{Delta Annual Companion Certificate Flight to Detroit, Michigan}

Yep, there are some very nice bonuses when using the American Express card from Delta Airlines! Annual Companion Certificate Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card is one of them!

For years already we have put all eggs in one basket and are solely using Delta Airlines.
Also their Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, is a big help for accumulating miles for eventually free tickets.

Paying off very high medical bills, using that Platinum Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, makes you get a fat bonus of 10,000 Medallion Qualification Miles and 10,000 bonus miles for spending US $ 25,000 within the calendar year!

Well, only 2 days before departure on May 31, it said Freeze Warning for Monday midnight till 8:00 AM for Mackinaw City, MI where we were heading to on the 2nd of June...

Temperatures above are in °C and not in °F.

There we go... Savannah - Atlanta, Georgia and Atlanta to Detroit in Michigan.
Avoiding the traffic jam and parking issues of Atlanta, we opt for departure from Savannah.
Easy parking under a roof, conveniently close by.
High courtesy and efficiency at security check and fast luggage pick up; even though we fly carry on for domestic flights.

WELCOME TO MICHIGAN! 

Picking up a cute  rental car at Herz, a Mazda2 in blue and off to Mackinaw City in north Michigan...

BIG surprise to see those enormous vehicles; youtube video for showing you!

Yes, we were being on I-75 north, together with such 42-wheelers!

The so-called Michigan Truck Road Trains, that also are allowed into neighboring Ontario/Canada.

See you in Mackinaw City, MI

Related link:

Michigan Truck Road Trains (Quikrete, Praxair, Flying J) | Youtube video showing you those 42-wheelers that are allowed to drive in Michigan and Ontario/Canada.

{Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge in Arizona}

On July 20 of 2009, both of us went with our best friends to Las Vegas for a long weekend. So we had the opportunity to visit Hoover Dam. We were in awe about the construction of the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge, at 890 feet high (271 meters) with 1,060 feet span (323 meters) belonging to the highest bridges. Just click the hyperlink for very interesting photos.

Using my video camera in 2009 and we were so impressed by this huge Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge!

We always wanted to go back and see the completion of this HUGE bridge...

Construction everywhere at the time we visited the Hoover Dam in July of 2009.

Another friendly tourist offered to take a picture from both of us!

Construction of the Bridge you can see again to the left...

Here we come! On March 22, we got up at 2:30 AM in order to fly to Phoenix, Arizona and using again a free companion ticket from Delta Airline's American Express card. It would expire on March 31.

Here we are at the parking lot and we have to climb up to the bridge...

From Phoenix it took us some 4 hours driving via Highway 93, a very scenic route and we got here around 5:00 PM.

Once we climbed all the way up to the actual bridge the view was incredible!

Remember, this bridge is 890 feet high (271 meters)!

Lake Mead, the country's largest man made lake is in the back and the Colorado River underneath after it passed the Hoover Dam.

It was a long day and finally after almost 6 years we're here!

This is a four-lane bridge and there is no trembling when huge trucks pass over it.

Pieter using his Nikon and I used my iPad...
Standing on the second-highest bridge of any kind in the USA and the 14th in the world.
Hoover Dam Bridge ←click the link for more info.

Very happy feeling and oh so rewarding...

Pieter captured an excellent over view with the Nikon!

Explanation about the funding of this Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge 

Yes, at the end of this ramp up to the bridge (and down) there is the border of Arizona and you enter the State of Nevada.

Mind boggling how they secured those rocks for being safe.

We only had to drive about half an hour to Las Vegas, from Boulder City where the Hoover Dam is located.

We stayed at Hyatt Place Las Vegas and went to bed real early after such a long but very rewarding day.

Time difference is 3 hours with Georgia.

This is breakfast time next morning at the Hyatt Place.

Related links:

Time Lapse Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge Construction Video from Federal Highway Administration | Very interesting video

Highest Bridges | Interesting photos, 3 pages see bottom for clicking to next one.

