Kind Reader:
I appreciate your patience during our prolonged absence. I anticipate our vacation will be just the thing to allow me to attack this blog with renewed vigor as summer draws to a close.
On the drive to Decorah on Sunday, we stopped at a rest area to have a stretch. There was a family there having lunch at a picnic table. Ava wandered over by the table to check out a little girl who looked about her size. Turns out the object of her interest was in fact exactly the same age as Ava and the youngest of seven kids, all of whom were there on vacation with their parents.
Leah and I talked to the parents for a bit. The father was in his early 50s, the mother in her late 40s. I had a difficult time coming up with any conversation topic that didn’t sound like, “What were you thinking?” But we got on well. The dad, Craig, is the first person I ever met who actually said “yous,” as in, “Where are yous from?”
Then, yesterday, as we stopped in Winthrop, IA, on the way home to Iowa City, we met a couple who’re biking from Oregon to Boston. God help ’em. Nice folks, but they looked like a couple strips of beef jerky after being out in the sun for over 2,100 miles. Naturally, they have a Web site.
You probably gather, correctly, that Ava did and said lots of cute things while on vacation. More on that soon….