The Great American Zig-Zag, some great news.

Gramp Camp 2025 ended.  William's face reflected ours --
 a little teary, sad that he's going back to real life.   

We left Portland, OR and headed towards Canada for a cross-continent trip that would end when we dipped back down to  the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but we realized that Mark may or may not have wanted us in Texas.  Either way, we zigged to Round Rock, Texas, a lot-docking favorite of ours north of Austin. 

There really is a round rock for which Round Rock is named.  Before Texas became the crazy spaghetti mix of roads and bridges that it is, this rock was a low water crossing in the small stream in which it is found.  I walked four miles to find this thing;  it is UNDER a pedestrian bridge in a very pretty park.  But I found it! 

Meet David and Doretta Conrad -- Amber's parents standing along with us, Amber and Mark.  We had a lovely dinner together, and I'll say, I am not used to being the shortest person anywhere.

 No matter:   we soon were told why we were there:  

This little boy, who we assume will someday be tall, is joining us in late January or early February.  Boy Howdy -- good news! 💕

No more celebrating now though, there's work to do: Mark and Bill moved some furniture for Amber 

We visited my 81 year old brother a few times.  He always seems glad to see us. And despite all the motor problems, he seems to still be 'in there'.  He was trying to trick his physical therapist into giving him some coffee, that for some inexplicable reason he wasn't allowed to have?  

We crashed a bit of the beach vacation for Amber, Mark, and Laura on Padre Island National Seashore.  It's a lovely stretch of beach.  

Padre Island Sand Writing

Sand Castle Building;  Bill is using Baby's emergency shovel.

Padre Island restaurant breakfast.  

Clearly the hand in the picture below isn't Bill's, and also clearly, this is a stolen Internet picture.  We just didn't have time to take our own picture, but nonetheless, the story is true.   Bill was standing by the Dolphin tank at the Texas Aquarium when a dolphin came up to him and demanded some nose petting.   Before I could pull the camera from my pocket. the aquarium police shooed the dolphin away and gave Bill a bit of a comeuppance talk.  We think the security guard was envious because the dolphin chose Bill instead of her. Bill is now known in our family (or at least in our van) as the dolphin whisperer.   

Our joy-filled trip to Texas wound down and we again set off for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by completing the zag lag of our zig-zag road trip between Portland, OR and Manistique, Michigan.

The zag included  an early morning ferry from Galveston, TX back to the 'mainland' to start our northward trek.   We put state after state in our rear view mirror, stopping for morning walks/runs. This one  in Memphis

An island in the Mississippi separates Tennessee from Arkansas in Memphis.  We have a special feeling about the Mississippi as it seems to us to separate the East from the West. 

 A little farther up river, near Cairo, Illinois, the thirsty Mississippi drinks up the water of the Ohio River

The Ohio River is on left; The Mississippi is on right and curving around  towards the far right at the top.  You can see where the waters mix.  The land in the foreground is Illinois, the land on right is Missouri, and across the river is Kentucky.  This is a very confusing, but important piece of geography! (We got lost trying to find it, and school children explained exactly what was going on here.)

The Land of Lincoln pulled us in to Springfield for another early morning walking stop:

Lincoln's adult home -- the last place he lived before going to Washington.  He was never to return alive.

Lincoln's  magnificent gravesite.   He, his wife, and three of his four sons are enshrined here.  A must see if you are near.

On to Chicago for a picnic dinner with CCC friends Tom and Sue Boeman, and then off again to one of our favorite places in the United States:  Door County, Wisconsin.  We lollygagged for two days there.

An outdoor community theater troupe who does all their own writing about local history.  Our Virginia friend Mary introduced us to these folks. On this visit we saw the play "Dairy Heirs".  Say it out loud.   

The Hardy Gallery in Ephraim, Door County, Wisconsin. encourages folks to  paint their  names  and the date on the outside of their building.  It sits on a gorgeous pier jutting into Green Bay and its walls were used in older times for sailors to document the comings and goings of their ships.  Besides your names and an ampersand or similar, or if the person who paints over the rule-breakers' trespasses is in a good mood, a painter may be allowed to add a heart instead of the ampersand.   Anything else will get your name obliterated to create a space for rule followers.    A little unusual tourist fun and a great way to lure us in to the gallery.

Our time was up!  On we went, through thunder, lightning, wind and rain to Manistique, Michigan to be of a little service to others for a couple of weeks. 



 

 

WOYAYA

'Oops, there goes another (banana) tree plant"