Utah State House-September 30, 2011

I say it every month: where did this month go? We have decided to stay here a little longer. It's a nice park and we are waiting on it to cool off a bit before we head south. Today, after discovering a leak under the sink, we visited a local hardware store. We love to shop in local grocery stores and hardware stores in little tiny towns off the beaten path. Both say a lot about the people who live in that town. Before we returned to the coach, we stopped at a museum which is the old state house for the Utah Territory. Brigham Young picked the spot and ordered the captitol built in this town of Fillmore. He had applied to Congress for a huge territory called Deseret. It was denied and he was given a smaller territory named Utah after the Ute Indians. A preservation group has restored the building as best they can but 160+ years of all sorts of weather has taken its toll. The upstairs room is still in tact just as it was when the Utah State Legislature used it before SLC became the capitol. The other two floors are filled with fabulous old pictures and lots of memorabilia. One room is devoted to the Huntsman family. There were all sorts of awards given to Jon Huntsman, Jr. He is the same guy who is running for president. His great grandfather was one of the founding Mormons of this state. All in all, it was a very interesting stop and we are glad we took the time to go inside. Bless people who are trying to save history for future generations. Then we came back and repaired the leak. Jerry was standing at the door while I was putting clothes in the washer. He yelled, "We have a rat out here!". That's one way to see me break land speed records getting to the door. However, it was not a rat. It was a tiny little 6 month old teacup chihuahua named Tinkerbell. Her parents were out there, too. We went out to meet them. Adorable little rats they are indeed. Jerry picked up Tinker and when he went to put her back down, she grabbed hold of his hand with her tiny little paws and wouldn't let go. It was just too cute. However, we don't want a "rat" traveling with us. It was a fun day. 

Fillmore, UT-September 29, 2011

If you don't know where Fillmore, UT is, don't worry. We just stumbled upon it. It's a tiny town. It's a small park run by a very nice lady whose husband passed away in December of last year. She is closing it and asked if we wanted to buy the park. Don't think so although we do like it. And we really like her. The ride out of SLC was just awful. There's not one inch of space on the either side of the interstate that's not a gigantic gravel pit or a cement factory (or whatever they are correctly called). Then there are "zillions" of refineries. The air is so nasty that by this morning we knew we were going to be very sick if we did not get out of there. This coach sounded like a TB ward in a hospital. The interstate was so discombobulated it was horrible. We were actually thinking Idaho did not look so bad after about 2 hours on I-15. As has been our case during most of this trip, we have been divinely lead to some out of the way places which allowed us to meet some good people. The highlight of the dirty trip today was a farm of lavendar out in the middle of nowhere. I've only seen pictures of it. And it is not normally grown in the United States but they sure had a bumper crop growing. It was pretty but it was not in full bloom yet. I'd love to see it then, but we are not coming back this way if the "good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise". There is so much construction on all of the interstates in Utah that we are convinced they have a very powerful Senator and he has called in all of his chips. No state can afford this kind of construction without great assistance. We also drove through miles of absolutely desolate, dry, barren land that caused us to ask what state in its right mind would want to claim it. We might stay here a couple of days. Hopefully our next stop will be over the state line.
We survived a tough day and are happy to be in a nice place. Altitude: 5200 ft. You know we love that!

Dirty air-September 27, 2011

We started out this morning to see the Bingham Mine. After an endless detour, we got to a point on the road up the side of a mountain where they had pulled a huge chain link gate across it with a note that said "closed". No reason, just closed. So, we wandered around all of the mining area (gold, silver and copper). I wanted to see as much of the Great Salt Lake as I could. The gift shop there was closed also. We're not doing well at this point, are we? We stopped at a pull off to take pictures of the lake. The pollution was so bad that the lake as huge as it is, was barely visible. What a disappointment. I took a picture and it is dreadful. The mining industry is huge here and very obviously a major part of the economy, so no one is going to try to stop it because of a problem with pollution. But at some point, residents have to come to understand you cannot live as long a life while breathing air that is constantly laden with particulates. I feel sorry for the kids. The huge industrial buildings are the largest we have ever seen. No doubt they contribute to the lack of clean air, too. Just being outside makes you want to run inside and shower. The air here is dirtier than Denver's air was a few years ago when they were second only to Los Angeles. So some of you know what I mean. Our last stop was at The Gateway, a tiny shopping and living complex in downtown SLC where we had lunch. Now we're inside breathing cleaner air.               Happy Birthday, Derrick!

