Cross-country to Key West: To Wisconsin and beyond
As with our last trip around the US we headed to Appleton to see family. My sister and niece used to be the ones to see but my brother moved from Bermuda to here because there was family for my sister-in-law to pal around with. Also, he was able to get a home on the Fox River for a bit more than half of the median cost for a Seattle home. It's a nice LARGE home with plenty of room for the two of them. It's so large he and I only spent about 20 minutes, on our last night, to finally sit in the living room with a couple scotches. Most of our time was spent on the large back deck, enjoying the greenery until the mosquitoes drove us inside. He's getting bids for screening in the deck so they can use it more comfortably. Unless the wind is up and the skeeter coils working you can't stay out there once they find you. I wouldn't get bothered much until I turned on my iPad and the white screen really attracted them. There's a large swale/gulley in his back yard that runs down to the river. They have a plethora of wildlife as a result. Deer, turkey, raccoon, groundhogs and who knows what else. I keep telling them they have ready food for the table, but they insist they are "pets". Can't wait for them to get to close to a raccoon. I even found recipes for them in the Joy of Cooking. Our edition, its 40 years old, has recipes on pages 515 and 516 for raccoon, woodchuck, beaver, and armadillo. Not sure if or when I'll have a chance to try them. We took a day trip to Milwaukee to go to an Italian store my sister told us about, Glorioso's. It's a great store and deli with an excellent Italian wine selection. We found several Sicilian ones that we had when we were there a couple winters ago. Bene! I got a shot of the Brewers home field on the way.
After a week we headed south to Pissoria (Peoria) where I spent the first 25 years of my life. Went to see the living, and the dead. Had a couple meals with my niece, Deanna, including a dinner with her hubby, Tim and daughter, Libby. Libby's a champion baton twirler and may even find it provides some funding for college. I had no idea that was possible. We were able to catch my Aunt Jerre this time, unlike our last trip two years ago. She's my mother's youngest sibling and the last one still with us. She lives in the house she's been in for 60 years and, until a few years ago, used to drive to Florida in the winter to see her daughters in Jacksonville and Fort Myers. She's not driving down anymore but flying and renting a car. She takes a yearly driving exam and test so she can get around town for shopping when needed and when she can't anymore she's going to have her groceries delivered. She is a real inspiration to us "kids" and our kids.
When in Peoria we always visit graves, and friends. This time we took time to find the graves of my grandparents in the old Catholic cemetery. We left flowers there as well as my parents' sites. On a happier note we met John and Joanne Martin for dinner at their house. We make a point of seeing them since John was my best friend in high school and actually kept a fake biography that I sent back for a 25th reunion booklet from being used. Damn! I wanted them to have the false facts, just to screw with them. It started with "When I got out of prison for organized crime activities..." and went downhill from there.
On the way down we dropped off the freeways at Hennepin, IL since I had never been there and we had plenty of time. There is a canal between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers that starts at Hennepin. It's from the 1800's and was expected to do for Northern Illinois what the Erie Canal did for Northern New York. It never really had much economic impact but the old town was picturesque with old brick buildings. The real impact is the flatness of the country for someone from the Northwest. And the corn. If it ain't corn it's soybeans putting nitrogen back into the soil in order to grow corn the next year. We've seen corn across and down the country on this trip but the microclimate up by Hennepin was great for corn this year. Some was over 12 feet tall.
As you can tell from the date of this post it's weeks since my last one and I've got lots of stuff to blog about but the wifi in motels is usually pretty slow and every time I get this laptop out there are endless updates to load AND photos take forever over small pipes.
We've gotten through Louisville, Findlay, OH, Philadelphia, North Carolina, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando and Key West since then so there's lots more photos but tonight we have to eat, shower and sleep. I've been at this for 3 hours so far and tomorrow we're off to NOLA. Hopefully I can get some time there over the next 4 nights.
Ciao for now.