Off the trail

Today's organizing principle was the world cup final - where could we situate ourselves to hear/watch it

That meant we had to kill time to be on the road to listen to it on the radio. Then with any luck we could catch some of it in a bar/restaurant.

Luck had it. A long drive to the Yankton Sioux museum and then west to the Black Hills gave us the time we needed. Passing by the Badlands we decided on a detour drive and it was well worth it. Imposing geology and geography. And the world cup final started while we were
there.

Our arrogance led us to expect that no one in Rapid City South Dakota would be watching the game. We saw a sign for the Firehouse Brewery and headed there. Wrong. We joined a big crowd and saw the second half and the overtimes. Spain won; most were rooting for the Dutch but were happy for Spain

Them drove to and walked around Mt Rushmore. Impressive - 14 years and 400 men to carve. Our pyramids

We were unsure about camping because of the crowds and threatening weather bit we found a national park site and set up. And then it poured and turned miserable. Then it stopped and we started a fire. A cold night.

Off the Lewis and Clark trail day. Tomorrow, a day to back track and head to ND.

First Lincoln, then Lewis and Clark

Photo is taken at Lincoln home in Springfield IL.

We had two great days with the Dundee folks where we celebrated an anniversary and a birthday! Everyone is well and busy. Summer fun. We watched Jeff and Melodie's video - congrats!

Last night was our first night of camping and we made it! Graham Cave State Park. No rain (yet) and even got a fire going and even had some veggies for dinner - them we had smores.

Independence

We are starting our fourth straight day of barbecues.  Life is good!  And we may even have one tomorrow if we make it to Dundee in time.

We came back to Bethesda this morning following an early wake up call in Hightstown.  One of our barbecues was with Grandma, and would have been even better had we not left the grill At Annie's house.  So we cooked the brats in the toaster oven.  Still tasted good, and because of the heat we probably saved ourselves a gallon of liquids we would have had to have replaced.

Grandma looked good, in red, white and blue.  We cashed in on some Dairy Queen coupons and talked about a September trip, to Rochester, Pittsfield and Pomfret, perhaps.

We had finished two weeks in Pittsfield, and the days were starting to blur together, so I started a running account of our activities each day.  Still, our work boils down to having painted one side of the house.  That means of course, scraping and priming and fixing the eaves.  (sort of)    Our contractor has started work, dug the hole, poured the footings and started the foundation.  And, we have two teachers -- one of whom we found out worked at the same high school as John did in Clarement NH -- who are renovating what will be our master bedroom.  Looks nice.

We spent a weekend in Rhode Island, near our old haunts in Charlestown, and went to the beach there and even the ice cream place.  We were visiting Marge and Lew who have been renting a spectacular house on a salt pond while their house is being renovated.  (There is no truth to the rumor that we are racing them to see whose house gets finished first.)

And..... drum roll....we met ...Elsie Ray! A beautiful, petite, sweet baby who is just about 1 month old. We had a morning visit with Maura; Steve was out getting his new fish shop up and running. We also watched a World Cup game with Dan, and later had a visit with Mary and Patrick.  Annie came down for a day at the beach and we watched the U.S. come close but lose in world cup soccer.

Lots of developments back here while we were away.  Joe finished his job in anticipation of a nice long layoff before he starts a new job in November.  So he moved out of his current digs and set up a base back home.  He arrived the day after....

Matthew and Tina and Oliver left.  They had come to show Oliver the nation's capital!  But we were away (sigh).  They got their capitol tour from Jeffrey and then after two nights here went on their way to Norfolk Virginia.    

Margaret played hostess to them (thank you) and also to a group of Iraqis who had been here for most of June on the project she's working on.  

And this week is Annie's last week at work.  She has had a tough year with a very tough population of autistic children.  She has a hiking trip planned, a trip to Pittsfield for her birthday and then a drive down here before her flight to China in August. And yes, we had a barbecue at her house in Natick on Saturday, with her roommate's parents.