Sweet's Candy and LDS Temple Square-September 26, 2011

What an interesting day this was. First we easily found Sweet's Candy Company. All of you have had Sweet's products but may not be aware who made it. They've been in business since 1892. I did business with them when I had my own candy store. It was great to see it and all of their new products. We had wanted to tour the plant, but it closed last Friday until Oct. 15th. Just our luck. We had to settle for shopping in the store. Oh, yummy. After a shot of sugar, we headed downtown to the LDS Temple Square and City Center. As we do in all cities we walked the streets. What better way to see a city than to walk the streets. There is so much construction going on in downtown SLC, it was difficult to walk from one street to another. Not street construction, but building construction. What in town is not sparkling and new will be in another 6 months. Temple Square itself was really very nice. It is as clean as it can be. It is shady and cool. The flowers are beautiful. The spires on the buildings are quite impressive indeed. It was actually a treat to see it. Since it is still summer here, it was a pretty hot walk, but we enjoyed the exercise anyway. We stopped at a Five Guys burger restaurant for lunch. It has been highly recommended to us but today was our first trip there. I am not a red meat eater, but I can tell you I enjoyed every bite of that little cheeseburger. It was absolutely delicious. We are back now and planning tomorrow's excursion. It is a treat to be here, but do we have to see it again? No, we don't. It's dusty, dirty, hot and dry. We must hunt for cooler weather.

Salt Lake City, UT-September 24, 2011

We are so happy to be out of Idaho. However, we had no idea we would go from great autumn weather to pretty intense summer heat in such a short time frame. We are hoping that the nights cool off a lot. We'll know shortly. I said today that if I closed my eyes and somebody described for me what the scenery we saw today looked like I would not have pictured what we saw. It was so diverse, so different and almost odd compared to the beauty we have seen on this trip. I got a quick glimpse of the Great Salt Lake on our way in. I am sure I am the only person alive who has not see that lake. So, I am thrilled to be here. We will take in the usual tourist sites and then we will do our own thing. In Montana the aspen trees were just starting to turn gold. In Idaho the trees were red. There are not many trees here, only humongous power lines. They are everywhere. There are far fewer visible rivers. Montana is just full of rivers. Of course I guess that huge lake makes up for the lack of rivers. We have gone from wide open spaces to being crunched in on all sides by houses. There are houses, big ones, in every available spot of land, all the way up the mountains as high as they can go. Of course mountains here are very different from Montana also. They are very short and round. Mountains elsewhere are more pointed which means they are newer.  I guess I have to face it, it's just a different part of the world. The traffic is insane, too. Maybe I'm going to end up being a wide open spaces kind of girl. We did meet a very nice couple today and we exchanged email addresses. That's a first for us. They are going to Las Vegas and then to winter in Tuscon. She told us about the park and invited us to check it out. You just never know about us. We might do it. And we might not. Nothing is carved in stone for us. That's one of the great parts about this lifestyle.

Idaho Falls, ID-September 23, 2011

We waited until 2:00 yesterday for our mail to arrive. Note I did not say waited patiently. By then it was too late to leave, so we finally got on the road this morning. When we got to the Idaho border, it was as if someone closed the door on beautiful scenery and we were left standing in the middle of an empty football stadium with dead grass. The mountains went away except in the very far distance. We have dropped down to about 2800 feet in altitude, from 6800 feet at the Montana border. We like higher elevations. We have vowed to each other to never stay in Idaho again. We will only pass through going to a nice state. Approximately 25 years ago, I stated that Idaho drivers are the worst in the country. Nothing has changed in all those years except there are more of them. Thankfully the people at Walgreen's were nice and we were able to get a prescription filled. We are counting the hours til we can leave in the morning. We will get into Utah tomorrow which will be our 18th state on this journey. Fun!
WE MISS MONTANA!!

Downtown Dillon_September 21, 2011

We are still waiting on our mail to arrive from Orange Beach. It was such a pretty day, we decided to walk to downtown Dillon. It was a decent walk but perhaps a little longer than we thought it would be. We enjoyed the fresh air although there is something out there that drives my sinsuses to distraction. We were actually on a quest to find Montana honey. We found it at an IGA store that must have been open for a century. It was something to see. We also went in search of the post office which was a bit more of a challenge since the address online is not where it is. But we found it, too. By the time we got back here we were tired. So we just spent time cleaning house. It was yet another fun day. Just exploring new territory makes for a wonderful day. Hopefully our mail will arrive in the morning so we can move on down the road. We are ready for new territory.

