Relaxing at Mary Ann's

 So we have had a couple of quiet, rest days at Mary Ann's.  I showed her son Chris my moose pic and he was like that's an elk.. what, yep an elk.. So the moose is back on my not been seen list, bugger.,, I was so happy I saw a moose and even Mary Ann thought it was, so there you go, I have seen an elk...

We went shopping yesterday and I brough some cool things to dress my house for autumn, I am planning on doing a lot of dressing my home for different seasons and playing with my decorations etc.   So I have now been to a Dollararma, a Michaels, a Wallmart and a Dollar Store.  I still have others to go to as well. 

As we were driving home we say two chipmonks crossing the road, one just stopped and stood up, he was so cute, only about 12 to 15cm tall, just weeny.  I was stoked, another animal crossed off my no see list.  Later that evening Mary Ann called me, the chipmonk that lived in her log pile was laying on the back porch, the awful cat that has move into her yard, had attacked it.  It was awful.  We decided to leave it to see if it would recover and closed the doors to keep the cat out of the back porch.  This morning he was gone, so he had recovered and will live to escape another day, hopefully.

Unfortunatley this afternoon the effing cat came back and found the chipmonk and ripped it to shreds.  The little shit.

I think one of Mary Ann's friends is coming to visit today and I have no idea what the plans are.  I am about to make myself some vegemite toast for breakfast.

When Judy arrived we had a quiet day, she buried the poor chipmonk and cleaned off the deck.. It was grose.  

We have had a quiet day, I made some mashed spuds to go with the pulled pork and we just talked and relaxed for most of the day.

Tomorrow we are going op shopping.  I want to see what their Vinnies and Salvos are like.  I am real nosey... 

The sunset from Mary Ann's back yard, over the lake.  Her home is in the most lovely area. 

We are heading to Detroit on Saturday, to visit Emily, Mary Ann's daughter.  So until then

Cheers

Lones

Goodbye Canada, hello again USA

 We travelled south and went to a little place where there were some quaint little Native Canadian and craft things to purchase, incredibly expensive though.  

Stuffed wolves display at the store. I loved them

We then travelled a little further and ate an apple fritter, nothing like our fritters, more like a cake.  It was quite nice, very over advertised locally, and a little over spiced for me, but okay.  

We finally arrived at Sault Ste Marie, to cross back into America, just as I started to feel ill.  I think it was the apple fritter.  I grabbed a large throw away cup and threw up in it, twice, as we were in line to come back into the country.  I just held the cup like it was a drink or something and tried to appear innocent.  The guard asked a couple of the ususal questions and through we went.  I was so worried he would think I had some kind of disease, but he didn't even notice I had thrown up.  Bonus.  You have to take the small wins now and then,  Canada had been a bit of a disappointment to be honest.  They just overcharge for everythigng and then they don't take advantage of the things they could utilise to get tourist dollars.  I shan't be back.  We drove for hours past glimpses of lakes, and huge forests and very few rest areas with any kind of view, no tea shops or cafes.  Just nothing for hundreds of miles..

We then drove to Mary Ann's friends house, she lives in a cabin community on a lake about 2 hours north of Mary Ann.  Lisa was lovely and her cabin was so sweet, the whole place was to die for.  From her front deck you can see the lake, we stayed overnight and didn't leave until about 4pm on the following day.  It was lovely.  Lisa had to go out to an event, it was a poker thing, I can't remember what it was called, but you are in a boat and you go to different bars around the lake, which is huge, and every bar gives you a card and then when you return you have to make the best poker hand you can to see if you win.  I am not sure if you can trade cards, but she told us later, by phone, that she had a great day.  Lisa wants to come to Aus, so I told her she is welcome and to bring Mary Ann. 

We arrived back her at Mary Ann's last night and have had a chill day, doing laundry and napping.  We still have to clean out the van to return it tomorrow.  

I will be having a week or so here and then flying to Dallas to catch my flight home.  I will keep you updated on anything we do while I am here.

I forgot to mention while we were at the Glacier and Yellowstone parks, that even with bears and  the things that will eat you, there were still people out walking and cycling through the parks, like little human kebabs.  I shake my head at how stupid people can be.  A little 3 year old was attacked by a grizzly just after we left that area, because her family had left food in the tent, it should alwasy be in tin containers etc.  People are really dumb.  Luckily they think she will be okay, but the mental experience will be with her for life.  Poor little bugger

Most of the cars in canada and here are rust buckets, Mary Ann said it is due to all the salt they put on the roads in the snow. It must really take it's toll

A photo of me in front of a picture in the Banff tourist info place

Me with some stuffed animals in Banff to

Me outside one of the cheap american stores I need to visit

So we are about to order pizza for dinner, I will talk to you all again soon

Cheers Lones

Leaving Manatoba, entering Ontario and no bloody animals....

