Hey there. Mr. Karen I went gallivanting across the country and the across an ocean and back again since I last wrote here, so I have some catching up to do, a week at a time.

Monday, July 24: Mr. K and I loaded up the car and left our mountain. The weather was fine, so we took the more scenic route east for the first part of our journey, though there was also plenty of scenery along the freeway after we got to that, like this sunset view I snapped from the passenger seat as we cruised along in Montana. We stopped for the night in Bozeman.

 
Tuesday, July 25: Another day of driving, the highlight of which was a return visit to the Cowboy Cafe in Sheridan, Wyoming for pie (and dinner, but mostly pie). We had three slices between the two of us and managed to push through the sugar crash before stopping for the night in Douglas, Wyoming.

 
Wednesday, July 26: I’d picked up a tourist brochure in the hotel lobby and read that there was a giant jackalope statue in town, so we made that our first stop of the day, about five minutes after we checked out. It was less big than the big fiberglass animals they have in North Dakota but I’m still glad we made the detour to see it. Then it was more driving, all the way to Lincoln, Nebraska.

 
Thursday, July 27: Just a short drive on this day to Kansas City, Missouri, where we met up with a large group of Mr. Karen’s friends to hang out and then see a Kansas concert. The show was good, with a couple of surprise guests, and the theater was a historic venue with lots of details to take in, like this elaborately tiled empty room off one of the ladies’ restrooms.

 
Friday, July 28: The event of this day was meeting Mr. Karen’s sister Kathy and her husband to see the Cubs play the Cardinals in St. Louis. It would have been much more pleasant if the stadium hadn’t been playing super loud music and live video before the game and if it hadn’t been approximately 1000 degrees and muggy. (At one point on our drive to St. Louis, the car showed an outside temp of 115 F. Too much. It was around 98 at game time. Still too much. I was happy Mr. K had planned carefully and gotten us seats in the shade.) Still, I’m glad to have done it, and the Cubs even won in dramatic fashion. After the game we drove to our hotel on the other side of the river in Illinois.

 
Saturday, July 29: Time for Mr. K’s family reunion. Most of us spent most of the day inside due to the heat outside, then a dramatic rainstorm rolled through and the temperature dropped into the semi-comfortable for humans range. Most everyone went outside to see the rainbow then. We enjoyed eating and chatting with folks well into the evening. We might as well have stayed longer, as when we got back to our hotel we found the storm had knocked out the power. Fortunately it came back on before the room got too warm to sleep.

 
Sunday, July 30: We reconvened with Mr. Karen’s two sisters and their spouses in the little Illinois town where we’d laid Joan to rest in last year. We paid our respects at the cemetery, then went to have a meal together. Unfortunately the little restaurant that bears Joan’s name was closed for vacation so we couldn’t go there but still had a good time at the bar we ended up at. After dinner, Mr. Karen and I said our goodbyes and got back to driving, heading toward our next scheduled event. We made it to Greenfield, Indiana, which was about where we’d hoped to get.

 

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On this date in 2020 to 2022: No journal entries
2019: Artist Point
2015 to 2018: No entries
2014: Lone Star State
2012 and 2013: No entries
2011: Irene, Why You Gotta Do Me That Way?
2009 and 2010: No entries
2008: Pre-Holiday Check-In
2007: Heterogeneous Hump Day
2006: Ah, Accomplishment (re-reading this, I’m so mad JK Rowling turned out to be such an awful person)
2005: Harry and Me (yeah, f you, JK)
2004: No entry
2003: Anxiety Fest
2002: No entry