It's been a little over two weeks now since we slid in between two snowstorms and motored our Mini into Michigan (motto: "Feeling dumber? Buy a Hummer!"). Just hours after we passed through Albany, New York, on a beautiful sunny day a semi-major storm struck the Hudson Valley and points east. Meanwhile ahead of us just a few hundred miles another snowstorm was blasting the Great Lakes. We cruised along blissfully unaware. All-in-all pretty we were lucky indeed.
So we weathered the storms sleeping in Buffalo (of all places to weather a storm, eh?), crossed the border into Canada, then the US and soon found ourselves in Grand Rapids. We just wanted to just catch our breath -- we had been traveling since the third week of March when we left Paris for Italy -- and so we did.
While we recovered so to speak we hoped to spend time with Susie's mom and family and visit with old friends. We had dinner several times with Stan and Margie (out twice, at their place once and "our" place once), had Peter and Cyndi over for hamburgers on the grill one night, and after 20 years Susan caught up with her good friend Jane P. The two of them went through high school, college and medical school together. A surprise was seeing David V. and another good friend, Mary Beth T. and her husband Brent. (photo below: Susie and Jane.)
We also had two wonderful lunches with Susie's aunts and uncles: the VandenBergs on a Tuesday and two days later with the Van Halsemas. Mom fixed the lunch at her condo and susie fixed a selection of sweet treats. Not only did everyone get a chance to catch up on the latest news but Susan's numerous aunts and uncles got an opportunity to sample her pastries. Needless to say they were most pleased with the results!
The weather was pretty cooperative nearly all the time we were in Michigan, up until this past Wednesday at any rate when it turned cold and rainy and has stayed in that mode ever since. (photo above: Susan's aunts Betsey, Thea and Fran, and her Mom.)
I did very little Third Michigan "stuff" although I took the opportunity of such gorgeous weather to spend a little quality time in Allegan County, just south of Grand Rapids, looking for the burial sites of several Old Third soldiers (I found them if you must know). And just several days ago Susan and I took a drive up north to look for and found several other Old Third soldiers just waiting to be discovered out in the wilds of rural Newaygo County. OK we didn't find all of them but it was a grand day for a road trip. (photo below: Charlie Wheaton's grave marker in Elmwood cemetery, Allegan County.)
So the plan now is tomorrow, Saturday, we leave for the east coast: first to Roanoke, Virginia, to visit with John and Lolly and bob and Margie, then to Boonesboro, Maryland to spend a couple of nights with Mannie and Virginia, then on to Washington, DC for meet with Ann C., a friend of Susan's from Le Cordon Bleu, and afterwards to see Dick and Kathy and the "girls" in Landenburg, Pennsylvania, followed by an overnight stop in Princeton, New Jersey to see Anna-Maria and Guy. Then it's back to Douglas, Massachusetts to collect our wits before moving up to Maine for the summer.
Anyway I may not be posting for a week or so, probably not until we get back to Massachusetts. So don't wait any longer: go to Paris and if you can't do that then go to Siena. Life is too short.
Wish you were there and us too,
Steve
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