Where's Chesterh?

[Starbright]

What's happened to Chesterh? I was avidly following his "Cruising with the Mothers" story when it came to an abrupt end. Haven't seen another instalment for weeks. Never did find out what was causing the pain in his head. :(

[djallar]

I found this on the Celebrity board:

#19 (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=6869342&postcount=19) http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/buttons/report.gif (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/report.php?p=6869342)
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/statusicon/post_new.gif June 11th, 2006, 07:16 PM
chesterh (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/member.php?u=97344) http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif vbmenu_register("postmenu_6869342", true);
Cool Cruiser
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Londonderry, NH
Posts: 545


http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/icons/icon1.gif
Sorry, everyone. This was to be our first weekend at home since the beginning of May, but a call this morning had Kris running out the door before I was even awake. She was able to spend an hour with her father, Dave, before he passed away. It was peaceful and not completely unexpected, which is at least a small consolation.

The prospects for continuing the story are pretty dim for a few weeks yet, but I will be back...

All the best,
chesterh


__________________Click here for Cruise stories, pictures, and videos at chesterh.com (http://www.chesterh.com/)

http://www.chesterh.com/index_files/index_heading_sm.jpg (http://www.chesterh.com/)

My original Galaxy cruise story is now available as a book:What Time Is the Midnight Buffet?
See CruiseCritic's 2005 Holiday Gift Guide (http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=226)

[Starbright]

Thank you for posting - that explains Chesterh's absence.

Will wait patiently now for further instalments. I thought maybe I'd missed something, but obviously not.

[marcruiser]

Condolences on your loss. I purchased your book...and loved it, now I'm loving these posts and looking forward to the next one.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I had also been wondering what had happened to chesterh.

So sorry to hear about their loss.

[the2ofus]

Sincere sympathy to chesterh and Kris. Have enjoyed the reports of their travels so much that they feel like family to me.

[chesterh]

Hello everyone, and thanks so much for your thoughts. It's been incredibly busy around here - the best and worst of times.

Kris and I took a trip out west in August. The main purpose was to get our son Wells settled at the University of Arizona, but we took advantage of the opportunity to do some exploring in unfamiliar territory. Unfortunately, between the trip and college expenses, the next cruise is so far over the horizon I'm only dreaming of it.

I will get back to the "mothers" story soon, but I've been warming up my fingers by recounting some of our western trip while it's still fresh.

All the best,
chesterh

Dude! (Western Land/Air trip)

Our itinerary began in Las Vegas and continued to the Grand Canyon by way of Hoover Dam. Then it was on to a dude ranch called Tanque Verde, way out at the edge of Tuscon where the city’s valley meets the Santa Catalina and Rincon mountain ranges. This was expected to be the highlight of the trip for Kris, who is something of a horse nut. She and son Wells used to take riding lessons together ten or more years ago.

The original plan had us arriving at the ranch on a Sunday. We would stay a few days, and then on Wednesday morning, Wells would fly in from his summer gig in Colorado. We’d pick him up at the Tucson airport and take him to the university for the orientation session before raiding the local Wal-Mart for school supplies. He’d stay in his dorm room, and we’d move from the ranch to a flophouse next to the railroad tracks.

This was the simple and logical plan to which Kris and I agreed. Never satisfied with a simple plan, I decided to have some fun. After verifying that the ranch had a two-room suite among its accommodations, I asked Wells if he’d like to join us for a few days of R&R before beginning school. He was enthused by the idea, so I told him to wait for details and to keep his lips sealed about it when speaking to his mother.

After a late night on the Internet, I had all the arrangements made. The suite was booked, Frontier Air would fly Wells from Denver to Tucson arriving at 3:00 p.m. on the Sunday of our own arrival, and the folks at the dude ranch would send their courtesy van to the airport to surreptitiously transport Wells to the property. They were advised of that this was all strictly hush-hush, and agreed to play along.

I spoke to Wells just before we left for Las Vegas, and the plan was set. Since I refuse to have a cell phone, we would be out of touch for nearly a week before meeting at the ranch. Several events in the preceding weeks had seemed to threaten the likelihood that everything would go without a hitch, but I decided not to worry about it.

Kris and I departed the Grand Canyon headed to the ranch at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. The rental car’s GPS unit estimated that we’d arrive at our destination at 11:17 a.m., and its prediction proved accurate within three minutes – amazing device (I’d much rather have one of those than a cell phone). Kris has always been quite willing to let me handle the business of checking in to hotels, but she surprised me this time by accompanying me to the front desk. I hoped that the clerk would see the note about the surprise and play it cool.

