Thanks for all the well wishes, friends.

David: you trip sounds like it will be fantastic! I really envy you (Whoops, envy is a baaad thing to do... how about if I say I'm really happy for you?) Our trip to Europe last Fall is something that we regularly talk about... We'd love to have a couple of months to explore more of Europe. I recently picked up a DVD of Amadeus, which brought back wonderful memories of our trip to Salzburg. Ruth spends an hour just about every day watching a program, Passport to Europe, so the places that we loved so much stay fresh in our minds. For us, Paris is the number one city on earth with nothing faintly comparable. After that, I think we'd have to take Venice. Somewhat to my surprise, Ruth loved Switzerland and Austria. I was really looking forward to visiting both of those countries and it was a special pleasure that She enjoyed them as much as I did.

Growing up in the Midwest, I was half-way to everywhere in the United States. As a teenager, I prefered thinking of it as being in the middle of nowhere. Ruth grew up in Brooklyn, so the far West started in Philadelphia. (I actually saw a photo in the New York Times of Robert Kennedy visiting Philadelphia, with the caption, Kennedy vists the West.) Wisconsin has proven to be a good staging ground for showing her the rest of this country, piggy-backing trips onto our annual trip out to Wisconsin to visit my family. We've explored all of the upper Midwest and most of the Plains states out to the Rocky Mountains. We still have some of the south central United States left to explore and the Pacific Northwest (although I've been in Washington.) Between us, we've been in close to 50 states. Next on our agenda, God willing, is Scandinavia, Buenos Aires and Mexico. Most immediately, our very next trip we're looking forward to is a cruise in the Carribean. Never been on a cruise, myself. But it should be fun.

The greatest thing of all is that we had a terrific day celebrating our Anniversary, and the furthest we traveled was about 15 miles to go out to dinner. When you can stay at home and have a beuatiful time, then you know that you are blessed. All the travel is just delightful frosting on the cake.

bbc: It's great that you were able to get out to The Pacific Northwest. We'll get there eventually, but will probably catch Newfoundland and Greenland first, just because they['re closer (and less expensive.)

Elmer: I'm walking around singing to myself, Bewitched, Bothered and BeFuddled. Softly, though. Don't want to be committed. At least not in that way..

Jerry