Aaron Ewer

If you think about the John Wayne movies and have to define the Wild West, where would it be? Would you think about the gunfight at the OK Corral? Or the gold mines? Follow the railroad to California? What about Texas and the Alamo?

To me, there’s still the West in Wyoming and Montana, and a totally different West in Arizona and New Mexico. All of them invoke mental images of cowboys and Indians, but the terrain is significantly different and the way of life, the quality of life, and the daily lives of people living there varies greatly.

I’ve always wanted to live in New Mexico or Arizona. I have driven through both states numerous times and tried to vary my routes so I can take in as much of the area as possible. The one place I’ve not yet been is Tucson and that’s at the top of my list for the next trip West.

A good friend of mine used to live in Tucson for several years and has agreed to go out there with me if he can take the time off work. It would be great to go with someone who already knows the area. If he can’t go, I think I’ll call around and find a Tucson realtor to meet me while I’m there and show me around the different neighborhoods with the thought of buying my retirement home in Tucson. Unless Tucson is completely different from what I’ve read and been told, it sounds like the perfect retirement spot for me. Finding a good realtor in Tucson is easy when you search one out using Clicksmart. I’ve had Clicksmart saved to my bookmarks for months.

I’m not opposed to buying a home out there now while the market is soft and renting it out for a few years so that I can be paying off the mortgage with someone else’s money. Then when I’m ready to hang it up here, I can load up a truck and drive west to sit on my own front porch and watch those gorgeous desert sunsets.

My mother-in-law has decided to start traveling and I’m really glad that she is finally start to get out of the house. It’s been 2 years since her husband passed away and she’s had a hard time getting used to the idea that she is, in effect, single again. Thankfully, my father-in-law made generous financial arrangements for her, so she can enjoy her life in her golden years.

She wants to go to California and I was telling her about some of the sights to see in the Los Angeles area. She is going to spend two weeks on the West Coast and that will give her plenty of time to do fun things. For example, there’s amusement parks like Disneryland and Knotts Berry Farm. I let her know there are ways to save money on her trip if she plans ahead, such as discounts on Knotts berry farm tickets.

I let her know that she can do a lot of research on sites like the one by Trusted Tours & Attractions, and to read their online travel guides, which can give her lots of ideas and help her plan a realistic itinerary and trip budget. She can also sign up for their email newsletter for more travel tips and ideas.

The last time I was in the Los Angeles area, I had trouble getting home. At the time it was a little stressful but now I can laugh about it. I was flying on a ticket that required a stopover in Detroit before continuing the return flight back to Washington. I had spent a ton of money on the trip to California and was flat broke but figured I wouldn’t need any money because the ticket was paid for and I was heading home.

I was anxious to get home, with a wedding to attend the next day, and planned to sleep on the 5 hour flight so I had nothing with me except what was in my pockets. After we all boarded the plane, we sat on the runway for an awfully long time and eventually the flight attendant announced that we were being delayed due to a mechanical issue and that they were in the process of checking it out. Then they cut off the power to the passenger cabin and we all sat on the plane, on the runway with no lights, no air conditioning and no air circulation for 2 hours. We were all trying to be good sports, but OMG - it was horrible. Especially without any air. I was about to lead a revolt to get off the plane when they finally put the power back on and we had air again. After a 3 hour delay we suddenly lurched forward and the seat belt sign came on and off we went.

The worst of it was not having the air conditioning, but besides that by the time we got to Detroit to make the connecting flight, we were so late that the connecting flight had already left. As a matter of fact, ALL scheduled flights had already left Detroit and there were no more planes leaving Detroit that night to go ANYWHERE. So here we were, a planeload of people wanting to go home and no way to get there! Plus i was stone cold broke and had no money for dinner or even a vending machine snack. The airline made arrangements to send us to local hotels for the night and we were able to catch a red-eye flight in the morning. But that was a rough return trip and I learned a couple travel lessons from that experience:

• Never spend all your money at your destination and have no money in your pocket on the return flight. You might need to buy dinner or a toothbrush if you end up spending the night someplace unplanned.
• Never book the last flight out. You might miss that flight or it might be canceled and you’ll be stuck someplace overnight. Always have one or two alternative flights following your scheduled flight as a safety net.
• Always have a book or laptop fully charged to keep yourself occupied in case you have to sit and wait for a couple hours.

Last year’s vacation to New Jersey is pulling at my memories this week. It’s been a year ago this month that we were enjoying our family beach vacation at the Jersey shore right before school started. We had a glorious week at the beach and all of us came home tan and happy, with our internal batteries fully recharged.

There’s a lot to be said for quality family time away from home. My own parents felt strongly about taking the entire family on road trips up and down the East Coast as we were growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. we went everywhere from Orlando and Disneyworld, to Virginia Beach, to Gettysburg. But our favorite spot was always the beaches in New Jersey and the Wildwood attractions.

If you’ve never been to the Jersey shore, you are missing out on great family entertainment. Morey’s Piers has all the amusement rides, concessions stands, concerts and water parks that any kid or any age could want. Morey’s Piers offers different weekly specials and has three different amusement parks:

• Surfside Pier
• Mariner’s Landing
• Adventure Pier

Each different park has different rides, including kiddie rides, thrill rides, and a variety of boardwalk fun and food.

The Wildwood area has a variety of lodging options, from cheap hotel rooms to beachfront efficiencies and condos. We used the internet to set up our whole trip, found the perfect hotel for our family’s budget, and it was a great time for all of us.

We had a regional manager’s meeting this week which is something I always look forward to because it gives us face time with all the regional managers. You can get a lot more done with people are face to face instead of trading emails or voice mail messages. They men are always on the go and put in such long hectic days that it is really hard to reach any of them on the first try.

The managers from the west coast were really pumped up - they have been the most successful the first two quarters of the year. The guys from the midwest are hot on their trail.

I haven’t seen Bob since before Christmas and although he looks good, I did a double take and realized that he looks unusually good. Then I realized, he’s had a little work done. It’s not really obvious to the casual observer, but since I’ve worked closely with Bob for over 10 years, I could tell when I looked closely and its really for the better. When we had some time alone I asked him about it and he was glad to tell me about it. Bob found a top notch plastic surgeon and had his nose fixed. The technical term is rhinoplasty. He said he was only out of commission for about 4 days and that he only regrets he hadn’t done it sooner.

So that has me thinking about the same thing. I’ve heard about a great facial plastic surgeon in Cincinnati, Dr. Donath, and since that’s just a short drive from here, it would be worth finding a few things for the wife to do in Cincinnati while I have the surgery done and hang out in a nice hotel for a few days during the recovery. I found him easily by searching for Cincinnati Rhinoplasty and read Dr. Donath’s website to check him out. I guess the next step is to just call his office and make an appointment for a consultation before making any further plans.

How strange that there was a big earthquake in the Los Angeles area today. I think it was a 5.8 magnitude. The center of the quake was actually about 30-35 miles east of downtown L.A., but a quake that strong is felt for many miles away. I heard that people in San Diego felt the tremors.

First reports say that there was minimal damage and that only a few people suffered minor injuries. That’s a blessing. I hope the early reports stand true. Often in a natural disaster the injury and damage reports increase dramatically over the first 24 hours.

Usually it’s northern California that gets more earthquake action, but there are serious fault lines that run down the entire length of the state. I checked the USGS web site and there have been 67 aftershocks today in that same immediate area. Those poor people must be frantic by now.