Toledo

We drove to Toledo from Columbus on Monday after waking up in the tent in Colleen Sharkey's backyard. Patti and Dad were home when we arrived. I made a Birthday Cake with yummy chocolate fudge frosting for Patti and we had it after joining her and 25 of her senior's water aerobics class for dinner at a very entertaining japanese steak house. Ambiana got nervous with the fire but she loved the goldfish pond and fountain. Colleen and I split the salmon.

Then it was home for cake and some Olympics for me while Colleen searches online for jobs and a house. We are being called to Plainfield. We have not been there ironically in all are miles we put in visitng places but we have heard about it, met good people from there and it is just outside of Montpelier where Colleen already has a part time job she can take Ambiana with as a Lunch Composter in the East Montpelier school system. Colleen has also found a house on craigslist which sounds and looks perfect in Plainfield and we are going to go look at it Tuesday!

Meanwhile in Toledo we visited with Dad who has lost 30 pounds and is just stick and bones with no energy. He told us in Boston he expects to die in 2-5 years and we hope it is not true and that he can regain some strength. We floated the idea of him coming to live with us but Independance is such a misguided virtue sometimes that breeds such industries as healthcare, retirement and nursing homes. We would love to nurse him back to health (once we find a place.) but would he ever come???

We picked the canoe off the lawn for the first time in almost a year and strapped it to our roof and then were off to West beach and the dunes and lake Michigan to meet Ann Clancy and her girls at the beach. It was super fun, big waves and warm sun and drippy sand unfortunately the camera malfunctioned no no shot of yaya's cute sandy bum nor ours for that matter. After the pizza party and visitng with Ann and Bob we camped in Grampy Jim's backyard as his house is toxic with all the clutter and dust and mold of 20 years of negelect and began the task of selecting what we bring back to us to Vermont for the Settle Down Process before going over to Grammy Kris' in Palatine for the night.

Our Last RoadTrip of the Summer

Nantasket Beach

We spent Wednesday and Thursday after the Baseball Camp in Boston. We were all s'posed to go to the beach on Wednesday but Molly lost her wallet at the game and had to run around trying to cancel credit cards and get $$$, I had a job interview in Waltham at Phase Forward and Colleen and Ambiana wanted to go to the library for an Indian dance program and when me and her got back from our respective events Molly, Gaelen and Eden had bolted back to Erving. I was sad not to get a chance to say good bye to Gaelen :( So we who were left went to the Frog Pond instead and on Thursday after going with Gamma to her rehab appointment we drove south on I-93 to Nantasket for an afternoon on the beach.

Columbus Ohio

On Friday we left around 2pm and drove into Pennsylvannia where we camped for the night and arrived in Columbus Ohio on Saturday afternoon. Colleen went to Susan's Bachelorette Party while I hung out with Mike and Colleen with Ambiana. She went to bed no problem with me, just a few tears before snores! On Sunday we went to a program at a Metro Park with Colleen and hung out that evening with at her house. Our Big Adventure is approaching the ONE YEAR mark since we left our South Hadley home. Next stop; Grampy's house in Toledo to pick up the canoe and celebrate Aunt Patti's birthday!!

Ambiana video from our last 2 Boston trips