Stateside for the Winter

Florida Sunset

We flew from Rome to Chicago in late October, staying with our son Taylor in Davenport, Iowa.

Our sailing friends from the Saylorville Yacht Club, Ann and Rand Reynolds, happened to be in Iowa at the same time as us. They have two sailboats - one in Maryland, and one in Valencia, Spain. We enjoyed a home-cooked meal with them and talked about our cruising experiences in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Yacht Club invited us to speak at their annual banquet in Ankeny, and we spent a fun evening sharing some of our sailing adventures with them.

Our son Taylor had the opportunity to officiate one of the Iowa State High School football finals at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. Randy and I were lucky enough to attend the game - Randy as a spectator this time. Its very cool to see Taylor following in his Dad's footsteps.

On Thanksgiving Day, Randy and Taylor left for a week to hunt deer in Pennsylvania, and I flew to Denver to spend the week with Rachael and Austin. They took me to see the Colorado Avalanche, my first NHL game. It was great fun!

Colorado Avalanche

Rachael whipped up some homemade pasta, and we spent a nice quiet week just hanging out. The view from their deck is beautiful!

Back in Iowa, Randy and I visited our old church in St Charles. It was great to see so many of our church friends. We stopped by the Ducktail Lounge in Clive to visit Bryan, and had a nice evening catching up with the Running Gals and their spouses. We missed you Ron, and unfortunately Clare missed the pic.

We spent several days house- and kitty-sitting for our good friends Ted and Linda. After a relaxing week of football, movies, and sewing, we flew back to Colorado for Christmas.

The Rockies were covered with snow as we made our way west from Denver to visit Randy's brother David in Silt, Colorado. He smoked a delicious prime rib for dinner, and we had a nice visit. HIs adorable dog Mist welcomed us too.

Randy and I drove just up the road to Glenwood Springs, and spent a very relaxing afternoon at the Iron Mountain Hot Springs resort. We enjoyed the 16 different geothermal mineral pools, with temperatures ranging from 98 - 108 degrees. It was pretty cool to sit in hot water with snow falling around.

Iron Mountain Springs

After a long and slushy drive back to Thornton, we spent a very nice Christmas with Austin and Rachael and their two dogs. We rode the train to another Avalanche game, with an exciting last-minute victory for the home team. Rachael showed off her shopping skills and found the perfect 'mother-of-the-groom' dress for me. We played lots of 80's Trivial Pursuit and Farkle, and spent a fun evening of billiards at a pool hall.

Our next stop was Seattle, to spend a long weekend at my brother Noel's home. My sister Tammy, brother Tyler, and their spouses joined us for a really nice reunion. Tyler and Rita's son Marshall and his family were there, along with Noel and Lynette's three grown daughters. We ate, visited, ate some more, had a few beers, then, yep, we ate again.

Noel took us on a tour of the salmon hatchery where he works. He has millions of baby salmon in his care, and he takes pride in keeping the facility ship-shape. Noel is also a fishing guide in Alaska during the summer months.

Bob and Laura Gwin

From Seattle we flew back to Denver, then on to Dodge City, Kansas.

We visited the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge, and ran into Randy's Aunt Sue and Uncle Carl. We had 2 very nice visits with them - one in the Applebee's in Dodge, and another at their home in Bucklin. We also got to see cousins Joe and Carla along with Carla's daughter.

We stayed with our good friends Bob and Laura in Haviland while we looked for some CRP land and properties to build a home.

We bought a 5-acre lot on the edge of Haviland, with a large 40' x 60' building on it. We plan to finish an apartment that the previous owner had started, and live there while we build a home. This is our current plan for the future, once we get our boat back to the US. For now, we are using the building to store our belongings.

We caught an overnight train from Dodge City back to Galesburg, IL, and stayed with Taylor again for a week. The boys installed a new dishwasher at Taylor's, and we tried to stay warm in the sub-zero temperatures.

On February 9 we rented a large pickup truck and set out for Port St Lucie, Florida. We had a storage locker there, storing items that we couldn't take with us to Viet Nam in 2022. Now that we had the building in Kansas, we decided to empty the locker and relocate our stuff there. The warmer temps on the coast were just lovely, and we spent a couple of peaceful afternoons at the beach. And those Florida sunsets!

When we lived in Florida in 2021 and 2022, one of our favorite things to do was hiking on the trails and in the national parks. They are well-maintained and very clean. So we found a hiking trail near our hotel in Melbourne, and spent a day exploring the Three Forks Marsh area. We saw many different water birds, several large alligators, and a lovely yellow rat snake.

From Florida we pointed the truck northwest, and traveled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri, stopping to see Aunt Ethel in her new home in Mulvane, Kansas. Randy's brother Danny was there with one of his daughters, and 3 of Ethel's grandchildren also stopped by. We had a nice time catching up with everyone, and Aunt Ethel out-did herself and provided us with a tasty dinner.

Back at Bob and Laura's in Haviland, we dropped our storage items off in the new building, and spent a few days framing in some of the interior walls of the apartment.

We attended the Sunday service at the Haviland Friends Church. It was nice to see several of Randy's friends from his time living there. Bob and Laura's daughter Megan prepared us a delicious meal before we left on Sunday. We really enjoyed spending time with their family.

Back in Iowa once again, we were able to get outside and walk in the warmer weather. The Duck Creek Trail near Taylor's house is nicely maintained, and very scenic. We saw lots of squirrels (red, gray, and black) and ducks (mallard pairs and a cute little wood duck), and many folks out taking in the sunshine and fresh air. The disc-golfers were out too!

Now we are preparing to fly back to Rome, and get our boat ready for sailing again. We are having some work done while the boat is out of the water, so we'll be in an apartment for a week or so. Until we chat again....

Cheers!