Friday, September 6: Day 137 – HOT OFF THE PRESS

IT’S A GIRL! Our first grandchild will be a girl. We are excited for Donna and Nathan as they prepare for the big event!!

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We left beautiful Montenegro en route to beautiful Dubrovnik.

Rob got up early to make reservations for March in Australia. He has the hard job of researching the best deals, transportation, and checking availability!!

We arrived at the bus station with our tickets in hand. Since we had reserved seats, we waited until the end to board. Oops!! Not enough seats. Six of us had to wait as they called in the cavalry bus. After about 15 minutes, a smaller bus arrived. This probably worked out better for us since I get carsick and the air conditioning is likely to be better. (Rob did think about his last job today. The bus company would benefit by the use of a scanner.)

We picked up a few more passengers on one of our 10-minute stops. The leg room was tight. I don’t know how my daughter, Julie’s 6’5″ boyfriend Luke would have been able to sit in this seat. Rob’s knees and my knees were up against the seats in front of us.

I was happy to get out and stretch my legs. One stretch was crossing my legs and squatting down to get a good hip stretch. The bus station attendant thought that I was looking for gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe. After a laugh, he wanted to help me with my stretches. He was very enthusiastic about it. We even did pushups against the fence…until the manager came out thinking that I would bend the bars. I was flattered that he thought I was that strong. Rob took a picture of the scene. Note others taking pictures as well. I tried to smile for the camera.

We stopped near the Montenegro border for customs to approve our exit. There was a line of vehicles. We had to get out one by one and then our vehicle was briefly searched.

We stopped again about 10 minutes farther for Croatia to approve our entry into their country. We had to get out one by one and then our vehicle was searched.

Once in Dubrovnik, we walked by many large cruise ships and arrived at our hostel which operates more like a hotel.

We tried to go to a mini-Croatian culture and language class but they were closed. We stopped at the reception area for a much appreciated cold bottle of Coca-Cola.

An Australian man we met later named Scott approached Rob and said, “You look like you are in pain.”

I laughed so hard. Rob has been wrestling with our Australia plans. Scott is very intuitive.

We started to talk. It was obvious that he had been drinking a lot and was still drinking…and burping.

He was traveling by himself but is on a tour. He got lost once but the tour director was able to find him in a nearby bar.

He is from Sydney, home of this year’s nomadic X-games which is covered by a dome of marijuana smoke according to Scott.

When we would ask him a question like “Where are you going next?”, he would ponder the question for about 10 seconds and then he would say, “I don’t know.” which would put Rob in stitches.

“Well, what city did you like best?” Again, Scott would think long and hard with a few burps and say, “Munich.”

Rob would follow up with “What did you like about Munich?”

“They have an industrial approach to drinking beer.”

Later Scott told us that he is no longer working as an economist due to a head injury. He was in a sailboat and the boom hit him in the head. He doesn’t remember anything about the accident. His boss let him go because he was afraid that Scott would make some erratic decisions. He was known for making those in the past.

Scott dreams of buying a small business and “making it smaller”. He was slow in speech but quite clever. We think that he needs to preserve his brain cells and not challenge their existence. We hope to see him again!!

Today was the first volleyball match for University of Indianapolis (UIndy). Our daughter, Julie, is the Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator for the team. We have notifications set on our calendar so that we can watch them online even if the times are challenging for us. We didn’t miss a home game last year and we will miss them all this year!! However, we remain BIG fans. Go Greyhounds!! Win! You can follow the team and read her bio.

UIndy VB Schedule

We went to a hamburger joint nearby and in view of docked cruise ships. Rob and I both ordered lemonade. When the waitress arrived, she told us that our lemonade is 100% natural which means there is no sugar added. Wouldn’t that be lemon juice??

After a sip and a pucker, she brought us some sugar packets and we drank it tequila style!! (I used 8 packets!)

Now the burger arrives. I don’t normally take pictures but I made an exception of this hamburger with onion marmalade?? Fortunately, the marmalade did not have sugar either!!