(Forgive any repeats, can't access my blogs so I'm never sure what I sent already)
The summer just seemed to linger and linger, mostly because I didn’t do much or go anywhere. We arrived home on April 1st after a very busy winter of travel and I didn’t get on an airplane, train or bus until the last week of September. Cindy, on the other hand, was quite busy; one music camp in July, cut short by Covid, another in August and a quick trip to visit her sister in August. I have had one long and one short car trip. We went to Bristol VA to celebrate Cindy’s birthday week in early June. The City of Bristol is divided by a yellow line down main street. One side is Virginia, the other Tennessee. We only spent money on the Virginia side since we were miffed at the Tennessee legislators and their petty racist antics. The hotel we stayed in offered free tickets to the Museum of Country Music. As you know I’m not much on museums but this trip was about Cindy so I went. I must tell you that it was one of the top five museums I’ve ever visited. Beautifully organized and so informative, especially since I know very little about Country Music.
From Bristol we drove to Asheville to visit a dear friend and to tour the Biltmore Estate. (Yes, another museum.) It was lovely to see how the robber barons lived and played. I’m thinking of running a spur of my railroad to the house so as to facilitate new construction! We walked the downtown area of Asheville, filled with aging hippies, ageless hikers and assorted homeless, beggars, and bums, a very strange mix. Then it was on to Greensboro to visit a few of our finest friends. One staged a magnificent birthday dinner for Cindy complete with a surprise visit from a friend who Cindy had mentored when she was dean. The next day our host surprised us with a Birthday Cruise on a lovely lake near their home followed by ice cream cones and wine, what a day.
Finally home again where Cindy - who last summer had promised to reduce the size of her gardens - commenced to INCREASE the size of her gardens. Between her tilling the soil, practicing violin, viola and piano, I usually only saw her at meals and cocktails, but my what lovely vegetables, herbs and flowers we have had all summer.
The last weekend of September found us in beautiful Montreal with Colin and Meagan for a four day celebration of Colin’s birthday. It is a lovely city, especially the old town by the river. We did two days of the Hop on/ Hop off bus which was a welcome break from our eating and drinking our way through the city. The food it uniformly excellent and the portions were, shall we say, hearty! It was loads of fun and the time flew by. Speaking of flying, on our trip home I had an experience that was unique in all my years of travel. The twenty-something tattooed flight attendant - who had enjoyed too many meals in her short life - sat down in her jump seat twenty minutes before landing and simply fell asleep, right there in front of us. I’m talking mouth open drooling deep sleep. Only the noise of the landing gear coming down disturbed her slumber. Remarkable!
The hummingbirds, who have entertained us for most of the summer with crazy antics at the feeders, departed for warmer climes yesterday. We shall do the same tomorrow, heading for three weeks in France where we’ll ride the rails from Paris to Lyon to Nice and then Toulon before heading back to Paris and our flight home. France has been very warm and the forecast is for temperatures in the high seventies and eighties. Never thought I’d need short-sleeved shirts in France in October! À bientôt. Cindy and William
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