My first adventure on my own.

 July 25, 2025

I had purchased tickets to go into Columbus and see Vince Gill back in April.  I decided to go by myself and see if I could.  So I drove the hour and a half and found my hotel.  The roads in downtown Columbus are one way and the one I needed to use to get to the hotel went the wrong way so I had to drive around a bit to get back there. They do not have self parking so you have to use valet and it cost $40 for the weekend.  That meant I wasn’t using my car while I was there!  I chose this hotel since it was only a couple of blocks from the theater and I could walk that.  Once I got checked in I decided to try out the hot tub, since I had plenty of time before the show.   It was nice to relax in it.  Dinner was in the hotel bistro.  The food was average.  

I changed and headed out to the theater.  There were a number of people walking so I felt safe.  I found the theater and got in line.  It wasn’t long before they opened the doors.  This is an older theater but well kept.  The walls and ceiling were carved and old fashioned.  

At right about 7:30 Vince Gill just walked out on stage and began playing. There was no opening act so it was 3 1/2 hours of Vince.  He sang old and new songs, told stories and just talked to the crowd.  It was a really good show.  

I talked to the people sitting in the same row as me and it turned out that they were staying in the same hotel and had walked down too.  They offered to escort me back so I joined them.  It was late and dark so I felt safer walking with them. 

The next morning I got up, had breakfast and called for my car. It was an easy drive since it was Saturday.  I was home before 11:00.  I was proud of myself going to the show alone.  I really missed Bill, it was hard not having him to talk to.  I guess this is my new normal now.  

July 12 2025

 I haven’t posted for a bit as I haven’t really been doing much except doing paperwork for Bill’ s estate.  I plan on posting more often to document my life as a widow.  There are some plans that Bill and I made together  that I will either do by myself or take Aimee with me or send both Nick and Aimee.  

I am still a season ticket holder to La Comedia, the local dinner theater and plan to do that next year too.  We had a reservation on Bill’s birthday to see Matilda.  I took Aimee with me for that.  I have neighbors that I plan to take to other shows and some I will do myself.  It was a really good show.  

Nick and Aimee are keeping me busy with visits to their house, dinners out and dinners in.  I plan to let them know they will not have to make sure I am included all the time.  Our camping group is spending July at a campground that is 16 miles from our house.  I plan on visiting on both Friday and Saturday since it is so close.  I will be taking things for the potlucks.  They are also having dinner at a restaurant we go to for Bill’s liver (yuck!) so I will:meet them there. .

I have finished most of the paperwork for Bill’s estate but there is always more.  Things appear that I didn’t even think about.  Next week I have to drive out to Wright Patt base to update my ID and turn in his.  Because I don’t trust the “you only need 2 forms of ID.  I plan to take all my paperwork.  Some of those include my birth certificate, marriage license, drivers license, DD214, social security card and anything else I can think of.  

So it has been just under a month since Bill passed and I am doing OK, at least on some days. I a trying to keep to our regular schedule.  It is really hard as it is hot and muggy outside.  I have been going to class when I don’t have an appointment.  Nick said I am not supposed to make major changes for at least 30 days..  I am thinking about a dog but that can wait.  I did make a permanent change today.  I got a second set of piercings in my ears today!  Not bad for a 71 year old!  It has only been 50 years.

My birthday this year was a bit subdued as it was only a few days after Bill passed.  The kids wanted me to have a bit of happiness so they took me out to dinner at Cooper’s Hawk.  It was a good dinner and we had a nice time.  

The next week started the many phone calls and the massive amount of paperwork.  One thing I didn’t think of, once you contact a company they immediately shut down any electronic access to accounts, so even though I had passwords to the accounts I could no longer access them.  I still need to contact companies to get final statements and find out how to get tax forms.  One thing that really got to me was that on our way home from the hospital on the 3rd, we stopped and ordered our new glasses.  In April Bill had cataract surgery and we wanted to get his new glasses so he could see out of his left eye.  We really thought we had at least 6 months before anything happened.  Anyway the new glasses came in after he passed.  

I have been slowly going through Bill’s stuff.  I kept some things but most of his clothes were donated to Vietnam Veterans of America.  I donated all the leftover medical things, some additional clothes, all the glasses, his hearing aids, and some household items from the rig to an organization called Mathew 25 Ministries.  They do a lot of work around natural disaster sites and war torn areas.  I did find it a bit hard to clear out his stuff as I would start then veer off and do something else instead.  I did find it interesting that I had trouble making myself vacuum the floors and clean the bathrooms.  Those were Bill’s job and I couldn’t make myself do them for a couple of weeks.  I haven’t touched the garage yet and probably won’t for a long time.  

