Thursday, April 8, 2010

Cleveland to Effingham, IL, to Kansas City

We arrived in Effington yesterday, after about 8 hours at 4:30 or so we thought, settled in a Hampton Inn, watched Tiger on the Masters, had some mannies, and ended up going to the Lonestar Steakhouse for dinner. It was actually good, as I had a burger with mushrooms and cheese, and Evie had chicken tortilla soup, which was quite good. We talked with a guy who travels all over for Westfield Insurance in Medina, which virtually owns the town of Westfield. We realized after eating that we were an hour ahead, so was earlier in the evening then we thought. We watched tv for awhile, went to bed, and fortunately, I slept in until 6:15, central time. The hotel had a great breakfast bar; we took our times, something we don’t usually do, and didn’t leave till about 9:00 because we didn’t want to get to Tom’s till about 3:00, just in time to meet the kids from their school bus. Ellen called as we were driving; they too were on the road, heading to Linda’s for her birthday. Jeannie valled, and we set up a time for her coming over on Sunday. And Tom called, said we would eat at 6:00 and then head off to Nick’s b. The weather has been great today, sunny and warm, and we expect it will be in the 70’s for the entire weekend, great for playing with the kids. For some reason, this ride to KC is not very interesting, perhaps because we are on highways the entire way, or perhaps it’s the flatness and sameness of the terrain, with one sprawl after another interspersed with some woods or farms. We arrived about 3:30, in time to meet Nick and Marlena from the bus. We ended up playing outside, Evie teaching the kids how to play four square, and Marlena loved it. We had salmon for dinner, a good salad, and headed to Independence to watch Nicolas play basket ball. His time finally won a game with me there; they played a much bigger but less skilled team. Nick hit a three pointer, which was nice to see, and he plays with a nice group of kids. Bret, his coach, is a dedicated basketball aholiic, or so it seems. He spends an inordinate amount of time practicing and playing. Tommy said they play up to 120 games a year, which is amazing for kids that young.

No comments:

Post a Comment