At Home Base in Tennessee

Well, our stay in Missouri was pretty short. We did make a trip to Independence to the Truman Library and Museum. In addition to the usual, they had a temporary display of a model White House. I think it was almost 50' long and was accurate to the fineals on the chandilears and lights on the Christmas trees. This was a very interesting and educational stop. While we did enjoy our visit and had planned more activities in the area, Loretta called her daughter's house here in Tennessee for a visit. But she got the bad news that daughter Sharon was in the hospital with pneumonia and complications. So we decided to cut our visit short and head here. We did overnight in Sikeston, MO so we could dine at Lambert's (Home of the "Throwed Rolls"). The ride through the Ozarks was beautiful with the fall colors.

We arrived here late on Sunday and as we were pretty tired decided to wait till Monday to go to Columbia and visit Sharon. We found her pretty well bruised (I guess she had broken a blood vessel in a coughing spell) and hurting but she said she was much improved. Looking at earlier photos, I had to agree. We got settled in here and made several visits to the hospital this week as well as some shopping. There was a booth in the Wal-Mart in Columbia describing the upcoming Medicare Prescription Drug plan. This was provided by Humana Insurance which appears to have the lowest cost coverage available. So I took advantage of that to get more information so that hopefully by the time we can register for that we will be ready.

Yesterday we brought Sharon home from the hospital to finish her recuperation here. I understand she will need 24 hour a day care, but sure she is glad to be home after almost 3 weeks in the hospital.

OH YES, one final thing. The mail that had NOT arrived in Bloomington did not catch us in Missouri either. I have no idea the holdup, but hopefully it will either be forwarded to us here or returned here. Either way we will get it - I HOPE.

Weather is beautiful but most mornings have had frost in the meadow. Supposed to warm up a bit now but has been in 60's most days.

Andy and Loretta