October, scary because we need to reform our ice cream binging.

Ron and his bride in Vermont, 2024

18 Oct:  Celebratory dinner for Erika with Eric and family.

16 Oct:  Time for Ron's pacemaker test; let's hope he passes.  

13 Oct:   Cynthia's appointment with the physical therapist only 1/2 mile away.  We could walk if Cynthia could walk.

12 Oct:   Sleep is good stuff. 

11 Oct:  We slept and slept some more but didn't get much rest in the smaller bed.  At noon we exercised, ate breakfast, and arose.  (Cynthia says that it is tough work sleeping in a queen-size bed with a giant.)  Cynthia’s head cold is a bit better, and she is walking a bit better.  It is so peaceful at Lake Carlyle.  The Lea Book sizes are now corrected to 8.5x11 and that size should be ready for publication in a couple of weeks.  We ate a late lunch at Los Amigos, and Ron enjoyed a tamale for the first time in forever.  Ron dabbled in James Lea again for an hour or two before walking to Walmart again for old fashioned oatmeal to keep his bride happy.

10 Oct:  We stopped at Ruby Tuesday for one more lovely salad before riding out of Litchfield towards Hillsboro, through Donaldson and Greenville to the Mariner's Village Inn at Lake Carlyle.  Raj & Pam welcomed us back.  Then we napped.  Ron walked to Wally World for groceries and came back with everything needed.

9 Oct:  Cynthia stayed in bed with Rinoallergies.  Maybe this is a head cold?  She coughed most of the night.  This is indeed awful and compounded by the hip pain too.  Ron brought hot oatmeal, a scone, fresh fruit, and a cup of coffee from the hotel breakfast bar.  Carol came to town to pick Ron up at 9 AM and showed him all the pictures that Bob Craig had left with her a month ago.  Such fun looking at old Beatty family photos.  Carol even fed Ron and Bill lotsa lunch; salads and veggies.  Cynthia prepared more oatmeal at 12:45 PM.  Now, she and her sore hip and major headache are going to try to sleep!  Carol returned Ron to Litchfield at 3 PM so that Ron & Cynthia could enjoy another Ruby Tuesday meal.

8 Oct;  We had lunch with Carol and Bill at Ruby Tuesday.  Carol brought the printed Volume One, and we were astonished that it is only 6x9 instead of the intended 8.5x11.  AuthorHouse will revise/resize it to 8.5x11.  Later in the afternoon, Ron rode out to the farm to see his sister and Bill, and Cynthia took a nap at the hotel.  Her cold/ allergies have worsened.  Sistah Carol fed Ron a wholesome dinner of salmon, broccoli and sweet potato.  Great news, Cynthia can stop worrying because the deposit arrived at the bank.

7 Oct:  Up early to the sounds of rain.  After breakfast, we rode to Litchfield.  Ron was delighted with the scenery on the smaller, familiar roads that we took.  We arrived in mid-afternoon and enjoyed an early dinner with Carol and Bill at Ruby Tuesday.  Cynthia’s cold/allergies are somewhat improved with RX nasal spray.  Hip pain is not improved after sitting on a hard chair yesterday at lunch in Bonaparte.  Route, same as last year: US 218 into Keokuk, US 136 (crossing Mississippi River) 3 miles to a R on IL 96 S  (don't miss the 2nd Right) 28 mi to a L on US 24 S (before Quincy) 3 mi to a R on I-172 E for 20 miles continuing onto I-72 for 55 miles to a R on US 67 S just west of Jacksonville, 4 miles to a L on Woodson-Winchester road 4 miles to a R on IL 267 S 22 mi to & through Greenfield, Illinois, L onto IL 108, 22 mi to R on I-55 S 7 miles to Litchfield (best route)

6 Oct:  Off to Keosauqua to visit cousin Rex.  Finding Danielle and five BIG dogs at the house was quite the surprise. Rex, Danielle and the dogs are there to take care of his father, cousin Rex, who cheerfully replies that he is alive and well.  Marvin and Doris picked us up to take us to lunch at the Bonaparte Retreat (click here).  Cousin Sharon joined us there, and we all enjoyed a comfortable conversation.  Sharon says that her sister Carolyn took a photo of the piece of lumber with the name "William Beatty" that came to light during the remodel.  We called Scott since Cynthia won't ride out the gravel road to his house, but he declined to come into town to see us, so we were able to leave in late afternoon and arrive in Keokuk, Iowa before dark, laid down in bed, and slept for a couple of hours.  Ron then rode to the gas station, to ALDI for raspberries, and to Walmart for air in the tires.  We then enjoyed sleep, lots of asleep.

