December 10, 2017 – Cal’s Birthday!!  Mt Pleasant, Iowa to Zanesville, OH

Happy Birthday to Cal! It was a rather uneventful day, but you want it that way when you are driving.

Tonight, as I am writing, we are in eastern Ohio. We have had a good day driving, of course, loosing an hour when reaching the eastern time zone, making the day longer.

It was a beautiful day, sunny, and the temperature was very enjoyable by midday.

December 11, 2017 - Zanesville, OH to Lancaster, PA.

We have 6 hours yet to drive to Lancaster, PA, so we did get up a little earlier than usual.  We arrived mid-afternoon, stopping first at the cemetery where numerous generations of my family have Memorial Stones. I wanted to retake a photo of one generation, which apparently was the first generation buried in Landis Valley Cemetery, as we looked for the memorial stones for the previous generation, but could not locate them.   We did not have time for any more research on this trip. 

We arrived at my aunt’s new apartment/home, where we visited for a while before going to the Care Center to visit with my uncle/her husband.  While at the apartment a cousin stopped-by for a short, but great visit.  He is having some health issues too.  It was wonderful to see him and catch up with him.   His health is definitely in our prayers.  

The Care Center, where my uncle is a resident, is within walking distance from my aunt’s apartment on nice weather days.  She can drive when the weather is bad, like this past Saturday.  My uncle will be 89 this coming Friday.  It was great to be able to wish him a Happy Birthday, but it was hard to see his health declining.  We visited until his dinner time. 

To allow us more time to visit with my aunt, we ate dinner in the cafeteria.  It is so hard to get to the place where you can no longer care for your spouse due to their declining health, and I am so glad her children were looking out for her health and well-being too.

After dinner we drove a few miles to another cousin’s home, where we stayed for the night.