My first fruit and vegetable carving lesson at the Blue Elephant School

Today was unfortunately the last day at the Blue Elephant Cooking School of Bangkok. After a quick demonstration in the classroom from one of our wonderful chefs, we headed into the kitchen lab and began whittling our fruit and vegetables. Armed with a birds beak knife and a traditional Thai knife (looks something like a small meat cleaver) we began to duplicate our instructors designs the best we could. I started with the lotus blossom, then moved to the carrot and papaya. I saved my rose blossom for last since I knew it would take some extra time and I wasn't very familiar with the birds beak knife yet. The curled spring onion seemed the easiest of all, so i wanted to focus on the more challenging carvings while I had the instructors around. I was very satisfied with my carvings, and look forward to practicing more at home. There is nothing quite like edible art.

Great start to this trip.

The first real day for us started with a morning bus ride to the temples. We had the chance to visit 2 buddhist temples and im happy to say its an event in my life, that i have always dreamed about doing. The temple of the golden buddah pictured here. the buddah is made out of solid gold and weighs 5 tons. it was astonishing. The day was spent enjoying Food at the local mall food court. The mall was amazing, and the food left me in even more awe and wonder than the building itself. Or guide showed us that the food court isnt run with cash. Instead it uses a charged card system. you simply just pay cash at a help desk. and they charge a card for you. which then can be used at most food vendors in the mall. its very convieniant. and whatever is left over can simply be redemed for cash later. This is an image of one of the vendors store selling whole birds. you can order and watch them slice and dice clucky here, into your favorite thai dish. both amazing and disturbing. But either way our once feathered friend made delicious chicken satay for me.
Which is a dish of chicken skewered. and grilled. and served with a penut sauce. one of my all time favorites. for an extra 10 Baht i had it prepared a little spicier. mmmmm

Hot Pots on the streets of Bangkok

This post comes from the first night in our trip to Thailand. Tricia and I arrived late at night on the 5th before the rest of our group, so we had a little time to explore the streets of Bangkok for some tasty snacks. About two blocks from the hotel we stumbled upon a busy little street vendor serving up a do it yourself dinner. Working out of a simple little cart not more than 12 square feet in size, our Thai cook stoked a terracotta pot full of charcoal topped with a simmering pot of curry, herbs, spices, and broth. It came with two plates of ingredients: one raw one vegetable and noodle. The raw plate included prawns, octopus, pork, white fish, and topped with an egg. We felt safer with this dish for the first night due to the fact that we were able to cook it ourselves, and it looked delicious. After sliding the contents of the plate into the simmering pot, we began to rip and tear our vegetables into bite size pieces. From what I could identify there was Napa cabbage, scallions, rice noodles, and a few herbs that I wasn't familiar with. Some of the more fragrant herbs were thrown into the pot while other textural items were placed in our individual bowls. Ladle after ladle we consumed our bowl of deliciousness until none remained. It took about 40 minutes to finish the whole process, which all occurred between the hours of 1 and 2 am. Due to the time difference, this didn't seem so ridiculous at the moment. And the level of activity on the street at this hour was quite surprising. Of all the street food thus far, this has to be my favorite. This is why we will hopefully be having this again before we leave, and bringing more friends with to experience it.

PS - I am super happy my photo's are finally loading. More to come soon...

When I first heard there would be a fruit and vegetable carving class while here I was pretty much sold on the trip. I have a background in sculpture, and thought it would be a piece of cake. I have never been so excited to take a class, but boy was I wrong. We did our normal morning cooking class, ate our own tasty lunch, then went back upstairs for another round of class, this time carving. When someone makes something so beautiful look so easy, something just isn't right. I watched him make green onion curls, carve carrot leaves, a daikon rose, cucumber lotus, and papaya leaf. Then we were off on our own to try our hand at this. HA! We all had fun, but nothing looked even remotely close to what he had done. Oh well. I plan on buying a book with tons of pictures, pick up a couple of carving knives, and play with my food at home. Someday I will be as good as the chef at Blue Elephant. If not, I still know I always have the coolest jack-o-lanterns on Halloween. That's all the carving I really need to know.

