December... Christmas Time in Texas

31 Dec:  The Smooch Family has bahd cohds!  We are stuffed up, sneezing, but we don't have Covid.  Cynthia has put away most of the stuff we brought from storage yesterday, except for whatever she assumes is recycling, which is still in the car.  She thinks everything in the boxes looks like it is to be recycled.  Ron hopes Cynthia won't accidentally (or deliberately) take him to recycling.  Ron did indeed sleep very well last night starting at 7:30 when his eyes refused to stay open and he laid down "briefly" to rest.  He first awakened at 11:30.  Cynthia had much less rest last night, but is soldiering on regardless.  Since the rain continued unabated until 4 PM, we did not manage to get out for air and exercise today, but "Tomorrow IS another day."

30 Dec:  To be or not to be... in Montgomery tonight?  That is the question.  And we made it despite rain and possibly a tiny bit of sleet.  At 6:30 AM Ron pulled up the color radar and color radar forecast.  No rain at present.  Ditto at 7:50 after we breakfasted and packed.  By the time we were rolling at 8:20, the drizzle was falling.  Not good, but it stopped encouragingly a few miles east of town, just as the radar had implied.  Soon after and eastward, the radar was sadly wrong.  We were on wet roads a lot in the next 130 miles, many times with mist, drizzle or rain falling.  For a few miles in Austin the rain was quite intense, but the worse downpour was east of Bastrop, when the color radar forecast had assured us (lulled us into thinking) that we would have clear and dry sailing.  Our route was US 290 east to Austin City Limits, then Texas 71 east to Bastrop, to Texas 21 east, rejoining US 290 east to Brenham (home of Blue Bell Ice Cream), where Blue Bell Blvd avoids town to deposit us on Texas 105 through Navasota all the way back to Montgomery, where we satiated our hunger with egg white omelets at the Magnolia Diner, before getting the key to our vacation rental from Daniel at The Management Company.  Once situated inside with a computer Ron checked the color radar again to see major storms rapidly approaching, so we high tailed it to Enterprise for Cynthia to rent a car, loaded that car full from the storage locker, and stopped at Walmart long enough to stock the pantry and allow those storms to drop a deluge for half an hour.  We watched the deluge from the safety of the Walmart store and made a break for home as soon as it stopped sufficiently.  We are going to sleep well tonight.

29 Dec:  Counting down, Fredericksburg for one more awakening.  We are shooting for 6AM tomorrow to get miles in before rain.  Ugh, forecast is intimidating.  Oh well, the plan is to check the color radar in the morning.  The plan is to breakfast at Ollie & Lena's again this morning (despite already eating a bowl of oatmeal in the hotel).  Bah humbug, the lines at the restaurant for breakfast were out on the sidewalk, and they could not seat us, so we hustled off to recycle boxboard at the city drop-off, intended to be a drive through, but the employees met us at the "Stop Here" sign.  We then walked across town to the girlie salon to see if Cynthia could walk in for her "girlie-acure."  Ron walked back to the hotel, Cynthia called to offer him a Subway sandwich, and he surprised her by walking again to meet her! 

28 Dec:  Fredericksburg for two more mornings, then we (hopefully) transition back to Montgomery, depending upon luck and thunderstorms.  Uh-oh! Inclement weather is likely to preclude travel until 1 January.  We will be in Fredericksburg during rain Tues, Wed., and snow on Thursday!  Bummer.  But, stay tuned!  We will check the color radar at 6 AM to assess our risk.  We were out the door for our morning walk before noon today since the forecast called for rain (which never materialized).  We rode out to walk the Fredericksburg Nature Trail again.  It is our favorite trail discovered here to date without the concrete and asphalt of our in-city walks.  There are other choices, but we haven't explored to find them yet.  The one that sounded most appealing was at Kerrville lake.  Also the LBJ ranch is not far.

27 Dec:  Cynthia suggested our life would make a great movie, “It's a Wonderful Life,” but Ron's comment was, “I think that's already been done."  Ron is returning for his second after-oatmeal helping of frozen mango & pineapple.  Our major exercise of the day was walking 4.2 miles roundtrip to Subway (for 12” whole grain subs with the inside scooped out and filled with vegetables), then we hustled along the concrete trail to downtown, trying to pass hordes of people aimlessly drifting along, totally ignorant of serious concrete trail walkers.  Giving up, we booked back home.  Ron shared his newly purchased HEB shredded wheat with Cynthia, and he popped some popcorn.  Using Splenda on dry popped corn makes it taste a little bit like kettle corn.  Tomorrow, tomorrow, it's almost tomorrow!  And you know the drill:  "Tomorrow IS another day!!"

26 Dec:  Fredericksburg, Texas should be less busy today?  Especially since so few restaurants are open until Jan. 2.  Subway might be open.  The day after Christmas offers a morning for rest.  We snared tickets to hike Enchanted Rock this afternoon. Yay.  Our hike up required two sit-downs to catch our breath, only once to sit on the way down to rest tight IT bands.  With two hours left before sunset, we hiked the "closed" portion of the loop trail, and on to the Buzzard Roost Primitive Camp Trail.  Despite looking closely, Ron saw no evidences of a reasonable place to camp, primitive or not.  On the way back, blinded by the setting sun, Cynthia tripped on a rock and went down hard on her right hand, shoulder and leg.  Her SKreeCH would awaken the dead, and it even got Ron's attention.  Cynthia held her injured paw against her chest for the entire return trip.  All is well.  It is a beautiful day with memories of laughing children climbing a mountain with warm, smiling faces of parents.  The copper sunset spread shades of violet over the heavenly dome with a beautiful blue band along the horizon.  Wildlife spotted includes a huge black bull (hiking gingerly on the rocks), two even bigger longhorn bulls, llamas, deer, and crazy, two-legged critters congesting downtown without masks.  The city is not less crowded.  Subway is closed so we microwaved potatoes for dinner.  All things are merry and bright for us, and for five great-grandchildren:

Jon's multigenerational family gathering

Hudson has a white Christmas

Cory's kids, continuing to be adorable

This looks realistic to me

25 Dec:  MERRY CHRISTMAS !!  And we celebrated with smooches to each other, exercises, oatmeal and computer projects, just like every other day of the year.  Now that it is noon-thirty, it is time to put on our hiking shoes and return to the Nature Trail.  We have discovered that the native grasses hereabouts have incredibly sharp balls of thorns for seeds which cling to footwear until they transfer onto the carpeting in the room, where Ron's bare feet soon discover them.  Click here to read about the sticker bur.  We had another nice, relaxing hike and enjoyed oatmeal for our Christmas dinner.

Brightest light SmoochSmooch in foreground.

