MOVIN' ON DOWN THE ROAD!!!

Bright and early, well, maybe not so early (7am) we pulled away from my Mom's house. If you look very close you can see my mother standing in her door watching us leave. A bittersweet moment.

I wanted to add a picture of this pine tree. This was the tree Mom planted in honor of our baby sister, Lisa, who passed away in 2000. So the tree is now 11 years old and is quite a beautiful tree.

Our family had a wonderful gathering over the holiday. By this morning we were all headed in different directions. Mike and Hollie to Washington; Jeff and Jacque to Alaska; Jenny and Larry to Ohio; Sandy and Tom to Delaware; Sherri and Steve to Iowa; and Coley and I to New Mexico.

Our last day together, we had Richard connect the Wii so we could bowl. We spent several hours bowling, 4 at a time. I was in competition with my brother, Mike, and my brother-in-law, Tom. Had a really fun time challenging them to beat me. Mike did, Tom did not, but there's always the next time. Sherri and I played two different games of 3-hole golf. So very different on the Wii game than it is walking an actual course. Later that evening, seven of us sat down to play Oh, Hell. It's a card game that lasted about two hours, but we all love playing cards and being together, so we had a good time. Sandy was the big winner in that game.

I decided before I left Wyoming to stop in Colorado to spend the night. The drive from my mother's to Albuquerque is about 850 miles. That's about a 13 hour drive give or take an hour or so. Not much of a challenge for me, but since Coley and I managed to do about 1600 miles in two days, I just wasn't up for that long a drive.

Here's Coley with the mustang in front of the visitor center in Ft. Collins, Colorado. The drive was fairly easy, not too much ice on the highway and the day turned out to be clear, blue skies all the way. We did hit high winds once we got into Colorado, but it wasn't any problem.

Yes, that's me. Also at the visitor center, all bundled up for the cooler temperatures. We arrived in Colorado Springs about 2:30 pm and checked into a Super 8 Motel. After dropping off our bags, we headed to the local Applebees for dinner and later drove to the theatre to see the new release, Hugo.

This is a really good film by Martin Scorsese (sp?) about a little boy who becomes an orphan while helping his uncle tend to the clocks in the train station.

I was surprised to see that part of the story is about the real life story of how movies began when the Lumere (sp?) brothers made the first picture of a moving train and the people in the theatre really thought they were going to be hit when the train began moving towards them. The film is in 3d and is really worth seeing. Sir Ben Kingsley has the primary role along with the young boy who plays the orphan. Coley had not seen any of the 3d pictures that have come out in the last year and a half, since she's in Costa Rica.

In the morning we head for Albuq. I'll be there for several days.

Hope all of you survived your encounter with the turkey. Judy, I think you are in Memphis helping your mother through her surgery. I send you both well-wishes, you, too, Lynn. Love to all!!!