A Step Back in Time-September 20, 2011

After calling to have our mail sent here, we went exploring. We went to Twin Bridges, Alder Gulch, Nevada City, Ruby Dam and Virginia City. If we went through that many places in one day, you may assume that they are not huge cities. In fact, they are mainly old gold mining towns. Nevada City is just as it was in 1863, completely untouched. I'm again at the point of not being able to think of enough words to describe anything we saw today. The houses those people lived in during the gold rush were so small and had no insulation. I do not know how they stood the cold. Right outside of Nevada City were gigantic piles of rocks, on both sides of the road. We stopped to read one of those historical markers and discovered that those were tailings from gold mining. I cannot imagine how hard it would have been dig those huge rocks out without our modern machinery. But they did it and they got rich with the gold. Virginia City still has the original buildings but they are more modern stores now. Some are closed for the season. A few have been permanently sealed with the original furnishings inside, so you have to peep in the windows. It was something to see and something we will remember for a long, long time. Coming back we saw potatoes being dug. The huge trucks coming out of the field were loaded to the hilt. This is the first potato growing operation we have seen so far. Today we saw herds and herds of deer, also a first so far. That means we are truly in the land "where the deer and the antelope play".

What are the odds?-September 19, 2011

We decided to spend today, a windy day, browsing through the little town of Dillon. Our first stop was at the University of Montana Western art museum. There was no receptionist to greet us, so we started walking toward the only open door we could see. There was a huge construction job going on. When a guy who is very near our ages came out of that location we thought he was a worker. He was not. But he just started talking to us and before we realized it, he said he was from Orange Beach. His sister in law still lives in Foley. He is one of those people who has actually been to both the old LuLu's and the newer location. He has eaten LA caviar. I ask you what are the odds we would encounter this guy in a small town in Montana and on a college campus to boot? He owned a tackle shop on the coast. Now he is a fly fisherman guide in the summer and a college student in the winter. He said there's not much else to do in the winter, so he and his wife both go to the University. We had such a great conversation. We never asked his name. That seems to be the way things are best handled. After he gave us a tour of the art museum we each went our separate ways. We went to several places down town and just browsed. The shops here are so different from what we are used to that we enjoy just looking. Besides it's good exercise. The rain that was predicted did not materialize today, but the cold air appears to be moving in. We will only stay a couple more days unless the heat returns.

Ghost Town-September 17, 2011

It was a beautiful day today, about 65°, bright blue Big Sky, slight breeze. It was a perfect day to explore a ghost town in Bannack State Park. What an adventure that was. For the most part the city is just as it was during the gold rush. Some buildings are in disrepair so a group of people are working to save the buildings. We climbed all over hills and went into houses, each with a great story. The Meade Hotel is supposedly haunted by a 14 year old girl named Dorothy. She was wearing a blue dress when she drowned. She roams the hotel and at dusk can be seen in the upstairs window. The park ranger said she has not seen Dorothy but she knows when a cold spot appears in the hotel. I really don't believe in that stuff, but it is a great story that adds to the legend of Bannack. NBC filmed a story there about 3 years ago. We did not see it. We went into every room in that hotel on both floors and we felt no cold spots nor did Dorothy greet us. That's probably a good thing. The history is rich in Bannack and we suspect if the walls could talk, there would be quite a story to tell. We had such a good time. Then we capped it off with dinner at Sparky's in downtown Dillon. It is hard to describe but if I tell you that the napkins are those red shop rags that mechanics use, can you imagine the theme? It was great fun and the food was fabulous. We will eat there again before we leave here. Oh, we also lucked upon a farmer's market in Dillon this morning. Yummy. Fresh apples. I hope your Sunday is very restful. We are planning a day of rest also.

