Learning Blogger

OK, so here we go trying a few new functions in Blogger.

Paste a clip using Snipping Tool  (From the Internet - Google Nose) ... Great little April Fools day thing!

OK, so now I'll try to paste a photo

Cloudscape Sculpture, Chicago, IL, USA

I can put text beside it too!

Now this was a bit tricky... I had to use the 'Insert Image' button, 'Choose files', navigate to a folder containing the picture I want, then select the image, and 'Add Selected'.

When I did, it looked like this...

I then needed to select the size the image is to appear (small, Medium, Large etc), alignment (left, centre, right), Add a caption, Properties, or I could opt to remove it.

I'm writing the course notes for a Google Blogging course at PCPS, and this post is to test a few functions and help me learn how to do it. I'll publish this post to see how it all works!

Home via San Francisco & more Train Rides

We arrived home on Monday, glad not to be mixed up in the hurricane where we were on the east coast of America just two weeks ago!

Walking the Golden Gate Bridge

Following from my last post: The late running AMTRAK California Zephyr got us to San Francisco at about 10pm, and a short taxi ride got us to our accommodation where the host had left a key for us to settle ourselves in. Another very pleasant and roomy apartment, where we quite enjoyed spending the next five nights. As has become our custom on this trip, we started our exploration of San Francisco by taking a 'hop on/off' bus tour to get a feel of the city, and later walked along the waterfront & took a cable car ride. On our second day we repeated the hop on/off bus tour, but alighted at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge and walked the 3 km back across. Like a lot of the infrastructure in the US, it's not in brilliant condition with rust & paint peeling evident.

A Blimp over the Golden Gate Bridge

In Yosemite Valley

We had arranged for the next day to take a train & bus trip to Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, it rained on & off all day, but the trip was still quite enjoyable and worthwhile. Despite cloud, we were able to see the significant mountain scenery of the valley, and take a walk through the forest. The trip involved a taxi then a bus ride across the bay to Emeryville, a 2 hour train trip to Modesto, then a 2 hour coach ride into the valley. After 3 hours to explore the valley (saw several antlered deer & a coyote close up), we went through the reverse transport sequence back to our apartment about 11pm. A long day, but worthwhile.

Wildlife - A Deer in Yosemite Valley

'World's Crookedest' -  Lombard St with a
Cable Car on Hyde St crossing at the crest

On our final day in San Francisco we did a ferry trip to Alcatraz Island: interesting, but the place is rather shabby & poorly maintained – especially when you hear it gets a million visitors a year, and they charge $26 each (seniors rate) to visit! After lunch at the attractive Fisherman's Wharf area, we walked along the waterfront looking for another cable car ride. We found the cable car terminus with along queue for rides, so opted to walk up along the cable route and take some pictures. And I mean UP more than along. Hyde street is VERY steep. I'd seen photos of the cable car with Alcatraz in the background, (and wanted to get a similar photo), but was still amazed at the grade! Near the crest Hyde St crosses Lombard St, which has a section claimed to be the 'crookedest street in the world'. Not sure if that is true, but it did create a chaotic intersection- with cars turning to drive down the 'crookedest street', cable cars stopping in the middle of the intersection, locals trying to drive past, and tourists (like me) trying to photograph and video the whole scene from various angles!

Cable Car ascending Hyde St, San Francisco

California Street Cable Car, San Francisco

The next day was an early start as we got the bus across to Oakland to catch our final Amtrak ride – the Coastal Starlight, an all day trip to Los Angeles. Another excellent experience. If we are asked to name the highlights of our 9 weeks away, 'Amtrak' will be included. 

The Coast Starlight south of San Jose

'Coach Class' on AMTRAK's California Starlight - roomy!

As we were not on this train overnight, we traveled in the Coach Section but still had access to the Observation and Dining Cars (and more great meals!). Once again, great views of the countryside, (and seaside as we got further south), and comfortable and spacious seating in the upstairs of double deck carriages. (The lower deck has disabled access & seating, baggage room, 3 washrooms & toilets and staff areas.) 

Oil wells beside the railway north of Santa Barbara

The timetabling of this journey seemed pretty generous, as despite running 30 min late at Santa Barbara, we arrived at Los Angeles 30 minutes early. This resulted in us waiting on the front porch of our B&B in Hollywood, as our hosts were no at home on our (early) arrival. No problems however, as we had already stayed here at the start of our travels 9 weeks ago.

