Springfield, MA

Hi again everyone,

Still not a lot of news. We're having fun and I'm so excited to get to Boston tomorrow. My dad and I are now safe and sound in Springfield, MA. We were fortunate enough to only face a little bit of wind and rain today as we drove in. Otherwise, we missed most of Irene. We have come to a lot of detours due to flooding, but nothing we couldn't get around.

Our first night was a long one. We had planned to stay in Nebraska City on our way to Kirskville, but due to flooding all the highway exits were closed. We ended up getting into Cameron, MO at around 2:30 Friday morning. We were exhausted, but we didn't have a long way to go to Kirksville that next morning. We arrived in the late morning and were greeted by a very happy Anneliese. She ran up to Bapa and gave him a big hug. Those two are best buddies. She gave us a very thorough tour, running from room to room in the house and telling us what we could and couldn't do in each room. "Mommy says we don't turn on the fan in here," or "we can't open this or this" in the playroom. We had lots of fun with the Gillettes those two days. We got to go swimming at the hotel and eat together, and the next day we got to play hide and seek and see Anne ride her "tot rod." Anne loves the water and I think she will love her first swimming lessons. She wouldn't let me sit in the hot tub very long. "Why are you in there? It's so hot!" she would say, a little annoyed. The next day when she took out the tod rod, she was very good. She has learned to pedal, can almost steer (Mommy has to help a lot) and always moves to the side of the road when cars come. As soon as she learns to steer she will have surpassed my abilities on a bike. Anne wanted us to stay at their house, but we told her we had to get to Boston and left early Saturday morning. I know I'm biased, but I'm so impressed with her speech. She sounds like she's 4! Her parent have their hands full, but they seem really happy even though she is a little pistol.

The drive that day was uneventful, albeit with several construction projects along the way. We made it to Buffalo, NY that night only to discover that all of the hotel rooms were booked (it's right next to Niagara Falls) and had to drive to Rochester, NY. The whole time we listened to radio programs where people called in and talked about the storm as it moved in. When we went to bed at 2 AM, we could only imagine what we would run into the next day. There was some wind and rain on the road, especially near Albany, but we were really lucky to avoid the worst of the storm. I'm also really glad we have power here, there are a few areas that have been knocked out.

Tomorrow we will go the rest of the way into Boston. I'll meet my new landlord in Quincy before she leaves for Vegas and my dad is going to help me get settled. I'll put some pictures in my next post of the new place.

Lynne