Days 28 & 29 - Percy and Angel Thompson, Katy, Texas

It was a long day’s drive from Tallahassee to Katy: 743 miles and 12 hours. At one point, just outside of Houston, we were at a dead stop. Fortunately it was only a delay of about a half hour. And just for clarification: For all of you who thought we were going to see our Katy in Texas, NOPE! Our Kate lives in Brooklyn, NY (a previous blog). We were going to the TOWN of Katy, Tx.

We arrived at Percy and Angel’s place about 6:30ish, and the talking started – it was like there had not been a gap in time since they last saw each other about 10 years ago. . Percy is Joe’s closest friend from Angel Guardian Orphanage, where they spent most of grade school and high school together as classmates and friends. After we had settled in (we will be spending two nights with Percy and Angel), they took us to a fabulous Mexican restaurant called El Jarrito. They raved about the Chili Rellenos, and we were not disappointed. Chili Rellenos is one of Sandy’s favorite Mexican dishes, she orders them frequently and she said they were as good as they get.

Percy and Angel showed us around their home. They live in a beautiful neighborhood, and their home shows much influence of a trip that they took to Italy: photos that they took of different sights that were framed and looked so professional. There was also a framed print of one of the frescos from the Sistine Chapel. On their dining room table was a replica of one of the Bernini statues that they saw and fell in love with on their visit. They have a very beautiful home.

Percy sells industrial packaging materials and Angel is an executive secretary at a local hospital. They both enjoy their jobs but wish they had more time to vacation and travel. (Who doesn’t? LOL!)

On the way to Katy, we switched back to Central Time, and with the extra hour we had more time that evening to visit. But the time change did catch up to us and we hit the sack, quite exhausted.

The next morning we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs, then set off to tour the city. Percy and Angel took the long way into the center of Houston, showing us different neighborhoods. We then toured the museum district and visited: The Menil Art Collection museum, which showcased the private collection of John and Dominique de Menil. There was much modern art, and sections with early Egyptian and African art and a section that showcased some of the masters. There were several Picasso’s and a couple of Andy Warhol pieces also. In the same area, we visited the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum that houses the dome and apse of a small Byzantine votive chapel of the 13th century. And we visited the Rothko Chapel, a sacred space open to all for contemplation. The literature provided describes the Chapel best: “The Rothko Chapel is oriented toward the sacred and yet it imposes no traditional environment. It offers a place where a common orientation could be found – an orientation towards God, named or unnamed, an orientation towards the highest aspirations of Man and the most intimate calls of the conscience.” If only ALL could live this way!

After our tours of the museums, we headed back home, with a detour to the Central Market to pick up a few things for dinner. To describe this Market: think Gateway Market or Trader Joe’s on steroids. The produce section alone was bigger than some grocery stores we have shopped in. We sampled our way around the store, got what we need (and then some) and headed home where Angel fixed a scrumpious chicken and broccoli dinner, with an appetizer of crab legs and fresh Italian bread with dipping oil. Oh – and a couple of bottles of wine.

BUT between appetizers and dinner, Joe talked about his trumpet, and they mentioned that their nephew was learning to play trumpet and had to get a trumpet because right now he was playing a coronet. So, off we went to Angel’s sister’s house, where we met Manny, the 12 year old aspiring trumpet player. Now let’s go back a bit in history. When Joe got his first trumpet back at AGO, Sr. Sylvester told him he could keep it as long as he kept playing it. About 11 years ago Sandy gave him a new silver trumpet for their 25th wedding anniversary, so he hasn’t been playing his AGO trumpet very much. Long story short: we will be sending Manny Joe’s AGO trumpet. Sort of like passing the baton. We have been waiting for the right person to pass it on to, so we are so happy to send this important piece of Joe’s history on. We think Sr. Sylvester would be very happy.

After dinner and more conversation, it was time to call it a night. We can’t begin to tell everyone how much we are enjoying this trip. So many great people to catch up with.

Day 27 - Douglas and Donald Myers, Tallahassee, Florida

It was an easy drive up to Tallahassee from Spring Hill, only 209 miles. We did make a stop along the way: after passing many pecan roadside stands, we had to stop. We bought some praline pecans for Sandy’s mom and then some for ourselves too. We also got a few pecan rolls, but they will be gone before we get home. We wanted to get Vandalia onions, but with another week left in the car, we didn’t think that would be such a good idea.

We arrived at Sandy’s cousin Douglas’ place in Tallahassee early afternoon. Another of Sandy’s cousins, Douglas’ brother, Donald had just arrived also. Donald lives in Marianna with his wife Elaine and daughter Holly, about an hour west of Tallahassee. Marianna is also in Central Time, while Tallahassee is in Eastern. We need to remember that when we hit the road tomorrow! LOL!

Uncle Clayton’s kids were the cousins that Sandy saw most frequently while she was growing up. As a result, they were closer than the other cousins. And because of this, there was non-stop talking around Douglas’ kitchen table as they reminisced and got caught up with each of their families and with Sandy filling them in on the other cousins that she was fortunate to visit on this trip.