5 Oct, Sunday:  We left "early" (before noon) and arrived in Fairfield before dark.  The Super 8 is not a bad motel and is conveniently close to a Walmart that sells blueberries, raspberries and bananas.  We went to sleep early and enjoyed our sleep.

4 Oct:  This was an exciting morning watching Kole play football.  He caught a pass for a "first down," sacked the quarterback and pursued runners all over the backfield.  Best friends Cynthia and Ann were so very happy to see each other that we are elated that we went.  Jerry and Betty picked us up for the class reunion luncheon, thanks to Dave and Annie.  Roy's daughter brought him down from Pine Mont, MN, and Myra made it out, looking good and still very comfortably mobile.

3 Oct:  We were up early to see Dick and Jane at 9 am - - - except they read the blog last night and thought that tomorrow meant Saturday.  All was not lost.  They showed up about 11 am, and we spent hours enjoying conversation.  After they left, Cynthia screwed up her courage, and the two of us walked across the road to Subway for dinner.  After our subs, we walked an extra mile getting back to our room, by which time Cynthia's pain was tolerable.

2 Oct:  We got in gear by 1 pm to walk over to the Iowa Welcome Center and enjoyed talking to Charlie Henderson.  Cynthia found lots of interesting cards to send to the great-grandchildren.  We continued walking from there and are really quite pleased that Cynthia was walking more easily today, Thank God.  Ron has been pushing forward on the Volume 2 indexing.  We enjoyed another delightful visit with Dave and Pat over dinner this evening at the Woodfire Grill in the Casino.  We had way too much adult conversation about medical afflictions, but after an hour of that we segued into talking about children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren until Pat's pain became too great and we left.  Unfortunately Cynthia's sciatic pains returned to and from the restaurant.

1 Oct:  Tomorrow has come and gone!  We will precede fall south after a few more days in Northwood, Iowa.  This Holiday Inn is either on the farm owned by Cynthia’s Turvold great-grandparents or next to it.  Cousin Ray came to visit for a couple of hours and took Ron to Subway in Northwood for lunch.  Ron remembered to bring half a veggie sub back to Cynthia, and she appreciated it mightily.  We managed to walk up and down the hallways about half a hundred times, and then again later, with the pleasurable results that Cynthia fell asleep early and slept well all night.

Remembering sister Merrilee.

September, Two Rolling Stones

This is our R1250 RT with custom seat.

30 Sep:  We continued our binging on ice cream, but tomorrow is the 1st of October and we must quit that in order to have perfect lab scores by the 1st of January for our doctor's appointments.  We enjoyed lunch with Deanna and Julie at the R80 in Kensett.  They gave us a lovely tribute to their departed brother Danny and showed us several pictures of his art work.

"Hudson has tricks" was the warning

29 Sep:  Brett, Jenn, Hudson & Holden met us again at Northern TapHouse at 10 AM for a final brunch and that chess game.  Hudson has learned the chess moves reasonably well, but he hasn't learned to look ahead for hazards; Ron won.  We again rode I-494 around to MN 77 south across the Minnesota River to highway 13 to Jensen's for lunch with Carolyn at 2 pm.  We had a lovely visit and decided to confine our lunches in the future to the three of us.  About 4:30 we headed south on I-35E, but we were not ahead of the evening rush hour.  On the plus side, the traffic thinned with every exit until it was quite light by the time we entered Iowa, and we did arrive in Northwood without undo delay.

