Girls Weekend 23. Thursday, October 15, 2020. Charleston, West Virginia

Hey guys! It’s Kathi writing up the last post from Indianapolis, three days after our safe return on Thursday night.

Lori and I are always careful to make sure we have been great guests, so after eating some breakfast we spent the morning packing up and making sure we took care of any loose ends before leaving this wonderful Airbnb. At about 11:00 am, once we were satisfied that we had done ourselves proud, and that the owners would be happy to welcome us as guests again, we locked the door behind us and went out to the car. We did not leave immediately however, as we decided we would make our last day count. Therefore, we sat in the car and plotted an alternate route home that would take us a bit out of the way, but that would avoid major highways for part of the trip. 

This was a great decision! We saw so many great things on our drive home, and I happily pulled over to let Lori get out and take whatever pictures she wanted. I even helped her spot an entry for one of the Photocrowd categories. At one point, this pulling off the road involved literally burning rubber, as we saw something at the last minute and there was traffic behind us. I told Lori hang on while I slowed only a bit before swinging the wheel to pull us off the road and then slammed on the brakes so we wouldn’t hit a fence. Lori was super-excited about the resulting photos, and seemed to recover nicely from our precipitous exit off the road. We continued on in this manner, and were hugely rewarded when we decided to avoid a traffic slowdown by detouring through Greensburg, Indiana, where A REAL LIVE TREE IS GROWING OUT OF THE ROOF OF THE COURTHOUSE!! Did any of you know about this? We couldn’t really believe our eyes, so of course, while Lori got out to take pictures, I looked it up. You can click here if you’re a nerd like us and want to know more. It was so fascinating, and I can’t believe as an Indianapolis native, I never heard about this before! Lori will enter her pictures into a category on Photocrowd called “Urban Trees” and it must surely do well there. I mean really, how much more urban can you get than a tree growing in the midst of city government?

Eventually we got back on the road, and during an awe-inspiring sunset, pulled up in front of the Plainfield home where Lori’s brother, mom, and sister-in-law live. Lori spent a couple of days with them before flying back to Portland and then driving to her home in Salem, OR, arriving safely late last night. Thank you God for safe travels and best friends.

Girls Weekend 23. Wednesday, October 14, 2020. Charleston, West Virginia

The last full day of Girls Weekend 2020. Kathi and I both always hate to see this day come, but it inevitably comes every year.  We are blessed with a stunningly beautiful day and have decided that we will make the one hour drive out to Hawk's Ridge State Park. We have told by a few people that, not only is the park and its overlooks beautiful, but that the drive out to the park from Charleston is also beautiful.  We made our way east on Highway 60 out of Charleston and made a few stops along the way to take photos.  We noticed a lot of industrial sites along the Kanawha River and I believe that most, if not all, of them are related to the coal industry.  We stopped at one, the Mammoth Coal Company Preparation Plant where there was a mountain of coal with conveyer belt system and towers used to move the coal from the mine to the site and clean it.  A couple of nice gentleman headed into the site stopped and talked with us a little bit about it when asked.  Apparently the coal is moved underground for some distance along a conveyer belt, then it comes up out of the ground and to the preparation plant. I have to say that, while the process is interesting, it really isn’t pretty.

We stopped again to take photos at Kanawha Falls. I think there is a museum here that we missed and didn’t find out about until we were well past it, but it looks as if these falls may have been used to generate energy based on the structures that were there.

We then drove the rest of the way to Hawk's Nest State Park, where we stopped at the Hawks Nest Overlook which afforded us a view of the New River.

After enjoying this view for a while, we moved on to the Lovers Leap Overlook which is near the lodge where one can stay in the park.  There is a tram here which Kathi and I would have truly enjoyed riding, but unfortunately was not operational while we were there.  Probably because of COVID. We did walk down the 100 + steps to the Lovers Leap Overlook for another view of the river.

      After enjoying this view for a while, we moved on to the Lovers Leap Overlook which is near the lodge where one can stay in the park.  There is a tram here which Kathi and I would have truly enjoyed riding, but unfortunately was not operational while we were there.  Probably because of COVID. We did walk down the 100 + steps to the Lovers Leap Overlook for another view of the river.

After climbing back up the steps here, we headed toward Fayetteville, where we had a date with an escape room, but I saw the sign for the New River Gorge Bridge, so we made the turn so we could go get a look. The New River Gorge Bridge was completed in 1977 and is the longest steel span bridge in the western hemisphere and the third highest in the United States. The bridge is one of the most photographed places in West Virginia so we felt it was worth a stop. We were not disappointed.  It truly is a work of art in a beautiful place.

