Texas

Kathleen, Erin, Cathy and I have struggled as to how to communicate our recent experience.  We just returned from McAllen, Texas, after volunteering for seven days at the Humanitarian Respite Center.  We are trying to be sensitive that we not draw attention or adulation to ourselves.  However, we all feel strongly that we have a moral obligation to promote the tremendous work that the Center does.

In brief, the Respite Center assists families after they have spent 4-6 weeks traveling to the U.S. Border during a time when the daytime temperatures are over 100 degrees.  Typically they then spend an additional 3-7 days in one of four area detention centers.  They are vetted by immigration and upon their release, these young families arrive at the Respite Center.  If they ever had sleeping bags, ruck sacks, backpacks or purses at this point they have been confiscated - along with their belts and even their shoelaces.  These people, most with little children, arrive with absolutely nothing - nothing.

  

The Humanitarian Respite Center welcomes them (sometimes with applause), offers them safety, shelter, a shower, food, a mat upon which they can rest and a change of used clothing including, donated shoes, new socks and underwear.  If a medical person is available they can be seen.  There are also trained people who will help them get in contact with their sponsor and arrange transportation to their final destination.  Some will leave the same day, many spend the night on the mats or in chairs.

   

Please consider helping the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas.  Here is a link to their contact information:

Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley

Checks:  Specify for the Humanitarian Respite Center

                700 N. Virginia de San Juan Blvd.

                San Juan, TX. 78589

Donations: Especially shoes, deodorant, small shampoos, leggings and belts

                    Humanitarian Respite Center 

                    115 S. 15th St.

                    McAllen, TX.  78501

Website:  financial donations can be made on this website

                  CatholicCharitiesRGV.org

                  Includes a link to Amazon to donate items

While unpacking donations one day I came across a note which read, "These clothes are donated in memory of my mother, Mary, who would be disgusted by the way we are treating people".   

First Impressions

First impression of the Humanitarian Respite Center:  What the place offers is amazing.  Immigrant families are welcomed, offered a shower, clothing, food, a place to rest in and assistance with transportation to their final destination.  Entire families walk in with nothing, no luggage, no backpack, nothing.  These are not people who are going on vacation - they are moving from their home countries for good and most of them have had their shoe laces and belts confiscated at the Detention Center. 

The organization is bizarre.  A woman showed us around for maybe 5 minutes.  She asked us to help with the distribution of clothing.  Twenty minutes later the 4 of us were In charge of the clothing area.  At 1:00 when we wanted to break for lunch the volunteer coordinator said great, there aren't a lot of people right now, we'll just shut it down until you get back.

The tasks are as varied as anyone could imagine.  On my way to the supply area (think a 90 degree, 2nd floor warehouse) to find hotel-style shampoos, I stopped to clean up after a little boy who was throwing up.  He had just gotten out of the detention center that day and while the center is air conditioned, it was 100 degrees outside.   There are stacks of gym type mats that the families unstack and sleep on.  If they happen to be in the shelter overnight, that's where they will stay.  We also provided hygiene items, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste but not soap.  There is liquid soap inside the showers.  We made a refrigerator full of sandwiches, ham, cheese and bread.  

I wish I spoke and understood Spanish.  I could not have been more impressed with Kathleen and Erin's ability to communicate.  At one point in the afternoon the coordinator asked Erin and me to bring a woman and her daughter to the airport (very much a rarity).  While we were gone Kathleen dealt with a medical emergency and Cathy sorted donated items, made sandwiches and worked the hygiene area, all with a smile on her face making people feel welcome and comfortable.

 Lastly, the whole organization seems very loosely run.  "Here is what needs to be done, ok see ya."  People donate stuff.  People show up wanting to help so they sort the donated stuff.  People need a change of clothing so we give them some of the donated stuff.  In it's most simplistic form, this is what the HRC does.  When we were homeless you gave me a place to rest, when I was hungry you fed me.  When I needed clothing, you clothed me.  God bless the people we met today from McAllen, Chicago, Vancouver, Washington, Austin and the nun who brought some of her students from New Jersey.

