Verity White Elephant Christmas Party

What a fun time.....Todd and Shannon had a great party this past Saturday. Great food, fun game (Doug and I tied with Harry for a three way win), surprised even us with what we know about Christmas. Of course we couldn't have gotten all the reindeer names without Amber, plus a few other questions. The white elephant exchange was a blast with me taking the best gift from Todd and then Shannon's Uncle taking it from me...darn. I still ended up with a beautiful three wick candle and Todd with a Rubik's Cube (snicker snicker, sorry Todd) Doug got a nice bottle of wine. Adam got glasses and a bottle of Bailey's Mint that I'm sure he will keep until his 21st birthday or regift it. And yes I still believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. The food was wonderful and everyone ate to their fill. Doug and I were worried when we went to Weight Watchers this morning but were able to show a small loss.
Packed and ready to leave for Washington on Wednesday. Doug's cousin Allen and wife Diane are here and will drive us to Tampa to catch our flight. Todd was going to drive us but is having a minor (we hope) procedure on his back that morning and we don't want him driving that far to mess anything up. We hope this will help and he won't have to have an operation, would like to see him be able to walk without pain.

Home2 Remodel

It's been awhile since my last post and no excuse except we have been busy. First was the cleaning and getting home2 ready for some easy living, which we are still waiting to do. After all the dust was removed we decided that tiling the front room/kitchen, hall, guest bath and utility room would be our next project. Spent a few weeks looking at tile colors, sizes and talking with the "experts" at Home Depot and Lowe's before deciding on a medium sand color and mosaic center piece for the front entry way. The guest bath and utility will be our learning experience since the only floors we've ever tiled were two bathrooms in San Diego and Bryan's bathroom in Renton. Have taken out the washer/dryer and guest toilet and put down the backer board, we laid down a pattern in the bath and Doug has been tweaking it for a couple days. Today is the day we will lay the mud and set the tiles, we're excited to get our first room finished.

We understand that Doug has a cousin in the area and a couple more on their way, we are excited to have some company. Lots to do see and do here and around Sarasota so hope to have a lot of company plus it will give us a reason to put our tiling tools away and take a break so remember we have an exta bedroom and the door is never locked.

Home2 again, Home2 again

Well here we are, and yes we did arrive on schedule. After leaving Locust Grove, GA we drove 476 miles in 7 hours and pulled into our driveway at 4 p.m. We drove 3788.5 miles with a total driving time of 64 1/2 hours. Since we were only in WA 3 1/2 months I told Doug it almost feels as if we never left. Doug stacked everything from the car in the middle of the front room so he could take these pictures. Everything is now unpacked, put away and we are starting to settle into home2.

Had dinner at Todd and Shannon's last night, and it was a very tasty low-fat spaghetti with salad. Told him the competition was back on and we would have them to dinner next Saturday. Now I have to come up with a delicious low-fat meal........any ideas????

Another Long Day

Have to back up a bit here and go back to last night.......Doug and I had a nice dinner at a place called O'Charleys which is a knock off of Applebee's and Chili's and went back to our motel room and found that the lights we had left on were off. Tried all light switches and nothing worked, looked at the other customer rooms and they all had lights, so Doug went to the office and it took awhile but we finally got lights. The next morning we went to Starbucks for coffee, bagels, and a newspaper. We read the paper and found that a man had murdered his step-father two night before by stabbing him 40 times and big surprise they found the killer at the motel we were staying at. We decided that tonight we would spend a little more money and stay at a motel with a little higher clientele.

Today was a 8 1/2 hour 550 mile drive. Weather has warmed quite a bit, Doug put on long pants in Minot and took them off today, 10/22, he does not plan on putting them back on for a very long time. Still has a little color on his legs so not to bad.

Stopped in Berea, KY today to see the Boone Tavern Hotel which is on the Berea College campus. Berea College is for students who can not afford to go to college, they pay no tuition but have to work on the campus to pay their way. The college is over 100 years old and the buildings are beautiful, big brick structures. This is the second college that has no tuition we have visited, the first was in The Ozarks outside of Branson. What an opportunity for family's who can not afford to send their children for an education and to break the cycle of poverty

If all goes according to plan we will be in Sarasota tomorrow evening.

October colors

Long day today, 600 miles in 9 hours. Spending the night in Miamisburg, OH just south of Dayton. First 100 miles where in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and it was dark and rainy. We've been very disappointed in the fall colors on the trip, understand that it got so cold early that most leaves just froze and then dropped. We had a short detour on HWY 2 for bridge repair and lo and behold it was beautiful. The pictures don't show the true colors as it was overcast and raining, bright yellows and oranges, mellow greens, and muted reds. Made HWY 2 worth the frustration.

We are now back on "schedule".

Family Pictures from Canada

Cousin Ray

Aunts Joyce and Doreen (sisters who married Verity brothers)

Ray's wife, Joan, and cousin Joyce's husband Terry

Doug's Mom

Uncle Ken and Aunt Ruth with Doug

Day 4, Tuesday

419 miles today, not making much in mileage but we did get to Norway today!! Norway, MI that is. Lots of little towns that slow us down to 25 miles an hour, and two lane road that doesn't want you to go over 55, think NOT. Of course have to keep it down some as each of these little towns does have it very own cop sitting in his patrol car with the radar gun trained on traffic. We're almost 100 miles behind schedule but keep remembering we are retired and really not on any schedule.

Spending the night in Manistique, MI, a cute little resort town right on Lake Michigan.