Los Angeles (distant, left) & Century City from the Getty Center

Los Angeles was a lot warmer than we experienced in San Francisco (or Chicago, New York etc), and we spent our final 3 days visiting the Getty Centre and Museum, revisiting Santa Monica, and a couple of hours at the La Brea Tap Pits – an palaeontological excavation in the Los Angeles suburbs, where the remains of many now extinct animals have been found, apparently trapped in oil seeps over the last ~40,000 years. 

Finally through the (rather dumpy) LAX Airport and onto Qantas QF12, a rather nice, new, quiet & reasonably comfortable A380 Airbus back to Sydney! After a Cityrail train ride (I won't make any comparisons to Amtrak here) home from Sydney Airport, there were some pretty impressive grandchildren-produced 'welcome home' banners on the garage door!

It's great to be home again and we're feeling very fortunate to have been able to make such an amazing trip! Now there's unpacking and 4500 photos to deal with, and lots of spring gardening to keep us busy!

...and end of the trail for us!

Three Different Cities and Long Train Rides

As our trip progresses, I'm finding it harder to find time to write this blog. Since my last post we have spent time in three large but very different cities – Washington, which is full of American national pride, history and museums; New York which is just chaos & grime; and Chicago, which a clean & tidy architectural showpiece.

The Capitol from Pennsylvania Av, Washington

Coincidentally, the accommodation we had in each city characterized the cities themselves. We had a very comfortable and stylish B&B in Washington – more like an apartment, as the owner was away – from which we were able to walk or take the Metro to sights and museums. Despite rain on a couple of the days there, we were able to take a bus orientation tour, visit the Capitol and the very impressive Library of Congress and several of the many Smithsonian museums. Washington, unlike New York and Chicago, has no skyscrapers, as, we were informed, no building may be taller than the Freedom statue atop the Capitol.

The Magnificent Library of Congress, Jefferson Building, Washington

From Washington we trained it to New York, a 4 hour trip getting brief glimpses of Wilmington, Baltimore and Philadelphia on the way.

Jon at the UN General Assembly, New York

Our accommodation in New York was a shared apartment booked through AirBnB. We shared it with other visitors, the owner living elsewhere. While it was basically sound and well located (29^th St near Penn Station & not too far from Times Square), the cleanliness, and maintenance could have been better. Exactly like New York city! 

Cable Tramway beside the Queensboro (59th St) Bridge, New York

Lower Manhattan from the ferry

We spent our three day revisit to New York taking a ferry ride to Staten Island; visiting the UN headquarters; we stumbled across the cable car to Roosevelt Island next to the Queensboro (59^th St) Bridge which was quite a gem; browsed at Bloomingdales and FAO Schwarz toyshop; Jon went to the Intrepid Air & Space museum while Penny found a quilt & patchwork shop close to our apartment; and we took several rides on the Metro buses culminating in a trip up to & walk across Central Park on our final day there. It was lucky we allowed ourselves plenty of time that day, as there was a half marathon with 1000's of runners in Central Park, and a street parade of Spanish American culture, both of which added to crowds and diverted bus routes! 

Penny showing our 29th St Apartment - ground floor window!

Viewliner car on 'Lakeshore Limited' train to Chicago

We got back to our apartment, collected our luggage and trundled it up to Penn Station to claim our berth on the 'Viewliner' single deck sleeper on the Lakeshore Limited overnight train past a succession of huge bridges over the Hudson River, though Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo, Cleveland to Chicago.

On arrival in Chicago we took a short taxi ride to the hotel that I had booked on hotels.com – The Buckingham Athletic Club: it was medium priced and fairly centrally located, so we really didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a gem! Four star quality, on the 40^th floor in a very modern building overlooking the very neat, architecturally marvellous downtown Chicago. Our stay in Chicago was planned mainly for us to link up with the train across to San Francisco, and we had not really done any preparation on what to expect or what to see or do there, so we wandered around a bit at first, and stumbled on a booth selling tickets to the local hop-on-off bus tour, of which we partook. 

