31 Oct 2010 Back in Texas

As I write this, I am parked in a Dallas RV park, with my door open, and my fan on, listening to the lovely sound of a katydid chorus. It's dark outside, but it's still in the 80s. The sound of the katydids and the fan make me feel like I'm back home.

The fall colors were gorgeous on my drive from Fargo to Minneapolis. I felt like I was driving through the Master Painter's fall pallette - rusts, yellows, tans, browns, reds, light greens, dark greens, and lots of oranges. It made me think of driving through some of the scenes of swirling colors in Robin Williams' movie, "What Dreams May Come". I saw some color all along the way, but the peak was in the Ozarks as this time of year they are orange. Totally. Imagine the gentle hills of solid green - all turned to orange. Impressive. [photo I took of the Missouri Ozarks, Fall 2008, above].

I was able to gather lots of old family photos and family history information from family in North Dakota and Minnesota, on both sides of my family, during the last month. I also visited with a cousin in Independence, Missouri, on my way down to Texas, and she had lots of old photos and information on my dad's mother's family. I was able to meet with the people I wanted to meet with, and, for the most part, gathered the information I was hoping to gather. So I am pleased about that. I have gathered LOTS of information and photos, to sort through, and publish on ancestry.com, and will have plenty to do this winter in Arizona. :-) I was able to see lots of family during this trip, though I didn't stay long at any one place, feeling like I had to keep moving, as I knew I was on borrowed time, and that winter could arrive any time.

I made it south just ahead of the 5 inches (or more) of snow that some parts of North Dakota and northern Minnesota got last Tuesday, and was very glad to be south of the mess, as I watched the weather news Tuesday night. But I didn't manage to get south fast enough to avoid the hurricane-strength winds and record low barometric pressure on Wednesday. I was driving through snow, off and on,Tuesday and Wednesday, though the ground was too warm for it to "stick" (as we say in Texas) and it melted when it hit the ground. Looks like the winds damaged my TV antennae, though. :-(