24 Dec:  Christmas eve in Fredericksburg promises to be uneventful for us.  And we are happy with that.  We arose at nine AM! exercised, and walked twice, in very chilly weather, to Ole and Lena’s (oops, Emma and Ollie’s - click here) for a marvelous breakfast of scrambled egg whites, veggies, fresh fruit, sour dough toast, and awesome pancakes.  Why walk twice, you ask?  Silly question!  Second time was to retrieve Cynthia's forgotten purse ... Duh!  At the table near us was a delightful young couple from Tyler, Texas, married just two days ago.  He is studying to be a professional opera singer.  In the evening we walked to Bethany Lutheran Church to receive a powerful gospel message of hope for our fearful, covid-stricken society, that a fearful society needs a strong church sharing the Good News of Christ.  The Christmas Eve Candlelight, Carols, and Communion was marvelous.  Then we walked outdoors into the Marktplatz just in time to see the Christmas lights being turned on, making all things merry and bright! (see photo)

23 Dec:  Only two more shopping days until Christmas, or is it one?  Thank goodness Ron finally slept enough last night.  Today our sole exercise was hiking to K-Bob's for lunch.  The snooty manager said that they would bake a plain potato again for us today, but this is the last time.  They are too busy (with no more than 10 customers) to bake a single potato for us.  And we agree - it is the last time we will eat there.

22 Dec:  Ron awakened at 4:30 and was unable to fall back asleep, so it is another day of dragging along.  Cynthia is struggling to find restaurant reservations for a dinner date with clergy friends she hasn't seen in thirty years.  Fredericksburg is booked this holiday season, no room for travelers seeking reservations for meals.  Aha!  August E.’s phoned to say they have room in their “stable” for 29 Dec.  Ron is making progress on Volume 7; Cynthia finally has all of her Mac/Apple electronics synced and operative.  She has also E-mailed Christmas letters and pictures to our friends.  This afternoon we explored Cross Mountain (click here), taking a trail up to a cross with a fascinating history.  Once upon a time, Indians used the hill for a lookout and a sent smoke signals when settlers were approaching   In 1847, John Christian Durst, an early German settler bought ten acres and discovered a primitive cross on the mountain, hence its name, Cross Mountain.  The new cross was erected in 1921, and until 1941, locals held Easter sunrise services atop the mountain.  HowsomeEver it was a short hike, so we arrived at K-Bob's early this afternoon, and since we had called a hour earlier, they had a plain baked potato for Ron.  At 10pm this evening Ron is already headed for bed. 

21 Dec:  Morning arrived too early for Ron and too late for Cynthia, so we are up early and Ron is too logy to write coherently.  But then a double helping of frozen mango perked him up enough to saddle up and ride to the Lady Bird Park again for another hike on the Nature Trail, this time reading the descriptions at each marker.  (It makes more sense that way.)  Since our start was late, so was our lunch at K-Bob's, but we finished at 4:53 and were out before the place got crowded.  Ron stayed up working on Volume 7 again until 11:30.  How does it get so late so quickly?

20 Dec:  Ten more days left in Fredericksburg.  Today it is Cynthia's turn to figure out the hike.  Looks like we will ride the bike to avoid walking too far on concrete.  It just amazes us that no reservations are available for Enchanted Rock for the rest of our stay.  Apparently the college kids are making the most of semester break.  That also implies that Fredericksburg will stay exceptionally busy too.  Fooey (for us).  Cynthia's hiking choice was excellent, the Fredericksburg Nature Trail adjacent to Lady Bird Park.  There was even a printed guide and markers along the trail to educate us.  (Well, at least I read the guide a couple of times.)  It passed through at least a dozen different habitat zones and along a nice stream and large pond.  Then we rode straight to K-Bob's again for another round of baked sweet potato, baked potato, steamed broccoli and salad.  Now Ron is back to work on the index for Volume 7.  (NO, this is NOT a never-ending job.)

19 Dec:  In Fredericksburg, Texas, thunder and lightening greeted us this morning, and the rain appeared intense at 8 am.  However at 10:30 it appears to have done, so maybe we can venture outside again today.  And venture we did, first to K-Bob's in the early afternoon to feed the starving Weefee a baked sweet potato and some salmon, then to the Japanese Garden of Peace (click here) in the Pacific War memorial (click here), then to the Marktplatz (click here) to see the Vereins Kirche (click here), lights, trees, crowds and crowds of people.  (No wonder that covid is on a rampage.)  Our legs were a bit tired after yesterday's hike up Enchanted Rock.  Good grief, how did it get to be 11:30?

I guess this is artwork

Cynthia ascending

Cynthia finished ascending

Hey, there is a view from up here

18 Dec:  Once again we are preparing to hike Enchanted Rock, and the temp is already 40 degrees, cool and overcast.  We were a bit late for our 10:30 start, because we returned to the hotel for another layer of motor-cycle clothing for Cynthia.  The climb was tough for her, but the brave girl succeeded, and we had an awesome view!  Since that 0.8-mile hike up went quickly, we decided to hike another loop consisting of the Loop Trail east to Turkey Pass Trail north to Base Trail west to Echo Canyon Trail.  Our wildlife sighting for the day consisted of two mountain climbers standing on a sheer cliff 100 feet above us.  (Apparently the Base Trail is named as a base for mountain climbers.)  Then, as we struggled on the rock-strewn track that is the Echo Canyon Trail, two other climbers with large packs sashayed past us nonchalantly, rope swinging and carabiners clattering.  Click here to see the Trails Map PDF.  Cynthia's smart watch concluded that we walked 7 miles total and climbed 64 floors, but that hardly measures the energy we had to expend.  Again we feasted on baked sweet potatoes at K-Bob's, although this waitress told us that the baked potatoes ARE wiped with oil before baking.  And tonight we were both so tired that we went to sleep early and easily.

17 Dec:  Cynthia was aghast at a 25 degree temperature reading upon awakening this morning, but we have reservations to hike at Enchanted Rock at 10:30, so we are preparing to ride the bike ... twenty miles from here to there!  Fortunately the bright sun quickly warmed the atmosphere so that our ride was 48 degrees instead of 25.  The thin, cheery lady at the entrance station admitted us quickly despite the fact that Cynthia brought her mammogram instead of the entrance tickets.  We chose to hike the loop trail which was wide and level gravel trail until we ignored the "detour" sign and continued on the unmaintained part of that trail.  Apparently part of the trail washed out in a flash flood in the distant past and the trail was left closed despite being very passable if insufficient rain falls to repeat that flood.  After we passed Buzzard's Roost, a primitive camping area, we came to the beginning of the Enchanted Rock Summit Trail.  Although Cynthia was too tired and footsore to hike it herself today, she was willing to wait for Ron for 30 minutes.  Of course Ron decided to make the most of this opportunity, so he did not stop breathing hard for the entire 17 minutes uphill hiking until he got to the summit and the expansive views.  The rock surface gives such good traction that the hike down was no problem.  7.2 miles total for the day. 