From our hotel room, Chicago, north toward Lake Michigan

The Willis Tower (R) - 110 Storeys, tallest in N America

There are SO many magnificent buildings in Chicago. We did the obligatory tourist thing and went to the 103^rd floor of the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower, highest building in North America – they've got to have a superlative!), and walked along beside the Chicago River, the flow of which was reversed years ago (by building a canal to the Mississippi R system) to reduce the pollution of Lake Michigan. The one anomaly in the neatness and cleanliness of Chicago is the 'Loop' – an overhead railway system that runs in a rectangular circuit directly above some of the city streets. Built in the 1890s, supported by rusting riveted steel columns and beams, served by narrow stairways and wooden platforms, the system runs what seems to be a fairly efficient service using trains of short stainless steel cars. It just looks so out of place in an otherwise modern and tidy city!

More Chicago buildings and sculpture

Looking down on Chicago - the Loop train running above the city streets

So after only two nights in Chicago, it was back to Union Station for the 2pm California Zephyr train to San Francisco. Unfortunately, due to a faulty dining car, the 2pm departure stretched out to 5.50pm. The train is made up of some double deck coach cars, very comfortable double deck 'Superliner' sleeping cars (though not as spacious as the 'Viewliner' cars from New York), and dining and observation cars (also both double deck). So we eventually settled into our tiny top deck roomette for the 2 night 2 day trip. The meals have been excellent, and it has also been interesting conversing with other passengers and hearing the variety of accents and idiom.

I am writing this post off line on the train near the Nebraska/Colorado border – the train is now 5 hours late, and running at a slow speed due to high winds. So we might get an even longer ride than 50 hours planned! We crossed the Mississippi River late last night – missed seeing it in daylight due to late running, but we saw in anyway – and have passed some interesting and pretty farming country this morning. Out the window are huge cattle feed lots, silos, and a background of dust, blown up by the strong (and cold when I hopped out last stop) wind.

As the day has moved on, we have now crossed the continental divide west of Denver. Great views, and now 7 hours behind the timetable.

When you read this it will be an indication that we finally made it to San Francisco, as we do not have internet access on the train.

Count of US States visited: 27 

... and we made it to SF! 54 hours on the train, arrived 5 hours late. But all OK.

Driving through the USA

We're now in Washington, where it's raining and quite cool. We returned the car to Avis at Dulles airport yesterday, and now suddenly feel a bit immobile, having to either walk everywhere, or work out how to use the Metro to get there. Despite the tension of driving from the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road (which I'd nearly got used to after 2 weeks) there was a freedom in living out of the car around the rural areas and smaller towns. We covered 1500 odd miles through 10 north eastern states. In our fortnight of driving from Boston to Washington we been quite amazed at the magnitude of the US roads system, but at the same time surprised at how poorly some of the infrastructure is maintained, compared to Australia.

Autumn Foliage - New Hampshire

Shaker Village Craft Workshop

My last post took our travels to Mt Washington in New Hampshire, which was the northernmost extent of our meanderings. After a dinner at the rather classy Mt Washington hotel and two nights in a somewhat more economic motel nearby, we drove back down through the very colourfully autumn leaved New Hampshire and Vermont forests, stopping at preserved or scenic railways, craft shops, revolutionary war battle sites etc. Of particular interest was our stop last Sunday at the Hancock Shaker Museum & Village, which had a Village Fair this weekend. The Shakers were a religious order, now extinct, who were very much into disciplined lifestyle, self sufficiency in farming, and quality in their construction. The village fair displayed lots of related and local crafts, and it was interesting to get into conversation with several of the locals. It has also been interesting to find how many people we speak to (away from the main cities in particular) do not recognise our accents, often thinking we are British!

Onward down through the western end of Massachusetts, across New York (state); across the Hudson and Delaware Rivers and the corner of New Jersey into Pennsylvania. There was a moment of PANIC when our GPS navigator thought it was time to reboot and would not start, but fortunately it came good quickly. (Bringing the GPS was one of our better decisions of this trip!). We found a pleasant a motel in the village of New Holland which is pretty much right in the centre of the Amish & Mennonite area of Lancaster County, where we stayed for two nights. It rained pretty solidly most of our time there, but luckily there is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and many antique craft and (particularly) quilting shops. Also lots of quaint looking Amish horse & buggies (which, very sensibly, if anachronistically, have electric tail lights and turn indicators!)

