Miss you guys.
Canasta scores, 2014.
Where does the time go?
Pie
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Fourth of July
Banjo Man
Glen the Banjo Man
wired up
We have internet access again!!! Thanks to John, the tech man at our provider, and a new fancy-shmancy router from Staples, we are connected to the outside world once more.
Banjo Man, having spent many computer hours burning bandwidth on my IPhone’s hotspot, is delerious with joy.
And I have my phone back! So to everyone to whom I owe phone calls, stand by.
I’ve spent my no TV, no computer, no phone days cooking. The kitchen counter is lined with crock pots–a beautiful sight—as I get a head start on the meals for a family gathering in July. So much fun filling Dollar store disposable pans and stacking them in the freezer. And also in the freezer are the 40 pounds of boneless pork ribs (purchased for me by My French Friend Janou, who discovered them on sale at Super One and bought me 15 packages six days before we arrived!!!!), baked for hours and now waiting for homemade bbq sauce and a whole lot of hungry in-laws.
This morning I will see Dancing Mandolin Player! She bought cherry tomato plants and basil for me last month because the stores are out of them by the time we get here.
My friends take such good care of me. I am so lucky.
The sun is shining and it finally feels like summer. After a long, gray, grumpy winter in New England, I am luxuriating (is that a word?) in the warmth and brightness of a blue sky.
Banjo Man is experiencing a bit of shock and awe over my sudden cheerfulness.
I even offered him a sample of pork ribs
You have to share the joy.
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staring at the lake
Yes, we made it. Six and a half days, three-thousand miles and almost perfect driving conditions.
It’s chilly here, but the forecasting for summer weather to return in a couple of days. Tomorrow we’ll haul chairs down to the dock and get ready for sunshine.
The internet is broken, so we wait for a new modem and a repairman to show up, hopefully early in the coming week. In the meantime we are using the Hotspot feature on my IPhone so Banjo Man can work on his laptop.
I think of it as a technological triumph.
Today we did laundry, bought a car load of groceries and started unpacking. It’s hard to believe that we are here again, healthy and happy and off the road.
I keep sitting down and falling asleep, though. Cooking and unpacking and setting up my office will have to wait another day or so.
I need to sit and stare at the lake a while longer.
Posted in lake, road trip
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day 6, getting closer with every mile
Tonight we are in Missoula.
You’re probably wondering about these grizzlies, aren’t you. We stopped outside of Bozeman this afternoon to see a grizzly rescue facility, “Grizzly Encounter”.
Yesterday we spent a Longmire kind of day in Buffalo, Wyoming. Do you read the books? Watch the show? I have stories and pictures to share in a few days, when we are off the road and I have unpacked my keyboard.
Tonight there are mountains outside our hotel window.
That is a very, very wonderful thing.
Tomorrow morning? The lake!!!!!
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day four,sioux falls to rapid city
I am waiting to see mountains.
After four days of farms, well, I have seen enough. Banjo Man and I have pointed out so many beautiful farms and barns and homesteads to each other. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of them.
But I want to see mountains.
We stopped at Wall Drug for lunch. And made new friends.
And watched the T-Red scare the kids.
More tomorrow….when the mountains appear.
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pictures from day 3, on the road
Towel sculpture at the Hampton Inn in Joliet, IL.
Believe it or not, this was at a truck stop! Advertised as St. Louis style ribs.
Banjo Man can’t resist a patriotic woman. I should have bought that hat.
We’re in South Dakota and will slow down (today was a 600 mile day) and tomorrow we will act like tourists.
Wall Drug, anyone? How about Rapid City?
Can. not. wait.
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day two, final road trip
Today we once again practiced our new routine: up at 5, out of the parking lot before 6 AM.
It’s a miracle, I tell ya. And it only took 45 years to convince Banjo Man that traveling this way could be fun…and efficient…and relaxing.
He is now a believer. We drove another 500 miles today and were splashing around in a Hampton Inn swimming pool at 4 PM. We wore our new bathing suits and lounged in the hot tub.
Old people are cool. Yep, we are. Sometimes.
Because Banjo Man is always eating, I wondered how he would manage on the road. So today I kept track. He started with a banana, then his chocolate covered blueberries, on to a bucket of his oatmeal “sludge” ( a mixture of yogurt, oatmeal, blueberries and cherry juice). After that came the sunflower seeds, then the orange slices. And almonds. All this was consumed between 6-10 AM.
The feasting continued with more sunflower seeds. A chicken sandwich at Hardee’s. More sunflower seeds, more chocolate covered blueberries, more almonds. Water. He finished up with a spinach and grilled chicken salad at Cracker Barrel tonight at 5. He also ate the other half of my dinner.