The Families

The Families,

   The families coming in the shelter have been on the road for an average of 4-6 weeks.  The high temperature here is always over 100 degrees.  In addition to their travel time they have been in the detention center for 3-7 days.  It is my understanding that there are four detention centers in this area.  All of them release the immigrants to the McAllen bus station.  At least one of the detention centers is a tent city.  If they had any possessions during their journey, they're gone by the time The Customs and Border Patrol agents drop them off at the bus station.  A volunteer from the respite center walks the families over to the center from the bus station which is across the street.  

    Before they are able to leave the detention center they are vetted by the US government.  The vetting process includes the immigrants having a sponsor to support them.  At this point they are released into the US to pursue their asylum claim.

   Upon entering the Respite Center they are welcomed (remember up until now they have been in a jail type setting).  Each family unit is given a welcome bag which includes individual tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, comb and a small hand towel. They are told that the center is not a government organization and that the staff and volunteers are here to help them on their journey and that there are people here who will help them contact their sponsors.  If they want, their children can go to a play area while this registration process is going on.  They are offered shower facilities, food and a change of clothing including new underwear and socks.  At this point they have no belts and no shoelaces which were taken from them at the detention center  These people literally have nothing.  

   There are stacks of gym mats in the clothing area and people are free to put them on the cement floor and rest.  During the course of the day it is very common to see people sound asleep on the mats, individually or even families.  Today I walked past the area and as usual there was a group people  on the mats.  A woman was sleeping with a child between her bent knees and chin and two men were awake and reading bibles that were given to them at the welcome station.  It is very common to see nursing mothers in this area as well.  If they stay overnight, this is where they will sleep.  

    As a group, these people are exceedingly grateful and seemingly bone  tired.  If the Center can arrange for their transportation with their sponsor, the ideal is to have them leave the same day.  I don't think this happens too often but it's hard for me to tell.  

   Families are welcome to avail themselves to a free canteen-type area.  This area dispenses virtually every miscellaneous thing that the center offers, tissue, pieces of toilet paper (never whole rolls), shoelaces, crayons for the kids (they only get three), feminine hygiene, diapers, combs, shaving cream, razors, hair bands and Chapstick.  

Things I Want To Remember

Things I want to remember:

   The little girl named Samantha who ran up to Erin after Erin and I made an airport run. The little girl ran to Erin as we walked in the door, took her hand and brought her back to the play table where Erin had been playing games with her earlier.

   Meeting Alexander who started off the day as one of the immigrants to whom we gave clothes.  However he finished the day as a volunteer.  He, his pregnant wife and their little girl left Honduras after he saw a man beheaded with a machete.  

   Kathleen "talking down" a pregnant woman.  She was concerned because she had a history of high blood pressure and she was at the respite center all alone.  

  Sorting an Amazon Box and finding a card in the box which read, "This gift is given in honor of my mother, Mary, who would be disgusted by the way we are treating people".  

   Cathy gave a man a Rolaid.  He asked for a second for his little boy.  When she poured them out of the bottle, a third one rolled out and she gave him all three.   His eyes got wide and he repeated, Gracias, Gracias. Such gratitude for three Rolaids.   

   How the two sisters from Seattle decided to rearrange the racks in the warehouse.  If this is how you think it needs to be done - then let's do it that way.   We moved 1000 pounds of bags but the flow of the place worked better the new way.  

   There are never any size 28 men's pants.  Nobody in the US wears size 28.  

   Sister Mary Alice said 90% of the people use a coyote to get to the US border and most of the families travel for over a month before they are detained by the border patrol.  A coyote in it's most favorable light is a guide.  There have been coyotes who have abandoned whole groups of people in the middle of the desert.  Another job of the coyote is to pay the necessary bribes to the drug cartels.  The cartels run entire areas in which the immigrants must pass through.   

   On Friday Kathleen helped a woman and her son at breakfast.  Another woman with a  very small child wandered into the dining area without going through the line and just sat down at one of the tables.  When the little boy saw this exhausted woman, he got up from his table and gave her his own bowl of cereal.   These little, unseen acts of kindness makes anyone who is watching want to cry.  Kathleen helped the little boy get some more cereal.   

   On Friday in the warehouse, Chad, who was from Texas, came up to me and told me that his group gathered in prayer the previous night and held my family up in prayer.  'We thanked God for you and your family coming down to help.'  How does one react when someone tells you that?

   A group from Washington D.C.  Half of the group came from a synagogue and half from a Catholic Church.  They came into the center on a slower day so they washed down the gym mats upon which the families slept and rested.  It would be a fair assumption that this was the first time they had been washed in the three months the center has been open.  

