A word or two from Gary

Herewith, a note from Gary to a friend from eons ago, a fellow-traveler on his hippie bus, "The Great Turtle Express." We are hoping to make contact with him in person near Boston, should we ever get there. BTW, Dawn is Gary's daughter, who lives in eastern Washington. D.

As is said, the best laid plans oft gang aglee…. We made it to Cleveland, then stalled for a week due to terrible colds and bad weather. Our pace, when moving is about 200 miles a day, subject to further “delays” when something interests us—like touring Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Oak Park and gathering tall-grass prairie seed with our botanist friends in central Illinois. Bob Moseley, who lived with us for awhile in Boise a decade or so ago, is now The Nature Conservancy’s point man in Illinois.

This trip is a bit like the Great Turtle’s trek in reverse—in so many ways! We never quite know what’s coming up. The only real obligation we have is to be in Royal Oak, Michigan, on Saturday, Oct. 16 to celebrate my Aunt Ruth’s 90^th birthday (which actually is on the 21^st), along with Dawn’s 50^th! (the 7^th) and my 70^th (the 15^th)—kind of a mini family reunion, which I instigated.

By the time our colds cleared yesterday, it looked like getting to my sister Janet’s place in Durham, NH, then back to Detroit by the 16^th would be too much of a push for our wandering style. So, we find ourselves at the Brant Conservation Area near Brantford, Ontario, Canada, on our way to Warwick, Ontario, where my father was born in 1920. I’ve been doing a bit of family genealogy, and it’s been difficult to trace my paternal lineage very far back. Much of it for the past couple centuries appears to be in the Lambson County area.

My father’s mother was French Canadian. Her roots are very hard to trace, but may provide an excuse for a trip to Quebec. So, we may make it further east after Oct. 16. Diane just learned that her Nov. obligation back in Boise has been pushed back nine days. We may also explore the Travers City, Michigan, area next week, where my mother’s folks lived for about a century.