THE RETURN OF THE GIMP

Ok, ok. So I've been home for a week and haven't posted so much as half a word since I rolled in exhausted and frustrated. With the recovery of the missing purple suitcase the trip is officially over.
I actually kept a diary while over there so things I wanted to post about here wouldn't get lost in my mind. The list is in the other room and I don't feel like getting up to bring it in here, so I'll just write about a few highlights that I remember clearly.
On the whole the trip was great. The only two bad things were the stolen wallet and the heat stroke I gave myself towards the end.
I no sooner got off the plane at JFK when my wallet ( $3000 cash,credit cards, and drivers license) were stolen, most likely by the member of the international wheely drivers who was taking me through immigration and customs. ElAl lent me $ 20 to get to La Guardia to catch the plane to Maine, where my brother was waiting. Susie had arrived and been found by Robbie-the pick the girls up mission director getting to Laguardia and the Delta counter, the Delta flight to Maine was cancelled so Delta got me over to U.S. Air who held the flight for me. Poor Jeffro was wild when my flight came up cancelled on the board at Portland, but Robbie found me too and there was a very teary reunion at the airport. No credit card and no license meant no rental car, so off to Auburn we went to sort those issues. Jeff promptly loaned me the 3 grand and after several conference calls the replacement credit card arrived via UPS and the license followed a few days later by FedEx. While waiting for them, we went to Jenny's high school graduation and did some minor shopping( cell phone chargers, Bluetooth earthing for the Razor, the famous purple suitcase and a few other odds and sods like Maine T shirts). Back in business with cards and license,we got the car and compressed 9 days into 2. I only got to see Alice, Jonathan, and Ellen. I *did* get pictures of all the houses I lived in, but they are in the other computer until tomorrow. We also got to LL Bean where I got myself and Susie LL Bean boots and socks a cap, bag and fleece jacket.
Maine is still pretty much the same except for all the building and Maine Street in Brunswick has so many different businesses that it's just not the same.(sigh)
The Jeffy (or Jeffro, as his daughter Jenny calls him) is doing fine, except that he just can't get stuff done at home. His living room furniture was literally falling apart and was impossible to sit on. I got him new furniture, and decided to become a slum lord and buy him an apartment house some time in the spring. I looked at few and have a promise from the bank over there for a mortgage.
I opened an account in the Auburn branch of the same bank I had an account in way back once upon a time. The gal who opened this account kept staring at me and said that she knows me from some place. That place turned out to be the other branch where not only did *I* have account, but so did the family business! And she remembered me from then! That was way coolies. As the credit card never arrived at Jeffro's she gave me an ATM card, and off Susie and I went on the rest of our trip. We stopped at the Hilltop steak house on the way out of Maine after going into Portland to take a picture of the house my grandparents in on Munjoy Hill. We stopped for the night on the Mass. R.I. line and got to Susie's for a quick visit with her mom, cats and dogs. Her mom is a sketch and their house dates back to the Civil war. I loved it except for the stairs from the street!
We took off the next morning in the general direction of Jag's in North Carolina. We went through Bubba country most of the way-the west side of Appalachia country and it was beautiful. We somehow found Jag's house with no trouble at all and had a lovely, if too short 3 day visit. That girl is a wonder.
That's it for now. Time for a shower and nap. More later!