   The thought that went through my head almost every day was, how bad does your life have to be to one day turn to your spouse and say, gather the kids, pack only what we can carry - we have to leave.  They know they might not get in and they know they don't even speak the language.  There was a man and his daughter in the center when we were there.  He was told that they had a better chance of being admitted if they split up.  He and his daughter made it through but they had still not heard from his wife and the other child.

   I've heard different variations of this: "nobody puts their child in a boat unless the boat is safer than the land and nobody puts their child in the water unless it's safer than the boat and nobody chooses to leave their home country for good unless you just can't stay there anymore." 

   We were told before we arrived that most of the people have been traumatized, either in their home country, during their journey or in the detention centers.  

   The Respite Center provides families a safe space but all of these people remain on their journey.  When they leave the center they are all given a large brown envelope which contains their documents allowing them to be in the country.  On the front of the envelope is stapled a single page stating "I do not speak English.  I am taking the XX pm. Bus to XXXX.  I am trying to get to (name of city).  Can you help me?"  As they walk out of the center they are given sandwiches, a few snacks and some bottled water.  Many of these young families still have multi-day bus trips ahead of them.    

   There is a large piece of art that is placed so that when a family walks into the building it's the first thing they see.  It says  Estamos contigo .  It means: we are with you.  It lets the families know that the people in the center are there to help but it also reminds the volunteers why we are there.  

   Each day can be a roller coaster of emotions.  One minute you read that the US government argued in court that the personal hygiene requirement standard for the detention center could be met by providing each family with one toothbrush.  The next minute you're in the warehouse of the center looking at fifteen cases of toothbrushes.  Many of them were sent by individuals in packs of one or two.  Five minutes later you find yourself wondering if the donations subside, how long before the toothbrushes are all gone.  At its peak the center was providing 7,000 toothbrushes per week.  

   If you choose to volunteer at the center, I may be setting you up for disappointment. There are few solemn or profound moments during the day.  Days are spent cleaning, sorting, giving out clothing, unpacking boxes and bags, serving food, making multiple trips to the upstairs warehouse, filling a refrigerator with simple sandwiches, handing out shoelaces, toilet paper, hair bands, razors, shaving cream and diapers.  The profoundness is when you're done and you think of the remarkable risk these young families have taken and you contemplate how they are doing now.  

   

Funny things I want to remember:

  The SUV index is 11.  Kathleen:  I didn't know the UV index went up to 11!

   Olive Garden:  After buying a microwaveable dinner Cathy thought it necessary to explain to me that microwaveable meant, "You can just put in the microwave and then warm it up".

    After leaving Cathy in the back seat of a running car (air conditioned) the three of us got back in and Cathy said, "I'm just glad nobody kidnapped me.  Anyone could have just gotten in the car and driven away with me in the backseat!'

    Kathleen could not get over that we can buy a case of water for three dollars.  In New York she's used to paying $2.50 for a single bottle on the street!

    I'll never understand how people donate high heels or a cocktail dress to a shelter.

   

Home Sweet Home

Kathleen, Erin & Bill on St. Patrick's Day

On April 22nd at 3:30 in the morning, Jeanne, Ali and Emily left our home in The Villages and headed to the airport.  We went back to bed.  However by 8:00 that morning we had packed up, strapped the bikes on to the back of our van, hooked up our camper and headed for home.

For the last number of years, Cathy has been a member of a team of people who have been assisting a 90 year old woman who has 

been dealing with memory issues.  She was recently hospitalized and that prompted us to leave Florida a little early.  

The ride home was mercifully uneventful.  The bikes made it back home unscathed and the camper has already been stored up north.  

We are settling back into the real world and are very grateful for our time away.  Thanks for following our little adventure.

Ken and Cathy 

Still in The Villages

Cathy and I are still in The Villages, Florida.  The Villages is a unique place.  It has no natural

wonders, no mountains, lakes or places of historical interest.  What it does have is near perfect weather, golf courses everywhere, pools everywhere, pickle-ball and tennis courts everywhere and I recently read that they celebrated having  their 3,000 organization/club.  

