And now, rather than beautiful scenery and miles of travel, here are some lovely people who have enriched our lives on this trip. The miles would be boring without the stories of the people.
So
We begin before we leave San Jose.
Thank you Thank you, Marlena and Bryan, for moving out of your apartment and into our home, to care for it all so we could leave carefree! Our home, cats, garden, pond, all of it. We have no worries!
You're the best!
This trip would not have the intense quality of freedom if it weren't for you!
xo xo
Long long time pals Claudette and Earla collected an array of items we would need on our trip.
And yes, all the gifts wrapped in maps.
The qtips, kleenex, hand sanitizer, dental floss with threading end for my
newly cemented front teeth, a personal fan, mosquito repellant, a china box with the Wizard of Oz characters on it, full of quarters for laundromats.......and wait, there's more.........
dog biscuits, room deodorizer, and our all time favorite, "How to Survive Almost anything", like surviving a crocodile attack, delivering a baby (Leslie was good on that one), surviving when you are trapped in your car underwater...........We've used everything else, gals, but thankfully not the survival book!
These pictographs were done by the Fremont Indians in Great Basin National Park in Nevada.
In Salt Lake City we had such a wonderful visit with Susanna and Derek, a hike, many meals, and lots of laughs
Susanna and I went to a neighborhood estate sale together.
And here was an embroidery I snapped up.
It's Leslie's birthday present, which I'll give to her in the morning.
The story with it? It was made by this woman, Judy, for her
mother-in-law Dorothy ( who passed and so the estate sale).
Come on, Dorothy, Judy, with the journey and the rainbow?
Amazingly, Judy never had gotten the connection (how come everybody's brain doesn't work like mine? Probably because God is kind......)
Well, we all had a good time, and Judy told her husband and daughter, can you believe it, everyone said, what a great story and we never got it till now, and I bought the embroidery for five bucks! Happy birthday, Leslie! We have money left to go out for dinner!
We had a wonderful brunch with friends, Mark and Patty, Mitzi and Craig, and young Sarah.
Thank you all for the stories and the laughs. Craig, who has written a book "How To Write Your Own Obituary" has inspired me to begin to write mine. It's a soul-ful project to write about one's own life.
Thanks, Craig!
Young Owen loved Anna, wanted to walk her around everywhere, and whenever we told Anna to sit, so did Owen! We were charmed......
On the banks of Salt Creek, in Wyoming, where Leslie got to play with neighboring campers.....
What are the odds that we would run into a San Jose friend in the Jackson Lake Lodge, Grand Teton NP? Too fun! It was great to see Dean and Yolanda, coworkers from O'Connor, and we had a nice chat!
This is Mikey, and Munchin the Monarch, who are traveling with us through all the miles.
Each day we photograph them as we travel, and text the photos to our young friends Ruby, in McKinleyville, CA, and Zach, in San Jose. They have U.S. maps and are tracing Mikey's and Munchkin's travels. And of course we will make sure they return to Ruby and Zach in December. Because of course we'll take them to Alaska too!
Here they are in the Grand Tetons
And let us not forget.............
.......... our companions in Grand Marais. The Norwegian sisters and their husbands.
We'd probably still be working on those lights if they hadn't helped us, eh?
Then we were off to Appleton, Wisconsin, to visit friends, and Leslie, 1 year old Oliver, and Anna shared a snuggle on the sofa. All the adults were properly heart-warmed. Sorry we didn't get photos of the grownups though! Thank you, Karen and John, for a lovely visit.
To Chicago.
Dinner and hours of conversation and laughter with Dane and Julia, in their Hyde Park home. We look so forward to seeing you again!
Don't know who these fellows were,
but the conversation was earnest and good-natured at our gasoline stop in Michigan.
And here in Buffalo, we swung by Teresa's Anchor Bar, the home of the original Buffalo wings. Yes, everything they say is true, they are too delicious to describe.
Leslie had a laugh or two with Tony, the owner.
And Christie, the young woman who sold us our Tshirts, turned out to be a nursing school student, with her A & P textbook on the counter, and no surprise, we talked and talked nursing. She has the heart for it, and loves it deeply.
Today we had a deliciously long lunch with Leslie's cousins Susan and Janet.
What fun. Hours of family stories, history, catching up on years apart.
Three peas in a pod, it was a hoot to be with them!
And now we have dozens and dozens of vintage family photos, that Susan was so kind to loan us for a day, and tomorrow we are off to the photo center to copy everything we can for Leslie's family history
More wonderful people are waiting during these weeks for our visit to come.
After Buffalo, we leave for Saratoga Springs, NY, and a visit with Marilyn Scott, long-time nurse friend of mine, through Vermont for the autumn colors, and then.matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, there's the wedding in Connecticut! More than a few stories there, eh?
We are blessed with all this love of family and friends.
RJ
Thank you all!
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