A Canoe In The Desert...

A short entry for now. This morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to the airport. Looking out the window, the desert stretches as far as the eye can see:

We did see a herd of camels (finally!):

Arriving in Riyadh, Gunny and Catherine greeted us and took us to our new quarters - some apartments in the Embassy compound. They are very comfortable and the best yet: a washer and dryer! Tim & I (roomates here) are on our second load now with two more to go.

Feral cats are all over Saudi Arabia. It has something to do with a story that the prophet Mohammed was once sitting at a meal and a cat came to beg his food. An aide tried to brush the cat away and Mohammed spared the cat saying they are Allah's creatures as well. Hence, cats are left alone - not necessarily taken care of, but not killed either.

A mom and her kittens are outside our apartment looking for a meal:

I forgot to mention that at Farid and Kim's house I found a canoe hanging in their back yard:

Kim explained that this is actually a canoe from India and although it will hold two people for paddling, that she just uses it now for a flower pot. Too bad.

We will be playing an outdoor show at the Ambassador's residence tomorrow and will be scheduling some time for shopping and maybe some sand boarding. Yes, sand boarding! Like snow boarding, but on the desert sand, of course. Should be interesting.

In closing, here is a short little video of Thom leading the audience in an international version of "Take Me Home Country Roads":

That's it for now.

Much more tomorrow!

Jerry