By Bob Corbett
Good morning folks,
I'm home in St. Louis, albeit without my back pack, it just didn't show up with me in St. Louis. That's not an unusual occurrence, however, and I imagine it will be delivered here today.
It's still odd to here. It's a beautiful day, sunny and cool. Looks just great out. I'm going to get back on the walking trail today.
For those of you who know the St. Louis streets, after 9 AM comes -- yes, it is cool, the weather people on the radio said it is still in the 30s, but will get up to high 50s later in the day -- so I will definitely wait until at least 9 AM. Then I'll take the Manchester bus out to Big Bend. (For non St. Louisans, that's just about 1 1/2 miles from my home. Then I will walk out to the driver's license place on the Maplewood/Webster border and get a new driver's license even though I don't drive. It is a useful identification item. That will just be about a mile walk. Then, retracing my steps and continuing on north on Big Bend, I will arrive in Maplewood to my bank in just about 1 1/2 miles. I'll pick up some cash and probably get or at least order, a new debit card which was cancelled.
Then walk home, about 3 to 4 miles from there, so I'll get plenty of walking in today. That's great since I had TWO CONSECUTIVE DAYS without recordable exercise (minimum of 4 miles for it to count for me).
I talked to the people about my Citibank card, the card I use on a daily basis since it is the card on which I earn frequent flyer miles. They said no charges have been accepted on my card, but four were attempted to be made, the first was $4.90 at McDonald's in San Jose. When my brother and son were canceling the card the people told them about that charge they said you can be sure it wasn't my brother - my dad who ate at McDonald's!!!! How right there are. I don't know if I've done that in the past three / four years or longer.
Other charges were attempted at a shoe store and general merchandise store, but all have been rejected. Citibank either already has my new card in the mail, or will be sending it soon.
That leaves my Medicare card and my supplemental insurance card. I'll probably make those calls this afternoon.
It's actually nice to be home. The trees are beautiful, the weather is just glorious, my house is very comfortable, and I'm getting ready to do some serious cooking. I'll soak black beans tonight, and tomorrow I'll make a gigantic pot of gumbo soup, one of my best dishes. I make enough for 4-5 days of eating, and love to cook that way -- soups and casseroles which I can eat on for a goodly while.
It will take me a long time to process all the wonderful experiences of Costa Rica. It was just a great trip, I loved it very much and would love to return some day. However, I intend to do lots of reading about Panama as well. I might want to try it next, or perhaps do a trip next winter (2006) to both Costa Rica and Panama.
In the meantime, I now will turn my travel attentions to my upcoming trip (May 2006) to Greece and Turkey. Lots of reading to do and plans to make, ah yes, that trip will also include a four-day stop over on the way home in one of my most favorite cities -- Barcelona, Spain.
In the meantime, I also plan to FIX once and for all this travel mailing list so that it is on Webster University's system, like my Haiti mailing list and my Dogtown list, and thus one I can use more easily from any computer in the world.
[Later note July 2006. That problem has been fixed and I now have a “formal” travel list via the university and used it for my recent trip to Greece, Turkey and Barcelona.]
Thanks for allowing me to share my travels and ramblings with you.
Bob Corbett
Bob Corbett corbetre@webster.edu