Road trip

I've been on the road lately. Don and I left Friday AM for Galena IL, a picturesque little riverboat town on the Galena River in NW Illinois that I've been wanting to visit for sometime. Halfway there, I remembered that I'd left the camera at home so--no pix. Sorry. Anyway, we spent the afternoon there wandering about the shops and took a trolley ride all over the town. I didn't know that it was the home of President Grant! Unfortunately, we were there too late to tour his home--next time, maybe. There are some spectacular examples of late Victorian era architecture--gingerbread overload! The shops were filled with very nice crafty products. I spent some $ at the wine store (The best wine I sampled turned out to be, you guessed it, the most expensive on this list!) and Don spent some at the "Canning Company" on salsa and BBQ sauce. We stopped by the Phat Quarters temp shop and I was a bit disappointed. Last week, apparently, there had been a massive rainfall--20" overnight!--that swelled the Galena River and did some nasty flooding in part of the downtown, including the Phat Quarter shop. So they had piled their stuff into a temp shop higher up until the other shop got cleaned up. Thank goodness they were able to salvage at least some of their goods.


On Saturday, we headed to Peoria, Don's home town, for the annual family reunion. I haven't attended for over 15 years and I really enjoyed being back there. The same people--and more--were there, except for those who have passed on their way, and I missed seeing them. We had some good food and good visiting as well. It was waaaay too hot for the annual softball game so the festivities ended sooner than usual. Every year, we have an money-raising auction of things that each family donates. This is how we pay for the food, park rental, and supplies. I compiled a basket of Wisconsin foods, particularly from my area of the state, and it was very well received (meaning, a lot of people wanted it so they bid a lot of money for it :) ) We always include a bottle of local maple syrup, pancake mix and honey and this year I added cranberries, wild rice, some steak sauce and mustard, and jam from my kitchen. I would have put in some cheese curds, brats, and local beer, but refrigeration is a challenge. Darn it anyhow!

After the reunion, we headed north and spent the night in Janesville and today we finished the trip and came home. We stuck to the interstate all the way and I saw that there were blue astors blooming with some other kind of yellow flower and the white Queen Anne's Lace. I think it's time I made a blue-yellow-white kind of quilt, don't you? Now, Don has the lawn to mow, and I have some work in the garden to tend to. Then a quiet evening.

I really love traveling, but I like getting back into my own house where I feel the most comfortable. Now I'm home until Thursday when I head to the Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show for 2 days. Can't wait for that--and I'm going to take the camera on this trip for sure!