Written on Tuesday: I don’t know when John will put this out, but I’m leaving for Atlanta, GA Wednesday morning and won’t return for a week. This is for my 50th North Fulton High School reunion, and I’m also going to have a mini-reunion with family on my father’s side.
Sunday this week we told you was a birthday party, but we celebrated it without the honoree because of a flood in the church basement where they operate a day care center. So, they had to mop, suck out water, remove furniture and rugs, and otherwise clean up the mess. We went ahead and ate without them but with another family member visiting from Spokane. That was in the middle of the day. I went to Taize’ in the same church that night, and we met upstairs. I saw the family there and got the update on the clean-up. They were pretty worn out and still had a couple more hours of work.
Monday included a trip to town for exercise and to get meds, visit my friend in the nursing home, and come back to work on packing, and deciding what to take. John printed out maps and directions for me to use while down there. We got a surprise call late, asking us to come back to the same house for the delayed birthday dinner. We did, and enjoyed a lovely roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy, veggies and salad.
Tuesday — working on getting ready to leave, deciding on clothes, washing, drying, and cleaning things; and doing emails, talking to a friend from high school who was planning to come to the reunion, but sadly had a motorcycle accident and broke his collarbone into 2 pieces, and two ribs in two, and cracked in total, six. He is unable to travel.
Wednesday. Tripping all day. Leave on Airporter Shuttle from Ellensburg, get to Sea Tac and get through security. I have all my paperwork for the ICD Defibrillator and information on having an artificial heart valve. I have a letter from my doctor and wallet cards from MedicAlert & Biotronix the other about my Porcine valve. Then make it to the AirTran (now part of Southwest Airlines) non-stop flight to ATL, arriving at 9:35 PM. My friends with whom I’m staying will meet me in baggage pickup and take me home.
From Ellensburg the preferred airport is Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, known as SEA-TAC; not to be confused with the more recent town of the name SeaTac. On the best day the car trip is 2 hours. There are no best days. Traffic, accidents, and road construction can ruin a person’s plans. We’ve tried Spokane, Pasco, and Yakima airports. A 50 mile trip to Yakima gets one a flight to Sea-Tac. Pasco is a 2 hour drive and Spokane is 3 hours. Connections are not great from either place. Years ago I would drive to the SEA-TAC area and rent a room for a night; there then would be a shuttle to the airport and a week’s parking at the motel. That plan eliminated the traffic problems but added to the cost and John did not have to drive. A couple of years ago the community got the service of a small bus (The Airporter) that picks folks up at about 9 AM (just a 12 minute trip from home). It takes a little extra time but allows for a potty stop as compensation, and the cost is not unreasonable.
Thursday, plans are for a cousin to pick me up in Decatur, pickup some Old Hickory House BBQ, take me to Mableton to visit another cousin, and on to another cousin’s house in Marietta. We will visit her mom in an assisted living home, and then have dinner with all her family and one other cousin’s wife. That cousin has died.
Friday will be light till late afternoon, when I go to the North Fulton High School 50th Reunion reception from 5:30 to 7:30, and afterwards to dinner with the folks who are housing me.
Saturday starts with being picked up by one of my classmates who lives in Decatur. She will drive us to pick up others and go to our old high school — but is no longer a public high school. Via a long term lease and a multi-million dollar investment my HS has become a private primary and secondary campus for the Atlanta International School.
http://www.aischool.org/page.cfm?p=301
On the left side of the page, click on “Campus” to see a picture.
[Note from John: Nancy is having a grand time and reporting on major changes to the area she once knew well. She just called to say as part of this yearning for the idealized past they had gone to “The Varsity” — an eatery known and loved by all.]
http://www.thevarsity.com/history.php
Sunday. Will spend all day with the family I’m staying with, their kids, and the grandkids.
Monday. Will be picked up by a long time friend from college and we will get her sister and travel to visit the couple who started me in Geography—my first geography teacher and his wife. They were also the ones who chaperoned the Field Trip to Europe in 1965, to 17 countries, with 19 girls and 4 boys. It lasted 9 weeks. The friend picking me up was also on that trip. We will visit and go out to lunch in Johns Creek, a new town in the Atlanta region since I was there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Creek,_Georgia
I don’t return home till May 25 and it will be an all day trip back as well.
All our best
Nancy (in “The South”),
and John (in the Great Northwest)