 We drove most of the day, through really boring countryside, we stopped at the sadest little Gas station, in the middle of nowhere, with a sad little attendant.  But Mary Ann did find a friend in the car park, a lovely native American, who gave us some tips and her husband got some smokes off Mary Ann and we continued on our boring way, there is really nothing to see in Manatoba at all. 

                    Really sad oasis, motel and diner where closed and just really run down

Once we were on the road again we started getting storm warning messages and I was fine with it, until Mary Ann said the storms can lead to tornados, then I got a little concerned.  She drove and I was on tornado watch, great plan, as I had no idea what I was looking for.... The storm just raged around us and it got worse and worse.  We had to pull over at one point and then once we could continue it got less frightening until we drove onto Ontario.  The scenery in Ontario is beautiful, more fir trees and lots of water, but it does become repetative.  We got caught up in a traffic jam for about 45 minutes as an RV had slid partially off the road, and Canadian roads are a nightmare.  They are not very wide, there is not options if there is a problem and you can only do 90 kilometres an hour.  It makes travelling through repetative scenery quite boring.  We stayed in a really dodgy Travel lodge in Thunder Bay,  Mary Ann booked ahead and they charged her card, but when we got there, they had no room for us.  Well she wasn't happy.... We decided to wait there until the manager arrived at 11pm.  Well surprise, surprise before he arrived, they found a room for us. 

Really smelly gross room, but we had a clean bed each and we had a good breakfast.  

The start of the storm, while I was still not concerned and taking pics

We left Thunder Bay for Marathon and what a day in turned out to be. My elastic was stretched in my trousers somewhere along the way, so I had to hold onto them most of the time, until I forgot.  We got into our second traffic back up due to an accident on the road.  Sadly this one was a fatality and it was going to be between 6 to 8 hours delay.  It was really awful for the people involved, but to hold up all of the traffic, including the Semi's was ridiculous, they have no B plan when things go south.  Mary Ann got talking to a local girl in a car two up from us and she said she was going to go back and take a side road, it would take about an hour to get back onto the road the other side of the accident, but we were welcome to follow her if we wished.  She was really lovely and she had the sweetest little daughter.  So we did that, Mary Ann did a great job following her through the bush, it was so dusty and it was really hard to see.  At one point there was about 7 cars in our little convoy, we just caught up to them on the bush track.  It was actually a really nice drive, if we were just meandering, as we were going across little bridges over creeks, it was quite pretty, but with the dust and having to keep up with our guide it was quite stressful for Mary Ann. 

We finally made it back onto the road, the other side of the accident, and the road was still full of people trying to get across the block onto the other side.  They had put up signs that the trucks were not to use the road we did, but I am surprised more cars didn't.  It was about then we decided we had had enough of Canada, it is expensive and the roads are stupid.  So we drove to Marathon and we have managed to find a room for the night, everything is expensive and they add tax to everything so you pay a lot more, 13% plus 8% plus 3.5%, it is ridiculous.  A $150 hotel room becomes a $187 hotel room etc.  It's ridiculous.  I don't understand why they don't have more coffee shops or cafes etc, along the lake side or things for tourists to see and do.  They are missing out on a lot of custom and people just get fed up of the high costs and leave. 

We are leaving Canada tomorrow and heading to one of Mary Ann's friends for a visit, then the following day we will relax and drive home to hers on Sunday.  That is the plan so far, it may change, it often does. 

We thought it would be nice to relax with a wine and some snacks, the local bottle shop closed at 6pm, we were informed at 6.15 pm.  So no wine for us.  Mary Ann has some beers and I had a small amount of wine in a container, so we sat outside and chatted to a couple of young Canadians, fortunatly they headed inside before I stood up and my trousers landed around my ankles... OMG.. I almost wet myself laughing, and Mary Ann was in hysterics, I quickly gathered myself together and we came back to the room.  I have had enough for today and plan to retire early.  

I have had my shower, getting rid of all the dust.  It felt like I was back in the mallee. It is a long time since I have seen dust like that.  We had to buy some armor all for the van, the thing is covered in dust inside and out. Tomorrow we will find a car wash, hopefully in the USA, it is a lot cheaper than Canada. 

