I wanted to get a new bike to ride to work, so I went out and boughted myself a Trek 7100. I geeked it out with fenders and lights and a bell and a rack. As soon as the basket is in stock, it'll go on the rack in back.

Here I am on it just minutes ago.



(You can see my dog's butt in the pic.)

martha

I'll summarize Indiana. We went to Bloomington to see Grandma and Aunt and Uncle. We went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum, which was cool, and I had a fever the next day. Then we came home.

Three days after we came home from Indiana, we both left for Cody, Wyoming. Steve took his bike and I took my car, and we met up in Cody for four days. This was Steve's brilliant idea, and it was a blast.

Here are some pics, with a caption under each one....

martha

So yeah, I went to India on pilgrimage for a week or so. It was 20 hours just flying time each way, and then there was the six-hour, 300 km drive from Mumbai to the Pilgrim Center and back again. I picked up a little intestinal bug, but pills seem to have taken care of that.

Pilgrimages are about what God wants, not what you want. Of course, life is like that anyway, but it's even more so on a pilgrimage. Work was done on me, and I'm still processing it all. I had a great time...

martha

In the month of July, I will only be home for 8 full days.

Not that I'm complaining.

Next Wednesday I leave for a week and a half in India. After 20 hours in the air, I'll get to Mumbai late Thursday night. I'm spending Friday at Elephanta Caves, then Saturday, I motor off to a week at the Meher Baba Pilgrim Retreat. I've saved for several years to do this. Usually we sell stock to travel, but this one I saved for. I get back home on July 6....

martha

Steve was telling me about this dream he had the other night. We were riding on his oldest BMW (the one in my avatar) at night, heading through San Francisco, the engine putting along. Then we started to go down a hill, and the engine started to cut out in an odd way. He woke up and realized that the rhythm of my snoring had changed. Yes, my snoring was the sound of the engine, both smooth and rough.

martha

Friday morning Steve, Kim, and I went down to the old El Toro Marine Base, soon to be known as the Great Park. They have this giant orange tethered balloon there, and for now, it's a free ride. I wore my power bracelets, which was a good idea. There was a breeze and the balloon was moving quite a bit in the wind. The pilot flips the switch, and the tether gently allows the balloon (filled 80% with helium) to rise 500 feet into the air. He flips another switch and the balloon gently sinks back...

martha

Here are some pictures of my beloved dog and cat.

martha

This is me in front of a possible replica of the Little House on the Prairie. Those in the know think this is pretty much where it was and what it looked like. It was so damn hot and sticky that day.



This is me in front of Laura Ingalls Wilder's home in Mansfield, Missouri. This is where she wrote...

martha

I'm exhausted, but safely home. You may read more about it all, but I'm not so good with follow-up entries. I'll post a few self-portraits later. Maybe that'll get me to write. Steve leaves for Sturgis early Saturday morning. He'll be gone for about a week and a half.

martha

Here I am in CO. I have to admit it's one of my least favorite states. I'll spare you the insulting reasons lest I offend anyone. I did get to go through the giant tunnel at 11,000 feet on I-70. My little car was very unhappy with the whole climbing thing. It's only a four-cylinder.

I went back through Missouri after Bloomington and had a lot of fun looking at Lewis and Clark sites. Fucking Missouri has spiders that build webs across paths at face level. I was...

martha

I'm here in Bloomington on Steve's uncle's 'puter. I'll have to make it quick. We're having fun visiting family until Saturday morning. Steve'll head home on a plane, and I'll head out in the car.

Zonester, I'll call you.

martha

Here we are in Dayton. I picked up Steve in Indianapolis on Friday, and we drove to Dayton. (Zoner, no offense, but the Indy airport is pretty lame. ) Before I went to Indy, though, I did indeed visit Cahokia Mounds. It was a very cool place (but the temp was about 1 bazillion degrees). I also visited the Lewis and Clark site near Wood River. It's near where they actually started out. The actual place is under water due to shifts in the river's course. The weather that day was unreal....

martha

Caseyville, Illinois that is. I know it's Caseyville cos I asked the check-in girl.

I vitisted the Arch in St. Louis today. It's way cool. The Museum of Western Expansion was ok. I was most interested in the Lewis and Clark stuff, and that exhibit was decent. The rest of it was a lot of empty space and a few artifacts. And four, count 'em FOUR moving mannequins talking about stuff. This morning I visited Meramec Caverns and took a boat ride on the Meramec River. That...

martha

Who knew the Comfort Inn in Sullivan, Missouri had internet.

Anyway, I visited Laura Ingalls Wilder's farm today. Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield Missouri. It was wonderful! I've been wanting to get there for years, and this unexpected trip to Indiana got me there. She lived there for forty or fifty years, I think, and wrote all of the Little House books there. Yesterday I visited the site of the Little House on the Prairie near Independence, Kansas. Both of these places...

martha

Steve and I spent Monday and Tuesday in San Diego for our eighteenth wedding anniversary. We planned our visit around seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls at the San Diego Natural History Museum. We stayed in a wonderful bed-and-breakfast style place called the Balboa Park Inn. Really first rate. Expensive, but how many other times will we be married for 18 years?

The Dead Sea Scrolls were amazing. They were displayed beautifully, with context and translations just above each Scroll....

martha