Thai Food = Delicious and easy too cook

So I'm not that much of an accomplished chef/cook yet but the food they taught us at The Blue Elephant is very tasty and fairly easy to make. Best part is the recipes weren't simplified. The only time consuming part is making the curry, which they did for us. Some of the ingredients might be a little tough to find back home, but with a little searching all the recipes are makable. So I can say I'm excited to try ALL of them when I get back. Here's a link to all my pics on facebook for The Blue Elephant. Plus the Fruit & vegetable carving was amazing, the designs this guy could do were crazy. Then we got to try and lets just say mine didn't turn out so well, thats the reason there aren't any pictures of mine :-)

SOMEBODY TURN THIS BOAT AROUND !!

Is it possible to know exactly where you are and still be "lost"? Can you be helplessly headed in the wrong direction, and not really care? Yes, on both counts. After cooking class at The Blue Elephant on Monday (another great day, that finished with the owner coming to meet us and bringing out samples of some of his other specialities -- always a bonus when talking with Food People) a bunch of us decided to visit two of the temples we had missed earlier. Since they were both "just" one more SkyTrain stop, then an easy boat hop up the serpentine Chao Phraya River -- what's to go wrong? The four of us (Andrea, Janet, my wife Clare and me) got some All-Day passes and climbed aboard. The Journey of a Thousand Memories begins with a Single Innocent Step............

The temple at Wat Po is listed as a center of massage, but the real spiritual release comes upon experiencing the statue of the Reclining Buddha! This huge golden Buddha, reclining serenly on one side is so long that it fills an entire (long!) building, and so immense that it completely dominates your spirit while you are in its presence. Along the back side are dozens of metalic "penny pots" to deposit small offering coins. The continuous tinkle of coins dropping creates an aural peace all of its own. If the Next Life can be this serene, then I'll welcome it when it comes, especially if I can have a gang of penny pots of my own, to tinkle away eternity.

Completely refreshed, we took a short ferry across the river to the temple of Wat Arun, the Temple of The Dawn. Showing both Hindu and Buddhist influences, it features a hair-raising set of outside "stairs" -- almost vertical high-steppers that require both hands on the railings and concentration at all times to keep from slipping and falling to certain death. Those Heavenly Penny Pots can wait, I don't want to break my neck when I've still got half of our Thailand trip left to go. Carefully, step by step, we inched our way back down -- besides, it was time to catch the boat back to our starting pier and get home. Little did we know.

Back on the boat, it filled with commuters and school kids, and took off up river in a blast of whistles. Up river. We're supposed to be going down river. Surely it will spin around, amid the incredible traffic of hotel ferries, cargo barges, military patrol boats, houseboats, and those great "longtail boats" of James Bond and Amazing Race fame, with a car engine mounted up in the air next to the pilot and a 30 foot-long drive shaft with propeller that gets dipped in and out of the drink to power the careening boat through traffic. But we never turned around. Under a couple of major traffic bridges, then under that great Rama 8 asymetrical syspension bridge, ever north past pier after pier, probably headed for Myanmar. I was still blissed out from The Reclining Buddha so I was oblivious to our long-ways-from-home dilemma, actually amused by the whole predicament. Until the lady boat conductor finally came over and politely asked "Where you going?" We proudly displayed our Ride-Free-All-Day passes, but the day was rapidly coming to a close, so she instructed us to "get off next pier, catch other boat". Sounded good to us, so we finally got a southbound boat, but by now the wind and current had changed, so we were taking on periodic splashes in the face. Darkness was settling and the boats all had their beautiful lights on, and eventually we Returned to Go. A reverse SkyTrain ride home and we were back safe and sound. And wet. Just one more great batch of memories of a Bangkok environment that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. More interesting experiences, and more great food memories coming up. Tomorrow we cast off again -- up river, down river, I don't care.........

day 5

Today we made 4 dishes again. We made Kai Phad Pik Tua Fak Yoa (stir fired chicken with red curry & long bean) this dish was good but spicy a little to spicy for me. Then Tom Kha Sai Mapraow Orn (Coconut milk soup with chicken and young coconut flesh) this was so delicious a little spicy and a little sweet yummy. Then we made Salmon Yang-Nam Plaa Waan (grilled salmon with sweet tamarind sauce) I am not a big fan of fish but the seasoning was delicious on this dish makes me wanna try to cook it at home using chicken not sure if that would work though. Toong Tong Keaw Waan (crispy golden bag stuffed with green curry prawn and chicken) the spring roll wrappers that we used were delicious, again i want to make at home using just chicken though. After we were done with those dishes we did fruit craving which was awesome to watch the chef crave the vegetables, I however need lots of practice. I could do the onion rolls and my cucumber lotus flower was not that bad, the chef helped me with the rose radish and the carrot leaf and papaya leaf. So appriciate of his help. Then they gave us a certificate of completion which was very nice of them.