16 Dec:  We are relocated to the Comfort Inn in Fredericksburg, Texas for the next fifteen days.  Fredericksburg is an old town that began with German immigrants, and it is called a ”Christmas City” because of lighting and events.  It is too cold to begin our walk in town until 11am this morning.  We walked to town and toured the Admiral Nimitz museum, which was very, very interesting, a thorough, modern treatment of the war in the Pacific 1941-1945.  After a several hours in the museum, we walked down the street to K-Bob’s Restaurant which serves baked sweet potatoes and a terrific salad bar.  Our waitress said the baked potatoes were not wiped with oil before baking, but they were suspiciously different from the usual dry baked potato.  By the time we returned to the Comfort Suites, our walk totaled five miles.  Yay! 

15 Dec:  And today we leave as early as possible - meaning before check-out at 11am.  Since the forecast called for showers at 10 and 11am, Ron packed last night, and we arose at 6:15am (while it was still dark !).  Happily, the forecast changed, and we should be riding dry all day, but the temperatures are to stay chilly (44 degrees), so there is no benefit in waiting to depart.  We should be ready to leave before 9am - record  time.  WOW, this day was not what we bargained for.  At 9am, when Ron checked tire pressures, a mist was dampening everything.  It appeared to stop by 10am but five minutes later a drizzle made everything wetter.  Finally at 11am we decided to start drizzle or no, expecting it to end as we rode west.  We dropped off the keys with Danielle, picked up a prescription at Lakeside, and stopped to put the last few things into the storage locker, but our key code was denied and similarly for another lady there.  The manager was nowhere to be found, phone calls went to a machine, and we became quite frustrated and angry as the minutes extended into an hour.  Finally someone showed up whose key code did work, and we were able to leave after noon, angry, upset and riding in mist, drizzle, and rain for the next full hour.  We kept going, assuming that we would eventually get west of it all, but that didn't happen until we were approaching Brenham, 50 miles later.  By then Ron was chilled and soaked through since he had never put on his rain gear.  Fortunately Cynthia (the smarter SmoochSmooch) was toasty warm in her heated gear.  The sun made appearance as we were bypassing Austin warming us up nicely and drying us out.  That sunshine turned against us an hour later when it blinded us as we rode straight towards it.  We did get to Fredericksburg before dark and ate at Cultures, who did manage to find potatoes for Ron.

14 Dec:  Today's plan was to move things to the storage locker in preparation for relocating tomorrow to Fredericksburg, and we were quite successful except that we forgot about the pole lamp before we returned the car to Enterprise.  Ron has backed up his MacBook twice, a necessity before traveling in cold weather.  Cynthia did think that the ride on the motorcycle was quite chilly.  There is a bit more compost to bury this evening.  A crazy busy day, but we enjoyed two walks, a lovely sunset, and lots of very young deer.

13 Dec, Sunday:  In Conroe, Texas, we attend Grace Lutheran Church and enjoy fellowship with Pastor Diane.  Today the accompanist called in cautious late Saturday, so we had no music, which changes our experience dramatically.  Sunday brunch at the Yacht Club was as good as usual, and we were able to walk all the way to the lake and return home just before a sudden downpour which would have made us miserable one minute earlier.  Ron needs to take a break from indexing to clean the kitchen and pack two bags for the motorcycle.  Both bags "packed" and the kitchen is soon to be "clean."  Ron was delighted that the spade made quick work of creating a hole in which to bury the compost.  There is now one deceptively deep depression that is no longer quite so deep.

Cynthia in dress leather jacket

12 Dec:  And we were up no earlier than yesterday, and we were just as thankful as yesterday (perhaps more so).  After breakfast and sudokus we walked to the lake, being careful to avoid the muddy construction area.  Dinner this evening at Pappadeaux with a Bankston cousin promises to be exciting, and it was; he and his wife are delightful.  The motorcycle ride home after dark was too exciting for Cynthia, especially the exit from Pappadeaux, crossing two lanes of traffic immediately to take the entrance ramp onto I-45.  (This BMW K1600GTL is advertised to do 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, so our acceleration was exhilarating.)  Cynthia is modeling a jacket she bought several years ago, only to have granddaughter Rachel borrow it before Cynthia got to wear it; Rachel returned it two weeks ago.  

11 Dec:  Time is flying here at Lake Conroe.  We arose late, exercised late, breakfasted late, sudokued late, and then the rains came as forecast.  Now we will have to wait for our walk until late, but it rained steadily all afternoon until time for dinner with Jon and Tina at 5:30.  We were disappointed that the Caddy Shack is closed due to an employee testing positive, and we didn't get to see the progress with  Jon's home remodeling.  The food was great at the Walden Yacht Club and they steamed fingerling potatoes especially for me.  It was 8:50pm by the time Ron was able to walk to the lake.  (And then his cell phone battery gave up before he got home.  Progress on index continues, and Ron again stayed up rediculously late, perhaps as late as 2am.

10 Dec:  Time for the annual mammogram.  (Cynthia, NOT Ron.)  Cynthia passed with flying colors - everything terrific.  (Ron also passed with flying colors by waking up early enough to accompany Cynthia).  But Ron was unprepared to spend 3 hours at the hospital, and he nearly died of boredom.  And then Texas Highway 105 was entirely shut down for 8 hours due to some major gas leak, so we had to retrace our steps all the way back to I-45 north in order to take FM 1097 as the next most "convenient" alternative, arriving "home" at 3:45pm.  Ron now is convinced that he will ALWAYS carry the charging cord for his computer and a pile of sudokus (Thanks Oke).  Then he again was captured by the effort towards a "perfect" index until the wee hours of tomorrow.  By the time he finished his fourth day of resuming work, he finally remembered what he was doing when he stopped a month ago.

Lake Conroe, terminus of daily walks

9 Dec:  Oops, Ron stayed up too late last night - 11:30, but he slept until 4 am first awakening and felt nicely rested by the time we arose at 8am.  Then it was off to the audiologist to tune Cynthia's electronic hearing aides.  (Ron is the biological hearing aide.)  Then we ate lunch and walked our usual walk to the lake and back.  Now Ron is again hard at it with Volume 7 index.

8 Dec:  Another good night's sleep, thanks to the miracle of salt water - to make Ron retain fluids - which increases his (very low) blood pressure.  (This morning his blood pressure was 112 over 68 with a pulse of 70.  Yesterday it was 92 over 64.)  Our walk to the lake and back was very comfortable at 70 degrees and no wind.  Today Cynthia took pictures of the artwork on the rocks.  Woo Hoo!  After a second walk at four PM, our total was 8.4 miles.  Yay for us.  Getting day passes to hike Enchanted Rock was crazy, but Cynthia prevailed, and we now have passes.  She checked the driving route to the hill country and discovered our Hilton Garden Inn is booked for Fredericksburg, VA (instead of Texas).  There is NOT a HGI in Fredericksburg, TX, sooo back to Comfort Inn & Suites there.  Oops, time got away, and Ron stayed up too late - 11:30.

7 Dec:  Ron experimented with drinking a mouthful of salt water every time he woke up to pee and is happy to report that it seems to help him sleep longer through the night (two stretches of 3 1/2 hours).  We drove over to Cypress to walk with Julie around a neighborhood lake (1 & 1/2 miles per circuit).  Here it is 8 pm, and Ron is already tired again.  At least today Ron finally tried to remember where he was with the indexing project for Volume 7 of the Colonial Records of the Swedish Churches of Pennsylvania.

