Institutionalized: 1940

Finalizing Our Trip to California

It has been a few months since we saw our friends. Our planning of our trip to California is coming together slowly. All we have is the city we are visiting, which is going to be Los Angelos because that is the closest major city to Fontana. We also know when we should go. As Max suggested October, but the race is in September. We are hoping to go in September to watch the race. If September does not work out, we will go in October. If we go in October, the trip could be an anniversary trip. We will phone the train station to see September 7 of next year is available to travel to Los Angeles. Most likely it is because we are booking our trip months in advance. We will be able to watch the race live. We are excited about it. We are happy that we will not have problems adjusting to a time change as California is in our time zone. We will not say the same for our friends, well some of them who do not live in the western time zone. We will call the train station ticket boothin a few weeks. That will give us time to write to Max and Dario to let them know that we will beable to attend the race in California next September.

The next morning, I wrote the letter to Max for Greg. In the letter, I just told Max that we will be able to attend the race in Fontana, California next Dario's letter, we wrote the same thing as we wrote in Max's. I will mail the letters in the morning.

The next morning, we went to the mailbox together. Greg decided to come along. Once home from the mailbox, we decided to wait until we received replies from Max and Dario before we book our train tickets to Los Angeles for next year. We will have to wait a few weeks for their responses.

A few weeks have passed since writing the letters. When I went to the mailbox, I was hoping for two letters one from Max and the other from Dario. When I opened the mailbox, there were two envelopes. Once I took them out of the mailbox, I noticed that they were both for Greg. I also noticed the return addresses and one was from Max and the other from Dario. I was happy to see the letters because that means that Greg and I can book the tickets for our trip. Once I returned home, I told Greg that we received letter from Max and Dario. I let Greg read them first as they were his friends. Once he read both letters, he told me that both of them are happy that we are making the effort to go see the race. They also suggested in their letters that we book our tickets early. After Greg told me what the letters said, we decided that we should write them both a short letter telling them that we will book the tickets in a few days. We dated the letters, so they know when we booked the train tickets.

The next morning, I mailed the letters. After mailing the letters and returning home, I told Greg that we should book the tickets in the next day or so. Greg agreed that it was a good idea.

A few days later, we asked Ric to drive us to the train station, so we could book our tickets in person and let the clerk know that we will need to have an assistant if we are transfering trains. Once we called Ric to ask him if he could drive us, he said no problem and he will be there to take us to the train station. Once Ric arrived, we were heading to the train station. Once at the train station, Ric waited outside for us. In the train station, we told the clerk that we wanted tickets to Los Angeles for September 7 next year. Once we paid for the tickets, the clerk asked us if there was anything else that he could help us with. We said yes there was, then we asked him if we will be needing to transfer trains. He told us that this train went all the way to Los Angeles.

After leaving the train station, Ric was waiting for us outside. He asked us when our trip was and we told him it was in September of next year. He commented that he does remember going to Los Angelos for races. He also told us that he remembered the day of Greg's crash. The day Greg crashed at the speedway was October 31. the same day as our anniversary. The crash happened three years before Greg signed up to join the air force, which was in 1936 because Greg joined the air force in 1939 at the start of the war. So Greg only raced 3 years. What a tragedy war is. It ruined a great racer's career.

After Ric was done talking, he apologized for getting off track. He also apologized for bringing the war up in the conversation because he knew how sensitive a subject it was to both of us. After returning home from the train station, I decided to put the tickets in a safe place, so Ryliegh would not get them. We also put the tickets in a place where we would not forget about them. Our trip is months away. We need to make sure we do not misplace the tickets. We decided to put the tickets in an envelope then in the top draw of Greg's dresser. They will not disappear there.

The other thing we have to organize for our trip is that Ryliegh has to be looked after. Even though he is an assistance animal, we cannot bring him with us on our long trip to California. We will have to ask Ric. When we are organizing that, Greg thought of something. He blurted out that I was never properly introduced to his step siblings Annie and James. I do recall seeing them at out wedding with his step mom Donna. We do not see Donna that often as we ask Ric to drive us places. We need to confirm with both Ric and Donna to see if they would look after Ryliegh for us. We decided that we should call them the next day to ask them the favour.

The next morning, we called Greg's parents to ask about looking after Ryliegh. I actually dialed the number, but let Greg talk to his parents about the favour. Ric answered the phone. Greg asked if we could leave Ryliegh with them while we are in California. Ric asked Donna and Donna was okay with it. Greg thanked Ric and Donna.

After the phone call, Greg told me that they will take Ryliegh while we are on our trip. I am happy that one thing off our long list of things to do before our trip in September.

It is now spring. Soon it will be time for another Vancouver Indy, another chance to see our friends befor seeing them race in California. It is now April. Our birthdays are coming up. There are five months to go until our trip. We are getting excited.

It is now summer the days are longand hot. The Vancouver Indy is a few days is now July and there are only two months to go before our trip to California. We need to start figuring out what we should pack. We decided to ask one of the guys about what we should pack.

Today is the start of the Vancouver Indy weekend. Ric picked us up as usual to take us to the track. Once at the track, the guys met us. We asked them what we needed to pack for our trip. They told us that we should pack shorts and T-shirts also a few sweaters for the cool nights. We stayed for practice. The next day we went to qualifying. Alex Zanardi is on pole for the race. On Sunday, it was race day. It was intense. Alex Zanardi won the race. We congratulated him. After the victory circle celebration, we told them that we would see them in September.

It is now August and a month until our trip. We got our suitcases ready to pack our clothes in. We pack clothes for nine days because that is how long our trip is going to be. We pack five pairs of shorts each. We also pack nine t-shirts, nine under garments, five pairs of sleepwear and two or three sweaters. This amount of clothing is in both our suitcases. We are ready for our trip to California next month and cannot wait.