That's all for today... 

Lones 

Banff, and crowds and animals that don't show up

 So we travelled from Cochrane (Calgary area) to Banff, the town itself is lovely, but the crowds where ridiculous.  Everything was booked out, even the shuttle buses, we were advised by a park official not to try to drive to Lake Louise as we would be turned back as all the parking spots would be full, a hundred to one shot we would get a park.  So he suggested we travel towards Jasper, which is closed as a quarter of the town has been destroyed in the fires that are still burning. But the drive to the icefields is one of the prettiest in Canada and we should not miss it.  So we decided to do that, although it was beautiful, after 30 minutes it did become repetative.  It was all fir trees, so we turned around and drove down to Lake Minniewanka, that was quite pretty. 

                                                                    Banff

Banff is very pretty

Lake Minniewanka

We were coming back from Lake Minniewanka and I was decidedly down hearted as we had not seen any animals at all.  The Bison abviously know where I am and come out after I leave.  But there was a car stopped so Mary Ann slowed down and stopped too, and right beside me, on the side of the road was a moose, I wound my window down to take a picture and I could have touched it, it was so close.  There were two of them, but I didn't notice the second one until I looked at my picture.  I was so stoked, it was beautiful.  So all those days, and all those parks, and I have seen one Moose....

                           Proof, though the camera pushes them further away, it was so close.

We decided to leave banff and head east.  Mary Ann wanted to go to Medicine Hat that night, but it was over 7 hours away and it was already late afternoon.  I stood firm.  I said "Mary Ann you are a terrible driver at night, and even your day driving is a bit dodgy".  She actually burst out laughing and we chuckled for a bit, but I won.  We stayed in Cochrane again that night and carried on to Regina (pronounced to rhyhm with Vagina). We stayed at the Walmart car park and, then this morning travelled through the rest of Saskatchewan and Manitoba today.  

 

I have to say that travelling through Wisconsin, Minnesota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are all very similar, like wheat belts, very similar to back home in some areas, and very boring, no animals jump out at you, just flat boring paddocks, one after the other. 

We are now in Steinbach in Manitoba and we found the most lovely hotel, with a bistro and bar attached, Frantz Inn.  It is really lovely and I have already taken two showers, one last night and one this morning, in case it is another rest area night tonight.  The staff here are lovely and the food was to die for, I have my first steak since leaving home.  So would def recommend, apart from the see through toilet paper, that isn't  great. 

We are about to have breakfast and continue on our way.  You will need to forgive my typing as I do not have a spell check to check my typo's. 

Cheers for now, talk again soon

Lones. 

Lake McDonald and Canada

 We had a good start from St Mary's, we traced our route from yesterday, up to Logan's pass and over the Mountains until we reached Lake McDonald.  Mary Ann really wanted to see this as it was founded by McDOnalds from Scotland and she was a McDonald.  The scenery was awesome again, but the lake itself was disappointing.  We had seen pictures of the coloured stones in the lake on the internet and they wer amazing, but in real life, they had none of the wonderful colours that the internet showed.  The lodge was inpressive, but the staff were quite rude, the food was expensive and quite bland, so we weren't impressed.

                                            McDonald Lake Lodge

    

                    

                               The buses they take tourists around Glacier National Park

Inside the lodge

Lovely creeks all over the park, and Mary Ann.

We did meet a lovely couple who we interacted with for awhile, Mary Ann read all of the information in the reading room and could only find stuff on a Snider and nothing on the McDonalds, so that was disappointing.  We had lunch, I had the Pasties, they were two small weird round pasties, floating in a really bland gravy, and they were really bland, I also had the Huckleberry lemonade and that was really quite sour.  The meal cost me about $25 USD.  Mary Ann had a burger and salad.  Burger was frozen and bland, the salad was delicious apparently.  Would not recommend.  The waiter was lovely, the rest of the staff, not so much. 

We then continued on our way, we got over the mountain and had to drive around the bottom and back to St Mary to continue on our way to Canada.  I feel bad that I cannot share the driving, but I am not on the insurance for the vehicle, so not able to do anythign about it.

 

No cars in the US or Canada have front licence plates, only back ones.  I am not sure when the law changed as Mary Ann said they used to have both, but not anymore.   weird.  But there it is.

We crossed the Canadian border without incident, I still have not seen any large animals, even though thye have large signs warning of Bison activity in a few places.  The little shits are avoiding me.  Hiding in the forest until they see me go past or something.