6 Dec, Sunday:  We woke up early enough to make it to church on time, and we enjoyed the usual Sunday Brunch at the Yacht Club.  There were more items there that we could eat than previously.  Our Sunday walks allow us to pass through the construction area to see the progress since last year (several new structures).

Smooch and SmoochSmooch

Jon and Blalire

Kiira, Lauren and Blaire

Jon, Julie, Tina, SmoochSmooch and Smooch

Cynthia and niece Kelly

 

All God's children.  Baby Blaire in red on left.

5 Dec:  This was the main event for which Ron was summoned home, the Forde family Christmas party, in celebration of a visit by sister Marilee, her daughter Kelly and Jaden.  It was too much fun to watch 13-year-old Jaden's constant attention to 9-month-old Blaire.  Strangely, there are no pictures on the blog of Blaire playing with Jaden.  The party wrapped up by 9 pm, allowing us oldsters to get to bed on time.

4 Dec:  Ron is home, do not disturb.  Well, we did go grocery shopping and bought way too much.  Somehow it hasn't dawned that we are only here for 10 days before heading off to the "Hill Country" for two weeks.  Oke sent new sudokus and Ron is completing one or several every day.

3 Dec:  And we hope to report that the Smooches are successfully reunited, God Willing.  And she awoke at six AM with a joyful heart in anticipation.  And he arrived at 11:20 to an empty house.  Anticipations is all over the place.  Route was Texas Highway 19 through Crockett to Huntsville, right on FM (farm-to-market) 2821 W (Fish Hatchery Road) to TX 75 W to FM 1791 W to TX 149 S to Montgomery, then following familiar shortcuts around town and out the new pavement to the Pointe.  And we were indeed happily reunited at 2:30 when Cynthia arrived home 1 1/2 hours ahead of schedule.  We celebrated by going for our usual walk to the lake and decided to take Poe Street around the construction.  The newest scenery at the lake is painted rocks.  Apparently some kids and teenagers have decided to practice art by painting rocks on the lakeshore.  Some are quite artistic and well done.

2 Dec:  Forecast is quite miserable for this Wednesday in Palestine, Texas.  Let's hope that the forecasters missed so that the Smooches can reunite.  Ron awoke at 4:45am after getting to bed at 1am, so that is a good four hours uninterrupted, and it was raining here in Palestine, but then he couldn't get back to sleep until he Googled weather to discover that the rains are projected to fall ALL day along the corridor that he needs to travel to get to his beloved SmoochSmooch.  Paste a disappointed "smiley" face here.  Looks like he picked the cheapest motel in Palestine, so he is happy with that aspect at least, and he bought pretzels and spinach, so he has food for now.  Apparently he was more exhausted than he realized because he spent the entire day lying in bed, dozing.  After a final downpour at 2:30pm, he arose at 4 and walked to Mama Seafood (click here) for two more baked potatoes with salmon.  Route was suspended for this rainy day.

Baby Blair seems to like Cynthia

1 Dec:  Ron woke up near the north pole in Pittsburg, OK.  Once the blue BMW reindeer is harnessed, he hopes to be making things merry and bright in Texas by evening.  Will he reach Paris, Athens or Montgomery?  (All towns in Texas!)  A cheery "Ho!Ho!Ho!" echoes down to Cynthia from an Econolodge in Palestine, Texas, a mere 120 miles from her in Montgomery.  Ron loves saying that he started in Pittsburg, skirted Miami, rode around Paris, through Athens and ended up after dark in Palestine.  He now needs to forage for food after another day without food since breakfast.  The forecast is for rain all day tomorrow in Montgomery, so it will be a challenge for Ron to get there with the motorcycle.  He decided to gather a few provisions in case it does rain all day, but then he started towards Mama Seafood Restaurant going east instead of west, so he got there after they had nominally closed, but the drive-through attendant took pity and accepted his order for two baked potatoes.  Ron then walked another mile to Kroger without incident to buy berries, bananas, pretzels and spinach.  On the way home Ron just seemed to make one wrong turn after another until he had reached two of the edges of town to the east and south.  His buddy Ed looked up directions on the computer and directed Ron correctly back to his motel.  It is truly amazing how turned around a person can get after one innocent wrong turn.  His 2.9 mile walk turned into 8 miles!  Meantime in Montgomery, Cynthia can't slow down.  Crazy schedule! Ron's route was US 69 south until Oklahoma Alt 69 south to I-44, a toll road bypassing Miami, Oklahoma, to US 69 south at Big Cabin, to the Indian Nation Turnpike past Antlers to US 271 south to Texas 286 loop around Paris to Texas 19/ 24 south to TX 19 south through Athens to Palestine for the night.  (As he rode south on US 69, Ron was quite surprised to pass through Muskogee and to see the expanse of the Eufaula Reservoir.

November... where Ron? Hi Hudson.

30 Nov:  Forecast in Kansas City is sunny with 40 degrees for the HIGH !!  Ron will be in no hurry to get on the road despite his desire to see his bride.  After visiting with Clarence, he will continue the ride southward...likely by two PM.  And that was indeed how the day unfolded.  The temperature had not yet exceeded 30 degrees when Ron started, and his hands were soon frozen numb.  That was one very cold 30-mile ride.  Clarence actually does not live on 13th street (although Ron could swear that is what he said).  He actually lives on the street across from the Dollar General (which is also what Clarence said).  We enjoyed shooting the breeze for a couple of hours before Ron mentioned the desire to get  south and left.  Cynthia froze in Texas, too.  Jon, and Tina took her to visit new great granddaughter Blaire (as you can see below).  Ron had hoped to get to Miami, but had to settle for getting to Pittsburg, when darkness fell with a unsettling thud.  The Regency Inn looked least busy, so Ron chose that one and was well satisfied.  The nearby Colton's Steak House sold him two baked potatoes with a piece of salmon that satisfied him, and the nearby Price Chopper sold him berries, bananas and pretzels.  (He ate the entire bag of pretzels !!  Did you notice that he had eaten nothing since breakfast at 8:30 am?)  Route was I-35 south from Kearney to 12th Street then left across the Center Street Bridge following Center Ave until 13th Street.  After seeing Clarence, Ron rode west to 18th Street, south to I-35 west to US 69 south to the Shawnee Mission Post Office (where one key of three worked).  He then resumed west on Shawnee Mission Parkway to south on I-35 to US 69 south and continued on that for the rest of the day.

