Charles was still at pre basic training when we got to his house but we were happy to see Dawn—and Pepper and Bubbles! We got Dawn to show us the medal Charles had won the first weekend of pre basic—for being the best recruit that weekend. When Charles got home we got a quick photo of him in uniform with his medal. He might not always be close enough to come home for the night on the other pre basic weekends. He leaves in mid Nov. for basic in SC and then will go to Virginia for avionics technician training, working on Apache helicopters. A huge change in his life and Dawn will be staying behind with her demanding job as manager of the lab.
We enjoyed some really good meals while in Tucson. Dawn took us to a fun hamburger restaurant downtown on Sunday while Charles was away. We got a look at a lot of the shops there and saw the place where the art show is held. We hope to do that in Dec of 2010. If we do the show I will definitely be shopping at Borderlands, where there is beautifully colored Mexican pottery and some lovely Moravian star light fixtures. There was also a store with turquoise beads…
I got some nice beads in the bead shop near Charles and Dawn’s house. (I then realized that the necklaces in Vegas were a really good buy, just for the beads!) Dawn also shared some Malachite beads with me and showed me the necklace that Cindi made to order for her with Malachite Dawn and Charles got at the Tucson gem show. Beautiful!
John and I, or Dawn and I, or all three of us, walked the dogs a few times, meeting an elderly neighbor who was having a moving sale. Dawn and I bought cookbooks from him. Sad…
We had two great meals at Mexican restaurants. YUM!!! YUM!!!! I had cheese enchiladas with rice and beans at El Sabroso. And then at the other I had a cheese enchilada, a shredded beef taco, and a tamale with rice and beans. The beans were so mild at both places, just perfect. Both of those restaurants had beautiful murals on the walls, especially El Sabroso. And at the other, if you ordered the special, you got soup as an appetizer and a small piece of chocolate cake afterwards!
John, Charles, and Dawn went to an indoor shooting range one day while I stayed home and made cakes. Dawn and Erica (a roomer of theirs) had cooked a pumpkin and we had some recopies for yummy pumpkin goodies. I made a pumpkin cake as well as the confetti cake Dawn requested for their anniversary. We helped them celebrate their anniversary by getting them a ceiling fan. Charles and John spent a couple of mornings installing that. It made a huge difference in the air flow in their living room so I’m really glad we did that!!
We celebrated Charles’ birthday late and Dawn’s birthday early so they had a lot of things to open!! I took Dawn my Ashford spinning wheel as she has expressed an interest in spinning. She has been working some with the drop spindle and wool and alpaca I sent her for Christmas.
It was also their anniversary while we were there!
John and Charles went to a couple of woodworking stores where John searched a long time to find a nice piece of mesquite. He’ll make Dawn some mesquite spoons and maybe have a few extra for me! And I'm hoping some of the scraps will become drop spindles for the girls! They also went to sporting goods stores while I went to World Market (fun items from around the world) or consignment shops. I also love Bookman’s which is a huge used books and magazines store.
It was sad to leave. I always hate leaving any of my kids. I will ALWAYS be their mommy NO MATTER HOW OLD WE ALL GET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We stopped at Hatch, NM at a pepper stand and I got a string of peppers. Pretty incongruous in my kitchen—oh, well! They were so beautiful! I kept trying to get a good photo of the antelope in NM. Actually I saw them also in TX and OK this year. They’re just hard to photograph from the car! I suppose people there feel about them like Iowans feel about deer. But I think they’re beautiful, and I really think NM is a pretty state.
We spent the night in Dalhart, TX. A high school football game was going on nearby as we settled in. I wondered how anyone could get a bite from the concession stand given the smell permeating the town from the two huge feedlots on each side of town……Oklahoma is amazingly flat as is a good deal of Kansas. But you begin to see farm houses in Kansas. In Kansas it was good to see that the little town nearly destroyed by a tornado had made more progress. They are building a beautiful new school. But there are still Red Cross disaster centers.
We had a long drive yesterday. We got a late start due to the time change. I drove for about 5 hours, I think, if totaled. I drove from about 50 miles from Topeka, around Tokepa, and through Kansas City (yikes!! about 3 changes of interstate!) and I drove from Osceola, IA home. Driving at night isn’t one of my favorite things…
Yesterday it was nice to get up to a mowed lawn—thanks Carolyn!! I found lots of raspberries!! I was thinking that the deer wouldn’t leave us any but they seemed untouched. There are carrots and beets ready to dig and some pumpkins growing. The late tomatoes I planted—Seed Savers striped red and yellow—have small tomatoes. Maybe these missed the blight. My purple aster is outstanding again and some of the roses were incredibly full of bloom. We have the green suburban back with it’s new radiator.
I suppose I’ll get a call to school soon and summer will be over for sure…
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