OFF TO THE MIDWEST! June 26th, 2013

So I'm sitting in Logan Airport on Weds. June 26th waiting for my flight to Chicago. Rod retired 2 weeks ago after 38 years at Neenah Foundry - amazing!! And he suggested this trip out west to see as many National Parks as we can. Gee, I'm not sure if he invited me or if I invited myself! Probably the latter! And then he ended up calling Betty, my college friend and frequent travel companion, to see if she wanted to go along. I thought she might have had enough of me after 6 weeks in South America in Feb. and March this year, but no, she decided to go. Hope they don't dump me out in Nebraska!!!

I will visit with Larry, Rosemary's brother in Racine, and maybe Jackie his sister-in-law (we all had fun at Jon's wedding a couple of years ago when Jackie and I shared a room. We both love travel and talked non-stop that weekend!). On Thursday Rod will drive down to pick me up and we will stop on Friday at Aunt Dawn Mitchell's in Menominee Falls, WI, on our way up to Neenah. I chatted yesterday with Dawn to see if she'd be available for a late breakfast/early lunch. She said her house is in confusion as her foundation is collapsing and she's meeting with all kinds of engineers and construction people to see how it can be fixed!! But she thought she'd be available. Cousin Terry or Kenny, can't remember which, also might be over and could join us. That would be fun to see them as it's been years!! I think I haven't seen Aunt Dawn since Uncle Ted's funeral years ago. She sounded great!

So we're off and it will be a 4 week adventure with a tentative plan - meeting up July 14th in Portland, OR, at Judy and Michelle's, when Kerry, Jay and the grandchildren are visiting for the weekend. Then we'll head up to San Juan Islands with J and M and then we'll go on up to Vancouver, BC. Hope I get to meet up with Premica and maybe Maureen whom I met in Athens last year. We had fun together for a couple of days!

So I'll end with new Chinese phrase I just learned - Yi lu ping an!  meaning may your path/journey be safe/smooth! Hopefully it will be!