is there any more pie?

The easiest salad ever:

Sprinkled with lime juice and topped with fresh cilantro, then served with spoons.

Heaven.

Alas, this is not me. Maybe thirty years ago…or maybe not. 🙂

This beautiful woman is my niece, and she loves her uncle’s dock.

We’re glad she and her boys are here.

I didn’t have my camera during the parade–I decided I couldn’t take pictures while standing on the back of a truck and holding a violin and bow.  I would regret this decision.

Luckily Retired Mountain Lady brought her camera.  Here is the link to her description of the day.  Just click on Retired Mountain Lady  to see the photos and read about the wedding proposal in the midst of the parade.  What a gorgeous scene!

(If you are reading this via email you’ll have to go to my blog and click on the link).

I’ll post pictures of the family and the food later, after I’ve had a cup of coffee.

We’re still having fun on the road!

We’re in South Dakota, in a Best Western filled with families.  Everyone looks like they’re having a good time with Mom and Dad on the Summer Road Trip.  Hurray for the pool!

It’s easy to remember those days.  “Are we there yet?” “When can we go swimming?”  “I have to go to the bathroom!”

Banjo Man and I have finally figured out how to travel together with minimum stress:

We don’t eat together.  Instead we each eat when we’re hungry, and we eat where we want.  We ate our first meal together today, which was lunch in a gift shop in Bancroft, Nebraska.

(The fact that we were from Rhode Island caused quite a stir in the little restaurant, which wasn’t advertised as a restaurant but was a gift shop.)

 I like to eat a protein bar in the car and not waste time in restaurants.  Banjo Man likes to stop, explore, eat the “daily special”, etc.  He also likes to go to the local grocery stores and buy fruit and snacks.   He enjoys the free breakfast in the hotel; I just want to take a cup of coffee on the road and get in the car.

We no longer make comments about each other’s strange eating habits.

First stop of the day:

I think this was in Iowa.  But very close to Nebraska.  I bought a cup of coffee and a Nebraska football magazine.

Second stop of the day, in Bancroft, Nebraska:

If you enjoy reading about the history of the North American Indians, then you’ll recognize the name. His most famous book was BLACK ELK SPEAKS.

Downtown Bancroft.

South Dakota and a glimpse of the Badlands.

Wyoming and Montana tomorrow.

We just drove past a store called “The Butt Hut”.  According to the giant sign on the roof, it’s a cigarette and beer outlet store.

I’ll bet it smells really good in there.

I would have stopped to take a picture, but we were a little lost and I was manning the GPS system, which decided to work again the second we crossed the border into Ohio.

That was a happy moment.

We set a new record today: we were on the road at 6:50 AM.

Does the phrase “torrential rain” ring a bell?

I was so glad Banjo Man was driving.

We ate lunch in a “barn” near a historic village touristy place.  It  was a buffet.

I am not a fan of buffets in restaurants.  And we sat right next to the buffet, so I saw a number of adults and children do things that would cause food poisoning.  It was not a fun lunch.  Banjo Man hustled me out of there before my head exploded.  I so do not need food poisoning on the last day of finishing my book before my contracts are torn up and my name is cursed by all of the Editor Gods and Goddesses.

Banjo Man thinks I am very odd.  He loves restaurant buffets, but I ruined this one for him.

We stopped at our hotel at 2 pm, another world record.  This time we have a cute suite, which sounds fancier than it is, but it has a separate little room with a table and a sofa bed and the microwave.  I am so happy.  I have ice water and little cookies from the vending machine.  I am writing the Last Chapter.

Banjo Man has gone to the outlet mall.

I know he will come back to the hotel with a new shirt.   If he does, I will take a picture of it.

In the meantime, I’m going back to the book…