The last part of the drive was into the sun, so Mary Ann was having a hard time as she really struggles to see clearly at night.  Although as she has two sets of glasses, and doesn't wear her reading glasses for driving, I have to tell her the speed limits on the GPS, or the smaller signs on the road.  If I wasn't here she would not take the correct exits etc, it is a constant battle, but it keeps me laughing.  Although last night as we got closer to the hotel, she was approaching a stop light and I was saying, "you have to stop, it's red, it's red IT'S RED".... No, she just sailed on through.  I was like WTF!!  She said she couldn't see due to the sun, but me screaming It's red, appeared to have no result.  So that is a worry.  I will have to be more vigilant, or organise some kind of insurance.  Apart from taking wrong turns and going through Road Closed signs, and running red lights Mary Ann is doing fine.  

Today we are off to Banff. 

Glacier National Park

 So we booked into the park late yesterday afternoon.  We asked about Grizzly bears, cause you know, scarey.  The young lass was like, No we haven't seen one for a few weeks, and it was on the other side of the park.  You'll be fine..... A few weeks, and the park is a couple of hundred metres wide.  Is she serious??  Mary Ann's friend had brought us some black shades to put on the windows at night, but we hadn't really bothered with them until now.  We put those suckers up, once we read this notice  

We slept in this morning and then did our laundry and had some lunch.  I then had a nanna nap and then we drove up to Logan's Pass.  The scenery here is magnificent, truly majestic.  The pics will not do it justice, but I will try 

                                                Entering the Glacier park

The scenerey is unbelievable

These Columbian Ground Squirrell was on display at Logan's Pass. But they are running around our camp site. They are so cute.  But my photos of them aren't.

So we are about to leave St Mary's for Lake McDOnald and then onto Canada tonight.  We will be around Calgary by this evening. Hopefully seeing some amazing sites along the way. 

Wisconsin and North Dakota

 So we made it to Wisconsin.  It has been a huge drive for Mary Ann.  I cannot take turns to relieve her as I have no insurance on the car, and in America you have to have insurance in your name. So she is doing all the driving, which is unfortunate.  But I am keeping her on track, which is fortunate.  She struggles to follow the GPS at times.  She takes the GPS advice as a suggestion sometimes and I have to put her back on track, it is hilarious... 

We crossed Wisconsin quite quickly, from Ironwood to Duluth was only a couple of hours.  

We saw a dead black bear that was road kill, I sharn't share the pics as it might upset your senstive souls.  But it was fascinating. 

We saw Lake Superior and a lot of amazing scenery, but we did not stay overnight in Wisconsin or Minnesota.  We travelled on to North Dakota.  we were getting tired by the time we hit Jamestown, but there was no inn for the travellers, I know exactly how Joe and Mares felt.  So we back tracked for 30 minutes and stayed at a rest area at Oriska.  A large insect hit the open window and landed on Mary Ann, she freaked out, she said it was wet, in the morning we found this in the front of the van.  It was about 5 to 6 cm long.

The rest area was actually quite good, very clean, all tarred and nice toilet facilities. No bears, so bonus.  But the sleeping in the van had some disadvantages and we were both quite uncomfortable.  I got very little sleep, but Mary Ann had a good slepp.  I woke with cramp.

We drove through Duluth in Minnesota and as we coming up to a Road Closed sign I suggested we turn off as the road was closed.  "But is it?" said Mary Ann and kept driving.  Once we get there she is peering through the windscreen to see if she can see any reason we shouldn't continue.  I was reminding her it was closed.  She looks over to the other side of the intersection and sees another car.  "I'll see what he does." she said and he went around the barricades and turned right, so she goes around our barricades and follows him, then the car on our right follows us too.  So apparenelty Road Closed signs are just a suggestion and don't need to be obeyed.

We then travelled on through North Dakota and went to a Walmart in Bismarck to buy a foam topper for the bed, mind you the bed is two foam chair covers laid side by side on the floor of the van.  So the topper was required. We then visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It was really amazing.  Lovely back drops of mountains.  We saw some praire dogs and some deer.

