Dinner For Two For 500 Pesos

20 pesos is roughly $1 - 500 pesos is roughly $25.

When traveling from country to country - it is neat to see and use their money. You are always doing the math in your head to figure out what something costs. In Mexico City - they use pesos. Yes - they the American Express and Visa cards work. And yes - Apply Pay works on your iPhone. But seeing and feeling the different bills makes you feel that you are living like a resident.

One US dollar is worth about 17 Mexican pesos. I just divide the peso price in my mind by 20 - to give me a rough estimate. Each bill is a different size and color. The 20 pesos bill above is worth $1. The 500 pesos bill is worth $25. What confused things more - the "$" sign here mean pesos.

Last night we had a nice supper for 500 pesos - that included the entre - side orders - drinks - tax - tip.  Still it is hard to throw three 20's on the table as a tip  :-)

This best value here is the Uber car ride. Uber cars are all over here - there might be 8 of them circling our hotel at one time. You use the uber app on your phone - type in where you want to go - and it says "a silver Volkswagen Vento driven by Arturo will pick you up - he has 5735 rides." He takes you directly where you want to go - you get the bill on your phone. You can give him a tip on the phone. The cost of our rides have been $2 to $3. I give him a $1 tip - big spender here. If you want to talk - the driver talks. If not - silence - you just get out.  Uber cars save your legs - especially if you are having "jet lag" or "altitude lag."

Today we are going to the Pyramid of the Sun. We plan to take the bus. There is a subway that is state subsidized - 1 peso a ride. Yes that is 5 cents.

Lulu loves all the shops. She does not buy much. But she loves the unusual items and the prices.

Today is Day 3 of 6. They say altitude sickness only lasts a day or two - I will let you know how it goes. Oley!

Mexico City - Day 2 - We Visited Templo Mayor - And Shopped A Lot

Mexican National Cathedral

The Ballet from Sears.
The scooter was $1500

The God of the Underworld - 

liver hanging out

Day 1 of our trip was uneventful. We left Tallahassee at 6 AM. We flew to Atlanta and caught a straight flight to Mexico City. It took about 3 hours. As our plane landed our phone got a message from T-Mobile welcoming us to Mexico. It said our iPhones would work exactly like they do back in Florida. They actually worked better here. We have gotten 4 bars of signal everywhere here. First thing we did was get an Uber car to the the hotel. Uber rides are cheap here - most of them falling in the $2 to $3 category. 

Le Meridien is a world wide hotel chain. We have a little suite of bedroom - kitchen - living room - bathroom for $126 a night. It is downtown and central to everything. We have  2 big screen TV's and receive some USA stations - CNN - etc.

I did experience little "altitude lag." It is like "jet lag" - but your body must adjust to the thin air. Tallahassee is at 200 feet - Tamaqua is at 700 feet - Denver is at 5200 feet - and Mexico City is at 7300 feet. The lack of oxygen made me tired and weak. I read about  it and it is supposed to go away in a couple days. The sangria we had for supper did not help :-)

Thursday - Day 2 - I was feeling much better. I still got tired a bit on steps - but it was much better than the first day. We ate breakfast in our hotel. 

We took an Uber to Templo Mayor. Admission for this giant museum was like $4. This temple was built by the Aztecs around 100 AD. The culture lasted until about 1500 - when the Spanish came with guns. They easily the Aztecs and plundered the place. They sent all the gold and silver back to Spain. Many of the ships wrecked off the cost of Florida - and they are still finding the booty. 

Mexico City is in a valley on top of a high plateau. The 7300 feet elevation alters the weather here. We have experienced 60s and 70s - pretty cool for being so far south. At 19 degree North - it is farther south than the Tropic of Cancer. At one time the plateau had a giant lake - but they easily drained it over the edge of the plateau. 

21 million people live in this city and valley. It is the second largest city in the world next to Tokyo. They spend the peso. One peso is about worth 5 cents. 20 pesos to a dollar. It is hard getting used to the big number prices. I saw a Christmas Tree in Sears for $19,000. In dollars - it is less than $1000. Making it even stranger is the symbol $ means peso here. 

Food prices are cheap. Lulu and I have had full meals - with desserts - drinks - sides - and the bill with taxes and tips is under 400 pesos or $20. We went to Walmart here - and milk is less than $1 a quart. Uber rides are usually $2 to $3. 