Dillon, Montana-September 16, 2011

Today is the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Ivan. We will never forget it. But, we are in beautiful Dillon, Montana. It was cloudy when we arrived but the Big Sky blue is showing through. The wind is kicking up. It's part of Montana apparently. We crossed the continental divide today at 6393 ft in altitude. Our next coach will be a 400 hp Cummings!! Pardon me for a blonde moment but when we went across the Rockies, I realized why they are called that. They are just a bunch of piled up rocks! But the 6 or 7 mountain ranges we crossed today are sweeping vistas of beautiful open land for as far as the eye can see or at least to the edge of the foothills which are massive distances away for the road on both sides. We went through an area of evergreen trees that are so green they are black. It's an amazing sight. Not a single inch of useful land is wasted. There are gigantic hay fields for as far as one can see and up and across the foothills. I simply cannot describe what a sight it is. We are used to hay fields being flat, but these roll with the conture of the land. It is just breathtaking to round a bend or crest a foothill and see all that wonderful green laid out in front of you. The farmers apparently draw their irrigation water directly from the river. They are watering voluminous amounts of water. It reminded us of all the parched areas of the country we have already seen. I have struggled for words to describe all this beauty. I am out of words, but for one..........unimaginable. We did speak with a really nice man while fueling up this morning. He lives in Montana. I asked how the state functions without sales tax. Property tax. Ah-ha. He said all of those massive houses we saw yesterday belong to corporations out of state. Ah-ha again. The ordinary people live in little houses and pay through the nose for the privilege. Ah-ha again. We saw those houses in town so we understand what he is saying. I so wish I had a way to share this with you. We just love it.

Yellowstone Park-September 15, 2011

We put 240+ miles on the Cute Red Vehicle today, roaming around Yellowstone. The last time we were there, many years ago, we went in through the south entrance. Today we took the north entrance. It was spectacular to say the least. The park has been greatly improved. There are still thousands and thousands of dead trees from the big fire in 1988. Pine trees are starting to fill in the spaces, but they have left the burned ones standing. The change in elevation is fun, from about 4900 ft to 8869 ft at the top. The air is thin up there but it surely is clean! We made it a point to see Old Faithful which is not so faithful anymore. The park ranger said it should go off between 3:06 and 3:26 PM with a 10 minute window either way and a 10% chance it would not erupt at all. Good grief, what has happened to that geyser? It did erupt at 3:11 PM and it lasted for about 3 1/2 minutes. It's as wonderful to see as ever. We did have to stop for a herd of buffalo (or are they bison?) on our way to the pinnacle. They are slow and stubborn. They are also very healthy and big. We took lots of pictures. It was a tiring drive but nice. The weather was perfect after another night of terrible wind. We have been stunned at the number of houses outside the city of Livingston. They are scattered all over the foothills and they are, for the most part, pretty impressive houses. We remain in awe of the Yellowstone River. It is just gorgeous. We have not decided where we are going next even though we leave tomorrow. We will stay in Montana a little longer. It's too pretty to leave yet. Oh I cannot forget. There's no sales tax on anything in Montana. We knew that. That's why we incorporated here, but the impact of that is still surprising. When you go to the grocery store and spend $20, that's the total. No tax. That's a treat when you are from an area of 10-11% sales tax on everything.

Chilly weather-September 14, 2011

It turned chilly and very windy last night here at the park. As is true with all canyons, the wind increases as it tries to force itself down the narrow opening of the canyon. So, we had to keep that in mind in order to sleep. It was so overcast this morning we decided not to go to Yellowstone. We did not want the clouds to obstruct our view of the mountains. We'll go tomorrow. Instead today we went to the town of Livingston. It was not windy there. We walked up and down the streets and in and out of one shop after another. It's a very art oriented community. It goes without saying the art is western and not beach type things that we are used to. It's fun to see the difference. While in town we were able to see the tops of some of the mountains we missed driving here. They are very nice indeed. It was in the 40s today, a tad cooler than we wanted to deal with, but it is supposed to be back in the 80s by Friday. We are talking about what we want to do after this stop. It is really nice here and it would be fun to be lazy here. But you can't see the country sitting still.

