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| Laughter, Always |
One of the worst tragedies of my life happened in the late evening of October 12, 2024 when Brian called to tell me that his mom was in the emergency room after being struck by a hit and run driver. I learned shortly after that she had passed away, leaving a huge hole in my life and in my heart that only she had filled for the past 57 years. That is another long story for another blog when I have the heart to be able to tell it.
Today, as I think about her 70th birthday (which she had frequently told me in her last few months that she didn't want), I want to give a little gift to all who knew and loved her. That gift is the memory of her laugh. So, I gift to YOU this video tribute. Our videos began as a joke, but as more people commented about our Gallivanting Grannies trips all over the country, we learned that more and more people were enjoying our experiences. So, our videos were all done with you in mind. What might you want to know about our travels and (mis)adventures? So, enjoy this trip down memory lane of my buddy and me over the past few years.
Gallivanting Grannies Trip #1: Arizona and Historic Route 66
October, 2021
That first video was meant to be a joke. When we began our first trip (after my brousin, Lanie's husband had passed away) in October, 2021, I was doing a Facebook travelog of our trip, but MANY people laughed at how bad our "selfies" were. Becoming a little defensive, I decided to show people how challenging it is to get a good selfie, by taking a video of our process. Once we learned how much joy and laughter others got from it, the videos began in earnest.
Elaine had been a bit obsessed with the cacti on our drive out to Arizona to visit her old friends from Corny. When she began talking about them again (and the fact that we didn't have a selfie with them), I abruptly pulled off the interstate and our second selfie video came to be.
Our first pool selfie in Flagstaff, AZ emphasizes the fact that her children kept asking her what she was looking at in our selfie photos. She decided she needed to learn where to look when I was taking pictures/videos... and that "cheesy smile" I commented on? I'm still jealous she had such straight teeth without ever having to suffer braces!
Leaving our hotel in Flagstaff the next day came with the plan to do a selfie outside of each of our hotels, always with Elaine pointing at the sign so everyone would know where we are. We should have gotten paid for all the advertising!
It's 2 girls, my Lord with a Flatbed Ford...
On our way to Arizona, we realized how easily we could have visited Winslow, Arizona and decided to add that to our route back home. As The Eagles were gaining popularity during our teen years, we had to stop and "take it easy."
We were greeted with a lot of fog and "fresh" air when we got to the Cadillac Ranch in Texas!
Since it was so foggy that morning, we couldn't really see where the Cadillacs were "buried." I still had one bad knee and we didn't know how far the walk or how uneven the ground was, so Elaine did an "on the ground reporter" video so I could see what I missed!
Next on our Route 66 adventure, we were supposed to visit an old swimming pond with a big blue whale slide in Catoosa, OK! Near the pond, we found the remains of an old Noah's Ark exhibit, but we got our Bible stories confused and gave the Ark to Moses...
Then, because I'm fascinated with Totem Poles, we toured a totem pole park. It was a bit disappointing that they weren't of the carved variety.
Our final selfie video of the great Arizona/Route 66 Road Trip was just down the road apiece in Springfield, Illinois at the Cozy Dog Drive In; home of the original CORNDOG!
Gallivanting Grannies: Random Road Trips of 2021-2022
The rest of 2021 and all of 2022 was just a series of concerts and short road trips to Kentucky, Wisconsin and St Louis.
Sadly, shortly after, we had to say a final farewell to one of our closest high school friends. Cary's granddaughter was handing our little swag bags in her memory and in each bag was a miniature bottle of Cary's favorite Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey. Lanie and our friend Cindy used it to toast to Cary's memory.
In May, Lanie went to St Louis with me one Friday when I had to work in the LDS Temple. Her old friend Nancy lives in St Louis now, so she met up with Lanie and they spent the day together while I was busy.
When we visited Kentucky in September, my granddaughter Dottie was a little upset with Elaine because she wouldn't/couldn't go along with something Dottie wanted. Her mom corrected her and good grandmas that we are had to take it a step further...
September, 2022 also took us north to visit my brother Al and Marcie. Lanie had her new Schnauzer puppies by then, so they came along on the road trip. An added bonus to this video is Al's voice in the background. We lost him during a gallbladder surgery less than two months later in November.
On our way back down to Lanie's from Wisconsin, we stopped to see Aunt Grace in Lake in the Woods, Illinois. Since Tinker and Fritz were so special to Lanie, I included this short clip of them.
Gallivanting Grannies Trip #2: Northeast Tour April, 2023
Early April of 2023, we set out on our second grand adventure road trip. It was my granddaughter Paige's birthday and she was being baptized over Easter weekend, so we headed northeast for the family activities and then toured some sights to knock off five more of the states I needed to hit.
