6/22/92 and 6/23/92

6/22/92
Place: the Parking lot of So-Fro Fabrics, Dubuque, Iowa


I just picked up my last pay check and said my good-byes to my boss. The check is for $174.90 and is all the cash we are taking with us to Montana.
Jasper and Ula have gone into the mall because Ula needs to use the bathroom and Jasper needs to call his mother to make sure she is at home before we drive all the way across Wisconsin to see her. If anything further has happened with her father, she will be with him out in California, instead of at being at home.
Nika is asleep in her car seat and it is raining rather heavily outside.
There is a fly in the van, that keeps landing on Nika and causing her to almost wake-up.


6/23/92
1:00p.m.
Place: Trevor, WI.

We just left Jasper's mom's house.
The kids are fighting over a tippy cup in the back seat.
Right now, we are on our way to Madison.

7:04p.m.
We've been to the storage locker, where we dropped off our dress clothes and some of my fabric, along with the finished quilt tops.
Then we went to the Willy Street Co-op to but spices, soba, and kombu.
After that, we went out to eat at Bahn Thai, where we stuffed ourselves with really great Thai food. About half of Nika's food ended up on the floor, though.
Now we are on our way out of town. Nika and Ula have been separated. Nika is in a car seat in the front and Ula's car seat is behind the driver's seat. I'm sitting next to Ula.
I really wish we were still living in or around Madison. I like this place a lot. We just couldn't afford to continue living here. Rent was too high and when we were living here, I was unemployed, first because I couldn't find a job and then because of a high-risk pregnancy.

7:30 p.m.
We have stopped to put gas in the van. Nika is asleep and Jasper is holding Ula up, so she can wash the side window next to her seat. She announced that she had to go "potty" as soon as we stopped the van. She actually asks to go potty at every gas station we stop at.
There has been a little sprinkling of rain, but it seems to have stopped now.

7:40 p.m.
It's raining again, a bit harder than before.

8:43p.m.
We've been through some very heavy rain, which made driving nearly impossible. Now, there are a couple drops of water on the windshield, being blown upwards as we drive. We can see the pinks and peaches of the sunset over the hills. This is beautiful country, big tree covered hills and fog resting in the valleys. We just drove through a cloud.
Nika is awake and smiling.
"Cows!" exclaimed Nika. This is quite an improvement. She had named everything else for the past two days "Dog".