Six Decades for Susie

After our stay in Bellevue, we headed toward Jackson, Wi, where Bing's brother, Paul and his wife, Lea Fon, have their summer home. It was sister Sue's sixtieth birthday and she and her Mom were traveling to Jackson to stay a few days. Sue's husband, Dan was coming too and had planned to take his motorcycle. Dan's family had a gathering planned for Saturday in Milwaukee so the Jackson lodging was ideal because it is only about twenty five miles from Milwaukee. Paul and Lea Fon had secretly invited us, some cousins, and some high school friends of Sue's for a surprise sixtieth birthday party for Sue. And Wow, Sue and Milli were oh so surprised and oh so happy to see everybody. We had excellent weather, beautiful surroundings and tons of laughs. Bing golfed the next morning with Paul, we stayed another night and had brats and sweet corn and then headed out. Sweet summer memories were made and many thanks said to God that we have had sweet Sue as a relative all these years.

Go East Old Folks

On July 14th, we set out in our trusty camper again and headed east and south to Bellevue, Wi. It's kind of interesting that Bernie settled in a Bellevue and so many cousins live in Bellevue, Ne. But as we traveled the USA this summer we noticed that every state seems to have a Bellevue. There must have been a lot of viewing of bells back in the day when towns were named! We camped out in Bernie's townhouse driveway and spent the evening with him and Jamie and Kayla. It was fun having a tour of their stomping grounds, seeing their schools, eating delicious pizza, watching them perform with Rock Band and having several rousing games of Spoons. ( I found out my reaction time, has faded to the speed of a handicapped sloth, but, what the heck, it makes the game amusing and contributes to the merriment.) We survived the severe thunderstorm and winds that night and headed south in the morning.

Summertime and the livin' is fun!

Well, our trip is now in the memory bin. The total mileage was 5280 miles. We've been weeding and catching up on the chores around here and things are definitely looking summerlike now. Our rains are finally getting to be more regular and we may start lessening the effects of the last several years of drought. We just had a great July 4th weekend. The five Wisconsin grandchildren stayed with us along with Uncle Bernie/Dad. We managed to get to the town parade, watch some nice fireworks over the lake and swim for hours. The swimming in the rain on Monday was an especially nice episode for all of us waterbabies. Summer really is a nice season and America's birthday comes at just the right time to have all the great summer fruits and picnic foods. Happy Birthday America and thanks to all the different ancestors who made the choices they made to get to this wonderful country and thanks to our loving Creator who sprinkled this vast nation with wondrous gifts of nature. We're the caretakers now and let us do the best we can to take care of it.