Looking for one cowardly lion

We drove ALL the way across Kansas yesterday. It wasn't too bad, flat roads and no traffic. Isabel spotted a Roadfood stop along our route in Salina turned out to be burgers AGAIN!! Anyway, we ended up at Cozy Inn Burgers. The grill man was super nice and there was a five seat counter so we could watch.
They only serve one thing, mini burgers cooked on a grill 50 at a time with sauteed onions and pickles. They steam the buns on the grill and then sell them by the bagful. The whole thing reminded me of White Castle except more local. Maybe White Castle stole the idea from them??? I am really hoping that the next Roadfood place Isabel scopes out will be something other than burgers
We finally arrived at Steve and Isabel's at around 5:30. Their house is beautiful ! The kids were not sure where to land; the pool, the hot tub or the big TV. We had a wonderful dinner with Carmine's aunt and uncle joining us. It had been way too long since we had all been together. Steve and Isabel have special significance to us since in addition to being lovely people they moved out of NYC around the same time that Carmine and I did.
We were not able to say goodbye to Isabel this morning as she had to go to work but had an amazing breakfast of baked french toast with Steve.
Drove 7 1/2 hours today and landed in Terra Haute, Indiana which happens to be in the same time zone as home!
We are definitely getting closer!

Traffic!

We left Fruita Colorado this morning and drove ALL the way across Colorado into Kansas. In addition to the fact that this was already a LONG driving day, there was horrendous traffic getting through Denver which cost us an additional three hours.
We finally arrived in Goodland, Kansas, which is just about the only place to stay when driving from Denver to Kansas City. The hotel I booked was kind of confusing, it was a Howard Johnson's which was recently bought by a family who turned it into a Days Inn. The place is HUGE and the family that runs it just recently moved to the US from Bombay/Mumbai.
Anyway, they are renovating the hotel to resemble an amazing Indian palace! We have a room that opens into a gigantic indoor hot tub/pool.
The owners invited a family they had met in San Francisco from Shanghai to open a restaurant on site. The restaurant, "Extreme Happiness" is also huge and beautiful. I ordered "sarcastic chicken" which kind of reminded me of orange chicken but with a little more edge.
The children are in HEAVEN! There is an oasis in the middle of the Kansas prairie.

P.S. In response to some inquiries, the front lobby and hallways are being renovated, the rooms are already finished and just look like regular hotel rooms-K

Southern Utah rocks!

We left Panguitch (penguin plus sandwich) Utah this morning and vowed to return again someday.
Southern Utah is beautiful! The red rock canyons, spires and hoodoos are everywhere you turn. We only had enough time to see Bryce but were an hour away from Zion canyon, about two hours from the Grand Canyon AND an hour from Las Vegas!
The drive today through Utah and into Colorado (yes, we have begun the LONG drive home) was one of the most visually inspiring four hours of my life.
At times it felt like the surface of the moon, then it would turn to the landscape of mars. There was even a vista that looked like the pyramids of Egypt! We had a blast naming the rock formations and deciding what planet we were on etc...
Have settled for the night in Fruita, Colorado. Tomorrow is a BIG driving day, about 7 hours into Kansas. Yikes!
Had a long conversation with the very nice women working the desk at the hotel. I was telling them about Vinny's excitement with new chain restaurants, they told me they had always wanted to go to a Dunkin Donuts! Can you believe it! I guess they used to have them in Utah and this part of Colorado but now don't. I told them the donuts were pretty bad but the iced coffee was awesome and felt pretty special...

"A heck of a place to lose a cow"

We were sad to leave the high life in Snowbird but taking an extra day to see Bryce Canyon was WELL worth it! What an amazing, beautiful, stunning and breathtaking place!
We didn't actually get to the park until 4:45 but miraculously managed to take a ranger walk along the rim, see the museum and film at the visitor's center and help Vinny complete his ranger badge requirements.
We also drove to sunset point to watch the sunset and started walking a trail into the bottom of the canyon. I realized at a certain point that there was NO WAY I was going to make it all the way down and back up before dark. The kids started to beg to go to the bottom on their own...
I could actually see the bottom and the trail was wide so I finally said ok. The problems started when they walked through a small rock opening at the bottom of the canyon and disappeared...
About an hour later as the canyon was getting dark I found them happily coming back around the loop. THEY had a FANTASTIC time.
I was beyond anxious (please remember that even though the trail is somewhat wide there are no barriers from falling to your death at any moment) but found strange solace in my memory of the Brady Bunch episode where Greg and Marcia (or was it Jan and Peter) got lost in the bottom of the grand canyon.
Or was it Bobby and Cindy?
Did I forget to mention we were all wearing flip flops?

