last leg

Today is the day we have been looking forward to for at least the last 10 days. Today we will see the high flying guys at Briarcliff Connection and their mom. (Rest of the family is away on business today.) Most likely tonite will find us at home in our own bed for the first time since late January. As you read some prior posts, you will see that I got to visit a little at a couple of veterinary colleges on the way home. At this point, however, we have "kicked it into high gear" for home. (One of us has a doctor's appointment Monday).. If you are diligent in reading this blog, you will remember who... and why we're not changing the appointment. The point is, that although our trip home has brought us near other people I would like to visit, I had to draw the line somewhere. On the way out of Denver, we passed through Aurora, Colorado, the home of LifeSkills International. http://www.lifeskillsintl.org/. Would have loved to have stopped and visited at the home office. We have been facilitating Family Lifeskills classes since about 1996, but because we are traveling much more, had to "give it up". The local contact at home is http://www.grafixnetwork.net/fls/ . Also, we came relatively close to Colorado Springs, where Val Gates, a long time technologist at the U of I has been there for several years. We can within miles of Manhattan, Kansas where there is another veterinary college, and right now, I'm sitting in Columbia, Missouri, the home of the University of Missouri Veterinary College. Have several friends here, but it is Saturday morning, raining, and we really have the itch to get on the home side of the Mississippi River.

Yesterday on our trek across Eastern Kansas and Western Missouri, we were covered by a blanket of clouds that reminded me of the cover on the bed at a Hampton Inn. Seen too many Hampton Inns??? It was 44 degrees pretty much all day. This morning, it is still raining, but the wind seems to have let up a bit. The one thing I have learned on this trip is that I "don't know nuthin". I remember Kansas as a boring flat plate from previous visits. This trip, even after the fantastic scenery in the Pacific Northwest, we found this area interesting. The most striking thing was the vast area of burned grass. We didn't know if it was intentional or wildfire. I think, however it is part of a controversial controlled burning program. http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/habitats/splendor-of-grass.html

One interesting thing to us were the windmill farms. Here is part of one very close to the highway. The most impressive one was in Wyoming where you could see hundreds of them for miles and miles. We also have noticed that you would see one here and there, presumably privately owned to supply energy for some business. This seems to be another controversy in that some people don't want them "in their back yard".

In Rock Springs, we "got"' to interface with a convention that threatened to send us packing until the great staff there took us under their wing and made a way for us. Here in Columbia, Missouri, there is apparently a youth ball tournament, and some of the teams are staying here. The halls were full of "little voices" full of excitement. We are looking forward to hearing the voices of some of our own grandchildren yet today, and in the near future get some facetime with the rest of the family... Isn't there a birthday to celebrate Monday???

I have to say something about the comments in a recent post on Georgia-wintersong. I was pleasantly embarassed. For the past 10 weeks, I have gotten to spend more constant time than ever before in close proximity with the "shy little girl" I met in 1959, who became the loving mother of my 3 sons, the doting grandmother of my 9 grandchildren and my life partner for these past 45 years. Who wouldn't do their best to make it special???