                                           

                                             Praire Dogs, there were hundreds of them

Mary Ann is concerned that I keep falling asleep on our journey, she thinks I have narcolepsy. I just have had very little sleep to date, since I left Aus. We travelled again, through some lovely countryside, a lot of pastures instead of forests. We arrived a Billings and booked into the Holiday Inn, Mary Ann had a heap of points she used, so that was our cheapest accommodation to date at $66 USD.  We are using the SPLID to enter all of our costs and who paid them,  It works out how much each has paid and at the end it will settle up and one of you will owe the other.  So far we are keeping it pretty even, so there will be no big surprise for one of us at the end.  We had dinner at a little bar and the bartender was really sweet and the customers were really friendly, giving us advice on what to see and do.

From there we headed for Livingston and had lunch in the park.  We were heading for Yellowstone National Park.  We went in the north entrance and out the west entrance.  There were information packs on all of the animals you can see within the park. 

                                            All the animals we could see in the park

The map of the park

Guess how many animals we did see........... yep, that's right, none, NONE!!  After we left the park, my facebook came up with bison running down the roads, 26 minutes ago.... I was pissed.  Today, more facebook posts of bison everywhere, we didn't even see a deer.  We saw a couple of raven.  Not happy Jan.... 

We headed to Bozeman, as Mary Ann had heard it was a lovely town, we weren't impressed.  It is full of hundreds of new houses, all looking alike.  Apparently it is a collage town and is increasing rapidly.  We stopped at a pizza restaurant for dinner, it was so expensive, $21 USD for an 8 inch pizza.  When it came, it was inedible.  We weren't happy and as we didn't eat it, the waiter asked if we wanted a box for it.  NO, no we don't.  Mary Ann still left a tip, and we went to McDonalds drive through for dinner.  As I have already said my job is to keep her on track.  We come out of McDonalds and she turned the exact oppostie of what the GOS said, and I thought okay she has a plan.  She did it again at the next intersection, so I am like is the GPS just suggestions too?  She is hopeless and we both started laughing as I put us back on track.  I just need to keep my eyes out.  I only nap on long stretches where we have no turns.... 

We headed north and spent the night at another rest stop. at Three Forks.   We were heading for St Mary in Blackfeet country.  Near the Glacier Nartional Park.  We have a camp site for 2 nights.  Today we plan to drive around the park, do some laundry etc.  We are taking a chill day.  That's all for now guys.  

 Hey Folks

I have been having technical and wi-fi issues, but hopefully that is sorted now.  

Mary Ann has the most beautiful home in a beautiful woodland spot, on a lake.  It is amazing.  So far I have seen different coloured squirrels, I am yet to see the chipmonks, racoons or deer. 

I am yet to take the stairs to the lake.  But I will. 

                                            Her home

                                            Her front/side yard

                                                   Squirrel through the back window

    

                                                            A dark squirrel

    

                                                Her house from the back above the lake

    

                                                    Looking down at the lake

We have had some really late nights, we talked until 1.30 the first night and after 2am the second.  We have not stopped talking, it is ridiculous, we don't even notice the passage of time.  We stayed at Mary Ann's on Thursday me to have some down time. Went shopping on Friday and spent most of Saturday packing and organising for our trip.  

            Sorry AUS, it was the only coke they had.  They don't have diet lemon here

We picked up the van on Saturday too.  It is a beauty, a 2024 Chrysler Voyager.

                                                Mary Ann being prepared...  and I'm glad she did

  

                                                 

Mary Ann was all about getting up at 6.30 and leaving at 7, after paking the final bits, checking her list for the umpteenth time and watering the garden, we drove off at about 9am.... But the adventure begins.....

We travelled north through Michigan until we reached the Mackinac Bridge.  We had some lunch and met a guy, Tom who had locked himself out of his car.  We had no tools to help him, although Mary Ann does have a hammer and a jemmy.  I have no idea why, I did ask her what she was planning on building, but she ignored me. anyhow, Mary Ann's arsenal was of no use to Tom, so he toddled off and found someone more useful.  He did return and insisted on taking pictures of the three of us with his drone.   I don't know why, I don't care why, I am just living the dream...

We drove for almost 600 miles, miles not Kilometres, it was a long day, but the senery was amazing, incredible forests.  I saw a lot of racoons, but unfortunatly they were road kill, so still no live ones.  We also saw a black bear that was dead on the side of the road.  It was amazing.  Really sad for him, but probably lucky for me that he was not dangerous when we met.  All those people eaten by bears, they saw a live one!!  We arrived late in Ironwood, as there were very few places to stay, so it was late and dark and we struggled to find decnet accommodation.  We do have the van we can sleep in if we want or if we get stuck, our beds are set up in there. We found at an hotel in Ironwood Michigan and it was a suite that cost us $119 USD, so not too bad, but we don't want to repeat of that everynight. 
 