Salt Lake City

As I sit here with swarms of potguts (sorry, I was wrong about tubguts, they are actually called potguts) nipping at my feet I am reflecting on what an interesting time we've had here in Salt Lake.
For the past two days we have IMMERSED ourselves in local tourism. We visited the Tracy Aviary, the Children's Museum, the Planetarium, a living history Pioneer Park, ate in a restaurant in Temple Square and took the tram car ride to the top of the Snowbird mountain. Highlights were feeding the birds, the U2 lazer show and watching the sun set from the top of the mountain. I found out that the Wasatch mountains are a part of the rocky mountain range. The weather has been beautiful although quite hot.
Tomorrow we drive to Bryce canyon stay overnight and head to Arches National Park on Saturday. The more National Parks we visit the more amazed I am at the entire system. Vinny has been collecting Junior Ranger badges as we go.
Saturday also begins the LONG drive home, where we will be in the car for very long periods of time. The audio books have been a huge help so have the downloads of This American life.

Down the Mountain

We tried to do some sightseeing in Salt Lake City today but got confused on the roads and didn't end up getting to the visitor's center until about 1. They have this amazing connect pass which allows you into 12 different attractions AND restaurants for two days for $20!!! We decided to get the passes but figured we would start tomorrow so we tracked down a place we have been wanting to visit since before this trip began...
In downtown Salt Lake there is a restaurant called "One World Everybody Eats" it's a community kitchen. I had read about the woman who founded the idea in Time magazine awhile ago and have thought a lot about her ever since.
Denise Cerreta wanted to create community by designing a place where ANYONE could come and eat healthy, organic food regardless of their ability to pay. She originally just asked people to pay what they could afford but now works on a system where you choose an amount when you enter (from free to $20) and then choose from the amazing things the cooks have prepared that day. The offerings are mostly but not entirely vegetarian. There are several small comfortable spaces where you can eat inside as well as out. The place has a super friendly, inclusive energy. This is truly a community kitchen, there are customers in business dress, students and families. The restaurant is self sustaining and she pays her employees a living wage!
Denise was kind enough to let Vincent interview her. She answered all of our questions and cracked up at the now infamous audio of Isabel's nose whistle.
I have always found the set up of soup kitchens to be awkward and unbalanced. Denise was a complete inspiration, she has helped people set up in three other cities and promised to come to Portland Maine to help if there was enough interest!
OWEE has a website www.oneworldeverybodyeats.org
After lunch we wandered around downtown and ended up at this incredible 5 story geneaology library run by the LDS. We thought it was a public library and were about to leave when the kids really wanted to try the computer system and see if they could track down their ancestors. Vinny picked my grandfather (his namesake) and within minutes we had a two page copy of the 1930 census in Brooklyn listing my great grandparents, their children and all of their neighbors! Isabel did notice that at the time my grandfather was 22 years old and still living at home??
Back at the hotel there are these large fat rats that everyone SAYS are a kind of squirrel called a "tubgut" (really!). They are running all over the place and people are petting and feeding them and the entire thing is completely freaking me out! Time to go in...

Snowbird

We are staying at the snowbird ski resort during our time visiting Salt Lake City. For the past two days we have pretty much been doing a lot of nothing. We are in a really nice hotel with a big comfortable room, lots of kids activities, pools etc...There is a pretty steep drive up the mountains (Wasatch) to get to snowbird.
We ventured down the mountain today to look around and found an intense urban sprawl. Miles and miles of superstores, chain restaurants etc...which brings me to a question I have wondered many times before.
At this point in time, are most urban centers in America more or less the same? I am not looking to simplify this question. I understand that there are clear geographic and historical differences.

The more I think about it, the biggest difference that I can figure is that some show their poverty and some hide it better.
So I guess the question becomes are most middle class urban centers in America more or less the same?
To be honest, the only difference in what we did today from what we might have done at home is the big Wasatch mountain range looming behind the parking lots.

On the other hand, we have not walked through downtown Salt Lake yet...
There is also a particular news story plastered all over the front page of the local paper which I firmly believe, would not happen at home.


