DRIVING OVER THE STATE LINE

Driving from Ohio to Pennsylvania is easy.

Definitely not like crossing the Texas state line.

While visiting up North in August,

we carved out one afternoon to visit cousins

in Pennsylvania.

Nice drive - only took us about an hour.

Well, if we hadn't stopped a couple of times,

we would have been there in a little over an hour.

But we stopped at Peggy Gray Candies.

And then to my parents' grave.

And then we drove around my old town.

THEN we arrived at our final destination.

My cousin Jimmy and his wife Lois.

Visited at their beautiful home and reminisced.

I love talking about the growing-up years

and all the relatives!!!

They wrote a nice check for my son

(hence this thank you card)

and shared some old photos with us.

Jimmy showed us a chair he was re-caning.

His daughter found it on the side of the road

and brought it to him.

It was a mess!

He tore out the broken cane seat

and threw it in the wastebasket.

Doesn't he know NOTHING gets thrown away?

LOL.

I asked him if I could have it

to possibly use in my art.

Mind you, what was in the trash

was the size of a chair seat.

And we had to get on an airplane to get home.

It was larger than my suitcase!

Didn't think to ask him for scissors to cut it down

but my daughter-in-law helped out.

Stuffed that seat into a gallon-size plastic bag

and put it in my suitcase.

NOW - what to do with it, right?

Once I dug through their trash,

they treated us to lunch.

Nice conversation around the table

before heading back to their place.

So what did I do with the caning?

See for yourself.

See?

One man's trash ...

Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts

for your healthy donation, Jimmy and Lois.

And thank you for the wonderful visit, the chair seat,

lunch and for leaving balloons at the folks' grave.

I love you!