Meet Shashi and Peter, fellow members of one of the most exclusive love clubs in the world.

Peter and I may be the only people on Earth who can say they were Peace Corps Volunteers who served in Nepal and fell in love with a beautiful Limbu woman from the eastern town of Ilam. I was posted in Ilam during my first year of service, teaching in a school where Champa was also a teacher, which is how we met. Peter served several years later, in another town, and met Shashi, who grew up in Ilam near Champa. They married and have now lived for many years in the Chicago area, with two terrific kids.

When we visited yesterday, Shashi cooked one of her amazing meals. (I’ll be disappointed in my foodie friends back in Durham if they don’t post some comments about the spread she laid out, shown in the top photo.)

What was even more amazing, though, was her disappointment that we didn’t bring G, the traveling Blue Devil gnome. (He was taking a nap in our car and we didn’t want to disturb him when we left in another car.) Shashi’s niece joined in scolding us with a smile, saying she’s been following G’s adventures (instagram.com/davidjarmul) and wanted to see what he looks like in person. Shashi also hoped to introduce him to her own garden gnome, who you can see in the photo under her right hand.

In the video below, Shashi makes clear that we better not show up again without the gnome. (She calls me Binaju, or “Bina,” which literally means brother-in-law but is also used with close friends.)

Shashi, we promise. We’ll be remembering you and all of our Chicago friends as we embark on one of the longest drives of our journey, a four-day stretch across Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana, ending up at Glacier National Park. Off we go.