First stop and state was Rhode Island where, of course, we couldn't follow our itinerary because it was Easter Sunday and things were closed!
Hershey World was a fun place to visit, especially since they were celebrating their 50th anniversary which coincided with our 50 year reunion for high school graduation. We got matching 50th anniversary tie dye t-shirts and spent WAY TOO MUCH MONEY on candy and goodies!
We were amazed that the lady making Lanie's peanut butter cup had only been working at Hershey World for three days! She did a great job!
Gallivanting Grannies Mini Trip: Happy Together Tour Concert August, 2023
The Cowsills were the opening act and set the tone for a great evening. The truly great thing is that the performers really like the audience to be involved and sing along. Besides the Cowsills, we saw the Classics IV, Little Anthony, Gary Puckett, The Vogues and The Turtles (with Ron Dante of The Archies & The Cuff Links).
Laura was tuckered out and ready to turn in after the concert, but Lanie, Cindy and I hit the hot tub to wind down before bed. I've always been so happy together with my best buddy and any other friends we could gather for an adventure.
Gallivanting Grannies Trip 3: Amtrak to the Northeast
October, 2023
The train trip to the Northeast for a week long adventure with two of Carol's girls in October, 2023 was planned to get in some leaf-peeping AND to check off Maine, Carol's 50th state! The trip began with a commuter train into Chicago from Elburn, IL.
Off to a great start! Even getting on the commuter train proved challenging for these Gallivanting Grannies!
We made it into Chicago's Union Station, but not without misadventure and the kindness of our fellow man...
After we got settled into our seats on our Amtrak train, it was time for some entertainment. That translates into using my laptop and Shazam on her phone to learn or confirm we knew the words to all the hit songs that the bands would be singing on our Flower Power Cruise in March, 2024.
It was quite a process trying to figure out how to hear the music and see the words without disturbing the other passengers. Even more challenging was the in and out of the train's WiFi... We got off the train heading east in Springfield, MA and had to spend the night in a nearby hotel before our train north to New Hampshire would be leaving.
As you can tell from our conversation, getting on board the "Vermonter" to get to Brookie's house posed its own set of problems, but we did get on and off the train for a fun time with my girls. Sadly, although I did take lots of pictures, I only got this one video....
One of the towns near Brookie has a pumpkin people festival every year where people and businesses create a display. Brooks stopped at this one so Elaine and I could visit the Margaritaville pumpkin people. With no videos of our stay in the haunted Omni Mount Washington Resort and Spa, the cog train ride up Mount Washington to experience the worst weather on earth, or our tour of Portland, Maine, to name just a few of our adventures, it was time to board our train to head back home.
Apparently we didn't learn our lesson with our dinner from Wahlburgers on the way to New Hampshire and repeated our mistake on the way back home.
When we spent the night in Springfield, MA on the way to New Hampshire, we took an Uber from the station to our hotel for just $6. The next afternoon, we took an Uber back to the station and were shocked when the charge was $41!!! Not knowing how much they would charge us this time, we opted to walk to and from the hotel from the train station this time.
Lanie realized the zipper was broken on her suitcase before we started on our trip, while we were at the Elburn commuter station. Hence, she was constantly unpacking and repacking, afraid that she was going to lose something along the way. Once we were inside the Springfield, MA Union Station, Elaine realized she must have packed her phone in her suitcase during her most recent repack.
Since it was autumn and a good share of this train ride to Chicago was in the dark, it seemed a good time to pull out my souvenir Cog Railroad deck of cards and play a game of Rummy. Being our go to game on rainy days at the cabins, the rules shouldn't have been so foggy....
Frequent stops through the night made sleep difficult, although Elaine slept pretty well through her podcasts and had to relisten, only to fall asleep again... and repeat.
My fit of giggles may seem to be uncalled for and really not as funny as they seemed to me in the moment, but sometimes Lanie would say (or do) things just like her mother and it would send me over the edge. Not that those times were especially funny, but it was ALWAYS things that used to drive her crazy about her mother OR that she would tease her mother about. Lanie's "What's that?" in response to my early morning question brought one of those memories flashing back into my memory.
After successfully finishing the ride into Chicago and getting back on the commuter train to Elburn, we still had one more adventure left. Earlier that year, I had gone on a Flower Power Cruise with another friend and my daughter Sami where we saw a great Beatles tribute band called The Fab Four. I wanted her to have the opportunity to see them too and our trip ended just in time for us to be able to go see the Fab Four in Rockford.