Jon, Tina and Blair

Cynthia with Blair

29 Nov, Sunday:  Ron plans to begin his ride around 10am from Illinois to visit cousin Jerry in Columbia, Missouri, then on towards Kansas City, God willing.  Thankfully, his beloved weefee alerted him that his phone was out of power before he started, so he was able to charge it - rather than discovering the power outage en route.  Cynthia is preparing for his arrival; she stocked the cupboards and refrigerator with veggies for fat-free potato salad, plus lentil and bean unsalted soup.  She called Ron at 5:30 to discover he is auditioning for the show, "Frozen."  He arrived at Joan’s house in Excelsior Springs, Missouri after his motorcycle recorded a 37 degree temperature.  That translates to negative thousand degrees with a sixty mph wind chill.  The trip from Mt. Olive to St. Louis to Columbia went smooth as silk with sunshine, "warm" temperatures and no wind.  The visit with cousin Jerry was very much fun.  (He is another one who likes to fold, bend and mutilate the language.)  Ron needs to remember to tell Carol about Jerry's box of pictures and meadow that he burns annually.  The second 130 miles to Kansas City was cloudy, chilly and windy until the temperatures dove at sunset, when Ron still had 30 miles to ride.  Fortunately the tall, wind-swept bridges were all in that first half of the day when there was no wind.  The visit with Joan segued into a visit to Les and wife (since they live "next door").  It was so very lovely to see those friends from my distant past again.  Cynthia lined up lodging for him at a Comfort Inn ten miles away in Kearney, MO.  Ron made dinner of an apple, a banana, and a pound of pretzels from the nearby Price Chopper.  The route was Panther Creek Road to old US 66 south to IL 138 west to I-55 south to I-270 west to I-70 west to old US 63 east of Columbia to the Cracker Barrel restaurant, I-70 west to MO 13 north through Higginsville to MO 10 west into Excelsior Springs (quite a challenge to navigate all those turns in the dark) to US 69 north to Italian Way R to R on Salem Road.  Then backtrack to US 69 N to L on MO 92 W to the Comfort Inn in Kearney.

Thanksgiving photo with nephew & family.

28 Nov:  We awoke.  Thank God !!  The plan is for Ron to accompany Carol and Bill to nephew Eric's house for Thanksgiving dinner with his family.  Oh, and Ron did remember to run a TimeMachine backup.  And Cynthia is off for a day with Fyn.  Zoe will be there for an hour before she must leave for college.  Both girls are unique: Fyn is an accomplished artist at six years old, drawing with permanent ink using no pencil prep.  She really impressed her grandmother with her fitness routine; the school’s coach is a former NFL football player.  Zoe’s majors are English and history.  A year from January she will be attending the U of Scotland in Edinburgh for one semester.  Grandmother wants to visit! 

These two aspire to ride like Ron & Cynthia

27 Nov:  Thanks to Miranda Esmonde-White (click here), Carol and Ron are prepared for a day in the woods.  Now we are just waiting for sunrise.  Good grief, is it ever wet in the woods today!  Ron waded to the fence line and cut & lopped to clear a dead fall left over by lumbering.  Meanwhile in Texas, Cynthia is thinking ahead as shown above.  Ron and Carol spent much of this day indoors where it was warm, working on genealogy, photos, and Eric's RPM coins web page (click here).  Ron did emerge for a couple of hours hoeing the paths through the woods to smooth out lumps left by the timber harvest.

26 Nov:  Thanksgiving, and I thank God for mee beloved weefee, SmoochSmooch.  And the beloved wee-fee rejoices, ”Thank God! Thank God! Thank God!”  The plan is to ride north to sistah Carol's early and arrive before noon for Thanksgiving turkey dinner at 2pm with Carol and Bill.  Meanwhile in Texas, Cynthia has arisen, exercised and oatmealed before riding south to Roxanne’s for Thanksgiving dinner.  Jon and Tina are coming, too.  Happy Thanksgiving to you!  And a fine time was had by all.  (Ron is feeling fat, but tomorrow in the woods should help.)

25 Nov:  And it rained last night complete with thunder.  Neither of the Smooches slept particularly well.  Ron realized that he had eaten fewer pretzels than needed for a good sleep.  Ah Well, "All's well that ends well," and the rains are forecast to resume in the afternoon, so Ron is out the door early for his daily dam, chipmunk & bridge circuit.  Oops, diverted to Trenton to walk with Don & Hank, but on our third lap, the heavens opened and drenched Don and Ron thoroughly.  We sat indoors and waited about an hour before Ron decided that it had been dry long enough to risk the ride home - which worked out quite well.  Now he is showered with clothes stomped clean and hanging to dry.  The DNA project is going more slowly than hoped - oh well, it is going.

24 Nov:  And here it is another tomorrow, Thanks be to God.  Ron had just finished his pushups when Cynthia called to wish him a happy SMOOCH for the day.  Now he is breakfasting, preparatory to DNA stuffs, then across the dam for the 3.5 miles.  Later Don will call with a decision about walking here or there.  We walked there in mid-afternoon which limited our after-walk conversations to end at 4:30 as the sun neared the horizon and the cold sunk in past Ron's coats.

23 Nov:  And... another good morning!  We both woke up, although 1000 miles apart.  Ron walked the dam, Chipmunk Trail and General Dean suspension bridge again this morning, then walked partway across the Dam with Don in the early afternoon, followed by (solo) mid-afternoon dinner of baked potatoes and veggies at Los Amigos.  Now he is working on DNA GEDCOM for GEDmatch again.  And darkness is falling already at 4:37 pm.  The temperatures today seem infinitely warmer than yesterday since there is next to no wind today.  At 7:30 Ron traversed the dam a second time (another 3.5 miles in an hour and a half).  Now he is sleepy and somehow it is already 10:52 pm.

22 Nov:  Finally, Cynthia had a full nine hours of sleep.  Yay!  She is headed out to walk with (yesterday's) birthday girl Julie and Roxanne at eight AM.  Ron has realized that he should recommend a good book to Cynthia, Do You Really Need Eyeglasses.  (My God, he actually remembered the exact title!!)  Now Ron has exercised (discovering an absence of aches and pains), breakfasted, DNAed, and is ready to walk the dam complete with Chipmunks and General Dean, talking to Don as he walks.  Afterwards, more DNA, since Don opted out of walking in the freezing wind.  Ron found a chess player and won their first game.  (Miracles will never cease.)  Great book reviews, you remembered the title.  When the macula deteriorates, the field of vision becomes blurry.  The only solution is sewing it together.  Do you know someone who mends?  I'm guessing that mending job needs a finer needle that I can see.  Ron walked the dam again in the dark at 5:30.  Dark at 5:30 !!

