My idea of camping is a cheap motel...aka my trip to Uluru

Anyone who has spent any time with me can tell you that my idea of camping is a cheap motel. I am not a nature girl. I love to hike and to be outdoors but at the end of the day, I like to come home to a soft bed, a hot shower, and a running toilet. That having been said, let me share with you that the three longest days of my life were spent at the Ayers Rock Resort in Australia. The trip out to Ayers Rock was relatively uneventful...until we got to our room. I thought I had prepared myself, after all, I was heading into the Outback. My preparation, however, was countered with the knowledge that I was staying at a 4 1/2 star resort. What a difference that half star makes! We arrived at our room, and to make a long story short, it can only be described as the place where spiders go to mate. And they had. At the point where Jeff had killed the 45th spider or so in a five minute period, I was huddled in the middle of the bed having my own little nervous breakdown while he tried not to laugh at me. Needless to say, we were moved to another room. In the same building. A building I am sure hadn't been used in many, many months. In the new room we only had to kill a couple of spiders. And the cockroach that ran across the bathroom floor. And then the mystery bug that Jeff laid on in bed and squashed. It was at this point that he joined me in my nervous breakdown. It is humbling as an adult to find yourself sleeping with the lights on! But enough about the room, because I really could go on and on about it!


In an effort to spend as little time as possible in the room we joined several tours and explored the resort at length. We ran across all sorts of interesting wildlife, including lizards and great big spiders, and took pictures of Uluru from every looking point on the resort grounds.






One of the tours we went on was the Sunrise tour. There were about six of us on this tour and we went out to a viewpoint before dawn, had a little breakfast and watched the sun come up over Uluru. Our tour guide Cherry was great and taught us to recognize the different animal track we were seeing. The coolest thing on this tour was the fact that we got to see the Southern Cross in the morning sky. We also got a 360 degree tour of Uluru and a chance to do a little hiking around the rock. In the picture to the left, Jeff is touching Uluru.



We also went on the Sounds of Silence Sunset Tour. For this tour we were bussed into the outback, watched the sun go down, had a buffet dinner of kangaroo and other delicacies, and then got a tour of the Southern Hemispheres night sky. Unfortunately, there was a full moon and a full moon in the middle of nowhere is nice and bright so our tour went a little like this "if we could see the stars over here you would be able to see...and over here would be the...and if you could only see the stars over here you would see one of the most beautiful..." Added to that was the newness of the presenter who was having a difficult time trying to get her stories in order. It was painful - in a completely funny way. To add to the adventure of the evening we were seated at dinner with a British couple who were on our morning tour as well as with a man from California and the two women he was with. I've heard stories about those loud Americans and this guy was the stereotype come to life. I was so glad when this tour ended, I was almost happy to return to the hotel.


The adventure of the Sounds of Silence tour, however, was nothing compared to our Kata Tjuta trip. Kata Tjuta is another monolith not far (an hour or so as I recall) from Uluru. Our tour group was a small one consisting of a couple from Spain, a German mother and daughter team, an older couple, our tour guide and us. We hiked up as far as we were allowed to go and it was a really beautiful hike in the 100 plus degree heat. Unfortunately the mother from Germany wasn't up to all of that heat and couldn't make it back down (she's the one in the white hat in the picture to the left. We left her with all of our water and headed back to get help. It took forever for help to arrive. We got to know the couple from Spain really well as we waited. One by one everyone was pawned off to another tour group so they could join their evening tours but Jeff and I elected to stay as we really needed to know that the she was OK. Finally, several hours later, after the rescuers arrived, hiked up the mountain, and stabilized her, she came hiking down the mountain with an IV in her arm. That was one tough woman! As a bonus for the rough day, our tour driver made a special stop for us to see the sun set on Uluru up close and personal. It was a very peaceful experience...until the couple getting it on emerged from behind the rocks spoiling our view.

Finally, after three days of endless heat and spiders, it was time to depart. We arrived at the airport and all was well. We boarded our flight on time and I was having my own little private celebration when I made the mistake of saying "we are finally leaving - they can't make me get off this plane". This was followed by the captain announcing that the back of the plane was filling up with smoke, no need to worry it was good old fashioned Australia smoke, but we needed to evacuate in an orderly fashion. Apparently they could make me get off the plane. Karma sucks. After 6 hours of sitting in the teeny, tiny airport, we finally took off for Melbourne. Prayers of gratitude were said by all. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that really only needs to be done once in a lifetime.

Never judge a ring's size by its owner's size...

