Where Are You From?

When we first began being full-time wanderers almost eight years ago, I couldn't figure out where we were from any more. We had left Albuquerque, our temporary "residence" address was an RV park in Kerrville, Texas, and nothing seemed like home. We were traveling in Pennsylvania where 1HW was going to "clock school" for a week near Lancaster, and a lady in an antique store was filling out a dealer form. She asked where we were from. I replied that I didn't exactly know. So she asked, "Well, Honey, where's your home?" When I answered we didn't have one, she replied, "Oh, you poor thing! You're HOMELESS!" Well, that brought a whole new set of ideas to mind! We actually DO have a home, only it's on multiple wheels and keeps moving. And we always feel at home whenever we visit any of the kids and grands. But it IS hard to name a state! Now we will have an address and residence in Texas, so I suppose we are Texans. But at Heart (from the Heartland), we sure are Huskers! I suppose we will enjoy the college sports of teams wherever we are and cheer them on.... unless they just happen to be playing Nebraska. On those days, it's on with the red shirts and sweaters with the Big Red "N's" on them, and cheers for the Husker team. Now, tomorrow is a game day, and here we are in the Ozarks, heading for east Texas. Do you think we can get THE game there? GO, BIG RED!

Where IS Carthage, MO?

Why did both of us think that Carthage, MO, was located on the Mississippi River? Was there something in Huck Finn about it being in that area? In any case, both of us were wrong, for it is located in the beginnings of the Ozarks, in the southwest corner of Missouri. In the past two days, we have actually learned quite a bit about the area, beginning with its distinction of having a major Civil War battle before the Battle of Bull Run, and its needing to be rebuilt subsequently as a result of the seige. It is also home to both Belle Starr (quite a juicy story!) and the Precious Moments Chapel, both of which we have checked out. Industries include a limestone quarry, a cold storage area in caves under the limestone, and much farming. Its Victorian heritage is obvious, from the beautiful Carnegie Library to the Jasper county Courthouse, complete with an OLD wrought-iron elevator with an operator. The cute town square area is languishing but had a terrific gourmet cuisine shop which even had Emeril's "liquid gold" truffle oil... for ONLY $48 a bottle! There are a bunch of fast-food places, few, if any, good restaurants, and a sports bar that serves ice-cold beer and a rib-eye dinner for $6.99... Not too bad! The people have been very friendly, love to talk a VERY long time, and many have missing teeth and bad grammar. Good thing we were not trying our Billy-Bob teeth here! So, having shopped at WalMart, improved their local economy by purchasing four RV batteries, and talked to the locals, we will be leaving this area tomorrow for East Texas Hill Country and Livingston, to collect our mail! More happy wanderings!

Delight-full!

One of the most amazing things as I get older, seems to be the way our children have grown up. If you read from daughter Kristy's blog (http://pronetowandercho.blogspot.com/), you can appreciate why I would say that. She quotes one her favorite columnists from World magazine, Andree Seu in a recent article.

"Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.
Give me your heart, my son,
And let your eyes delight in my ways."
Proverbs 23:25-26

"Delight is the most useless of things. It doesn't get the house clean or the bills paid. Useless—like flowers. Like rainbows. Like Beethoven's Ninth.Delight covers a multitude of parenting shortcomings. You may be too strict or too lenient and still come out all right, if you delight in your children. They will know it, for delight cannot be hidden. It finds excuse to ooze all over the place. It seeks a getaway vacation with the beloved when it's not convenient. It asks different questions than duty. Duty says, "I should." Delight says, "I want to." Duty is efficient. Delight tends to anything but."

