The silence is broken!

Greetings from WI! Outside my window are the sounds of traffic mixed with dog and bird conversations. Not the same as waking up to helicopters and leaf blowers but that is just fine with me. My sister, Lori, is still asleep, in the Presidential Suite here, known as Mom’s bedroom. Lori likes to have it cooler when sleeping---no TV on and darkness, so sleeping in there suits her needs much better. Mom does her best sleeping on the sofa anyway, she claims, so that’s how it worked out.

The flight up here was without delay, but not without incident. I made the mistake in Atlanta of misreading the board, thinking my departure was Gate B3. I took a ride from A3 to the center of the airport, told by the electric car operator it was a half mile from the gate I arrived to the escalator to the trains. Once I got off the train and up to Concourse B, I headed on foot toward B3. “Something” made me look once more at the board to confirm my departure gate, and sure enough, it was B33, not 3!!

Back I went, the half mile back to the center of the concourse, and then further down the hallway (I think it starts with 19 from the center…) and down the other direction to B33. Oh, my hips! I was sweating from the brow by the time I got there, with no sitting down once at the gate. Loading was underway already but it was not urgent. I had hoped to get an order of Aunt Annie’s Cinnamon Stick pretzels or even go potty but nope---instead, I got a hike of nearly a mile!

My shuttle driver, referred to by another as Gabby, was fantastic company for the ride to Manitowoc. The other passenger was Grumpy Gus, sort of reminded me of my bro-in-law, Biff, in both appearance and demeanor. He was dropped off in Sheboygan and then Gabby (Dave) took me on a scenic tour of the town, just so we could check out if the pathway to Johnston’s Bakery was open or not. Mom had said it was not, but Dave was fairly certain we could get there if we wanted to. Besides driving around some barricades, it was proved to be accessible if we decided to come down to have breakfast some morning.

Jill was waiting for me at Mom’s house, having made some sloppy joe’s for our dinner. Dave had mentioned stopping on occasion with his wife for an ice cream at Cedar Crest which is where Jill works. We had talked about that in the van during the ride, him telling me about the New York Cherry being his favorite. When Dave saw Jill, he recognized her and said he was going to stop at the parlor on his ride back to Sheboygan. She called ahead of him and told the young man working there to give Dave his cone for free. And he did! Gabby got a nice tip for his troubles, and I had a nice ride home to Mom’s! Love when that happens!

The play on Friday night was FANTASTIC! There was nothing amateur about it, so very well done. Christin did an amazing job as Maria in “The Sound of Music”, and First German was well represented in the play, both on and off stage. IF I had a complaint, it was not about the proximity of our seats to the stage, being in the 4^th row from the front, center stage, but the tightness of the seats. As Tommy said, they felt like airline seats! He recollected coming to this theater as a kid to watch movies and the seats were much roomier in those days! I think everything was! But the production was extremely well done and I am so very glad I came up to enjoy it, and share with my family!