Summer in Wickford - Art Festival!

The sidewalk in front of my windows - my bedroom is in the front of the apartment!

Friday night setting up tents along the street

Saturday morning, the view down Brown Street

Walking in any direction in the village where I'm staying, I catch glimpses of Wickford harbor.

One block away from my apartment/house is the center of town

Typical historic home on the block

I "stole" a picture of one of the artists...typical beach art

The house where I'm renting.  The first little door (behind the pole) is an entry for my upstairs neighbor.  My doorway is the next door down.  Notice geraniums along walk to back and side of home where I enter.

A better picture of the home where I'm renting.  See the lady?  She is standing in front of what is my living room windows.  In this picture you can see the second little overhead "roof" for the doorway along the side of the building, which is the entrance to my apartment.

Early Saturday morning before the fest began!

Early Saturday again...

All "shops" closed up for the night.

It was a fun experience to be here in Wickford this past weekend.  I'm told this art festival is one of the largest in New England.  Normally, I park my car right in front of the house.  Signs went up early Wednesday morning letting us know we needed to have our cars off the street by 5 pm on Friday.

Vendors started arriving sharply at 5 setting up their tents.  My landlord told me I could park my car in the church parking lot around the corner and not expect to drive much for the weekend!  The street remains open, but it's challenging to drive with all the people strolling about.

Earlier in the week I learned there would be food prepared and sold at different churches.  There is an Episcopalian church across the street and they were serving lobster roll sandwiches in the church hall all weekend.  $15.00 bought a lobster roll sandwich and a bag of chips!  I WENT TWICE!

The Baptist church had grills set up and they were serving hot dogs and hamburgers - and fries!  I haven't had a hot dog in a long time - it sure tasted good!  

The lady I'm renting from, Linda, is super nice and I asked her if she wanted to walk over with me on Friday night to enjoy a lobster roll.  She declined, saying she was too tired but said she would join me for lunch on Saturday if I wanted to walk over to the Baptist church.  So we did on Saturday at noon. While we were busy talking and eating, Linda invited me to the local neighborhood yearly art fest yard party Saturday night.  I got to meet lots of the neighbors.  Very friendly folks.

Both Saturday and Sunday I strolled around the streets enjoying some lovely art.  Since I don't have any walls at the moment to decorate, I declined purchasing.  I did pick up an art fest T-shirt, tho, and a birthday gift for my daughter in law.

Fun weekend in Rhode Island!

March 29-30, 2015 Traveling thru Pennsylvania and special people!

Christine DeGrado Tyma

Marylou Gross

I made a quick stop thru the Philadelphia area and how lucky to have not one but TWO special people to visit!   It was getting close to my birthday month (April) and Marylou treated me to a yummy lunch at Cheesecake Factory in King of Prussia.  Years ago when I lived in Norristown, Pa., the King of Prussia mall was a favorite place to shop.  Fast forward about 35 years and I wouldn't know the place.  Big, big super mall!  Thank goodness I was escorted around.

Christine is an amazing friend and one of the most talented women I know.  Take a look at this, I couldn't imagine what was inside - not in a million years!

A BOOK!  A lovely, homemade book!  Journal!  Precious, precious journal just waiting for me to take pen in hand and write.  So clever...so creative.  Special, just like Christine!  

April 13, 2015 Meeting TAR Friends in San Francisco

Breakfast with Don Bradner and Stephanie McCaffrey

What a fun birthday it was!  Not only was I in San Francisco and visiting with my sons Tim and Andrew, I was there for 10 WHOLE DAYS...and I got to meet two of my fellow ankle replacement "friends."  TAR = Total Ankle Replacement

Since my ankle replacement last August, I've been on a Facebook page that has been an amazing support group for me.  How many people do you know that have had an ankle replaced?  Probably none...well, me too!  Following my surgery last year, I was at a wound care appointment at Lutheran General and along came a man on a scooter (like me) with his foot all bandaged up.  We quickly started to chat about our injuries and surgeries and he told me about the Facebook page.

It's where I spend a lot of my internet time these days....specifically on this particular page.  It's private to everyone else so I can post and comment and the rest of my world doesn't get to see any of it.  I like it a lot.  This is where I've learned of other experiences with this surgery.  I've been able to learn about things that could help me from other's experiences.  I've also been able to explore ways to solve some of my issues by reading about how other's have handled some of the hardships that go along with ankle replacement and recovery.  It's been a fantastic support group for me.

