Me and the Mother Road

We made it home safely on Saturday about 1 pm. The day was bright and pleasant. The worst of the dead trees we saw was in the Marshall area and I was surprised at how green other areas were. I expected everything to be dead and was delighted it wasn't like that. We are still desperately in need of rain but the land has not been laid barren ... at least not yet.

Once set up, we loaded up the truck and headed to the house. We found everything in great condition and even two of my hanging plants made it through with much tender loving care I'm sure. There appears to be a bit of "brown patch" in the grass but that isn't unusual. I'll need to get some fungicide to put down. But overall both the house and yard were in great shape. Thanks to Chris and those who helped him. His parents' house has still not sold so he didn't have far to go home.

We took my car back to the campground because it carries so much more than the truck. We went to church at 6 pm, stopped for a burger and then headed for the RV. We were both in bed pretty early.

The next morning it was 66 inside the trailer. I took personal responsibility for bringing this wonderful weather to Texas. People were emerging from the A/C to once again enjoy the great outdoors. It was a miserable summer here and was worse than being cooped up all winter by snow and ice I would imagine.

Ted and I both got right to work. He washed the entire rig on the outside and did the windows. I emptied out what needed to come home and cleaned the inside very well. When we were done, it was back to the storage unit and then home to put everything away. I always amaze myself that I can mess up a 2300 sq. ft. house with things from a 300 sq. ft. trailer. We had leftovers for both lunch and dinner and settled into a quiet evening.

Monday was "pay the piper" day. I spent all day getting everything back in order and tackled the stack of mail that had accumulated. All the ads and junk mail had been thrown away already, the bills had been dealt with so that made it a much easier job. There were lots of thank you notes from all the festivities we had attended over the summer and birthday cards for both of us.

At 5 o'clock we drove to Terry and Carol's and then on to a new restaurant in the area. The food is homemade Italian and is fabulous. It's the first time I've found gnocchi on a menu down here in the south. We had a great meal and a wonderful visit after almost four months.

Tuesday was my birthday and old Route 66 and I are sharing the same number for the next year. I received some nice gifts, lots of phone calls, a stack of cards and rows and rows of greetings on Facebook from family and friends. I'm so blessed to have so many great people in my life. I started the day meeting Gerre for our normal walk. She has signed us up for the 5K Run Thru The Woods on Thanksgiving Day and we need to get up to speed. It was so good to be walking with my friend again.

Ted planned to attend the World Skeet Shoot in San Antonio again but hesitated to leave me alone on my birthday. I sent him off because I really needed time to myself to get my calendar and volunteer projects all in order. I had just spent 107 days in 300 sq. ft. of space with him. A day alone would be just fine. And it was.

Today I start back in with my Junior Forum work. I'm also scheduled at the nursing home tomorrow. I think I'm in my groove again!

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.