Tuesday, Sep.15th [Mom, Grandma, Uncle W & Auntie
I want a Llama said my uncle W, as we walked through the goat/llama barn. What in the world would we do with a llama asked Auntie; well for starters I wouldn't have to mow our yard anymore and I read that they are like good watch dogs, said Uncle W. Well, it's get a llama or keep me, she replies .................. I told Uncle W the hesitancy of his reply may not have been so wise, but Auntie kept him all these years so she didn't even take note.
Later, after leaving the county fair we all went down to Grandma's, taking her a sack of carmel corn that mom gets her every year at the fair. Grandma's 96 now so she can pretty much have whatever she wants! Grandma entertained us with her own remembrances of the county fair.
*First Grandma told us how much she loved to watch the sulky races [races where rider sits on this little two wheeled cart behind the horse!] She would take the kids and turn them loose then she would go and stand on the fence on the edge of the race track; if the kids needed her they knew where to go. Matter of fact Grandpa told her it would cheaper for her to buy a ticket and sit in the bleachers than to replace the shoes she wore out standing on the wire mess fence! But Grandma didn't want to sit, she preferred to stand and cheer ......... so Grandpa kept buying her shoes! Even today, with her sight failing her so much, she still watches the horse races on cable.
*Then Grandma told about how she loved to ride the Merry-Go-Round, this was her favorite ride. Outside the merry-go-round was a pole with an arm that stuck out towards the ride, and if you sat on the outer ring of horses as you went by you would reach for the brass ring, and if you
got one you got a free ride [hence: reaching for the brass ring!]. Grandma said she and her friends would ride, literally, for hours because they got so good at grabbing a ring.
Tonight I went to visit one of my dear cousins, who had just gotten a nasty divorce finalized. As we talked I was amazed [to say the least] at how her strong faith and support groups at her church were helping her through this tragic experience. We also talked about family, and the fun times our dads would have together playing softball and arguing over which sports team was best. They're both gone now, and yet we were amazed at how much they had impacted our lives. It was a good visit, at least for me.
Wednesday, Sept.16th [Jack, his family and Wisconsin]
I got on the road around 6:15AM because I was going to have to go by Chicago, and I wanted as early a jump as I could get. I must say that going past Chicago was easier than I had ever done.
And after entering my third state I was on the route to my friend Jacks house. Jack used to attend our church before his health made his family move him into their home. They are a lovely family and we had a great hour/or so together. Jack told me about his father who got medals in the WWI, and then about his grandpa who died in the Civil War. He even had the last letter than his grandpa had written home to his wife telling her not to worry, if anything happened to him he was ready to go, but hated the thought of leaving her. Pictures of both of these men were hanging on the wall; and Jack's grandpa's photo in his civil war uniform was published in a book. Then it's back on the road to the Big-Cheese-University in Madison, WI.
I arrived there only a few minutes after SWCOBL finished her last seminar. It had really been a good, uneventful drive. We went for a walk on the University and downtown near the capital, finally settling on supper in an Italian restaurant. We walked off the calories we had just consumed by walking along the water-front - it was beautiful! Coming back to the place where there were outdoor concerts going on we stopped by the ice cream shop and each had a cone, then went out and found a place to sit, eat ice cream and watch the concerts. By this time there was a breeze across the water picking up and night was starting to fall; but what fun it was watching all the weird kids doing their thing. There was a group doing African music and we both delighted in listening to them.
Thursday, Sept. 17th [Wisconsin cousins]
It was a beautiful drive from the University to a small town where a couple of my cousins lived.
We took our time and enjoyed the ride, finally arriving shortly after 1PM at their home. A little later my cousin drove us to her brother's house a short distance away. He owns 30+acres of prime WI woods, and the home he and his wife live in is tucked away on the side of a hill - absolutely beautiful. We were able to spend a couple of hours with them, and what a treasure that was. He had two beautiful Labs that minded him about as well as I do SWCOBL.
Then we returned to my cousin's house where we were staying and had a crappie supper that was really, really good. My cousin and her husband were perfect hosts; and I often felt bad for our spouses as my cousin and I talked about old times - her mother and father have passed away and when they go back to their hometown they stay with my mom. All of their three kids have followed their father into the medical field and are making the most of life. Here are a few things my cousin informed me about our family that I didn't know:
*My grandpa, switched names with his brother and took his job, and stayed in that job, on the railroad until he retired 50yrs. later.
*My grandpa never met his father, because his father was convicted [most contend he was set up] for murder and died only 6mos. short being released.
*My grandpa and his brother were running moonshine and got caught; but while in prison some
friends cut the bars and they escaped, going to Detroit. Neither were ever made to stand trial.
