We have arrived

September 9, Tuesday, we spent the night at a suburb of Iowa City called Coralville after driving 420 miles from Nebraska last night. Will be crossing the Mississippi River this morning at Davenport. Tuesday, September 9th, we went to the Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska and had a great visit, sorry, forgot to take a picture and pictures of the exhibit were not allowed. Also visited a couple of shops on the way.

Moving truck arrived in Bristol and Mimi and Mark are in he process of directing where to put things, either upstairs or in the basement. All done by 1pm.

Iowa wins the prize for prettiness and for the rest areas. Iowa is not flat but has lots of rolling hills full of soybeans, corn, and more corn and it’s green!! Why am I mentioning the rest stops? Hot water in restrooms and it’s inside a heated window and they have free wifi!
Had lunch at Dave’s Famous BBQ in downtown Omaha since we are in Omaha, Vicki had the pulled pork sandwich, I had the brisket sandwich, and Jeri had catfish fingers. Lunch was just enough to satisfy and delicious.

Will see what Iowa City has to offer this morning and looking forward to crossing the Mississippi where the river runs east to west. Davenport is famous for Bix Biederbeck, Mark Twain, and their jazz music festivals.  

September 10, Weds.

Left this morning to drive the final leg to Bristol all thru Illinois. Drove to Davenport to visit the Mississippi River at the levee. There's a skybridge at the waterfront near the old downtown where the pictures above were taken looking toward Illinois. We saw 2 riverboat casinos by the water. Davenport has about 100,000 pop and was apparently voted in 2007 as the most livable small city. Went to Subway and took our lunches to eat on the benches in front of the river. Crossed the river into Illinois on the Mississippi and we were able to cross Illinois into Indiana in one day.

80 is south of Chicago, but the traffic is still bad, 1st real traffic we encountered. The first toll in Illinois to get onto the toll road was 65 cents. Arrived at Mimi's and Mark's house around 7-8 o'clock, would have arrived earlier if we hadn't encountered traffic. We were all happy to get here safely. Before we drove to the house we went to my lot and we saw 9 deer in the meadow which was very exciting, maybe not when they show up in my garden.

Grand Island, Nebraska

Drove from Laramie, Wyoming across Nebraska today, Laramie is cowboy country and where Butch Cassidy was imprisoned, the territorial prison is now a musum. Visited a quilt shop in Kimble, Cheyenne and Ogalala. The owner in Cheyenne gave us a good referral to a cafe called "Egg and I" in town and we all had a good breakfast. While in that shop she told us about a quilt museum in Lincoln, which Vicki knew about but forgot was on our way. So we trying to get to the quilt museum tomorrow morning by going as far as possible today since we discovered it was closed today.

Nebraska is rolling hills western part of the state and in the eastern part flatter. Lots of corn, alfafa, and more corn. When we left this morning it was overcast and we had some rain along the way. Sky was beautiful with big fluffy clouds, very different from California. Temperatures are cool, glad we had our jackets, 1st day we didn't use the air conditioner in the car. No more brown, we are now seeing green hills and green grass. We passed several museums we couldn't get to such as the Geological Museum at the Museum of Wyoming (dinosaurs) and an old car museum (antique cars) in Nebraska.

We are staying the night at a town called Grand Island at a Holiday Inn Express. Didn't seem much in this town so thought we would be able to get a room easily. Turns out there is a big agricultural show this week and all the hotesls are full, but the clerk called another Holiday Hill about 20 miles away. When Vicki got on the phone found out that there was only one bed. Meanhile the other clerk said she just got a cancellation so now we are a room with a king and a sofa bed. Boy are we lucky or not!! Room is very comfortable and only $110.

Where's the island in Nebraska? Apparently there used to be an island called Grande Isle formed by the north and south Platte rivers, back from the time of the french trappers. The isle disappeared when one of the rivers were dammed for flood control.

Plan to leave tomorrow to drive to Lincoln so we can visit the quilt museum at 10am when it opens.

Discovered what the fence like things along the freeway are. We thought they had something to do with snow, and got this confirmed by the quilt owner in Cheyenne. They are there to help keep blowing snow off the freeway and the railway tracks. Kind of weird that they are at some places and not at others and they are angled differently, had to do with the direction of the wind. At the freeway entrances there are gates which someone closes to prevent cars from driving onto the freeway when closed because of snow.

