Catch Up, Craziness & Current Events

Greetings from Rockford, IL...again!!! No, we didn't just decide to stay here for a week, but Rockford is the only place we decided to stay twice. This is a very nice town and I wish I did have more time to explore it.

I know I've been remiss the past week on writing "daily" blogs. My BAD! We had a couple long days of driving and a hit or miss net connection while in New York. In my last post I talked about driving around the Twin Cities, MN. Well, I've learned since then that they are nothing compared to driving around Chicago! On the was east, just getting around Chicago was almost 4 hours. Between the road construction that slowed everything down to a crawl and the toll booths every 5 miles it seemed that we would never get past the city. And this was on the by-pass route! On our way back through we went more directly through the city. My heart was racing the whole time because driving bumper to bumper at 70 mph just isn't my thing. But I must admit, getting a close up look at all the tall building lit up at night was amazing! The best part was that we didn't have to stop once for road construction and only hit a couple toll booths so it went much faster than the first time.

Our time in New York was wonderful. We drove most of a day through the state to reach Newburgh/Plattekill where we stayed. New York was not at all what I expected. I always envisioned people everywhere. Like NYC spread across the whole state. To my surprise though, it is very green, lush, and rural. It was beautiful. It is so rural though that poor Susan and Lois had to come out at midnight and rescue us to help us find the KOA we were supposed to be staying at. We never would have found it in the dark on our own. It was wonderful to see them and get real hugs!

The next day we got to see and meet many Pug friends. Jenn and Ian we had met before in Baltimore 3 years ago. Ian has grown up so much and is such a smart boy. It was wonderful to finally get to meet Witchy, Joann (who has Daisy's half brother, another Pizz Pug!), Lisa and Kobe, Sue and her crew, Chris and daughter Bridget and their Otis who made me miss my Ripley, Michelle and Manny and their cute little boy, Alex, Susan's mother "Nana", Kate's friend Felicia and others I'm sure I'm not thinking of right now. I know Dustin enjoyed seeing Kate (Susan's daughter) again. We would bring her back to MT with us if we could! She is a wonderful, brilliant, funny young woman! It was hard to say good-bye when it came time to leave on Monday as our time there seems way too short.

Now we are on the last push back to MT. We ended up staying an extra, unplanned day in Rockford to get some repairs done on D's wheelchair. We will be hitting the road this morning and hopefully make some good miles in the next couple of days.

My apologies to anyone who may have thought we fell off the face of the earth. I guess I've learned not to make commitments like "daily" when I may not be able to keep the. All is well with us and the Puggies who are going to be just as glad as us to reach home. Until then...Pug hugs to all!