“Howdy!” gushed the young woman. “Welcome to Tanque Verde Ranch!! Are you checking in?”

“Yes,” said Kris. “When is the next chance to ride a horse?” That explained why she wasn’t waiting patiently in the car this time.

“Two o’clock is the next trail ride. May I have your name, please?”

“Mr. and Mrs. X.”

The woman thumbed through some index cards and seized upon one of them. “Ah!! The X family, party of three.”

Kris made an exasperated expression. “No – it’s just two of us. There must be some mistake.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said the woman, truly regretting the error. “I’ll have to fix the computer record. We charge by the person, and this would have been an expensive mistake!”

I cringed and tried to signal the woman that she should just leave well enough alone. She noticed that I was making funny motions, but shrugged it off – just another jumpy tourist.

Our room was ready, but there were a number of formalities to be completed at the desk. Kris was growing impatient.

“Why don’t you go look at the horses?” I asked. It was half suggestion and half plea. Thankfully she bit. Once she was out the door, I addressed the clerk. “There really are three of us. You’re picking my son up at the airport this afternoon and bringing him here as a surprise for my wife.”

I could see the understanding creep across her face. It emerged from her lips as, “Oh. Oooooooh!” She glanced at our reservation card. “It says here that it’s a secret! Oh… Oooooooooooh! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “She’s so excited about the horses it probably didn’t register.”

The clerk verified that Wells was on the airport pickup schedule, and I caught up with Kris next to the corral. I’m not much of a horse guy, but the sight of a hundred and fifty of the critters standing together is impressive. I convinced Kris that we should have some lunch in the dining hall before going to the room, and it was nearing 1 p.m. by the time we finally parked in front of the casita and used a key card to enter room 15. Kris entered first and I heard her draw a sharp breath as I struggled to get the luggage through the door before it slammed shut. In a moment I drew a sharp breath, too.



continued, next post

[chesterh]

continued from previous post

“Holy cow!”

“This must be a mistake,” said Kris. “We’re not supposed to be in here.”

“If the key worked, then this must be the place,” I said. The room before us was at least 20’x40’ – 800 sq. ft for the mathematically inclined. The ceiling rose 15’, and an adobe fireplace soared from the floor up through the roof at the far end. At least it looked like a fireplace, but I’d need to unpack the binoculars to be sure.

“This can’t be it,” said Kris. “There’s no bed.”

“It’s probably in the bedroom.”

“You mean there’s more?”

“I think so.”

We ventured into the space and found the bedroom (about the same size as the entire Celebrity Suite on Millennium) situated beyond the kitchenette, across the hall from a two-room bathroom big enough for five elephants – one on the john, one in the shower, one in the whirlpool tub and two at the counter in front of the mirror, each with their own sink. Upon leaving the bathroom, Kris began flipping wall switches frantically.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I can’t get the lights to go off,” she said.

I pointed high overhead to the skylights flooding the space with daylight. “The lights aren’t on.”

“Did you know it would be like this?” asked Kris.

“No,” I answered, and unlike everything else I’d said in relation to our visit to the ranch, this was strictly true. I reserved the space because it had two rooms that would give both us and Wells some privacy during our time together. It was only marginally more expensive than the next largest room, which would have put Wells on a cot at the foot of our queen bed. I like family time, but there is a limit… This suite was, as I calculated, more than half the size of our comfy home – and I’m not including the covered porch we found by accident some time later. The two of us could live out our days in bliss within this space. “I knew it was their nicest room, but I had no idea.”

We walked through the main room. Along a fraction of one wall there were two large fine-wood panels separated by a massive built-in armoire. Kris tugged on one of the panels to reveal a queen-sized Murphy bed.

“Look at this! Oh, honey!” When I hear this particular term of endearment, I know something’s coming. “We should call Wells. He would LOVE it here. We have plenty of room. He could relax for a few days – a nice break between work and school. He could bring a friend – there’s two of these beds. Oh honey… Do you think he could change his flight? Maybe he could come down tomorrow. We could ride horses together and…”

“Hey,” I said. “This is supposed to be a romantic getaway for the two of us. Don’t you want to just hang out with me?”

“Yeah, but…Look at this place! This would be perfect. We have our own room, and the bathroom is huge…”

“Yeah, Wells is such a slob that he’d need this much room to spread all his dirty clothes around. Forget it.”

That made her think for a few seconds. “Ah, c’mon. This is so perfect.”

