All flights went smoothly and well. I read my current book (The Gargoyle) on both flights. That was nice......I rarely get or take that kind of uninterrupted time to read. When I got off of the plane in Dayton, the televisions were running a live news story about a giant, homemade, helium-filled balloon that had somehow escaped the top of the house that it had been tethered to and was careening wildly over rural Colorado. What made this story news, was that it was believed that the 6 year old son of the man who made the balloon was INSIDE the balloon as it floated out of control. There were military helicopters and other aircraft following it so that when it landed they could get to the boy quickly, because there wasn't really anything else they could do. Turned out that the boy was NOT in the balloon after all (THANK GOD) and was, instead, hiding in a cardboard box in an attic at home because his Dad "had yelled at him and scared him" while they were on top of the house looking at the balloon. Weird story!

Anyway, back to Girls Weekend. Kathi was running a little bit late (she drove to Dayton from Indy) due to traffic and a fairly bumpy start to her day. The night before while she was out in the car with Ridley driving, they were pulled over because Ridley was speeding. While the police officer was nice enoughtto let Ridley off with just a warning, Kathi received a ticket for expired plates!! So, she had to go to the Indiana BMV and renew her plates and registration before driving over to Ohio for Girls Weekend. Upon arrival at the BMV, she found that she could not just do the renewal on the machine outside (for reasons unknown), she had to wait until the office opened which was another 1/2 hour away which would seriously impact her schedule. This caused her to be late for picking up her Mom to go to her adult day care place and this caused some stress between Kathi and her Dad. BUT, she finally hit the road and started to let the stress melt away.

Once Kathi arrived, we loaded up her car with my "stuff" and headed off to Yellow Springs, which is only a 30 minute drive from Dayton. We chatted and did some catching up on the drive. We arrived in Yellow Springs and easily found the Yellow Springs jail, our accommodations for this trip. Yes, you read that correctly. We are staying in what was, originally, the Yellow Springs jail, which now, of course has been converted into a cute little studio apartment dubbed the Jailhouse Suites which has a small kitchen and living space and is just perfect for us.

Once settled in, we decided to take a little walk around the town, the main drag being only a couple of blocks away. What a cute little town!! Full of art galleries, shops, restaurants, cafes. We stopped in at Brother Bear's coffee shop for a cup of coffee and a little local atmosphere. After warming ourselves up with our coffee we explored the town and found the spot where we decided to have lunch the next day. The Winds Cafe. It had things on the menu like Pumpkin Squash Lasagna and Ranch Buffalo burgers. Didn't I say we ate funky food at funky places?? From there we meandered back toward the jail, got a little bit lost on the way, then found our way again with the cool GPS function on my new phone and returned to the warm coziness of our little apartment. We chatted some more, had some chili that Kathi had brought with her from home along with some wine and caught up on e-mail. From there we moved to the couch and watched CSI and The Mentalist. At that point we realized that we were both pretty exhausted and decided to listen to the audio book The Last Lecture and go to bed. Before turning in, however, we did the ritual "tossing of the states", which is how we determine which state we will be traveling to for the next year's Girls Weekend. I am rooting for a west coast state, because many of our recent trips have been to the midwest. But, Kathi and I both know, that wherever we end up going, we will have a marvelous time, because we always do!