Douglas is the IT guru for a local hospital in Tallahassee and Donald works as a manager for the regional power company in Marianna. We didn’t visit Donald’s home, but Douglas has a beautiful place, a relatively new home on the out-skirts of Tallahassee. His front lawn has an enormous (and protected) live oak tree. This tree is close to 150 years old – it is very beautiful, but is beginning to loose branches which has been problem for the city because it is in the “parking”. He also has so many squirrels in the back yard that he gave up feeding the birds. At one point Joe counted 6 squirrels frolicking in the yard. There was constant motion back there!

Doug loves to play pool, and we felt quite honored that he gave up his Friday night pool playing to cook us an enchilada supper, accompanied by Sangria (yummmmmie meal!) and spending the evening visiting with us. Before Donald left we went into the back yard to take photos, and before long the playfulness of their youth returned as they made funny faces and rabbit ears.. We took many pictures before we got a non-silly picture. We’ll spare you those, but Sandy’s keeping them for blackmail purposes.

Day 26 - Clayton Myers, Spring Hill, Florida

We had the full day to visit with Uncle Clayton. Sandy squeezed in a couple of loads of laundry. The night before Uncle Clayton had said that he was going to fix us blue berry pancakes for breakfast, but he didn’t have any good Vermont maple syrup, so he wasn’t going to make them. HOWEVER! We had bought a pint of real Vermont maple syrup to bring to Kate and then forgot to give it to her. So, we gave it to Uncle, he made the pancakes in the morning and we ended up having one of the best breakfasts ever.

After breakfast we headed out to Homossassa Springs Wildlife State Park. We had visited this park many years ago, and had told Barb Kroon (previous blog) that it might be a good place to take her mom or grand kids. We thought more about it and thought we would like to go back. This state park has all animals native to Florida – and one misplaced hippo. The story with the hippo is that it was part of a private circus/road show, and it retired to the Florida park. When the park decided to go with all native animals, there was a letter writing campaign to the governor to keep the hippo. In order to keep with the “all Florida animals”, they made the hippo an honorary citizen of Florida. Right now the hippo is 49 years old and weighs around 6000 pounds. We also saw many alligators, bob cats, panthers, birds, birds and more birds, red wolves, red and silver foxes to name a few. (oh yeah, lots of snakes too.)

After the park we stopped at one of my Uncle’s favorite places to go when he is in this area. It was called “Margueritagrill” (yep, all one word). He insisted that we get three orders of the Buffalo Shrimp because he wasn’t about to share his and he knew we would love them. Think Buffalo Wings, only big crisp shrimp. He knew what he was talking about. We also ordered a serving of gator bites and some onion rings. And then we were too full for dinner, but that’s quite ok! Uncle also had a medium margarita, but the medium was HUGE – We put three straws in it, but we were drinking beer (Landshark beer: Jimmy Buffet’s beer), so we really only had a taste of his. Getting into the mood of Margaritaville, Joe noticed one of the waitresses had a Route 66 T-shirt on, and he asked her if she knew anything about Route 66. She said it was in Las Vegas, so Joe gave her a little history by singing the Route 66 song to her.

When we got home Sandy challenged her uncle to a game or two of cribbage. She got the lead early on, winning the first three games in a row. One more for a clean sweep and a skunk. But it rapidly turned around, with Uncle winning the last three games. And the last game he skunked Sandy, so that counted as two games, and he won. We’ll have to have a rematch!

Day 25 - Molly Constant & Clayton Myers, Spring Hill, Florida

We had no difficulty getting to Sandy’s Uncle Clayton’s place in Spring Hill, arriving around 2 in the afternoon. We would be spending the next two nights here. We visited for a couple of hours while waiting for Molly Constant to arrive. She was going to join us for dinner. Molly is Sandy’s first cousin once removed, the daughter of cousin Donna and Leo Constant whom we visited in Vermont earlier in this trip. Donna had asked us to bring her dad a couple of jars of home preserves (our grandma Myers’ pickled watermelon rinds and a jar of crab apple jelly). Fortunately she had also given us a couple of jars or Uncle Clayton might not have got his!

Molly arrived around 4:30 and shortly thereafter we headed off to Carrabba’s Italian Grill. This is one of Molly and Clayton’s favorite restaurants and we can understand why. Service was excellent and it was Wednesday which meant that all bottles of wine were $10 off. Joe and Sandy shared a bottle of Merlot, Clayton had a margarita and Molly a Cosmopolitan (it was also happy hour!). Joe had Linguini with shrimp, scallops and clams. Sandy had a brick oven pizza – she was tempted by all the other dishes but hasn’t had pizza in so long, she couldn’t resist.

It was so good to visit with Molly, she is a delightful young woman, very mature. She is a nurse at a hospital in Tampa. She met her boy friend at the hospital, he is an EMT in the Emergency Room. We had heard some nice things about him, so we were disappointed to not be able to meet him. We were also happy to see that Molly and her grandfather are very close.

