2008 Day Eighty Six

Little flurries are flying through the air. Looks like Spring will have to wait awhile before bursting on the scene.

The bug man came today. He sprayed to kill anything that might even think of hatching. We used to have ants outside when we first moved into this house. But once we call this pest control company - no more bugs at all. Since his first spray last year I have yet to see ant, spider or any other creepy crawlie thing. Plus the tech owns shihtzu's.

more memories...

Many summers we would drive cross country to my grandparent's farm in Indiana. I loved those trips. I still to this day love to travel, especially by car. Our first stop would always be Reno. We always went to Sparks to the Nugget Casino. We would go to the restaurant in the casino and have their famous fried chicken.

The next afternoon we would stop in Salt Lake City. I learned there that was the temple the Walker's were married in. One time we stopped at a kind of science park that showcased dinosaurs. I don't remember much about it except they had a giant dinosaur skeleton and my Dad bought me a green Dino plastic dinosaur. My Dad would always find a motel with a pool, so we could swim till we were so tired we would sleep all night.

The next stop was always Little America, Wyoming. I fell in love with Wyoming. So western and so wide open. We saw prairie dogs and wild horses. I used to tell my Dad I was going to be a cowgirl and live in Wyoming when I grew up. We would usually spend the night in Cheyenne the rodeo town. I always dissapointed that the rodeo was never going on when we were there.

We stopped alot at the Howard Johnson Motor Inns because their restaurants were famous for their ice cream. I always had orange shebert. I remember one HoJo's was built on an overpass. I cannot remember what state that was in.

We would sometimes stop in Council Bluffs, IA and visit one or more of my mother's 11 brothers and sisters. I remember one summer we stayed about a week. One of her sisters had an ice cream catering truck business. My brother and I ate alot of ice cream that week. Another summer we visited in Illinois with my mother's Uncle Howard. He had made a folding table size Bump game board. We played that game for hours on end. It is sort of like Chinese Checkers, but, different. When we got home we begged our Dad to build one just like Uncle Howard. I think he did, but I cannot remember for sure. We would finally arrive in Indiana at the farm. This was paradise for us city kids.