On April 1st Cathy and I moved from one rental house to another.  To get our bearings, we went for a ride.  We stopped at the closest Rec Center.  It has a pool, tennis and pickle ball courts, Bocce Ball courts and a number of meeting rooms.  We walked in and the person at the reception desk asked if we were there for the Portuguese class!  Cathy's sister and our nieces are visiting now and I was showing Emily one of the nearby rec centers.  We were invited into one of the meeting rooms where they were just finishing a pottery class. These are great examples of the spectrum of things that are

offered in The Villages.  It also offers many entertainment venues including three huge movie theaters and three "town squares" where there is free nightly entertainment and three various size theaters for plays and assorted music venues.  Golf here is free.  However if you take your golf cart on the course there is a $4 per person charge.  

We have gone to a number of open houses since we've been

here but we are truly not interested in buying.  However we are looking to rent someplace, for at least part of next year.  We play Pickleball almost every day and we go lap swimming 3-4 per week.  We golf some, bike a little, go to movies and we went to a polo match! 

If someone is looking for a beach community this isn't it.  But if you're looking for a place to live that offers a lot of recreational opportunities - you should consider The Villages.

We hope you enjoy this photos we've posted on the blog.  We took a ride to Cocoa Beach with Jeanne, Ali and Emily.  Cathy's uncle, Lloyd Kolb is down here with his daughter, Patti.  Before Bill Blaney left for home we went out to dinner with Bill and Karen Early.  Earlier today we went to the polo match.  

See you soon and happy Easter.

Village Fun with Guests

In recent days we have availed ourselves to some of the amenities that The Villages has to offer.  

We took a two hour class entitled Pickle Ball #101.  It was educational and fun.  While the scoring seems a little odd, eventually it makes sense.  We have also taken a golf lesson.  By the end of the one hour lesson Cathy was hitting the ball off the tee with her eyes closed!  We found it interesting that the driving range is on a lake.  With land here being so expensive, golfers hit the balls into the water.  The balls are corked and there is a slight left to right current.  Every night a company comes in and removes the thousands of balls that were hit, washes them and they're ready again the next day. There are buoys in the water so the golfer can judge their distance although we learned that it's pretty tough to get much of a roll.  We have only been on the course once but enjoyed it and plan on getting out again as soon as possible.  

On March 4th, Bill and I celebrated John's 65th birthday sending him this photo of a traditional birthday orange with a candle.  

We were happy that Mike and Mary ventured into The Villages for a

visit.  They got to see the place and see what it has to offer.  

Cathy's cousin, Debbie, also came for a visit.  During her stay we went to Sumter Landing and danced to the music of Rocky and the Rollers.  

Bill joined us the next day and we introduced Debbie to the

game of Pickle Ball which she seemed to enjoy.  We couldn't let Debbie go home without her laying around the pool, driving the

golf cart, going to church at St. Timothy and of course going grocery shopping at Publix.  

Just before she headed North we had lunch with Cathy and Debbie's uncle LLoyd and their cousin, Patti.  

           

A couple of days later Bill and I met our cousin, Kerry Blaney for lunch.  Kerry has been coming down here for a few years and was a wealth of information.

All in all things are going well in The Villages.

Now in The Villages

Since our last blog post we have transitioned from our small pop up camper to a very nice, very comfortable home in the Villages.  Our hosts/landlords had to return to Wisconsin unexpectedly early due to an illness of one of their family members  Their early departures coupled with their generosity allowed us to move in a full 10 days early at no additional charge.

People have asked what we do here.  First the weather is near perfect with daily high

temperatures in the mid 70s to mid 80s.  The weather has allowed us to spend some time at the many nearby pools.  There is nothing like the simple pleasure of diving into a sparkling pool of water with nothing but your swimsuit and wallet.  Nothing was destroyed except my pride.  

We spent a day going to thrift stores and flea markets to buy some used golf clubs.  I think all of us have stereotypes of the deep south and when you look for them, you see them.  The huge Marion Market was no exception.

As for the golfing we've already been to one of the driving ranges and I think golf

lessons are in our future.  

I've played just a very little bit of pickle ball with my brother, Bill and learned  there is more to it than I thought, so earlier today Cathy and I signed up for a pickle ball class to be held next Friday.   

We've gone to a couple of movies (discounted price with our Villages ID cards) and afterward walked around

one of the three public squares that offer free entertainment on a nightly basis.  While this photo is not good, it should show 100s of people "of a certain age" all line dancing to Up Town Funk.

