Oregon

We have flown west, put the clocks back another two hours and are having time to ourselves. The Head of Finance has been so sociable for the last ten days that he is quite done in. He enjoyed an extended time of silence at the wheel of a car today to recuperate. If you get out your atlas, or use GoogleEarth, you can see Corvallis where we are spending the night. The HoF has spotted these differences in America:-
All have syphon toilets and hence need large plungers for unblocking.
No-one drives diesel cars
Toll roads where you have to get off and pay at each interchange unless you are a local with an electronic sensor in the car
You can turn right at a red light
Most of the women wear trousers all the time
No-one has an electric kettle
Lots of people hang on to big old cars
Light switches, electric plugs and hairdryers are permitted in bathrooms
Service operatives, waitresses, station personnel are very articulate and polite
They do not all have enormous beds

Moving on

Want one? It is called a segue, if I've spelt it properly, and the security guards in Chicago were using them. I'd love to try.

We are moving on from Minneapolis and the State of 10,000 lakes tomorrow. There is almost an English feel about it, with protected green walks around the lakes and pleasant shops. I particularly like the way in 'our' street, that all the house frontages are lawned and there are no driveways, cars being garaged at the back. We have had comfortable quarters and enjoyed good company and experienced various American eateries, including a pie restaurant and a milk shake one. Our waistbands are tightening. From tomorrow none of our immediate family will be left in Old Blighty which feels kinda scary, as if no-one is holding the fort. As for the American 'dialect', I am still having difficulty pronouncing 'Mall'. Just can't seem to open my mouth wide enough. Friday we went to the Mall of America, enough retail therapy to kill.

Wisconsin and Jones Reunion

After Chicago we drove three hours north-west to Moundville, Wisconsin. This is the village where one Thomas Jones lived after he emigrated from our village in the Marches. His brother was my ancestor, and it was Thomas' letter to another brother and which he wrote in 1880 but was kept in the family, which eventually connected us. It was something of a miracle as the American family thought Thomas was an orphan and the village parish registers had Thomas recorded wrongly.
Here I am standing in front of the house built by Thomas' son and where his granddaughter was still living in when the family re-connected in 2001. What we didn't know was that a Grand Reunion of Thomas' children had been organised with us as the great attraction! So we displayed tree charts and photos, a copy of The Letter and the emails that flew back and forth as the connection was made. I felt like the Queen to have people so keen to meet me. It was wonderful to meet so many cousins.
AND there's another reunion in a different place planned for the end of the month

Larger than life

More Chicago pics. I'd seen this place on the net, and wanted to see it in real life. The photo doesn't show the way the face changes expression, or the children playing in the water.

Gardens and skyscrapers.

Chicago by night. The streets did seem paved with gold.

Chicago

Here we are! If you've been wondering, we've been out of reach of the internet, or at least, of broadband for a whole week. Sob! What addicts we've become. Our first day in USA was spent in downtown Chicago, seeing Millennium Park with the Bean, above and the view from the Sears Tower, below.

We are enjoying seeing different aspects of American life, from big city, to suburb, to rural township. The weather was kind when we arrived too, and our summer clothes had an airing.

Archiving

One thing that spurred me to retirement was the thought of all the things that needed sorting, mostly of the archiving variety. For instance, all the photos. We made the mistake of not having indiviual albums for our children, so to minimise future hassle I feel that it would be good to create them now. It's on the ToDo List. I guess now most folk keep their photos on computers it would be easy to file them in separate folders. But not so much fun for children as looking through albums.
Then there are the family archives: stories to be written to make sense of the years of research and my in-laws wartime love letters. Just what should I do with them when I've read them? I am putting off doing so because I feel like a voyeur and yet the historian in me can't bring myself to just throw them away.
Anyway, that's all in the future for now, because tomorrow we're off! Watch this space and hopefully we'll be able to keep you posted on our trip to the States.
Chicago, here's we come.


Saga sisters

Gardens at Abbaye de Valloires

French whimsies

Ducks in the stream at the side of one house we stayed in. M. Reynard had eaten their companions.

This dog looks as if he's contemplating taking over the steering wheel.