Exhausted But Hitting the Road Again!

It has been a very busy, physical and mental few days.  We brought a lot home on Sunday afternoon after having thoroughly cleaned the MH and did two loads of laundry.  But while you clean a 40 foot RV you mess up a 2300 sq. ft. home.  I put away the things I brought home and tackled 3 months of mail.  I found our tax documents, license renewal for Jeep and MH, all our insurance renewals, Christmas cards that arrived after our departure, and several invitations and thank yous.  All the extraneous stuff was in one box and after a quick look see, most went into the recycle bin.  

We spent Sunday night at the MH so we would be there first thing in the morning.  We packed up all the pantry food that comes home, and the refrigerator and freezer stuff plus all toiletries and meds.  Because we had to have both the Jeep and MH inspected, we stopped to top off the fuel, then drove to Star Brakes to have both inspected and I knew I had to wait a day to have it show up on line.

Then we put the MH away in storage and I drove us both home.  I was pooped!  Tuesday I worked on our taxes but was stymied with Ted’s self employment.  I finally asked for a chat in Turbo Tax.  Seems there has been a reporting form change from 1099 Misc to 1099 NEC.  Ted was sent the wrong one so he called and was emailed a correct one immediately.  Now the box numbers and amounts made sense.  So I finished it all except for a K-1 that comes every year at the end of March.  Whew!  What a relief!

I went on line Tuesday and renewed the registrations for both vehicles.  Finished more laundry and cleaning and starting packing for our trip to Ohio.

We had an evening flight from Hobby so we had to deal with rush hour traffic, a late flight and a delay in having Hilton pick us up at the airport.  We were renting a car but they are not open past 6:00 so you couldn’t rent one.  Thus the need for a shuttle to the hotel and a return in the morning for the car.  We hit the hay pretty quickly.

Ted went for the car in the morning and we left for Celina, OH.  It is about a two hour drive and the weather was very pleasant.  We stopped to visit my brother who was home from his FL condo for the wedding, until it was check in time.  We were due at rehearsal at 5:45 but CST and EST caused a blip!  The TV clock had not been reset, nor my watch, and we were watching The Five that comes on at  4 in Houston but 5 in Ohio.  We arrived late after receiving a message “are you lost.”

Afterwards we gathered at a brewery hall for wings and pizza.  It was not your usual rehearsal dinner but there was an abundance of young folks, all wedding party participants and their plus ones.  I visited mostly with my sister in law, niece and her best friend.

The wedding was at 1:30 and everyone asked me if I had changed my watch.  Rachel was the most radiant bride!  

All went well, I gave out Communion walking sideways down empty pews to reach people in the filled pews.  Whew!  No tripping!

The wedding party was heading to another brewery until the reception hall opened but we went back to our hotel to rest and change clothes.  I felt my pink sparkly dress was a bit much for a 1:30 Mass so saved it for the evening.  Irene requested a photo of the dress so I did a “selfie.”  

There was a huge crowd at the reception and it was the first time we had been in such a situation for a year!  Most have either had covid or been vaccinated so fingers crossed we have dodged a bullet!

The hall was decorated beautifully and dinner was very good.  After visiting and being dragged onto the dance floor by nephew Brian and doing a two step with Ted, we called it a night.  It had been a tiring week!

But the celebrating was not over.  We were due at the complex clubhouse for a surprise birthday/retirement celebration for my brother, Dan, at 9 am Sunday morning!  This was a smaller group but our family is so big we filled the area easily and allowed more visiting in a more quiet environment.

We left there about 1:30 for our two hour drive back to Cincinnati.  Our plan was to take sister Karen and BIL Ronnie to dinner.  She is having dementia symptoms and he chose not to attempt the weekend away.  She has definitely slipped more in the 9 months since we saw her last.  It is heartbreaking.  But my BFF from kindergarten until present joined us since our availability was so tight and she remembered her.  Donna attended their wedding and was my plus one at their 60th wedding anniversary two years ago.  After dinner we went back to the hotel at the airport for a two night stay.

Monday was set aside to see Ted’s siblings and their spouses, all the folks we traveled with to Ireland  in 2019.  We had lunch at a new restaurant with the guys at one end of the long table, girls at the other.  There were 9 of us but I forgot to get a photo!

We eventually returned to CVG airport after a ride around the area we both grew up in.  We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather.  Ted chose to turn the car in and be shuttled back to the hotel so we did not have to do that in the morning.  

We left on the 6 am shuttle, left CVG on time at 7:30 and arrived in Houston right on schedule.  However, we flew into Hobby so we had a longer ride home than usual.  Bush is much closer than Hobby but we flew Southwest, using my cancelled Harlingen to Orlando ticket when the Andre Rieu concert was cancelled.

Sorry this is so long but time was slipping away.