*My grandpa's nickname was 'toadie' [my cousin said maybe that was because they hopped all over escaping the law!]
Guess I won't talk about these things to Grandma or mom [although my cousin's mom believed them] since they deny them, no sense in stirring things up........but we sure shed tears of laughter!
Friday, Sept.18th [back to WI and then south to the Big-City East on the pond]
Shortly after leaving my cousins house we can to one of those 'huge' roadside markets, where they have all the vegetables, pumpkins, jams, etc. ..... plus this on had a playground, and a petting farm. While we were inside looking for possible gifts, I went to a round table with homemade jams. Now rising up from the middle of this table is the statue of a cobra. I found a couple jams I wanted and SWCOBL came over and suggested we find another kind [it was a sale 3 for $4] .. so I started rummaging through the jams, and got to close to the snake, it actually leaped out and touched my hand ..... you should have seen me jump, and I yelled that crazy snake tried to bite me! ... we got a few laughs out of that one.
Finally we got back to the University and had plenty of time to do whatever, and so we decided to revisit the mall we had visited before going on to my cousins the day before. After parking and getting out of the car, there standing and smiling at me was a man about to get into his convert able - he was the same man I had talked to the day before in one of the stores there - what a coincidence .... I was so amazed, after saying goodbye I immediately went into the Barnes & Noble store and purchased four books! The manager told me it was the largest, single floor B &N in the whole chain. I'd name the books but it would only put you to sleep, maybe I'll review some day on here...
-oh, well I can't resist
*'The Lost Quilter' by Jennifer Chiaerini [later I found out she and her family live right there
in Madison]
*'The LIttle Giant of Aberdeen County' by Tiffany Baker
*Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of illness, chorus of hope by Richard Cohen
and *'Nothing Was The Same' by Kay Jamison.
After shopping, and lunch at 'Fat Jack's', who supposedly was famous for their barbecue [I could fix better barbecue in my sleep] we hit the road again for the Big-City south.
We arrived outside the area where our friends lived with some time to spare, and Sherry needed some necessities so we stopped at an outdoor mall .......... and I went on to Cabela's new store - got a hat for this year! [It was originally $12.99, but the sale price said $4.99, when checking out at the counter the final price was $3.17 ... what a deal]
We arrived at our friends house to a delicious meal of mashed potatoes, vege's and pork!! The gravy was so good I was tempted to just pour some in a cup and drink it! Later I'll put the recipe on. Later than evening we played Wii in their basement, and Sherry got hooked on it ... in the boxing game she KO's me - and I stopped playing. They had this cow race game and watching Sherry we all lost it, it was hilarious.
Saturday, Sept. 19th [Us and our Big-City friends C & D]
After a breakfast of eggs, fruit and bacon, we went down to get on the train and ride into the city ............ we sat on the Upper Deck! It was about an hour's ride and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially since only the day before at my cousin's house we had talked about our gramp's who was a train conductor! Then in the city we walked, and walked, and walked and then for good measure walked some more ............ finally we ended up at the Navy Pier! Little has changed, the food there is still raunchy and pricey; but that was all overcome when SWCOBL
and C rode on the Ferris Wheel ... and I got some salt water taffy! C, who is a marathoner took pity on the whiner [me] and said we would ride back through the city to the train station on the
water taxi .................. this was a highlight for me! I have never rode through the middle of one of the biggest cities in America on the river that flows right down the middle of it ... it was incredible riding on this little water taxi boat and starring up at the skyscrapers lining the banks on both sides!
Eventually we got back on the train to return to the suburb. While sitting on the train I noticed a woman and her daughter get on, and they sat on the seats below us. She had a violin and when she opened the case she took out this fairly large wad of bills and passed them to her daughter who proceeded to count them, and she counted out the change from a jar. It was really interesting because neither of them looked poor or destitute .... and so D and I figured it was probably just something that mom and daughter did on some weekends to earn a little fun money.... maybe her daughter sang along or something .... strange.
That evening we went to church at Willow Creek and heard Bill Hybels preach. That indeed is a huge place, but every place is purposeful in ministering to people. We were greeted by at least 3 or 4 volunteer greeters before we finally got seated. Its been a long time since I got into a traffic jam, made up of people leaving church, on the way out of the church lot!
All little after noon on Sunday we began our trip back home ............ a great vacation, and God's protection all the way.
I am so blessed with family, cousins and friends, and this vacation trip reaffirmed that.
Well there's certainly more I could tell - maybe another day.
