Tag: Travel

Visiting the new Grandson

by allberry2001, posted in Main

Coming home 

So we leave Phoenix on Sunday after seeing the kids and the new grandson. Heading north for Beatty, NV. On 93 by Baghdad, Arizona, the car’s check engine light starts blinking, and I can make the car go any faster, soon, we came to a hill in the middle of nowhere, and the car is just gave up.

With almost no cell service, we got messages to the kids in NV and AZ  who called a tow truck for us. Two hours till the tow truck got there, a trucker stopped to check on us and family in a small car just to make sure we were okay. 

The closest town to where we were was Wickenburg, Arizona, but it was a Sunday, and the shop that they took the car to didn’t open till Monday. So we are in this little town overnight, a cute town with some really nice people.

We get to the shop at 7:30 am to let them know why the car is there.

We get a call from the shop: engine seized! The shop knew it was a problem with my car and suggested I call Hyundai since the car was just under 100,000 miles.

Coming home part 2

So on Monday, I contacted Hyundai dealers about the defect, and they gave me the number for Hyundai Corp for help. Now the car is 45 minutes from any dealership, about a $700 tow ride.  The tech I was talking to opened a case for us and even sent a tow truck ( the same driver as yesterday, Jeff ) to take us to Surprise, AZ, at no cost to us. The car was taken to Ken Garff Hyundai, and they greeted us at the door the corp office and sent them the info about what was going on.

They said they had some tests to run to see if it was the defect that caused the issue. After giving us water and some more questions, they had a loner car ready for us to use. We were in and out of the dealership in 30 minutes. On Wednesday, they called us and told us YES the engine is going to be replaced. There is one in LA, and it should be at the dealership by Friday. First, they thought it would be done mid-week. They called us on Saturday and said the car was done. 

I can not say enough good things about the dealership and the Hyundai Corp. They made this so much easier to deal with the stress.

Mini-Vacation Mexico/Denver

by allberry2001, posted in Main

So last week we had a mini vacation just to get out of town for a week. Mexico again, my daughter and one of her old friends were planning to go and the wife found a good fare for us to go so we joined them.

We went to the same resort we go to all the time we love the beach there and the staff are always so helpful.

We only got a little rain one day when we were there and we loved it, we don’t get a lot of Rain in Reno. The rest of the week was quiet but this time of year the pool is like a warm tub, so the ocean was a better option.

On the way back (United Airlines) was an hour late landing due to a storm and the luggage took 40 minutes to start coming out. So by the time we re-checked the luggage the next flight had left. That meant an overnight stay in Denver, I never really saw the city so I didn’t mind too much.

And then I got this when we got home.

Pontremoli Italy

by allberry2001, posted in Main

That was our destination on this trip to Italy. My wife’s sister bought a place in town after we did a drive-by visit last year and she saw the photos. I must say it is a small town at that, now that we have stayed there a few days it seems everyone in town knows everyone else. I got the impression it’s a hiking area that is really busy in the summer season.

That was not the only reason we were there as like last time we were looking to buy a place for ourself’s. Myself and my wife went house hunting last year with not much luck, between the language problem and realtors not showing up it was more of a drive around Italy.

This time with my sister-in-law’s help we did find a realtor that we could work with,2 in fact. One of the first places we looked at was not much more than stones in shape of a house, the land it was on was huge but it was not “livable” till a lot of work was done.

The next place we looked at was a 3-story box more or less with a 2-car garage on the bottom level. The apartments were in “better” shape almost to the point we could get one up and running in a short time and have someplace to live. The idea was to create a B&B so we would have an income while living.

Now like most Italian towns, they have a castle at the top of the hill, and the next home that is livable was in between this castle and town ( a big hill ).

At this time again I’m trying to get as much info about my Grandpa who left Italy in the early 1900s.

We made it to Italy and Greece

by allberry2001, posted in Main

With all the waiting we made into Italy via Canada and it was surprisingly easy. We brought our tests to the airport in Reno and no one asked for anything else till we got to Italy. The flights we packed as normal and all we did is show the papers that said we have gotten the shots and off we went.

  • Ristorante Di Rienzo

Off to our favorite place in Italy we went, after a year of not being there the waiters remembered us and were so happy to see us. The tension we felt in the upcoming weeks and during the flight took a day or two to go away. We spent a lot time at the restaurant they would hold our table for us,I had asked for green olives one night and they didn’t have any. The waiter when and got some from the store for me. Dawn couldn’t pick off the menu what she wanted for desert so they loaded everything on a tray and brought it out to us to pick.

After the days of walking around and seeing so many tents offering Covid tests or free shots we were feeling like we could come back for a longer stay. Hint…Hint…

Now off to Athens Greece.

From the time we got to Italy to the time we left the rules changed to get into Greece all we needed as Americans was our vac cards so that was a lot off our minds. I did get transportation from the airport to the B&B we were staying at ( I would have never found it ). Once we got our bearing on where in town we were it was easy to find our ways around.

View from our B&B

Now after being in Italy for a week I forgot how my cheaper Athens is when it comes to food and drinks. The one thing bad is there are so many Americans in Athens compared to Rome and so many of us just ruin it for everyone. We did find a nice place’s to plant out butts and people watch and since we were only here once before we did so much walking.

Πεζοδρομος Θησειου hanging with Dimitris Mavraganis

The photo above is the waiter that was serving us the last 3 days he was so friendly and so helpful picking wine. I would like to thank him again for making it a wonderful trip.

As for the trip home that will come in another post…

So tomorrow starts a trip…

by allberry2001, posted in Main

Last day of work before a trip overseas, I have been waiting 2 years for this after going a least once a year before the Covid. We are hoping to get to Italy and Greece but with restrictions changing by the min I am so scared we will get stuck at some border. We have a stop in Canada and that is going to be a first, let’s see how it go’s.