Vinny has started his own photo essay of chain stores he has never seen before.
FYI we have only actually eaten at a few of them.

Money in the Bank or it's all your Vault

Our last full day in Wyoming...Things were really heating up today in honor of the cowboy gathering this weekend.
Last night the campground was full of random groups of musicians singing cowboy songs. There was a dutch oven cook-off in the town square and the melodrama was fun and really funny. There were can-can girls, cowboys, villians and lots of audience participation.
Sadly, since we leave tomorrow we will miss the cowboy poetry slam, the chuck wagon breakfast, the storytellers and the concerts...
The stars were so bright last night the kids lay down by the river to watch.
BTW, as I write this the Mangy Moose, an establishment across the street is hosting a mechanical bull night. From what it sounds like there is some SERIOUS fun going on over there!

Saratoga Hot Springs (Wyoming)

We checked out the museum in Grand Encampment, the town next door. Riverside (where we are) has a population of 57, Encampment is 245. The town swelled to a population over 3,000 in the late 1800's due to the discovery of copper mines. Once the bottom dropped out of the copper market, most people left leaving it a ghost town.
Once again a very small town has an expansive, interesting museum with lots of old stuff to show due to the frugality and "never throw anything away" attitude of the homesteaders who started arriving in the 1870's.
General stores, saloons, carriage barns, school houses and mountain cabins were all hauled to this spot and FILLED with almost anything you can think of. There were guns from the civil war, a hearse from the 1850's, tools, food and clothing items, a couple of completely intact conestoga wagons, a two story outhouse and much much more!
There were a few things you couldn't touch but if you wore white gloves (provided) you could touch lots of things. Tomorrow night in honor of the Cowboy celebration this weekend, the Encampment Opera House is hosting a cowboy melodrama. We WILL be there!
Afterward, we drove to the nearby town of Saratoga which has a town pool (already really hot) and a super hot, hot spring. The hot spring was 128 degrees and most people (except for a reckless man who kept shouting he was from Texas and an older couple from Japan) could not put more than a foot in without screaming. Vinny did manage to get in up to his waist. There was a center rock pool in the spring called the "lobster pot" which was even hotter (???). While most people in the town don't go in much in the summer, they LOVE it in the winter where it can get to be 10 below zero.
Just a few photos of the local grocery store. The abundance of taxidermy really threw me.

Lazy Acres

We left Laramie Wyoming in the middle of a rodeo, there were people out in the courtyard of the hotel last night roping plastic pvc pipe cattle.
After a brief drive we arrived at our next destination stop, Riverside Wyoming. A place Carmine and I randomly ended up visiting 20 years ago and always thought of returning to. To be honest, I was a little worried, what we loved about it might not work for this group...
Well, it is now just as wonderful as it was then. The air still smells like cinnamon, the Beartrap Cafe still makes huge homemade cinnamon rolls every morning and the river flows right next to our cabin.
There are no big amusements, no mini-golf, NO chain restauraunts and no television (in our cabin). It is a beautiful place with super friendly people, a place where each day feels a little longer than a regular day back home.
Shortly after we got here, people in the campground came up to us and started welcoming us and making suggestions of some things the kids might like to do. There is a hot spring nearby, a homesteader museum and this weekend is the annual Grand Encampment Cowboy gathering (I didn't even plan this!). Right now the kids are loving walking the river stones and building fires in the pit.

The Badlands, Heatstroke and a Tornado

We took a drive to Badlands National Park yesterday. It was HOT there, about 102 but dry with a slight breeze. Went through the visitor center and then drove the 20 mile loop road and stopped along the way.
While marveling at the landscape we noticed that the sky to our right was becoming increasingly dark, darker than then the now usual hail/thunderstorm. I kept driving through to Wall at which point we put on the radio and heard the national weather service warning that there is a tornado warning in our immediate area.
Wall looked ripe for a weather chasers team, the sky was pitch dark and you could see very strong winds picking up in the distance. I got right back on the highway going west. From the look of the sky we were going in the right direction, AWAY from the storm...
I was wrong. About an hour after we got back to the campground, the tornado warnings were announced here. Vinny was really scared until a boy he met at the pool told him that South Dakota tornadoes are pretty weak and only lift you about a foot off the ground! That seemed to work. He ran happily off to the evening movie (indoors). In the meanwhile nobody seemed to be doing anything different than usual here other than closing the pool.
Isabel and I decided to try to make dinner in the sheltered kitchen area. Within minutes the thunder and lightning moved in. It was really intense and LOUD. The wind picked up, the sky grew very dark and (once again) large hail started shooting down. All of this by the way, happened super fast. We covered our heads and ran to the car and drove across the road to the building where Vinny was. The roads and parking lots were flash flooding. The water was moving up to the top of the car wheels. I sat in the movie theater soaking wet for about 10 minutes and went back out to find the sky totally clear! The man at the desk said the tornado skirted us and had passed through.
After that the campground activities were over for the night. I met women in the laundry room from Alaska, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio and Michigan (uh oh Laura!), each having their own extreme weather story to share.