So the last few weeks have been both good and bad.  It is day by day and hour by hour.  I still expect to see him at his computer in the office or roll over in bed and expect to see him there.  Once thing I have discovered.  I always thought cooking for 2 was hard, let me tell you, cooking for 1 is darn near impossible!  So I have planned leftovers after cooking.  I am trying not to get in the habit of eating out a lot.  

So I may start posting a bit more. We will see  

A new adventure

 April 5, 2025

We took off for a road trip for the weekend.  We are driving to Chicago to see Brooks and Dunn in concert!  It is about a 5 hour drive and around 335 miles.  We also have an hour time change during the drive.  It was a nice pleasant drive for most of it.  We were going to stop at Cracker Barrel and have dinner as Bill was craving the chicken and dumplings.  We have passed a number of them on the way but when he decided he was hungry we couldn’t find a single one! We decided to stop at the Denny’s at the Flying J where we stopped for gas.  It was pretty good.  Note to our RV’ing friends, they don’t use the Good Sam club card any more for the discount.  

When we were about 10 miles from the hotel we ran into stopped traffic.  It took over an hour to get through that. We finally got to our hotel.  How did we travel before GPS?  We stayed at the Hyatt Place O’Hare Airport, which is right next door to the Allstate Arena which is where the show was.  Our window looked out over the runways at the hotel.  The sound proofing was pretty good and we couldn’t hear the planes.  We rested for a bit and then headed over to the concert.  I bought a bottle of water and would you believe it cost $6.50?!.  They also took the lid off so you had to be really careful not to spill it.  Our seats were ok, a little high but hey, it is music.

There were 2 opening acts.  The first was a young woman and her band.  The name was Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway.  

The music was good, mostly blue grass. They performed for about 30 minutes.  

The second act was David Lee Murphy.  

I know he is mostly known for songwriting but he also performs.  He has had a few hits.  He performed for almost an hour.  We really didn’t know the warmup acts would be for 2 hours before the headliners but once they got started it was great!  

Their backstage setup was really cool. It changed with each song and there were pyrotechnics too!

Most of the audience sang along with every song.  Good thing too as Ronnie Dunn has had strep throat and Covid.  I did notice he wasn’t holding his notes as long as normal and he had trouble hitting the high ones.  But the show was really, really good.  

After the show was walked back to the hotel. Let me tell you, that is the way to go.  Book a hotel close to the theater so you don’t have to drive there and then try to get out of the parking lot after the show is over.  We were in our room in just minutes.  It was hard to go to sleep as I was still pumped up with the music.  

Sunday morning we got up, got dressed and went down to breakfast.  It was just a standard hotel buffet breakfast, nothing special.  We went back to our room and finished packing.  We were on the road by 10.  At least we didn’t have any issues with traffic on our way home, just a long boring drive.  We did stop for lunch/dinner at Cracker Barrel, to get Bill his chicken and dumplings.  I had the chicken fried chicken but brought home half of it.  

On our way home we stopped at a rest area in Illinois, or maybe Indiana, and saw this -

Something really cool to have in a rest area.  

We arrived home just before 5:00 after stopping to fill my gas tank.  It was interesting to see how it was warm in Chicago but got progressively colder on the drive home.  We hit some minor showers in Indiana and Ohio.  We finally arrived home and dumped the suitcase.  We plan on doing the laundry tomorrow.  

That was our latest adventure.  

Scotland #6

 Sunday, June 9

We had a bit of a drive to our last hotel.  We are staying at the Cromlix which is owned by Andy Murray, a famous tennis player.  It is a small 15 bedroom manor house.  We had a small suite.  Aimee and Rory shared the bedroom and I stayed in the living room.  It was only for one night.  

Before we got to our hotel we stopped at a few locations.  The first was the Falkirk Wheel.  It is a 60 minute boat trip from one canal to another one.  Instead of using locks they invented this wheel that raises and lowers the boats from one canal to the other.  Ver ingenious.  

We also enjoyed lunch in , 100 ft tall and weighing more than 300 tons each.  Kelpies are a mythical creatures that is said to lure people into the water and then kill them.  These statues also pay homage to the heavy horse industry in Scotland.  They are really impressive.  We spent about an hour or so here.  It is in a lovely park that many people come to spend a nice day.  

Our last stop was at Stirling Castle.  It is one of Scotland’s most historically important sites and was once the favored residence of the Stuart kings.  

Finally we arrived at our hotel.  It is very beautiful.  Here are some pictures of the grounds.

