The trip to Illinois!

We've made it home to St. Charles, IL; as of Saturday afternoon! We spent the first night in Tucumcari, New Mexico after a long afternoon and evening on the road. Day two brought us through the panhandle of Texas, where we stopped and took pictures of Cadillac Ranch (see the pic to the left), and then drove through Oklahoma and arrived in Riverton, Kansas at 9pm. We stayed with my Aunt Erna Geisler there, until 4pm on July 4th. It was the highlight of the trip for me. Visiting with her was like visiting with my mom. She and Uncle Phil were our "alternate parents", and their kids were our "brothers and sisters" too. Getting out of the car, hearing the cicadas singing, smelling the mixture of green and Spring River....I could hear the sound of my mom's laughter coming from the kitchen, mixed with Aunt Erna's, as they fixed dinner for all 8 of us kids... Daddy and Uncle Phil coming up the stairs from the dock with the day's catch ready for cleaning... It was a bitter sweet visit in those aspects, but still the highlight for me. Cousins Danny, Rosie, and Dixie (and her husband John), came to see us there - as well as Rosie's son, Tyler - and her Grandson, Chandler. The house was full of laughter and activity! Aunt Erna's health is precarious at this point, but she loved having us there, and loved reminiscing about our families and the wonderful times we had together. God Bless that woman! It was hard leaving her on Friday, but we did. We stopped in Fenton, Missouri to get gas - about 4 miles from the house were I grew up. We didn't take a side trip to see the house, as we wanted to get through St. Louis before the holiday traffic became impossible. We made it to Springfield, IL on Friday night. Saturday, we had an easy 200 mile drive to St. Charles and home! We were fortunate in not having bad weather at any point on our trip, and no difficulties with driving. The kitties did great along the way (they are now trying to integrate with Annie and Atticus - who aren't all that amused by having new kitties in the house), without getting car sick or missing the litter box even once!

Since being home, Dean's cold is improving - mine is still raging, and a few days behind his. I'm back to work Monday night, no matter what, however. I've figured out how to let Dean post on this blog as well, so I'm sure he will be adding to it now too! We may even need to create a new one for his pictures! If we do, we'll put a link here to point you to that blog!

More later....