Day 8: Peru, NB

Today was the first day of just relaxing since we started the trip.  It was VERY nice.  Our little road weary brains needed a day like today.  I think I had become a little bit of an addict to driving though.  It didn't take me long after I woke up to start asking Willow to head into town.  I needed a fix and my pusher man, the Ford Escape, was just waiting for me to come back around.  We had a little caffeine and some of Alison's delicious banana bread and hopped back on the dope.

Peru is a very small town. It is, however, home to the oldest college in Nebraska.  Along with the college, there's a store, a bank, a post office, a restaurant, a bar, a museum, a VFW, and a hair salon. 

If you turn right at the fireplace just at the tail end of downtown, you can make your way to the Missouri River.

If you find yourself down there, you'll wanna say hi to Sampson.  Sampson is about 4 foot, loves the taste of frogs and long slithers on the beach.

When we returned to Art's house Willow's sister, Myfanwy had arrived with her two beautiful kids.  Her kids are Frances and Jack.

Frances

Jack

and after a while her step-brother, Reese, arrived with a busload of cute chidrens

Art smoked us up the best ribs I have had in a long long time.  Alison prepared all the fixins while the adults chatted and the kids chased bugs and what not. Willow and I don't get many family gatherings anymore, especially family gatherings with kiddos, so this was an especially nice day for us.

This was my first time meeting Myfanwy and Reese.  I kinda forgot that Reese existed until today.  I know that he was a character in one of Art's books, The Drownt Boy. But he's not on Facebook so naturally I assumed he was purely a fictional character.  I was way excited to meet Myfanwy though. Willow talks about her a lot.  She has a lot of pride that she has a sister in Nebraska that is "the sweetest person you will ever meet".  I was actually kinda nervous to meet her.  It's weird to be in a relationship for over 21 years and still get nervous when you meet your spouses family or special friends... but I do.  Every time Art comes to Portland, I call it Zit Week.  I break out like a teenage boy who used the inside of a big mac to wash his face.  Well... this time it was Myfanwy's fault. 

It was all maybe a bit too brief.  There were a lot of kids.  I think Reese has 7 kids and 6 of them were with him.  Myfanwy has 2.  So there were 8 cute little kids running around and me with my camera trying to get those damn shots.  I did talk with both Reese and Myfanwy, but I probably didn't spend enough time getting to know them.  We get another opportunity with Myfanwy in October when she will visit us in Portland.

Everybody hopped into their kid-mobiles and headed for bigger and more brightly lit pastures.  It was just the four of us, the dogs, and the impending storms.

Art and Alison very sweetly tried to assist me in capturing photos of the awesome lightning that was flickering around our heads.  I would like to blame my inability to do so on technical difficulties, but it was actually just my lack of know how.  I should have admitted this sooner.  I would have kept Art's back much drier.

We spent the evening chatting about this and that... all lively and agreeable conversations. We had a very nice snack, a little nip, and we headed off to bed.

Tomorrow... we spend another day relaxing before heading to Missouri on Tuesday morning.