Is There Gold in Them There Hills?

Another unbelievable day at Custer State Park. The park has an expansive and extremely well organized educational program for kids. We drove over this morning for a presentation on Bison , went panning for gold in the creek and learned about park ecology. There were also several sites in the park with additional activities. Kids could earn certificates and badges. The list of what they offered was long and varied. Everything was hands on, each presentation only had about five kids show up, so there was lots of time to ask questions. On the way out we of course left through the wildlife loop again and the Bison were out! We passed through two large herds and got about as close as a human can get.
On a sad note, one of our cabin cluster friends has left. Carroll and his wife went home to Deadwood SD. We miss then already. Carroll, being an insomniac, was always out on his front porch swing at all hours ready to shoot the breeze. I would often find Vinny there with him instead of in bed. There are some new people in their cabin, they seem nice but it's not the same....Tomorrow, Roy and Amy return to Nebraska. They have really become our closest friends in the KOA. There was an easy community feel that is slowly diminishing, the bright side is that it will make it easier for us to leave on Tuesday.

Where the Buffalo Roam

Today was truly unforgettable. My favorite day so far. Our destination Custer State Park. I had wanted to go there many years ago and never got the chance. Because we entered the park the wrong way we had to drive through the white knuckle needles highway to get to the visitors center and the wildlife loop. The needles highway was terrifying, six inches to the right and you were dead off a cliff.
Anyway, we finally hooked into the wildlife loop road which took you out through acres and acres of grazing plains. There are bison herds, wild horses, mountain goats, wildcats and prarie dogs roaming completely free. We stopped several times because the road was blocked with buffalo. At one stop there were a bunch of cars stopped for wild horses. In spite of the fact that there were several signs warning NOT to feed the animals, people were out feeding the horses pizza flavored Doritos. At first, being from ecocentric Portland I was mortified but after a few minutes I was having the most incredible experience with wild horses. While we had no Doritos, there were two other families from Montana sharing freely. These were horse people. They knew that wild horses love pizza flavored Doritos with a certain sincerity. Afterward we took their cue and did NOT get out of the car when the Bison walked across the road and through the cars.

Night Lights

We went to the night lighting ceremony at Rushmore. There were over 3,000 people in the ampitheater for a program that started at 9:00. First a park ranger came out and gave a 20 minute talk about all of the people he had met that day (including Vinny), then there was a group pledge of allegiance followed by a film about the four Rushmore presidents (the film ended with everyone standing and signing the national anthem while the spotlights went onto the now dark mountain). After that the park ranger invited all veterans and peace core workers to the stage and had each one introduce themselves (there had to be over 75 people onstage) while the crowd cheered and clapped and yelled out their thanks. The kids were transfixed, I don't think they had ever been anywhere in their time that was this infectiously patriotic.


P.S. We missed the Greenpeace protesters by one day. According to the gossip in the laundry room about five people climbed up on Lincoln's head and hung an anti global warming banner across his face. They were arrested shortly thereafter.

Wall Drug and beyond

First I need to thank Carmine for instructing me to download Firefox, for some unknown reason, Internet Explorer would not let me into Blogger! Can you believe that!
Anyway, we had a fun filled stop yesterday at Wall Drug. Some many photo ops! Afterward we pushed on to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We are FINALLY here. We are really far from home. Far enough that little squirrels (?) who live under our cabin are of a sub species that we have never seen before, far enough that we have had two nights of severe lightning and hail storms which cause us to respond with extreme alarm while everyone else just shrugs it off.
Our campground is large and sprawling with an endless amount of things for kids to do. There are horse stables, water slides and splash pads, a large bounce pillow, two pools, musical performances and three restaraunts.
There are people here from all over the world. We've met many people who are also on distance road trips. There is a large group of tourists here from Kyoto Japan and a really big group of backpackers from Belgium. I ran into a woman this morning who told me that her family had walked the ground on a license plate hunt and found 37 states. She also high-fived me (she was from Pennsylvania and felt a regional bond???).
We checked out Mt Rushmore this morning briefly and are heading back for the night time lighting ceremony.
In our little cabin cluster we have a very friendly group. Kids are all making friends.

