September 17  Thursday

We are headed for Jeanne's in Minneapolis.
We had a late start.  Both Kat and Kate were working
which required us to spend time with them.  We
stopped about 8 PM and dinner was at 10 PM.

September 18  Friday

If we keep going, we won't arrive at Jeanne's before
10-11 PM.  I've called her to warn her that we'll be
very late and they shouldn't wait up; we'll manage on
batteries for one night, no problem.  She suggested
we stop somewhere and come on in the morning. We
didn't do that and arrived at 12 AM and were glad
to just go to bed.

September 19-20 Saturday, Sunday

Jeanne and I talked and talked and talked.  It
felt so good!  She and/or Jay fixed lovely meals
for all of us.  A very nice vacation for me.

September 21  Monday  INR=2.3

Jeanne had to go to work this AM.  I took a shower and
washed my hair.  Doesn't look very nice.  We are going
out to dinner this evening to an Italian restaurant, Broders.

later--

We had a lovely dinner.  I, of course, had an eggplant
dish.  Robert had rigatoni because they didn't have
lasagna.

September 22 Tuesday

We left Minneapolis this morning, late in the morning.
Now we are at Pipestone National Monument
campground.  We'll do the Monument tomorrow.

September 23 Wednesday

This morning we went to the Monument.  We took a ~1 mile
loop walk ; it was a lovely walk.  Perfect weather.  The
ranger said that he went out the back door to do the walk,
he preferred that way.  It turned out that all the interesting
sights were on the first half of our walk.  The second was
just a long loop through the prairie.  That part of the walk
would be miserable in the summer!  I think if we ever go
back we would walk to the waterfall and turn around
to walk back the way we had come.

Having gotten going very late we made less than 200 miles
today, but I really wanted to stop by 7 or very shortly thereafter.
We stopped in Rudolph, Nebraska at an old motel along
US 20.  I went into the office and was greeted by three
elderly folks, but not as elderly as we.  I had cane, in hand, at
Robert's urging, but I think my wrinkles speak for
themselves.  In any case, I asked if we could stay in the
Van and plug in somewhere to get electricity and how much
would that cost.  The woman said $2.00, but the gentleman
behind the counter said, no, it'll be $5.00.  I agreed to pay that
and pulled out $5.00before he could change his mind.

The gentleman came out to help and Robert got to hear his
life story.  They were really lovely people.  They did all
the work of cleaning, making beds, etc, themselves and
they hoped to sell the motel and retire.

We had stopped to get groceries at a HiVee store.  They had a
wonderful deli and I bought broiled chicken, 2 huge (as it
turned out)enchiladas, pickled beets, sticky buns and a
chocolate torte.  The torte when cut in 1/4s provides a
small, but rich dessert for Robert.  I also did a little more
shopping so that we are set until we get home and for
breakfast, at least, after we get home.

September 24 Thursday

We got home at 10:30 PM.  We took a few things in
for tomorrow's breakfast, but didn't stay up very
long.

September 25 Friday

Before Lorena arrived to clean the house I brought
in all of the food in the frig.  I managed to do that in
2 trips, using dishpans to put things in.  It's amazing
how much you can fit into a dishpan.

I sent a txt to Kat to let her know we were back and
she said she'd come about 1 PM if that was okay.
Kate also turned up, about 9.  So we were busy
keeping them busy.

September 26 Saturday

We were going to sleep in today, but didn't.  We
got up about 7:30, dressed and went for a walk.
The weather is gorgeous!  Perfect temperature
although I expect it'll get hot later in the day.

I sorted out the mail; of course 90% of it is
junk.  What a waste of resources to send all
that stuff. 

Robert put the Van in the garage and that was
good.  It didn't get too hot and I was anxious
to clean it.  The frig had some ugly brown
stuff that I can't figure out what caused it.
But, it is all clean now; the floors have been
mopped and the rugs washed and hanging
out on the porch.

I also received, in the mail, an offer from
American Express to get a new card that
will give me 3% on groceries up to
$6,000.00.  Another offer from Capital
One to get a Visa card that will pay 2% on
ALL purchases.  I'll probably go for both
and use the American Express until I've
hit the $6,000.00 mark.  It won't pay 3%
on groceries at Costco, though.