May 25, 2012

Grammie has been found. She is now home in Newport Maine. We arrived in Maine today and the first stops planned were to visit all 7 of the grandchildren. We did however make a quick stop in South Paris for an Ice Cream. You probably wouldn't believe that it was the first one we bought on the trip so I won't go there. Let me begin today's entry by expressing our thanks to all who helped us along the way, whether a complete stranger that guided us to the Paddlewheel boat Arabia in Kansas City MO, or our friends and relatives who put up with, or rather put us up for a night or 2. The time that we had not seen some people ranged from 60 days to about 45 years.

I have included some statistics for the trip below. Siblings visited: 1. Aunts visited: 2. Cousins visited: 8. Niece/Nephews visited: 5. Former students seen: 5. College friends seen: 2. Hometown friends visited: 2. National Parks visited: Congaree, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Mesa Vedre, (Arches), Jefferson Expansion National Memorial. Aircraft Carriers visited: 1. Museums: 23. Times Tom played golf: 12. Days gone: 60. Miles driven: Total 10218, Alice 350. Highest Point: Pikes Peak, 14,110. Lowest Point: -80 Thousand Palms, Ca. Breweries visited: 1. Visited 14 of the 50 largest cities. Military facilities stayed in: 12. Most paid for gas: $4.239 Calabasas, CA. Least paid for gas: $3.299 N. Kansas City MO. Prettiest drive: Durango Co to Colorado Springs. Best Museum: MIM Phoenix. Best city: Albuquerque. Best Zoo: San Diego Zoo. Best find: Quilt Center Lincoln, Nebraska. Best Golf tournament: Masters. Best Quilt place: Quilt Research Center and Museum, Lincoln Nebraska. Total Rain: 15 min. Total snow: 10 min. Best View: Pikes Peak. Best city tour: The ABQ Trolley Company, Albuquerque, NM.

To give you a quick overview of where we have been, I took a pic of one of the maps that we left for our grandchildren. It shows 2 big bodies of water with a lot of continent in between and marker tracings of where we were. Believe me, there is a lot to see and a lot that you will never find either. If you want to get the most out of a trip I have only have one important suggestion...start sooner and come back later. For more we will gladly show you all 7 pictures that we took while we were gone. Again, thanks all for keeping track of Grammie. There are some special grandchildren who wanted to know where she was.