I made it to Rochester!

Wow, after 9200 miles, traveling from the Phoenix Arizona area, I am finally in the Rochester area. That is the equivelant of driving from Pheonix to Rochester, then back to Phoenix, then doing that a second time! I am so looking forward to seeing family and friends. I arrived at my cousin's house. It was good to see her husband and her daughter too. It's been a few years since I've visited and I enjoyed the grand tour showing all the hard work that they have done rehabbing and building this historical house.

It's day three of record breaking heat, 95° with high humidity. Oh god, I hope I can survive a N.Y. summer!!! Jo Jo gets soaked down quiet a bit. As I write this, I am in Webster Park on a park bench overlooking Lake Ontario. He's on the bench with me completely soaked down. And I am tempted to jump into this polluted lake. Too bad it's not a swimming beach here. It's still pretty hot, eventhough a torrential thunder storm came through, which cooled things down to 73°, but now it's back up again, so it's extra, extra, extra steamy.

I decided to take a drive back to my old neighborhood. Along with driving past my childhood home, I also went to my sister's house, my mother's house, and finally the last two houses that I owned. My childhood house was on Harris Road in Webster. I live there until about 1970. It's a beige ranch. The next photo is the white house and red barn where my parents lived for 30 years, moving away in 2006. The gray glass faced house is the house that my father and I built. It was a special dream home that my father and I took a year-and-a-half to build. The next photo is my sister Carol's house up on a hill, set back off the road. I was amazed at the size of the evergreen trees They were really tall. The last photo is the house I lived in in from 1985 to 1993. That one had the most drastic changes. It is now a gray-green sided house, and I barely recognized it. But I have to say it was very nice looking and beautifully landscaped. I remember planting the locust trees that were about 8 foot tall back in 1985. I'm not sure how tall they are now, but they are massive shade trees. I also planted evergreen seedlings, and those trees are probably 50 or 60 ft tall. I am definitely, definitely melancholy and a bit sad now. Mostly because my parents are gone, and I had such great memories growing up. I feel like those memories are now limited, and no longer evolve since they have passed. I was really happy to see my parent's home, and it looked like the people there were keeping it up, and taking good care of it. That really warmed my heart, and makes me happy. And as I finish writing, it's cooling down. What a sweet day.

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