Once I had my travel plans in place, I reached out on this page and announced that I would be in San Francisco and would enjoy meeting anyone in the area that had an ankle replaced.  Two folks responded, pictured above.  Don Bradner (who is one of the administrators of the site) and Stephanie McCaffrey.  Don had a routine check up in the city with his doctor and suggested we meet for breakfast.

It was a great start to my birthday!  Afterwards I took a Lyft ride down to the apple store - the new apple watch was being previewed.  Tim met me there and we checked it out together.  Yes, I would love to have an apple watch - just not yet.

How shall I say it? I'm W A Y behind!

Wow, another lesson learned.  If you don't MAKE the time to write and post, next thing you know you're wwwwaaaaaaayyyyyy behind and it's hard to catch up!

For anyone following my posts, I'm going to go back in time and try to catch up on what's been going on with me and my travels....

I'll post dates in my titles for a while...so if you choose to read them in sequence, you can!

Maiden Voyage...and K A R M A ....

Today - Sunday, June 28th, is a milestone day for the newbie RV'ers....Pat and Don.  Don took the wheel for the entire day as we traveled south to Normal, Illinois for our "trial" run.

We packed a few things like sheets, towels, pillows, overnight necessities  - and drove away from Normandy Hills in Northbrook.

Our plan for our first "trip" in the new travel home was to take it down to Normal IL, to Crosspoint Cummins where maintenance is done on RV's and trucks - big trucks, that is (and BIG RV's).  We needed to have the chassis serviced.  These big hummers can't be serviced just anywhere....and when it was purchased in Island Lake IL we were told it had been serviced down in Normal.  Don decided to call and make an appointment for the first service on it and have a few things checked out.  It would give us a chance to drive it not too far away from home, sleep in it, and get familiar with all the ins and outs.

We decided to program the GPS to keep us off highways and interstates, so it was a long afternoon meandering thru the farmlands of Illinois - roads well known by both of us from many motorcycle trips thru the years.  Corn fields after corn fields and then MORE corn fields.  No surprises except the further south we drove we began to see LOTS of these:

Windmills among the corn fields!

The day was overcast and we hit a few sprinkles but all in all Don did a great job driving.  I wasn't feeling 100%, so I was the copilot for the day.  You could say I was the "nag-a-vator!"

Something pretty incredible happened along the way to Normal.  We stopped for gas at a station in Oswego.  I went in to use the bathroom (no we hadn't started using the toilet in the RV yet) and when I walked back outside there was Don talking alongside the RV with another couple.  They pulled up and asked him how he liked the bus.  Turns out it was the prior owner!  As I approached I heard Don say - Pat, you're not going to believe who this is...and boy - what a surprise!  This was their fifth and last RV.  They expressed lots of sellers remorse but just couldn't drive the distance to Florida anymore.

They were driving down the road when HE noticed the RV in the gas station.  HE (Frank) said to his wife - "that's our RV!" - turn around and drive back in to that gas station!  So SHE (Donna) turned around and pulled in and they introduced themselves to Don.

Original RV owners find us at a gas station stop in Oswego!

Now, what are the chances of that happening??????

So, we stood and talked to "Donna" and "Frank" and asked several questions about the vehicle, and they gave us their phone number to phone them if we had more questions.  They were quite friendly and happy to meet us!

Our little trip south was pretty uneventful as Don got used to navigating thru construction areas, small roads thru little Illinois towns, interstate highways, even parking lots as we looked for our dinner stop near Normal.  Don did an amazing job on our first trip out!  I declined driving at all as I wasn't feeling well...maybe had a little touch of some flu bug and I had a slight headache all day.

At the end of the day we parked in the parking lot of Crosspoint Cummins, pulled down the blinds covering the windows, cranked up the generator to cool the place, Pat took a shower and by 10 pm we were both comfortably tucked away in bed for a good night's sleep in our king sized bed!

What a great first day out on the road!

Saturday Morning In Rhode Island - at Casey Farm

Beautiful Saturday morning at Casey Farm.

Coastal Growers Market...lots of good food here!  Nice start to the holiday weekend.

www.coastalmarket.org

Organic Pickers!

My Moraga (CA) Friend-Pam

Pam Pocklington and I were good friends many years ago when I lived in California.  We were friends during the ten years that I lived in California.  Pam was busy raising four children - I was busy raising 3.  Our paths crossed often during school, church or sports activities.  Pam and I would steal away once in a while for girl time.  My family and I moved away to Illinois (where Pam's mother lived) and we stayed in touch.

