The European Hitchhikers We Picked Up
On our third day in Paris
(May 13, 2006) we visited le Parc Monceau for various reasons including to
search for a Geocache there.
The
"Etats-Unis" Geocache owner says "I started the cache with
20 US state quarters. If you are from the US bring a state quarter to leave
in the cache. 
If
you are NOT from the US feel free to take a US state quarter from the cache."
So naturally we brought a Pennsylvania State quarter to Europe to put in,
and naturally left it in the hotel room that morning. We left Alan's
Travel Bug Hitchhiker in the cache and took out Travel Bug Hitchhiker
Dat
Dingaling.
Previously, we'd picked up a TBH Dwarf in Zürich, at the same time that we dropped off my Travel Bug Hitchhiker complete with towel, because..."A towel...is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." A hotel manager in Bregenz, Austria helped Alan read TB Dwarf's "mission" in German. The hitchhiking dwarf wanted to go as far as he could go, so we'd take him to Texas.
However, Dat Dingaling's
physically attached mission said "One of four Dingaling brothers, Dis,
Dat, and the twins Ima and Iza. They have no goal, they're already gone, maybe
you can take them a little farther. Thanks!" -- in ENGLISH. He had a
decidedly southwestern feel about his cowboy hat and boots and revolver. I
made Alan call people until he found someone at home who could look him up
online and find out WHERE he was from. Brownwood, Texas. It wouldn't be good
to take him right back to Texas after someone took the time
to get him to Paris! We wouldn't be returning to Parc Monceau to put in our
State quarter until May 16. I felt bad that he'd go right back into the same
cache after days in our hotel room. So I decided we'd show him a good time
before putting him back. 
Here's his web page to show the Ole Folks, retired in Brownwood, Texas, what a good time he had.
Before he went with us up to the organ loft of the Eglise Saint Sulpice between the 10:30 and noon masses, Dingaling took a gander at Delacroix's "Jacob Wrestling the Angel" in one of the side chapels.
He got religion listening to and watching the noon mass from the organ loft. An organist from Salt Lake City was there as well, to meet organist Daniel Roth.
He enjoyed the Fountain of the Four Bishops outside Saint Sulpice.
He
enjoyed Mother's Day lunch at Jardin Notre Dame, where Alan and I have eaten
on Mother's Day every five years since 1991.
He
had a wild time with Oscar Wilde at Shakespeare & Co. (Pictures from his
private audience with owner George Whitman in his apartment to be added later!)
He sat on Kilory's knee as she had her portrait drawn in the shadow of Notre Dame. She thought the portraits of her and her identical twin sister looked the same. Mom, Dad, and Gramma didn't find that surprising!
He
thought the Marche aux Fleurs was right purdy, though it just looked like
a Flower Market to him. He hung out with some chicks there.
He
got "Back in the (Bike) Saddle Again" at the Sarah Bernhardt Café.
He sat with Nikki at the bus stop as argument ensued as to whether it was the correct bus stop. It wasn't.
He
didn't think much of that high falutin' silly Stravinsky fountain. Course
he didn't seem to think much of the inside-out Pompidou Centre that it was
next to either.
He went bananas at a Les Halles produce store, whose sidewalk fruity wares were Louvre-worthy artistic displays. I told the twins it would take stealth to get a photo of him banana shopping. After we exited the store I clarified for them that stealth meant not shouting out "Did you get it, Mommy?!" and "Can we put him on the oranges next?!"
He
had a show down with a pigeon...
and lost.
He rode a painted dogie outside St-Eustache.
Kilory,
Nikki, and Dingaling on the "Listening" sculpture outside St-Eustache.
Alan
and Dat at the Bastille metro stop.
Dat Dingaling took the wheel on the boat in which we toured the St-Martin Canal. Then the actual pilot/captain steered us into the tunnel visible below the July Column. The July Column (Colonne de Juillet) which commemorates the events of the July Revolution (1830) stands at the centre of the Place de la Bastille.
He
rode the bucking broncos on the carousel at the base of the Sacré-Cœur
gardens, and visited the steps of the Sacré-Cœur, the back of
which was visible from his hotel room's window.
He
visited a Geocache
which consisted of a spraypainted mint box, a magnet, and a thin strip of
log paper. It was in a garden behind and below the Sacré-Cœur.
The magnet inside the box fastened it to a metal fence upon which aromatic
wisteria twined and blossomed. Bees buzzed, while a minstrel nearby played
his guitar.
He
visited the
Moulin de la Galette of
Van Gogh
and
Renoir fame.
He
made a friend atop a grave at Cimetière de Montmartre when he went
to visit Edgar Degas and Berlioz's graves.
He hoped to jump into a Geocache there but other Cachers had said the coordinates were incorrect and the hint of it being near Steinlin's grave didn't help us find it. (It didn't help that we weren't in the correct cemetery...lost even with a GPS unit.)
So he joined us for dinner at Rick Steve's favorite Rue Cler eatery which I think is called the Cafe du Mars. The place is always full of Stevies so I think it should just be called "Rick's" [play "As Time Goes By" right here].
He
moseyed over to the Eiffel Tower and rode the elevators to the highest publicly
accessible level (pictured here pointing his revolver at the Arc de Triomphe).
On
our last touring day in Paris, I realized how gauche we had been not showing
the Zürich TBH
Dwarf a good time in Paris, too. (Both are pictured on our windowsill.
One can't make it out here, but the Sacré-Cœur is almost-pseudo-visible
on the hilltop above the knot on TB Dwarf's wrist.)