{News from Our Sister-City Osaki in JAPAN + Join NISSAN with Donation!}

• It was with great joy to receive an email in the morning from our YKK contact person who finally got through to the little town of Sanbongi, part of Osaki City. 
• In July of 2007 I had the honor being one of two chaperons with six students from Dublin, Georgia to Japan. 
• We have already contact since October 1998 and every other year we send students there or we receive students form our sister city Osaki. 
• It is such a great cultural exchange and after a stay in Tokyo we went to the north east for a stay with our host families. 
• That is so unique, far different from a hotel stay. 
• We did lots of sight seeing in the north east area, visiting gardens, shrines etc. etc. 
• The usual things one can enjoy in this great country. 
• Their courtesy and respect for others, for nature and for life in general is something we all can learn from. 
• They are an example to the world. Some negative news by the leftist media in regard to nuclear power plants should be put to rest too. 
• If all those people that talk about it and help spread those rumors, would do their own homework, they would soon learn that those levels are not life threatening. 
• On a transatlantic flight you get quite some radiation and nobody talks about that.  
• Nuclear energy is still by far the cleanest and safest energy there is! 

• This is the Miyagi Prefecture (State) with Sendai being the hardest hit. 
• Our stay was in Osaki, more inland and that's precisely why there was not much damage compared to the areas near the coast. 
• They did not have electricity for one week; that's why they couldn't send or receive emails prior to yesterday.

• View from the Tokyo Tower where we first went on our city tour and harbor cruise. It was rather hazy that day but nevertheless quite impressive.

• Here I am in front of Tokyo's Hard Rock Cafe, with a lady from YKK research. 
• We had dinner there and the group had a blast.

• On the roof  of the YKK research center in Tokyo before departure by train to the north to our host families. 

• Reading from Romaji and my co-chaperon doing the English version, that's how I presented the gifts for the mayor, the chairman of their International Association and later to the manager of the Tohoku YKK plant. 
• A dear friend who has worked and lived in Japan, provided me with this text and he did over-hear me before I went to Japan. 
• As I'm used to speaking for groups, having been an international consultant and giving training seminars, I didn't need a microphone.

• Here I present the gifts, that I'd purchased at our flagship department store Neiman Marcus. 
• They did provide me with their signature gift boxes as well. 
• Japanese do appreciate high quality items.

• Meeting my host. By the way, I got introduced as an energetic Mama...

• The Chef from a traditional Japanese restaurant in Furukuwa. I ate whale for the very first time. 
• With our boss, my husband and I have eaten several times Japanese at Sumire Restaurant in the Grand Hyatt Jakarta Hotel in Indonesia.
• We both love it very much. 
• Eating with chopsticks is no problem for me either as I did that for years in Indonesia, while doing consulting work and living there for about 3 years. 
• Japanese chopsticks are only shorter.

• Each of us had to say something about our stay and our experiences, or highlights, at the Sayonara party. 
• Also the host family got to say something about their guest(s) as some had two students and even three.

• One last photo with my host family and off we went in the morning, by train back to Tokyo. 
• Another adventure was that a Typhoon was striking Japan and our Delta flight was delayed by one day and the hotels in Tokyo were overbooked, so we had to split up our group. 
• During the train ride I made up my mind though, that we would depart that very day instead. 
• Delta airlines handled it great as we got it done over the phone and by mentioning that I had to get my six minors back home safely. 
• The problem was that there were two holidays in Japan, thus flights already overbooked. 
• Also the fact that the group would be split up was not something I liked. 
• We got out, running to the gate and having to skip lunch but that was okay. 
• The Typhoon hit and there was an earthquake with a mini Tsunami. 
• Nothing compared with this monster Tsunami... but who would know in advance? 
• Parents were all pleased to see their son/daughter back safe. 
• I'd emailed my husband Pieter and our YKK contact person who organized everything in the US as far as informing the families. 
• My last email read: 'If you don't hear from me anymore; that means we are in the air' and also forwarding our flight numbers to them...

