Winter 2015-Starting out

Thu. Jan. 22—Sat. Jan.: We left a day later than we had planned and prepared. We both had lingering colds, Mom H. was sicker than we were, and we got about two inches of snow on Tuesday and three on Wednesday which meant driving in salty slushy conditions, so we waited for Thursday. In the stress of the packing Marv inadvertently shaved half his beard! He shaved his neck like he always does and headed up his right cheek without changing the head on the trimmer. He trimmed the rest of it closer than usual, leaving him a bit unbalanced but happy in the knowledge that his beard grows so quickly he would soon look okay. I got to see more of his face than I’ve seen in over 40 years. Unfortunately, we awoke to more snow so we might as well have left as planned. Nonetheless we got up early, closed up the house, took some flavored sparkling seltzer water to Mom and got on the road about 8:30. The snow had stopped and there were only wet roads until we got to the freeway and then it was pretty smooth sailing so we made it to Auburn around 10:30, where we met Ken at Jeremiah’s Brewed Awakenings for a short visit. In Fort Wayne we stopped to play with Josh and visit with Jen, who made us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for lunch. We made it to Carmel around 3:30 and played with the kids and talked until dinner time, when Craig met us at a Mexican Restaurant where we celebrated Analyn’s fourth birthday. Sarah left before the rest of us to go to bell practice. When we were all back at the house Analyn opened our bag full of presents: a sweatshirt outfit, a Cinderella music box, a Hello Kitty make-up bag, an Olaf the Snowman pillow and blanket set, and a game of Pixie Sticks we found in Nanny’s stuff.

Boppa meets Tiny the Bear

Josh REALLY loves Tiny and Boppa

Ana holds up her new sweatsuit

Analyn, Elijah and Jordan check out her presents

Friday was Ana’s “real” birthday so, after getting the boys off to school, Craig, Marv and I went to a nearby doughnut shop for breakfast. Ana picked out the item I knew she would—it was an unfilled long john covered with icing and pink and white sprinkles—and a bottle of strawberry milk. She amazed us all by eating every bit of the big pastry! When Craig and Ana left to get her to school, Marv and I left to begin our journey to Texas, getting on the road before 9:30. The roads were clear and dry, and it was cloudy and about 30°. After a quick stop to wash the salt off the truck and camper we drove around Indianapolis and then headed southwest, through Illinois, a bit of Missouri and into Arkansas. The temperature slowly rose and, though it was mostly cloudy, it was a pleasant enough drive with no drama or excitement along the way. We had thought we’d get to Memphis and stay overnight and visit the Civil Rights Museum there. But it was only around 5:00 so we continued. There was a surprisingly good sunset and then we got off the road to try and find someplace for dinner. It was dark as we exited and drove past a small business district, and then we found ourselves on an unlighted road with no place to turn around. The seven miles seemed like much farther before we came upon a farm with room enough for us to pull in and turn around.  We were shaky from tension as we pulled into a busy Mexican place for dinner and to gather our wits. Afterwards we made it all the way to Little Rock and stayed at a Budget Hotel that turned out to be exactly what we needed for a good night’s sleep.

Ana is four!

Daddy/Daughter Doughnut Date

Friday's sunset

After cereal and bagels/English Muffins on Saturday, we were underway before 8:30 and continued our journey. After we bought gas the truck computer said we had plenty of miles to get to Texarkana. Unfortunately, once we got below about 55 miles left in the tank and 30 miles let to Texarkana, the computer started dropping faster than the miles were being covered. Panic was setting in as there were no gas stations in sight. Our GPS said there was Flying J truck stop five miles away and the truck said we had 15 miles left. As we pulled up to the gas pump the computer said we had 4 miles left! Ugh! Too much drama! But the gas was $1.75, about as low as we had seen it so far. So all was well.

Once we got around Texarkana we had no phone or internet signals driving state highways and country roads southwest across northeast Texas. At one point we had a brief signal and found out from a text from Ann and an email from Barb that Denny had taken Mom to the ER because her cough was so bad and she felt so crummy that it was feared she had pneumonia. We felt quite helpless as we continued driving until we were back into communication about an hour from College Station. We learned then that the hospital had released her with three new prescriptions after determining that she did not have pneumonia. We also managed to call Aggieland RV Park to tell them we’d be there a day earlier but they said it was no problem.

The GPS took us right to the RV Park, which was giving us a good deal since we were there to volunteer at a P.E.T. workshop. It’s close to the highway so it’s noisy but we had internet and cable TV and there were very few people staying there this time of year. It was sunny and 62°, which felt pretty wonderful to us Northerners. After getting set-up we found a nearby Kroger and bought groceries, and then gas for $1.63 after subtracting a dime per gallon for our Kroger points. Back at the camper, we made salad and rice to go with a roasted chicken. We cleaned up and walked around the campground for some exercise, then talked to Mom for a bit before we settled in for an evening of blogging and watching “Pirates of the Caribbean”. We’re looking forward to having a day to explore the twin cities of Bryan and College Station (home of Texas A&M) before we start our work at the P.E.T. workshop on Monday.

Sunny and 60 degrees in southern Arkansas