Other notes:  we saw John and Marilyn most days as they checked on progress and gave us plumbing and closet tips!  Aunt Mary stopped by for a quick visit and inspection. She looks like she's 55 and acts like it too! (She is closer to 81.) We went to see Roseanne Cash who was terrific, and then bumped into her at a bar a  little later on!  The contractors said it was unusual how many rocks they had to dig out so we did the New England thing and made a stone wall.

All for now.  I will try to write from the road on our progress.  Love from down here.

Elsie Ray

It's hot, but it's supposed to break tonight, and be cool for a couple of days anyway.  We love air conditioning.

And so do a lot of people, including Grandma.  Whom I saw a couple of times last week, on trips up and back from Pittsfield.  She complained of lack of energy, and I couldn't even persuade her to go to Dairy Queen.  Didn't stop me though, as I enjoyed a Blizzard, Reese's Pieces variety.  Life is pretty good.  What's your favorite blizzard?  I saw it's the 25th anniversary of that delight, and I only found out about it in the last couple of years.  Got some catching up to do.

First, though, I have to work out before I earn one of those calorie boosters.  Last week it was finishing up the work on the master bedroom walls including insulating and the dirty work of tearing down the ceilings.  Fell on top of me.  John came over and helped move radiators and an outdoor faucet, and Marilyn gave her interior design sense to the situating of closets.  There are lots of mysteries in tearing down walls.  This week's had to do with seeing if the wall we want to remove between two small bedrooms is a load-bearing wall.  Underneath the ceilings are some very old, large wooden beams.

On the trip north, Peter came over for lunch with Grandma, having had his court appearance for the day cancelled.  He said he and Janet had gone to reunions and danced the night away!

Mary finishes school this week, and after a short visit with Peter and Janet for their annual ( we hope) crab break, we are off to points north and west for the summer.

Joe was in San Francisco last week for a short vacation.  He's still waiting to hear from his future employers (USAID) and has some imminent decisions to make, but that all depends on hearing from USAID.  He is a little frustrated .

Margaret's big news had to do with her car.  She was able to convince a judge to drop the fines for tickets she got for not registering her car, but had yet another setback in the actual registration process.  She needed my signature.  So on Saturday, we met at the DMV in DC and finally got the license plates.  Quite an ordeal, lasting over a year.

Annie is planning her hiking trip and is looking to take an on-line English teaching course to get ready for her move to China.

But the really big news belongs to Maura Boyle Smith, Dan's daughter, who had a baby this week, and is now home with her daughter, Elsie Ray.  Congratulations!

Love from down here.

Tour of Rural China-a post long overdue

Here are some pictures of my trip to Greg's hideaway-a small town in rural China named Pengtun. The first picture is of another town in the area (a rocky 3 hour ride up mountains sans guardrails). The next one is of a two-day trek Greg took me on called Tiger Leaping Gorge. And that's me, on the top of that frightful cliff. As you can imagine, my fear of heights did not make the already difficult hike go any faster. The last picture is of a pagoda a mere 4 minute bike ride from the school where Greg teaches in Pengtun. You cannot see it, but there was a group of domestic tourists who borrowed me for a 30 minute photo shoot. Apparently curly hair is not a big thing in China.

Also, check out the Travel section of this weekend's Wall Street Journal, specifically "Castle in the Air"-Greg wrote it!

Love!

Annie

Summertime

First week of retirement is under my belt.  And it was active and busy.  Hope I can upload the video which in 25 seconds gives a flavor of the week.  Jim Dickmeyer, a friend who joined the Foreign Service with me, decided to end it with me as well.  He is going to continue working though.

Anyway, Jim and I spent a week of work and play in Pittsfield.  We tore down walls in what will be the new master bedroom, and we put in a small garden, complete with fence after we saw woodchucks and rabbits.  We also canoed across the lake to go to Mr. Donut for coffee; drove up to Mt Greylock, the highest point in Mass; went to a Pittsfield Colonials baseball game; took in some live music at the Guthrie Center (formerly Alice's Restaurant - really) and the Dreamaway Lodge; and did a culinary tour which included the last two establishments and Theo's hot dogs and Jimmy's restaurant.  Lots of errands and spent a little money.  And that's not all.  John and Marilyn invited Jim to play golf so they went out to the links for two rounds.  My own personal history of golf in Saratoga and Stratford remains seared in my psyche so I did not join.