Amish Country -  Intercourse,  Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Moving on, a quick visit to the Hershey chocolate factory, then to Gettysburg, where we immersed ourselves for two days in American Civil War history. A huge museum with an amazing cyclorama painted originally in the 1880s, and comprehensively mapped and marked battlefields all around the town. I have never seen SO many memorials distributed over an area of countryside as are around Gettysburg! Many more than I recall on the WW1 battlefields in France; Every regiment/brigade/ unit of the Union Army is commemorated.

Gettysburg - Battlefield Monuments

Some advice for Mr Lincoln

Continuing south into the tops of Virginia & West Virginia we stopped at picturesque Harpers Ferry, site of more Civil War actions, and through a section of Shenandoah National Park before driving into Washington.

Wright Brothers 1903 Flyer - Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, Washington

We've had our share of wet days this last week, but fortunately in almost every town of consequence we have had some of the time – arriving or leaving – with good weather. Today, on our first day in Washington we opted for an indoor activity, and spent the day in the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. We've 3 more days here, so hope for a fine one to look around the large outdoor attractions the city has to offer, before we move on back to New York on Thursday.

Boston (or Bahstun, as they call it there) and New England

Decorative heating pipes - our Boston Apartment

On our last day in New York a rain front moved across, but the heaviest rain was at night, so really did not impact our travels. We took the train from New York to Boston as planned. Very comfortable trip – roomy cars and an efficient cafe car. Our B 'n' B host was waiting for us at our Beacon Hill 'apartment' to let us in. Quite a surprise with this place! It turned out that despite being marketed as a 'B&B', the accommodation was really a small separate apartment. And I mean small! Up 6 steep stairs to a foyer, then DOWN about 20 steeper steps to the basement rabbit hole. There was a reasonable sized kitchen and bedroom (though both penetrated at various angles and levels by old central heating pipes), microscopic bathroom (1.2m x 1.5m) all built about 1840, with a renovation in early 1900s. Not super clean, but tolerable. No TV, but WiFi internet worked well. Windows opened at ground level, one onto a narrow yard & wall 2 storeys above, one to a light well 6 storeys deep, so we never got a 'day time' feel in the mornings. Anyway, it provided a good and conveniently located base to explore Boston, which we did. 

Saw all the usual historic sights, and took the opportunity to see through the State (Parliament) House of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

On our last day in Boston we took a ferry to Salem, an interesting and pretty village and site of the witch trials of 1692.

House in Sandwich, Cape Cod

Sunday was time to move on again – collected a rental car from Boston airport, and drove down the coast to Plymouth and Cape Cod. We got off the motorway for a beautiful drive along the bottom of the Cape Cod 'hook'. Spent a few hours at the very picturesque town of Sandwich, before reluctantly moving on to Newport, Rhode Island, which on approach seemed nothing special, but after a better look really is quite full of picturesque mansions, and a harbour full of huge and expensive yachts! We've since travelled all the way up through Massachusetts, visiting the Concord home of 'Little Women' author Louisa May Alcott; across the corner of Maine (visited a tram museum, wherein is a Sydney Tram!) and up into the mountains of New Hampshire where we rode the 1860s cog railway up Mt Washington. Lots of picturesque timber houses, and in the north, beautiful autumn foliage. Different from what we see in Australia, in that there are much more deep reds, as well as the many shades of green and yellow.

Louisa May Alcott House, Concord, MA

Marble Hall, Newport, RI

Mt Washington Cog Railway

I don't think I've said anything particularly negative in my blog to date, so it's about time to vent my frustration with a couple of things... I'd hate you to think that everything in America is just perfect.

First: TV. It's abysmal! A hundred channels of JUNK.. like 'Worlds Best Vacuum' ... 'Mum is 55 Looks 27' … 'Jewellery Auction' etc, all ads, all the time. “Reality TV” so unreal it's sickening. News... well the ONLY news that anyone wants to see, of course, is the Mitt Romney/Barack Obama slanging match. And that is very poorly presented if compared to Australia's ABC news presentation; there may be stuff happening in Syria and Libya (where a US Ambassador was sadly killed). But the rest of the world almost does not exist! And any other good dramas or docos you may see on ABC, SBS or even commercial TV at home, are simply not to be found here. At least not on TVs in hotels, many of which only have satellite or cable TV feed.