Livingston, MT-September 13, 2011

I ran out of adjectives today. And I wore out the phrase "Oh my goodness!". The farms are massive. They go for miles and miles. The prairie grass is so light brown it has a golden color. And the green crops, especially the alfalfa, are so green, there's not even a crayon that color of green. We rode the entire day beside the Yellowstone River. It's a river you see in movies. Unlike the moody, muddy Mississippi, this river is crystal clear with a greenish tint. It meanders slowly except in a few spots you see rapids. It's just gorgeous. We saw our first field of pinto beans in Montana that had just been cut. The herds of antelope are much larger as well as the herds of cattle. Again today that pesky haze covered the mountains which was a real disappointment to us. We could barely see some old snow on the tops of a few of them. We found out when we spoke to the owner of this park that the haze is from smoke, but we don't understand where it is coming from. We'll have to do more research. She said it cleared up yesterday afternoon but then rolled back in this morning. There must be some fires close to here. The air is still clear so the quality has not been affected. We'll go into town shortly to explore what's there. It's just so pretty here we really only want to sit by the river and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Billings, MT-September 12, 2011

We made it to Montana! The landscape north of Buffalo was so beautiful. If I said "Oh my goodness" once today, I said it at least two dozen times. We would go around curves or drop down into a valley and we would both be speechless. Literally. Total silence in the coach. There's lots of farmland here so in between those buttes you see fields of alfalfa, corn or wheat for as far as the eye can see. We even saw fields of sugarbeets. The only bad part about today was the ugly haze hanging over the mountains. We knew they were on the west side of the interstate but we could not see them. It certainly is not because of humidity or smoke so we're not sure what caused it. This is not at all what I thought it would be because of all of the farmland. I thought it would just be prairie grass. We saw hundreds (not getting carried away at all) of antelope and cattle and a few horses. The rivers are not like the Mississippi, but really pretty nevertheless. It is really hot here and that caught us completely off guard. We did stop at the Little Big Horn Battlefield. It used to be known as Custer's Battlefield or Custer's Last Stand. If I tell you what we saw it will become political and I promised this blog would not be political. I will just say it was emotional and I'm sure glad we stopped. We will stay here only one night and then stay in Livingston for several days. All in all it was a very nice day looking at the "embroidery of the earth".

Museum-September 10, 2011

We went through the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum today, in downtown Buffalo. It was extremely interesting. Mr. Gatchell was a founding father of this city. He was also a pharmacist. Someone in that museum has done an incredible amount of work putting all of those displays together. They started out with just a few artifacts and it has grown to over 10,000 pieces of fascinating history. I will have to admit that the history of this area is just as interesting as the history of Colorado. Those early pioneers were hardier people than any of us. Neither of us is normally very fond of going through local museums, but we are glad we went through this one. It was very informative. We both feel a real attachment to this little city for some reason. We think it could become our permanent residence aka our garage address. However, we have to do much research before making that decision. We decided early this morning to stay at least one more day. And since tomorrow is Sunday we will use it as a day of rest. I hope you can do the same.

Buffalo, WY-September 9, 2011

Before I tell you about our trip today, I want to comment on the spelling of Caspar, WY. Half the people spell it PAR, the rest spell PER. The city has a monument that says Caspar, but the high school is Casper. I choose to use Caspar because the city itself uses that. You can take your pick. Our trip today was into territory neither of us has ever seen. There were miles and miles of rolling hills and no trees. The only living creatures were cattle and antelope. Oh dear, no deer. It was desolate but hauntingly beautiful. We passed through one area of limestone outcroppings that were very pretty. Then we came to an area of huge foothills that were covered with black evergreen trees. They were not burned, they were alive and black. Quite a sight to see. Behind those foothills were mountains with a little snow on top. The sky was crystal blue with those feathery ice crystal clouds. And it was windy. At one point two planes crossed each other's path leaving their contrails behind. They looked like a big "X", but as we drove further north, it turned into a cross. Beautiful! We were astonished at the massive amount of interstate road work being done in this part of Wyoming. Why? Huge cities with big volumes of cars are not doing anything. But this part of the country with not much traffic is doing major work on an already decent interstate. I can't explain it. And part of the interstate was covered with red asphalt. Yes, RED. Can't explain that either. Then we arrived at this park in Buffalo. We already do not want to leave. It's so pretty and has wild turkeys and deer that roam around the park. We did go to downtown Buffalo and had a blast with everybody we met. We went into the Occidental Hotel and just gawked at the furnishings. It is just as it was in the late 1800s. It was something to see. This is a really neat place. And the weather defies description. We don't even want to be inside. We just want to walk around. And we have. So sorry I can't share this with all of you! It's heavenly.

