Home Sweet Home

We are home safe and sound after an almost perfect trip. We totaled over 4,000 miles of driving. Our itinerary: Home, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington (NC), Williamsburg, Wilmington (VT), Monroe (CT), back to Wilmington, Harrisburg (PA), Lenoir (NC), Jacksonville, Gainesville, HOME.

We had great weather the whole trip. We hit misty rain in upstate NY on the drive home and a little rain in Gainesville also on the way home. We had the delightful problem of having to adapt our picture taking to bright sunlight and blue skies. This is in sharp contrast (pun intended) to last year where it rained or was cloudy every day in Wilmington. The only sun we saw last year was in Northern VT on 1 day.


We saw a good portion of our relatives. The only people we missed were my cousins on the Lenart side of the family. They had medical emergencies to deal with. This is what lowered our trip rating to almost perfect. Everybody we hoped would show up at Donna’s did. We found out that even some of them, who live within 10 miles of one another hadn’t seen each other since the memorial service. So whether you live 10 or 1200 miles away you still get all wrapped up in your personal life and don’t make seeing relatives a priority. It’s human nature, a little sad but the way things are. I intend to follow this blog with more detail on our visits.

Savannah was beautiful. I found that I enjoyed Charleston even more. Colonial Williamsburg was interesting. Vermont was its usual outstanding self. The colors were not as vivid this year but we did have sun and blue skies. We did our usual “pick a road and drive down it and see what we discover” routine and VT did not disappoint us. The only disappointment there was that Ben & Jerry’s no longer distributes their ice cream 2nds. We had the added bonus of seeing Marty at the cabin. Penny made sure he ate well while we were there.

On the way up and back we stopped in at Christy’s work to help her recover office chairs. We also saw and rode in Christy’s new car – very nice. And we met Christian, Christy’s boyfriend (and like him). Christy watched our cats for us. We were worried about the Brie Factor (see earlier blog article) but we didn’t have to. Since our return Brie has been affectionate, less aloof and not so spastic. I did upset her however with a laundry basket. I came in the room and set it on the floor while I tried to pet her. She got very alert and kept watching the basket. I finally realized that the basket resembles the cat carrier we put her in to travel. She was worried about another trip.


On another cat note, my cat feeder MOD III worked! It successfully fed Marmalade and the kitten for the full time we were gone. It’s just another indication of how well this trip went. Interestingly enough, this morning the dispenser used up the supply of food I put in it. How perfect is that! As I write this Brie is pestering me for attention.

The house was still here when we got home. Apart from a few spider webs in the corner of the sink everything was as we left it. The sprinkler timer worked so what lawn we have didn’t die. The cat feeder worked. We had stopped our mail and newspaper but the paper still came. Our neighbor greeted us with an armload of newspapers. The mailman filled our mailbox completely today with our held mail.

So now it is time to do laundry, organize pictures and send them out, do thank you notes, sort mail, pay bills, and remember fondly a wonderful vacation. (Brie has just stepped on the keyboard adding the number”65” in front of thank you notes. I had to delay my typing because she then proceeded to wrap herself around my hand and the mouse. She came to rest with her cheek on the right click button, her chin on the roller ball and her hair fouling any possibility of using the mouse. She keeps clicking the right mouse button and bringing up that menu. I think she wants attention.)