• Back home in Dublin I could present our mayor with the new flag from Osaki as several towns had merged into Osaki City.

• Only one year later, in 2008, we could welcome a Japanese delegation back to Dublin. Under Police escort they are being met at the Interstate (Autobahn/Autostrada) and a big welcome sign is on the overpass.

• Here we are with our house guest; one of the chaperons.

• Together with two other members of the International Committee I did join these Japanese students  on a trip to Savannah and to the beach... HAPPY TIMES!

• Let me end this post with this nobel act by Nissan as they donated $ 1,000,000 and will match again the next $ 500,000 in contributions. Here is (was) the link for donating and I hope that many of you will join me! Thank you! ありがとうございます on behalf of our Japanese friends that need us more than ever...

{Our EVERGLADES ADVENTURE with friend NATACHA}

Friday, February 3, 1989. After Pieter got home from work at 5:20 PM, we drove from Wilmington, DE to Philadelphia for flying on Delta Airlines to Cincinnati and then to Miami. This was a free ticket from frequent flyer miles. That never works easy but we'll reach our destination, regardless! Our dear friends Carlos & Natacha picked us up and took us to their beautiful and light airy home with tropical garden. Talked till 2:00 AM...

Saturday, February 4, Carlos had to work. With Natacha we went for lunch and did sight see Miami. Her Mom was there from Santa Domingo and looked after the kids. We did the famous Calle Ocho and at a Cuban café we drank a coffee and also went to the pequeña Havana.

It was such a happy reunion with all of them! Their sons Carlitos and Christopher enjoyed our visit as much as we did! Happy times together with dear friends, that lived in Dublin, Georgia as well, before all of us had moved away...

At 6:00 PM we went all four to a real Spanish restaurant. Ate my first paella, yummy...! Musicians played and sang at the tables. After dinner we went to Coral Gables and alongside the river we did some window shopping and listened to the life music outside. A very romantic and tropical evening.

Sunday, February 5. Together we went out for breakfast - croissants. During this breakfast we started talking about he Everglades; the enormous swamp area in that part of Florida, one of the world's biggest wetlands. Carlos & Natacha themselves had also not yet been there. It is located near the restaurant and thus Pieter offered them to buy the tickets for a tour with Cooper Town Airboat Rides. ← click it.  After a while enough passengers had come to fill up a boat. A motley crowd; an elderly American couple; two elderly ladies and three young, well dressed German business travelers who apparently just like us, had a free weekend to spend. (Dutch translation follows below this English story...).

Our red-haired guide departed with us aboard under the loud roaring of the eight-cylinder. Skimming over the shallow water we soon disappeared out of sight, far away from the inhabited world, with nothing else around us than the immense sheet of water, marsh plants and reed. Once in a while our guide throttled down in order to enthusiastically tell about the territory, how it came about, what birds and reptiles exist, the too shallow water level etc. Everybody visibly had a good time.

He steered a bit to the left, by moving over a thick carpet of marsh plants and reed to go into another waterway. Suddenly the boat lost speed as if she would be held tight by an invisible hand. The engine roared and the propeller howled powerless through the air; we got stuck, as firm as a rock; impossible to bring any motion into the flat vessel.

First the two elderly ladies began to lament: "always when we go some place, then something goes wrong".

The guide now promotes a German as steersman, while he steps overboard to push, engine full throttle, in a fierce attempt to get the vessel afloat. The only result was that the inseparable cap from the American got blown far away. Our guide clearly showed some tightness of the chest, his heart throbbed in his muddy, wet and sweaty body. Nothing else left to do but wait for the small patrol boat which, as he told us, automatically would be send out if a tour boat would not be back on time. We earnestly hoped that he was speaking the truth; the sun stood perpendicular above us, we were thirsty and sweaty and in thought we already saw the plane take off without us. Finally the remotely noise of the patrol boat could be heard; we got discovered. Together the guides tried to get the vessel afloat; they lug, the engine full throttle and we simultaneously rocked the boat. All was in vain. The patrol boat got send back in order to get some help and all we could do was patiently wait.

