Salina, Colorado

We arrived home on Wednesday last and since then have
been trying to catch up with mail and miscellaneous. I
have not unpacked my suitcase yet, but I have done a
couple loads of laundry, been to Costco to stock up and
today I cleaned the cold room. I'm not quite finished
yet, but the worst is over. I still have to clean out the
dresser and decide what stuff that is in it should be
washed so it's usable and which stuff to toss. After
that we'll move it out in order to make room for a
freezer. Our old freezer which is about 26 cubic
feet and almost 60 years old is so energy in-efficient
that we have decided it must go. I'm planning on
buying one that is half the size and will fit into the cold
room.

Marti came over last evening to catch up on our travels
and to fill us in what we have missed while we were
gone.

Matson with Mackie and Caroline showed up at the
fish pond this morning at about 8:30. Matson said
the kids had decided that if we weren't awake yet they
would have to wake us up. They wanted to visit the
"magic drawer." They did and were quite happy with
play dough for Caroline and a small stuffed moose for
Mackie.

After they left we took the plants out of the pool to let
them drain. It's supposed to freeze tonight. Later
we brought them in. The papyrus is in the upstairs
hall and the "grass" is in the guest room.

I still plan to fill int he Elderhostel trip, but no time today.

Junction City, KS

We stopped yesterday to visit Peggy Joslin. Pam was
Peggy's sister. Peggy's husband, Jay, died of Parkinson's
in July. She seems to be doing well, but she has had a
miserable two or three years watching her husband die.

We spent a couple of hours with Peggy and then went
on. We decided to take another detour. To see Peggy
we zigged south, now we were to zag north to visit George
and Janice Swenson in Champagne, IL. Peggy
lives in Mt. Sterling just south of Columbus, OH.

We arrived in Champagne about 5 PM, having gained
an hour along the way. I called George and arranged to
meet them for dinner. We had a great gab fest through
dinner and later at their house. We then met them in the
morning for breakfast. Again more gabbing and then
at about 11 AM we headed out.

We've driven 500 plus miles today. When we decided
to stop here in JC, I called and made a reservation
through Choice Hotels and used my points for a free
room tonight. Figured we might not be traveling for
awhile so I might s well use them up.

We'll be home tomorrow and sometime in the next few days
I'll fill in the days I have missed while we were on the road.

Akron, Ohio

We checked out of our hotel this morning at 9 AM and were
picked up by Joy and Walt to go out for breakfast. It was
fun to have surprised them by showing up just 10 miles
or less from there house.

We left them about 10:30 and headed west. Not much
to report on that front, except that we are now in
Akron.

We called Peggy Joslin (Pam's sister) and will stop in to
see her tomorrow. We'll stop in Champagne/Urbana
to see George some time later.

Danbury, CT

We have finished the Elderhostel trip and are near Newtown, Ct. We 're having breakfast
with Walt and Joy in a little while. We have to check out before breakfast so I'll
finish this and/or add to it later.

Beginning of the Elderhostel trip

We are at the Sea Crest Resort in North Falmouth.
Arriving yesterday we got settled in and looked
around a little. I took a nap and Robert went
for a walk.

We met some interesting folks at dinner and had
one very aggressive and obnoxious woman at our
table. She managed to insult everyone at the
table in short order. Her first assult was to
announce that there would be no discussions of
children nor grandchildren at the table. She
didn't have any and couldn't think of any
reason to sit and listen to people talk about
them. She also announced several times that
she had been here a day and the food was really
bad. After she had repeated this, I said, "You've
told us that already and we didn't need to hear
it the first time." She then screamed at me
because I was so rude. Anyway, after dinner
the six of us left and came back for the lecture
and all sat at another table. She continued
sitting at the original table by herself.

Sadly for her, since then she has been shunned
by the other 39 people on the tour.

Today we had a two hour lecture in the morning
about the cape and about railroads.

In the afternoon we took a steam train to the
Cape canal and back, having lunch on the train.

After the train ride we rode, in the bus, to the
Nat'l Seashore Visitor center where we spent a
pleasant 40 minutes or so.

Back to Falmouth for dinner at an Irish Pub.
It is clear you get fed on these trips and
huge quantities, but the food is pretty basic
and it is easy to pass up much of it.

After we returned to the hotel Patricia and
Thomas came over for a bit to check on who
is living in the Alton house and for Patricia
get help getting her messages off of her cell
phone.