The weekend.

What a glorious few days I have had. My appt. in Rochester could not have gone any better if I had orchestrated it myself. In fact, it played out pretty much the way I wrote in my last post. (Strangely enough!) I had the cat scan on Thursday to see how my 'insides' are looking and to quote my doctor, "It looks awesome! Perfect." Surgery is scheduled for September 9th. Finally, a real beginning to the end of this journey.

When we were done in Rochester, we set off on a mini bike trip to parts unknown! It was a great way to celebrate my little victory on Thursday. We had no agenda, really. From Rochester we went to LaCrosse, Lansing, Harpers Ferry, Prairie Du Chien where we stayed overnight. The next morning we left for Dubuque and hit a bunch of little towns along the way. Balltown most notable. There is a rather well known supper club/bar there that has been around for like 100 years. On Christmas Eve, this past winter, there was a fire and they lost most of the establishment. It is now rebuilt and quite lovely! They lost a good portion of their antique items. From what I understand from the worker there, they had quite a collection of old west items. Including things that belonged to Jesse James. A score of old guns too - although I am not a big gun fanatic.

We eventually crossed the river and began the journey back home. I have concluded that all a small (tiny) town really needs to sustain "town status" is a little bar on the corner that everyone seems to flock to. In every tiny town there were no businesses to speak of but you could count on seeing the neon beer sign in the window of at least one storefront! Name's like, "Frank's, Chippy's, The Old Tap, Freddie's Place and Lettie's Tap." They all sound strikingly friendly but we stopped by one of them for a soda and we may as well had monkeys hanging from us for the way these locals stared. Welcoming....eh, not so much!

I took a some pictures along the way- here are few neat ones and a couple rather mindless one's!

View from Mt. Hosemore look- out. The Mighty Miss.

This is my driver, again, at Mt. Hosemore. Can you tell how thrilled he is I made him sit there for 5 seconds. Oh well....What a view...!

Leaving Mt. Hosemore. Pretty.

Still leaving...Check out the goon in the rear view mirror.

Going over the bridge in Prairie.

Me outside the restaurant in Balltown (and our trusty steed).

It was a fabulous couple of days.

On another subject.....much to my delight I see there have been changes to the Redneck Crossing in my absence. Two old porcelain bath tubs now adorn the yard. A picture is now too much for me to resist.

Get yer motor runnin...

We are off tomorrow! Mayo Clinic, then our little bike trip to parts unknown. There is not much I can say at this moment about the appointment. In a perfect world, we get to the Gonda Bldg early, I drink my icky stuff, I get the IV of the crap that makes you hot, flush and taste metal - then the little conveyor takes you into the donut hole and you hold your breath. I will have heard my name 57 times at this point. Then, I go back to St. Mary's, have the follow-up at 2:30 and I am told how great a patient I have been, my surgery is in a few weeks and off we go. Well, to type that sounds like an awful lot. It is really not that bad. I try to be as humorous as I can and that seems to make things easy for everyone involved. A brief synopsis of the appt. will follow on a future post. Throw a good thought out to the universe in my honor. I hope it all goes that well.

I am looking forward to the bike trip following all of that. I need a few days away from my house. As much as I consider my home a sanctuary - this will be good for me. Its always been easy for us to travel since we don't have children. But today, I find I am a little anxious about leaving for 2 days. Crazy. I have traveled from coast to coast and across US Borders and never blinked an eye and was happy to be on the adventure. Today I am thinking about all kinds of garbage out of left field.

When I started considering the beneficiaries on my investments, I finally slapped myself back to reality and kicked that little bastardly voice to the curb. I know this mental circus gets me no where but, I buy the ticket and eat the cotton candy anyway. The difference now, is that I know I am doing it and can lose the negativity pretty quickly once the "what if scenarios" begin to get completely ridiculous.

My garden is flourishing. So far I have eaten 3 pounds of lettuce, 143 radishes, a couple pounds of kale - and way more chives than anyone was ever meant to eat in one sitting. With all of that, I have triple still to come in the garden. I haven't even started on the peas, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, onions.....

I think once all of that comes to fruition I will be stopping by our local food bank. I know they accept garden fresh items at certain times. I will have enough potatoes to mash and fill an ocean at the rate its going.

I must go hoe.