Meanwhile the Germans got fed up with it and got themselves into action. Shoes and socks got removed and they rolled up the legs of their elegant suits as high as they could. Now with four men strong they lugged and pushed, but without any result. Back into the boat, with the brown slush high above the knees and even in their faces. "If somebody maybe had some paper tissues about him/her?!" Nobody had any; the nearest equivalent was a feminine napkin what I had in my handbag for you-never-know. It got gratefully accepted. The first man proceeded to wipe the sweat and splashes of ooze from his forehead and thereafter yet six German legs got rubbed off with it.

Meanwhile help had arrived, a less heavy tour boat, which took up a berth in the adjacent watercourse, together with the small patrol boat. Too far to step over but no fear, the backs of the seat benches got broken up and served as running board. Our friends and the two of us had to step over into the small patrol boat. The guides again plough through the mud, assisting the elderly Americans so they safely reach the small tour boat. They were the first to depart, greatly relieved. The now almost empty, large boat came afloat and departed with the Germans. As last ones we got collected. Just at speed we had to slow down for an enormous alligator. One moment we shuddered at the thought that our German fellow-passengers and the guides had stepped overboard at such short distance of this giant.

At the embankment the Germans already stood waiting for us. One of them held up a filthy napkin and laughingly asked: "Brauchen Sie dass noch?" Do you still need that...? Upon my, "nein danke" no thanks he let it disappear into the trashcan.

With the expression on their faces of a bond that grows between companions in misfortune, also the Americans waved us goodbye.

Quickly we went home with Carlos & Natacha and ate a pizza and around 4:00 PM we went to the airport together with Carlitos and Christopher. We said farewell to all four and at 5:20 PM we departed for Cincinnati and on to Philadelphia. We arrived late again at Aron & Shyfra's home in Wilmington, Delaware. There we have stayed for some three weeks at the time we were moving from Pennsylvania to Italy. All our belongings were already on the Ocean en route to Italy.

Did send this to Avenue, a Dutch magazine and it ranked 11th in a prize competition about travel stories, awarding only the ten best stories.

Dutch version:

Zondag. Samen uit voor ontbijt - croissants. Tijdens dit late ontbijt kwamen de Everglades ter sprake; het enorme moerasgebied in dat gedeelte van Florida. Carlos & Natacha waren er zelf ook nog nooit in geweest. Het was erg dichtbij het restaurant en dus bood Pieter aan om de kaartjes te kopen voor een toer met zo'n propellerboot. Na enige tijd waren er genoeg passgiers om een boot te vullen. Een bont gezelschap; een ouder Amerikaans echtpaar, twee bejaarde dames en drie jonge, goed geklede Duitse zakenreizigers die blijkbaar net als wij, een vrij weekend te besteden hadden. Onze roodharige gids vertrok met ons onder luid gebrul van de acht-cylinder. Scherende over het ondiepe water waren we al snel uit het zicht, ver weg van de bewoonde wereld, met rondom ons niets dan de onafzienbare vlakte van water, moerasplanten en riet. Onze gids nam zo nu en dan gas terug en vertelde enthousiast over 't gebied, het ontstaan, wat er leefde aan vogels en reptielen, de te lage waterstand etc. Iedereen genoot zichtbaar.

Hij stuurde wat naar links om over een dicht tapijt van moerasplanten en riet naar een andere waterweg te gaan. Plotseling verloor de boot snelheid alsof ze door een machtige, onzichtbare hand werd vastgehouden.

