Tuesday & Wednesday, June 1--2

Tuesday, June 1--It was so great to wake up on American soil today, and especially in the comfort of Kathy and Steve's lovely home in Winter Park! We enjoyed big mugs of American coffee this morning, took a walk in the neighborhood, then spent the day hanging out with Kathy and Steve in the Florida sun! Oh, and they were nice enough to take us to a burger place for cheeseburgers and fries! Bev also washed some clothes for our road trip back to South Dakota, and we gathered our stuff that we'd left there while we were abroad. Tonight Steve made a great grouper dinner and Kathy and Steve's kids, Kevin, Rich and Meredith and husband Nathan, and grand kids, Cameron, Ben, Jack, James and Kaitlyn, came over. It was so fun seeing everyone one more time before we leave tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 2--With the car all packed up, we left Kathy and Steve's pretty much on schedule, at about 9:30, and drove to Atlanta. We had talked to my USD (and O'Gorman) classmate, Tim Johnson, last night and arranged to meet Tim and his wife, Ann, for dinner in Atlanta. The trip was uneventful, and it seemed so good, although strange, to be driving on such wide roads, with such polite, good drivers! And not a single motorcycle wove in an out of traffic the whole way to Atlanta! We got to our hotel late afternoon. We'd worried about the horrible traffic that we've experienced before in Atlanta, but the traffic flowed well. Just as we were getting close to the Hampton Inn hotel, a heavy thunderstorm hit, and it made getting to the hotel more complicated. When we got there to check in, their phone and computer systems were down because of a lightning strike! So even though check-in was complicated by that, it was really nice to check into an American hotel with all the usual amenities! We especially like Hampton Inns--they're great. They even had complimentary beer, wine and soda when we checked in! Ahhh! Gotta love the USA!

Tim picked us up at our hotel, and took us to their lovely home in Northwest Atlanta. We met Ann and had a glass of wine before going to dinner. We really had a pleasant dinner in the historic restaurant, Vinings Inn, for some great Southern cuisine, and got caught up on Tim and Ann's family. Tomorrow it's on to Memphis, then looking forward to getting to our friends the Holters on Friday night in St. Louis!