Resting after the Bocce fiasco

28 Sep, Sunday:  We did indeed have great fun although we didn't follow the plan.  Brett, Jenn, Hudson & Holden met us at the Northern TapHouse for breakfast & lunch at 12:30.  The TapHouse doesn't do egg whites, but they were willing to cook a veggie omelet for Cynthia using eggs, and she reported it as very tasty.  3-year-old Holden needs to be active at all times, so Jenn took the boys for a walk while we were waiting for the food to arrive.  They cover quite a significant distance in 20 minutes.  After lunch we decided to go to a park in Edina that has Bocce courts and bowling.  3-year-old Holden enjoyed chasing the Bocce balls and collecting them into groups.  We all had fun despite being unable to score.  Brett and Cynthia talked religion and politics while Jenn and I took the boys for a long stroll along the lake.  Especially fascinating were the couple of remote-control boats plying the waters amid flocks of ravenously hungry ducks being fed from shore by bystanders.  Eventually we reassembled just before cell phone calls were made to reassemble, and from there we drove to Licks in Excelsior (click here), a great ice creamery with fascinating flavor names, like Exhausted Parent, Heaps of Love, Fat Elvis, Sticks and Stones, and This Just Got Serious.  I got two flavors in a quart, and it was all delicious, but I didn't pay attention to the names of the flavors selected by my server.

27 Sep:  Brett, Jenn and the boys picked us up at the hotel at 9:15 for Hudson’s soccer game at 11:00 AM.  On this chilly Minnesota morning we watched the Western Minneapolis suburbs first grade soccer teams.  Geat-grandson Hudson was the first goalie for his team.  Hudson’s team scored a goal but lost 2-1.  The historic event was followed by a lunch at Birch's (click here) in Wayzata overlooking one of Minnesota’s ten thousand lakes.  Everyone overate! and the brownie fudge sundae was outstanding!!  Brett had the best idea to walk it off at the U of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  What a great idea, and we all are so happy that Cynthia's torn tendons warmed up so that she was able to comfortably walk more than two miles.  The trees and flowers were gorgeous.  Thanks to Jenn and Brett for a fabulous time.  The challenge chess match with Hudson is postponed until tomorrow.  We are looking forward to great fun.

26 Sep:  We had a fabulous Lunch at 1:30 PM at Jensen’s Restaurant with Cynthia's Turvold cousin Darlene & husband Jim, plus Lance & Shelley and Donna.  We didn't solve any world problems, but we had a lot of fun with the conversation.  Cynthia was a bit anxious on the motorcycle on I-494 traffic through significant construction, but we got there in only 30+ minutes despite a five-minute stop and go in Eden Prairie.

25 Sep:  Cynthia's pain is significantly reduced this morning, and we walked for 45 minutes around the neighborhood.  We drank no alcohol this evening when Brett and Jenn brought the boys to the TapHouse again.  Again it was so fun to watch the boys.  At 7 years old, Hudson is much more calm and sedate, behaves much better and spends a lot of time ruminating.  At 3 years old, Holden does none of those things and is in perpetual motion, having fun one instant at a time.  It is so strange to think that earlier this very month we were still in Pagosa Springs, Colorado and that we have visited Roy and Barbara in Salt Lake City since.

24 Sep:  We spent the afternoon with Brett at the TapHouse, had a wonderful conversation, drank WAAay too much beer and wine respectively, and staggered the half block back to the hotel, leaning hard on each other to stay upright.  Ron had switched to drinking water about 3 PM, intending to ride the motorcycle to see Hudson's soccer practice, so he was quite disappointed when Brett told him that soccer practice was probably already over.  After escorting Cynthia back to the hotel and into bed, Ron went for a long walk and cell-phone talk with friend Bob.  Bad news there is that Bob's wife, Rachel, is moving into hospice care Friday.  The outlook is miserably grim; she has an aggressive cancer in her brain.

23 Sep:   The 10 AM online Zoom call with Eric K was a disaster.  It emphasized how little we can accomplish with a new computer paradigm.  We won't try that again until we can meet in person with Eric so that he can walk us through the logon.  (That's right, we were unable to even logon to his Advisors Crypto site.)  Brett and family visited us in the evening at the Taphouse for a delightful outdoors evening meal.  Afterwards we took Hudson and Holden over to sit on the motorcycle, eliciting HUGE smiles from the boys.  Cynthia and I went for a couple of short walks of a couple of blocks, but she was in significant pain all the time.

