization. If you have your intinerary planned, then you'd need to consult with vendors in advance.
0 Replies
 
Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Jun, 2005 04:40 am
Many thanks. Since we live in a centralised state here, a mere proof of age is enough to get cheap buses, trains, and various other benefits (fresh fish on Thursdays in Totnes, for example). I haven't reached that stage of decrepitude yet, but if I can swing cheap rail and road tickets, I will!
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Jun, 2005 05:37 am
I'm glad you took it in good humor, it was meant that way. Whenever you go to a commercial establishment, inquire about the policy, and you'll likely receive your discount. Of course, you'll want to have proof of age, to belie your girlish good looks . . .
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Lord Ellpus
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Jun, 2005 05:46 am
Clary wrote:
NEED TO KNOW if there are concessions for over-sixties travellers in USA!


Maybe the USA has its own branch of "SAGA" ?, which as we all know, stands for "Sex And Games for the Aged".

You could be in for an interesting trip. Three months eh?....take a good quantity of vitamin pills, just in case.
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 27 Jun, 2005 12:42 pm
Setanta wrote:
Of course, you'll want to have proof of age, to belie your girlish good looks . . .


Love you, Setanta!!!
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