Saturday, July 3, 2021

On the last stretch of our trip

Well, here we are in Bartlett, IL. It is Saturday eve, July 3rd. Fireworks are going off here and there in the distance. We have had a nice day with family here, and it started with Bartlett's Fourth of July Parade, which started just a few blocks from Maggie and Jerry's house at 10a.m. We walked to a corner where we could watch and got there about 10:20a.m., so we missed some of it, but we saw a lot. It was very homey. No marching bands. Just a few modest floats. Lots of groups of people doing various things. One of my favorites was this group of Hispanic women dancing:

Spanish dancers in the 4th of July parade

Here's a couple more:

Bakery float

This seems to have a Neptune theme, but I'm not sure why

At about noon, members of the family arrived for lunch: Peter and Lori (it was Lori's birthday), Becky, Daniel, and Suzie in Everett, WA via Portal. It was like she was there with us. We had pizza and chocolate birthday cake. Unfortunately, I COMPLETELY forgot to take pictures! Oh well!  We hadn't seen Peter and Lori since 2019. But it didn't seem that way. We just had a good time as usual. 

Friday, we drove from Rock Valley, IA to Bartlett. We came across northern Iowa on Rte. 18 to Mason City, then worked our way SE to Dubuque, and then west on US 20 to Rockford and down to Bartlett. It was a lovely day, an enjoyable and uneventful ride. We stopped at  Culver's for food and ice cream, and snacked out of our food box. Enjoyed the Iowa countryside. I read aloud and we also listened to CD's. It was a typical day of travel for us, the kind we really like. 

Tomorrow, the Fourth of July, we plan to head due east on I-80 all the way to Clarion, PA where we have a motel reservation. Monday we will go NE through the western PA countryside to the southern tier expressway, and then follow a very familiar route home. Tuesday I am scheduled to start a rigorous physical therapy program for Parkinson's. 

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