Blog Buddy Blast

  At long last I get to real-life meet another friend I met through blogging. This is Ann of Ann's Snap Edit Scrap. We first got acquainted about 12 or 13 years ago at the height of the blogging craze. She was unable to attend the get-together several of us bloggers had (see link below), where Chuck and Sylvia (where I stayed last night), and David and JoAnn, and, Lin and Joe, and I all got together for a picnic. I finally worked up the courage to ask if I could stop for the night at her house with Sunny. She's located in a critically good place for me on my trips east. She said yes!

So, at long last, Ann and me in the same space.

And the adorable Gibbs, who is currently sleeping at my feet.

We've always thought it was a real blessing that this group of bloggers with much in common all lived within a few hours of each other. We'll have to do another get-together where Ann can come this time.

The day started off with an adventure. I discovered (thankfully before I left Michigan) that the license plate on my trailer had fallen off. It seems the plastic bracket on the tail light had broken off completely. Sigh... that took two hours of time to deal with. But at last I was on the road again. It didn't cost much, but what a hassle. Here's the joke of that experience. When one of the service people at the DMV was trying to find me an open appointment, she offered me 11:50 (more than an hour wait). When I looked unhappy, she said, "I can give you a later time." Um... no. This sort of felt like the parent telling the kid, "If you're going to cry, I can give you something to really cry about."

Then just south of Toledo, my oil light came on. What the heck? The newer Suburus eat oil, but I had just topped it off before I left the house. What I didn't do was go buy more before I left, since I was already running very late. Hmmm. So now I'm stopped at a corner with two gas stations. One is closed for renovations, and the other one does not carry the weight of oil this car takes. So... I saw a police car and chased it down on foot. Good thing he saw me before I ran out of steam! He directed me to a Menards that was only a mile away. So now I have lots of extra oil. But I seriously think that 2 quarts of oil in fewer than 500 miles is too much. This may be my last Suburu.

But at last I arrived at Ann's. She fed me a wonderful dinner of ribs cooked in a crock pot, potato salad (a favorite of mine), and green beans, with ice cream for dessert. Then we spent the evening talking in real life. What fun!

Just a heads up. I think there is a very high probablity that I will not have any internet service for the next 5 days, so if you don't hear anything from me, everything is fine. Sunny is doing great, and I got lots of rest last night, so today was pretty easy. Longer drive day tomorrow. I'm headed for the Adirondacks!

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