22 Sep:  A Blessed Monday of rest and relaxation.  Reservations are made for next week in Northwood.  Our visiting plans are "coming together" in that everyone wants a different date and different time.  Oh well, we love our friends and relations anyway.

21 Sep, Sunday:  Ron had barely finished his exercises and eaten a bowl of cereal when Brett, Jenn, Hudson, and Holden showed up for breakfast at the Northern Taphouse (click here), a pretty good pub next door to the hotel.  We thoroughly enjoyed our day with them, watching the kids running all over the farm where we picked apples, green beans, and raspberries.  Then Brett drove us all the way downtown to the Minnesota Institute of Art, nicknamed, very inappropriately, MIA.  Cynthia walked all over the farm without problem and lasted into the Museum before she suddenly ran out of steam and needed to leave in order to find food.  Brett treated us to a lovely dinner and brownie ala mode dessert at the Boulevard (BLVD - click here).

20 Sep:  After that one evening, we were back on the I-35 north to Medina, Minnesota, a NW Minneapolis suburb, to see Brett & Jenn, Hudson & Holden.  This was again a quick day, 150 miles to the Country Inn & Suites, within 10 miles of their house, still undergoing remodeling.  What a horror show the insurance company has put them through.  We ate dinner at a good restaurant and invited them to join us for breakfast tomorrow.   Route: I-35 to I-494 through the endless construction to the Carlson Parkway exit in Plymouth.

19 Sep:  Serendipity strikes.  We rode 100 miles east on I-80 to Des Moines to see cousin Sandy and her son Van.  Sandy is still as sweet as ever but is really quite bewildered by all the things she now just doesn't understand.  Cynthia was touched to see the role reversal in that Van is now very solicitous of his mother and takes care of her with patience and understanding.  We then called Ray Mechem in Mason City and rode those 200 miles on I-35 north.  Upon arrival, we called again and were invited over to see Ray and Dick (who we missed in Berthoud, Colorado) and their wives Mary and Fran, plus a bonus daughter (Malinda ?) and son-in-law.

18 Sep:  Today we get to stay put for a change and visit friends.  We did walk to the National Danish Museum (click here).  That was a very interesting museum, and Ron particularly like the Danish pottery on display on the upper floor.  It was also interesting to see the artifacts on shelving in the basement.  Cynthia did better with the walking today and is feeling better.  At 5:30 we returned to the Norse Horse bar for dinner with Deb, Karma, Barb and James.  The women had one conversation, Ron and James had a different one about golf, airplanes and AI, but a good time was had by all.

17 Sep:  We arrived in Elk Horn this afternoon at two.  Good news: we enjoyed another great lunch at the Ruby Tuesday in Lincoln.  It was great to see the Welcome to Iowa sign.  This was a much more gentle day, only 167 miles.  We didn't do a lot after checking in to the Hygge Inn but napped and then took a long walk around town to see the changes.  Sadly, the town is losing much of the charm that it had when the National Danish Museum was located there.  For Cynthia, the best part was to go to sleep early and sleep well.

16 Sep:  Cynthia owes everyone email, but her hand complains.  The sun is shining, we are fed and exercised, now to pack and ride for a thousand hours.  We rode directly to a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in North Platte for a delightful lunch of veggies and greens.  Today was less pleasant, hot and humid with more traffic, another 300 mile day.  We are in York, Nebraska. … 866 miles in three days on I-80.

15 Sep:  The weather has been grand!  We were on that smooth road in Wyoming by ten AM headed for Nebraska.  Cynthia’s back is good; Ron fed her ice cream every time she growled.  We stopped in Sidney, Nebraska, two hours east of North Platte.  After eating, Cynthia declared herself exhausted.  The wind was a little less rough than yesterday, and the traffic was still light.  Ron never expected two days on the super slab to be tolerable.  It helped that Nebraska revoked its helmet law last year, so Ron was able to enjoy the wind whistling through his ears.  257 miles this time.