The people we met are nice. They are shorter than you expect. Maybe the diet makes them a little more plumb - not that Americans aren't. They dress nicely - very few of them smoke - and main streets are litter free. Our Meridien Hotel is as nice as anywhere else we have visited. The people are super helpful - although not many speak English. Admissions are low priced. 

We bought tickets for the ballet Sunday. We have been told to not miss it. There were 3 categories of tickets - 3 levels. We bought two tickets in the third row center of the bottom section for $50 each. The theatre is beautiful. 

We found a big Sears downtown - 9 stories tall. We shopped on each floor. They even sold motorcycles and scooters. Fire codes are light - all 9 floors were open - and the escalator goes down thru all layers. 

We got cash out of an ATM machine - our American cards work fine. They have McDonalds - Walmart - Kentucky Fried Chicken - Chilis - and dozens of their own chains. There are lots of places to eat all kinds of food. 

Tomorrow - Day 3 - we are taking a bus to the Pyramid of the Sun. It is the third largest pyramid in the world. Again - it was built by the Aztecs. It is 230 feet tall - and 700 feet wide at the base. There are steps to the top and we plan to climb it. 

Our iPhones Work in Mexico City on T-Mobile

This is the first message we got when we landed the plane. We have excellent cell phone coverage and internet.

The Hero Of Our Home And Three Day Trip to Philly - This Honda Tri-Fuel Generator

Our Honda 2000 Tri-Fuel Generator

It is 6:00 PM Sunday and we just got home from a three day trip to Philadelphia to visit with family.

Last Wednesday - Hurricane Michael hit Tallahassee and knocked out power to 95% of the 185,000 residents of this lovely tree-lined Southern city. Several years ago - I bought this wonderful Honda generator - so what - big deal. Everybody has a generator. But not like this one. This one is adapted to run on 3 fuels - gasoline - propane - and natural gas. The large regulator on the side is for natural gas. You run a hose directly to a natural gas tap on the side of our home. We also use that tap for our gas grill. While running on natural gas - you have no smelly fumes - you don't have to be filling it up with a gas can every 5 hours. It just runs and runs and runs.

Our Honda trike has been running straight for 5 days! It has been powering our refrigerator - television - lights - phones - computers - and even a hair dryer. 2000 watts is a lot of power when using LED light bulbs.

While away we had a house sitter - but she said everything went well. She was ready to shut down the generator when the power came on. Alas - power is still off. We are still pretending to be a third world country here. Not to make too much light of it - many people are suffering west of us because the storm steered left away from our town and home. They are living in a war zone - and will be for months and years.

I bought the generator here -
Honda triple fuel generator
Central Maine Diesel
29 Carey Circle
Hampden, ME 04444
Phone: 1-207-941-1188
Fax: 1-207-941-1189
E-Mail: sales@generatorsales.com
I think I paid $1250 for it - 6 years ago.

If any of my neighbors want to come over and check it out - you are welcome. It sure beats paying $9000 for a whole house generator.

Wonderful Weekend In Philadelphia With Grandson And Historic Townhouse

The hurricane had just knock the power out at out home in Tallahassee. So Friday - we hopped on a plane and escaped to family and familiarity. My son - Keith - and his wife - Liz - were attending a wedding at Penn's Landing. Our assignment was to take care of Max.

Friday - one of my best students - Steve Simchak stopped by to visit. My lifted a cold one at the Wooley  Mammoth. I bored him with two hours of old stories - and hearing about his adventures.

Saturday we enjoy walking to the Liberty Bell - Independence Hall - Carpenters Hall - the Firemen's Museum - the First and Second Banks of the United States. We enjoyed Philly Soft Pretzels - hoagies - pizza. We haunted a few playgrounds in South Philly.

I had chicken potpie at the Amish counter in the Reading Terminal Market. That market has the best selection of food in the world for me. I could eat every meal there for the rest of my life and die early at 500 pounds.

This morning we went to the the wedding breakfast at the Hilton - then ubered to the airport after picking up our bags back at the townhouse. As always - it is hard to leave everyone behind. It took us less than 30 minutes to go from Hilton to our townhouse - to the airport - security - and at the gate. Plenty of time to type this - and post the video.