I scowled and growled.

“Please?” she implored. “Would it cost more?”

“Of course it would. It’s all-inclusive – they charge by the head.”

“Oh,” Said Kris. “I guess we can’t do it then.”

I reminded her that we’d lost the entire $60 we’d wagered in Las Vegas during our three days there, and needed to be restrained in our spending. “Let’s just enjoy our time here, and we’ll see Wells in a few days. We’ll still have four days with him once he gets to Tucson.”

I thought that would end the conversation, but Kris was completely obsessed with the idea of having Wells join us. For the next hour, she persisted. I actually began to get just the slightest bit annoyed (a rare occurrence), but two o’clock was approaching and I knew that Kris would be rushing off to do some horse whispering soon enough. When she finally rushed out the door, I breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Wells likes beer. I admit that at his age, I did too. These days, neither Kris nor I have a taste for it. Ever the thoughtful one, I decided to take the opportunity to drive down the road and pick up a six-pack for Wells, who would no doubt be thirsty upon his arrival - which I estimated would be in another two hours, around 4:00 p.m. The Circle-K Market didn’t have much of a selection, and I was practically forced to buy a 12-pack of plain-old Budweiser. I returned to the room and strolled in with the beer under my arm only to find Kris there waiting.

“What are you doing here?” I asked in such a way as to arouse suspicion that I’d been up to no good.

“There was lightning, so they cancelled the trail ride,” said Kris. “Beer!? What are you doing with beer? You don’t drink beer. I don’t want any beer. Did you get me a candy bar? What’s with the beer?”

“Ah, er, I…I thought it might be nice to have a beer while you’re out riding. I’ll just be sitting on the porch relaxing, and that’s the perfect time to have a beer.”

“Budweiser?”

“Yeah, Budweiser. I’m feeling patriotic.”

“Whatever… I still think we should call Wells and see if he can change his flight…”

“Here we go again,” I thought as I put the beer in the fridge. I took one out and opened it just for effect.

“Could we pick him up at the airport? How far away is that? I’ll probably be riding, but you could go…You could find it – right? How long is the flight? Is it easy to change a flight?”

“Would you like a Bud?” I asked.

“Not me…but Wells would really like to have one, I’m sure. Do you think it would be a problem to add him to our reservation? He’d love it – Oh, it would be so wonderful…”

For the next hour and-a-half, Kris continued on this theme. I sipped the Budweiser and seriously considered taking one of my “flying pills.” I checked my watch every minute or so, and at 4:00, excused myself.

“I’m going to take a walk around,” I said.

“I think I’ll stay here and finish getting settled,” said Kris. “Maybe I’ll call Wells…”

I walked down to the building housing the main office, arriving just as a van marked Tanque Verde pulled up. In the front passenger seat was a familiar silhouette, and I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. The van pulled into a parking space between two similar vehicles, and I started to walk down the narrow space toward the passenger door, ready to greet Wells. For some reason I stopped before I got there, and retreated to the rear of the van where I waited patiently. Nothing happened. It looked like the only occupants were the driver and Wells, and I assumed that they were finishing a conversation. I paced back and forth, glancing through heavily tinted windows. In the rear view mirror I must have looked like some kind of lunatic.

At long last, the doors opened. Wells emerged from the passenger door, stuck a cigarette in his mouth and planted a cowboy hat on his head before I realized my mistake. This was not Wells. The passenger and the driver eyed me warily and gave me wide berth as they passed.

“Howdy,” I said sheepishly. “I thought you were someone else…”

The passenger tipped his hat and snorted.

I went back to the room, concerned that something had gone wrong with Wells’s travel arrangements. Kris was talking to herself. “He would just love it here…All this space, horses…and the food – he probably hasn’t had a decent meal in weeks…”

Around 5:00, an hour after I expected that Wells would have arrived and blessedly put an end to Kris’s suffering, I interrupted the monologue and said, “OK, OK, OK – why don’t you just give him a call.”

“Won’t it be expensive to use the room phone?”

“I don’t care. Call him. Please!”

She did. He answered immediately, and for a good 15 minutes, played the ruse to perfection. When Kris was convinced that there was no way in h*** that he could arrange to join us, she handed the phone to me.

“He wants to talk to you.”

“What’s the story,” I said into the handset.

“The driver says we’ll be there in five or ten minutes,” said Wells.

“Okay. We’ll see you on Wednesday,” I said, and hung up. “That’s a shame,” I said to Kris. “I guess it would have been good to have him come and stay with us. I’m sorry I didn’t think of it in time.”

