If we have learned one thing of value in the past year, it has been that life is so fragile!! Audrey has had to deal with failing health of three brothers, and lost a younger one to cancer in July. Because of this Gary and I decided to make a trip to Chicago to visit relatives while we are here in the north. My oldest brother was moved from the Florida panhandle back to Chicago area to be near a couple of his children and some grandchildren. So we decided to make this trip to see them all and do some sight seeing as well, looking up Gary's Army buddy from back in the 60's and Audrey's cousin whom she has not seen in more than twenty years. Weather was still very warm and it proved to be a nice trip.
Our first stop was Oregon, Ohio to see our friend Richard. We had not seen him since the late 70's in Memphis, Tennessee. He has had some serious health issues, but is very glad to have recovered as well as he has. We visited in his home and then went out to a local restaurant for lunch.
We were sorry to have the time come to a close, but vowed to do it again sooner!!
Our next stop was the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. It was interesting to see that our life style was going on as we know it way back in the 30's if not before!!
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| Fancy, Schmancy!! |
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| Overhead view of display |
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| Another overhead view |
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| Looks like tight quarter to me!! |
We got into Bolingbrook, Illinois much earlier than we anticipated so checked into a Ramada and went out to locate my brother. It was so good to see him. He did know us and was glad to see us, as well. We stopped that evening at my nephew's home and had a wonderful spaghetti dinner there. The visits are always awesome. Their daughter's are so sweet and so busy with school. It sure seems that their days began much earlier than ours ever did!! So we were glad that we stayed at a motel, to give them their busy morning time to themselves.
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| Claire with family friend, Lindy |
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| Kenny and Jennifer with daughters, Claire and Charlotte |
The next day of our stay in the area, my cousin, Ron and his daughter, Sarah came to the motel for a visit and later went to lunch. We were so glad not to have to navigate the traffic to get to them near downtown Chicago. But unfortunately we missed out on a visit with Ron's wife because of this. Their other daughter is away in college, so we hope to meet them on our next trip to that area!!
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| Sarah, Ron and Audrey |
Ron hasn't changed a bit, except for hair color!! Unfortunately that hits us all. Ron came bringing an aerial photo of our parent's childhood home, which he still owns. So I can get that data to our Uncle Howard in California. Howard is the only living sibling of that family. When Gary and I visited him twice in 2011 in CA, he questioned if the farm was still in the family. So he will be pleased to learn that it is. Sarah, it was great to meet you and we hope that you did not miss too much while out of school that day!! We certainly hope to meet Emma soon also. We went with Ron and Sarah down the street to visit my oldest brother, Verlyn. After visiting there for a while, I think that Verlyn realized who Ron was. It sure goes back a few years, to say the least!!
The next day was burger time with Verlyn and his family again. The interaction was great and so good to see Kevin as well!! Great to see you all doing so well.
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| Kevin, not as interested in food?? |
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| Verlyn with two of his sons. |
We hated to see the weekend come to a close!! But thank you all for such nice visits!! I hope that we did not disturb your work week too much, before we left Sunday morning. Hopefully, we can do this again much sooner.
I have also spent much of the summer since returning from Florida going back and forth to Mentor to assist my next older brother also. Hopefully, he is truly on the mend now!! My sister is back in Ohio now also, so she will take up where I left off since our Ohio stay will soon be coming to a close. Take care and enjoy the fall weather. It sure is beautiful, although very cool.
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