Just back from North Branch

 Mimi, Tim and Eleanor live in North Branch, NY, which is close to 'nowhere' New York!

The way Bern's phone sends us we go 84 West to 17 West and then get off into the sticks. We travel Route 52, which is a road in Southern West Virginia too, and go through White Sulfur Springs (which has the same name as a town in southeastern West Virginia.

The two towns have nothing in common.

The one in New York is less than a mile long and has only a few stores.

The one in West Virginia is home of the Greenbrier, a resort visited by presidents like Wilson, FDR, Eisenhower and others.

Two different worlds.

But North Branch does look like West Virginia.

A mountain, their house, a two lane road, a house and a mountain.

But their house is old and great and they have a barn that could be turned into a residence and Tim is going to use for his music studio.

They're giving up their apartment in NYC since Tim can work remotely always and Mimi can get to the city in under two hours for a day or two every week or so.

We had a great time.

Eleanor is five and one of the smartest 5 year old kids anywhere.

She can already read quite a bit and has an enormous concentration ability.

We came back today--it's only about 2 1/2 hours from Cheshire--got Brigit from the doggie motel and, as much as we loved being with Mimi's family, were glad to be home.

(I had 98 emails--I opened 6 of them. Once your email gets out there you're to get a lot a stuff you don't want to read!)