Date: 2003-10-12
To: Back home
Miles today: 0.0

I¢m home, and not by the direct route either. From New York, I headed, not for the UK, but to Indianapolis, Indiana, to spend a few days with my cousins there. Ruby and Norman McCormack picked me up on Saturday morning at the airport, and on the way back to their home, stopped at a nearby park to go for a walk. A WALK? After the last six months did they think I had come here to go for a walk? Ruby explained that she and Norman do this every day for an hour to keep themselves in trim. Oh that the rest of America, the rest of the western world for that matter, had the same discipline. She pointed out that people here delude themselves into thinking they have no where to go walking, but she doesn¢t buy that argument. You can always find a route if you want to find it. But I know the real purpose of this little exercise. When it comes to walking Ruby has always been able to kick my butt. I might think myself a hotshot hiker after walking the Appalachian Trail, but this little diversion was a little reminder that nothing had changed. And as Norman and I walked back to the car with Ruby setting the pace, I have to say that nothing had!   The main reason for visiting them at this time was to go to the Simpson/Wilson family reunion in Illinois. My father was born and raised in Illinois. He was the youngest of a family of six. Two of his older brothers married two Wilson sisters and the families have remained closely linked to this day. The reunion is an annual event and this was the first I had been able to attend. It was a five hour drive to Giant City park near Carbondale, and we arrived a little after midday to find about fifty or so family members gathered under a wooden pavilion. For me, the event was an absolute delight. Many of my cousins were there from Missouri/Arkansas whom I hadn¢t seen for eleven years. We are all getting older and yet people seem to remain just the same in the ways that count. Other older cousins were familiar names I was meeting for the first time. Not really the first time, many of them remembered when they last saw me as a very small boy. And others seemed to know me because ¢he looks just like Charles¢ (my dad). Centre-piece of the day was a raffle for a family quilt. All family members are given a common theme and stitch a square of their own design. The squares are joined up by Mildred Kelley and her family to make the quilt for the next year¢s event. This year¢s theme was Christmas. The quilt was won by Richard and Joann, part of the contingent up from Mountain Home. Unknown to me, a discreet family pow-wow took place, at the end of which Richard presented me with the quilt to take home. I was very touched and still am. The reunion ended all too soon. I seem to see my American relatives only about once a decade, and it¢s hard to convey just what it means to me.   I feel enriched somehow, it¢s like a reconfirmation of who I am. The weather had stayed dry but as we headed north on I-57 the sky blackened, the rain started, and around Effingham where we joined I-70 east to Terre Haute, we were in a full-blown thunderstorm. It was no small task for Norman to drive through this stuff. Visibility was very poor, it was raining stair-rods and we were knocked about by powerful gusts, but we passed through it and eventually arrived back to a very wet Indianapolis.Next day, the rain never let up and by the end of the day Indianapolis had received its largest rainfall in a 24 hour period since records began, an astounding 7.2 inches. No more comments about Scotland and rain from my relatives, I trust. Two days later Indiana had mopped up and I was back home, a 23 hour marathon to Edinburgh via La Guardia, JFK and Frankfurt. I won¢t elaborate in this journal how great it was to be reunited with Heather once again. The main thing is she still seems to want me here, which is nice. ¢Thistle¢ got home about three weeks before me, and has recovered well. Her lower back, a painful mass of chigger bites when I saw her last, has healed wonderfully. Actually, she looked great, and has started her first year at Leicester University.After a ten day break I returned to work. That proved much more difficult than I expected. It took about two weeks for the physical pain to pass from my body, especially the footsoreness. But that really has been incidental. The main problem has been a chronic tiredness, I¢ve felt as though I¢ve been jet-lagged for a month. It¢s getting better.