We left Colorado last Sunday, Sept 8, in the afternoon. We drove to Lexington NE, that is where our transmission went out 2 years ago when we were supposed to pick you up at the airport.

We arrived at the While's on Monday (9/9) at 6pm to pick up our Jimmy to take it down to the shop in LeRoy. Then we went out to visit Grandma. But she said we came at a bad time since she was just going to get a bath. So her bath was more important to her than us--which I guess is good. We left after a few minutes and loaded the van full to take to Michael's. We checked into the local Super 8 motel in LeRoy and went to eat at Fiesta Ranchera (our favorite Mexican restaurant in LeRoy).

We went to the bank for a few minutes. Then we went to visit Grandma. She seemed a little bit happier to see us. We couldn't stay long since we had to be at Michael's at 2:30pm to babysit for Ava. We babysat until Michael got home from work. We got our bedroom set up and collapsed in our bed.

Jack, Vanessa, Ava and I went shopping and out to eat Wednesday. We left there on Thursday after I gave Ava a bath and headed for my parents. We were there about 3 hours. Joan and Al came over for a short time before we left. Grandma Streff could hardly walk. I haven't talked to her since. I gave them some of my extra Pfaltzgraf dishes.

We had Michael's old gold couch and a couple small tables in the van that we were going to take to the Salvation Army, but it closed a half-hour before we arrived. We went to LeRoy to visit Grandma. Then we checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Bloomington. Nice hotel!

On Friday we dropped the couch and tables at the Salvation Army. We went to the storage unit and loaded up another load for Michael. We went to the bank to do some things. We had pizza there since they were celebrating Julie's last day. Her baby girl is due today. We went to visit Grandma but she was out for a bus ride so we visited Abbie. Marilyn and one of her grandchildren came over too. We then took Grandma out to Dawson for a sundae. She isn't too good. She cannot hold her head up. They started therapy on Friday. I can't figure out what happened to her.

We then stopped by Marie's for an hour or so. Then we grabbed a sandwich for the road to Michael's. Michael and Vanessa wen to Chuck's wedding so we took care of Ava. Karen and Jack came up for a visit and to see Michael's house. We went out to eat with them.

On Sunday we moved their big TV downstairs and moved his old entertainment center and our TV out of our living room in its place. We then went downtown to see the Ironman. Brian Roddy's girlfriend was in it but we didn't get to see them. We had supper at the Great Dane. It was exciting to see the Ironman.

We left Michael's Monday morn for LeRoy. We loaded up a van full of stuff for Colorado and hit the road. We stayed the night in Lincoln and arrived here yesterday. We have spent a lot of time on the road. We are here till 9-27 when we will head for LeRoy. We will go to the Pork and Apple on 9-28 and I would like to ride Ride the Depot on 9-29. Then we will probably take another load to Michael's. We will then get a small storage unit for ours and Gene's things. We will stay back there until my 40th class reunion on 10-5 and a bike ride with Karen, Joan and Joe the next day. After that, who knows what we will do. We are thinking of going West. We do have reservations at Disney World between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We got a new computer from Best Buy. They said our old one didn't work right. I do like the computer except I cannot get it to find my camera. Michael and I both loaded the software on it and it will not work. Do you have any ideas?

I would like to write a journal of our retirement. I don't write the best and most exciting but I will try to make it interesting. It really doesn't seem like we are really retired yet. It has been a lot of fun so far but very tiring. We will feel a lot better once we have everything out of storage and Michael's. We locked off a couple more closets so we hope to have enough room for our things. We will rent our place as much as we can and cheat. So what if we go to jail--they feed, clothe and board you.

It snowed on the mountains here last night. They are all white. Maybe this is the start of a good ski season. We are thinking of getting a season ski pass for Copper Mountain at $239/ea. We have to make up our minds while we are here now since it ends the end of September.

Thanks for the pictures. We really enjoyed them. I will send you some as soon as I figure out the problem with our camera.

It is a rather nasty day here. I don't know what we will do. It is cold (45 at noon) and overcast. This is the life.

We are glad you will be home for Christmas. We can't make any definite plans since the baby is due at that time. We plan to be at Michael's if Vanessa cannot travel. If the baby is here and she can travel, we will probably go to Kim's. We have trouble trying to figure out where to be--Grandma Bishop, my family or Michael. We will get home from Disney on the 23rd.