Nomad 3: 2017-2018
This year’s adventures are, for the first time. almost all planned out, reserved and paid for in advance. It’s a little conservative I know, but there are a lot of snow birds competing for a limited number of campsites. We’ve learned the value of planning ahead.
Rock Cut State Park, Rockford, Illinois 296 mile jump
The reason for starting this trip in Rockford was two fold. The first was to visit my mom to say goodbye for the next six months. I am devoted to her and phone her every weekend. She’s in pretty good shape, but one never knows when she might leave this earth. We brought her flowers and chocolate eclairs and did our best to keep telling stories and jokes. She doesn’t have much to say as she is homebound with little outside stimuli.
The second was my 50th HS Reunion; I had been away from Rockford for so long, I thought I might have been forgotten. I had forgotten a lot of my classmates, that’s for sure. There was 545 in our graduating class!
I was heartened to have many old friends who wanted to see me. It was difficult to catch up with all of them, but it was clear to me that I made a positive impact while attending Guilford high school. I was a little emotional about that after we left; still am. I know that I hurt a few people back then; that haunted me. I am so glad to have had the chance to get a new perspective.
Sunday, Penny and I did some bike riding and hiking through Rock Cut. It is one of the largest state parks in Illinois with two lakes, all kinds of trails, fishing, boating. We highly recommend it!
Monday, we brought Penny’s home made turkey soup to Mom’s for lunch on the way out of town. She really enjoyed it and we had a joyous good-bye. She really enjoys the weekly reports on our adventures and lives them vicariously! I am pretty confident we will see her again. She got spunk!