21 Nov, Sat: Good morning at 2, at 3 and 3:54 AM.  And it is the morning of the evening of today!  After much tossing and turning Cynthia decided to do some work hoping she will get bored and fall asleep.  Barely sleeping.  It is time to start this day with a haircut and girlie treats.  In contrast Ron awakened only three times in 8 hours of sleeping - thank God for pretzels.  Upon awakening, he exercised, ate, and began packing, which included charging his cell phone and backing up his computer with TimeMachine.  Maxine called at 10AM to say that cataract surgery had exhausted her too much for a visit, but at least we enjoyed entertaining each other with our wits.  At 11AM Ron embarked upon the ride to Carlyle without a real route planned, so he "winged it" with the help of the GPS and a lot of luck, considering the farm roads he chose.  The only rain was a very light drizzle (have you ever encountered drizzle at 60 mph - it really stings the eyes) just after he left Highland - only another 20 miles left.  The Mariner's Village (click here) manager welcomed me again and gave me the same room (only cleaner).  After a grocery trip, Ron commensed walking the dam but soon returned as drizzle dampened his enthusiasm.  Fortunately Los Amigos is open, so he is now stuffed with the usual two baked potatoes.  At 4:30 the color radar indicated a wide spot in the middle of showers centered on Carlyle, so he attempted another walk and made it half way across the dam before he chickened out at the first sprinkles.  In the last week, the forecasters have changed their tune about temperatures at the end of the month by minus 8 degrees; it could be a cold ride to Kansas City..

20 Nov:  And it is the evening of today! ??  Ron has discovered the joys of farm living; his body has discovered aches and pains.  Thank goodness he has an out: he promised to rejoin Cynthia early in December.  Today he finished smoothing the dirt pile, and we raked and burned leaves.  Next plan for Farmer Smooch is to return to the fence line with lopping shears and chainsaw.  Done, and Bill arrived for dinner with a plan to move the very heavy router table from shed to shed.  We rolled it (it has wheels!!) from shed to plywood to second piece of plywood and kept leapfrogging the two sheets of plywood across the yard until we got the router into the other shed.  Now Ron's clothing is in the washing machine and Carol is already in bed at 7 PM.  Farmer Smooch must have gone to bed too, or the washing machine drowned out his beloved weefee's numerous cell phone rings-a-lings.  Good night! 

19 Nov:  Tomorrow yet again.  Cynthia must arise way too early for a Dr. appointment in the Galleria area.  Ron also arose early enough to "enjoy" exercises with Carol and Miranda.  The dirt pile location is becoming even more smoothly finished since Ron discovered the joys associated with a hoe - and his back also discovered "joys" of hoeing.  Now we are preparing for a run into town to replenish supplies in anticipation of a pandemic shutdown panic purchasing epidemic.  And we found flour and pretzels and celery without any problem.  We spent the afternoon repairing fence, pulling bush honeysuckle, and clipping vines.  Now Carol is preparing dinner for Bill and Ron - YUM - salmon with Pritikin berry sauce & HUGE baked sweet potatoes.

18 Nov:  Tomorrow has relocated again and Ron again awoke early at his sister's house in Mt. Olive, Illinois.  He was fortunate to awake too late to "enjoy" Miranda's "Morning Stretch" program, but he still does his own exercises before getting out of bed.  Today he continued raking Carol's vanished dirt pile until his body complained and his pill alarm went off.  After restoring a Reunion file from the Macintosh TimeMachine, Ron is reconstructing his Ager cousins GEDCOM.  He also returned to the woods to pull bush honeysuckle and lop various vines out of the trees.

17 Nov:  Oops, no, here is tomorrow.  I am thoroughly confused.  Is this today or tomorrow?  In Texas, the condo is clean on this exercise day,  before Cynthia runs errands.  She purchased a new IPad with significantly longer battery life, plus many other features, scheduled to be delivered to Jon’s house today.  First, she left a note for FedEx with signature on Jon's door, then she boogied back at three to pick it up and back home to charge the new IPad before she  realized that Verizon had to put in the SIM card; all of this required way too much running, but the IPad is seamlessly transferred, and it is really nice.  Tomorrow is another fun exercise day.  Cynthia is re-reading Kristin Lavaransdatter by Sigrid Undset for the tenth time?  Ron's MacBook has successfully awakened from sleep a couple of times now.  Apparently the faulty GPU problem is fixed (for now).  Ron, on the other hand, has been lacking energy all day, especially after shoveling and raking dirt in Carol's yard for hours and hours.  He also took a long walk through the woods to see the 20 acres where the loggers logged.  My God, there are treetops everywhere littering the hillsides!  By the time he returned, Carol had awakened from a nap and Bill had arrived ready to eat some of Carol's wonderful salmon with Pritikin berry sauce plus baked potatoes and sweet potatoes.  (Good God, Bill forgot to inquire about the pie - he must be sick.)

16 Nov:  Tomorrow was only a day away, and just like that, here it is.  But, 4:00 AM was an earlier start than Cynthia wanted.  Unfortunately, she was wide awake, so she is up and into another busy day.  Ron woke up at 3:30 and was unable to get back to sleep, so finally arose at 5 AM for an hour packing, then laid back down for another hour's snooze.  The hope is to depart around 10 AM to visit friends in Edwardsville en route to sistah Carol's in Mt. Olive.  Not only has Carol found a new half-sister, but she has also now discovered a new half-uncle on Find-A-Grave.  WoooHooo!  Ron might have fixed his Mac!  We shall know on the morrow!  Meantime, Cynthia went to Lab Corps, and then on to see Dr. Stavinhoa.  Good report, but her blurry eyes are a concern.  She will call the retina specialist again.  

15 Nov, Sunday:  Tomorrow arrived for Ron in Carlyle, Illinois, but electricity did not.  Perhaps 45 MPH winds and lightning created an electrical boo-boo.  We don’t know if Ron’s Mac and Word will arise!  At least the cell service delivered Smooch’s first I Love You of the day!  He wins!  Cynthia has gone crazy cleaning the condo; the laundry is done, fresh sheets, towels, and vacuuming is done.  Juanita would be so proud.  Ron, home in Illinois called Don, who thought it was too windy to walk, so Ron walked the dam alone, including Chipmunk Trail and General Dean bridge.  He has felt tired today, so laid down at 5:30 and napped.  He finally gave up waiting for the Macintosh to boot and applied the fixes he found on the internet.  Lo and behold, it works again.  

14 Nov:  Ron awakened at 1:30 and was unable to get back to sleep, so he got up and worked on a GEDCOM (genealogy) until 6 AM.  The forecast rain arrived with a thunderous overture.  He is again working on that GEDCOM.  Looks awfully wet outside.  No walk anytime soon.  And the rain continued with brief respites all day- no walking, but the GEDCOM is ready to upload to GEDmatch.  OH, 8pm and the rain appears to be gone so I can walk across the dam & back, talking to Donna (since Ed was "unavailable").  A few impressive lightning bolts lit the distant horizon, but they were too far away to generate thunder.  Tomorrow's forecast includes 45 mph wind gusts.  Meanwhile in Texas, separation is not fun.  Cynthia repeated yesterday’s early rising, walked with Roxanne, and had breakfast with Jon and Tina.  Errands and reading ensued, then came the uncomfortable realization the condo is hot.  A phone call to the manager, and help is forthcoming with a new battery for the thermostat.  