Gallivanting Grannies Trip 3: Flower Power Cruise March, 2024
While my friend Robyn and I were on the 2023 cruise, we knew we needed to do a repeat to be able to see as many of the old acts as we could before they're all gone, so we booked our same cabin for 2024 and this year, Lanie was able to go with us.
We flew into Fort Lauderdale on March 18, a few days early to spend some time with my brother Bill before the cruise ship left from the port in Miami.
On March 21st Bill arranged for a driver to take us to Miami to board the Celebrity Summit for a week immersed in the days of peace, love and the best music of all time.
Since our luggage wasn't in our room yet when we first boarded, we dropped some of our personal belongings in our cabin and headed to the pool deck for lunch and the "sail away" party with Tommy James and the Shondells.
With 3-5 concerts on the pool deck daily, there were plenty of opportunities to see our favorite bands. Between concerts, there was always music playing overhead to keep the party going. Lanie could get very animated as she sang along!
The theme for the evening on the second day of the cruise was 60s TV, Movies or Music. We chose to dress as characters from the hit show HeeHaw! Our server (for 2023 and 2024) thought I was trying to take a picture of him with Lanie.
We had a whole verse of the song planned about ourselves, but fortunately no one asked us to sing a verse, because we all forgot it! Lanie and Robyn did a good job on the chorus though.
On the third day of the cruise, Lanie and I decided to go up to Deck 11 to walk across the ship to the Sky Lounge. It really wasn't a good idea. We couldn't hear each other talk because the wind was so strong and I thought the wind was going to rip the earrings right out of my ears. We did run into Susan Cowsill taking a few quiet moments up there by herself. We didn't bother her.... much.
Later that day, the Cowsills performed the late concert on the pool deck and Lanie had a good time singing Heat Wave with Susan.
Day 4 brought us to beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico where we had a land and sea tour of the city.
We had late dinner, after our evening concert in the Celebrity Theater every night. Occasionally we were in line back for enough that we were in the Rendezvous Lounge where they had karaoke going on. It was fun when everyone joined in the singing... one lady told us we needed to karaoke because we knew the words to all the songs so well. Lanie really liked to go watch the karaoke singers, but I could never get her to do it with me.
Day 5 took us to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. It was a beautiful place! We had a wonderful tour and tour guide with a chance to spend a couple of hours on the beach. We couldn't get Lanie to come into the ocean with us, but I did catch her doing a hula on the beach!
Our final concert on the pool deck was the Grass Roots on Day 7. The Grass Roots put on a good show and we enjoyed singing along with everyone else!
Thursday, March 28, we were back in Miami to disembark. Our driver picked us up and took us back to Bill's for a few hours before he took us to the Fort Lauderdale airport. We had finally convinced Lanie to use wheelchair service because of the pain in her knees and her upcoming knee replacement. She had quite the wheelchair attendant and had to tell us the story of her trip to our gate and just how she arrived so much quicker than Robyn and I did. I don't think she understood that she had big feet though....
Gallivanting Grannies do the Pacific Northwet: Our 4th and Final Great Adventure August, 2024
This trip was the most important and most planned of all. It was one Elaine wanted to take for years; back to about 2010 when I used to live in the Seattle area. I planned a two week loop for us, taking the northern route along interstate 90/94 to Seattle and on to the Washington coast with Forks and LaPush (of Twilight fame), then back to northern Idaho before heading south on Interstate 15 to spend a couple of days with my son in Utah, east on 70 to visit my other son in Colorado to get our eyes checked and then back to Illinois on 80. We accomplished much and had a lot of fun, but unfortunately, I only shot 6 videos in the two weeks we were gone. But, at least I have these...
The next day, I showed Lanie where I used to live and then took her to my favorite beach, just a few miles from my apartment in Mukilteo, Washington.
When it was time to leave the Seattle area we took the ferry from Edmonds, WA across the Puget Sound to Kingston. I started the recording and handed it to Lanie....
Well... take 2.....
Once we got on the ferry, I took over recording again...
After disembarking the ferry near Seattle,we headed back to Idaho and then south toward Utah. Lanie was getting a real kick out of the names and pronunciations of towns in Idaho; not sure why since she's been exposed to Wisconsin names since she was a teenager, but I digress. She made up a joke using the names of some of Idaho's towns and was so tickled by her own joke, I made her tell it while I made this video.
Again, no videos with either of my boys' families in Utah or Colorado, but I got this one as we began the final leg of our trip from Tipton, Iowa.
This final video is the hardest for me to watch. We're not laughing. We're sad our trip has come to an end, but I'm glad to know that she enjoyed our adventures as much as I did.... "I wanna go again."
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