It came to our attention while we were here that the New River is designated as a National River.  Kathi and I both had no idea that there was such a thing as a National River but apparently there are many!! We are such nerds because we love learning things like this!

From the bridge we made our way into Fayetteville, where we had booked an escape room adventure. We went to the Escape-A-Torium and I booked us into the Mothman adventure. If you follow along with these journal entries, you probably already know that Kathi and I have done SEVERAL escape rooms together and have failed to successly escape ANY of them in the allotted 1 hour time period.  We are hoping that this one will be the exception.  One thing we have learned over the years, however, is that the more people you have in the room with you working to find the clues, solve the puzzles and unlock the many locks the more likely the success.  During these COVID times, though, they are not allowing strangers to work together.  If you book for two people, then you work to escape with two people.  Hmmmm, we felt that this may put us at risk for yet another failure, but we are willing to give it a go!!  So, Mothman.  For those of you that are not familiar with West Virginia lore, you may never have heard of the Mothman.  Kathi had not.  I would say that the best way to describe the Mothman would be to say that he is West Virginia's version of Bigfoot, but he has wings, red eyes and can fly.  There is a movie called "The Mothman Prophecies" starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney that is supposed to be loosely based on actual events that occured in Point Pleasant, West Virginia between November 1966 and December 1967 in which this unusual creature was spotted several times by various reliable people.  I have not seen the movie but think I will add it to my Watchlist/

The storyline of our escape room adventure is that we have been hiking in the New River Gorge area when a storm moves in and we seek refuge in an old coal mine.  Lightning strikes nearby and causes a cave-in at the entrance preventing us from leaving.  We are forced to find another way out and in searching for that exit, we discover a journal left by a miner that leads us to believe that we are in the lair of the Mothman, who will return at dark.  It was a GREAT escape room adventure and we really enjoyed it, but we were, once again thwarted and did not make it out.  Maybe next time!!

We returned to our house, settled in for the normal evening routine in front of our computers, made dinner of leftovers (we had packed and eaten meat and cheese rolls and snacks while out driving around). We watched a couple more episodes of “Silent Witness” and crawled into our beds for one last night in West Virginia.

Girls Weekend 23. Tuesday, October 13, 2020. Charleston, West Virginia

Upon arising today, we performed our usual morning tasks of having some coffee, Kathi working on homework on the computer (taking breaks for washing dishes and taking out the trash) and I working on this journal and checking on my email and how my photo entries are doing in Photocrowd.  I haven't talked about Photocrowd here before but Kathi thinks that I should mention it here.  Photocrowd is a website that I joined in February of this year that I have become addicted to.  Photocrowd is an on-line photo community where one can "be inspired, get your work seen, and win prizes in our daily photo competitions." Photographers from around the world are part of this community and it allows me to see the work of many talented photographers while enjoying the beautiful places and things that they photograph.  What I REALLY like about it is that every day new contests are added with specific topics.  Some examples of topics:  goats, bridges, urban trees, autumn colors in nature to name a few.  Now that Tom and I are empty-nesters I found myself wanting to get out and take photos but often was unsure of what I wanted to take photos of.  With new topics introduced every day, I will scour photos I have taken in the past to look for something suitable to enter AND/OR find myself wanting to go out and take NEW photos for categories which I really like or don't have photos of.  There are usually around 40-50 different competitions once can enter every day.  The free membership allows one to enter one photo per competition and a max of 4 photos total spread over 4 competitions.  If one is willing to pay a moderate amount of money, one can enter up to 4 photos per competition and enter as many competitions as one wants.  I quickly found that I wanted to be able to enter more that 1 photo per competition and more than 4 photos at a time and paid the money to allow me to enter more photos.   One morning, while checking the status of my entries and checking out the new topics introduced that day, Tom asked me what I was doing.  I told him and he got very excited about the whole thing and soon we were spending most evenings this summer after dinner, out on photo shoots.  We both really enjoy it and it gets us outside.  I guess we are going to have to learn how to do still lifes once the days are shorter and we don't have any daylight left once we are done with work!