Ed's Museum (and the ladies who cleaned up after him!)

Wykoff Minnesota just kept getting better and better as we met Ruth in front of Ed's Museum for our personal tour. Ruth was a member of the Wykoff Progress Club AKA the women who threw out tons of Ed's crap and organized it into something pretty amazing.
Ed Kreuger lived his whole life in Wykoff. For many of those years he ran a grocery store on Main street and lived in the apartment above. What made Ed special is that he NEVER threw anything away. Ed left all of his lifelong collections AND the contents of his store to the town with the stipulation that it all be made into a museum after his death.
The Wykoff Progress club has more than lived up to their part of the bargain. The women of the town spent two years cleaning out, getting rid of and organizing. Walking through the front door fo Ed's museum is walking through a portal into the past. Unlike other museums, everything is out to look at and touch (carefully!).
There are lots of old food packages, a player piano, toys, old candies and every LIFE magazine ever printed. Some of the more unusual things on display are Ed's gallstones (in a baby food jar) and his beloved cat (in a sealed box).
We all thanked Ruth for the tour and walked back to the Wykoff Tea house for lunch where we were embraced by a collection of town mothers and grandmothers as we headed out to our next destination...

The Jail Haus

After literally pulling the kids out of the Spam museum, we pushed on to the town of Wykoff Minnesota. A town ACTUALLY settled by Norwegian farmers. Wykoff has a population 450 and an active historical society run by what appears to be most of the grown women in the town. About 25 years ago the town realized they had no more use for their local two room jail, once used to house drunks and loud republicans. The women of the town decided to overhaul the building and transform it into a VERY unique B&B.
We found the one gift shop and tea parlor on Main street, met Maxine and got the key to the jail. It was a complete blast spending the night there. There were two rooms, one with a queen sized bed and the other with two bunks inside the jail cell (which could close but not lock). All of the bedding was black and white striped and the overall feel was cozy and from another time.
Vinny and I decided to take a walk around in the evening and realized we were in a really good place as the local diner had a sign welcoming Al Franken to the senate (finally!!!).
In the morning we were sent to the local diner for breakfast. Vinny was speechless when the waitress told him he could order anything he wanted! After a great breakfast, we headed over to Ed's Museum which really needs a post of it's own.

Spam?????

There is so much to catch up on! Twenty-four hours without wi-fi has been quite a challenge.

After leaving Wisconsin Tuesday morning we pushed through to Austin Minnesota to see the Spam Museum. We had NO IDEA how fascinating the history of Spam was! The museum is a little jewel tucked into the far corner of the Hormel home plant. It is colorful, informative, interactive, super child friendly and free. You could easily spend 3-4 hours just working your way through the exhibits. For those of you thinking the time change has caused temporary insanity... Did you know that during WWII the Hormel company donated millions of cans of Spam to feed American troops overseas, that there was a group of women called the "spamettes" who traveled through Europe entertaining the troops or that Hawaii consumes more Spam than any other state in the US AND that Obama has a favorite Spam dish from his childhood???!!!

The children had never tried Spam before, luckily there were many places nearby with special Spamtastic choices.

I've got it on good authority that Kerrie, Izzy & Vinny have run into some trouble along the way.
Yup, it seems they might have absconded with some contraband spam from the nearby Spam Museum (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2126) and the sherrif in Wykoff, Minnesota caught up with 'em.

It seems their high falutin gallavantin' and out of town license plate got them a room in the Graybar Motel! ( http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/13846)


Along with their stay in the hoosegow, they are sentenced to no internet access, and they have to straighten up the local museum. ( http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2136)

Bail is posted at at least 5 comments and 2 more followers on the blog!

Happy Belated Birthday Jean Louise!

