Reigning Princess

Yesterday was kind of a break in the action.  We had a couple events on behalf of one the newest chapters, Central Illinois, in the afternoon/evening so the morning was free.  We got to sleep in!

I made it all the way to 6:18 

woohoo.  

On the plus side, I found a lovely little locally owned coffee shop in downtown Urbana and enjoyed coffee and free Wifi to craft yesterday's work of art.  I'm here again today too.  Cool old building with tin ceilings and 8" heart of pine wood floors.  Of course when it was built I'm sure they never envisioned aging hipsters and college students sipping latte's and listening to new age music, but hey, any port in the storm, right?

So as to yesterday.  The events weren't spectacular, but you can't hit a homer every time, you know?  And, one of the things we do on tour is to help promote chapters, so I think we definitely helped in that regard.  We also took part in the ceremony put together for C IL's first fire truck, soon to be a pink one, donated by the Rantoul FD and that was nice.

But here's the thing about yesterday.  Two of the families involved in the chapter had their kids with us for one or two of our days here in the CU area.  Four little girls, cute as buttons and as sweet as can be.  But there was something more about them that struck me personally and almost immediately.

One of the little girls bore a striking resemblance to the Blond Child.  And another looked so much like the Reigning Princess that, last night, at dinner, when I showed her Mom a recent picture of the RP, her first thought was to wonder where HER daughter had gotten that outfit.  The really funny thing though was that, although the younger daughter also looked a little like the RP, her personality was spot on.  So much so, that about 20 minutes after meeting me, the littlest one came sprinting across the sidewalk and launched herself at me, arms raised, looking for a hug.  

Exactly like the RP does.

The Reigning Princess stole my heart right from the first time I saw her and she knows it, lol.  This is not to imply any kind of favoritism with the grandkids either.  They all have their own truly unique characteristics and each of them charms me in their own way.  Maybe it's a "first granddaughter" kind of thing with the RP, I'm not sure, but that little girl has a special place in my heart and always will.  

So to see these little ones running around the last couple days brought many smiles to my face.  

Many memories too.

Some good, some sad, all cherished.

I'm debating if I want to put pictures up here of my new friends.  I didn't think about it last night while I was hanging out with their parents, so I didn't ask their permission.  But it's not like this mess gets a lot of traffic either.  The only people that would recognize any similarities are my kids and a handful of friends.  

Moving on...

Tomorrow's day includes getting on the road by 6:15 for the two plus hour drive to suburban Indy for day chock full of stuff around Leslie's home town.  

The person, not the truck.

Leslie Hulce was from Fishers, IN and the tour will be there Friday and Saturday.  I'm looking forward to seeing her sister Lisa again and meeting her Mom.  I've been in contact with them since we got Leslie and they've always been very sweet.  I'm so glad we got the opportunity to bring the tour back to town.

One of the events scheduled for us on Friday is a concert.  The headliner is...

Wait for it...

...

...

Eddie Money!!!

Sigh.

I guess Meat Loaf was busy...

Lastly and for the record, Mike is a quitter.  We're taking him to the train station today, his time on tour is done.  Mike's jump on board this particular crazy train was completely spontaneous and a lot of fun for all of us.  He's a really good kid and he did great on tour.  He produced some lovely works of art yesterday, but more than that for the last week he's produced many fond memories and good vibes for a bunch of people that had no clue how loved they were by people they had never met before and may well never see again.  Whether he realizes it or not, they gave back to him as much as he gave out.  He's a good kid and I wish him much success in whatever he chooses to do...

Of course, I'll never tell him that.  Instead, I'll continue to call him a quitter.

It's what we do.

Peace.