On The Road to Wisconsin

This morning my husband and I embarked on our 2012 Great American 1,800 mile Road Trip.  We left coastal southern California’s 73º weather and drove into 110 º “furnace” of Nevada.  Similar weather in the coming weeks only with humidity.

We’re heading to Dorchester, Clark County, Wisconsin to participate in the Williams/Bartunek Family Reunion that’s going to be held on Saturday, 28 July.  Our great-grandparents are the connection.  (My maternal grandmother was a Bartunek.)

I’ve been emailing and collaborating with several of the cousins’ for about 10 years.  It’s been great sharing family information and getting connected again with my mother’s side.  Some of the cousins live in the area; some are driving from Illinois, Michigan and parts unknown to me.

I also have cousins from my mother’s paternal side of the family in the area.  We’ll be visiting with one of her cousins the day following the reunion.  I talked to her a few weeks ago.  She wanted to know what I wanted to do/see when we meet.  I told her not to worry about taking me to “see the sights, I just wanted to visit.”  She asked if I wanted to go to any cemeteries while we’re there.  Oh wow!  I said, “Yes, of course!” 

A week after the reunion we’ll be driving across the state to visit with another cousin of mine.  We haven’t seen each other close to 50 years I think.  With all of this coming up, I’ve been busy updating my genealogy program to Roots Magic-5; scanning photos my mother had; scanning vital record documents; finally inputting the new facts with sources in the program.  While on the road I’ll still need to printout family group sheets and make a genealogy CD for each family.

I’m anxious and excited at the same time.

Mini Road Trip - Day 1

Today my sister and I drove from our homes in Southern California to Henderson, Nevada.  We're going to visit our aunt who is 82.  Henderson is just outside Las Vegas, so it's always a good thing to visit or travel through this part of the country when it's NOT summer. 

No numbers or text on buttons

The drive it's self was thankfully boring and uneventful.  It was cold and in some places really windy.  I drove the first 2½ hours then we switched places and she got us to our hotel.  (On a side note, I had a problem with the TV remote control in my room.  The number buttons, mute button, and the last/previous button, must have been used so much that all the white numbers and text had faded away. The remote looked like it didn't have anything on the buttons.  Try not just changing channels but finding the channels too!) 

Since we checked in so early we went over to our aunt's house to say hello, visit a bit then left to have dinner.  We plan on taking her and her room mate to the movies tomorrow.  I haven't seen our aunt in some time so since I'm now retired I'm trying to see everybody I can.  I brought my portable scanner with me so I'm planning on scanning some photos she has.

During our road trip last year we met distant relatives in the New Orleans, LA area.  Those distant relatives were my brick wall problem.  I'm bring my genealogy program database up to date with all the information the relatives gave me and I'll print out all the family group sheets for my aunt so she can have a copy for her Remembrance Book. 

Really looking forward to a great visit!