Darned if I didn't get them all piled in the car and off to Gillette
Castle, up there on the Connecticut River!  Pa and his ladyfriend Bev
went along in the Dodge Caravan...the one with the folding bed in
back...kinda discusting, but whatchagonna do?  (Patrick want's Grandpa
to leave the Caravan to him when he passes on to his reward....some
reward!)

Anyway, Apparently there's been a lot of work on the site recently.
They say its been closed for three years.  Seems the roof failed.  You
guys know anything about the work?  I found myself wondering about the
sprinkler system and the exiting compromises and the masonry.  I noted a
curator carefully returning books to the propoer places in the book
cases.  Its a neat site.

Rediscovering the architecture and the landscape of the place where we
were raised is oddly emotional.  A ying and a yang of conflicting
responses.  The social structure and crowding confirm that heading west
was a good idea.  But the heart still skips a beat at the sight of an
18th century farmstead.  We have known for some years that we enjoy the
open spaces of the midwest and the expanse of a sky that forms a full
dome.  Somewhere along the way the comfort we once felt within the
canopy of trees came to be part of an overall sense of being crowded.

-jc