During the last couple of years that I lived in Moraga, I took a job supervising young people delivering newspapers for the local paper - the Contra Costa Times.  Michael had a paper route in the neighborhood. We would get up at 5:30 am when the papers were delivered to our door, Mike would sort them, fold them and stack them in his carrier bag and head out on his bicycle.  Some mornings I drove him in the family station wagon-he would sit on the back and throw the papers to the porch.  I was a weekend supervisor for the newspaper and supervised Mike and about 15 other local youth carriers.

Pam joined me as a supervisor at the newspaper...we made a few more memories together working part time.

On my travel adventure this year to California I was fortunate that Pam was in town and we were able to spend two full days together.  I took the BART train from San Francisco to Orinda where she picked me up.

Yes, a selfie....

The view from the Orinda BART train station, love the green hills!

Pam and I spent the day in Danville, California, walking around the town and enjoying lunch.

The following week I took the train out of the city again and we met in Orinda for a second visit.  We had plans to drive to Tiburon, a coastal town located north of San Francisco.  Very scenic little town along the bay.  After Pam picked me up at the Orinda train station, we traveled along the San Pablo Reservoir  along San Pablo Dam Road, over the Richmond San Rafael Bridge, past San Quentin to Tiburon.

The hills were barely green in some spots...def a water shortage!

Along the San Pablo Dam

Richmond San Rafael bridge

Views like this...took my breath away!

The bay near Tiburon

Our lunch stop...

Imagine living in one of these?

Downtown Tiburon

Thank you, Pam!  It was so fun to see you and spend time with you again!  Can't wait to do it again!

Local color...

Happy traveler!

Old Friends are Best Friends! Norristown, PA - March 30, 2015

Girlfriends

After spending time in Rhode Island and New Jersey, my travels took me to Norristown, Pennsylvania.  My friend of 40+ years (geez, am I that old?) Marylou and her husband Ed were my hosts.

Marylou and I celebrated my birthday with a yummy lunch one afternoon.  I was anxious to see her daughter's Natalie and Jennifer.

Jennifer invited us to dinner Monday night.  It was fun to see the boys.  Ben and Sam are really growing up!

LtoR:  Sam, Ben, Mark, Jennifer, Ed, Marylou

I learned a few things from Ben and Sam.  First of all, Facebook is for old people.  Kids in high school don't do Facebook! I asked them what do they do?  And I was told Instagram or Twitter!  I met Jennifer when she was just about 4-5 years old and it made my heart sing to visit with her and her wonderful family.  I was invited to attend their bible study also, at their church and I enjoyed that as well.

Marylou's youngest daughter, Natalie also lives nearby and we had a fun visit with her and her 3 beautiful children.  Jackson, Molly and Evie.  Evie and I were quick friends - what an adorable little girl!

Here are pictures of Natalie's children.

Evie, jumped in my arms at one point and said I LOVE YOU!  Adorable...just adorable!  

Molly and Jackson....beautiful children!

Can't forget the newest member of the family - the Vizsla puppy!  

Working on being a better "Blogger"

Well, I've added a few new friends emails to my list of people that will get updates of my blog posts.

What I've learned in these past couple of months since I resigned from my job in Illinois, is that I have a lot of things I like to do and not enough time to do them!

My intention was to write and post as I traveled.  I quickly learned that it wasn't possible, because every where I went I was visiting with friends and family.  AND I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT AND DIDN'T WANT TO BREAK AWAY TO WRITE.

I did manage to write a few posts so you'll have to check them out if you're curious and have time.

So now that I'm in Rhode Island and I have some quiet time, I'm going to refer to my journal and my picture libraries and recap my travels and share them here.

I like this a lot better than Facebook.  I prefer to share these thoughts and travels with a smaller group...so thanks for following along with me.  You have a choice to check out what I post or not.

April 13, 2015

After previewing the new Apple watch at the downtown Apple store in San Francisco, I decided it would be fun to take a ride on a cable car.  It was a gorgeous day and what better way to get a view of the city.  I rode from the business district across town and over to Fisherman's Wharf - and back!  I got off at Union Square on my way back to sit in the sunshine and people watch.

Happy Birthday to me!

As you enter Union Square there is a heart at each entrance to the square with these pictures and words:

Union Square  

I sat in the sunshine for about an hour, watching people go by.

Another "heart" with a picture of the beautiful bay.

Union Square

Tim and I met for dinner...what a treat - Top of the Mark with my son!  

Our dinner view