Hi.

I am woefully behind on letting people in on our travels. I am going to zip through some months to catch everybody up on our whereabouts.

The last half of October we spent in Oregon viewing magnificent Mt. Rainier, watching the fall foliage glow with rich color and finding wonderful farmer’s markets to get local fruits, vegetables and huge bouquets of flowers at great prices.

We arrived in Ramona, a nice town not too far from San Diego, on October 31^st. We stayed through the middle of November and spent some wonderful hours visiting with my son, John, and his wife, Kathy. Several of these days we moved in with Aunt Milly. She is a perfect hostess. On Friday evening she had her grown children and their kids over for dinner. It was great having so many cousins together at once.

San Diego has some fantastic museums all located together. A combination ticket gets you entry to all of them for a reasonable price. We particularly liked the Museum of Man, Aerospace Museum and the Automobile Museum. One afternoon we went with John and Kathy to the Cabrillo National Monument. The day was clear and sunny so the view from the lighthouse was great for seeing the coast and the skyline of the city. They took us to a specialty dessert restaurant. My oh my oh my.

Our next stop was Las Vegas. Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving with fellow travelers at the RV Park Mitch was in the hospital. On the 26^th the surgeon went to take his gall bladder with a laparoscope and ended up opening Mitch up to remove a very unhealthy, gangrenous, non functioning gall bladder. Mitch ended up in critical care in an induced coma and on a ventilator. It was frightening at the time but he has recovered well. We stayed in Las Vegas much longer than planned.

Mitch’s son, Barry, came from Pennsylvania for a quick trip at the end of December. His visit was really good for our spirits and we missed him when he left.

New Years came and went. January 5^th through the 13^th I was in Jacksonville, Florida to see my Mother, sister, Rhoda, and the newest member of the family, James Leonard London. He is a cute and happy toddler.

With the blessings of Mitch’s doctors we left Las Vegas on January 16^th. It was nice to be on the road again. Our first stop was in the Mesa, Arizona area. We saw friends from Canada, Derry and Shirley. We went shopping and helped Mitch’s daughter, Sherri, choose a brand new car. Peter and Diana, friends from British Columbia, were also in the area. The last visit was with Betty Tichenor, my mother-in-law of many years. She is in assisted living and getting mentally foggy but we had a nice “remember when” kind of chat.

Casa Grande is a nice sized community with lots of RVers. We spent a couple of weeks unwinding and visiting with Peggy and Jerry. We worked with them for 3 years in New Hampshire at Storyland. I got lots of puppy love from their 3 dogs.

The next stop was February 13^th in El Paso, Texas. Donna has been pal and confidant of mine since 1968. We got to help her move into her new and very nice home.

San Antonio is one of our favorite cities in Texas. The missions are awe inspiring as well as the aqueduct. The river walk is modern and fun for people watching. We went to the zoo and had a good day. My birthday was celebrated at La Paloma Blanco. It was yummy but we were a bit chagrined to find out that we went to the wrong one that had been previewed online. Trust San Antonio to have 2 restaurants of the same name just blocks of each other.

As often as we stay in Florida we had never seen Tallahassee. We really liked the Museum of Florida History that has a quality audio tour. Mission San Luis covers a lot of native Indian history and their semi forced assimilation into Spanish ways and the Catholic religion. The council house alone is worth the tour.

Our last stop before heading to Kissimmee, Florida and Ponderosa RV Park was in Jacksonville. It was a rare occasion. My sister, Susan, and her husband, Jack were in town. My other sister, Rhoda, lives in Jacksonville. My mother was also there. It was the first time all three sisters and our mother were all together since Mitch and I married in 1999.

We arrived in Kissimmee on March 17^th just in time to attend the St. Patricks dinner and dance. It was a nice way to say hi to our many friends.

This is a good stopping point in this narrative. I’ll send out another section in about a week. We hope everyone is well and enjoying what comes their way.