“I should have thought of it, too,” said Kris. “But I had no idea that this place would be so…perfect.”

“Oh, well.” I walked to the sink and dumped the rest of the beer down the drain.

Kris was full of nervous energy. “I think I’ll go do a quick load of wash before dinner. Do you need some underwear?”

“I brought exactly the right amount,” I said. “I’m all set.”

“I’ll do them anyway,” said Kris, seeking solace in a way I never would. She filled a plastic bag and headed out the door for the laundry room which was housed in a small building a few hundred feet down the path leading to the front office.

When the door closed behind her, I rushed around to find the camera. I opened the door just in time to capture mother and son. You might be able to guess from the look on her face that despite being overjoyed, Kris had some choice words to say to the photographer.


http://www.chesterh.com/west_trip/wells1.jpg



http://www.chesterh.com/west_trip/wells2.jpg


Kris later reported on the meeting. She saw a familiar face walking up the path and was amazed at how much this perfect stranger looked like her son. It wasn’t until Wells said, “Hi, Ma,’ that she believed what she was seeing. “With all the mysteries I read, I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on all the clues…”

There you have it – a life-long memory, as it happened…

[Southbound]

What a great story! Absolutely loved it. Such a terrific surprise for your "bride" -- what a prince of a guy you must be.:)

And -- welcome back to the HAL forum. Am very much looking forward to "the rest of the story". You sound well and certainly hope you are.

[dougnewmanatsea]

Good to have you back, Chester!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your Western trip and to a resumption of the "Mothers" story soon.

[ger_77]

Chester, it is good to have you back again - I read your entry on the Celebrity board some time ago and was happy to hear that you were doing well. I have to tell you, your son is very handsome - I can only imagine Kris's surprise when she discovered the fellow who so closely resembled her son was in fact - her son! What a wonderful surprise you arranged for her. Good for you.

I'm looking forward to your next cruise with the mothers installment.

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

[Josie1]

Chester, I loved the story! It is so good of you to share your talent with us, like many others I am thrilled when there is a new chapter.

I hope your son is very happy at the U of A. I think it's a wonderful school (my nephew graduated from there).

My condolences on the loss of your father-in-law and best wishes to you and your family.

[Estelle]

Chester,

I'm a follower of your tales from way back in the beginning but only stumbled upon your most recent cruise this weekend. I have been mostly on the RCCL boards and somehow missed your last set of postings entirely. I join the chorus and hope that you you will be able to continue the "Moms Cruise" soon.

Our son is about to start college (WVU) next month and our daughter is only 2 years behind, so our June cruise was supposed to be our last one until tuition bills are done (which may never happen - I envision paying these bills until 2050!) but I am surprising my husband with an anniversary cruise in Sept 2008 to Canada - so I am especially eager to hear the rest of your tale since it mirrors our plans.

I was excited to see that you turned your first cruise into a book and placed an order with Amazon yesterday. My husband loves cruising and would love your book - I have never been able to get him interested in Cruise Critic so he is unfamiliar with the world of Mr. X. This will hook him I'm sure.

Best wishes to you and your family - the Dude Ranch story is a classic Mr. X!

[chesterh]

Hi Estelle. Sorry for the delay in responding, but I haven't been around these parts for quite a while.

I looked back at my copy of the original Galaxy review and found this passage from what I believe was your first post on CC:

...My family and I had a wonderful Celebrity cruise last September and my 12 year old son had his own James Bond moment when he managed a smooth negotiation of a Coke around the milling waiters and passengers at the Welcome cocktail party. It's one of his favorite memories of the cruise... That was from September 2, 2002. Nice to see your former 12 year-old James Bond go off to college. It does tend to put a crimp in any plans for cruising - I can fully relate to that...

So, you've established a deadline for me to finish the moms cruise story. September 2008. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

All the best,
chesterh

p.s. I see I also neglected to thank Southbound, Host Doug, ger_77 and Josie1 way back in 2006 - so thanks! I'll be back.

[ger_77]

My goodhess Chesterh, I thought you'd dropped off the edge of the world or something. Either that or the huge pain in your eye was really an alien who had taken up residence and burst out during a dinner party or something.

I'm glad to see you're alive and well - and am looking forward to the conclusion (whenever) of your moms story.

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)
Gerry

[CaroleSP]

Welcome back and Happy Thanksgiving. Hope all is well with you, Kris, the sons, the moms and the furry family.