BEDDING DOWN IN BUFFALO...

Good Morning Midwest! This is actually Carolyn at the keyboard. Terry is exhausted and has crawled underneath the covers to avoid any social interaction. Now I know Terry would want me to salivate over the photo he selected to illustrate our landing spot tonight on our way back west. Yes, we are in Buffalo, New York and yes, they get a lot of snow, especially lake effect snow. Below is a picture of a late January blizzard in 1977 that dumped nearly 100 inches in parts of the city. This is a very exciting fact for our extreme meteorologist. But alas, he is in dream world, and so I take over the reins for the day.

So...number one. No more talk of snow. You folks in the Midwest have had more than your fair share. Plus the draconian temperatures. I mean. Yuck. And here we thought we would be trudging through piles of snow in Maine, and harnessing our pomsky to a sled. Well, the laugh was on us.

So now we are on our way home. For good. Maine was extraordinary. But family is family. We miss you. The drive not so much. Today we traveled more than 600 miles. With two cats, one dog, one angst ridden teenager and Terry and me. For starters we thought we had this gig down. No more over packed vehicles with barely enough breathing room. We were going to plan this, mull it over, figure it out and breeze back home with plenty of leg room.

Not so much. Again, we over packed. So the 22 pound cat (she's big boned) is on my lap in the front set. Nimbus, the pomsky, is wedged between Terry and me with half of his body in the front. So he decides to rest his head on the cat. The cat is upset. The dog is nonplussed. The cat demands he remove his head. Nimbus decides to placate the cat with a tongue facial. The cat is not amused. The cat wants to go in the back. The dog wants in the front. I wind up with the 50 pound dog "cuddling" in my lap for 200 miles. I miss the feeling in my feet and legs. I am counting on it returning sometime soon.

Unfortunately the angst ridden teenager is allergic to cats. So while Eden attempts to console Emma, the Maine coon cat, she is going blind in the process. So the cat and the dog end up with me in the front seat. This is beginning to feel like a bad sitcom.

We find ourselves in a monument to the '80's for the night. You remember balloon pants, big hair, shoulder, pads, and me being in my prime ....HAH! Anyway...we wound up at a hotel that is a testament to the over indulgence of the era. This hotel is very modernistic and features the huge atrium "playpen". Remember the pool experience. The overheated solarium with pools, hot tubs, games, and pool side bars. You book a room. Socialize with your friends with a cold beverage at the many tables stationed around the atrium while your children terrorize the hotel staff until the pool close at 10 p.m. That's the place where we are currently hunkering down. Except like the '80's, it's remains in the days of yore. The pool is shut down. The pool side bar and entertainment ...no longer. The scattered tables are empty and the games removed. Eden is awestruck. She has never seen one of this dinosaurs from the past. Now the new motels feature the big breakfast and streamlined check-outs.

So here we are. Living the dream. Coming back home. And thank the Lord with no snow!

Carolyn

PS, Terry says hi and to look forward to warmer temperatures next week! He's so excited to get back to Iowa!