After
accepting our apologies, Dwarf accompanied us to the Petit Palais to see the
1876 portrait of Sarah Bernhardt by Georges Clairin.
Dat
Dingaling thought the Pont Alexandre III bridge was a bit fruity. As a dwarf,
his new friend thought the gleaming gold and metal work was fabulous. Dingaling
didn't seem to cotton to the word fabulous.
Alan finds the classier, faster RER system more confusing than the metro. As they are faster, there are fewer trains and more time to get confused wondering if you're on the right platform (which we weren't).
But
when you depart the wrong platform and arrive at the correct platform seconds
after the train has moved away, one can enjoy gourmet expresso, etc. Dingaling
peered up into it to see if there's still such a thing as a black cuppa joe.
And once on the correct train, a travel bug is whisked swiftly to its destination in cleaner, half-empty, more comfortable cars. Alan still dislikes the RER. I like them because "RER" sounds like "derriere" without the "d."
TB
Dwarf perused French postcards on our way to a repeat lunch at Jardin Notre
Dame. I knew Mom would enjoy eating there, I just didn't know how much. It
IS my favorite restaurant in the whole world. TBD is hanging off the vase
of fresh flowers (there are always fresh flowers on the tables there!), and
one can almost see Dat at the base. Jardin Notre Dame is at Rue de la Huchette
& Petit Pont. Number 10 Rue de la Huchette, next to des Argonautes, is
where Napoleon lived at the time he ordered grapeshot to be volleyed into
a crowd.
They
enjoyed Notre Dame from
the bottom
to
the top.
They
both viewed the Hôtel de Ville, before journeying back to Parc Monceau
where we bid Dingaling adieu and put him back into the cache from which we
plucked him days earlier.
Nikki
didn't completely abandon him, however. As we had not succeeded in placing
Nikki's
Travel Bug (or Dingaling) into the CORRECT Cimetiére de Montmartre
Geocache, we placed her Hitchhiker alongside Dingaling. Perhaps they will
travel together for awhile?
Alan's hitchhiker had been whisked away by a Slovakian geocacher, so who knows where he is by now? At the same time, we removed Henry Gordy from the cache, the logbook (which we donated) having said he wanted to go to Arizona. In actuality: "Henry has been wandering planet Earth since 1947. He is trying to return to Zork. However, parts of his spaceship are still missing. Help him find the missing parts of his interplanetary mode of transportation in the desert of New Mexico." Ironically, we go to New Mexico every year, but can't this year because we used up all our vacation time and money going to Europe. But now we have a Geocache duty to perform, so I'm already hatching plans for a New Mexico adventure...
Dedicated
to the memory of Arnold Velez (March 13, 1966-May 13, 2006) who rested from
his travels on the day we met Dingaling, and whose funeral I attended today.
Adieu, my fellow Galaxy hitchhiker. See you at the next party at the end of
the universe.
(L-R) Bill, Brenda, Arnold, Nora, Wes, Kendall, Pam Schnell-Gilley, Erik, Dorie, Bret, T'resa, LuAnn, Kevin, Steve Brain -- December 1986
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...
The
TBs were/are getting itchy feet so we took them sight-seeing. Pictured are
TBH
Dwarf with Nikki,
and Henry
Gordy with Kilory at the Fort Worth Stockyards in front of the Bill
Pickett sculpture. Dwarf likes Roy
Rogers Movies. They make Gordy sick. "Happy Trails," indeed!
The
magnificence of the Bass Performance Hall in downtown Fort Worth, ranked one
of the Top 10 Opera Houses in the World, made them hanker for the culture
and cuisine of Paris, so we did our best to oblige them.
After
all, nothing says culture and cuisine like Costco Wholesale Club's Kosher
Beef Hot Dog, drink, and sauerkraut upon request for $1.50!
Please
note that the dot above the Indian's shoulder is the crescent moon, not another
cloud.
After a hot dog with relish, mustard, onions and sauerkraut followed by a ride on bronze horse ears, I think they've decided enough is enough and are ready to sightsee in another state.
They wrapped themselves in the Texas flag.
They did their best to say good-bye.
Au revior! Auf Wiedersehen! Adiós! Tschüß! Adieu! Sayonara! Dovidenja! Gudesnavink! Zoi gin. Dosvidanya! Nashledanou! Vaarwel! Mata ne! Arrivederci! Totsiens! Namaskaram! Paalam! Adeus! Ji jien! Vanakkam! Zai jian! Sahha. Happy Trails! Hasta la vista, Baby! I'm outa here!
But
it didn't quite work.
Dwarf couldn't fit into the Rockwood Park cache where we picked up TBHE66 "Ace" on the banks of the Trinity river.
The
other cache near Greenwood Memorial Park, also on the banks of the Trinity,
was too infrequently visited. After all, Dwarf's mission is to go as far as
he possibly can!
The Kelly Park cache seemed to have been muggled. It certainly was not found.
So Gordy
waits until July 2006 when Alan and Craig will take him to New Mexico. He
waits with a Dwarf who fancies Roy Rogers movies, and a WWI flying ace who
has a passion for root beer, pizza, and crying at sentimental songs.
That has Gordy saying all sorts of things in all sorts of langauges and colors and decibel levels. And we shan't put them here.
Chrissie's
hitchhiker -- left May 4, 2006 in Zürich
Kilory's hitchhiker -- left May 8, 2006 in Nürnberg
Nikki's hitchhiker -- left May 16, 2006 at Parc Monceau, Paris
Alan's hitchhiker -- left May 13, 2006 at Parc Monceau, Paris
Travel
Bug FAQ
http://www.geocaching.com/track/faq.aspx
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