Bar Nunn, Wyoming-September 8, 2011

We finally made our exit out of Colorado today, without the much needed UPS package from Orange Beach. It took us a very long time to get everything that used to be routine done, so we only made it to just outside of Caspar, WY. Caspar is nothing to crow about, but the scenery between where we left and where we are now was so diverse, it would be really hard to describe it. We drove along gorges in the earth that clearly show how huge rivers ran wild when the earth was being formed. We saw unique rock formations that varied from pink to black. We were in places where the only trees were by the river. Note: that's where the early pioneers knew to build their homes, under the trees because they were always beside water. We drove for miles and miles where only brown prairie grass grew and the landscape was overstuffed with power lines. Not a pretty sight, but necessary to existence. Caspar is an oil town. In fact most of this part of Wyoming exists only because of the oil industry. I am not complaining in any way. We were happy to get the last spot in this RV park, but we have no desire to stay here again. We have all of the windows open and are enjoying the wonderful breeze that's blowing in. There are warnings about high winds in this area so we have no awnings out. That's fine. We are only here for the night. We have vascilated between going to Montana where neither of us has ever been or back to our favorite place of all, Rapid City, South Dakota. We have to make the decision tonight. So, tuned in tomorrow to see where we end up. This weather is just wonderful. I know if I could bottle it I could sell it and get rich!

Delayed-September 7, 2011

We were originally going to leave today and head north. We are still here. Blame it on UPS. Seriously. We called last week for our mail. It was guaranteed delivery by yesterday. Today I found out when it got to Commerce City, Colorado, somebody sent it back to Salina, Kansas and from there it went back to Dallas, TX. What on earth??? There is absolutely nothing we can do but sit here and wait or leave checks with Derrick to pay our bills when the package decides to get here. We are not comfortable with our "stuff" roaming around the country without us, but it's out of our hands. At least we get our shipping charges refunded to us. It has rained all day long, so perhaps we needed to stay here and not overwork ourselves. We did run some errands which we needed to do and it was pleasant being out in the cool rain. I think it was only in the mid 50s today. Very nice indeed. Hopefully within a day or two the travel log blog will begin again in earnest.

Estes Park, CO-September 4, 2011

We went to Estes Park this morning. It reminds me a lot of Gatlinburg, TN but it's much, much older and in need of a facelift. We did not really go to buy anything. It was just a peaceful getaway. However, we were unaware of an arts and crafts festival that was taking place there. You couldn't stir the people with a stick. It was like a herd of hungry cattle fighting for fresh grain. We did find a unique store we had never been in before, so now we have a reason to go back. The weater in Estes was just gorgeous. 65°, sunshine, cool breeze, clear skies but oh my goodness so many humans buzzing around. The weather here really cooled off last night. It was 59° in this coach when we woke up this morning. Derrick's house was not quite that cool. But once the sun was up and shining, it was great weather. I'm not sure the pomegranate tree is a happy camper. But it should still survive. Night before last was a very windy night. It would be a tropical storm or perhaps a hurricane if it were on the coast. But because there's no moisture in the wind, it can howl very loud and long without damage. It does cause a restless night's sleep, however. All of the canning is done for the season and the Harley Davidson drapes are done and hanging up. Yippee!! Wednesday is departure day. We are looking forward to being out and about again. For my friends, in the path of TS Lee, you're in my prayers. Hang in there!

Unique card-September 1, 2011

September already? Before I tell you about the card, I want to share that Colorado just had its hottest August on record. The average daily high temp was 77°. That's really tough, isn't it? The rest of the country is baking and it was hot here at 77°. We were glad we were here for all that heat! Ok, the card. I will be the first to admit that when you are traveling around in your home on wheels and towing your only car behind you, "together" time becomes constant. So, shopping for a surprise for the other person is difficult at best. So, on my birthday, I was actually surprised to receive a card from Jerry. I did not pay attention to the fact it was in a red envelope. When I opened it, I did notice the print was in red and green and there were polar bears on it.  But what caught my eye was a piece of masking tape across part of the card. On the tape was written Happy Birthday. The sentiment was sweet and appropriate for a birthday. When I peeled the tape back the words said Merry Christmas. By this time I was completely overcome with laughter. Jerry had bought a Christmas card that he was not able to give me on time, so being faced with the inability to go shopping, he used that card. It was a riot. The best part of any day is laughter, so I got my fair share that day. I will give him an A+ for creativity. And it is a card I will keep in spite of the fact he asked for it back so he can give it to me this Christmas. Funny boy.