We're Off!

Well, almost.  I'm finishing the last banana and Durwood's having his last tomato on toast for a while.  Although I did pick all of the red and reddish tomatoes so they're in the van along with a saltshaker.  Don't want them to go to waste, do we?  No.  Most of the too much we're taking along is already in the van, all that's left is Durwood's suitcase (he likes to wait until the 11th hour just to ramp up the craziness, I think), the cooler (WI Cheese Tax cheese + clementines and grapes), Durwood's huggy pillow & fleece blankie, the backpack with all the cameras, and my blankie for wrapping up while sitting outside looking at the entire Milky Way overhead with no streetlights to fade anything out.  Ahh.  Tonight we'll be in Fargo, ND, then Dickinson, ND, then Silver Gate, MT, then Yellowstone!  See?  We'll be there in no time.  Now it's time for me to go finish my piece of coffeecake.  Adios, kiddos.

August 11--Union Porcelain Works, Oyster Plate.  Clarissa was always fascinated by the oyster plates in her grandmother's china cupboard.  Each plate looked like it was molded around four oyster shells and one scallop shell.  They there were snail shells and spiral shells and crab claws molded in, and one of them had a tiny red crab painted in one of the oyster shells.  Clarissa pretended to be a grown-up lady giving parties where she served her guests oysters but she always had cheese and crackers.  She had seen what oysters looked like when their shells were opened and no way was she eating one.  When she learned that you were supposed to slurp them down whole and raw she knew she'd never eat one as long as she lived.  Her brother Reggie left snails on her doll dishes and she knew she'd never eat them either even if they were called by a fancy French name.

And that's it.  It's time to relinquish the computer to Durwood so he can check the weather out West.  Woohoo!
--Barbara