Going Home

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Well, like all good things, this summers journey to New England has come to an end and we are on our way home. We left Connecticut on Tuesday the 15th of October and headed west. Spent the first night in Johnstown Pennsylvania which was the same place we stayed our last night on the road in June when we were going to Connecticut. Took I-70 to Effingham Illinois where we had dinner with Linda and Roger West and their daughter, friends we were stationed in Germany with in the mid 70's. It's been almost 20 years since we were last together. It was great to get together again after all these years. From there we went to Mexico Missouri. Mexico is a small town in central Missouri where Sally grew up as a little girl. We went to her elementary school and I could see the light in her eyes as she looked in amazement at the classroom she was in as a young girl. There have been changes made over the years but it is still very familiar to her. We went by the house where she grew up and the current owner was kind enough to let her come in and see the inside of her childhood home. She started to cry as she looked into her bedroom and talked about the bathroom that used to be a bedroom where her two brothers slept. She talked about the stairs that now go up to a second floor with three bedrooms and a bathroom where there once was no stairs and all that was up there was an attic. It made my heart feel good to see her so overwhelmed with childhood memories. We went to the cemetery where her father is buried and left flowers on his grave. We saw the headstone where her paternal grandparents are buried and saw the headstone of an uncle who was born on Nov 14th of 1921 but only lived for 10 days before he passed away. She discovered that she and her uncle both shared the same birthday of November the 14th. From there we headed west thru a cold rain mixed with sleet until we arrived in Kansas City where we spent time with her cousin, Ellen Anderson Jesselnik who grew up on a farm in College Springs Iowa. Ellen is a retired school teacher and has lived in Kansas City for about 40 years. We had a great visit with Ellen, her daughter Katie, and grandson Carter. It was 30 degrees the next morning when we woke and we started heading south to get out of the cold weather. Tonight we are in Abilene Texas and hope to be home this Wednesday the 23rd of October. It's been a wonderful summer and we have seen and done so many things. We have been to Cheers in Boston. We have seen Times Square in New York City and have seen Vermont in the fall. We have been to Plymouth Massachusetts for the cranberry festival and seen Plymouth rock. We have been witch hunting in Salem Massachusetts. We have been to a country fair in Woodstock Connecticut and to the Big E fair in Springfield Massachusetts. If you ask Sally we didn't eat enough lobster but we sure gave it a good try. We took a trip to Maine with my brother and his wife, my sister and her husband and my mom. We have spent time with family and some very dear friends but now it's time for us to go home to our daughter, son-in-law and two wonderful granddaughters who we have missed terribly. Our next adventure is a trip with Kalee and Ashlee to Disneyland in mid November. Thank you all for taking this journey with us and although it's not the same as being there, we hope the pictures we have shown you have brightened your day just a little.

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