Best Western Albion Inn

The English Inn in Eaton Rapids (outside of Lansing Mi) is where we got married one year ago October 4, we went back to celebrate our anniversary and recall that "day of days". It was a little warmer this year but still a nice cool misty October afternoon / evening. Here are a few photos from this year, we will post some photos from the wedding in a few days.

Love to All, Tom & Donna

On the way back to the airport the traffic on the freeway was slow enough to take decent photo's of downtown, except the haze downtown looked more like an industrial district and required severe photoshoping to get the buildings to stand out.

As you can see, our travel blogging is grossly behind our itinerary. We are more than two weeks into the trip and have not posted a single entry regarding our great American road tour! The first few days we were dealing with many "surprises" (see next entry) during what we are now fondly calling our shakedown period. But we also are finding that the idea of being electronically connected with all of you isn't working as easily as ...

After endless phone calls, with a number of women who all sounded alike, I finally got one that gave me a satisfying answer about my visa application. Apparently, the words "volunteer" and "trainee" are essential in the vocabulary of the Consulate. One means I will never get to Brazil, without 4 more weeks and a lot more headaches and the other means I'll be in Salvador by Friday.  Being the first intern has been really difficult.  Firstly, I have no one to ask 

Well, we did it!! Other than what we brought on the road with us, our worldly goods are in storage and we have started our "excellent adventure." Unfortunately, excellence is eluding us right now since we arrived yesterday at our campground in the Wisconsin Dells in the rain and cold and the engine light in our Tahoe came on at the start of the trip. So our first order of business this morning was to find a GM dealership and take the car ...

... with a population of around 2000 people.

I had a nice steak and some beers for dinner at Applebees and the waitress I had couldn't believe that I was visting Marshall of all places!! The next morning I had a quick look around Marshall and the nearby town of Battle Creek before heading off towards Wisconsin.

This time, it's hours on the train all the way to Albion to see our friends Chris and Sue Henke. The kids finally get to hook up with Tristan and Silas whom they haven't seen since first grade at Ha'aheo elementary school. The other bonus? The Barack and Joe roadshow just after the Chicago convention in Cereal City, Battle Creek, Michigan.....

The TV and my watch alarm woke me up at 5:15am. Too early for this nice of a room. This is by far the nicest place we've stayed and it's too bad we can't enjoy it more. It was even one of the only places with free wifi Internet access. Oh well. They had a nice spread for breakfast. We sat with a couple (Pat and Jay) who were on the ship with us. It was the same people we sat with at the "Captain's Dinner" at the end of the voyage. And again he asked me when I was ...

So today is the first day of the rest of my life. Hahaha. I started my trek from Ottawa to Calgary today bright and early at 6am, bleary eyed and a bit irritable from the lack of caffeine pumping through my veins at such an early hour. Easily remedied though by a quick stop at Tim Hortons. Packed with an enormous amount of leftover turky, too many clothes, and for some reason 12 chocolate chip muffins (god bless ...

... sure to be an adventure in it of itself), attempt to purchase a German Rail pass for Die Bahn, and get myself over to Mainz for the night. Hopefully it is as easy as I have written here. So I have gotten just over 2 hours of sleep, and I have an 8-hour flight ahead of me. I will be the first to say that the jet lag very well may be the end of me. But my plan is to keep busy and push through somehow. I'll be back in the states January 11th! Bye!