On the road again, meeting new friends

Me and Kathy

I took another trip this week - back to Washington, DC to my daughter's. Her husband has been stationed back to Omaha but there has been some issues with getting all the arrangements made for the move. My daughter got tired of all the run-around and decided to come back now instead of waiting on the movers. So I flew out on Saturday so she wouldn't have to drive all the way back by herself. We started the drive back on Sunday, she and I and her almost two year old son. Our trip took us up into Pennsylvania then across to Kansas.

You remember that I had a drawing last week? Well, Kathy Niklewicz, the winner, lives up there! We made arrangements to meet in Washington, PA on our way through. I emailed her our plans and she checked into a place to meet. It was great - she even got online and checked out how easy it would be for us to get on and off the interstate. And then called the restaurant to make sure that was accurate!

Kathy with her prize (or part of it!)

We met at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant and ended up visiting for over two hours! It was so fun to be able to give Kathy her prize in person. The anticipation of the gift giving was as great as if it was Christmas! It was so much fun to see her get the Pumpkins on a Vine bookmark and all the other little things, too. Check out the pendant Kathy was wearing

Kathy and her husband were so nice. And she brought me a present, too! There was a small Steelers football for the boys to play with and a cute Steelers Christmas tree ornament (we were in Steelers country) and some cookies (these didn't last too long!).

And the most special gift was a paperweight with a patriotic motif in it - Sue Hanson's 5 point Celtic motif. It was the same motif that I had been inspired to make because I saw it on Kathy's blog a year ago. It is so special to have this connection between us. Thank you, Kathy!

Not too far from Pittsburgh

If we had to make the drive we chose a great time to do it. The trees along the way were beautiful. We took our time and stopped for two nights along the way, getting out every couple of hours to stretch and eat or just walk around. I think that helped a lot, no one got fussy (much) and we could enjoy the ride.

I've been trying to post this for the last three days but I'm not used to a two year old running around everywhere: -)

Thank you Kathy for meeting us. It really was fun. We'll have to do it again sometime.