I want a Llama said my uncle W, as we walked through the goat/llama barn. What in the world would we do with a llama asked Auntie; well for starters I wouldn't have to mow our yard anymore and I read that they are like good watch dogs, said Uncle W. Well, it's get a llama or keep me, she replies .................. I told Uncle W the hesitancy of his reply may not have been so wise, but Auntie kept him all these years so she didn't even take note.
Later, after leaving the county fair we all went down to Grandma's, taking her a sack of carmel corn that mom gets her every year at the fair. Grandma's 96 now so she can pretty much have whatever she wants! Grandma entertained us with her own remembrances of the county fair.
*First Grandma told us how much she loved to watch the sulky races [races where rider sits on this little two wheeled cart behind the horse!] She would take the kids and turn them loose then she would go and stand on the fence on the edge of the race track; if the kids needed her they knew where to go. Matter of fact Grandpa told her it would cheaper for her to buy a ticket and sit in the bleachers than to replace the shoes she wore out standing on the wire mess fence! But Grandma didn't want to sit, she preferred to stand and cheer ......... so Grandpa kept buying her shoes! Even today, with her sight failing her so much, she still watches the horse races on cable.
*Then Grandma told about how she loved to ride the Merry-Go-Round, this was her favorite ride. Outside the merry-go-round was a pole with an arm that stuck out towards the ride, and if you sat on the outer ring of horses as you went by you would reach for the brass ring, and if you
got one you got a free ride [hence: reaching for the brass ring!]. Grandma said she and her friends would ride, literally, for hours because they got so good at grabbing a ring.
Tonight I went to visit one of my dear cousins, who had just gotten a nasty divorce finalized. As we talked I was amazed [to say the least] at how her strong faith and support groups at her church were helping her through this tragic experience. We also talked about family, and the fun times our dads would have together playing softball and arguing over which sports team was best. They're both gone now, and yet we were amazed at how much they had impacted our lives. It was a good visit, at least for me.
Wednesday, Sept.16th [Jack, his family and Wisconsin]
I got on the road around 6:15AM because I was going to have to go by Chicago, and I wanted as early a jump as I could get. I must say that going past Chicago was easier than I had ever done.
And after entering my third state I was on the route to my friend Jacks house. Jack used to attend our church before his health made his family move him into their home. They are a lovely family and we had a great hour/or so together. Jack told me about his father who got medals in the WWI, and then about his grandpa who died in the Civil War. He even had the last letter than his grandpa had written home to his wife telling her not to worry, if anything happened to him he was ready to go, but hated the thought of leaving her. Pictures of both of these men were hanging on the wall; and Jack's grandpa's photo in his civil war uniform was published in a book. Then it's back on the road to the Big-Cheese-University in Madison, WI.
I arrived there only a few minutes after SWCOBL finished her last seminar. It had really been a good, uneventful drive. We went for a walk on the University and downtown near the capital, finally settling on supper in an Italian restaurant. We walked off the calories we had just consumed by walking along the water-front - it was beautiful! Coming back to the place where there were outdoor concerts going on we stopped by the ice cream shop and each had a cone, then went out and found a place to sit, eat ice cream and watch the concerts. By this time there was a breeze across the water picking up and night was starting to fall; but what fun it was watching all the weird kids doing their thing. There was a group doing African music and we both delighted in listening to them.
Thursday, Sept. 17th [Wisconsin cousins]
It was a beautiful drive from the University to a small town where a couple of my cousins lived.
We took our time and enjoyed the ride, finally arriving shortly after 1PM at their home. A little later my cousin drove us to her brother's house a short distance away. He owns 30+acres of prime WI woods, and the home he and his wife live in is tucked away on the side of a hill - absolutely beautiful. We were able to spend a couple of hours with them, and what a treasure that was. He had two beautiful Labs that minded him about as well as I do SWCOBL.
Then we returned to my cousin's house where we were staying and had a crappie supper that was really, really good. My cousin and her husband were perfect hosts; and I often felt bad for our spouses as my cousin and I talked about old times - her mother and father have passed away and when they go back to their hometown they stay with my mom. All of their three kids have followed their father into the medical field and are making the most of life. Here are a few things my cousin informed me about our family that I didn't know:
*My grandpa, switched names with his brother and took his job, and stayed in that job, on the railroad until he retired 50yrs. later.
*My grandpa never met his father, because his father was convicted [most contend he was set up] for murder and died only 6mos. short being released.
*My grandpa and his brother were running moonshine and got caught; but while in prison some
friends cut the bars and they escaped, going to Detroit. Neither were ever made to stand trial.
*My grandpa's nickname was 'toadie' [my cousin said maybe that was because they hopped all over escaping the law!]
