Sat. 9/2
Drive to Janesville. Cloudy again, more rain. Still cornfields but not as flat as SD & MN. Dinner w friends Marlene & Jerry (friends of Sally’s sister/John’s daughter Rita and John when they lived in Janesville). John stays overnight w them. Very cool, autumn like.
Sun. 9/3
Across-the-street neighbors Dao & Katy are out of town. Picked up frosted angel food cake from You Take the Cake (Rita & I had 2 for our birthday party 3 yrs ago, super delicious). Dinner w friend and real estate agent Tonya & husband Ken and Marlene.
Mon. 9/4
LABOR DAY. Visit w friend Stacy (from Harris Bank and lives across back street from Rita’s house). Visit w Dave & Roxanne (the people who bought Rita’s house), picked up 6th patio chair that was left behind by the movers and saved by D&R for 3 years. Dinner w Marlene & Jerry.
Tue. 9/5
Cool & windy again. Visit friend Carrie (from State Farm), have lunch together. Post office—stamps, mail. Haircut for John. Aldi’s. No pkg in Marlene’s mail. Visit Rotary Gardens, Rita’s bricks. Really felt her presence there. None of Rita’s coworkers were still working there.
Wed. 9/6
Dinner w Myra (Sally & Rita’s friend from their Chicago days).
Drive. I-55 at least W of Rt 83 is Historic Rt 66.
Thur. 9/7
Drive to Des Peres MO.
Illinois has lots of clouds . . . have had a almost no rain since New Orleans, hence no clouds either out west.
Dinner w friends Judy & Craig (Rita worked with them in Chicago).
Fri. 9/8
St. Louis arch.
Gateway Arch National Park (at the time we saw it, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) was established in 1935 to commemorate the westward expansion of the United States. The 630 foot Gateway Arch, designed by architect Eero Saarinen in 1947-1948, reflects St. Louis’s role in the expansion of the vast wilderness West of the Mississippi River during the 1800s.
The Old Courthouse, just west of the Gateway Arch, is the site where Dred Scott sued for his freedom [and in 1857 lost]. The court ruled negro descendants of imported slaves could not be American citizens and therefore he had no standing to sue in federal court, and that the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States. This led indirectly to the Civil War and the 14th Amendment.
Artie is gone. (the chive plant we took from home for Bob’s omelets.)
Steve comes down from Metamora (Sally’s brother/John’s son).
Sat. 9/9
Steve (Sally’s brother/John’s son) joined us touring Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, property once owned by Grant [& before that his father-in-law], now (since 1903) owned by the Busch family [of Anheuser-Busch Brewing]). We saw the house and an ongoing Civil War era re-enactment,
& the animal reserve,
& the Clydesdales. Evolved from Flemish stallions that carried knights in armor into battle, and replaced at the turn of the century by trucks for deliveries, the Budweiser Clydesdales were introduced in 1933 to hail the repeal of Prohibition!
Sun. 9/10
Steve goes home.
Toured the Missouri botanical gardens.
Drive towards Lexington, 338 mi from St L. Fields of dried crops look like fields of sunflowers.
Mon. 9/11
Drive to Lex. It does look like some trees are turning already. Wow, sunset is 7:30 now.
Tue. 9/12
Stopped at Shaker village of Pleasant Hill, in Harrodsville, KY. Did self- and staff-led tours of the historic center. It was home to the third largest Shaker community in the United States between 1805 and 1910. (Shakers are a Christian sect founded in the 18th century in England. Celibacy and internal societal changes have thinned the American members from 6,000 in the nineteenth century to 2, living in Maine).
Their stone work is particularly impressive.
Dinner with Rita & Sally’s college friend Annette.
Wed. 9/13
Visit w Annette. Personal guided tour of Gainesway farm (thoroughbred horses) by Annette (she worked there). The grounds are beautiful and meticulously kept. Tapit (foaled in 2001) sired three Belmont Stakes winners and was the leading sire in North America in 2014, setting an earnings record that he broke in 2015 and again in 2016. For the 2015 season, his stud fee was raised to $300,000, the highest in North America. Tapizar (sired by Tapit, foaled in 2008) is a leading miler, winning almost a million dollars in 14 starts over 3 years.
Thur. 9/14
Drive to West Liberty Ohio, 192 mi from Lex.
Fri. 9/15
Visit w Rita & Sally’s college friend Karen & sister Glenda—library, lunch, chocolates shop, pizza.
Drive.
Sat. 9/16
Drive to Williamsport, PA. Visit with Bob’s friend and former colleague Sandy.
Lots of goldenrod in fields and along roadside.
Bob has not missed East Coast drivers.
Sun. 9/17
Home! House is still there. Thanks to our friends Tom & Diane who picked up & sorted our mail for 5 months. The lawn chairs we took never got used–didn’t spend much time in campgrounds and most of it was relaxing in the air-conditioned RV!