Even trips to the nearby  grocery store are more fun when you're driving back and

forth in a golf cart  which are sometimes called "golf cars" down here.  

In short, We're Lovin' The Lifestyle.  

Pizza, Sea Oats and Kite surfing

It is an undisputed fact that campers are some of the nicest people in the world.  

It was certainly true of the old couple from Indiana who stood on the back bumper of our trailer so that I could lift the front of the trailer after it fell off the car.

It was even more true about Andi and Tom who camped next to us.   One night they

gave us a huge pizza that the pizza guy had delivered after making a mistake on their take-out order.  And it was true of a man named Dave who camped across the road from us.  Dave reached the age of senior citizen a few years back.  He came down from Rockford, Illinois by himself.  When we tried to give the extra pizza to him, he declined. However, earlier in the day he had met a woman who was camping with four little children and no other adult.  He brought us over to her and she was excited to accept the portion of the pizza that had no meat as she and the children were vegetarians.  None the less she took the meat side of the pizza for the kind people that were camping next to her.  

So, if you’re keeping track, the official count was one pizza and five  campsites. 

Campers are some of the nicest people in the world.
********************
Adapting and rolling with the punches is one of the keys to successful camping.  

Our next destination was to be Johnathan Dickinson State Campground in Hobe Sound.  Hobe Sound is on the Atlantic coast and is about 4 hours from where we are.  We’ve gotten some reports that the campground was damaged by some storms and that now shade was a scarcity.   

However our hosts/landlords of the house in The Villages are returning to Wisconsin unexpectedly early and said we could move into their house after they leave at no additional cost.  So our next adaption is extending our stay at Fort DeSoto before temporarily mothballing the camper and heading to the Villages. 

I wasn't sure what sea oats were so I picked everything and brought it all to the ranger station to be identified.   They laughed and laughed.

I decided to try kite surfing.  Here I am on my first attempt.

As I got better I went for a few jumps.

Some of my friends joined me after a while.

I wish any of this were true.  It looked fun but like my dream of playing profootball or swimming with the Henderson Swim team, I think that part of life may have passed me by.  

Fort DeSoto update

So, many of you have  been asking me why we haven’t blogged in a while.  Well, not so much “many” of you but some of you.  Ok, not really “some” of you.  But seriously, maybe someone was wondering about our blog.  Maybe not so much wondering out loud, verbally but maybe silently - like in their heart.   So here is what is going on southern Florida by way of photos.

On Saturday our friends, Rick and Sarah Noel,  who were vacationing in Clearwater, came  to visit and go out to lunch.  We had a great time and we appreciate the effort they made in coming to our campground.

We remembered last year that the ushers at St. John Vianney wore tuxedos.  They still do.  Maybe the idea is you’re less likely to give a tuxedo-dressed usher the leftover coins in your pocket.

After Mass we stopped at a farmers market and split a ham and cheese crepe.  

We also saw this tuxedo dressed man making and selling barbecued ribs.  Maybe he used to be an usher at St. John Vianney.  

Here’s one of the reasons we haven’t blogged in a while.  It’s so very easy to bike to the all but abandoned beach and get caught up in a book or the scenery.  This is a photo of Cathy.

I may have stayed too long at the beach.  You can see what type of sandals I wear as parts of my feet turned a very nice shade of red. 

We took a drive down to Sanibel Island to visit our friend, Marilyn Maglio.  After lunch, she was eager to show us her church.

Outside was some very cool statuary, including this bronze statue of Christ.  I took this photo off the St. Isabel Parish website.  Note how the bench was made for two, enabling the visitor to sit down and spend a moment or two with Christ.

In the back of the church hung a portrait of the area’s bishop, Frank Dewane, a Green Bay native.

We spent a night in Bradenton before venturing to Anna Maria Island to visit Mike and Mary along with their friends, Karen and Wayne Hollister.  From our campsite to their house is about 6 miles as the crow flies or about an hour by car.

Anytime we head south of St. Petersburg we cross the Bob Graham Skyway Bridge.  I took this photo off the internet.

Thanks for letting us share the last few days with you.

We're Camping

Bill & Duke

After our two nights in The Villages, we reluctantly bid farewell to Bill Blaney and the two dogs he cares for and set out for Fort DeSoto campground near St. Petersburg.