14 Sep, Sunday:  Ron and Cynthia plan to depart "early" for Elk Horn, Iowa (click here).  Since I-80 is the most convenient road to take from here, we will give it a try despite Ron's disinclination to spend so much time on the super slab.  Let's hope it will be easier on Cynthia's back.  The ride was long, 300 miles, and we arrived successfully in Rawlins, Wyoming at 5:30 PM.  The ride was not as bad as expected since the traffic was less than expected, although the wind was quite strong and buffeted us constantly.  The road surface was quite smooth, especially in Utah and Wyoming.

13 Sep:  Ron intended to spend the day with Roy, but instead wrote postcards and watched political news until Cynthia woke up from a long afternoon nap.  Ron then rode over to Roy's to spent an hour with him in his "man-cave" until time for Roy, Barbara and Ron to drive to the hotel to pick up Cynthia for dinner again at the Market Street Grill.  Again we all enjoyed conversing with each other about church, genealogy, etc.

12 Sep:  We were almost packed in Rangely when the earliest raindrops started falling at 10 am.  We waited for 2.5 hours until the rain stopped entirely, quite unusual for the desert high country.  We were so very relieved to be looking at Blue skies ahead for the first 30 miles to the town of Dinasaur but noticed a tongue of cloud reaching northward from a very dark southern horizon as we turned to go west.  In Vernal, UT we stopped at a Subway to be sure that Cynthia had something substantial so many hours after breakfast.  We managed to get out from underneath those clouds, but there were equally worrisome clouds above the mountains to the west, and those kept getting darker and darker as we approached closer and closer.  We stopped in Duchesne at the Visitor Information Center where a lovely lady told us that the heaviest rain would be at Strawberry Pass but that it was sunny in Heber City and Salt Lake.  Ron decided to hope for the best, but soon after we left Duchesne, we again encountered  heavy rain and hail.  This time the rain was not as blinding, but the hail stung Ron's face more severely.  After ten minutes we passed through it, and Ron was much relieved although we were still climbing towards the actual pass.  The mountain top was a lovely huge flat area with two or three huge lakes, quite scenic and worth the difficulty getting there that day.  The descent from the pass was interminable through winding canyons to Heber City, and winding again down I-80 into Salt Lake City.  We called Roy and Barbara immediately after arrival at our hotel, and they picked us up half an hour later for dinner at the Market Street Grill & Oyster Bar (click here), just a few blocks from our hotel.  We all enjoyed lively conversation about church, genealogy, etc.  Ron redid the graphs for Volume Three, and Cynthia sent corrections to the publisher.

11 Sep:  Leaving Montrose on US 550 and then US 50 N, we turned on CO 92 E and started up Colorado Route 64 over Grand Mesa en route to Rangely, Colorado, but in ten miles we first encountered big heavy raindrops and spent no time in turning around and ran straight into a heavy deluge of blinding rain and hail for twenty minutes.  Amazing that formerly dry conditions can be transformed so completely, so rapidly.  This is Cynthia's first experience with hail; it makes quite a racket on her helmet.  Ron doesn't wear a helmet, so the hail only brutalized his face.  He back-tracked to Delta, CO and proceeded through Grand Junction following the GPS to I-70 West to CO highway 139 north to Rangely.  It was a very interesting ride with rocky mountains, 15 MPH hairpin-turns, and occasionally threatening storm clouds.  The hotel is nice, and we walked the length of town to Gio's, which restaurant served us nice salads and ice cream with caramel topping!

10 Sept: After breakfast Ron rode to visit Pat with a top case filled with recycling he could not unload in Pagosa Springs.  Cynthia spent the day exercising her back, taking a shower and packing.  Volume One is being printed.  The Volume Three galley proof was not in color, had fuzzy graphs and had a mistake in labeling on one graph.  Ron still needs to improve the index for Volume Two by deleting duplicative entries.