A mystery. The car smelled terrible; Jim said it was his leather golf bag. When we got home, Mary also thought it smelled of a dead animal. After the car was all cleaned out, I looked in one of the wells in the back and found a dead mouse. How did it get there?

And Mary stayed behind and had to work.  She has just two more weeks of work before her summer break.  She was not idle at home as she cleaned up our office area, to make room for her new rug-braiding materials.  

We stopped in to see Grandma going and coming.  She reported on long conversations with Dundee and it sounded like the Illinois crowd had a great week at Green Lake.  Also talked with David who had tracked me down on the road, on my first full day of retirement.  Grandma said they are heading out to the Vineyard soon. 

Margaret spent the week in Kansas City at an international student advising conference, which usually draws about 20,000 people.  She was with the group of Iraqis who are setting up international student advising centers, and had some reverse cultural insights with people experiencing the U.S., most for the first time.

We also spoke with Annie who is winding down her job and planning on coming to Bethesda for a weekend in a couple of weeks.  Then, she will get her visa to move to China.  Yikes!

And we got a text message from Joe who was in Denver (?) and an e-mail saying he made it to the next level of the Foreign Service test.  He is in his final weeks of work.  

So, some busy weeks ahead, of driving anyway and trying to do a little work on the house.  And then I really need to start planning our trip out west.  

Hope you are all well and enjoying the start to the wonderful season.  Love 

Take this job and

Say goodbye.  A little over six years ago I became eligible for retirement, but had been thinking about it for a few years before that.  But, it took until last Friday to make the leap.  I had to give them three months notice, but I had until Thursday night to change my mind.  Two years ago I did decide to retire, but then chickened out.  So, it's been on my mind for quite a while.  Poor Mary has had to listen to all the hemming and hawing for years.  She deserves a license to practice therapy.

There was the playlist (Never Comes the Day, I Shall Be Released, The Thrill is Gone, Don't Come Around Here No More); there were the movies (About Schmidt, Burn After Reading); the presents (flannel shirts and work shoes); the books (Cabin, Self-reliance, Pruning, Walks in the Berkshires).

Anyway, Friday was the big day.  Mary gave me my new business cards ("Jubilado", available for odd jobs, hours 10-noon) on my way out the door.  Packed up, turned in my Blackberry, said goodbye.  The longest weekend.

Joe and Margaret joined us for dinner at Mi Rancho with Peace Corps friends.  Annie sent an e-card, and Joe gave me a rope belt.  And that was that.  Now, onwards.

What else?  We went up to Pittsfield last weekend and saw the first concrete progress, as they tore down the two old additions.  We stopped as usual going and coming and chatted with Grandma who was well and eager to hear all the news.  We saw John and Marilyn a couple of times including dinner at their house (with an ice cream cake to die for).  We saw a small ad in the paper for an "acoustic" concert in Pittsfield and decided to go.  Our surprise was that the show was put together by Mary and Johnny's cousin, Connie Boyle, and featured the national flat-picking champion.

And the news includes Joe giving notice to his current employers having heard word that his security clearance for a USAID job came through.  Margaret is in Kansas City for the NAFSA (National Association of Foreign Student Advisors) where she is escorting a group of Iraqi student advisors.  Annie has been working flat out to make up for time off while she was in China; we understand but have not seen yet, that there are some pretty hair-raising pictures of her in the mountains of western China.

We spent some time (and cash) at the REI sale this weekend, getting bikes and gear for our trip out west later this summer.  Yesterday, Mary and I went for a bike ride along the national mall at twilight; very moving on Memorial Day.  Also spent a fair amount of time in this garden here, trying to push back the weeds before taking off for most of the summer, and then returning to more weeds!  Hey what else am I going to do?  While gardening, I came across a nest of small, tiny newborn birds that look as if they had just hatched.  It was my excuse to stop working, at least there.  

Tomorrow, Mary goes to work and I go back up north, with a friend who started the foreign service with me.  We both need a little time to bang at and tear down walls.  

So, that's it from here; love.