Our Colombia Experience

On Wed. the weather cleared up and we had an uneventful day.  Got into Dayton Ohio to visit with our good friends Bob and Heidi.  We were stationed with them in Korea in 96-98 and their two oldest, Bobby and Derek were best friends with Andrew and Kirsten.  They have two other children, Kurt and Angela (5).  One of the best things about military life is that you can not see someone for years and when you get back together it is like you were never apart!

Funny thing of the day…Bobby´s idea of a cool t-shirt….front: a picture of a soccer ball and the words “Your Brain”.  back: a picture of a football and the words “Your brain on drugs”.  Loved it!

Thursday we left early because Andrew had an appointment for an interview and tour of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.  They are a top 10 engineering school, big into research.  Here was our next bit of excitement…..

  I didn´t realize that Case is in the middle of the city.  Remember, I had the trailer on the back of the van.  So we are driving in the city with the trailer and looking for somewhere to park!  Yeah, right!  Thankfully, I called the school and a wonderful security person from the school helped me out.  She let me back the trailer into a reserved parking spot, unhitch it and park the van in a seperate spot.  I was amazed that I backed that trailer into the spoton the first try.  Unfortunately, I had to turn it at such a sharp angle that the crank to raise the trailer, unknown to me, hit the back of the van and I ended up crunching the handle.  It used to be an L shape so you could easily crank it. Not anymore, it is a U!  Oh well.

     The school is beautiful with lots of opportunities for coop, research, etc. and would probably be a really good fit for Andrew.  We`ll have to see how much financial aid he`ll qualify for…$43,000 a year.

     We stayed the night outside Cleveland and drove across Pennsylvania on Friday.  We drove across rt 80 but made a detour down to Easton on the NJ border to see my brother Wes and his family.  We had a quick dinner with Wes, and my nephews Trevor and Ryan, saw LeeAnne for a few minutes when she got home for work and then headed up to Andy´s mom`s house where we were staying.  She lives up in Blairstown NJ.

     We tried to leave Edmond, OK on Monday but just had too many errands to accomplish.  Kirsten was staying at her best friends house for her birthday party and a going away party the end of the week and would fly up to LaGuardia on Saturday.

     So Andrew and I spent one more night in the empty house (that we did sell…closed on the 18th) with the two cats Girlie and Roswell (Roswell is actually called Roswell the Alien Cat and is 22 lbs)  We got up at 5 am on Tuesday prepared to close up the camper trailer we were towing, toss the last few things and the cats in the Toyota van, and take off.  We didn´t plan for the torrential downpour of rain that would not stop.

     God was on our side as it did let up at about 5:20 for maybe 10 minutes, long enough to get the trailer attached to the van.  But that was the only reprieve.  The cats were furious about getting wet on the way to the car in their cages!  We also had to put the recliner out on the porch for the Salvation Army pickup.  It was raining so hard we had to wrap it in plastic to keep it dry.  With that blocking the front door, everything out of the house, we were ready to make a dash for the car through the garage to be off.  That was when I realized, there was so much water in the culdesac that I could not get into the car without soaking my feet….so take off the shoes and run!  We left Edmond at about 7 am.

     I rained off and on and the day was fairly uneventful until about 3 in the afternoon.  We stopped at a Panera (free wi-fi) in MO so I could find a hotel and we had a snack, put gas in the van and got back on the highway.  A mile down the road I glanced down at my left hand and realized that the diamond was gone out of my wedding ring!  I was devestated, hysterical, crying, the works.  But my dear (at that moment anyway) son insists we are so close that we go back to our stops and look for it.  All I could think, with all of my faith, was “Yeah, right!”  But we went back, first to Panera.  I was looking in the parking lot and Andrew went inside.  Not 15 seconds later he came running out…..he had gone to our table and just picked up the diamond off the floor!  Now I was hysterical and crying for joy!  I really did think that was enough excitement for the rest of the year!