The Road North

I left McAllen (TX) in early May and headed towards Houston....got a call on the road to hurry north to be with my sister Pati who was near death with emphysema. I stopped in Houston, left eRV and Del Sol in a motel parking lot, and caught a plane to Cedar Rapids (IA). Pati died before I arrived. The Clan gathered and, later that week, we had a "Celebration of Pati Ann's Life" where 100s attended to say goodbye to Pati Ann. As a tribute, nephew AJ Worden (16 years old) played and I sang the following version of "Oh Danny Boy."

Oh, Pati Ann, the pipes, the pipes are wailing, from glen to glen and down the river side. The winter's gone, and all the flowers are blooming, 'tis you, 'tis you have gone and we shall bide. We'll all come back when summer's in the meadow, or when the valley's hushed and white with snow. We'll gather here in sunshine or in shadow, Oh Pati Ann, Oh Pati Ann we love you so.

Then, the attendees sang along the same verse. It was poignant. Pati Ann was sent off in good humor....many attendees said funny things to praise her life.

Then, Jim headed back to Houston to retrieve eRV and Del Sol....off to the North they went, stopping in southern Illinois to see childhood friend Fred Cota for a wonderful catch up time on his "Animal Ranch." Sheep, chickens, kitties, goats, horses, ducks, and Corgie dogs...animals galore!!!! Fred showed me a lot of biology as a kid and, interestingly, I became the biologist and he became the interior design man for IBM...weird turnabout, huh????

Now, I'm hanging out in Wisconsin....it's a beautiful place...the Mississippi River meets the Wisconsin River in a beautiful valley near where Iowa-Minnesota-Wisconsin join. I bet I'll be inspired about the beauty I'm seeing here. A poem will arise from it, I'm sure!!!!