Ken Curtis' blog United States «

Thu 07/08/08 22:35

It’s Thursday, about two days since I did my laundry (journal post) but anyway I made it to Balmorhea, Texas to get some scuba diving in. I tell you it was just what I needed. About two days with a good friend talking and diving. The water was warm and clear and had all sorts of fish to play with.

You have to imagine this place… actually you don’t because I have pics to upload, but it’s an oasis out in the middle of the desert. It’s fed by springs so the water is crystal clear and warm. It’s also shallow, about 25 feet at the deepest, which is good thing for me since I sometimes have problems with my ears clearing if I go too deep.

Before I went I bought an underwater camera, so in a few weeks probably I’ll have photos of greg and me diving to put up here. I can’t thank Greg enough for first suggesting it, and then taking care of all the small things to make it happen. I owe him and if he ever comes and visits me in Dubai I’ll make sure to make is stay the best.

On the way back today we went to the Roswell Museum. It’s so funny that people still think that a space ship crashed there, but taken with a grin it was a lot of fun. When you go to the counter to get a ticket, the guy asks, “how many humans in your party?” I also heard him ask someone if, “can you prove that your human?” :) Too funny.

Thu 07/08/08 22:22

Okay, so I went and bought a camera before I went scuba diving. I felt that I just needed one since my other one stopped working. The card that had the images on it are fine and now I can upload them. The only problem is the quality of the photos that my video camera took… I can’t complain though, I’ve got the photos and that’s what matters… right?

Wed 06/08/08 08:59

Okay, I’m up and sitting at the laundry watching my clothes wash… one of life’s little pleasures. The clothes in my backpack stunk so bad that I decided to wash everything. J

While I have the time I think I’ll write down my feelings about Paris. This morning I was rereading my journal and was surprised that I didn’t write anything about being there. It could be that I neglected it because I don’t have any pictures to add, or it could be that being there was an accident, or maybe I had other things on my mind… who knows, but I’ll take care of it now.

Paris. I don’t know really have to quantify it. It’s beautiful and seems to have most of what the other cities have, but more of a livability than some of the larger cities like Rome. What I mean by that is there seemed to be the best marriage between old and new, that everyone walks among the city being complimented by the architecture and not overwhelmed with it like many of the smaller, more touristy cities that I’ve visited. Now, I only stayed in the tourist areas so anything that I say is dealing with what I saw. I did see a lot though, I walked for at least 12 hours between the two days I was there and saw all the major sights, less museums, and lots of the lesser known sights.

My camera stopped working somewhere before I got to paris so I don’t have any photos to show on the journal, but my video camera allows me to take photos onto a sdcard, I used the one from my camera, so I have photos, just none to put up until I can get them from the card to my computer. I may go to Wal-mart in a bit to see if I can find a cheap camera before I leave to meet up with Greg. If I can find one that will fit my sdcard I can add the photos in a few days.

The biggest and coolest thing that I was stunned by in Paris was pretty much everything, the Eiffel Tower was remarkable in the day, and at night they light it up to a point that you have to be impressed. The Louvre was huge, it looked bigger than the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. I didn’t go in because I first hate to wait in lines, and second I felt that I wanted to cover as much of Paris as I could before I had to leave. My guess is that in no time I’m going to regret not going through it.

The river Seine is also really romantic, it has the water front walk next to it for most of the city. As you walk along you are surrounded by old walls (mostly) that are constructed out of cobblestone and just above you have old buildings that just add to the ambience of romance.

Wed 06/08/08 04:40

It’s 3am right now and I’m sitting in a shithole of a motel room. I’ve been up for about 30hrs and I’ve been to two continents since I last slept. I’ve seen the Eiffel tower and the dirty dusty streets of this small town, Clovis. Two worlds that are so far apart that I can’t draw any comparisons, only contrasts.

I got into Albuquerque at about 9 tonight from Atlanta, and although I thought that I’d have this overwhelming sense of “being home” I have to admit I feel lonely/empty. There was a brief moment when I was ordering a soda, or when talking to someone at the airline counter that it felt good to be able to speak and to be understood. But after that there wasn’t anything that I felt. Just empty.

I’m going scuba diving in Texas today, but before I do I have to do laundry and to hopefully get a haircut. The laundry is a necessity, but the haircut is a luxury so it may have to wait.

On the list of things that just turned out wrong, Katya (the friend from Siberia that I wrote about) and I have decided not to email anymore. There wasn’t a fight, no real drama, just the distance and differences make it nearly impossible to be anymore that just simple friends…. If you read this Katya, you’re the best and maybe in time things can be different, at least I’ll keep watching my email box for your name. To anyone that reads this and wonders why I would post this on the internet, you have to understand that we’ve already said our good-byes and in the 2+ weeks (18 days) that we’ve only been able to email, we’ve traded 186 emails… she mattered to me, and will be probably the biggest and best thing that I’ll remember about this trip.

So anyway, it’s 330 now and I need to try to sleep, maybe when I wake up I’ll see things a little differently. If I don’t, maybe I can fake it and unless someone reads this they’ll never know what’s going on.

Sorry for the whining, but I told myself this journal was going to be as real as I could make it. The ups, and the downs were always meant to be a part of what I would write about.

-night

it’s now 410… maybe greg will let me sleep on the way to texas.

My name is Ken

Category Archives: United States

Balmorhea, Texas

Paris, with pics

some thoughts on paris

New Mexico