9 Sep:  Montrose, Howard joined us for lunch at the Stone House and took us to visit the Ute Indian Museum, a very interesting place.  Cynthia took a step off the boardwalk that was too big for her legs and pounded her back, and her sciatica is reminding her to not do that again anytime soon.  Ron and Howard enjoyed an afternoon stroll through the riverside water park, but Howard decided not to stay for dinner so he could get home before the deer make driving dangerous for all concerned.  Volume One is off to the printer.  Yaay.

8 Sep:  Ron planned an early departure for Montrose, Colorado, and we did get started about 10:30, which is early for us.  We were surprised to find much warmer temperatures than the BRRRRR anticipated.  Cynthia wore her heated gear that was totally unnecessary for the entire ride, although it did get cold going over the 10,000 foot passes.  We intended to eat lunch at the Lone Star Cafe in Durango, but it was closed, so we ate at the Sidewalk Cafe instead.  Dinner was at the Stone House in Montrose.  The route was simplicity itself, US 160 W to Durango with a stop for lunch, US 550 N through Silverton to the "million dollar highway" to Ouray and continuing to Montrose and the Quality Inn just past Walmart.

7 Sep, Sunday:  Ron received an e-mail with four absorbing interviews from his MIT reunion in April.  Today is packing day!  We walked early and spotted several deer.   Dinner was at  Boss Hogg’s at 4:30. We are so tired it is off to bed.

6 Sep:  Ron worked on Volume Two and is making great progress.  Our lunch was great.  Cynthia is surprised at how much she loves broccoli with honey mustard.  We had a delightful visit with a couple from Georgetown, Texas.  We walked the neighborhood.  Cynthia is finally writing overdue email to her family.  Eleven grandchildren and thirteen great grands takes a lot of writing with one finger typing.  She submitted dirty clothes to the washing machine.  Her favorite word is clean.

5 Sep:  Cynthia's box of mostly clothing was shipped back to Texas!  We had a 76 minute walk to the lake and spotted six bucks and two had ten points.  This was a successful day.

Cynthia achieved her goal of making it to the lake.

4 Sep:  At noon-thirty, we have walked the loop around the subdivision once.  Cynthia has packed her saddlebag to see how much she can fit inside (not much!)  Ron has completed his first pass thru the index and now needs to take recycling to the County Transfer Station.  After feeding our faces, Ron rode to the recycling center with the mountain of recycling from the past six weeks, cardboard, clamshell plastics, etc.  What a joy that they took it all.  We walked in the evening for a total of 4.51 miles and returned to our motel to go back to work.  Ron re-packed Cynthia's saddlebag and discovered that she can carry another outfit.  He then packed the box for shipping things back to Texas and was amazed that the return box was smaller than the original.

Cynthia got a pedicure

3 Sep:  On this gorgeous day in Pagosa Springs, the housekeeper has cleaned our room.  Cynthia has bathed and eaten and is ready for her nail and pedicure appointment.  Ron has been working on the index for Vol. 2.  Life is very good despite that  Cynthia tripped and fell on the trail to the nail salon.  Every year so far, she has fallen once as we begin hiking; this year was no exception.  We enjoyed a pasta salad with salmon dinner at Gustoso’s.

2 Sep:  By evening, Ron finished the edits for Volume Two; next, he needs to proof the index and re-insert it.  We slept beautifully, and we had a great walk with perfect 73-degree temperature under the most gorgeous blue sky.  A mother deer and her “teenage” son ignored us as we passed by.  With tonight’s second walk, we achieved a total of 4.35 miles, 10,929 steps. 

1 Sep:  Pritikin says. “You can eat ice cream on your own birthday, just not on everyone else’s birthdays.”  We could not help ourselves since it is Cynthia’s third great-grandmother, Brynhild Olsdatter Gandrud’s birthday, born 247 years ago in Flaa, Norway.  Right?  Happy Birthday, Bestemor.  The ice cream was delicious.  The first day of September is beautiful.  Ron worked on Vol. Two all afternoon.  We accidentally sent Vol Three as an edit file instead of a .pdf; Barb caught it, and we submitted the correct file.  Cynthia’s right hand is in a brace so she one-finger corrected some Brooks genealogy.  We walked early and at 4:30 ate dinner.