Neil and Robyn,Thanks for the postcard. Chechoslovakia doesn't exist any longer. But of course the german tour group has nothing to do with the Rockies well deserved reputation. Did you realize the Sangre de Cristos are the southern tip of the Rockies. Everyone here says " cheers"

Melodie, How do the Cammacks have any $ for geegaws, they spent all their change on Tim Tam importation .

It would be interesting to track the flow of Tim Tams world wide by travelling fodorites, eh

AndrewDavid

Ah, you went to White Sulphur Springs. You should read Ivan Doig's "This House of Sky", which is about his growing up in and around there.

AndrewDavid,

Spending money on TimTam exportation is a necessary and time honored tradition of cultural and epicurean exchange.

I plan on upholding this tradition at the end of the month when I bring home a supply!

Melodie

melodie please save some for my next visit to the Bay Area. We've plowed through ou6 6 boxes already

andrewdavid

Hello again, North American friends. We arrived home today (Tuesday Oz time) after a memorable 6 weeks on the road - yours truly limping after an encounter with some iced-over steps outside a Truckee (CA) B&B. I put this down to my being a little tense after having spent an hour's discussion over breakfast with two couples whose political views were somewhat to the right of Genghis Khan...

Whoa! How did I get onto that? Rewind. We had a great time exploring the highways and byways of our chosen parts of the US and Canada, somehow managing to rack up well over 5000 miles in our trusty Taurus (not once straying onto the left-hand side of the road, I might add).

I must put my mind to a trip report for the benefit of other blundering Antipodeans, addressing such mysteries as 4-way stop signs, "wet" and "dry" cappuccinos, and how German tourists in Wyoming attempt to disguise themselves as locals by wearing cowboy hats but never quite succeed, because somehow "Mornin. How ya doin today?" just doesn't ring true in a German accent.

I was glad to hear you and Robyn got home Neil!

Give yourself a rest before starting that trip report but like everyone else I am sure looking forward to reading about your adventures.

Andrew David,

First of all...you're a pig! Really, "plowed thru 6 packages" - have you no restraint? Obviously not.

I will happy to bring a supply of Tim Tams for you -- what's your pleasure? Original, Tia Maria, Caramel, those spicy ones?

Neil - welcome home!!! We all can't wait to hear your trip report which no doubt will be long and wonderful!

Regards,

Melodie

Welcome back neil..we missed you. Sounds like you were given the treatment over there . Hope you were a good ambassador for OZ !

Dear Neil and Robyn

I am so glad you are safely home. I was so concerned about that BC crop you were trying to bring back across the US border with you.
Glad you got the stuff to market and got yourselves
home

cheers
AndrewDavid

Andrew, for a moment I worried that our cover (an Alberta farmer and his long-suffering wife delivering a couple of bales of lucerne hay to a stockfeed-deprived cousin in Montana) might not fool US Immigration at the Coutts crossing point. However the battered pickup and the Canadian accent acquired under your patient tuition worked a treat, as did the documents that your mysterious Triad friend in Vancouver's Chinatown cooked up for us. Fortunately the sniffer dog was having his dinner at the time, and absolutely nothing will divert a beagle or labrador from his dinner.

Once in Montana we hastened to Bozeman and set up shop outside the Food Co-op, where hoards of eager vegetarians and other ne'er-do-wells fell on us with glad cries of delight. Mission accomplished.

Neil, welcome home! somewhere up there in your wanderings around USA and Canada you mentioned a choice of soup or salad, which makes me remember a time in Sausalito (sp?) when my husband, by this time a bit overwhelmed about superlatives in US about portion sizes asked the waitress (I'm sure that should be waitperson) "what is supersalad?". There was a lot of "pardon, sirs" after that when I was crawling under the table.
Then again, my ex-husband kept asking for a rum and coke in a bar in LA and finally the barman, in a fit of understandable confusion brought him a rum and a slice of cake. Maybe we just shouldn't let Aussies out.

Right, Pat. We've been brainwashed into thinking that consumer choice is by definition a good thing, but one study indicated that at current levels it actually causes high stress and resultant ill-health. If so, Americans must be the most stressed-out people on the planet, which might explain the barrage of ads for medications on American TV, something we've so far been spared (but, given that Australia is in so many ways California West, for how long?)

The mere act of ordering a coffee (cappuccino, latte, espresso, macchiato, Americano, etc., no-fat or real milk, 12, 16 or 20-oz cup, one or two shots, wet or dry and so forth) initially reduced me to a welter of indecision until I got the formula right. When I were a lad, buying an ice cream was a relatively simple matter: vanilla, chocolate, tutti-frutti or chocolate-coated, single or double scoop. It's now a bloody minefield, and I challenge anyone to demonstrate that we're any more fulfilled as a result.

End rant.

Welcome home, Neil!

>>The mere act of ordering a coffee (cappuccino, latte, espresso, macchiato, Americano, etc., no-fat or real milk, 12, 16 or 20-oz cup, one or two shots, wet or dry and so forth) initially reduced me to a welter of indecision until I got the formula right.<<


What do you get when you order a dry coffee - a handful of grounds, or, heaven forbid, Nescafe?

Lee Ann

Hi, Lee Ann. Well, I wondered that, but then it was explained to me was that the "drier" the cappuccino, the more foam you got in relation to liquid (coffee), so I got to ordering "wet". This isn't an option in Australia - the only variation I get here is from ordering a "strong" cappuccino. Usually the foam is frothier (less dense) than in Australia, for what that's worth (OK, not much) but the product was almost always good.

We noted that table service is seldom provided unless you also order food, almost every shop taking the Starbucks (McDonalds) approach - self-service, using disposable cups and utensils. Maybe this reflects the fact that most coffee seemed to be sold "to go".

On the other hand espresso was usually cheaper than in an Australian cafe, so you gets what you pays for. However I've noticed that Starbucks in Australia uses its standard approach, despite charging as if table service was being provided. In this case we don't get what we pay for.

We were pleasantly surprised at the availability of espresso compared with our previous trip 10 years ago - at least in the states we visited. And if I'm not mistaken, it's also more common now to find a coffee-maker in your motel room.

BTW, I wish I could buy shares in Starbucks' China operations alone, that's for sure. They charge Western prices there, despite having a far lower cost base. The same goes for international hotels in China, where Westerners think they're getting a good deal at US$150 a night, unaware that this sum represents more than a month's wages for most Chinese workers. It's like having a licence to print money.

Sorry, getting off-topic again.

surely things would be different in Cammackstan,eh

A/D