Chef O'Donnell even learned a thing...or two.

Yesterday was Day 2 at the Blue Elephant Cooking School. Today we made 4 different things. Pad Thai, Tom Yam Koong (Spicy & Sour Prawn Soup), Kaeng Keaw Waan Kai (Green Curry with Chicken), and Tod Man Plaa Grai (Thai Fish Cake). The instructors give you a step by step, ingredient by ingredient breakdown of what is going into the dish and then whip it right up in front of the "classroom". We began with the fish cake, moved onto the soup, then to the curry, and finished with the perennial favorite, Pad Thai! True, we've already made some of these in the kitchen part of this class already, but we learned some new tricks. For instance...Chef taught us in class to make the Pad Thai sauce in the wok first, remove, then make your noodles & everything else. Well, we got schooled! Our Chef Instructor did a one pot method, and everything was amazing. No removing the shrimps, just whip everything up all at once. If I'm not mistaken Chef O'Donnell even said I'm going to change the way I teach this. That is one thing I love about cooking, it's amazing to see great minds bouncing brilliant ideas off of one another. P.S. The teacher's Pad Thai was the most amazing I've ever eaten! I will never be able to go home and eat Thai Spice again, from now on I'll be doing my own!

day 4

The pictures are backwards starting at the bottom left to right and top left to right. Today we made Phad Thai (stir-fried thai rice noodles) this had prawns in it, fortunetately Laura was kind enough to eat those for me but it was delicious. Tod Man Plaa Grai (Thai Fish Cakes) these were different taste I did not care for them to much, but for being completely made of fish they were good. The third dish was Tom Yam Koong (spicy & sour Prawn soup) this was spicy spicy which i am not quite use to eating yet. The fourth dish we made is by far my favorite dish ever Kaeng Keaw Waan Kai (Green Curry with Chicken). I could eat that for every meal here, but I am here to try new things, and I have been trying to find new foods so see what i like. Always living in the midwest I was so use to the same food over and over and now I have found so many new foods that i enjoy eating it is awesome.

Laura-There really are no flies.....

So, yesterday morning was our first day at the Blue Elephant Cooking School. The morning started off with an excursion to a street market not to far from our school to learn about some traditional Thai ingredients we just don't have access to in the states. We started with a stop at a small fruit stand and I had my new favorite fruit, mangosteen! It's like the texture of a citrus fruit, and a banana had a baby. It is to die for, so of course I had to ask where one of these things could be found in Nebraska. Oh, asian supermarket... I will be there searching for these as soon as I get home. Really, everything you could imagine to complete your dishes was here. There were noodle stands, fish mongers, fruit vendors, you name it it was there. To most Americans this place was far from sanitary, but as Chef said, you won't see any flies. I think we're still having a hard time getting past the fact they don't refrigerate their eggs, but eh, they still taste amazing! Can't wait for another day in class where someone else gets my mise en place ready, then kicks me out of the kitchen so they can clean up my mess. Maybe Metro could set something up like this....hahaha, I highly doubt that happening anytime in the near future.

Tom-Blue Elephant -- or Blue Oyster?

Today was our first day at the Blue Elephant Cooking School, and things went well! Even though in my weird jet-lagging dreams I am trying to connect the Blue Elephant with my old rock n' roll fascination with Blue Oyster Cult (I guess I'd rather cook -- and eat -- a blue oyster than a Blue Elephant -- just think of the prep work!) I can say that, as one of the scattered non-culinary students along for this trip, my first day of instruction and hands-on turned out great. I felt our instructors were very professional and helpful, and by the end of Day 1 we all sat down and had a great noon dinner with the four dishes we had cooked. I looked around and all the dishes looked pretty uniform -- I didn't spot any wok disasters, no burned up dishes of red curry paste, no thinly disguised Prawn Helper laced with fish sauce -- it all smelled and looked like the real thing, including the dishes that I had made and ate myself. I can say that the preliminary International Thai Cooking course I took just prior to the trip helped me immensely, both with familiarity of the Thai ingredients and also in working around the kitchen (thanks Chef Tim!), and I appreciate the other Real Students' patience with having an imposter in their midst.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The past 48 hours have been a whirlwind -- the 6 am "Field Trip" to eat great Breakfast On A Stick at the street vendors, complete with grilled pig snout and a skewer of wonderful chicken gizzards, followed by a trip to the huge Chatuchak flea market and all of us eating a roasted bug, Survivor-style in the subway station. I'm still jet-lagging Big Time, but if that big azure oyster shows up again in dreamtime, I'm going after him with my big mortar & pestle. If it's going to be a fight to the finish, I want to save myself for at least one more of those great Gizzard Breakfast Sticks before I have to go. I know what I like! -- Tom