Second: Tea & Coffee. It's impossible to make yourself a good cup in hotels, apartments or B&Bs. Noone seems to have invented ELECTRIC KETTLES over here. They've all got these silly coffee makers, which gurgle away and spit out moderately warm water, but the tea bags make an almost undrinkable brew, and no-one has heard of instant coffee to make a quick cup without having to mess about with filters & packets. And of course, NO MILK, only powdered non-dairy creamer. Pth-ewy. If you buy a cup of tea or coffee at Starbucks or the like you get a BUCKETFUL (unless you emphasise SMALL CUP) of tasteless tea, or triple strong coffee!

Well that's off my chest. For the record, we did get to watch an episode of the British drama 'Hustle', (which we liked at home) in New York (albeit punctuated with ads for pharmacutical products with very long disclaimers!), and I have had a couple of passable cups of tea and coffee... over the last four weeks.

Sydney Tram - in Trolley Museum in Maine

Boston - The Old State House amid the modern city

Third frustration: I got this blog almost ready to post, and last night, for the first time in weeks, we didn't have WiFi access!

Ten States in a Fortnight - then New York City

Time moves fast when you're travelling! Another week has gone by & we're now in Noo-York!

Arches National Park

The Trafalgar tour of the Scenic Parks finished in Las Vegas, after more spectacular sights: Arches National Park, Monument Valley and Mesa Verde, where there are cliff houses built by Native Americans around 1100 – 1280AD, stand out particularly. The Grand Canyon was certainly spectacular, but for us seemed a little less so because it rained just after we arrived, and out planned flight over the canyon was cancelled due to low cloud the following morning. Nonetheless we did get some quite good views. To summarise the two week Trafalgar tour, we would have to say we thoroughly recommend it! Very efficiently run, we definitely saw the pick of the available sights – and the guide certainly knew his job – it was his 8^th circuit of this tour this year, but he still approached it with great enthusiasm!

Mesa Verde Cliff Houses

Monument Valley

At Hoover Dam

After returning to Las Vegas we took a half day trip to the huge but unfilled-since-1998 Hoover Dam, which which sits on the border of Nevada and Arizona, two of the ten states we have visited on the western portion of this trip (that ten includes New Mexico of which we crossed the NW corner for about 40 seconds when going from Colorado to Arizona.)

Back in Las Vegas we had another last explore of the rather loud & brash city - and of course the retail outlets - before flying on to New York on Thursday. Amazing how many poker machines there are in LV! The entire ground floor of our hotel (and every other hotel) was given over to machines & gaming tables, throughout almost every shopping area we visited, and even in the airport arrival & departure lounges AND the baggage collection area! Contrast this with the collection points at the airport for travellers packs (unused hotel soaps shampoos etc) to be sent to the military, and a request we received at a supermarket (here in New York) to add a gift to our checkout payment to provide lunches at a local school!

The views from the plane were good for the first half of the flight over the canyons and deserts west of the Rockies, then the mountains with a first dusting of snow on the highest (up to 14,000ft) peaks. We caught sight of the shoreline of Lake Erie later in the flight. It's a long flight – 4.5 hours, and we lost 3 hours in time zone shift, so it was quite late arriving at our apartment in East 11^th St.

A moment of concern when we alighted from the taxi and could not get anyone to respond to the doorbell! A quick phone call or two however resolved our access, and we soon settled in to a rather interesting small but adequate 3^rd floor bed-sitter in an 1840s house in Greenwich Village. (With bed, new bathroom, tables, lounges, TV and grand piano. (Well, you never know when a holiday tenant may need one.)

Brooklyn Bridge

New York Harbour - Miss Liberty & Lower Manhattan

So we've now been running around 'doing' New York – starting with open-top bus tours around four routes, including a night tour; a ferry ride to Liberty and Ellis Islands, a walk through lower Manhattan (Wall St, World trade Centre vicinity, Brooklyn Bridge) and today up the Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal... oh, and shops! We've got to know the Metro, and are finding it pretty easy to navigate. 