Day 25 - Diane Andreano Butler, Tampa, Florida

While Sandy was checking her Facebook, she received a message from a grade school/high school friend, Diane Andreano Butler, who saw that we were in Florida. Diane asked where we were and suggested maybe we could get together. We saw that she was in the Tampa area, so made arrangements for an early lunch. We met at a Chili’s in Tampa which was not far from where the Yankees were playing an exhibition game.

Diane was able to take a long lunch break from work so we had plenty of time to visit. We spent most of our time visiting and, uncharacteristically, less time eating. As a result both Sandy and Diane took left-overs home. The time went by quickly as they caught up on each other’s lives and talked about the classmates each kept in touch with. Sandy and Diane met in elementary school and way back then were known as “Mutt and Jeff” – she was always short and Sandy was always tall. So, whenever they were together, the contract was pretty evident. As you can see from the picture, they still are!

Diane came down to Florida about 25 years ago. Her folks followed her down and still live about 30 minutes from her. She has one daughter who married recently. She likes the area and gave a definite “No!” when we asked her if she ever thought about going back to Connecticut. As they visited and shared events in their lives, there was no doubt that the friendship they shared as classmates has spanned the years.

Days 23 & 24 - Barb Kroon, Celebration, Florida

We arrived at Barb’s place around 3 p.m. on Day 23 after our visit with Joe’s sister Marcy. Joe knows Barb from work at the State of Iowa. They worked together for 23 years, although he’s known her longer than that. Barb was the State’s selection expert and its chief influence in developing workforce planning strategies. She also worked with Joe on the State’s Affirmative Action program. For a time she was Joe’s supervisor. Joe had a great deal of respect for her abilities and her work. The graciousness that she showed as an employee for the State was also shown during our visit with her.

Our first afternoon with Barb, we toured Celebration. This is a planned community with 7 villages, manicured lawns and tree lined streets. It is very clean, neat and, as the brochure says, “a showcase.” It is a very very pretty town. There are about 8,000 residents, many of whom are seasonal. There is a lot of walking traffic, every street is 25 mph and not a single horn honking. Sandy felt that this community came right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Close enough, it was originally built by Disney for it’s employees. Disney is now out of it and they have their own association. There are lakes, community centers, pools, walking paths, shopping areas and a theater. Each village has it’s own architectural style. Celebration has everything you could want and we can see why Barb and her husband Veryl chose this place for their retirement home.

Barb was working at her computer when we arrived. She now does her first love full time: she is writing her first novel, and already has plans for many more. We’re anxious to read them! We took her picture by her three favorite authors (Linda Howard, Nora Roberts and Janet Evanovich) who hang near her computer as inspiration. Barb’s condo is beautiful, with north and south windows that bring much sun into her home. We sort of claimed the breakfast nook – it was a great place to sit and update blogs and check emails.

Our first night with Barb, she fixed us Beef Stroganoff. She was organized enough to put us both to work chopping, slicing and stirring. The end result was delicious! We went through a bottle of wine too! This is what we like best about our trip: good friends, good food and good conversation!

We went to lunch with Sandy’s cousin Kathy on our second day (Day 24 – another blog), and then went with Barb for pie at the Market Café when we returned. Talk about a piece of heaven! Then later that evening we went to one of Celebration’s fine restaurants: Columbia, a Spanish restaurant, for dinner. We sat outside, and had one of the finest meals of our trip (and we’ve had a LOT of fine meals on this trip!): Sandy had the Shrimp Criollo (large shrimp sautéed in olive oil with garlic, green peppers, tomatoes, platanos, potatoes and splashed with Vermouth and paprika). To die for. Joe had the Chicken Salteado which was chicken with yellow rice, platanos, peppers and sausage in a really thick sauce. Joe was a happy camper also. BUT as good as the food was: you should have been there for the Sangria de Cava – a white Sangria made with simple syrup, a small bottle of champagne, an orange liqueur, a brandy and oranges and limes. We ordered a pitcher, but we wished it was two! It was the most refreshing and delicious drink I have ever tasted.

We had such a good time visiting with Barb, it was hard to say good bye the next morning.

Day 24 - Kathy Montambault, Apopka, Florida

Kathy was waiting for us outside of the IHOP in Orlando, where we planned to have lunch together. She’s been living in Florida for about two years, since she transferred to the area when she was working for Walgreens. Kathy has a serious boy friend who is a roofer and unfortunately was unable to join us.

Since we saw a number of Kathy’s (and Sandy’s!) relatives during our visits, we talked about those visits how they were doing and brought her up to date on the latest gossip we were aware of. All catching up was going on while Kathy was enjoying an egg breakfast, Joe a salad and Sandy a tilapia plate. Even though we were outside of Disney World, our waitress, Daria from Russia, assured us that she was our “Cinderella. “

Kathy is in between jobs right now and Joe was happy to share his HR experiences with her. We continue our visit talking about work and about our Route 66 plans in the Fall when we expect to see her parents in Oklahoma.

It was a great visit. Kathy looks great, and Joe said he could see the family resemblance between her and her sister Rosie (from CT). She also has her mom’s great laugh.