Daughter #2 and I had the best day yesterday. We got together early for coffee and actually sat inside a nearly empty Starbucks. It was so wonderful to visit with her…one-on-one. We went back to her house and worked side by side again for a few hours and got her front lawn nearly finished. She just has a small pile of sticks to bag up and trim the edge along the sidewalk.
Mr. FixIt and Ben rode the light rail train to Downtown Denver yesterday. They walked around Union Station then took the shuttle bus down to the end of the 16th Street Mall and moseyed back to the station. They stopped for lunch and, of course, they found a ton of people to talk to. I’ll have to say…Ben and Mr. FixIt are a lot alike. They’re both hard workers, they love to tinker and fix things, they both garden, they both are devoted family men, they both have the same great sense of humor, and they can talk to anybody about anything. I wish Colorado was closer to West Virginia so we could spend more time with our wonderful family.
The Centennial State isn’t called “Colorful Colorado” for nothing! The sunsets here are always something to see. And, with the unfortunate wildfires in the west, they are particularly red this visit. I awakened yesterday morning with a headache and could smell the smoke in the air. The skies are hazy. Not like our humidity hazy. Smoky hazy. Daughter #2 and her wife came over for a visit yesterday afternoon and were telling us how hard it’s been to keep up with the yard work this year. They both have asthma so they only work fifteen minutes at a time then take breaks to cool down and breathe indoor air for awhile. Ben and Sue haven’t been able to open their windows much since the fires started raging in the West. So, while the sunsets are beautiful, it’s for all the wrong reasons.
I was in mid sentence when Sue looked out the window and exclaimed… “There she is!!!” I jumped up, pulled my mask on as I ran out the door and into the waiting arms of my baby. My 31-year-old baby, but still…she’ll always be my baby! We hung onto each other for the longest time…feeling that familiar heartbeat next to mine…smelling her hair…feeling her hands on my back. I haven’t seen Daughter #2 since August 3rd, 2019. Way, WAY too long. I was greatly relieved that she was feeling well. She looks wonderful. She’s happy, healthy, and thriving. What more could a mother want?!?!
When I was backing into our campsite at Lake McConaughy the other night, Mr. FixIt called out to me to say the driver’s side brake light was out on the camper. That means no turn signal, or flashers, or brake light on that side. Not good when you’re traveling with a camper. The guy behind you needs to know where you’re going. We stopped on the way out of Ogallala to get a new bulb, but we had to duct tape the red plastic lens on because the little clip that held it on was broken. That worked fine till we could fix it properly.
If we were just meandering around the country with absolutely no agenda, there are some places we would have stopped and explored some more. Like…oodles of antique stores and quilt shops, for one thing. And there were some interesting museums that explored the history of pioneers heading west. I would love to see that some day. But I’m ready to see my kids!
The Sun Rose on Birdie at the Lake Storey Campground in Galesburg, IL
We woke up yesterday morning to a cool 66 degree morning in Illinois. I don’t reveal the name of the campground where we stay until we’ve gone to the next one. The Lake Storey Campground in Galesburg, Illinois is very nice. It’s clean, quiet, and the lake is so pretty. The first time I was here, I was traveling with a friend of mine from a women’s camping outing in South Dakota. We just happened upon this place. We had dinner then noticed there was probably a nice sunset so we walked down to the lake. This sunset picture was five years ago. Too bad my sweetheart didn’t get to see this, because it was one of my most memorable sunsets ever.
The Cornfields of Illinois
There was a cold front that swept down through the Great Plains yesterday and it brought TONS of moisture with it. We woke up yesterday and took our time getting the camper packed, but as soon as we pulled out of the campground, it started sprinkling. We needed to check the air in the trailer tires. It took three stops to find an air pump that worked. I have my portable compressor with me, but we forgot to pack an extension cord. Just as Mr. FixIt was adding air to the tires, the sky opened and he was pretty wet when he got back in the truck.
We seem to have left West Virginia at a most opportune moment. As we drove across the flat farmlands of Ohio yesterday, we put more and more miles between us and the heavy rains that are the remnants of Hurricane Ida. The forecast over the weekend said our home could see 1-4” of rain by Thursday. Our day, however, was lovely. The skies were overcast so there wasn’t any blinding glare on the windshield. It was a decent 80 degrees, but still didn’t feel terribly hot out there.
For the day before a Grand Adventure, we were pretty mellow. Mr. FixIt finished mowing the back yard and did some fixit things around the house. Our house sitters came and learned the ropes and picked up all the keys. The laundry is all done and folded and either packed or put away. The footlocker we use for our camp kitchen has been restocked and is ready to load up in the back of the truck. Our totes are being filled with clothes and shoes at the last minute. The hanging clothes are waiting in the wings. Food gets picked up at a shop near our destination to keep things simple. The clean bed linens will be put on this morning as it was raining hard during the last hours of light yesterday afternoon.