Vera's Place

The most remarkable thing about Kansas was that we were able to beat the Freedom Train to Topeka. Image our surprise at finding out it has been staying in Salida the same night we were.

We beat them out. And ran fast until we reached this:

This is a campsite by Table Rock Lake on the border between Missouri and Arkansas, where the land went from flat farms to hills and trees again. These are all oaks in winter, and the campsites were closed for the season as they're expecting snow in a few days, but for today it was beautiful.

We ended up at the house of a cousin of John's father George, Vera and had a lovely dinner with her and her daughters, Linda and Phyllis. It was wonderful. And, miracle of miracles, my crown stopped throbbing too. I'm so grateful. Vera is Ukrainian descent, just like George was, but she has a lot of ties to the old culture and recent events have hit her hard. So she was very happy to see us.

We'd been following each other on FaceBook for a while, and it was nice to put voice and body to all the stories and the connection. 

Touring with Linda

Vera was wonderful and baked us a full breakfast casserole and we sat with Phyllis and her to eat a very hearty breakfast with fresh fruit and fresh coffee and a lovely conversation. They then took us over to Linda's, we got to take a photo all together, and then John and I went off with Linda to explore the local wonders. 

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