Lori on the steps of the West Virginia State Museum

Back to Girls Weekend: once we determined that we were finished with our morning routines, we showered, got dressed and went to the West Virginia State Museum which is located in the Capitol Complex in downtown Charleston.  Kathi and I often find ourselves in museums on Girls Weekend because we are always interested in learning new things, learning things about the place where we find ourselves.  The museum is free to the public, is well done and we learned many things about West Virginia.  For instance, did you know that Fiesta Ware is made in West Virginia? or that one of the last companies to make marbles in the USA is here? And, of course, coal is still mined here in West Virginia.

Once we were done with the museum, Kathi mentioned that she would like to get some photos of the beautiful Kanawha river that runs through Charleston.  I had noticed Daniel Boone Park along the road on our way to the salt-works so suggested that we should check that out.  It was a beautiful, sunshiny day and it was peaceful and relaxing to look out over the river and watch ducks and small boats go by.

(Kathi's edits/additions in blue italics) I don’t know that we have talked much yet about the Airbnb in which we are staying, but it is SUPERB. It is a large house in a great location, with three bedrooms and two full baths, parking in the back, really good security, very comfortable beds, just the right amount of decoration, perfect little touches here and there [like a cache of rolled up soft blankies in the living room] and by far the best-equipped kitchen in any rented establishment in which I have ever stayed. I always try to give my Airbnb hosts something to improve upon if I can, just to be helpful for those who want to really attend to every detail. This time my suggestions will be absolutely ridiculous things like, “we would have liked the hand soap to lather up more” and “we really wanted a dish cloth as well as the new sponges you provided us.” If you ever go to Charleston, stay in the “South Hills Charmer” or the owners’ other house, whatever it’s called.

After spending some quiet time here, we stopped at a Piggly Wiggly (Wait. The franchise owner’s name was Bigley. Therefore, we went to Bigley Piggly Wiggly!) to pick up a few grocery items we needed, then went back to the house. Kathi made us a yummy salad of heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, avocado, red bell peppers, salt, pepper, olive oil, and white balsamic vinegar, then went to her computer to do homework (this sentence should be permanently saved to the clipboard) and I, of course, worked on the journal (and this sentence, too, should be permanently saved to the clipboard!). We were going to have some chicken, but ended up not really having a formal dinner this evening. We just kind of foraged through what we had and ate a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I had crackers and hummus, Kathi ate some of the leftover veggies that she had roasted the previous evening. After a while I could no longer sit in the chair at the dining room table where I had my computer (not comfortable!) and I laid down on the couch to listen to my current audiobook, Agnes at the End of the World, by Kelly McWilliams. Once Kathi determined that she could no longer sit at the table in front of her computer (I totally hit a wall. Forked and done), she came out to the living room and we watched two episodes of "Silent Witness before turning in. Hey Lor, have we already told them that we both really like British detective shows? This one is actually about a medical examiner, but she is of course also an amateur detective.

Oh!!  I almost forgot, I did the final tossing of the states before we left to go to the State Museum and it looks like we will be going to Nevada next year!!  We're thinking Lake Tahoe.

Girls Weekend 23. October 12, 2020. Charleston, West Virginia

 

Turns out that the West Virginia Capitol building is closed for public tours while it is under renovation and maybe because of COVID, too.  Because of this we went to the Capital Market, which is a lovely indoor/outdoor year round farmers market here in Charleston at the start of our day (after Kathi attended an on-line class).  There were LOTS of pumpkins and gourds at the market but there was also tomatoes, peppers, cabbages, eggplants, apples and plants, too.  I LOVE farmers markets and all of the colors one sees at them.  Inside there was a butcher, a wine shop, a restaurant amongst others.  All in all it was a delight to the eye!

Kathi made a couple of purchases here, an "ugly" yellow heirloom tomato, for our consumption with fresh mozzerella later this evening and a gigantic pear-shaped gourd that she intends to turn into a birdhouse once she gets it home.  Upon leaving the market we went in search of Capitol Street which is touted as an historic walking district in Charleston.  There was quite a bit of construction going on in this area as we walked around and, we discovered, that today is Columbus Day so not all of the shops and restaurants were open.  Kathi and I found it curious that the state capitol building is NOT located on Capitol street as in most capitol cities.  We came across a sign in this area that explained that.  Apparently the capitol of West Virginia has moved between Charleston and Wheeling a few times and the capitol building DID at one time sit on Capitol street, but the building burned down and construction was begun on the Capitol building as it stands today in 1924 and dedicated in 1932.

There was a charming, small bookstore in this area, Taylor Books, that we spent time browsing in, then purchased some coffee from the cafe inside before moving on.  The barista asked us about our day, what our plans were and where we were from while making our coffee.  This, of course, always leads to a conversation of our annual Girls Weekend trips and how we pick the states, which most people find fascinating and fun.  A woman sitting in a booth near the cashier overheard the conversation and offered up a couple of suggestions of places we should go while here.  From the conversation with her and the people we toured the Salt-works with, we have decided that we will make the road trip out to Hawk's Nest State Park in the New River gorge and to Fayetteville, a nearby small town.

Another area of Charleston mentioned when searching for "things to do in Charleston" is the Historic East End.  It took us a while to find the area, which is quite small, but we did find it and there are some charming and large homes there.

From here we went back to the house for a bathroom break and to decide where we wanted to go for an afternoon hike. While the weather forecast said it was not to rain today and we had not been rained on so far, the sky looked very dark in places so I wanted to be sure we headed toward the area where we could see blue skies.  This lead us to Coonskin park for our hike.  Kathi chose the Cougar trail and the Alice Knight Loop that was shown to be 2.7 miles long on Kathi's All Trails app and marked as easy.  Now I walk quite a bit and know that I walk at about a 3 mile per hour pace around my neighborhood at home, so I thought that we should be good walking this trail even though it was about 5pm when we started the trail and sunset was a little after 7.

It was a beautiful trail through the woods but it was a bit hilly and there were some muddy places because, of course, it had poured down rain the day before.  The "hilly" part is what slowed us down a bit along with the fact that there were a number of intersections on the trail and we would occasionally start down the wrong path before realizing that we had done so and had to turn around.  Sooooo, the sun was starting to go down and I was beginning to get a little concerned about being caught out on the trail in the dark.  

As we came to the bottom of the hill we came upon a young woman who was out hiking on her own who was from the area and was very familiar with the trail we were on.  We walked out of the woods and to where her car was parked, then walked the remainder of the way to our car on the park road.  While we were following her out of the woods we could hear an announcement being made over a loudspeaker stating that the park was closing.  I believe that by the time we got back to the car we had walked closer to 4 miles than 2.7 miles.  In addition, it got up to 79 degrees yesterday and we were both drenched in sweat at the end of this walk rather than drenched by rain like yesterday's walk!

We made our back home, where Kathi chopped up a bunch of vegetables to roast for dinner and cooked up a couple of chicken breasts.  While the veggies were cooking, she cut up those heirloom tomatoes, added some fresh provolone and served that up for an appetizer.  Yum!!  After dinner, Kathi worked on a letter of recommendation for a medical student who had worked with her at the Komen Tissue Bank and is applying for a family practice residency.  Once that was finished, which was about 11pm, I believe, we sat down to watch an episode of "Silent Witness".  I was so sleepy that I fell asleep before the episode finished.  In addition, we forgot to toss the states, so we will find out tomorrow where we will be going next year.

Girls Weekend 23. Sunday, October 11, 2020. Charleston, West Virginia

Today's journal entry should be short and sweet because we really didn't do much of anything!  It was raining we awoke and it pretty much rained the entire day, as was forecast.  We had a leisurely morning of coffee and checking up on our emails and such, then we joined Kathi's Sunday school class via Zoom.  Today the lesson was on learning to love your enemy. I would say that is certainly a timely lesson for me and one that I need God's help in putting into practice.  After the lesson we both talked with our husbands to catch up on what they are up to as well as letting them know what we have been up to.  Neither one of them read this blog because neither one of them are much into reading, so they get their updates via phone calls/Facetime.  Kathi then started working on homework while I actually finished up the first installment of this trip's journal.  

After some time, Kathi declared that she was getting sleepy and went to lay down on the couch for a nap.  I decided that I liked that idea and I went and took a nap in my bedroom. Upon awakening we decided to take a walk, which had been our plan all along for today.  There are some notes on a bulletin board here in the house from our hosts and they include a small list of some nearby trails.  There is one trail called the Sunrise Carriage trail that is actually within walking distance from the house so we decided that we would walk that trail today.  When looking outside the windows, it appeared that the rain had stopped so our plan was to walk TO the trail (just under a mile away), then walk the trail itself (1.4 miles, out and back), then walk back to the house.  Once we stepped outside, however, I noticed how dark the sky looked and it started to sprinkle, so we changed our plan a bit and decided to drive to the trailhead and walk the trail from there.  Boy was that ever a good decision.  We had not been on the trail long when it started raining pretty hard, but we decided to tough it out and continued on to the top of the hill where the trail ends at what was once the home of Governor William A MacCorkle which he had built in 1905.   MacCorkle had the road, that is now the trail, built so that oxen could transport building materials to the site.  Apparently, while digging the trailbed, MacCorkle himself uncovered a Civil War gravesite of two women who were though to be spies and executed, though there are conflicting stories as to which side executed and buried the women.

  There now stands a headstone on the trail telling the story of the women.  There is also a shrine on the trail that MacCorkle had erected after his daughter was killed in an automobile accident.  Despite the rain we actually ran into a number of other people on the trail including other hikers, some runners and a few folks on bicycles.  By the time we returned to the car we were thoroughly drenched but happy that we got out and took a walk.  

Once back at the house we stripped and put everything in the dryer and each took a turn in a hot shower to warm up.After getting warm and dry and comfortable, Kathi went back to work on her tasks while I fixed the last of the Green Chef dinners that Kathi brought along.  Tonight was cumin-roasted pork chops topped with a chimichurri and avacado mayo sauce along with roasted veggies (cabbage, red onion, red bell pepper and kabocha squash (apparently a kind of Japanese winter squash). It was good, but my favorite of the three meals she brought was still the first one we prepared, the stuffed peppers with the dijon mustard sauce.

 As I write this, the day is winding down and Kathi is writing a letter of recommendation for a young woman  medical student who interned and volunteered at the Komen Tissue Bank, where Kathi works, for her application to the residency program she is hoping to get into. I had her pause in that endeavor for just a few minutes to toss the states.  We are now down to 2.  Nevada and Colorado.

Once Kathi finishes her letter, we will watch a couple more episodes of Silent Witness, then go to bed.  Tomorrow we plan to tour the Capital building and the state museum.

Girls Weekend 23, Charleston, West Virginia. October 9 and 10th, 2020

 

This year's Girls Weekend is a bit different than past Girls Weekends.  Instead of Thursday to Wednesday, we are going Friday to Thursday.  Originally this was because Kathi had a schedule conflict with her work, but then COVID happened, which, of course, changed the world. Who ever thought that we would live through a pandemic? I debated at length about traveling this year on an airplane during a pandemic but finally decided to take the chance because how could we miss a Girls Weekend??  I also changed it up a bit this year because, at Kathi's suggestion, I flew into Indianapolis rather than our destination a day early to visit with my Mom, brother and his wife who have moved into a new home since I was there last (in December 2019) then Kathi and I will drive to Charleston, West Virginia together. Once we arrive back in Indy, I will spend 2 days with my family at the end of the trip.  All different.  Gets me family time and Girls Weekend all at once.  Awesome.

So Thursday, October 9, I flew into Indianapolis and Mom, Marc and Becky came to pick me up at the airport.  I had researched airlines before I booked my flight to see what airlines were taking the best precautions to prevent the spread of the virus and learned that Delta got the best marks.  The first leg of my flight was from Portland to Minneapolis.  I had the entire 3 seats on my side of the plane to myself. Everyone is required to wear masks in the airport as well as on the plane and they handed me a packaged Purelle wipe as I boarded the plane to wipe down my tray table and seat belt buckle and whatever else I felt needed wiping down.  Three hours later I arrived in Minneapolis, went from one concourse to another to catch my connection to Indianapolis.  This plane was much less COVID careful, in my opinion.  Each side of the plane had 2, rather than 3 seats and I was seated right next to someone else. I wore a face shield as well as my mask on this flight, out of caution, but, good grief, that extra layer of facial covering seemed to increase my body temperature exponentially!!  It felt so very good to get off that plane and out into the fresh air after picking up my luggage.

Spent Thursday evening visiting and catching up with Mom, Marc and Becky.  On Friday, October 10th Kathi came to pick me up at 11am and Girls Weekend officially began!!

We headed east and after 5 stops along the way we arrived in Charleston and the cute house that Kathi found for us to stay in on Air BNB.  Kathi had a paper due by midnight for one of her classes (she is working toward her PhD), so part of the drive was spent with her dictating notes to me that would help her get the paper done once we were settled in.  As always, I find helping Kathi with her projects and homework quite interesting.  This assignment was to answer a couple of questions regarding caregiving by both lay people and professionals as described in a book called Cancer and Death. A Love Story in Two Voices, while incorporating types of caregiving described in a paper that was assigned in conjuction with the book.  So upon arrival to our home away from home, we loaded in our luggage, along with the groceries that Kathi bought for the trip, chose our bedrooms and settled in.  While Kathi worked on her paper, I made dinner with one of the prepped dinner kits that Kathi had ordered from Green Chef.  I had never had one of these types of dinner before and was quite impressed. It was stuffed peppers which included hamburger with a Dijon mustard sauce and butternut squash cooked up with a spicy paprika spice mix, then baked in the oven.  It was actually quite tasty!

Kathi had me proofread her paper once she was done with it.  I offered up a few suggestions for changes, which she made and got the paper submitted by 11:35!  WooHoo!!  Before calling it a night and turning in Kathi tossed the states.  Here is what remained face up, there remains in the running for next years trip. 

We talked about what our plan was for Saturday and we decided, since rain was in the forecast, that we would go to the J Q Dickinson Salt-Works for our first West Virginia outing.  I came across this place in a daily newsletter I signed up for called Only in West Virginia.  There is actually a newsletter like this for every state and I found it to be very helpful in getting ideas for places to visit.  This place was fascinating and completely satisfied the nerd in both of us and I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Charleston, West Virginia.  From their website https://www.jqdsalt.com/ : A seventh generation salt-making family harvests an all-natural salt by hand, from an ancient ocean trapped below the Appalachian Mountains of the Kanawha Valley in West Virginia.

And they truly do EVERYTHING by hand and naturally. They harvest the salt through evaporation, not through any kind of chemical process. Then they have people who hand pick out any pieces that have little specks of impurities with a pair of tweezers!  Did you know that when one harvests salt in this manner, evaporation, it dries in square crystals.  Big ones and little ones.  It's fascinating. 

Once done with the tour of the facility we went to the shop where we were able to taste samples of their salt. They have several flavors of salt. Regular, traditional salt along with smoked salt, Bloody Mary Salt, mushroom salt and ramp salt to name a few. I imagine that you are asking yourself about ramp salt, so let me enlighten you.  Ramps are a type of wild leek and are said to be the "holy grail" of wild edibles. When reading all the "Only in West Virginia" newsletters, ramps were mentioned in nearly every one as a beloved staple at most restaurants here.  We have not had the opportunity to taste any yet, but I hope we the the chance before we leave. https://www.eater.com/2015/4/10/8384255/ramps-season-explained

It was raining as we walked around the grounds of the facility and there was much activity going on related to a wedding that was scheduled to take place there at 4 pm.  While the reception area was all under the cover of a large tent, unfortunately the ceremony itself was to take place in the beautiful garden area of the grounds where there was no cover.  Kathi and I were hoping that the rain stopped long enough for the ceremony to take place. 

While on the tour of the facility, one of the other folks on the tour mentioned having seen some unusual cows in the pasture adjacent to the property.  Our guide explained to us that these are Belted Galloway cows, also call "oreo cows" because of their unusual coloring.  I will let the photo do the talking.Apparently these are cows that were originally bred in the Galloway region of southwestern Scotland.  I had never seen one of these cows (and I have seen a lot of cows in my lifetime) so found this interesting.

Once we left the salt-works we decided to drive around the state capital building and downtown area a bit.  We want to walk around this area on a day when it is not raining so wanted to get a bit of a preview.  Unfortunately the capital building is undergoing restoration work on its beautiful gold-leaf covered dome, so much of it is "under wraps" and only the very top portion of it is visible.

We plan on touring the capital building at some point while here but it is only open on weekdays.  We will likely go on Monday.

We then made our way back to our house with a couple of stops (CVS and Kroger) to pick up a few items that we discovered that we needed.  Kathi made dinner (tonight was sausage and veggies with pesto...another Green Chef dinner), while I started writing this!  This dinner was ok, but we both decided we liked Friday evening's meal better.  We then watched a couple of episodes of "Silent Witness" on Amazon Prime, I tossed the states and we turned in.  Since rain is forecast, once again, for the entire day tomorrow, we have decided that we will stay in most of the day giving Kathi a chance to catch up on homework and grading and get out for a walk if there is a window when it ISN'T raining or just sprinkling.

What states are left?  This toss eliminated a LOT of states and we are now down to 4. Nevada, Colorado, Massuchusets and Connecticut.  Tomorrow's toss could be our final toss on this trip.  We will see!!