India Trip, October 2 - Gandhi's Birthday a Nat'l holiday

After about a 5 hour train ride with kids from Woodstock and an hour taxi ride up the mountain we were greeted by Judy Crider. Once again a Crider was a welcome sight. Mom, as anticipated, did not enjoy the taxi ride up the hill. It is a unique form of driving where the horn joins the gas, brake & steering wheel as an essential tool for driving. The horn, as I figured, is the voice of the vehicle saying, "I'm here and I'm going around you be ready!". Then that is exactly what they do. We climbed from 1800 feet to 6500 in that hour span and the view was amazing!

It was good to see the sisters reunited on the porch. Marietta was sitting out on the porch the sun behind her creating a halo effect with her hair. Mom was a bit taken aback at how she looked -- older & more frail.

We were immediately taken care of by Vijay (pronouced "B jew") & Yousef (Joseph in English) with water and chairs to sit in on the porch. They work wonders around this place and help things run smoothly. Such a blessings to the Criders & Marietta as well.

We had some soup & grilled cheese sandwiches before heading up to our room for a short nap. The short nap turned out longer than what was recommended, but we made it to supper sure 'nough. We ended the evening around the Clavinova keyboard....Mom kicking out songs from memory and the rest of us trying to remember the words :-)