Mr. Mama’s chicken burrito was a pleasant surprise for breakfast on our Vegas/Grand Canyon road trip in October. This burrito was huge & the taste was so yummy…chicken, peppers [green/hot/red], potatoes, cheese…with a huge hot pepper to top it off! I’m sure I’m leaving something out. It was huge and tasty as heck! I think it may have had beans in it but don’t quote me on that. I had planned to take a photo of the inside of it but took the initial bite & dug in – only to realize later that I had forgotten to take pic of inside. Duh… It was awesome and definitely the visit the next time you are in Las Vegas. The restaurant is located at 5693 Jones Blvd, Las Vegas.
This little place served a surprisingly awesome chicken burrito!
Restaurant was clean, used social distancing & the price was right…..just no complaints whatsoever!
After many months of this ‘new normal’ 2020, we decided to make another road trip memory & drive to the majestic Grand Canyon Park via a stop at Las Vegas for short visit with family. [As seniors traveling we were very aware of social distancing & mask wearing.] We needed an excuse to hit the road so when The Big Guys’ sisters decided to have a mini [very mini] reunion in Vegas, we said sure! Yes, the time on the road was pretty long – leaving house on a Friday a.m. & walking back into the house the following late Thursday night but well worth memories made!
We put [round trip] mileage on the rental car of over 3,300 miles! The Big Guy & I enjoy these road trips seeing new scenery/sights & conversations along the way. Road trips are a ton of fun when you like your traveling partner & we really just wanted to get out of the house. Road trips are a fun trip for us so though the travel to Las Vegas thru West Texas was uneventful, we added some great memories.
We played it safe & Vegas was not busy so distancing was never a problem. We were welcomed with huge smiles & ‘thank you for visiting our casino’ – Covid had tremendously slowed down tourist so casinos were happy to see ‘tourists’ stop in.
SomeMemories in Vegas Baby!
Awesome visit with family! I hadn’t played Bingo since I was a kid [you know, back in dinosaur days, Ha]! Did you know it is all electronic now? The family took us out one evening to play & we just had a great time. Basically, all you do is pay for the “machine'” & it does all the work for you in keeping up with numbers called.
We found Mr. Mama’s restaurant. This place was suggested to us so we visited for breakfast. The waitress recommended Mamma’s Big Burrito & it was awesome! Not on our regularly scheduled meal plan – Ha – but we were on vacation:) I’ll post pic in food post.
One day while The Big Guy & I were on our own we walked over to The Strat to see about making reservations for dinner that evening. Dinner didn’t happen but this did….as we walked thru the casino doors, a fast talking salesman approached us. Long story short, we ended up signing to view a vacation timeshare later that day with promise of ‘rewards’ at end of session. We thought nothing to lose but a couple hours & supposedly we would get these cool rewards for our time.
Shuttle from World Mark picked us up later that afternoon and we were off to the presentation. We told the sales reps NUMEROUS times we were not interested in buying – we just wanted the free stuff! How much clearer could we be? Ha. After presentation, the sales rep was awesome until she realized we really weren’t going to buy so they sent us down to the shuttle for ride back to hotel. On the way we stopped at the desk to pick up our ‘goodies’. We both chuckled that it would probably be a bunch of crap but lets go pick it up. Here is what we received: 3 day/2 night hotel stay [domestic & int’l destinations!]; $100 voucher to use in gambling [we sure did]; $50 visa card [it was good & we used it] & the absolute cherry on top was the 2 free helicopter rides [valued $180] over Las Vegas Strip at sunset that evening!!!
I have been to timeshare demos before years ago and the gifts were…lets just say crap… you know soft side bags that they called luggage, you get me right? Well, I cannot say that we will never do this again as the ‘rewards’ were well worth our time. Definitely would suggest doing this on your Vegas trip if you have the time!
Memories Made Heading to Grand Canyon!
After a few days in Vegas, we set out on our return trip to Texas. We stopped just across the Arizona state line to take some photos of the mountains & we were photo bombed! Ha. The Big Guy & I were concentrating on trying to take a selfie with the Colorado River running thru the Canyon when all of a sudden this face pops into our screen with a big ole smile! That is how we made our first road home memory by making new friends Sue & David from Kansas City. They were on a road trip as well. We chatted & both went on our merry way down the road. Who knew that when we parted that we would see them again a few hours later at the Grand Canyon – a reunion! Love meeting new people & forming friendships from just a accidental meeting…
On down the road we started seeing signs for “Grand Canyon National Park”. Free entry to Grand Canyon Park! Not sure if it was a freebie day but we were asked if anyone in the was over 62 & “yes” – we were given a map & welcomed to the Park. Let me say photos cannot give the Grand Canyon justice. The closer we got the more excited we were – wanting to see The Canyon but not really sure what it would really look like? We’ve both seen it from the air flying over & there are photos galore of it but to be right there on the South Rim viewing the Canyon was absolutely amazing! No photo I’ve seen gives it justice! It is a must see on anyone’s Bucket List.
