New friends . . . of friends . . . of friends . . .

I can now say I have friends in Chattanooga. One of my oldest and dearest friends in Minnesota is Mary Malone. We have know each other for about 25 years. When she found out I was in Tennessee she prompted me via many emails to stop and visit her friend Gail. That is not something I would normally do. How and why would you call a stranger and say," Hi, I am a friend of your friends and she wants us to meet". A bit awkward, right? Well, Ms. Mary was prompting Gail to contact me too. I did receive an email invite from Gail and also an invite from a friend of Gail's who is a quilter. Wow! So to make a long story short, I enjoyed a delightful lunch with Beth Burke at a quaint Italian restaurant just up the road from Stone Light Studios. It was authentic Italian food, needless to say awesomely delicious, the owner a recent immigrant from Italy!

I then met Gail Hunter for dinner at a Thai Restaurant in Chattanooga. We could have talked all night. We have much much more in common than just our friend Mary. That's Gail and I pictured below.

I think today I learned that we (all of us) have friends all over the world, we just don't know it yet!

Now off to Knoxville. I'll talk to you tonight.