Peter-Lunch at Chatuchak Market

Chatuchak Weekend market is a popular destination for westerners, ex-pats, and Thais alike. With over 8000 vendors, you can find just about anything you could imagine at a good price. Fortunately, this includes lunch. A large centrally located food court area features a variety of fare ranging from fruits and traditional Thai items to pastries and even doner kebab. Cupcakes (pictured below) were a surprise to me. They were beautifully decorated and available in a variety of flavors

I a traditional Thai route and chose sum tom (green papaya salad), marinated fried chicken, and fried spring rolls. The sum tom was truly fantastic; crunchy, bright, hot and loaded with dried shrimp and peanuts (the best I've had). The chicken was very tasty as well. It was a good lunch, a great value, and a welcomed break from the frenzied shopping.

Location:Sukhumvit 16,Khlong Toei,Thailand

Andrea-Day 3

Today was our first day of cooking class. It started with a trip to the fresh market. Then we went back to the school and made Phad Kee Maow Koong which is stir fried prawn with thai chili paste this was spicy also to spicy for me. We mad tom som salmon which is Ginger Soup with Salmon, even though i am not a fan of salmon this dish was good. We also made Paneang Nua which is Paneang curry with beef, this has so spice to it but it was so delicious. The forth dish we made was kai Hor Bai Toey which is Deep-fry chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves- Emeral Chicken, this was also so delicious and we dipped it in a seseame sauce.

Andrea-Day 2

Day 2 started with us going to the street vendors around our hotel we had thai coffee and donuts which were delicious then we had a variety of grilled sewkers with chicken, pork, liver, and fish then we tried grilled pig snot. The liver had a wierd texture to it but flavor was not bad. The pig nose was tough and chewy was not a fan of that. For supper we went to Silom village and ate a delicious dinner which was a clear soup, chicken in pandma leaves, green curry chicken, a vegtable stir fry, fried spring rolls and rice. Then we enjoyed the traditonal thai dance that was awesome.

Chef-Saturday Morning in BKK

6AM we hit the streets near our hotel for a little breakfast tour conducted by myself and Pim.  Here's a couple of highlights.

Here's the link again to the rest of the photos: http://gallery.me.com/tim.odonnell#gallery

Jonah-Shopping at the Chatuchak Market

Today was the second full day of activities in Bangkok for our culinary crew from MCC of Omaha. We started the day bright and early at 6am carousing the streets surrounding our hotel in search of breakfast. After a tall iced coffee and some delicious little doughnuts we found a variety of grilled meats and banana leaf pouches that packed amazing flavors and textures. Soon after the morning outing we hopped the subway to the Chatuchak weekend market. With over 8,000 vendors we shopped for nearly 6 hours. The array of food, clothes, and trinkets is mind blowing and time consuming. This photo (photo soon to come, failed in uploading) shows what can purchased for less than $80 American. We are very happy with our spread. Dinner is right around the corner so I will post more soon.

Jason-Lunch and Dinner Day 1

Had amazing food in the mall, best food court ever!!! Peter had a great idea of switching money cards and buying dishes for another person, "The Grand Switch-A-Roo." A little cautious about it but thats why we're here, to try new and different things. Luckily Laura was nice to me and found a Fried Clams w/ Chili sauce and sticky rice dish that was just amazing. The clams were cooked perfect, and the chili was sweet n spicy that gave it a very nice heat. Definitely going back to the mall for dinner another night!!!