Tomorrow it is on and upward to Wisconsin. Talk again soon... 

Road trip - The adventure begins...

 Oh my gosh, I am so excited.  I was sitting at the airport, waiting to board my flight to North America.  So excited to finally see my lovely friend that I have not seen in 43 years.  OMG... How exciting is that !!!

We are going to take a few days to catch up and then we are doing a road trip around a part of Canada.  So awesome..  I love adventures and a road trip will be brilliant, as long as we can avoid the grizzlies and brown and black bears plus the wolves and coyote's, the bobcats and mountain lions and lets not get started on rattle snakes.. Oh my, people say Australia is dangerous, but in reality we only have a few snakes, a couple of spiders the odd crocodile and two angry birds.  Unless you count the water, then there are a few more things, but really on land, it's a doddle. 

The flight to Dallas was awesome. I got an upgrade to Premium Economy so lovely big seats, lovely food, I think it was business class food, with all the silverware and crockery.  Nice food too.  Learra knows the guy in charge of first class and he was so nice to me.  He came to introduce himself and told me he loves Learra, she is so amazing.  Well I have to agree 😍.  Best part was I had the seat beside me empty, so all that room.  It was heaven.  Really a lovely flight and I got a small bottle of wine to take with me on my travels... Awesome..

Landing in Dallas fine, but the weather was around 100 degrees they said, so that is about 37.7 celcius, so a bit warm when you are coming out of a winter and then airconditioning.  Still I soldiered on, until my data wouldn't work, I went to the uber pickup, but couldn't get the app to work.  Some random guy offered to take me, but I wasn't sure he was affiliated with uber, he said I could pay him direct, but wouldn't give me a price, so no.  That wasn't happening.  This had taken about 30 minutes and I was hot, and hungry and thirsty and generlly p'd off, so not at my best.  I was getting crankier by the minute, not my normal adorable self shall we say. I went back to the woman and she let me call my hotel with her phone as I have no calls and my data isn't working.  They had a curtesy bus, so I booked that and sat around for abour 20 minutes.  So I get to my hotel and the reception told me where the lifts are, but said my room was on the first floor, and I know from all those movies that they call the ground floor the first floor, so not sure what she was thinking.  I finally get to my room, I just wanted a shower, so bad.  Well the water only came out the bath faucet.  I tried all sorts of things to get it to come out of the shower, nothing doing and  the shower wouldn't stay up either, so even had I been successful I wouldn't of been able to shower. After 3 calls to the front desk and two visits by a little lady and one by a big maintenance guy.  I finally got to shower.  I thought a nice cup of tea would be lovely.  No tea, only green tea or coffee in the room.. What kind of hotel is this??  So wouldn't recommend the Clarion Inn & Suites in Dallas to anyone.  Though the staff are lovely.  Very helpful, just not great facilities. 

But I am refreshed and feeling better so shall wander out and see if there is any where to get food around here, I will try not to snarl at anyone if they walk by... 

I found the bistro and had a nice meal of wings and then retired for the night. I was exhausted. Next morning I had a good breakfast of scambled eggs and biscuits and gravy. I have wanted to try biscuits and gravy ever since I found out the gravy was white. It was okay but am hoping if it is home cooked it will be better. I headed to the airport and was of course dropped at the wrong terminal, so after much tooing and frowing I finally booked in my bag at one terminal and then headed to a different terminal to catch the flight. They do things different in Dallas. But everyone was helpful and after a 3 hr flight and two nanna naps on board, I arrived.  It took forever to get my bagage due to the fact they brought it out at two different carousels and only told us about one... Finally I get my bag and head out to meet Mary Ann.  OMG, what a reunion.  It was so wonderful.  She has hardly changed at all.  We were driving the 1.5 hours to her home and I know you won't beleive this, but talking non stop when we pass by her youngest son Joe's street and she notices he and his wife are home, so quick u turn and we went for a visist.  It was so good to meet Joe, I have watched him grow up throught photos etc, he gave me big hug and it was so nice, we had a couple of wines and a lovely visist and then drove the rest of the way here, still talking non stop, we had and still have so much to catch up on.  

Mary Ann's house is beautiful, I can't wait to see it in daylight.  We talked until after one oclock in the morning and now I am awake again, it is just after 6am now and I am finishing this message to you and waiting for the sun and Mary Ann to get up.  What a hectic few days.  The adventure has begun.....