Manydays on the road

Monday was dentist day. I took Evelyn to have her mouth prepped for a crown on a left molar. I dropped her off and went to the hotel to do computer work. I picked her up after 1 ½ hours of work and brought her home for a soft potato soup lunch. She was wiped out from the novocane and the valium she had taken so I let her sleep for ½ hour while I fixed lunch. After we ate she wanted to take a walk before going to get her hair cut. It was hot but I stayed outside to listen to Rush since I don’t get a chance to do that often. After that we came home and began to work on the left over chicken from Sunday and the turkey breast I smoked yesterday. I had sliced most of it off before lunch but now we had to pick the bones to make chicken salad. We worked almost 3 hours including the clean up. We had some of the salad for dinner along with some roasting ears we had bought Saturday. We settled in to watch Salina, a great family film we had seen before, but I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to transfer money to cover a credit card payment that will occur tomorrow or at least soon. So here I am finishing this at the hotel.
Tuesday was a good day at work. It was the end of the pay period, and I was just under 40 hours. Next Tuesday is payday but we will be gone to Indiana. Evelyn picked me up at work promptly at 2:30, and we went to Charlie’s Corner where gas was $2.31. We then went to Barber’s orchard to get cider for Bill and muffins for Jones’. We drove to Franklin and worked on getting the motor home ready to bring back for our trip to Purdue. I had put the tow bar on the car last night and put some items we wanted to pack into the coach too. While I put the tow shield on, Evelyn was talking with LuAnn and helping with dinner. They are such wonderful, giving people. They had prepared a hot dog dinner for us including potato salad, slaw, spiced onions and a broccoli slaw. We enjoyed the meal and company. We took the coach and to car to the movie theater lot (flat and big) where we hooked up the car and towed it home. When we arrived, I plugged us into the house outlet and tripped a breaker. We had hooked there before without a problem. I moved the cord to another outlet with the same result. I also noted that the refrigerator was not working on either gas or electricity. I was so worked up that I couldn’t go to sleep. I kept worrying about not just tomorrow but the situation when the family comes in a few weeks. We need to have the refrigerator and lights working. I finally went to sleep.
Wednesday I awakened at 4:30 and couldn’t sleep. I got up and found the number of Kelly RV in Decatur. I went to work and called his 800 number. I talked over the problem with him, and he told me some things to try. I also talked about his fixing the awning he had installed in May. I noticed that a screw is pulling out from the front edge of the living room slide. He said we could come there Sunday afternoon, and he said he would work on ours first thing Monday morning. We have been there so often that we are pretty friendly. I stayed at work until 10 and then checked out and came home so Evelyn could go to the CWC luncheon. It was “antiques road show” day, and she took a couple of our antiques for evaluation. One was evaluated at $150 while a purple flowered bowl that my mother left us was likely worth around $1,000! Who would have guessed that. I wish mom was still here to spend the money. While she was gone, I prayed for help from the Lord with the coach problem. I tried the things Dale had suggested, took the protective grate off the back, looked inside and blew on it, jiggled some wires, turned off the gas inside and reignited it, and prayed some more. Prior to this I noted that not only did the refrigerator not work but neither did the gas water heater. I went back inside and lighted the gas stove, and it worked. I felt the refrigerator (on electric), and it was cooling. I switched it to gas, and it ignited. There was nothing unusual nor reparative (is that a word?) that I had done, so I am confident it was just the mercy of the Lord in caring for the helpless. I also installed the new bifold for our counter top that had arrived yesterday from Rexhall in CA. They had sent the old and the new one. The old one was broken. Another blessing is that the new one was not. I brought some items out to the coach, washed the outside with plain water (it had been under a tree and was badly stained) and then decided to lie down around 1:00. I may have slept a few minutes before Evelyn came home. We finished packing and then left at 3. We had a wonderful drive and made it to Corbin KY where we parked at the Wal-Mart. We stopped around 6:30, fixed some leftover carrots and potatoes, and found some dishes we had left in the sink last May. I scrubbed them and finally got them clean enough to use. There is a difference between clean and camping clean. We went to the Wal-Mart to buy a plastic scrubbing pad that worked well. We were in bed by 9.