For dinner we took a trip to China Town as a group then split off to try out the restaurants or street vendors. David and myself found a nice place with a menu that looked very promising. We were one of four tables in the place. David ordered Roasted Duck, and I ordered Sweet n Sour Chicken. Yes I know I went half way around the world to order something I could get back home, but I figured why not try it here to see the difference, and I wasn't disappointed. We were served family style with white rice and a chili soy dipping sauce. Both dishes were very good. The duck was nice tender and juicy, and the chicken was mixed with red and green bell peppers, onions, cucumbers, baby corn and pineapple, which gave it an even mix of sweet and sour flavor. Plus i had hot Jasmine Tea which I might have to go back just for that. After we left and met back up with the group we found out that it was a place that the royal family visits on occasion, and I can see why, the food was just amazing. More to come...........

Laura-Day 3...Breakfast Adventure

So, I will not lie I was not excited at the prospect of waking up to go on a breakfast excursion at 6 AM. We met in the lobby & headed out to see what a Thai breakfast consisted of. As we walked past the closed up shops (it's Saturday downtown), we started noticing street vendors setting up shop for the morning. Our first stop was at the greatest little coffee spot I've found so far. An older woman whipping up iced coffees for $.75. Definitely what we all needed in the morning. Take that Starbucks! There was a little lady making up sweet puffy donuts, then we found all sorts of meats on a stick. We all just purchased something along the way and shared it among the group. Donuts, liver, chicken wings, gizzards, dried shredded pork, SPICY little fish wrapped in banana leaves, and the greatest of all..... waffles with corn in them. Yes, WAFFLES & CORN. Amazing! My new fave. I will for sure be making these when I get home.

Chef-Day 1

Day 1 in BKK was great!  Everyone basted in their own juices in the morning on the temple tours and then we ate at Paragon Food Court.  I was glad to see most everyone start to try new foods.  The evening brought us to Chinatown.  We split into 3 groups and each had great experiences.  The evening was cool, vibrant and delicious.  Here's a couple of photos and a link to the rest.

Phil

one hot day. we got in yesteday around 200 pm . we hit the ground running. was up around 700 to hit the street food and to buy all the girls flowers to go to the temples. hotter than what were used to a;t home. the food court here was amazing. full of people and so many diffent foods that we wouldnt even think of at a food court. also went to china town tonite, had shark fin soup, not quite what i was expecting good but different.

Andrea-Day 1

Today we had breakfast in the hotel which was very good had lots to choose from and had fresh fruit that was delicious. We went to the temples and then to the mall for lunch where I had the tom yum noodle soup with pork spare ribs and boiled egg, it had a little spice to it but it was delicious. The big surprise was dinner at chinatown I had the sweet and sour chicken with rice which was delicious, but we past around our food for others to try and i tried oysters for the first time and i actual liked it. However i did try the fried prawn patties, crab, and shark fin soup which i was not fawned of but everyone else really liked them so i would have to say that it was a great choice to eat there and they did a great job making our meals.

Andrea-Airplane food

This post is for the airplane food. I had the chicken meal which was not bad. The chicken was good and was in a sweet kinda tangy sauce. The fruit that was served with it was not all that fresh. It also came with a salad which was okay except the cucumber that was toped with was not good. Then i had the cheese omlet which was not all that bad i just was not hungry at that point been on the plane almost 12hrs already.

