It was a bit odd to drive into Sewanee, Tennessee – a place I’d never been – to have lunch with someone I’d never met.
But I knew I would like Annwn. We’d been exchanging emails since I’d met her son, Pierce, back in Lander, Wyoming.
And I did like her. Annwn is an Episcopalian priest who has worked at the University of the South for years. It’s a gorgeous place – one where 1,500 students enjoy a wooded campus encompassing 13,000 acres.
Annwn gave me the grand tour – including an inside look at the campus “chapel,” which rivals many cathedrals I’ve seen.
By the time I left, I had a new friend and Russ and I had a standing invitation to come and stay anytime I’m in the area. And bring Russ, she said. A very good idea.
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Robert is 100 years old. I had the pleasure of meeting him when I tagged along with my friend, Susan, to his birthday party at a nursing care residence in Iola, Kansas. She was there to get a photo for her paper. I was there to get a photo for me.
Born just outside of Iola, Robert was a farmer his whole life. Hard work and perseverance seem to have paid off for him. He still tells great stories, and still looks quite dashing in his cowboy hat!
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I met Spider at 
a garage sale in Boulder, Colorado. I told her I had to take her photo because I’d never met anyone named Spider.
She came to Boulder years ago to attend college, and had never left. Given my own college experience in Bellingham, I understood completely.
Spider had recently lost a dear friend, and she and other friends had taken on the task of finding good homes for a wealth of very cool (to me, anyway) stuff, including: camera bodies, lenses, digital video equipment, and a mountain of software.
I managed to get out of there spending only $2 on a bag. It has turned out to be the Best Travel Bag Ever.
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I was working at at a picnic table in a city park in Tupelo, Mississippi (a park with Wi-Fi!) when I met Ariel and her daughter, Kinsley. They had come to the park for some fresh air and a change of pace. Kinsley is seven months old and had recently been a little cranky because she was cutting several teeth.
Ariel has lived in Tupelo her whole life. It’s an okay place, she said, but there’s not a lot to do there. Maybe not, but as it turns out, it’s become a favorite place of mine.
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When Alicia and her husband bought the KOA franchise in Goodland, Kansas, she didn’t know what an RV was, or why someone would want to have one. She had never used a computer and was frustrated tha
t the little mouse would listen to her.
She also feared that people who called the campground would not be able to understand her thick Polish accent.
But after 20 years working at a plant in Chicago, her husband needed a healthier lifestyle, and there they were.
The campground is closed four months a year during the winter. Alicia is not a TV watcher – those commercials, she said, they drive me crazy. So she makes jewelry to sell the rest of the year. Very nice stuff, very reasonably priced. I was a good customer.
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