I've been mostly 'unplugged' for the past week, hopscotching through America's heartland. We headed north from Texas through Oklahoma for an overnight stop in Kansas at Kenny and Cathy's house (Tom's oldest brother) where we got a 'two-fer'... #4 brother Steve and his girls were there on their way home to Montana from Florida.
Cornfields, barns and Chicago - that pretty much sums up the next day, a long, long, LONG 15-hour-drive through Missouri and Illinois, ending in Whitelaw, Wisconsin, home of Tom's cousin Sue. We spent four days there swimming in Sue and Ron's pond, attending their daughter Sarah's wedding (yes, there was music and dancing!), driving through the countryside, wading in Lake Michigan, exploring Manitowoc, where Tom's dad grew up, and just reconnecting with the Wisconsin Shallue's.
I took tons and tons of pictures but haven't had time to retrieve them from my camera; the past two mornings my cell phone alarm has gone off way earlier than I even want to remember so that we could hit the road and be home in time for the Girl's class this evening.
We took a different route this time, through western Wisconsin to Iowa, down the western edge of Missouri to Kansas City and back to Ken and Cathy's in Wichita, shaving almost three hours off the trip - enough for a quick game of cribbage and a few hours of sleep. We promised one day we'd come back for longer than a pitstop on our way to and from somewhere else.
We arrived home in time for me to unpack, eat lunch, start laundry, dote on Belle and Max a bit, clean off my desk (a week's worth of mail! Fun!) and then jump back in the car to head up here to the college. Maybe, maybe I'll have a little time to work on my book, but I'm afraid it might take the next few hours to just catch up on email.
Pictures will have to wait till tomorrow.