Surely, Chuck and I are most blessed to have the most wonderful children and grandchildren ever, including our marriage-acquired children and grands as well, especially since two of them no longer have living parents. I most unabashedly say I truly do delight in all of them. Granted, they are no more perfect than the parents who have raised them, but I am quite sure they are much less flawed than we, for hopefully, they have learned from the many mistakes we made while raising them. I simply delight in watching and hearing about their activities, from playing in leisure moments to working at their many varied occupations; from car and bicycle racing to kayaking and camping; from singing and playing instruments to playing soccer, baseball, basketball, and volleyball; from having dinners with friends and holding family gatherings to going to their churches and developing their personal beliefs. Oh, my goodness, how independent and individual each one of them is! They are quite firm in their opinions and beliefs, ranging from quite liberal to quite conservative, with five different religious affiliations, and each child and grand seems quite ready to take a stand and throw out facts to back his/her position, regardless of age. Needless to say, we do not agree with many of those thoughts, and we have learned that it is far better to listen to what they have to say and hear out their postulations, rather than to argue, for sometimes we learn some new ideas which help us to form our decisions. For even though they often differ from my thoughts, I still delight in the fact that have such firm convictions and will strongly support them. I am quite sure that they often are annoyed with us, frequently do not understand us and what we do, and sometimes wish we would settle down and quit wandering. I am also quite sure that they do not realize how very much we love them and delight in them. I delight in their laughter, their love, their personal victories and growths, even as I grieve for their sorrows and worries, wishing I could take those problems away. I delight in their phone calls, their pictures, their hugs, and even in their emails! Would I spoil them rotten with special gifts if I could? Probably, I would try! But since we are definitely limited in that aspect, I will just continue to give them my love and delight in them as only a parent can. Will I continue to regard them as delightful, regardless? Absolutely! For as that verse in Proverbs requested, as far as these kids are concerned, thir mother and father are glad and rejoice in them! Indeed, I am absolutely full of delight in our children and so very blessed!

This Old House

When I was a kid, I remember an old song that Rosemary Clooney sang, "This Old House," which went, "This old house was filled with laughter, this old house was filled with light..." I guess that is how I will always remember this old house we have made into a warm, comfortable home here in Omaha. When we found it, it was awful! The beautiful woodwork had been decorated and covered over with frilly curtains, and the lovely hardwood floors were covered with a baby-poop brown colored carpeting which had died many years before. The stove was a '50's disaster with bare wires, and the sinks all had rust stains. That was just the beginning, but somehow, we saw what it COULD be, and loved it. Now, 3 1/2 years later, we are leaving it, a wise decision financially, but a difficult decision emotionally.

We have had so much fun here with all five children and with 11 of the 13 grands, as well. We have the memories of Mom making dozens of Christmas cookies with 5 grands, whereupon Kristy exclaimed, "I'm glad this isn't at MY house!" We've enjoyed backyard cookouts, gourmet dinners, many visitors, and exciting Husker games. We'll remember the doggies, Duffy, Bobby, and my dear puppy MacGregor. We've made pickles, jams, and brownies galore! We've snuggled before crackling fires, and fanned ourselves in the summer heat on a swing in the back yard. I've watched as Chuck developed a marvelous talent for creating stained glass art, and I've loved his teaching the grands how to do it, as well. What a pleasure it has been to cook a tableful of dishes for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter feasts! How much we have loved having Kristy, Tim, and the children over for an Italian spread or just for pizza! How much we will miss our Mondays with the youngest grands here! And how very much I loved my Mother's Day Surprise last year with Kim, Chuck, and the boys visiting! How special it has been to spend time with our dear friends, Rachael and Dennis and Harold and Beth, eating dinners, playing cards, and laughing beyond all measure. What fun it has been to watch children of all ages swing from the tree that Chuck risked life and limb to hang from a tall tree branch. There are so many delicious and wonderful memories, that one page cannot begin to describe them all.

So, this has been a difficult move, and one that will continue to give us countless lovely memories as we continue to wander on. SO, for those of you have shared our memories and joys here, we say a heartfelt and loving thank you! We hope you will let us wander into your lives some more, even after we have wandered on from Omaha!