The views were amazing! This is a taste of view from the South Rim of the Park.
One of hundreds of photo we took of the majestic Grand Canyon!
The Raven
This was a pretty decent size bird – not quite chicken size but definitely larger than the black grackles we see here in central Texas. It is the larger cousin of the crow & entirely black from its beak to its claws, it immediately made me think of Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem “The Raven”.
Raven posing for us in majestic Grand Canyon
Here are a few fun facts about this scavenger. They mate for life & being ranked among dolphins & chimpanzees in intelligence, they are very adaptable to various habitats. They have been known to create/use traps to hide food or nests from other predators. Communicating better than parrots in captivity & can be very playful with each other. They will copy wolf or fox howls to draw them to carcasses that they were unable to tear open. When the wolf/fox is finished, the Raven will eat. Because of its blackness & seemingly intense stare, some European countries see the Raven as a sign of evil, death, souls of murdered people, etc. Some Native Americans considered the Raven a God like creature.
The Elk
Shortly after we entered the Park – in the distance – a huge deer ran across the road in front of us. I mentioned to the Big Guy ‘wow that was a huge deer’ but something about it looked strange. Well duh, figured out soon enough that it had been an elk. It didn’t really run gracefully across the road, more like a gangly teen all arms and legs, but an elk. Does that make sense? Not native to Grand Canyon, 303 Elk were relocated to the South Rim from Yellowstone Park back between 1913-1928! Elk are dependent on humans for fresh water which has left many of the beasts without any inhibitions regarding tourists. Depending on the time of year, Elk can be extremely aggressive & tourists are warned to stay at least 100 feet from the beast but as you can see from this photo two Elk strolled in front of our car right up the the walk where tourists were probably 20 ft away! Surviving on grass & shrubs a bull elk can reach 700 lbs.
Final leg home…
In awe of sights we saw in Grand Canyon, we drove thru the night thru New Mexico & just as we near the New Mexico/Texas state lines a snow storm stops us in our tracks literally, on the highway – 5 a.m. traffic came to a halt for almost three hours! Snow/ice had the highways shut down. All we could do was wait with the other many motorists until we were given the clear to drive. Semis, RVs & autos were in ditches and/or flipped over. What a mess! So for those 3 hours we chatted/took photos of the turbines/dozed. But we were greeted with beautiful sunrise over the snow. Just gorgeous!
Beautiful sunset that met us as we sat stucfc in snow traffic on trip home from Grand Canyon.
Windmills.
An hour after traffic started moving again, we ran out of the snow & we were heading south home!
Wrapping Up our trip to the awe inspiring Majestic Grand Canyon:
We cashed in our coin jar to use toward this trip. $300! Amazing how fast coin adds up.
Just for transparency purposes, here is a breakdown of our costs for this fabulous road trip.
Enterprise Car Rental $303 with unlimited mileage [the only way to go on road trips. Enterprise always takes care of us]
Residence Inn Hotel $177 [We were able to benefit from family/friends rate. Great hotel & love the beds!]
Gas for Auto $210 [We rented a 2020 Ultima with all the bells & whistles & happy w/gas prices & mileage].
Food on Road $130 [For the few meals/snacks we ate out away from family or on road]
Total cost $820 – $300 = $520.
With all the rewards we collected from the vacation share presentation – this was really a win win for us.
Last Thoughts: Again I’ll say it – The Grand Canyon National Park is a must see!!!
Traveling abroad, is it really that important to have medical insurance? Does a bear poo in the woods? Yes! How important is insurance to us? We, personally, think it is pretty darn important. As we get older, we generally tend to have more aches & pains than the younger crowd. That is a part of life. Ouch! There are so many issues to address when you are moving abroad but Travel Insurance is definitely one of our top concerns.
In our “Top 20 Issues to Research When You Are Considering A Move Abroad” we included Travel Insurance as an issue to review for us. Lets talk a little more in detail here! I don’t know about you but for us just the word “insurance” is enough to make us roll our eyes and cringe! It is probably one of our largest expenses! We pay house insurance, medical insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, jewelry insurance, etc etc. I look at insurance as one of those necessary evils – you HAVE to have because as soon as you don’t, something will happen. That is just life folks.
