Trip Diary for September, 2009
Land Travel Only

Sept. 1-7; Deltaville, VA: Tuesday continued the cool, beautiful, but windy weather.  We continued introducing Sandy and Klaus to outstanding area historical sites, leaving at 11 AM for the George Washington's Birthplace, stopping first in Kilmarnock for the Carwash Cafe's outstanding lunches.  Returning at 5:30 PM, Lola prepared an outstanding dinner of lump crab cakes, snow peas and sweet potatoes.  The boat rocked all night from the 4' Chesapeake waves.  Wednesday was a more leisurely day; the morning was devoted to reading, Sudoku, and Longaberger business.  Leaving just in time to drive to Urbanna for great lunches at the unique Something Different, we next stopped at Christ Church in Weems.  Then, with a bit of shopping along the way, it was back to the boat for the weekly Wednesday carry-in; 12 boaters participated.  Continuing high NE winds provided another night of rocking and rolling aboard.  We left the marina at 10:30 Thursday morning for the 60 mi. drive to Shirley Plantation, Virginia's  oldest, on the James River.  Eleven generations of Carters have lived at these incredible facilities that were unscathed by either the Revolutionary or Civil wars. We then drove beautiful, historic Route 5 along the James back to the Yorktown Battlefield for an excellent ranger presentation, video and battlefield driving tour.  Winds, while still 10-15 mph, had shifted to NW so the night's rocking was more gentle than the past two.  Friday was a day to relax, read and update this web diary.  Except for a brief afternoon run into Deltaville for specialty foods we stayed aboard until dinner at Cocomo's.  Imagine our surprise when we found prices for the still great fish sandwiches had increased by 60 percent!  The evening was devoted to watching a 3 hr. PBS DVD, Rebels and Redcoats, How Britain Lost America, completing our historical perspective of the Yorktown visit.  By Saturday morning winds had died and temps began climbing to a warm 85.  The ladies devoted the morning to laundry for both families.  Afternoon reading/naps ceased in time for grilling dinner brats followed by an evening of dominos Chinese Train (Sandy won).  It was all hands on deck at 6 AM Sunday for showers and getting Sandy and Klaus to the Newport News-Williamsburg airport by 9 AM.  This schedule allowed a leisurely breakfast at McDonalds prior to the 11 AM communion service at Grace UMC in Newport News.  Returning, Lola started laundry and organizing/packing things for Wednesday's return trip to IN.  East winds picked up in the evening so it was another rocking/rolling night.  Monday, Labor Day, was devoted to boat cleaning and packing the car for the trip home.  Wind continued, shifting to the ESE, resulting in a very uncomfortable side-to-side roll.  It began raining about 3 PM and we decided to drive to Applebee's in Gloucester for dinner and to get off the rolling boat for a while.  By the time we returned the rolling had moderated somewhat, but rain continued all night.

Sept. 8-9; Travel to W. Lafayette: By Tuesday morning we had received 2 in. of rain.  Light rain with 15-20 mph winds persisted all day.  After breakfast we began preparing the boat for extended departure.  By 4 PM, after enduring a day of rolling with more predicted through the night, we decided to depart for IN rather than spend another night aboard.  We accelerated loading the car and securing extra lines to the boat.  We departed at 6 PM, driving until 9:15 PM for an overnight stop in Lexington, VA; we had traversed 211 mi.  Wednesday was an 8:15 departure.  There were no delays along the 575 mi. drive, enabling us to reach home at 6 PM.

Sept. 10-27; Home in IN: Thursday-Saturday were spent on numerous housekeeping matters.  We particularly enjoyed Sunday in our home church with Rev. Dan Berger's great sermon.  Church friends Chuck and Ester Boonstra invited us to lunch at University Place followed by a delightful time visiting in their apartment.  Monday was a day to join past Lafayette Thrift Shop workers for a late breakfast and then Purdue retirees for their annual kickoff luncheon.  After Larry's Tuesday noon Rotary meeting we drove 30 mi. to the Wesley Thrift Shop in Crawfordsville for Lola to enter items while Larry installed some redundant computer equipment.  Lola enjoyed returning to her Wednesday Exchange Club luncheon followed by an evening session with the church's Prayer Shawl Knitting Circle.  Thursday provided a quick 125 mi. trip to St. Joseph, MI.  We travelled via North Judson to acquire I-Zoom (EZ-Pass) transducers for both cars before having sumptuous hamburgers at Redamak's in New Buffalo, MI.  Daylight hours Friday were spent housecleaning before Sharon Hawks picked up Lola for their evening Longaberger consultants' meeting in Thorntown.  Football Saturday began with a delightful 9 AM President's Council brunch, but was downhill thereafter.  On a beautiful 77-degree day we struggled through 3 quarters of poorly executed, lackadaisical Purdue offense and defense before loosing 28-21 to Northern Illinois Univ.  Following Sunday church services we drove to Indy for a bit of shopping before returning via Noblesville to celebrate grandson Chris' 25th birthday with the beef stroganoff Lola had cooked.  Doctors' appointments took up Monday morning.  TIAA phone consultations, Purdue functions and Exchange Club Board required the remainder of the day.  Tuesday we drove to Decatur, IL (140 mi.) for dinner with Lola's family before the evening visitation for Larry's 95 year-old Aunt Virginia.  Her funeral was Wednesday morning; Larry was a pallbearer.  We returned to W. Lafayette just in time for dinner with son John, his wife Leslie and her son Tyler, a HS senior.  Thursday morning Lola visited her hair dresser and nail place while Larry stayed home to catch up on computer tasks.  Friday was entirely at Purdue: Back to Classes plus an elegant evening Annual Dinner for the President's Council.  Saturday was football again.  It began with the 5 PM President's Council buffet before the 8 PM ESPN game with Notre Dame.  Our team played much better than last week, but the game lasted 30 seconds too long!  Sunday was devoted to church and packing the car for our return to the boat.

Sept. 28-30; Cordova, TN: After a hectic 2.5 weeks in IN we departed Monday at 7:45 AM for daughter Judy's home in Cordova.  Weather and traffic conditions were great, so we covered the 525 mi. to arrive at 3:35 (CDT).  That evening and Tuesday morning, Larry worked to restore wireless networking after Judy's Internet service was changed a month ago from cable to AT&T DSL; ultimately, it was necessary to reload the router's firmware and factory defaults to make it act like a new unit.  Wednesday's highlight was an afternoon trip to casinos in Tunica, MS.  Glen joined the three of us for a buffet dinner at the Horseshoe.  After dinner we drove by Senatobia, MS to review the house remodeling project at his farm before returning to Cordova.

Water miles traveled to date: 3,592; this month: 0

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