Mountain biking

Wow, there is a lot to catch up on! The evening of the 4th was extra special as Joe bought a JUMBO package of fireworks! The kids ran up aqnd down the hill lighting fireworks named Mad Dog, Red Devil and Yellow Jacket (FYI they TOTALLY lived up to their names). Vinny tagged it as the "best ever"...
The next day Joe bravely (?) forged ahead and took all of the children except Quinn on a canoe/kayak excursion. The children spent the evening swimming in Lake Michigan.
The "anything goes" (haphazard??) spirit of our road trip provided us an opportunity to spend a few days with our good friends in Michigan and for that, we are grateful.
We left the McKenna's this morning at 6 and headed an hour north to catch the car ferry to Wisconsin...
The car ferry across Lake Michigan was really confusing and FILLED with action. Having long term experience with the car ferry to Nantucket provided no experience of familiarity. I drove up to the Badger was told to leave the car (running) anywhere near the entrance to the boat at which point a rotating group of running teenagers drove the cars on.
The boat ride itself was packed with activities. There were two breakfast buffets, an ongoing bingo game, a massage space, face painting, an American Idol contest, a movie theater and a cruise director running around sticking boat stickers on bald men's heads! Twenty minutes before docking there was an announcement that all snack bar food had been reduced to $1 which incited a group run down the starboard side. Everyone (including my kids seemed to be having a FANTASTIC time). I was very, very tired. It was clear within seconds that there would be NO napping. After the boat docked, getting the car back was equally random. About 200 people just stood around in a large parking lot as the running teens drove cars into the lot and just left them there idling.
Once in Wisconsin it was clear that my mapquest directions had n0t accounted for a major construction detour. I stopped and asked a very nice man at a garage for help. He gave me maps and went over the new directions a couple of times with me (I am always amazed at the extreme kindness of some strangers). I thanked him repeatedly and we hit the road, unfortunately our new route was all local roads and ended up taking us six hours instead of three. On the other hand, we did see a LOT of Wisconsin...

Burgers and cheese

A long rainy trip to Michigan was broken up by ANOTHER roadfood destination in Ann Arbor. I can't remember the exact name but Billie's Buster Burgers (???) was well worth the trip. We waited in a long line which enabled us to meet other foodies who had come to this same place through the "Diners. drive ins and dives" collective on the food network. These people had impressive organizational skills. When I mentioned an amazing dumpling place in NYC they all pulled out their i-phones and immediately jotted down the information! Anyway, the burger line was long but once you got to the front you had to quickly decide how many patties, what kind of cheese and what additional toppings you might want. The burgers were really good, memorable and greasy.

After we left Ann Arbor we had about another two hours or so to get to the McKenna's house. We arrived around dinner time. It was great to see everyone in their new Michigan setting and especially nice for me to sleep in a quiet room by myself for awhile.

This morning we headed out to a large farmer's market that had lots of good things for sale. The best stop was meeting the cheese lady. The cheese lady had a comprehensive collection of interesting cheeses and was passing out the samples quickly and with generosity.

Driving and more driving

It was time to leave WV this morning. We hugged the cipriani's good-bye, quickly stopped in at the visitor's center so that Vinny could take the junior ranger oath and hit the road for Akron Ohio.

Referencing Roadfood once again, we learned that there was a large group of Balkan immigrants who settled in the area during the 1920's some of whom were famous for their fried chicken dinner restaraunts. We ended up eating at one called Belgrade Gardens. It was an interesting place with lots of regional foods and an unusual style of fried chicken (see photo).

On the way back to the room a woman stopped me in the parking lot (she noticed my license plate) to tell me that she and her husband were returning from a road trip to Maine. She told me that she had always hoped to go to Maine but they never found the time or the money and now that their kids were grown...I asked her how the trip went and she told me it RAINED the entire time!

Tomorrow morning we are on the road again to Michigan to visit our friends.

Thank you everyone who has commented along the way. We are always happy to hear from you and feel that much more connected.



P.S. I'm trying a new picture posting strategy, let me know what you think...

Bacon, battlefields and visitors

We tried to grill bacon over a campfire this morning in the civil war spirit. Many of us went to Anteitam in the afternoon for a film and guided tour. Really interesting and REALLY depressing. Jean's sister and brother in law have joined us for the evening. What an amazing thing it is to be in West Virginia and surrounded by such good company.
Now a word from vincent- We were trying to make a campfire dessert, it started to rain, and Domenico was standing over the fire for ten minutes, and he tried to protect if from the rain... they burned:( While Domenico was standing over the fire trying to protect it, he tried blowing on it to make it stronger.

P.S. Jean, I was cracking up at the news that your new name is "Deborah", although your second note did clear up a LOT of confusion!