We have done a bit of research on ‘travel’ insurance in trying to understand exactly what it is & what it covers? Here are a few things we have discovered in our research.
Pricing
The area you will be traveling will be a big determination of insurance cost. It seems from most reading that travel insurance normally runs between 4 to 10% of the total cost of your trip. What does that mean? According to InsureMyTrip basically if you have invested $10k on your trip, that trip coverage cost could be anywhere from $400 to $1,000?
Of course, please do your due diligence on your end for your circumstances. There are various things that will determine your insurance cost such as, again, your country of travel, ages of travelers, length of travel as well as simply the coverage you desire.
Using a Broker
You can do your own comparison online but it would probably be a lot less of a headache to use a Broker. He should be able to put together multiple quotes together so you can do all your shopping thru him/her. Examples of brokers would be InsureMyTrip which covers 22 carriers or Trip Insurance Store which offers side by side comparison of up to ten insurers!
According to an article I found, in a recent survey of 2,000 Americans, only one out of every five travelers opted for travel insurance. Forty-five percent of these same travelers, stated that since the Covid-19 pandemic has arrived, they would strongly consider buying travel insurance.
AARDY is another broker that gets high reviews by AARP – who does not sell travel insurance.
We are not promoting any one company in this post as we ourselves are still in the ‘just looking’ phase since we won’t be jumping off to our grand adventure until Covid calms down or next Spring, whichever comes first. But since we will be traveling on a budget, we need an idea of what that cost will be and what the coverage does & does not cover!
Which Insurance Company is Right For You?
To decide which company would be right for you start looking now for a quote. Ages, hobbies, various other concerns would be addressed in getting insurance paired to you. We are paying particular attention to our age group in this post. If you are an adrenalin junkie, there is an insurance plan for you but you will need to research that on your own. We are walkers and bicycle riders.
Under 70 Years Young
The Big Guy & I fit in this category. In the U.S. Medicare is our health insurance. Medicare will not cover us abroad. We know that. We are researching companies that insure under age 70 as that is where we fit in. I have heard nothing but good referrals about World Nomads so that is one of the places we will be checking into for a quote. Although AARP does not sell travel insurance they do recommend AARDY who also is a Broker & will get a closer look at by me!
Over 70 Years Young
In a few years, we will be in this category so we are looking at companies that provide insurance to that age group as well. Travel Guard offers coverage for pre-existing conditions & plans can be tailored specifically to your needs. Allianz offers coverage for both domestic & international travel & cruises, medical insurance, etc. AIG is another we may look at down the road.
What Should You Have Covered in Your Travel Insurance Plan?
Some companies offer travel packages that cover personal property, rental cars or any specific request you may have. You may be able to obtain cancellation or last minute changes that cause trip charges, emergency evac medical charges, lost baggage, accidental death or even insurance to cover a flight accident.
Having said that your main concerns for travel insurance are:
Trip cancellation charges – reimbursement for nonrefundable flights, any outside travel expense due to illness, death in family or any last minute conflicts that could affect your flight.
Baggage or Personal Effects – most airlines do have a lost baggage policy but better to be safe than sorry!
Short Term Medical – Does your medical insurance cover emergency evacuation from abroad? Read the fine print to be sure you are getting what you think you are paying for. Normally there are two types of medical offered- Short Term [5 dys to 1 yr] or Major Medical for longer trips of 6 months to 1 year. BE SURE TO READ THE FINE PRINT!
Accidental Death & Flight Accident Coverage– Your present life insurance policy may suffice for this but, again, review to be sure.
A Last & Very Important Word on your Travel or Medical Insurance –
Be sure to review your policy carefully & ask for clarification if you are unsure of any part of policy. Just be prepared. It is recommended that you get your insurance at a couple weeks in advance so that you will have time to review the fine print. Yes, most of the companies I looked at can work on a very short time frame, but why chance missing something in the fine print because you didn’t plan ahead. After all the money you will put out for this travel insurance you really want to be sure you are getting what you thought you were paying for! Make sure it fits you and your trip itinerary.
TIP: Smart Traveler Enrollment Program [“STEP“] recommends that as a precaution, travelers can easily file their travel plans with The State Dept thru its free registry website. If in case of emergency, family can be notified!
The beautiful sights we saw in Poland will stay with us a lifetime! In this post, we will share our memories of Poland with you! This short trip took these two traveling seniors to the beautiful village of Korycin, Poland for a Polish wedding of our good friends Ania & Mondo! They invited us & of course we said yes!
