Ok, finally got the pictures done and I'm mostly over the funk, so here goes.

This is the first of what will probably be three or four posts layin' out different aspects of the trip. I took about 450 pictures and then culled those down to about a hundred. I won't bore you with all of them, but some might amuse you. Some will end up over in the FlickR site, so you can see them there.

You guys know I just spent 8 days in Wisconsin with Denise, visiting her family and ex in-laws for Christmas. Like some of you, I was a bit weirded out at first by the idea that she was still so close to her ex mother-in-law and the family of her ex husband, but when I got up there and learned more of the details, and saw the family dynamic, it was easy to see why they still have deep feelings for one another. I even met her ex husband, who showed up the last day we were there. It was different, but it wasn't too weird. We're all grown-ups, after all.

I was looking forward to traveling with Denise on the holiday. Work has been a real pain in the ass for both of us lately, so we were ready to get away for a while and doing something different. I was brought up travellin', so it's fun and natural for me, and being away from my own family wasn't that much of a big deal. I was REALLY looking forward to going north and getting a face full of real cold weather and deep snow.

We get cold weather in Texas, but the part I live in doesn't usually see much snow, and not deep lasting snow at that. We had snow last Easter, but it only lasted a short time and mostly made the roads crazy to drive on. I grew up with cold weather and deep snow, in England and Missouri, so I miss it a lot.

Well, we heard from the family up in Sturtevant (outside Racine, south of Milwaukee) that the snow had come a few days before we got there, but by the time our plane landed on the evening of the 21st, the temps were climbing and the snow was fast turning to slush. By the time we got to see the house in the daylight on the 22nd, there was grass peeking through the snow and I wasn't happy. The local folks were surprised to hear me bitch and moan about how warm it was. Call me an idiot, but DAMN, I was disappointed.



Here's a shot of the front yard on the first or second day of our visit. We were stayin' in a nice, warm, comfy room at the Holiday Inn Express down the road about five minutes. The roads were clear, but the driveway was covered with ice. It would warm up during the day and then refreeze at night, so I found a shovel and started to scrape it on the first day. I got about half of it done before the shovel broke and I decided that I'd done enough. They were all lookin' at me like I was crazy, but I was havin' FUN. I hadn't shoveled snow in 30 years. All my moves came back like instinct. It was easy.

The next day it was even warmer. Ok, it was in the 40s, but I was expecting deep billowing snow and below zero temps, so this sucked! Then I got a call from my sister back in Texas tellin' me it was in the 20s there at night and the 30s in the day time. "DAMN! It's colder in Texas than it is here!" These folks were thinkin' I was crazy.



Someone had to go out with the dogs about every hour, so I usually volunteered. That's me, fur hat on head, t-shirt and UGGs, chillin' in the back yard, waitin' for the dogs to take a shit. Even with all my bitchin', life was GOOD!



The dogs also loved the snow. One of them, Jake, was just about my constant companion. He'd go out and find one of the patches that still held out and roll around in it. This is about the fourth day. There were only a few snow patches left, and the sun was out.



By the 27th, just about all evidence of winter was gone, the sun was out, and I was loosin' all hope. Then, just as the trip was grinding to an end, a blast of "Lake Effect" snow blew through and all was right with the world.



6 or 7 inches of soft, steadily blowing bliss (get your mind out of the gutter!) Jake had a blast running in the snow with one of Denise's grandsons...



And I was able to get all wrapped up in my winter gear and slog around with the dogs myself. It was like it was 1971 all over again and I was runnin' through the snow in Missouri with the family dogs. Bliss! Of course, the snow closed the local airport, but it was open again by the next day when our plane was scheduled to fly us back to Texas. Everything turned out perfectly. They're still probably laughin' about that big, crazy Texan who wouldn't come in from the cold.

Next up... Makin' FUDGE! Cheers.