Slow start in the frigid zone

Only two sips of coffee for me so far, and morning hay needed in the horse corral. So, I'll write more when the correct letters start appearing on the screen. It was a very short night.

Check back.

After 14 hours of traveling---either in a car or plane---my brain did take a slight detour this morning and refused to function properly. Of course, the three hours of sleep may have done it more damage than harm. All is well, now, though. Horses are happy; I've kicked a few Folgers cans across the snow-covered fields for Kiwi, and I'm slowly getting back on track.

We knew we would hate yesterday and last night. Our moods reflected that predestined loathing of leaving a place of such beauty and fun. God smiled on us, though, and gave us a few days of crisp, cold air with cloudless blue skies for basking in the memories of time well spent in Texas.

Our last stop in San Antonio yesterday noon took us back to Mother's Ursuline Academy where Annie found her 100th geocache. She brought Mother the trinkets, which were refrigerator magnets depicting NASA's slogan about "failure not being an option" and some brand of Texas wildflower. It seemed historically fitting that Annie would go sleuthing at her grandmother's old haunt for this milestone in her geocaching pursuits. I'm sure those magnets will hold great nostalgic meaning to Mother every time she passes her refrigerator.

With Annie at the helm, failure was not an option on this trip. Her planning and enthusiasm for making sure both Mom and Grandma had a superior experience surpassed our wildest expectations. The hotels were magnificent. The car---especially with its top down---turned a few head along the San Antonio sidewalks.

My niece Laura's extension agency colleagues were pretty impressed when that gorgeous convertible pulled into her hotel lobby to pick her up for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe on the River Walk. We'll soon have pictures to show for it, and if my blogging picture poster works, I'll share some representative pictures. Speaking of River Walk, it can be deceiving.

I went out for a short stroll yesterday and came back an hour later. Somehow, you've gotta memorize which set of stairs takes you back to where you started, and I went back almost to where I started two or three times but didn't recognized the exit place. So, I got to see more of the city on foot than expected, which is not a problem at all in San Antonio.

We definitely turned into three pumpkins about 10 p.m. last night as our plane was descending over the mountains of North Idaho. We could see the snow, and we were very reluctantly anticipating the cold after sitting in 67-degree high noon sun. We were all kinda grouchy and much less communicative than we'd been for six days, but once we get some sleep and the cobwebs back in order, we'll be reminiscing for some time about this very special trip.

Now it's time to put the glass slippers---er---new shoes away from Kiwi's active teeth, go through the mail, start back on that column that's due today and face February reality in North Idaho. But, that bright Northern sunshine doesn't look half bad out those windows, and now I can start thinking about putting some of those wildflower seeds in some potting soil.