13 Nov:  OhMyGod, Friday the 13th and my beloved is far, far away.  Ron slept well again and is a happy camper this morning, except that he cannot delete Fonts without logging in as "THE" administrator, whoever that is on this machine.  Was he ever surprised to discover that restoring the system fonts has corrected the Word EXC_BAD_ACCESS failure.  (Beloved Cynthia sent me the following directions without knowing that I have read the same thing a dozen times: ? With your Mac now in Recovery Mode, click on Utilities in the menu bar followed by Terminal. A new window will show up, waiting for you to enter a command. Type "resetpassword" as one word, without the quotes, and press Return. Close theTerminal window, where you will then find the Reset Password tool.)  ... Meanwhile down in Houston Town, Cynthia arose at five A.M., exercised, oatmealed, and left for a one-and-a-half hour drive to the Galleria area at 7:40 (early because of thick, dense fog) for a doctor appointment.  The uncertainty of driving in the fog, plus an unfamiliar route, created some anxiety, but it worked out well.  She arrived at 9:30... only to discover her appointment was really 11:30. She twiddled her thumbs for two hours.  Life is still good.  The worst news is that her esthetician, Bambi, has sold her business, retired, and is only working two days for a limited time. ... Meanwhile#2 back in Illinois, Ron, Don and Hank enjoyed another day of walking and talking in the woods on soft, leaf-littered trails that Hank has groomed for people and horses.  Don was again feeling much better than expected, so we were all happy.  After a couple of hours of conversation Ron left ahead of colder nighttime temperatures, ate his usual two potatoes and grilled veggies at Los Amigos, and walked across the dam talking to friend Ed.  (46 degrees morning ride, 47 degrees evening.)

12 Nov:  Ron slept even longer last night except for one disturbing dream wherein Cynthia had deserted her room in a Los Angeles resort without telling me anything and I had to ride my old Harley the length of LA.  She apologized during the 8 AM SmoochSmooch phone call.  Exercises exercised, oatmeal mealed, and now computer stuffs until 10:30 departure towards Trenton to walk with Don and Hank.  And a lovely walk it was through Hank's woods, although Don was much, much more tired from his walks of the last three days.  He did well - i.e. we did not have to carry or drag him home.  Ron went for an additional walk across the dam this evening after dinner at Los Amigos.

11 Nov:  Ron slept long and well last night, exercised, ate breakfast and is beginning to get ready to ride over to visit Don in Trenton again.  Don, Hank and Ron enjoyed a long walk in the Hank's woods, surprisingly long for Don in his current condition (recovering from a PMR heart ailment -polymyalgia rheumatica).  After saying goodbye to Hank, we sat in Don's back yard talking until his house blocked the warmth of the sunshine which motivated Ron to motivate motel-wards.  He spent the remainder of the day trying to get Microsoft Word to work - without success.  It appears to be a faulty font.  Now it is bedtime.  Goodnight and sleep tight. Cynthia had a doctor appointment   And Bambi.

10 Nov:  Mariner's Village at Lake Carlyle in southern Illinois.  Today Ron had lethargy despite adequate sleep, walked the dam while waiting or Don to call, and is about to ride over to Trenton to see Don for a short walk and a long talk.  The decision is made to get more done on genealogy with DNA while close to sistah Carol (as resource) before shutting the computer down to see if that cures the Word EXC_BAD_ACCESS error.  The noon and afternoon with Don was very good.  We walked more than Don thought possible, talking all the way, and then spent a couple of hours on the back patio until the wind freshened, and Ron rode back to Carlyle to shop for a few more food items at Walmart.  After putting those into the fridge, Ron ate potatoes at Los Amigos, changed socks and went for a walk despite the forecast and cloudy skies.  He made it 1/4 of the way back after crossing the dam when the skies opened and the heavens dumped a torrent of rain on him accompanied by incredibly strong winds.  It is really quite amazing how quickly one can go from dry to totally drenched.

9 Nov:  Wonderful !!  Ron awoke without achey muscles despite the overachieving activities of yesterday.  We again suffered through Miranda on PBS and rushed off to meet Bill at Denny's.  Mindy was waitressing today, so Ron enjoyed seeing her smiling face and the way she handled Bill's typical commentary.  Once we returned to Carol's house Ron busied himself with packing to depart and was successful shortly before noon.  The ride to Edwardsville was a bit chillier than comfortable, but Connie was home, and we enjoyed a long talk.  The ride to Aviston was also too chilly, and there was no room at the Eagle Inn.  While Ron rode towards Breeze and noted the signage indicating that Breeze was 9 miles away and Carlyle was only 8 additional miles away.  Remembering that Raj had offered to meet price if that was the reason and comparing the comfort at Knotty Pine to the comfort at Mariner's Village, Ron quickly changed destination from Breeze to Lake Carlyle and then realized that Mariner's Village was also very close to Los Amigos (restaurant) and Walmart (provisions).  Trifecta perfecto.  Amazed that his computer again booted without much delay, Ron is suspicious that the infernal device knows that he is willing to perform risky maneuvers surgery if it fails to boot.

Cynthia with newest great grandbaby

Cynthia with son Jon at Amores Restaurant

Cynthia had an equally busy day, visiting Corrie in College Station. playing with great granddaughters Abigail and Eleanor and meeting newest great - Caleb, then picking up financial IRS materials and lunching with best friends in Hempstead.  No wonder she was worn out also.

8 Nov, Sunday:  Tomorrow? No, today at Lake Conroe, Texas, Cynthia boogied off to a fast walk with daughters who both walk too fast for her.  Julie wears nice wrist weights to enhance her power walk, and that might make a good investment for Cynthia.  After exercise, they enjoyed a nice breakfast at Watch for Breakfast.  Paul called off the afternoon visit because he is not feeling well.  Cynthia should take a nap.  Ron, in contrast awoke to Miranda again, exercised and ate before nephew Eric showed up in pickup truck loaded with firewood of split, towing a large trailer with his full-sized Massey-Ferguson tractor.  The tractor performed well to Eric's delight, Carol's satisfaction, and Ron's amazement, moving a dirt pile eyesore and replacing the eyesore with a lawn ornament: huge logs dragged out of the woods in preparation for wood splitting.  While Eric was busy with the tractor, Ron and Carol split all of the wood that he brought - heavy stuff and a lot of work.  In the evening Ron continued with the clippers trimming waste material from the logs and piling kindling.  To bed early.

7 Nov:  Cynthia awoke at Lake Conroe, Texas way too early!  It is still early AM, but she arose to fast walk with daughters before it gets too warm.  This time of year the weather is almost perfect at Lake Conroe, and it will be in the mid-seventies to eighty without rain for the remainder of the month.  Julie walks faster than Ron!  Ron and Carol were up much earlier in Illinois in order to enjoy sadomasochism with Miranda.  Then Bill arrived for coffee, conversation, and to install lighting in Carol's tool shed.  Ron finished a new sudoku and clipped vines and brush piles until his arms, back and brain gave up.  Then he created a database of the Ager cousins Carol found using her DNA analysis and all the testing companies.