While looking for a sewing needle today I found an old CTR ring and when I picked it up I thought "how tiny - I wonder how old I was when I wore this". I then put it on and...it fit! This took me back to my recent trip to Australia. I was determined to buy a ring this time as a souvenir. I looked in just about every jewelry store in Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast, and at the Ayers Rock resort. Finally the day before we left, I went into the store next door to our hotel and there it was - the ring I have been searching for for three weeks. I bought the ring and luck was with me as the person who sizes the rings was coming in that day and they could have it for me in a few hours. As I learned, Australia ring sizes are different from American sizes so the jeweler and I spent some time with the sizing rings figuring out the right size. A few hours later they called to tell me that the ring was done and I could pick it up. I rushed right over. As I walked in one of the clerks saw me and before I could say anything she said she would get the other clerk as I really needed to work with her. There was just something off about the way she said it and my "uh oh" antennae was quivering. The original sales clerk came out and just burst out with "I am so sorry, he sized the ring but something must have been wrong with the size we gave him because it's turned out really small". She was holding up the ring so I could see how small it was. I held out my hand and said, "here, let me try it." It slipped right on and fit almost perfectly - it was just a tad loose. Her eyes were gigantic with disbelief as she starred at the ring on my finger. Two valuable lessons were learned that day - never judge a ring's size by the owner's size and it is possible not to squash little tiny salesclerks who do.

Top Ten Things I've Learned Since I Stopped Traveling for Work

10) Utility bills increase when you are home every day.
09) Getting gas more than once every six-eight weeks sucks.
08) I sorely underestimated my monthly grocery budget.
07) My house is messier when I am home all the time.
06) No one comes in and makes my bed and hangs up my towels for me.
05) Hotel beds are nowhere near as comfortable as sleeping in your own bed every night.
04) Utah doesn't have the same weather two days in a row.
03) People call more now that they know I'm always in town.
02) Eating at home every day does actually get old.
01) No one needs this much luggage!

People will buy anything...

After about four weeks of garage selling on Saturdays, I think I can say, without hesitation, that people will buy anything. Every week my coworker Ryan and I sort through newly arriving merchandise. Every week there will be something that will make us roll our eyes and question why the seller would think that someone would buy the item...and, invariably, that item is one of the first to be bought. It all started in week one when the first CD to sell, out of the many CD's available, was a Clay Aiken CD with two songs on it bought by a woman in her 70's. This week we got a box with old glasses and mugs in it including 6 very scary looking chocolate brown ceramic mugs that someone had made. They looked like a cross between a ghost and a pumpkin head. They were filthy, clearly having sat out in someones garage for years, a few were chipped and most were in various stages of having the details rubbed off of them. Ryan and I debated just tossing them out or taking them to the office and running them through the dishwasher. We ended up doing neither and just left them next to our work table with the other untagged items. Sure enough, a woman comes in on Saturday, goes straight to that box, ignoring the clean and unchipped mugs on the kitchenware table, and buys the six mugs. When she asked how much they were, it was all I could do not to exclaim "seriously???". (By the way, I sold all of them to her for $2.00). It's my new goal not to judge items as them come through the door because clearly there is an owner out there just waiting for the item to become available...ok, maybe I will still judge the items but I will do my best not to judge the people crazy enough to buy them!

When shoes become defective...

I flew to Connecticut this week. At 8:30 am I put on my reliable black pumps. I then proceeded to walk through the hotel and through the parking lot without incident (if you don't count the part where I banged my head on the trunk lid). I then successfully survived 5 hours of interviews which included walking to different offices and touring the facility without issue. I walked to my rental car. I walked from the rental car parking lot to the airport quite gracefully. I easily navigated security. I walked around the White Plains airport. I walked, and walked, and walked through the Chicago O'Hare airport in my trusty, reliable black pumps as I waited for my delayed flight to Salt Lake. I walked on carpet. I walked on pavement. I walked on tile. I walked on cement. I walked on laminate. You name a floor covering and I walked on it. Finally, many, many, many hours after putting the aforementioned reliable shoes on and after having walked, and walked, and walked in them, I arrived at the Salt Lake City Airport. I took one step onto their smooth surfaced floor and went sliding Dorothy Hamil style (with less finesse). I finally got myself steady, did the "I am so embarrassed" scrunchy face, took one more step and offered a repeat performance which was quickly followed by offering my now captivated audience an encore. There are really only two choices at this point. You can crawl to a carpeted area, take the ballet flats out of your carry-on and put those on instead or you can continue to slip and slide your way to baggage claim. For reasons I can't explain, I chose the latter. I am sure everyone behind me was just waiting for me to take a nose dive. I just want to know two things - what the #@!! happened to my shoes on the flight to Salt Lake and how many stories that night started with "there was this woman at the airport today..."?