I am writing this on my Surface Windows 10 computer which I bought for travel. It is more adaptable and flexible than the Samsung Tablet I have been using. We will see how I like writing on the cute little keyboard. It has more key “feel” than you might expect looking at it. Enough about the instrument.

We have been getting out a lot seeing many people who we haven’t seen in a year. Yesterday we went with Joyce and Victor and Sandy and Neil to Sonnenberg Gardens for an Art Festival and tour of the Mansion. Sonnenberg is a “summer cottage” in Canandaigua NY about 45 minutes from Rochester. The house and gardens are really grand and since the state stepped up with preservation funds in 2004 it is well maintained and has regular hours open to the public. If you coming into the Finger Lakes this would be a must stop if you are into gardens. For the festival there were many crafts people and artists showing there work. Carol and I have been to many festivals and other than the people we find very little of interest to us. It may be that not having a spare square inch for anything new also reduces our desire to shop. We had a grand time dodging the rainstorms and after a stop at the
Culinary Center for a glass of wine we headed to Branca for dinner and then on to the Memorial Art Gallery for the opening of their show which includes War Rugs. Very disturbing knotted rugs from Afghanistan depicting the weapons the craftspeople see in their daily lives, tanks, helicopters, drones, Kalashnikovs and more. This combined with images from the civil war printed on leaves was really a downer. WE adjourned to the other end of the gallery where the Dady Brothers were performing music from the 60’s on a variety of folk instruments. What joy and we all felt restored from hearing the performance.

Tonight we are going to Barbara and Robert’s house for dessert and many more friends we haven’t seen yet. I have skipped over many other events to avoid spending the whole day writing.

Packing. We have a 44 pound limit total. So I started packing today to be sure I would get under the limit and have everything I need. I hope those are not incompatible goals. We will be traveling on small planes in Africa and the limit is the ability to fly safely not an arbitrary number to force paying an added fee. I already found one medicine I had forgotten to refill. I have the clothes I need and electrical adapters so we can plug in everything when electricity is available. Also a camera and binoculars. I hope to be able to post pictures as we go. Like the inside of a lion’s mouth 🙂 We will see how we do for connectivity. I am depending on provided wifi and not planning on getting a SIM for my phone – 4 countries in 27 days makes that seem pointless and much of the time we won’t have cell service either.

The writing has been easy and I hope it makes sense as well. Next post should be from South Africa, our first stop. We land there on the 26th.