Another full day!

Boy, we are really packing experiences into this trip! Monday, Ellen had to drive from Holton, Kansas to St. Louis, MO. And we had to get to St. Louis in time to have a chance to visit with Katie and Chritian, have supper with them, and then get to our motel. When the day began, I did not yet know where we would spend that night. I had to figure out how we could get to a motel before dark, and still have time with Katie and Christian. I couldn't find anything online in Katie's neighborhood, at least nothing we could afford. I texted Katie and asked her, and the best she came up with was a Drury Inn twenty minutes away in the wrong direction. I finally "thought outside the box" and looked at East St. Louis, across the Mississippi River in Illinois, and found The First Western Motel in Fairway City, IL, just fifteen minutes from Katie's house. So we could leave at 7p.m. or so and be at the motel while it was still light. And it was only $58! That is unheard of these days. It wasn't fancy, that's for sure. No breakfast. But the room was ok, the bed was comfortable, and we slept well. What more can one ask? We had a very nice visit with Katie and Christian. We said we would try to arrive "mid-afternoon," and it was 4p.m. We got into Missouri by a route that totally avoided the mess around Kansas City, and then dropped down to I-70. That actually went very well; the route I chose was very good road, little traffic, nice scenery. It took longer that it would have if we had dropped down from Holton to I-70. But that would have taken us right through Kansas City, and I wanted to apare Ellen that. So it worked out. We found Katie and Christian's place easily - thanks to "Siri"- and we had about 3 hours with them. Christian fixed chile, and so we didn't have to take time to go out to a restaurant. This was our first time to meet Christian. He is a lovely, gentle, man, who is very loving with Katie amd obviously makes her very happy. He is still sort of "finding his way," as is Katie. They are both 30. He is very interested in the healing arts, things like Qi Gong and Reiki. I think that is a direction he would like to develop, if he can.He is currently working with Door Dash delivering food, and Katie has a job calling people, which she can do from home. It isn't exactly telemarketing - but like that. More activist, political calls, rather than selling things, I think. She is also going to try substitute teaching. The school district was very interested in her applcation, even though she never finished college. She does have experience teaching teens in a summer music camp. That pays very well - $150-200 a day, according to Katie. So just a few days a month would pay her share of the rent (which is much less than Denver and she shares the cost with Christian). Their apartment is a furnished rental, for two months, with the possibility of extending that. They are looking around. So they are "on their way" in several respects. More power to them!

The apartment on Oregon Ave. in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis.