Laura, Dick, Diane and David

 

After our trek across Canada we landed in Traverse City, Michigan, with Dick and Diane.  I wrote about them in the last blog.

We left Morrisons after a breakfast of aebleskiners - a new dish to us - made by Dick.  We arrived at a WalMart about an hour north of our designated meeting place with Laura.  We weren't certain what to expect with Laura as we have never met her before.  Our first shack was that the hotel where we would meet her for breakfast was in a pretty classy part of St Louis.  Second was that the hotel was one of the most beautiful we've ever been in.  Third was that Laura is beautiful intelligent well-liked member of the hotel staff.  We chatted for  a couple hours and shared information about our lives and the paths that crossed or almost crossed.  With a full belly and a warm heart, we exchanged hugs and slowly wandered up to our covered wagon.

After participating in the Marj Howard's Zoom Memorial Service we headed to visit Galletly - "David Galletly" as Bond would say.  We met at a Thai restaurant and joined by his son Aaron and his (Aaron's) girl friend Amanda.  Being that Aaron is a bartender with years of food service experience we entrusted him with the entrée selections which he did very well.  A couple hugs and good-byes with Aaron and Amanda and we were off following David to his abode at the end of a dead end street with a huge lawn and a railroad as the back boundary.  We added New York pages to his menu of a Country Western Omelette before some fond hugs and adieus.  We first met David when he came to Alaska with a mission team and stayed for the summer.  He later married our niece whom he met that summer, but alas, that didn't last.

The drive north to Millville, just north east of Rochester, Minnesota, was uneventful if you ignore the gusts of wind and the nap in the Love's parking lot.  We arrived to a warm welcome from Bill and Jill, Gail's niece, several hours of catching up on what's new and a delicious chicken meal.  After a couple rounds of playing with Charlie, a tour of the covered wagon, more chatting and starting the heater (it's forecasted to be 27˚tonight, we rolled out our bed rolls and settled in for the night.  Charlie had beat us to the draw as he had found a pillow on the floor in the house and claimed it as his own,  Now he's in the covered wagon exposed to the same elements of weather as we are.  Poor puppy.

Tomorrow we start the visiting in Minneapolis.