“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;”

The first line of “ A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens states “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;” and that certainly describes how things have been in the life of the Old Salt and me since my last post. As I write this, I have an egg sized knot on the back of my head, a bruise the size of a saucer on my chest and my calf, from falling off a bicycle several days ago. We are house bound by ice and snow that has covered most of the Midwest. My dear husband is just finishing up a second round of antibiotics and still has all the symptoms that put him on them to begin with. But, since no one wants to read the story of some sad saps on the pity pot I will forgo relating details of everything else that made up the worst of times list and jump directly to the best of times.

Since my last post, we traveled from St. Louis to Omaha to Florida and back again with side trips to many points in-between. We visited family members in four states. We were on hand for the 88th birthday of one Aunt and the 90th birthday of her sister. We enjoyed warm balmy days and the frigid stillness and beauty of new fallen snow. We sloshed through mud puddles and stepped over dirty banks of slushy snow. We ate in five star restaurants, greasy spoons, small town diners and even traveled out of our way to find one very old house that had been converted into a quaint cafe. We ventured off the expressway to discover new adventures on the back roads. We watched pigs race, pumpkins being shot from air cannons, and slung apples from giant slingshots. We toured a stately mansion and the vacation home of a former president. We even changed plans midstream to go chasing after the promise of a great bargain at a local swap meet on the commons of a picturesque southern town advertised by a hand lettered sign on a street corner. We let an old woman’s recollections lead us back in time down memory lane while trying to locate scant evidence of a life she left behind more than fifty years ago. We even managed to celebrate the holidays with as many family members, and as much pomp and fanfare as possible.

But, the number one event in our lives was the fact that we fell in love. Yes, that romance novel, heart pounding, mushy kind of love. Do I hear some of you saying, “Now wait a darn minute, aren’t you newlyweds? Are you telling me you were not in love before?” The answer is yes and yes. So now I guess I need to explain. Regrettably, I will have to make this a cliff-hanger and give you the full scoop in my next post. I have to get my old bones off to bed because I have an early appointment in the morning. If the roads are clean enough for travel we have been invited to spend the weekend with a dear friend. So check back on Monday for the rest of the story.