Guess I won't talk about these things to Grandma or mom [although my cousin's mom believed them] since they deny them, no sense in stirring things up........but we sure shed tears of laughter!
Friday, Sept.18th [back to WI and then south to the Big-City East on the pond]
Shortly after leaving my cousins house we can to one of those 'huge' roadside markets, where they have all the vegetables, pumpkins, jams, etc. ..... plus this on had a playground, and a petting farm. While we were inside looking for possible gifts, I went to a round table with homemade jams. Now rising up from the middle of this table is the statue of a cobra. I found a couple jams I wanted and SWCOBL came over and suggested we find another kind [it was a sale 3 for $4] .. so I started rummaging through the jams, and got to close to the snake, it actually leaped out and touched my hand ..... you should have seen me jump, and I yelled that crazy snake tried to bite me! ... we got a few laughs out of that one.
Finally we got back to the University and had plenty of time to do whatever, and so we decided to revisit the mall we had visited before going on to my cousins the day before. After parking and getting out of the car, there standing and smiling at me was a man about to get into his convert able - he was the same man I had talked to the day before in one of the stores there - what a coincidence .... I was so amazed, after saying goodbye I immediately went into the Barnes & Noble store and purchased four books! The manager told me it was the largest, single floor B &N in the whole chain. I'd name the books but it would only put you to sleep, maybe I'll review some day on here...
-oh, well I can't resist
*'The Lost Quilter' by Jennifer Chiaerini [later I found out she and her family live right there
in Madison]
*'The LIttle Giant of Aberdeen County' by Tiffany Baker
*Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of illness, chorus of hope by Richard Cohen
and *'Nothing Was The Same' by Kay Jamison.
After shopping, and lunch at 'Fat Jack's', who supposedly was famous for their barbecue [I could fix better barbecue in my sleep] we hit the road again for the Big-City south.
We arrived outside the area where our friends lived with some time to spare, and Sherry needed some necessities so we stopped at an outdoor mall .......... and I went on to Cabela's new store - got a hat for this year! [It was originally $12.99, but the sale price said $4.99, when checking out at the counter the final price was $3.17 ... what a deal]
We arrived at our friends house to a delicious meal of mashed potatoes, vege's and pork!! The gravy was so good I was tempted to just pour some in a cup and drink it! Later I'll put the recipe on. Later than evening we played Wii in their basement, and Sherry got hooked on it ... in the boxing game she KO's me - and I stopped playing. They had this cow race game and watching Sherry we all lost it, it was hilarious.
Saturday, Sept. 19th [Us and our Big-City friends C & D]
After a breakfast of eggs, fruit and bacon, we went down to get on the train and ride into the city ............ we sat on the Upper Deck! It was about an hour's ride and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially since only the day before at my cousin's house we had talked about our gramp's who was a train conductor! Then in the city we walked, and walked, and walked and then for good measure walked some more ............ finally we ended up at the Navy Pier! Little has changed, the food there is still raunchy and pricey; but that was all overcome when SWCOBL
and C rode on the Ferris Wheel ... and I got some salt water taffy! C, who is a marathoner took pity on the whiner [me] and said we would ride back through the city to the train station on the
water taxi .................. this was a highlight for me! I have never rode through the middle of one of the biggest cities in America on the river that flows right down the middle of it ... it was incredible riding on this little water taxi boat and starring up at the skyscrapers lining the banks on both sides!
Eventually we got back on the train to return to the suburb. While sitting on the train I noticed a woman and her daughter get on, and they sat on the seats below us. She had a violin and when she opened the case she took out this fairly large wad of bills and passed them to her daughter who proceeded to count them, and she counted out the change from a jar. It was really interesting because neither of them looked poor or destitute .... and so D and I figured it was probably just something that mom and daughter did on some weekends to earn a little fun money.... maybe her daughter sang along or something .... strange.
That evening we went to church at Willow Creek and heard Bill Hybels preach. That indeed is a huge place, but every place is purposeful in ministering to people. We were greeted by at least 3 or 4 volunteer greeters before we finally got seated. Its been a long time since I got into a traffic jam, made up of people leaving church, on the way out of the church lot!
All little after noon on Sunday we began our trip back home ............ a great vacation, and God's protection all the way.
I am so blessed with family, cousins and friends, and this vacation trip reaffirmed that.
Well there's certainly more I could tell - maybe another day.
Sounds like a busy but fun trip. Glad you're back safe.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Sherm
ReplyDeleteThanks .... we had a great road trip - absolutely no car failures or accidents! Family and friends were wonderful. At first I thought, 'wow, this whole trip is going to be taken up with family, wonder if there will be any fun?' it was IN family that I found enjoyment.