Now, you have to realize that when you set out on an adventure like this, some things go wrong but with the proper amount of planning and strategizing you can minimize these errors.  As an example, we made our camping reservations several months ago.  So on Monday we proudly pulled into the campground a full 14 minutes before “the google” said we were to arrive.  When we went into the ranger station to register, eager to start this leg of our adventure, we were told that our two week reservation did not begin until Tuesday!  Boy we laughed.  We laughed and laughed.  Cathy laughed so hard that when I looked over at her it looked liked she was about to

Our New Campsite

cry.  The ranger mercifully provided us with a campsite for the night – but today we took down our site and set it all up again, just 5 sites down the road.

The setup on Monday went amazingly well.  We were completely done in an hour!  This includes setting up the camper, unpacking the car, setting up the clam and stringing the tv antenna in a tree.  The time it took for Cathy to set up the inside of the camper was shorter than usual as we forgot to bring sheets for the bed.  Again, we laughed and laughed and laughed and headed into town for sheets.

Today At The Beach

We are now completely settled in our new home away from home for the next two weeks.  Life is good.

Running With Scissors

Have your ever run with a pair of scissors and not tripped and the scissors didn't stab

you in the heart?  Have you ever gone to a carnival or county fair, eaten a bunch of junk food, went on the rides and not gotten sick?  Did you ever go out when you were a kid, stay out way past your curfew and in the morning your parents didn't even ask you what time you came in?  The common theme here is that you did something stupid and got away with it.

Click on the photo to enlarge

Cathy and I would like to offer a fourth example.  Wanting to leave for Florida, we waited out winter storm "Beth".  Then came the frigid temps that closed schools and roads.  On Thursday afternoon we were sitting around home and at 4:00 we decided it would be a brilliant idea to leave home immediately so we could get through Milwaukee and Chicago during low traffic times.  With the real temperature at -9 and the windchill probably -20 we hooked up the bikes and trailer and drove four and a half hours, all of it in the dark, to Hammond, Indiana but only the last hour was during the snow storm.  However, just as in the previous examples - we got a way with it.

Friday, well, Friday was even worse.  We crept along on the interstate for hours

Notice the bikes?

reaching speeds up to 10 miles per hour.  When you're going this slow it's good to find ways to amuse yourselves so we started counting accidents which included cars in the ditch.  We got bored and stopped counting at 33.   By 10:30 am. we were ready to call it a day and started to look for a place to stay (yes I wrote a.m.).  By the time we found a hotel the roads were better so we plugged away for another nine hours.

We stayed in Tennessee on Friday night which was good because we were able to eat breakfast, pack up and still be out of the hotel by 8:15.  We thought of ourselves as energetic eager beavers who were up and out early in the morning.  If we had stayed in Georgia, just 10 miles away, it would have 9:15 and we would have been slothful!

The rest of the ride to Florida was long but thankfully uneventful.  We were concerned about traffic in Super Bowl crazed Atlanta but all six lanes of traffic moved along nicely.

St. Timothy's in the background 

We reached The Villages in time to wash the salt and dirt off the car, bikes and camper and still make it to St. Timothy's in time for 6:00 Mass.  We'll be staying with Bill Blaney for a couple of nights before heading to our first campsite.  Thanks to my cousins, Bill and Karen Early for sheltering these northerners for a couple of days.

On The Road Again

Yup, we are hitting the road with our tiny pop-up again.  We got a late start because of Hurricane Michael.  You'll recall that Hurricane Michael hit the Mexico Beach area of Florida pretty hard.  In November we received a notice from T.H. Stone Park that our camp was, well - gone.  That was supposed to be our second stop of the winter.  Not being able to find a replacement campground, we decided to cancel our first scheduled stop and push back our departure date to February.

This change in plans turned out to be fortuitous.  On January 16th, Ken had two additional stents placed in his heart.  For those of you keeping count these are #5 and #6.


So, if you have any interest in following us this winter, we'll be keeping this blog.  Our motivation is simple, we want to stay in touch with you during this adventure but we'd rather keep our whereabouts off social media.

Like other blogs we've kept you don't have to follow us.  There won't be a test.  We know that it's sometimes difficult to post comments.  If you'd rather email us, that's ok too. We love hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Ken and Cathy
KBlaney55@hotmail.com
CBlaney55@hotmail.com