MEETING #2:  We met at Jean’s house this time and, once again, feasted…this time on sushi and 1905 salad and stuffed mushrooms.  Thankfully Jean snuck kale into the artichoke dip!  Clockwise from the top:  Trudi in royal blue, Patty V, Janey T, Julie R (lower right), Jean G and back from illness, Patti T in light blue.

Stories flowed as we got to know one another.  Tales of our children, their schools, their friends, our parents, recent trips.  Trudi lost her parents and her dog all in one year.  One of Patti’s boys is graduating from eighth grade soon.  Julie’s spring break was long but productive…her youngest picked a college for the fall.  Patty has finished radiation and has three weeks til chemo begins.  Janey’s daughter wrapped up some minor surgery, and Jean’s daughter will be coming home for the summer.

Committee reports followed…which is to say…Patty has secured us a reasonably priced rental car.  Jane has secured matching mystery apparel that will arrive prior to our next meeting.  We are on our way!  And a window has emerged toward the end of Patty’s upcoming chemo.  She will have five biweekly chemo treatments from late April til Mid July and the timing will work out for us to leave July 8th for Chicago and return from Los Angeles on July 17th in time for her to have her final treatment the day after we return.  Jean fed us flight info.  Trudi gave a framework for the trip explaining that we could “make it” with approximately 4.5 hours of driving per day…eight or nine days of driving.

What are the “MUST SEE/MUST DO” items?  All agreed:  The Grand Canyon.  The picture together at the Route 66 Starting Point.  A “toe in the water” shot at the end.  We MUST see the St Louis Arch.  We want to stay in a Wig Wam Hotel.  We smiled and agreed as Jean’s aunt’s buddha smiled benevolently at us from his perch.  Clearly God loves us and wants us to be happy, and this was confirmed by our napkins.

We set up our next meeting time and place and left with flight info.  And now we’ve booked our own flights and it’s really happening.  It’s official.  Time to bring out the selfie stick and commemorate the moment…

And our vehicle has a nickname, folks…She’s “Sparky.”

It is better to see something once than to hear about it one thousand times.  Asian Proverb.  

so off we go…to see something…together…