Oct 11 -- Wyneden

Wyneden is Wayne Guymon's name for his garden of eden -- his multi-acre gardens and home in Chadds Ford PA. We went to visit with Wayne and Doris last night, touring his gardens and having dinner. The last time we saw Wayne and Doris was in Florida when they visited last spring.

Wayne continued to develop his gardens gradually clearing hillsides and widening his plantings. He has done extensive work on the water flows in the last year, building concrete dams topped by stones mortared in place to create waterfalls. It is heavy duty work, for example the dam that he has been working on the last few days has taken 80 bags of cement ... he needs to borrow my dad's cement mixer !

He made a deal to purchase rhododendrons from a garden place that was closing and has planted most of them. When Wayne does something, he does it in quantity -- we're talking 3,500 rhodies ! He plants thousands of bulbs every fall -- we've yet to be there in the Spring ... we have to make a point of that.

Doris is going to spend a month in Orlando again this winter so we will see her and Wayne down south at some point. Wayne will drive down with her, leave the car, fly back home and then fly down again after the month to drive back.

Earlier in the day Sandy went to have her nails done while I went to Cabelas in Hamburg. While maps.google.com and the NAV thought that it would take an hour, the rain and the traffic conspired to make it 1.5 hours. For the return trip I took the long route east on I78, south on I476, west on I76, south on 202 -- and it took an hour 25 minutes.

Cabelas is amazing. 250,000 square feet of displays -- all outdoorsy stuff. They have a huge selection of guns -- I am not in the market -- gun supplies, hunting supplies, clothing, kayaks, camping, fishing -- it's hard to describe the exent of this place. I picked up a laser bore-sight and a couple of boxes of CO2 cartridges for my bike -- one for me and one for Aaron. I also picked up a strainer for cooking french fries (or other small items) in the deep fryer up north. It's a huge ladle almost 3 feet long ... that will keep me far removed from the hot oil ! I could use it to catch minnows !

We heard from Angelika yesterday -- she was headed north to New Smyrna Beach to stay at our place. It was too hot and busy in Key West. I think that there is more for her to do in NSB anyway.

Today ... Sandy is getting her hair done in NJ. I will (hopefully) go for a bike ride mid-day. It's too cold now ... Tonight we are supposed to have dinner with Pam and Steve.

That's it for now ...