Wow! It has been over a year since we finished our two-year pilgrimage to Jerusalem when we walked into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem Christmas Day, 2010. In the year since we have traveled to India and retraced many our pilgrimage steps in the US from Lake Huron west. And after living five months in a casita (Santa Fe cottage) here in Santa Fe NM, we have moved to a more permanent place just south of town. And in October Petra became our newest US citizen.

Now over a year after arriving in Jerusalem, we have released a book on our pilgrimage, Encounters on the Road to Jerusalem. The book tells the story of our encounters with people, places, animals, sun, wind, rain, snow, roads, and paths we walked across North America and southern Europe. It also tells the story of our encounters with our own joys, doubts, fears, and ecstasies. It is the story of living 23 months on the road, of trusting the Universe to provide what we needed when we needed it. You can browse and read the first 40 or so pages at www.PilgrimageCreations.com. You can also purchase it there.

I have been informed by Warren Baker that Ingrid Smith of Toronto has passed away. She was involved in the coin business for years, in Germany and Canada most recently, running the TOREX shows in Toronto, in approx. 1980's and 1990's. Her son Brian took over the running of the shows a few years ago. Her daughter Christina was also in the coin business and might still be.

I was a regular attendant of the TOREX shows at the Ramada Inn/Primrose hotel at Carlton and Jarvis in downtown Toronto starting in the early 1980's when Jeffrey Hoare Auctions was doing the auctions. She is survived by her husband Dick, and son and daughter, as far as I know.....