Thursday was a driving day. We were up and on the road by 7:30. We bought 20 gallons of gas in Corbin, thinking that would take us to Shelbyville. We stopped in Dry Ridge, KY to shop at an outlet mall. Evelyn was looking for an orange blouse to go with a skirt she has. We found one and a long sleeve shirt for me to wear in the fall. We fixed the leftovers from last night and had some cheese too. We were full and didn’t need to eat the chicken salad. We will have that on the way home Monday. We stopped at a rest area on I-74 for a short nap. It cost us an hour because a bit further up the road was a two mile long traffic jam, the result of a truck driver’s hitting an overpass abutment. When we passed the tractor that hit it, it was burned out and still smoking. Unless the driver jumped out, he was no doubt burned up in the wreck. We came on and parked at the Wal-Mart for the night. We called our friends to come and take us to the King Buffet for dinner. It was fabulous Chinese food. They then took us to the CVS pharmacy that had its usual specials: 30 packs of Stroh’s beer for 10.99, Schlitz 24 packs for 9.99 and even 30 packs of Pabst for 12.99. I bought several packs for the neighbors who had given me orders. We then went to Bill and Shirley’s to visit more and they gave me a beer mug from a Pacers game that has a light in the bottom that comes on when it has liquid in it. They are very gracious to us. We gave them a gallon of apple cider that is only slightly pasteurized that will work and get some bite to it. They also gave us a coupon that allowed us to fill our coach for $2.029 per gallon of gas. He brought us back to the motor home and we then went to Kroger to fill up. Evelyn has begun to develop what she thinks is a cold so she also bought some Coricidin HBP and some hazelnut poppy seed bread that we love and can only get at Kroger. We came home and she called the Beelis in CA despite feeling rotten. We were in bed by 10.
We arose in a leisurely manner. I showered and while Evelyn was, I walked to the Aldi store to check on the wine supply and price. The NC neighbors wanted some. I came back just in time for Bill to pick us up to go to his house for breakfast. On the way we stopped at CVS for some cough syrup. Evelyn coughed more last night than the night before. Shirley had made an egg, ham, potato and ham casserole served with small biscuits and apple butter. She also served some frozen fruit that was good. Bill took us home, and then he and I went to Aldi to get some wine. I bought six cabernet sauvignon for the neighbors and six white wine for me. We bought some other incidentals and then he dropped me and the groceries. He went home and they returned in their motor home so we could follow them to WL. We left at 12:30 and arrived at 2. While Evelyn slept some more, I walked to the stadium to pay our JPC dues for next year and get parking passes for the Wisconsin game October 21. We may not come but wanted to be prepared in case the game was early enough to allow us to get back to Muncie in the evening. I returned and read while Evelyn slept more. Then the four of us went to Pizza Hut for the buffet. After returning, I walked around the parking area and talked to some men from Minnesota. I tried to tell them where the action was in WL but made it clear that I was too old to know much about the action they were interested in. I came back home and did nothing else other than write this. Oh, yes. We watched the homecoming fireworks and went to bed. Evelyn is still taking medicine and may not go to the game, especially if the predicted rain comes.
Saturday was the big day. It was quite windy and overcast but not raining. We were blessed to catch a shuttle bus to the Purdue Mall where the different colleges have tents to welcome returning alumni who are “homecoming”. We met Mick and Elle Keppler at the CFS tent where we had brunch of egg casserole (again), sausage links and huge muffins. We talked about their visiting us but have little hope. We walked with them to the stadium where we parted company. We called Olivia to wish her happy birthday, but she had gone shopping with her dad. We called and left a singing happy birthday message on their answer machine We then went to our gate where our bag was searched. I was carrying it containing our rain gear, 4 bottles of water, peanuts, an apple and a muffin I had brought from brunch. That bag was heavy. Evelyn carried our soft stadium seats. We sat on the east side of the stadium where the wind was mostly in our faces--a blessing since it was in the upper 70s at game time. We were 64 rows up on about the 30 yard line in the open end of the stadium. Lo and behold: Purdue beat Minnesota and only a few drops of rain fell. Nearly everyone we know thought they would lose. I think they are improving right along. They play Notre Dame there next week and will probably lose, but I think Notre Dame is overrated. We will see. We stayed for the band performance after the game and walked home. We stopped briefly to see Tom and Janet, our reunion brother and sister where they park on Slayter Hill, and then came back to begin dinner prep. I got our Q-grill and seasoned the T bones we had brought. They were so large that both us and the Oefingers decided to share one. Shirley had brought her shrimp dip and a salad. We provided the steaks and potato salad. While we ate I grilled the third steak in the package. We decided not to play cards but listened to our David Holt CD while we visited. They went to their coach at 8:00, and we went to bed after I practiced the Gospel reading I will read tomorrow at church. I also called the Ribbes to tell them we would not be back for the dinner we had been invited to at their house in Maggie Valley on Monday.