Pay Dirt!

Whew!  What a day!  We started out early to Chmelova.  We tracked down Milka Dennis who seems to know about everyone in the village...what a Godsend she was! After spending time at her house we headed over to the Gary's relatives and found out that Gary and the owner of our pension are cousins.  In addition, so am I!  So many connections were made.  Afterwards we went to the Rusinak household and met with my second cousins. We were moved as we saw the place where our grandfather was born. They then called their cousin in Bardejov and they came out as well.  They brought out some wonderful kolbasi and we literally inhaled all of it!!    After an enjoyable visit we headed to Smilno to walk through the cemetery to look for Nancy's relatives. Milka also showed her where Nancy's grandmother was born.  A few of us went to our cousin Dusan and Maria's house for dinner and we tried to figure out our dual relationships...more work is needed on this.

As I am writing this  we are all gathered together in the pension reliving our past few days.  I'm not sure about the rest of the group but I know that I personally am going to be very sad to leave Stary Kraj.  It has been an awesome trip with a wonderful group of people!  Tomorrow we head for Zdynia , Poland for the Lemko Vatra and on to Rabka Zdroj to meet with Janice's family.  On Saturday we will begin the final leg of our journey back to Prague where we will spend the night before departing home.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have some great news to report about Janice and her relatives!  Until then....