May 19

Oh, boy! Today has been as if we are traveling with a celebrity! It started at breakfast when our hosts, Micheal and Brenda McTigue brought a chocolate muffin to the breakfast table, adorned with a flaming candle and singing "Happy Birthday" as they carried it in. The Brits at the next table, John and Lynn Robinson, joined in. Brenda and Micheal were even thoughtful enough to get Mother a birthday card, and Martha added one, too. I added a card with a St. Brigid's pin on it, and Sara surprised Mom with a birthday card from Birch Holden, her schoolmate from Washington, IA. He had mailed the card to Sara just in time for her to bring on the trip and give to Mom on this day. Wasn’t that thoughtful?

It was a jolly moment, and we all enjoyed it. We sat a bit longer at breakfast and enjoyed conversation with Lynn and John. They are such entertaining people and, after just one breakfast with them the day before, we felt at ease with them and shared our adventures so far, our plans for today and funny stories. When we were talking about using GPS devices to find your way, Lynn told a particularly funny story about John and his colleagues, who are engineers that were consulting in Boston on the “Big Dig” (subway installation.) In their navigation of the underground works, they had trouble getting oriented and made five circuits past their intended stopping point before getting to the right entrance!

After breakfast, we packed up our bags and tackled the daunting task of getting them all in the car with the wheelchair and box. John gave us a hand (actually, he sort of watched and encouraged us and asked if he could bring his bag of laundry out to stick in there, too.) We had a brainstorm the night before which proved to be a workable plan, and everything went in the back area just fine. The solution was to put the wheelchair (in the box) on top of all the luggage. We had only to sacrifice the third row of seats and put three passengers in the middle seat and two in the front (Mom and the driver.)