We had dinner at the on-site restaurant and the food was very good.  At this point we were kinda tired of fancy food and multiple courses.  Aimee had a Caesar salad eith chicken while I had a pasta dish with romesco sauce.  Rory order the kids pasta bolognese.  It didn’t fill him up so we told him to order a second one.  A different server brought it over quickly. He devoured that.  Our regular server came and said his second dish would be right up and we laughed and told her that was the second one!  

Monday, June 10

Scott picked us up bright and early, around 7:00.  We are flying out today and our flight is scheduled for 11:00.  We had about an hour drive to the airport then had to check in and get to our gate.  Because I purchased the express passport control we got through the line quickly.  We found someplace to grab a bite for breakfast then got to our gate.  We boarded and took off with no problems.  The flight back was smooth and we took full advantage of the inflight entertainment and lunch.  They offered a second meal which I mistakenly accepted.  It was a Wellington burger.  I only ate about a third of it but it didn’t settle for me.  As we got off the plan in Chicago I didn’t feel good and barely made it to the bathroom.  Once we got through passport control I still felt awful.  Aimee was able to talk to an officer and we got a wheelchair for me to get to our next gate.  Lucky that we did as we had to collect our luggage and wheel it to a drop off point, then catch the train to another terminal, go through security again then get to our gate.  Once we finally made it to the gate I slept for about an hour and felt well enough to travel home.  Our flight was delayed about an hour or so as our pilots were late getting in from Phoenix.  We boarded and the crew finally arrived and we took off.  Nick met us in Cincinnati and got us home.  It was around 11:00 pm.  A long day but we were finally home. 

We loved our trip.  I would absolutely go back.  We didn’t have as much time for shopping and exploring as I would have liked.  I was in some pain on a few days and had to nap instead of explore the grounds but Aimee and Rory were able to do that.  There were some places I was unable to go due to steep stairs and no hand rails.  Tips - don’t plan any activities on the day you arrive or the next day.  Use those days to wander and shop and rest.  Don’t expect the same type of foods.  Make reservations for restaurants, many that we used only had availability for those with reservations.  Get a driver.  Schedule relaxing days with no plans for additional exploring around town.  Don’t pack your schedule so full you are just going from place to place.  Have fun 

Scotland #5

 Friday, June 7

Today we really didn’t have any set plans except to travel to our next hotel.  We did take a drive to Glen Etive.  It is a beautiful area that is used in many films, the most well known being James Bond’s Skyfall.  I have never seen it but will have to look it up.  The drive out there is long and the single track is bumpy.  I am not sure it is worth the drive.

We did take a drive around Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National park on our way to the hotel. We are spending the next two nights at Cameron House. It is a beautiful baronial mansion surrounded by 100acres of woodland. We were a bit disappointed in our room the first night.  It was very small with Two twin beds and a rollaway.  We barely had room to walk around. Unfortunately the hotel was booked for that night and we couldn’t change.  We spoke to our tour company and they got us booked into a small suite for the second night.  We did decide to keep both rooms and asked if that was okay.  They checked and we were able to do that so I had the first room and Aimee and Rory took the other.  It was partly my fault as I did book two rooms originally, I thought I would save a bit of money.  I won’t make that mistake again.  I told the hotel I was more than willing to pay for the second room but they didn’t charge me for it! We had dinner on site at their more casual restaurant, La Vista.  It is an Italian style restaurant.  I had a calzone that was way too big.  I did ask for a side salad and they threw together a something.  Salads are not something you find a lot in Scotland, surprisingly.  Rory had spaghetti carbonara and he loved it.  He did have dessert, a banana split but it wasn’t what we were used to.  It was a banana split in half lengthwise, then brûlées, and a scoop of ice cream.  

None of us took pictures today.

Saturday, June 8

Today was a casual day for us.  We are not leaving the hotel grounds.  We met for breakfast and Rory was not happy with the selection of food.  He can’t wait to get back home and have his dad’s scrambled eggs.  The ones here are too runny for all of us.  Aimee has mostly been having fruit for breakfast while I alternate between yougurt and porridge.  I also have fruit or granola with them.  Anyway, I asked the waiter if there was any chance they could whip up some pancakes for Rory and they obliged.  He was happy with those.  

After breakfast we headed out for our Flaconry Experience.  Our instructor was a bit late but it was worth it.  I was unable to partake because you need to use your left arm for the birds to land and that was my bad one, but the others did.  I took pictures and videos.  

It was really cool and we all enjoyed it.  There was one bird who didn’t want to listen and at one point flew away.  He had a tracker on him and the instructor was able to catch him.  

After that I took a quick nap and Aimee and Rory went to lunch then headed to the pool.  It was a really nice pool area and there were a lot of kids there.  

Dinner was in the fancier restaurant, the Cameron Grill.  Here are some more pictures around the grounds