Wednesday, August 8, ’12
H-72 Pittsburgh L H 72 L 56 H H 66 L 52 M H 73 L 55
L-61 C H 99 L 78
Bear update: The Bear says We Fought Fatty And The Thuringian Elephant Party. TR says, “The elephant comes out when we charge through tunnels.” Moose say, “Me wish you’d never come out, Bear!” Lou says we will have a Thuringian Elephant Party. We will serve Thuringian Foods.
We woke up to sun. Will it last?
Tucson 104/80 Brooklyn 85/74
We woke up at 7:30AM. We got dressed and went to breakfast in the CP room near the lobby. We saw Bettis types. Kenny left to take his car to get the oil changed. We checked out of room 107 at 10:38AM. We stopped at Petco on Fort Couch Road. It took half an hour to go 8 miles. Then we met Kenny at Friday’s for lunch. While we were waiting for him we got money out of the ATM in the restaurant lobby. That was the first Friday’s of the trip. I managed to get some small discount with one of my online coupons. We kept on calling my parents, but we couldn’t get through. We stopped at the UPS Store to ship two boxes by ground back to the UPS Store in Tucson. Then we briefly hurried into Giant Eagle to buy more supplies and postcards. We stopped by my parents’ house. We picked up our laundry from yesterday, including our bathing suits, and two FEDEX packages that came this morning for Gary. We left Sabaka and Putlitz in the car with the motor running. Grandpap was out in the backyard with the cats. I told him about Bettis PBS this morning and showed him a photo. When we left for Brooklyn I snapped a photo of my father standing in front of the garage. This time I snapped a photo of my mother standing there. We actually got to touch her Charlie cat. We left Strathmore at 2:55PM and made a pit stop at the McDonalds on 51. We crossed the Mon on a bridge into Elizabeth. We got on 70. It was 10 miles to New Stanton. We checked into room 308 at 4:20PM. We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner and then to McDonalds to get lemonade. We got the dog a ham steak and a burger. We discovered that Nam never gave us back our bathing suits! They’re sending the suits to Winchester, VA.
Bethel Park Gas Line Work Should Be Illegal 8/8/12
We’ve been from Tucson, AZ to Germany and Austria and back this summer and nowhere have we run into such ridiculous, interfering construction work as in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. On the way from the Turnpike to Strathmore Lane in Bethel Park we found roads reduced to one way. In one place a construction truck almost ran into us. Everywhere we went everything was torn up. My parents told us that they are putting in gas lines and tearing up the roads everywhere. They said we were lucky to come when we did. Next week they are going to start digging up their front yard up to 10 feet into the easement!
We got lost I don’t know how many times being rerouted because of this damn gas work. There are gas lines elsewhere such as in Tucson. But I’ve never seen such interference in people’s personal lives. Naturally such ridiculousness should be illegal. I’m surprised they can get away with this in Pittsburgh. They should do one street at a time at the very most. Isn’t that commonsense?
I just read in the email that July was the hottest month on record for the contiguous United States since record keeping began in 1895. We picked the right month NOT to be in the United States. We were in the US only the first 5 days of the month. On the 6th we left not to return until August.
Still no contract . . .
What next?

Wednesday, August 8, ’12 $13, 507.03
1)Petco supplies Fidelity Checking $91.83
2)Friday’s lunch Fidelity Checking $51.09
3)UPS Store 2 boxes ground Fidelity Checking $66.99
4)Giant Eagle groceries and postcards Fidelity Checking $27.45
5)Cracker Barrel New Stanton dinner Fidelity Checking $39.89
6)Cracker Barrel Halloween cat Fidelity Checking $5..29
7)McDonalds strawberry lemonade Fidelity Checking $7.29
8)BP Bearmobile gas cash $30.00
9)Howard Johnsons room 308 cash $98.25
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TOT: $418.08

Day Toyota oil change Kenny $47.03
Express Pay New Stanton gas Kenny $31.26