Biker weekend

On Friday Andrew rode a 450 cc motorcycle from Maryland to Ohio. On Sunday he took a 1000 cc bike back. The first picture shows him with the manual, checking things out on the "new" bike. It is a 1978 Honda Goldwing. I think he will be keep out of trouble with the time it will take to get it in tip top shape.

As you can see, he has all the fashionable riding clothes to wear.

The good news for us, is that we now have one less motorcycle in the shop, because this one is his to keep.

Return to Ohio

The trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota, and Illinois went well. I saw all of my brothers and sisters , Mom, and Gerry's siblings who live in the area. I went to Wisconsin to Gwen's house and Glenda and her family came for the weekend. The drive through Wisconsin is so beautiful with rolling farm land and lots of trees. Very green. Minnesota and South Dakota are very flat in contrast. For those of you into "green" you would be interested to see the "windmill farms" in Minnesota for generating electricity.

Mom is doing well, still living in a Senior apartment building. She does not like to ride any distance in the car, so pretty much stays at home. In good weather she walks two blocks outside. Otherwise she walks around the perimeter of the building inside. She still does her own cooking, but family members help with buying groceries, cleaning, laundry and finances. She was 88 years old this year and has no health problems other that water retention in her feet and legs.

My most exciting wildlife sighting was a coyote that was about 100 feet away. It did not hang around long enough to get the camera. Actually I just saw it for a few seconds, but it was really cool.

Greetings from Mt. Lake, MN

A quick summary of my trip so far - On Friday, the first day of the trip I drove 600 miles, driving about 15 hours. Chicago about did me in. I took 90 through the city, and it was not a good choice. The traffic went between 5 and 10 mph for about two hours. But I made it without incident. After a refreshing stay at a hotel, I continued to northers Wisconsin to visit G's sister and family. His other sister and familily from Mpls came for the weekend too. It was great to catch up with what is going on in their lives. Pictures will be posted when I return home.

Then a drive through scenic Wisconsin into Minnesota. Along the way I stopped and visited my only remaining aunt on my father's side. She is 93 and still very sharp. So glad I stopped.

Then on to Mankato where I had dinner with bro and wife. While there I had a three second glimpse of a coyote which ventured into their yard.

Now I am in Mt. Lake for a few days. Details will follow.

On the Road Again

Tomorrow morning I am starting on my journey West. The first leg of the trip is a 13 hour drive to Hayward, Wisconsin where I will visit two of G's sisters and their families. In the "old days" I would try to drive it in one day, but I don't think I will this time. Either that is a sign of getting old or a sign of becoming smarter. I would like to think it is the latter. From there I drive six hours to Mt. Lake, Minnesota to visit my Mom and siblings. I'll be there six days.

Today I am doing the last minute preparations, like mowing the lawn. If I would not have done that, it would be long enough to bale when I returned. G has agreed to feed the cat and the humming birds. Maybe water a couple of outdoor pots of flowers.

I am bringing my laptop along so may post along the way. But no pictures. That will have to wait until I return.

I checked out several books on tape from the library. Actually I have so many that I may have to add two more weeks onto the trip just to have time to listen to them :)

K's Motorcycle

It looks like she is going horse back riding, but no, it is ---

"Motorcycle riding"

Papa finally has K's "motorcycle", as she calls it, running. The battery was poor so he replaced it with two better ones. He also put a control on the throttle so the speed could be regulated. As it was, she could drive it faster than we could run, which did not seem like a good idea, thus the control.

A three year old should probably be supervised. Note this picture. Her Dad and Papa are both looking to the left as she rides toward the opening in the trees and makes her escape into the wide fields! Click on it to enlarge to see the details.

Garden walk

Yesterday I went to a Garden walk with a friend. It is the annual fundraiser for the local YWCA. There were seven gardens. This one was designed by a professional (who me met). Our guess is that it cost at least $100,000.

Besides the overall view, I take pictures of small items I like. This one had a fairy garden. This guy was about 3 inches tall. Click on the picture to get it enlarged to see his expression.

I figured since G has several welders and lots of raw material (sometimes called junk) he could make something like this.

I found this tree striking. Love the bark.

Christmas in July and stories about my son

This Friday through Sunday, G is attending a Vintage Motorcycle show/race at MidOhio, which is a race track about 1 1/2 hours from here. So I socialized on my own. Last night friends from Illinois visited. I made dinner and we spend a relaxed evening looking at my gardens, sitting on the deck and watching a DVD of the Continental Divide trip. This afternoon I went to a "Christmas in July" party. Apparentely this is a popular thing on July 25th. It was at the home of next door neighbors at our previous house. I had a long talk with their oldest son, who is a couple years younger that Shawn. He told me stories of things they did that I was not aware of. He said Shawn understood that when you poured gas on a long stream on the ground and lit one end, you should not be too close to the end. Also, Shawn had made some kind of machine ( if you could call it that) that was to sterilize creek water using solar power. They all drank it. No one got sick, but it really did not get very warm. He also said they climbed on top every building on our property.

My memory of the neighbor boys was this. One night Shawn had a friend over to stay night. I awoke and heard the neighbor boy's voices in his room. Apparently Shawn had thrown a rope out the window and they had climbed up. It was on the second floor. G said there probably are a lot more things I do not know about what they did. I am sure that is true.