Tom-How To remove Shark Fin Soup from a nylon shirt*

* (answer revealed below) --- After a day where we tried as many different types of transportation as we did new flavors and textures, it's now 11 pm on Friday in Bangkok, but it's also 11 am on Thursday in Omaha. Perhaps all these experiences have put us into a new "Incarnation" of our own. We walked -- miles and miles through markets, with fruits and vegetables unknown to most of Nebraska, picking up odors with every stand we elbowed past. We rode a fancy bus and got bogged down in Friday afternoon traffic that makes the Saturday-morning-run-to-Lincoln-on Big Red Game Day look like a speedway, we lunched at probably one of the World's Greatest Shopping Mall "Food Courts" (spicy noodle soup with spare ribs and a green vegetable I'd need to look up on Wikipedia to identify, washed down with a Mango/Blueberry smoothie), we rode the SkyTrain (up in the air) and later the Metro Subway (underground) down to the large Chinatown at night, where 7 of us ordered-up a variety of dishes, mostly all seafood (wouldn't you class Shark Fin Soup as seafood? If not, then what?) on a big turntable in front of us, and we proceeded to spin our dinner hour away tasting crispy prawns, great oysters, some whole crab affair, duck in spicy sauce, spring rolls, whatever appeared rotating in front of us. Oh yeah, a hot "dessert soup" of sesame paste inside a rice wonton in a ginger broth -- one good spoonfull will make you forget about that Snickers Bar you had been lusting after. But that initial gelatinous hunk of shark fin was too slipery for my left-handed chopstick technique, and a small morsel bounced off my shirt -- "Jaws'" Revenge! "Hints From Heloise" does not cover "sharkfin out of nylon", but here's the secret: First you coat the shirt with a rich patina of hot wok fumes from cook stands, plenty of sweat on a very humid day, 20 minutes of in-your-face diesel fumes from a open air wild motorized Tuk-Tuk ride (could have been 'open bowels' in the insane traffic), add a dash of hot Thai spicy sauce and a garnishing splash of mango smoothie -- and that shark fin juice could never hope to stick on top all that, so I think it will rinse right out tonight in the hotel sink. (If not, I'll bet an overnight soak in Singha Beer will do the trick.) All this on our First Day in Thailand -- more to come, I'm sure. I have more shirts if I need them.................. Tom

Peter-Paragon Mall Food Court

From an American perspective, A shopping mall food court would be one if the last places you would expect to find a great meal. Today's lunch was a pleasant surprise in both quality and variety. The Paragon Mall is one one of Bangkok's premiere shopping destinations, catering to an elite clientele. The food court, however, caters to a variety of price ranges, and features foods from some of the finer restaurants in the city. My choices today were Chinese noodles and Singapore favorite. Both were simple, classic and showcased the flavors of their respective poultry.

Today's order: Egg Noodles with Crispy Duck & Chicken Rice

Roast duck on display over the corresponding egg noodles. Noodles were served with a corresponding duck broth, garnished with scallions and served with a variety of condiments including a soy/ chile sauce. The duck skin was nicely rendered, and with a good spoonful of the garlic chile sauce I had a rich and balanced bowl of noodles.

Chicken and Rice was beautifully simple with a wonderful basic clear chicken broth, jasmine rice, perfectly cooked chicken, and a spicy but slightly sweet condiment of soy, chile, and ginger.


Unfortunately, I was too hungry and forgot to snap a photo of the dishes, but here's the wreckage.

A little video of the Siam sea creatures on stage for the kids.

Location:Bangkok, Thailand

Laura-Ahhhhh....we're finally here!

Well, we made it. We're finally here. Kind of wired after all the sleep I got on the plane(s), so I stayed up and watched the sun rise over Bangkok. Damn you Citibank building for getting in the way of my possibly amazing photos. Today we're going to the Grand Temple and I just can't wait. Plenty of Thai Coca-Cola and this day will go off without a hitch.

Jason-Made it

Well we finally made it our hotel in Bangkok, only took about 30 hours total. Start of the sight seeing bright and early, good thing got quite a bit of sleep on the planes. Very excited!!!!

A Different Breed of Airline Food (Peter, Thursday)

Naturally, airline food comes with mixed expectations, but our international flights on the way to Bankbook were a culinary adventure in their own right. We flew via EVA Airlines, a Chinese carrier. To cater to their mixed clientele of western and Asian customers, they provide either a western or asian entree of your choice. The side dishes remain the same either way which created a rather odd mix. Overall the food was good and above typical expectations for airline cuisine, despite a couple hiccups.

The presentation was truly delightful. Meals came on green and white plastic trays lined with a patterned place may. Each component was delivered in and individual green and white dish. The colors were vibrant and the food looked far better than I ever would have guessed.




Braised pork belly and pig stomach & rice with steamed cabbage and vegetables, side salad with ranch, fresh fruit, dinner roll, and chocolate chip cookies.




Braised chicken thigh with rice and bitter greens, daikon salad with smoked turkey, fresh fruit, and dinner roll.

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Its 1:12 am. I'm packed and can't sleep. My son and his girlfriend stopped over tonite to say goodbye im going to miss all my family while i'm gone. I'm not looking foreward to the long flights tomorrow but it will be worth it when we get there. Phil Vanderpool

Almost rerady to go, getting nervous

Got all my running around done today. I'm really starting to get excited. Hope I get up on time.