As any member of this wanderin' family can tell you, there are two ways to head to the Southwest from Omaha. The scenic route leads west to Ogalalla, drops diagonally to Colorado Springs, and then heads down I-25 more or less straight to Albuquerque. The other route heads to Kansas and then picks up the OLD highway US 54, cutting through the Panhandle, and at Tucumcari, west on I 40 (Old Route 66) to Albuquerque. Now, why would anyone take the second path, one might ask. Although it takes nearly the same amount of time to travel either route, the US 54 way is about 100 miles shorter in distance, a big savings on gas mileage on a Labor Day weekend. It also has more places to stop on the way BACK from Albuquerque to Omaha. Now, on the way there, we stayed in Dalhart, Texas, which we do not recommend unless absolutely necessary. The place where we ate dinner on Sunday night has been there at least since 1964, when I first saw it, and the salt shakers are probably the same ones. One should think twice about eating at a restaurant that has a sign beside the front door which says, "I sold my cow, so I don't need your bull." Needless to say, one should also order a steak very rare there, as medium rare is really well-done. On the way back today, though, we decided to stop at Pratt (not Meade), Kansas, where we have stayed a number of times before, the Evergreen Motel. We first stayed here in the RV, as they have spaces to plug in out in the back, and we just plain liked the people here. So now, here we are tonight in the original motel, probably built in the Fifties, judging from the tiled floor and walls in the bathroom, which are sparkling clean. No complaints from us! They have upgraded these nice rooms for the new era, complete with refrigerators, microwaves, and EVEN wireless internet! (They even have adjoining rooms for kids, K & T.) We are HERE! It is quite neat, clean, and so totally American owned and operated, we could not be more pleased! And, to top it off, the Pratt High School young lady who checked us in, when we asked where to get a good steak, recommended Woody's Bar and Grill in town, where the rib-eyes were cooked to a perfect medium rare, and the beer was ice-cold! What more could one ask for after a long drive? Add Pratt to your places to stop on US 54, and tell 'em the Happy Wanderers sent you!

Success!

Well, I must tell you that it is quite fun to watch this whole stained glass artistry emerge into a full-flown business/vocation! At the gallery today, they absolutely LOVED his work! So now, 1HW is represented by a quite notable gallery in Albuquerque, which his business manager will most certainly add to his bio, with great delight! In short, they accepted 10 large works, 4 medium-sized ones, and a whole bunch of various suncatchers/ ornaments/ etc. 1HW was quite delighted by the whole process! So, tomorrow, we are supposed to head to their other shop in Old Town, which caters more to the tourist crowd, as they deal mostly with "locals." I do think they picked off the best ones, but we have the book of pictures just in case they would like some made, AND, we still have a bunch more to offer them! So it was a great trip! We have just finished helping clean up from the massive cooking on the outdoor grill for large numbers who congregated for the "draft" party for Jerry's Fantasy Football group. We think we even understand how Fantasy Football works now, although it boggles our minds that a bunch of grown-ups would spend so much time doing this. We think we will just stick with the BIG RED!!!!! Go, Huskers!

A Groupie

As so many of our friends and relatives know, it is really hard to be a groupie. You know, this following fame around everywhere... And it is especially difficult to be not only a groupie but also the business manager of one destined for stardom! Yes, I am speaking of my Sweetie, 1HW, newly discovered stained glass artisan! Gotta tell ya, it is one big, fat challenge to keep up with him! Just when I think I may have unpacked my bags for a week, there we are, back on the wanderin' road again. Now, you need to know, that when we are really seriously wanderin' all over the country in the RV, it is a pretty plush deal. I sit back in my comfort seat, reve the heat up on my achin' back, plug in earphones or put a CD in the computer, and off I go. I can even get up and move or stretch (there's even a clean bathroom!) and ease these arthritic bones. However, as much as I love our Trailblazer for everyday, ordinary around-the town-errands, these 1000 mile jaunts are getting to me! I mean, REALLY! I have only arranged two plugs for the computer and the GPS (fondly named "Maxine"), and there is barely room to hold the laptop without my legs overheating. So today (after a wee bit of a nap), I began my computer work, only to learn that the new Vista system does not make business cards. Now, that was a bit annoying, to say the least. So I tried Son-in-Law's Open Office system. That was designed for a REAL geek, not a pseudo-geek like me. (I had already tried to "borrow" a Microsoft Office download from a near and dear relative, but the computer kept complaining about it, so I deleted it.) Alas, I have not finished the label cards for the stained glass panels and have not finished new business cards for the maestro. Only one success was accomplished by this tired groupie today: a biography profile sheet. Looks pretty good, too, if I do say so myself! So, I guess it's off to whichever office supply shop is near tomorrow in Albuquerque to finally break down and BUY a Microsoft Office system. Could it be that Bill Gates is a part of a Capitalist plot? So, anyhow, Harold, thanks for leaving us with a few sips of Mondavi, the rest of which I enjoyed tonight! Cheers!