Much Brotherly Love

Back to our wonderful homeland. It was Wintertime 2009 not so long ago. We left Walden and traveled through Montpelier (so Amy could get one more day of babysitting in) and headed southbound with a full car and a full tank of veggie oil. The plan was to make it back in time for Robert’s annual Grinch Party, and we did just that (sans a sleepy Amy). This is also where I begin my unintended journey to gain an upwards of 10 lbs…

EXTRA, EXTRA! Sagittarians and Saris!

December not only brought us a lot snow here in the North East Kingdom, but it also brought us two fabulous events that we were fortunate to attend. Our great new friend Chris (Yogi Mukti) invited us to his annual Sagittarius party in Montpelier, and we were happy to accept because “we like to party” and, hey, I (Jon) am part Sag myself! The email invite stated that it would be a tropical themed party and to dress for warm temps which sounded entertainingly ironic for this time of year in VT. So, after picking up Brooke from work, we ventured to the outskirts of Montpelier. When we arrived, as promised, there were subtropical temperatures in Mukti’s home along with people decked out in bathing suits and tropical wears.

Minneapolis

After awaking and briefly searching for grease with no luck, we set out for Minneapolis. We spent a few hours driving straight there, arriving at Pete and Barbra’s in the afternoon. We have been to Minneapolis on several occasions since Amy has a few relatives living in and around the Twin Cities. Pete is Amy’s uncle and we were to stay with him and his lovely wife Barbara for the next 2 days.

Govinda’s of Tucson

Whenever we visit Tucson, we always make it a point to have a meal at Govinda’s Natural Foods Buffett. This time, we decided to make it our first stop since we were quite hungry from our day of driving, and it was on the way to grandma and grandpa’s. We were hoping it would be “Indian Night,” when they dedicate their whole buffet to an array of delicious Indian dishes (otherwise there would be a mix of all different vegetarian dishes). Instead of calling ahead, we decided to go right there, and to our good fortune, the sign on the door read, “Indian Night.” Needless to say, we happily filled our plates and enjoyed the food.

Couchsurfing, Shreveport!

Couchsurfing is a great thing. We have been meeting some awesome people and on our way out of Jackson we did just that. Our next destination was Kaufman, Texas where we would visit the Southwest Vipassana Center to help out between meditation courses. We had about five days to kill before we arrived so we decided to look up some people on CS to stay with along the way. One of them was Matt in Shreveport, LA. Shreveport was only a about a three to four hour drive from Jackson and along our route into Texas. We met Matt, our host, at his apartment after he got home from his job as a lawyer for the US Air Force. We could tell instantly that Matt was a genuinely nice guy, he made us feel right at home.