I do not know if there will be a bedtime snack.
We did get lost today, while Banjo Man was driving and I was immersed in maps as we tried to decide if we should change our route tomorrow. We missed our turn and were in Chicago before we knew it, which was definitely not a good idea. Six lanes of bumper to bumper traffic? Uh oh. The GPS led us out of it, south to a highway that intersected with our beloved I-80. We were then only 20 miles from our hotel.
Joy.
Before I go to bed–okay, I’m in bed now and it’s only 7:30 PM–I just want to wish the wonderful men in my life (husband, brother, brothers-in-law, sons) a very Happy Father’s Day.
The world needs more good fathers and uncles like you.
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last cross country road trip, day one
We actually were on the road at 7 AM.
In Connecticut by 7:30. New York at nine. Pennsylvania before 11.
The new old car did great. There was no road construction in Scranton—first time in many years—and very little truck traffic on any interstates.
We met Banjo Man’s business partner (one of Banjo Man’s favorite people) for lunch. And then journeyed on another two and a half hours to our hotel. 498 miles!
Banjo Man forgot his bathing suit, so we went to JC Penney (conveniently close to our hotel) and bought him one.
Check out our bags. Banjo Man has downsized from 8 to 5!!!!
It is now 8:30. Bedtime! Ohio, Indiana and Illinois tomorrow, with a Hampton Inn and Crackerbarrel to look forward to after another 500 miles.
See you soon, Idaho!
Posted in road trip, travel
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cleaning up, packing up, heading out
We’re twelve hours away from heading west. It has been an insanely busy week–okay, the last three weeks have been intense!!!–so I’m feeling a little frazzled.
The car is packed, which is unusual.
The car is not stuffed to the roof with stuff, which is also unusual.
Banjo Man has agreed to travel light, get up early and hit the road at dawn every day, which is unusual. And I’ll believe it when I experience it.
We’ll put in four solid 500-mile days until Buffalo, Wyoming, where we will kick back and act like tourists for an entire afternoon.
We’re going to visit a bear refuge in Bozeman, I hope. Just for an hour or so.
But most of the time we’ll be on the road, in the car, heading west, as quickly and efficiently as we can.
Because I need to do this:
Stay tuned…..
Posted in rhode island, road trip
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once upon a time in disneyworld
The news this morning about the two year old being taken by an alligator in Disneyworld is horrifying and tragic.
But it’s not a surprise.
We were in Disneyworld in April of 1985, staying in Fort Wilderness. I don’t think that area exists anymore, but at the time it was a really nice section of Disneyworld with trailers/mobile homes to rent. Our family and friends rented three side-by-side trailers which backed up to a canal. There was a dirt beach. And picnic tables and outdoor grills. It was an affordable alternative to the fancy hotels, but it had paved sidewalks, roads, a beautiful beach and all the amenities.
My children were five, seven and twelve.
One afternoon Willie (age 7) and Nancy (age 5) were playing near the water just a few yards from the trailer while the rest of us were getting dinner ready. The kids were putting rocks on a log that was sticking out in the water, but they weren’t in the water. There were a couple of wild birds walking around, sitting on the log, pecking in the dirt. I heard Willie scream.
We all came running out of the trailers.
“Alligator!!!!! I see an alligator!!!” He pointed to the water.
Willie always had the kind of vision that could see the smallest things. He could find anything, from missing contact lenses to tiny bugs.
Do you see the alligator waiting in the shallow water?
The alligator was less than two feet from the shore where the kids had played. I think he was after those ducks (?). He was 8 feet long. And patient.
I called the Fort Wilderness office. The woman who answered sounded bored.
“It’s Florida,” she said. “We have alligators.”
Really? We were from Idaho. There were no signs that said, “Beware of alligators” or “Don’t go near the canal.”
When I told her the thing was 8 feet long she perked up a bit and promised to send someone over to look at it.
A bag of raw chicken pieces tied to a rope did not work.
Two men eventually brought a boat to the canal and tried to tempt the alligator with chicken. They had a noose and intended to rope it if they could get it to attack the bag.
But that alligator was long gone.
I told the Disneyworld people that they should have signs posted. They acted as if we were over reacting.
Thirty-one years later? Those poor Nebraska parents obviously had no idea of the danger lurking in the water.
We certainly didn’t. And I don’t think the folks at Disneyworld wanted the fact that alligators were part of the resort to mar their reputation.
I wonder if they will put some “Beware of alligators” signs up now.
Posted in a more pie opinion, family, travel
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is there any more pie? 