It's hard to comprehend just how HUGE New York is, and how many people! Everywhere. Day and night. (And an awful lot of them are tourists from all over!). And Taxis. And scaffolding on so many buildings. 

New Yorkers, Americans generally, always seem very firm in their appreciation. It's never 'thanks' or even 'thanks very much', but nearly always 'thank you SO much!'. None of then has heard of New South Wales, though 'Sydney' usually gets an acknowledgement.

Crowds and Scaffolding - Times Square

It has become evident that we have not the stamina for travel that we did on our earlier trips (notably our 1975 epic), and are rather footsore and weary after 4 days here, so tomorrow may need to be a bit slower! On Wednesday we take a train to Boston on the next stage, and we will be back in New York in about 3 weeks, so can see more then.

Day 25....

Scenic Parks Tour

Yes, I know, this post is somewhat overdue. While some hotels offer free WiFi, there are frequently limitations that have impeded getting this posted earlier. Interestingly, the cheaper more basic hotels generally give easier access! Also this trip is quite full-on timewise.

We're now well settled into the routine of travelling with the Trafalgar Tour group – 14 Australians, 36 Americans (from the eastern states) and 1 Kiwi. The weather has been excellent, and much milder than in Las Vegas (even a frost at Yellowstone), the guide and organisation of the tour first rate and the group quite friendly and harmonious.

Bryce Canyon

We have already seen an amazing variety of countryside. Huge sandstone cliffs and canyons at Zion Park, the strangely eroded 'hoodoos' in Bryce Canyon, the huge and impressive Grand Tetons and all the volcanic stuff, wildlife and colourful countryside in Yellowstone Park, the heavily eroded South Dakota Badlands where we were able to walk through a small part of the maze of small canyons and gullies. You can appreciate how very easy it would be to get lost in there!

           

                The Grands Teton across Jenny Lake

In the Badlands

Other highlights have been:

• Stayed in Salt Lake City and did a walk through or around the various Mormon places, including the Tabernacle, wherein the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice and perform. Built in late 1800s it has an arched ceiling and has amazing acoustics.
• A 10 mile raft trip down the Snake River near Jackson in Wyoming, watching the Grand Tetons appear as the morning clouds lifted. We also saw several bald eagles, and beaver-gnawed tree-trunks on the river banks.

• 

  Bison ambles past 'Old Faithful' geyser at Yellowstone NP

  Our first morning stop in Yellowstone was at the Old Faithful geyser. While waiting for its predicted 90 minutely eruption, we decided to walk a circuit along the boardwalk around the geyser area. When we were about half way round, a lone male bison came lumbering by! Untroubled by us, he passed by us about 6m away. I'm not sure what we would have done otherwise – you are supposed to stay on the boardwalk as the ground can be unstable due to the geothermal activity. Anyway, it made for a couple of good photos and a video clip. We saw several large herds of bison later that day as we travelled around Yellowstone.
• Lots of geothermal activity – geysers, mud pots, steaming cones, boiling pools etc. But Old Faithful's eruption was rather overshadowed for us by the bison encounter!
• Yellowstone Park was severely burnt out in 1988, and (the northern part) 2000. There are still huge numbers of dead trees standing, mainly among regrowth, 24 years later.
• The rather sombre feel of the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn ('Custer's last stand'), and gaining an appreciation of the history of the interaction between the Native Americans and the Anglo American settlers.

• 

  Mt Rushmore

  The huge carved faces of Mt Rushmore and the even more enormous but yet to be completed statue of Crazy Horse. (Native American warrior on horseback being carved in a South Dakota mountain since 1950ish, and only the warrior's face is totally complete.)
• Shopped at a 'Walmart' store in Gillette, Montana!
• Huge coal trains – 126 wagons with 4 locos – in Montana and Wyoming.
• Some really excellent meals.

It's hard to get used to the fact that for most of this trip we have been travelling at above 2000m above sea level. Thus very often higher than Australia's highest mountain! 

LOTS of (big) caravans/motorhomes/five wheelers (RVs), (and salesyards with hundreds in each), in this part of the US! Apparently they tend to mass the salesyards in counties which have the lowest sales taxes. We have apparently gone through a lot of such counties!

Anyway, must travel on.... more later!