A Wedding in Poland!
Our friends, Mondo & Ania were flying back to Poland – to her home village in Korycin – for a traditional Polish wedding for her family & friends who were not able to attend intimate civil ceremony in the U.S. There was no hesitation on our part when they asked if we would come to their wedding in Poland! One – we LOVE them and think the world of them & Two – another country we can mark off our list! Here’s how it went down!
The setting of the wedding was in Ania’s home village of Korycin [pop. of around 530+/-] in northeast Poland where her family still lived. The wedding was a couple months away & I can’t even imagine the hoops & headaches that they went thru to get this wedding planned between two continents. While the bride’s family was planning the huge wedding, we had to get our travel plans together as well!
The bride could not have picked a better date for the wedding. Visiting Poland in May is considered to be one of the best months to see Poland as the weather is warming up from winter plus you are in low season! [Remember low season means lower prices.] Thankfully, there was only a slight shower on a day prior to the wedding.
Dark Skin in Poland?
Landing in Warsaw we honestly were not sure or accepting the Polish locals would be of dark skin in Poland. For the first two days/nights in Warsaw we spent walking & seeing the sights. Let me add that Ania had a serious discussion with The Big Guy when they invited us to the wedding. Ania told The Big Guy that in Korycin the people had only seen dark skinned people on the television. She was concerned that the people might stare at him & not know how to act around him. The Big Guy eased her concerns by letting her know that he had traveled to destinations similar to her city. I think she was more concerned than us.
Once we arrived at our hotel in Warsaw, Poland, we decided to take a walk & checkout the area for a market & places to eat later. On our walk an older lady walked past us, turned around & started walking back-wards facing us with this huge smile on her face. She was chuckling and clapping her hands. The Big Guy and I just smiled back at her & waved. She was so excited to see us & gave us a BIG Thumbs Up! This little lady eased whatever tensions we may have had for the balance of the trip.
Huge Faux Pas
Our faux pas as a tourist in Poland happened shortly after we left the little lady waving to us. We had found a grocer & picked up some fresh fruit & a bottle of wine for later. Seriously, we pride ourselves on being one with the people in whatever country we are visiting but we totally took a dive on this trip. We made it to the checkout line, paid for our groceries & waited for cashier to put items in a bag. We quickly realized, once she continued ringing up next customer, that we should have had our own bag & we were responsible for bagging our own groceries. It seemed we had caused a little bit of a hold up in line. Oops! The Big Guy & I couldn’t help but laugh at how “tourist” we must have looked as we grabbed our few groceries & juggled them back to hotel laughing at ourselves – tourists! LOL!
Train Ride to Bialystok
On our third day in Poland, we were scheduled to move from our Warsaw hotel to a small village hotel in Korycin for the wedding which was scheduled for the following day. We would take the train to Bialystok, Poland where Ania’s brother, Jacek, would be picking us up for our final destination, Korycin.
A Little Polish History
While waiting to board, we met a fascinating young man, Tomasz P. He made sure we were getting on the right train & ‘looked” after us until we boarded. Then he made a trip to our car to be sure we were comfortable. We invited him to sit with us & the two-plus hour train ride flew by. Tomasz educated us on Poland & the effects of Russian occupation. He so openly shared with us some of the things his Jewish grandparents & parents had seen & how they had been affected by Germans as well as Russian occupation.
One of the amazing locals we in Poland.
The Big Guy & Tomasz still stay in touch.
Poland was under communist rule until 1989 & their influence can be seen in the village of Korycin. As we walked, houses were pointed out to us – exterior walls made of whatever materials they could get their hands on – wood, brick, stone, cement, etc. Also it was explained to us that houses could only be a particular size & shape!
Want to read more interesting facts about Poland?
I found this amazing article while researching & it is pretty awesome. Check out ‘25 Interesting Facts About Poland That Most People Don’t Know‘ by Anna Everywhere here.
Wedding Day in Korycin!
Korycin is a beautiful village. We were welcomed with open arms, trays of sweet breads, homemade cherry wine & just a lot of love. We spent a couple nights in the hotel across the road from the village.
The village hotel we stayed in Korycin, Poland!
Our intro to Koryin’s hospitality1 Just Amazing!
Before we had even signed in to register, the owner’s wife took us upstairs to sit in the sun room while she brought us coffee & a plates of sweets. This is how we were treated the two days we spent in this hotel. She let us know the next day that she had to go to town for appointment but she had breads for us and breakfast would be served by her husband, the owner.
