Visiting with the Perkins'

As planned - we left Lincoln this morning and had a nice drive to North Platte where we arrived around 2:00 PM. After setting up at the Campground we unhooked the car and drove the few miles out to Uncle Junior and Aunt Velma's place just west of town. If you know what barn you are looking for you can see their place from the interstate. As a bonus we also got to visit with Peggy's cousin Tom whom she hasn't seen in many years. Tom lives in Denver but happened to be in North Platte attending an annual gathering of his deaf friends that meet once a year here in North Platte. The group of deaf folks just happen to be meeting and camping at the campground where we are staying so Tom invited us to their ice cream social this evening (Junior and Velma came along too!).

It was an interesting time as Tom, who has been mostly deaf all his life and is totally deaf now, introduced us to his friends. Tom can read lips very well so was able to help us communicate with his friends - mostly through sign language. We had a great time and it was great to have the opportunity to see Tom, Junior, and Velma again. I will say that this was the quietest gathering of about a hundred or so people I have ever been to. Seemed like a fun bunch though - they have a really tight organization that has been meeting/camping together like this for 25 years! Marcie - I wish you would have been here - you would have really enjoyed trying out your ASL skills!

We did manage to do a little grocery shopping today so we are set for most of the rest of the trip to CA. We put laundry off till tomorrow. Tomorrow we are off to Wyoming - probably near Rawlins, WY. As I recall we had a pretty interesting time in Rawlins last year with some really high winds - we'll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

For those of you who have checked out our son Brian's Blog - you know that our daughter-in-law Nicole has been hospitatized for the last few days with a bout of pancreatitis. We were really glad to hear that she made it home today and is continuing to get back to normal. We're looking forward to seeing that whole NJ gang (and our Maine Gang) out in CA in a few weeks.