Lessons Learned on Down the Road

*Personal guided tour of the Olympic Training center by David’s college roommate made it a special tour and then
*Dinner with college roommate at a great Greek restaurant Jake and Tellys in old town Colorado Springs made for a good time. Oompa
*Two bunny rabbits playing outside The Rectangle brings smiles…one could tell they were great buddies
*The grandeur of Air Force Academy holds one breathless. The chapel next June will be closed for 4 years as they disassemble and rebuild it. One can only hope they recapture its spectacular glory.
*Trying to grow herbs in The Rectangle is anew adventure. A $10 galvanized three “bucket” pots hold the basil, mint and rosemary. OK so the Rosemary has already died and the new one planted is not doing well after a week…brown thumb seems to be lurking
*Took nice trolley tour of Boise and discovered a lot of homes of interest, capital building and cultural neighborhoods like the Basque population. The sliced lamb sandwich and bean soup we had for lunch made us ask about the Basque flavors. We bought smoked paprika to add to onions, red bell pepper, cracked black pepper, and salt to make a yummy chicken.
*Blue boxes like small sheds on rollers in the fields are bee hives. Now if they would only put signs in the fields to let us know what they are growing…please?
*Going to church and being invited to breakfast by the senior group was nice (of course we fit into that group——When did we exactly get into that group??)
*Forest fires and lack of rain were the big topics at breakfast.
*Viola is 86 and her mobile home place in the RV park is beautifully maintained. She will only be there a few more weeks as her children think she should no longer live alone, so her daughter has build her a room in her house and she is moving in with them. Viola’s hands are bent with arthritis, she has brittle bones from osteoporosis but at 6am she is outside tending her yard, watering the grass, loving the flowers to bloom and sweeping everything spotless. She wants to stay in her home but as she told us “those darn kids think I am too old to live alone”. Her flowers were a joy to see every morning as I read my paper on line. I am sure she will make sure flowers bloom wherever she is planted.
*Watermelon from farmers market that people told us was from an area that made the melons special and wonderful..David stood in line a while to buy the melon and paid $7.00 (this the most he has EVER paid for a small melon but after standing in line for so long he paid the price) then….we stopped at Walmart to get something and they had melons from that same area for $4.00 but we felt good we had helped Terry a small farm grower.
*We are Syrah people, at least at the wineries we visited in Pasco WA area. After three a day for 6 days we have a few bottles in The Rectangle. OK not all Syrah but mostly.
*Walla Walla is a nice college (three there) and agricultural area town. visited 3 wineries and came back to The Rectangle with 3 reds. According to the pourers in the tasting rooms,  One of the tree colleges there Whitman University a liberal arts school is noted for teaching a lot about “the arts” but not getting anyone ready for a job. Hmmm sounds about right and not just at Whitman.