Finally August 17

After ten hours of sleep we awoke. I have never looked so bad in my entire life. I looked like I had been on a 18 hour bender. Susan gave us breakfast and had even bought sandwiches for us to take on the train. She is a thoughtful person. All the actual traveling went very well. Susan is only three stops from Penn Station. We were there early, but not too early. We found the Amtrak waiting room and I went off to be the hunter gatherer. I found two Starbuck’s iced coffees, two cinnamon raisin bagels, and two bottles of water. The train was comfortable and included a plug for my computer. I listened to the Da Vinci Code most of the way. We had been dreading the bus change at Springfield, but the bus was nicer than the train, there was wi-fi and we were one hour early. I can hear the train whistle from my house and it has never, ever been early. Hannah was there in about five minutes, we said good-by and thanks to her and went home to an excellent doggy greeting. This house is so crowded and packed with stuff compared to our Castelvecchio house which is monk-like and so easy to keep clean. This house seems so overwhelmingly stimulating and so big with dirt everywhere. Hannah, Alenna and Jessie all did a great job. The dog is ALIVE!!