Janey and I took off at a canter from the hotel before 8:00am because we felt sure we’d be SUPER POPULAR with the rest of the team if we brought back coffee and beignets from Cafe Du Monde.  The beignets were still hot and so was the coffee when we gathered in the lobby with…

MEMPHIS, Tennessee — CLARKSDALE, Mississippi –NEW ORLEANS, LA Janey says it was Ron Hansen who later became the Mayor of Muscatine who leaned over to the waitress as she delivered a platter of cheeses to a banquet Jane attended. He gently touched the waitress’s arm and declared triumphantly, “What a friend we have in Cheeses!”…

— MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Saint Jude Thaddeus:  The Patron Saint of Lost Causes.  One of the apostles of Christ.   One of his first followers.  Later martyred.  His name Jude means giver of joy; his name Thaddeus means generous and kind. “There is something so special about HERE” said our tour guide, Mary.  Patty had…

ST LOUIS, Missouri — NEW MADRID, Tennessee — Arkansas –MEMPHIS, TN We pulled off the road for gas this morning and saw the flag at half mast at a Burger King.  We were still in St. Louis.  There are good people everywhere who awoke to the same horrific news that we did today: a terrible…

  — ST. LOUIS, Missouri — We had plans to attend the afternoon St. Louis Cardinals baseball game today so we decided to visit Grant’s Farm first thing this morning to make the most of our time here.  You can’t be a American beer lover and not know about the Anheiser-Busch Brewing Company, one of…

MUSCATINE, Iowa — HANNIBAL, Missouri — ST. LOUIS, Missouri I awoke with a migraine and was unable to lift my head from the pillow.  Team Winona kicked into gear. Trudi, my roomie, was as nice as ever and did all she could to help, but the gals had to postpone our departure; Patti and Jean…

–MUSCATINE, Iowa– The Muscatine Journal was available in the lobby of our hotel this morning.  It’s the paper that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote for in his early life as a writer.  His older brother Orion Clemens was a part-owner of the newspaper actually.  Clemens wrote rhapsodically about the sunsets of Muscatine and claimed they…

                      TAMPA — CHICAGO –HIGHLAND PARK, IL — MUSCATINE, Iowa   “I’m so up-sided”     (as three year old Julia Virgilio used to say) The final hours of packing for a ten day trip are always hectic.  Of course we were “up-sided” about the…

In the mornings on last year’s Route 66 Trip sometimes some of us would go get coffees  and deliver them to the other sixtahs in their hotel rooms.  One morning Trudi had marked my styrofoam cup with only “Good M.” as the pen’s ink ran out before she could write “Good Morning” in its entirety….

  Oh no you didn’t. Yes we did.  We had to.   We had it on good authority that the movie was funny and also a bit raunchy…but it was called “Girls Trip” for goodness sake.  We had to.  We gathered to see the movie “Girls Trip” a few weeks ago prior to the storms….

If you’ve been watching the news and you have had your power restored since Hurricane Irma made her presence felt, you know that we’ve had a crash course in what’s really important down here in Bradenton, Florida.  We’ve experienced every little bit of all of it this week.  After Hurricane Harvey left immeasurable devastation in…

The Powerball is now at 700 million.   I’m not a lottery type gal, but even I am beginning to get interested.   Your odds in tonight’s drawing are 1 in 292 million.  It’s the second highest pot in US history.  And it’s fun to be a part of something, right?  I’m buying a ticket….