De motor brulde en de propeller joelde machteloos door de lucht; we zaten vast, muurvast; er was geen beweging meer in het platte vaartuig te krijgen. De twee bejaarde dames begonnen als eerste te jammeren; "altijd als wij ergens naar toe gaan, gaat er iets mis". Een Duitser werd achter het stuur gezet en de gids stapte overboord om te duwen, motor volgas, in een verwoede poging het ding vlot te krijgen. Het enigste resultaat was dat de onafscheidelijke pet van de Amerikaan ver werd weggeblazen.

Onze gids kreeg het duidelijk benauwd, zijn hart bonkte in z'n bemodderde, nat bezwete lijf. We moesten maar wachten op de kleine patrouille boot die, zoals hij vertelde, automatisch werd uitgestuurd als een toerboot niet op tijd terugkeerde. We hoopten vurig dat hij de waarheid sprak; de zon stond recht boven ons, we waren dorstig en zweterig en in gedachten zagen we het vliegtuig al vertrekken, zonder ons.

Eindelijk drong vanuit de verte het geluid van het patrouillebootje tot ons door; we waren ontdekt. Met z'n beiden probeerden de gidsen nog eens om de zaak vlot te krijgen; zij sjorren, de motor volgas en wij tegelijkertijd schommelen. Alles tevergeefs. De patrouilleboot werd teruggestuurd om hulp te halen en wij maar weer lijdzaam wachten.

De Duitsers hadden er zo stilaan schoon genoeg van en kwamen zelf in aktie. Schoenen en sokken uit en de broekspijpen van hun elegante costuums zo hoog mogelijk opgerold. Nu met vier man sterk sjorren en duwen, maar zonder resultaat. Terug in de boot, met de bruine prut tot hoog boven de knieën en zelfs in hun gezicht. "Of iemand mogelijk papieren zakdoekjes bij zich had?!" Niemand had zoiets; het enigste wat daar het kortste bijkwam was een maandverbandje wat ik bij me had voor je-weet-maar-nooit. Het werd dankbaar aanvaard. De eerste man veegde zich er het zweet en de modderspetters mee van z'n voorhoofd en daarna werden er nog zes Duitse benen mee schoongewreven.

Inmiddels was er hulp, een minder zware toerboot die in de waterloop naast ons kwam liggen, samen met het patrouillebootje. Te ver om over te stappen maar geen nood, de rugleuningen werden van onze boot gesloopt en dienden als loopplank. Onze vrienden en wij moesten eerst maar overstappen in het patrouillebootje. De gidsen ploeterden weer in de modder om de bejaarde Amerikanen veilig naar de kleine toerboot te helpen. Zij vertrokken als eerste, zichtbaar opgelucht. De nu bijna lege, grote boot kwam vlot en vertrok met de Duitsers. Als laatsten werden wij opgehaald

Net even op weg moest onze boot inhouden voor een enorme alligator. Even griezelden we bij de gedachte dat onze Duitse medepassagiers en de gidsen overboord waren gestapt op zo'n korte afstand van deze reus. Op de kade stonden de Duitsers ons al op te wachten. Een van hun hield een vies zwart doekje op en vroeg lachende; "Brauchen Sie das noch?" Op mijn, "nein danke" liet hij het in de afvalbak verdwijnen. Met de uitdrukking op hun gezicht van een band die tussen lotgenoten is gegroeid, zwaaiden ook de Amerikanen ons gedag.

Wij snel met Carlos & Natacha naar huis en nog pizza gegeten en tegen 16:00u samen met Carlitos en Christopher naar de airport. Afscheid genomen van alle vier en om 17:20u naar Cincinnati en door naar Philadelphia. We waren laat weer bij Aron & Shyfra in Wilmington, Delaware. Hier logeerden wij tijdelijk omdat al onze huisraad al was ingescheept voor Italië en wij over enkele weken ook zouden vertrekken naar Europa voor onze nieuwe stek in Cornuda, provincie Treviso in Italië.

Hiermee haalde ik de 11de plaats bij Avenue voor reisverhalen en viel dus nèt niet in de prijzen...