Also found out why there are so many places named after Lincoln and a hugh statue of Lincoln's head on somewhere before Cheyenne. Highway 30 used to be called the Lincoln Highway and head marked the place on I80 where the highway was highest.

We might spend several hours in Lincoln and then make our way across Iowa, we will see how far we get since there are a lot of quilt shops in Iowa. United Van Lines will be showing up tomorrow at 8am in Bristol with my stuff. Perfect day since Mark will be off. Driver told her he may have to back up the truck all the way into the cul-de-sac, will be interesting.

Sunday night in Laramie, Wy

We are spending the night at a Hilton Garden Inn in Laramie, Wyoming. Will be in Cheyenne tomorrow morning and hit some quilt shops. Laramie is a college town so it's kind of fun to see all these young college students. Had dinner at a restaurant right across from the hotel at McAllister's which had very good food. It seemed to be a college handout and just recently opened. Food was good and not expensive, should do very well with students. Jeri had a monster spud she couldn't finish (enough for 3 of us) we took back to the room in case we want to have it for breakfast.

Drove this morning from Salt Lake after visiting Temple Square, we did our own tour and had a 20 min tour of Brigham Young's home with 2 yound ladies, one from Arizona and one from Somoa. He had 56 children.

After leaving Salt Lake, drove across Wyoming, not much in Wyoming either, but very interesting terrain, cross the continential divide at 6920' high.

Tomorrow plan to be in Cheyenne by 10:00am to visit some shops.

Saturday night in Salt Lake

We are spending our 2nd night at the Embassy Suites in downtown Salt Lake City about 1 mile from the Mormon Temple. Got to Salt Lake Salt Lake Area about 2pm today after leaving Winnemucca this morning at 7am. We visited 3 shops in the area until we were pooped.

Treating ourselves to a little luxury tonight with free drinks, free breakfast tomorrow morning, and a very nice room with each of us having our own bed. All 3 of us had the seafood spaghetti at the hotel restaurant and it was yummy, since we ate early and the only customers for awhile, had lots of attention.

The quilt shops here have a lot of baby fabric, more than I have seen at any other shops, probably because families have lots of kids.

Tomorrow, we plan to have a leisurely breakfast, check out and visit the temple square. Then we will be heading out of town out of I80 going northeast toward Wyoming. There may be 1 or 2 shops in Wyoming opend on Sunday, but we are planning Sunday as a driving day through Wyoming and will probably be in Nebraska before we stop somewhere for the night.

First day on the road on 80 to Indiana

Left this morning on our trip, met Vicki and Jeri at Kaiser So Sacramento, visited our first quilt shop in Truckee and another shop in Reno. I asked the quilt owner in Truckee to take our picture, but it didn't turn out that well (my eyes were closed and image blurry) , so not posting it. We are trying to pace ourselves and not go wild at any of the shops. Tonight we are staying at a Best Western in Winnemucca, Nevada, went about 370 miles today. . No quilt shops here. Planning an early night and a early start tomorrow.

Hope to be in Salt Lake City by middle of afternoon tomorrow so we can hit some shops in Salt Lake since shops most likely will be closed on Sunday. Not much here to see in Nevada except desert, so after we leave Utah, the landscape should get better. Rest stops in Nevada sure doesn't measure up to California standards.

Indiana, here we come!

A lot has happened since my last post. I have officially retired and have sold my house.  I didn't expect the house to sell very quickly since the market has been so weird.   But houses seem to be selling though at much lower prices.   Rather than waiting till later to sell and risk the prices going down even more, decided to put the house on the market.  Better to take the money and run.  I seem to move about every 10 years, and have lived in this house only 7 years, but it's time to move on with my life and let go.  

Escrow is scheduled for next Thursday.   Movers are coming Wednesday and taking my stuff to Mimi's house,  will move into their guest room and store my stuff in their basement until I build my new house.  Will be an adventure, but I still plan to maintain a residence in California, so will not be living full time in Indiana.   

So this Friday morning,  I will take off for a 2100 mile road trip to Indiana.  Meeting Vicki and Jeri at Kaiser So Sac and take I80 all the way to Bristol, Indiana.   Good time for a road trip, gas prices are down, school is back in session, and temperatures lower.  With my GPS, map of the US, and our Quilter's Directory, we are so ready. There are quilt shops all along the route (not that we really need anything, but...) .  

