Catching Up

We took off from the Refuge on Friday at noon and landed safely in Roanoke at 3 PM. A quick outing to celebrate Favorite Niece's birthday (she's 18 - oh my) and a bit of a nap and at about 2 AM Saturday morning we were off heading west.

We made it to the Ancestral Homestead at about 6 PM local time. Favorite Niece learned to drive a stick in the Banana Boat on the way, so she is very pleased with herself. We left the Mustang at home this trip, Iowa is not a good place for rear wheel drive V-8 powered convertible cars in the wintertime.

Snow and ice on the roads in town, oh joy. I haven't had to deal with that in a while, and I suddenly remember some of the reasons I didn't head right back to the Midwest when I retired from the Navy. The Boat performed as well as expected, it is just as sure-footed in the slick stuff as I thought it would be.

We have a busy week ahead of ourselves, it is always good to see loved ones from far away and I plan on traveling a bit to see some of the uncles I haven't seen in a while. Everyone seems to be doing well.

On a side note, I missed the shindig in the Hoosier City this past weekend even though I was sort of in the area - at around 10:30 AM. Actually I was attempting to navigate my way around the Ohio River bridge being missing on I-64 in Louisville KY, but I did manage to make it on the road that way for a little bit during the detour. It looks like everyone had a good time.

And appropos of nothing I suppose, my last post was number 1000 here at the Refuge. You take your milestones where you can get them I guess.