For the day of the wedding, we moved to rooms reserved for us at the banquet hall for the after wedding party. The car, a leftover we were told of Russian occupation, was dressed to carry the bride & groom from the village to church back to this location later that day for the reception.
The Bride, the awesome car that picked up Bride & Groom to take them from home to church to reception here. The band in red in front of door followed the Bride & Groom from her parents home to church to reception. Awesome day and awesome Polish wedding to be a part of!
Back to the bride’s family home, everyone was in attendance it seemed. The bride & groom rode in the little flower covered car driven by Jacek. Everyone had a seat in a particular car & we were off for the caravan drive thru the village before heading across the road to the church. The polka players were walking in front of caravan playing polka music. You really had to see it to believe it.
We hadn’t gone maybe to the end of their street when a row of men closed the street off by standing across it. The Big Guy & I looked at each other like ‘what the heck is going on?’. Then we saw Jacek jump out of the lead car with a bag. He gave each man a small bottle of liquor/vodka. They waved & parted to let the caravan thru. We go maybe one more street & there is a row of children standing across the street. Jacek gets out again, this time with a bag of candies, & gives each child a piece. They wave & part the way for caravan to drive thru. It was really quite cute & made everyone in the village a party to the wedding.
The wedding was beautiful! The church was beautiful. First wedding I’d been to where the bride & groom sat in chairs for part of the ceremony. The Bride & Groom were such a handsome pair. Mondo, how he came to the table! He had attended Polish classes back in Texas & was able to speak all vows in Polish during the whole wedding ceremony! Both of us were so impressed by Mondo’s love for Ania that he had learned Polish so he could communicate with her family & friends in their language. A big old Texas boy speaking Polish fluently….you had to be there.
Beautiful wedding in Poland.
The wedding was beautiful but then the party afterwards! The food just kept getting served. Every time I thought I couldn’t take another bite, more food was being served. The food kept coming way after midnight. Gallons of vodka on ice on every table. We like a glass of wine & I personally can appreciate a good whiskey & coke on ice but that night it was all about the vodka. My takeaway was Polish vodka is pretty darn good. I can’t even try to repeat any of the Polish/Russian salutes or tell you how many shots we drank but we ate, we danced, we laughed, & drank the night away. The Big Guy & I lasted til after 3 a.m. We were headed to our room when we got pulled back down to the dance floor for one more dance. I don’t know what time the party ended but we were told that normally these parties last for up to three days!
A Little Sight Seeing After the Wedding Day
Storks Are Real!
Storks in Poland are real!
After the wedding day & until our flight left, Jacek was the perfect tour guide. He gave us the grand tour through the Polish beautiful green countryside. Even the huge forest were amazing backdrops to the quaint farms. This is where I found out that storks are a real bird! Yes, I truly thought storks were the ‘cartoon’ birds that delivered babies in so many of those children’s books. Imagine my surprise when I asked Jacek what were those tall poles with platforms on the top of them used for? Most had what looked like a pile of large sticks on them. “Oh, those are stork nests”. What? Storks are real? He continued to tell us that in order to keep farms from burning down because of the storks building their huge nest of sticks in the chimneys that they started erecting these pillar post & platforms for the birds to build their nests! There were indeed huge storks nesting or standing on some of the platforms.
Jewish Settlement
We were able to visit a small Jewish Settlement to view the hundreds of archives depicting Jewish history. At the entrance to the walled settlement an elderly gentleman was carving pieces of wood into figure heads. This is the one he carved & signed for us while we waited.
Floating Lithuania Border
In the countryside, Jacek took us to an old stone guard tower still standing with what I imagined was a moat at one time around it. Attached to this tower was an old barb wire fence with sign on it stating country border of Lithuania.
An old guard station we saw on a walkabout in Poland.
Bison
The European Bison are a huge point of pride for the Polish. We were able to visit the Białowieża Forest to see some of the huge beast first hand! They are also prominently on label of Zubrowka Biala Vodka – a bottle of which we brought home with us. This vodka is famous for the bison grass blade in every bottle. It is a very nice vodka.
What We Didn’t Have Time To See & Would Love to Go Back to See
Poland should be on everyone’s must see list. There really is so many things to see & it definitely takes more than one week to see it all. It is a beautiful country & the people were awesome! The history so full that I couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface in a blog but I hope you venture to some of the links for further reading.
Places we would love to see when we return to Poland would include Krakow, Auschwitz Memorial & Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Tour [considered “to be one of the most haunting and historically poignant places to visit in all of Poland”] to name just a few. Old Town Warsaw Market & the Bialystok market centers are well worth another trip!
