Three days behind

We had slept so late Monday that we had trouble getting to sleep. We were ready to go when the alarm sounded at 7 AM, however. We finished loading the car and were off by 8:30. I had hoped we would be driving in rain all day, but that never happened until we were well into Kentucky. It was depressing to drive past areas that were lakes last year but were only dry gullies this year. The drought has really ruined the water areas throughout the South. When we got to Corbin, it was raining steadily. We stopped at the “KFC shrine” where Colonel Sanders got his start. We do that often because Evelyn loves the stuff. Also, I thought we should stop since it was lunch time, and we would not likely be there at lunch time on the way home. We left there and drove in a steady, sometimes hard, rain all the way through Cincinnati and clear up through Richmond before it let up. We had packed sandwiches for lunch but ate them for supper instead. We took them into a Meijer store and ate our sandwiches and bought a hot chocolate for our drink. We arrived at Grotrians around 8 and visited with them until after 10. We were both tired and went to bed.

We were up and ready for breakfast of a puffed apple pancake Janet had made for us. It was delicious, but she had to leave for BSF training and didn’t get to enjoy it with us. We talked with Tom for a while and then left for Monroe to get the diamonds from the lock box. We got them and some silver ingots I had forgotten about. We had only one of the lock box keys and had to pay $10 for the lost one. Oddly, that was only half of what we were told last year. We also found copies of our wills that few of our families knew about. We were off to Ft. Wayne to find Klingler Jewelers to have the diamonds identified. Evelyn had paid to have the real diamonds removed from Mom’s rings and replaced with Czs several years ago and wondered which stones went with which. The jeweler was gracious and straightened all that out. She wants to give four to her brother for his granddaughters. We went on to the IPFW campus to visit with Louise and John. Louise was there but John was not. In fact, we went to his home and saw it was empty, meaning he and Whitney have probably moved. We went on to Casterline’s to visit with them and deliver some gifts. We learned that Shirley’s mother had a light stroke and may prevent them from returning to the mountains before we leave. We left there and returned to Grotrian’s where Janet had prepared pork loin and corn for dinner. She also made a delicious salad and gave us the recipe for the delicious dressing. The both left for choir practice and we stayed behind to watch sports shows. I am disturbed that neither our telephone nor air card will work in this area. I am going to call ATT and complain when I return to NC. I thought ATT had a much wider area of service than that.

Thursday found us going to Pauline’s, my leaving Evelyn and going to the auto auction to meet Darrell. I had hoped he had some information about a vehicle that we could take to Texas, but he didn’t. We went to lunch and used the last of the coupons we had for UNO pizza and talked about his plans and ours. He did talk about buying a car for us and shipping it to Texas. I picked Evelyn up at 1:30. She had eaten with Pauline at her home. We drove back to the Grotrian’s and went through Hoagland, stopping to visit with Dorthea Holle. She is 94 but still fairly active around town. She is frail and thin, can’t hear nor see well but recognized us. We thank God for allowing us to see her. We took Tom and Janet to Preble Gardens for dinner. The men ordered ribs and the women ordered fish. There was a huge, delicious salad bar, featuring home made broccoli salad and pickled eggs. The ribs were hard and dry from being cooked too fast and too long. I told the cashier and she comped us two of the dinners. I refused to accept it because the salad bar was so good. I gave her 6 extra dollars. We returned home to watch the second game of the World Series but went to bed after the 5th inning.