Side note - I always loved the tune "Forget you" - the FSU band is always playing it. In the Uber cab - our driver had it on the radio - I saw the name on the screen. I quickly downloaded it to my iPhone. I have been playing it all the while I am typing. I never knew it had lyrics :-)

Leaving The Storm Mess For Philadelphia

The power was off for a total of 6 days. We ran our Honda generator the whole time. We had a date with our family in Philadelphia. So we left the house with a sitter and the genset running - from Friday to Sunday. We got home and the genset was still running. We had power back on Tuesday after the trip.

Just town the street - tree takes down power lines

Little House on the Prairie in Tallahassee

No power for days

Camper Made It Safely

Monday Morning 8 AM

A Fewer Branches - Lights From Honda Generator

Wed 6 PM - we are good. Power failed at 2PM - Storm passed us. A few branches down. No damage. Googbye Michael.

Getting Ready For Hurricane Michael - With A Honda Natural Gas Generator

When Tallahassee gets hit by hurricanes - the first thing to go is the power. The town has too many trees and they overgrow the power lines. A branch goes down and so does the power - sometimes for as long as 3 weeks.

We handle that with a Honda natural gas generator. Honda makes great quiet generators in all sizes. The one I have produces 2000 watts. That is a lot of electricity when you have none. The refrigerator uses less than 150 watts. The TV uses about 200 watts. LED light bulbs use about 10 watts. Add it up and you can run a lot of appliances on this generator.

The generator cost about $1250. Honda does not make them to run on natural gas. A company in Maine takes the gasoline model and put a gas regulator on it. It is a very nice professional conversion.  I put an outside tap on our gas line for our gas grill. It serves double duty by running the generator. The generator also runs on gasoline or propane - so it is called a tri-fuel generator.

Unlike gasoline - natural gas is a much cleaner burning fuel. Still I would never run this generator inside the house. Often times during hurricane - there is no gasoline available. The city has never had a natural gas outage.

We expect Hurricane Michael to hit town Wednesday around noon. Hopefully it will be calmed down a little from its present 120 MPH winds.

A whole house generator can cost $7000 to $9000. They are really nice and can even run you air conditioner or heat. But $1250 to me - makes more sense.

Wednesday at 7 PM - Michael Visits

Monday morning - as I write - Lulu is driving home from a week of fun with the cousins at Cocoa Beach. I just brought in the morning paper and here it is. We are getting a visit from Hurricane Michael on Wednesday at 7 PM. I hope he can stay for dinner. It is supposed to be a Category 2 by the time it hits the our coast. Since we are 40 miles inland - I am guessing it will be a Category 1 by the time it hits our town.

Our house is built to withstand storms greater than this. My only worry is damage to our camper. I can move it away from trees or try to find a garage that can take vehicles 8 feet 4 inches high. We have a Honda generator and also a second generator  in the camper. We are up on a hill so there is no chance of flooding.

In Tallahassee - because there is so many trees - we have lots of power failures during hurricanes because soft soil and lots of rain make quick work of shallow roots. Lots of wind and wet ground = downed power lines.

Last summer when a hurricane was coming toward town - we fled in our camper west - and the hurricane went east. We returned to an untouched home.

Update - at noon Monday - classes at FSU called off for Tuesday and rest of the week.

Check Out The Wireless Phone Charger

In a moment of weakness - I bought the new iPhone Xs Max. My old iPhone 7 was fine but - since I use the phone so much for many things - I wanted the new one.

The main features are a bigger brilliant screen - more memory storage - a better camera - wireless charging - and face recognition. With face recognition - if you look at your iPhone it opens up without pressing keys. The "max" part of  it just means a bigger screen. I got it because it was named after my grandson Max. :-)

Apple seems to release a new phone every 6 months. Lulu already has the iphone X - so I had to catch up. Back when they were giving away free cellphones for signing up - I would have told you to shoot me if I paid $1343 for a cellphone - when my old one was perfectly fine. Time marches on. These are the good old days.

Cousins On The Way To Cocoa Beach

Lori - Mary Karen - Ruth Ann - Cathy

Lulu is in the Honda van on the way to Sanford FL to pick up these Coal Crackers. They are in the Allentown Airport on the way to Sanford FL. Mary Karen is an old Tamaqua friend - she is flying to Florida for a birthday visit to family. I just saw that she was at the same airport. 

Lulu is on the highway right now - she says she is stuck in traffic. 

The cousins will spend 6 days at Cocoa Beach. Lulu is rushing to the airport to pick them up.