 It's really nice that I will have company along for the trip and we always have fun together.  After seeing Amish country, they will fly back from Chicago to Oakland.   I'm looking forward to our trip and being with the grandkids.  

If I can get internet access on the road, will try to post updates and pictures.   

Pictures of the Indiana property

Since I haven't figured out how to manipulate the pictures yet, here is the key to the pictures above. My lot is at the right at the end of a cul-de-sac. It's big. All the lots have been sold around me but no one has started to build yet.

Picture #1 View from right stake, left stake is visible

Picture #2 View from left stake toward lot

Picture #3 View of sold sign, Mimi's house is behind the woods on the left

Picture #4 View from right rear stake along rear line toward woods, lot extends into woods about 20 feet

Picture #5 View from rear of lot toward street, the sign is visible

Picture #6 View from right stake toward lot

You can see recent pictures of the grandkids on Mimi's blog and an update on what happened during my visit.

htp://mimishcramm.blogspot.com/

A long vacation

These are pictures from from my garden.  May 6, Tuesday was my last work day, taking all my 

vacation days until July 8th when I will go back for my last work day.  Hard to believe I have only been off for 3 work days.  Have gotten a lot of work done around home.  Worked in the garden each day for a couple of hours grooming, pruning, and cleaning up debris.  Cleaned out the garage and re-organized everything. Cleaned the house, cleaned out the clutter from the guest room. 

New project is to organize all my photos and Jim's old photo.  Detached all the photos from the old albums (pre-acid-free days).  Number of photos are overwhelming but I will make the time to organize it.  Some of the old photos from Jim's family may have to toss if Aimee didn't write anything about it on the back.  Don't see too much value in blurry pictures I have no clue who it is or where it is and don't think anyone else will know anymore.  

Also found slides and pictures of Danielle and her mother, may consider sending them to her and she can do what she wants with them.  

Meanwhile getting ready for my party next Saturday.  Hope the cherry tree will still have cherries left by Saturday. Hung strips of aluminum foil where I can reach it, heard the the flashing of the strips will scare the birds away.  Will be fun for the kids to pick cherries off the tree like we did in Fresno. Don't think it is a Bing, might be a Van. Planted 2 trees 5-6 years ago, one died, and I didn't think this one would fruit without another variety, but for the 1st time, there's a respectable crop on the tree.  Roses are in bloom. Still oranges to be picked. Quince tree is full, still need to plan to prop up branches before the fruit gets bigger. Plums are still green.  Persimmon tree has fruit finally,l will be interesting to see how many fruits I will get.  Now that the trees are getting bigger, I will have to consider taking some things out since the trees are shading them.  

1 week to go

1 week to go until I retire. Went to Indiana earlier this month for Luke's "take your grandparent" to pre-school event and got to spend the morning with him and his classmates. Interesting that I wasn't the only Asian, there was another grandmother there who looked like she was Philipina. Otherwise the other grandparents were pretty white and a lot older. Believe Luke was very happy to have me along. During that week had an opportunity to see the house Mimi and Mark are buying in Bristol. House is going thru escrow now and looks like will be a done deal. While there, looked at a couple of lots near their house I may built on. One we liked, but was sold after we made an offer. The other lot I just sent in with a deposit to hold the lot for 30 days. This lot is behind their house and bigger than I wanted, but if the deal goes thru, I will have almost an acre of meadow land. When I build will have to be at least at a minimum a 2,600 sq ft ranch. But think about the garden I can have! Weather was kind of confusing when I was rain, snow, cold, then sunny. Spring is really late in the midwest, trees were just starting to bud out while in California, my roses have bloomed. If I have a nice warm house and my grandchildren up the hill, I think I can deal with the non-California weather.

First posting

Since I will be retirning in about 2 months, I create this blog so those of you who might be interested in what I'm doing to keep busy and to keep in touch. I'm assuming I will have more time to figure out how to do this. The blog will give me an opportunity to keep writing once I'm no longer working on a computer all day. I will have to figure out how to post pictures.

This is a link to Mimi's blog where she had posted some pictures of the kids when they were out here visiting me 1st week in March. Mark was here for an ortho conference in SF so I had the kids all week including Mimi, Mark, Noelle and her dog Opal.

http://mimischramm.blogspot.com/