6 Nov:  Again Ron awoke at his sister's house in Mt. Olive in time for Miranda and Classical Stretch.  We survived again despite her sadism. Ron is exceedingly happy to report no itch.  Yup, no poison ivy.  Whew.  Now we are awaiting Bill's arrival for his morning coffee before going over to nephew Eric's to see his newly constructed palatial deer stand.  The  deer stand was indeed well constructed and obviously brand, spanking new.  The deer should be quite impressed.  After that Carol and Ron stopped at the SWICSIU credit union, the ACE Hardware store in Staunton, ? in Gillespie, and Randy's in Benld.  It’s scary for Cynthia to modify the blog without knowing if Ron is modifying "Where is Ron" in Illinois.  (No worries Sweetie, Ron returns to square one after every update.)  It was a scary day in Texas altogether; she accidentally called Ron three times.  (He even answered the third time.)  Cynthia's retina specialist said her macular degeneration is stable, so the vision changes must mean she needs reading glasses.  She forgot that driving was a challenge after the eye testing, but survived, well... until she almost backed into a red truck pulling out of a parking spot.  She survived shopping at Walmart and the pharmacy.  Whew!  She made it home, only to discover that the passport and photos which need to be renewed were nowhere to be found.  After "tearing the house apart," she searched the dumpster ... and found ... nothing, it had been emptied.  The passport is still missing.  She should go walking, but it was too dark to go far.  Still, she was quieted by hearing Ron's calming voice. 

5 Nov:  Lucky me.  Ron awoke in time for Miranda Esmonde-White (click here) and her Classical Stretch (click here).  Turns out that there are several muscles complaining about their treatment in the last three days.  So, of course we headed back into the woods to run the chainsaw and create a new, bigger, better, improved brush pile to burn.  Besides that fun, we pulled several more bush honeysuckle and clipped a few more hanging vines.  This afternoon we haven't been exciting company as we try to recover from too much fun in the morning.  Carol is cooking salmon w/ berry sauce again, thanks to the recipe Cynthia suggested.  Ron has decided to tell nephew Eric that he cannot work on his shopping cart that he needs for his RPM coin sales.  The real reason is security of the names, addresses and credit information that will be needed and will need to persist.  So, instead, Ron is free to work on DNA.  Whoopie, and we succeeded in printing a wall chart of James Ager descendants for Sistah Carol (12 pages).

4 Nov. The election results are a Cliff-hanger.  On a funny note: Just in, Biden was called for Ukraine.  Please tell sister Carol that if you put the “I Voted” sticker under your pillow, the election fairy leaves a Xanax.  Ron and Carol were up early suffering through "Classical Stretch" and realized soon after that it was calm outside meaning that we could torch the burn pile, and it produced intense heat and flames high enough to be slightly alarming.  Good thing that we had raked leaves from a circle surrounding the inferno.  Once that had settled into a hot, hot, hot bed of coals, we again abused our bodies in pursuit of bush honeysuckle (click here).  We were happy to take a break in the afternoon (and a nap for Carol) and to eat dinner at Denny's.  (Ruby Tuesday was closed to indoor dining despite the Litchfield mayor's refusal to shut down his city for the governor.)  In Texas, Cynthia spent two hours with her fiduciary, followed by her gynecologist, and next our new dentist.  And while Cynthia was writing that, Ron was working on HTML and learning CSS and PHP (click here) to try to install a shopping cart for nephew Eric's RPM coins website.  Now time for bed. 

3 Nov:  Cynthia awoke at 3:45 and did not go back to sleep.  What to do?  Vote !!  The sun rises at 6:39, and the polls open at seven.  She is ready.   Following the big vote, she is off to see Sasha for a hair cut in the Galleria.  Ron and Carol drove to the city of Benld (click here) to vote, then to Randy's and then Walmart in Litchfield for groceries, and back to the house to begin getting ready for a big dinner date with Bill this evening.  After Carol had all the possible preparations ready to go, we sashayed out to the splitter shed and split a lot of firewood lickity split.  Then we got over-confident and went back into the woods to pull bush honeysuckle again.  All went famously until one steep, steep ravine where Ron was able to get one particular tough plant despite every footstep sliding on the leaves underfoot coupled with the insistent pull of gravity.  Then he espied another couple of bushes in the bottom of the ravine and struggled with one of those until Carol brought the lopping shears and said, "Watch out, there is poison ivy everywhere around here."  And then Ron noticed that he was knee deep in leaf-less poison ivy plants.  When we returned to the house, Ron immediately used Tecnu (click here) on his hands, showered his whole body with Fels Naptha (click here), and laundered his clothes.  We will know in a day or three if that worked or if he has the dreaded ultimate itch.  Oh no! Oh, NO!  Does he have the magic cream?  After Cynthia read the tragic tale of Ron in poison ivy, she won’t sleep.  (Yes dear, he does have the magic cream but no beloved SmoochSmooch to apply it.)

2 Nov:  Thanks to dear Jon and Tina for picking Cynthia up at the airport last night.  First order of business for little lonely SmoochSmooch is to pick up car rental and the doctor appointments begin with the ENT... in Conroe, followed by Dr. Sims in the Woodlands.   Jon’s house remodeling looks great   Meanwhile, back in Illinois... Ron and sister Carol pulled out trillions of bush honeysuckle plants, an invasive plant that Carol is trying to eradicate from her tree farm property.  (Imagine trying to pull all the dandelions from your yard by hand.)

 1 Nov, Sunday:  Two-year-old great grandson Hudson asked his parents, “Where Ron?”  That makes an appropriate title for our November blog this year.  (Yes, Ron and Hudson hit it off thanks to Hudson's interest in bread and Ron's willingness to open the package and remove a piece for Hudson.)  Today is Reformation Sunday, and All Saints Sunday; they usher in change.  How much change we won’t know for a week until the election results are returned.  Cynthia’s flight to Houston is at 4:14 PM.  Ron follows along via motorcycle the first week of December.  That is a very, very, very long time for the Smooches to be apart.  We awoke early at Mariner's Village in Carlyle, packed luggage and went for one final walk over the dam and ate lunch at Los Amigos before we mounted the motorcycle and rode off into the windy, frigid atmosphere - but our departure was 45 minutes late.  (Ron admits his fault.)  The wind constantly tried its best to push us south as we rode east to west and especially when we crossed the new Mississippi River bridge connecting I-64 to I-70 north.  (Stan Musial Veterans' Memorial Bridge click here.)  Once Ron bid farewell to his beloved at the airport, the wind was no longer such a problem except that Cynthia's helmet refused to stay centered behind Ron and constantly blew to the south to block his view in the right hand mirror.  He stopped three times to try to reposition the helmet so that it would behave before he arrived in Edwardsville to visit Connie. Fortunately she was home, and after a pleasant hour of conversation, Ron discovered his third mistake of the day when the light began to fade.  Oh yes, fall back means that darkness descends much earlier than the previous day, so Ron hustled on the interstate up to Mt. Olive and precariously along th lumps and bumps of Panther Creek Road to Carol's gravel driveway with new loose rock over its bridge to arrive "just before dark."  (Ron's definition of dark is pitch black.)  Carol had prepared salmon and potatoes and veggies for her brother which were gratefully consumed ASAP.