What a Trip!

Nothing like a last minute trip over about 1,600 miles to renew, redo and redecorate! What a wonderful trip and what a wonderful time with my parents! I’m so glad I went, we had a great time.

This was the first trip to Texas for Robert the Bear and he enjoyed it as well. Here’s a shot of him relaxing after a long day of driving. I ended up having pretty good weather for most of the time with just a little bit of sprinkling and clouds.

If you want to see what Oklahoma looks like, it's a variation of this all over the place (there are lots of casinos).

Here's the family story about Oklahoma. The story, I'm told, is real but the names have been changed to protect everyone. OK, here goes. Relative A and Relative B are driving through Oklahoma. There are signs along the road that say, "Don't drive into the smoke." (I saw these, too, which are what made me think of this.) Relative B asks Relative A what this means. Relative A says, with a straight face, that this is Native American country. They send smoke signals so if you drive through the smoke, you mess up the message. Relative B thinks for a minute and nods. That makes sense.

I did even have a day of 83 degrees and slept under the fan. Not that I’m rubbing it in or anything but I did. Just what the doctor ordered!

But just because you spend 4 days driving doesn’t mean you can’t knit (not WHILE driving, mind).

I made a pair of slippers (still to be felted) from the Fiber Trends pattern.


I almost finished my ‘body warmer,’ based on a pattern I found in an 1880’s pattern book, made from some Malabrigo that I’ve had in stash forever. It’s sort of a stole but it fits tightly around the body with bands that wrap around the waist. You can see the band at the lower right side. I’ve really only got to finish the bands and decide exactly how I want to do the connection (snaps, buttons, other). The body of it is a brioche stitch (which was extremely popular in the patterns of Godey’s Ladies magazine). The ends and bands are done in seed stitch to make them more stable.

I’ve finished my latest socks (made with Berrocco Sox – color 1425). Just basic sock recipe but I absolutely love the colorway on this sock yarn. In fact, I love it so much, I bought 2 more colorways!

I really thought that I would get up this morning and just be ready to get home but I really just wanted to keep driving and driving. Sigh.... It was a wonderful trip!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Well, it had to be really, didn't it.

Just a quick post to say I'm home after about 2,000 miles driving and 10,000 miles flying. I didn't wreck the car (driving on the other side of the road with a stick shift car) but, as I feared, now I feel very uneasy driving in the US. This happened to me before. When I first began driving in the UK it all felt very natural and easy (other than trying to roll down the window instead of shifting gears a few times - other side, other hand for shifting - ha!). When I had problems was when I came back to the US. It all feels very strange but I suspect it will clear up before long.

I ended up going to these places - more detail later.

I flew into London and drove (albeit the unintended scenic route) to Bath.
From Bath I went to a little village right outside Cardiff.
Spent a couple of hours in Cardiff city center before heading north.
Stayed a night in Blackpool.
Arrived in West Kilbride (Seamill)
Went across (in gale force winds) to St Andrews and then to Perth
Spent the weekend in Glasgow
A day in Paisley
Made my way south to York via the Yorkshire Moors
Then to London to turn the car in, wander in London and rest a bit before my 22 hour travel day.
Back to Springfield from Chicago.

It was a wonderful trip made up of catching up with special friends and seeing places I'd never seen before and remembering why I love the UK so much. Two years and unlimited resources. That's what I reckon it would take to do everything I want to do and see everything and everyone I want to see. So when my ship comes in, I'll be sure to let you know!

I'll try to post some pictures later to give you a taste.