Month: May 2013 (Page 2 of 2)

Well, we got out of Chetek ahead of the snow on Wednesday. When I say “we” I’m referring to Chris Miller and me (the two Chris’ that run the Center – weird, I know!).  We had rain for a lot of the trip, but no snow. We actually made it all the way over to Appleton is just about what the Mapquest and Magellan had said – less than 4 hours. Yak, yak, yak all the way, so the trip went fast.

When Dad checked in with us on Thursday, there was 12 inches of snow in Rice Lake and still more falling. Everything was closed. We, however, awoke to a sunny, relatively mild day, but spent it all in rooms with no windows. We did walk down the street (we were in the heart of the city) around 6:30  for pizza and got rained on coming back. This morning the weather said there was more snow up our way. We drove home in the afternoon in rain all the way and began seeing snow along the road just west of Abbotsford. There is quite a lot here in Chetek. Even with the rain, there is probably close to a foot of really wet snow left.

And, of course, the ice isn’t out and tomorrow is Wisconsin’s fishing opener!  Ice fishing, anyone?

The conference was great. I got some new ideas and was inspired to start working on the dementia issue. I always hear what a problem it is becoming and didn’t know what I could do. But a speaker shared with us what they do in England, and it is so different than what we do. There are things in the community for people with dementia and people in businesses get trained to be able to serve people with dementia. People aren’t just kept home like they are here.  He was a very motivating speaker, who just “happened” to choose the seat right next to me to eat his lunch. Hmmmm….. I think maybe I’m supposed to pursue this. Like maybe even get a masters degree in gerontology, something I’d considered doing years ago, but sort of forgot about until today. I’m just thinking about it right now, so don’t worry that I’m jumping off the deep end! Again.

I have all my bags packed for the conference in Appleton and about 35 minutes until my next lesson, so it seems like as good a time as any to tell a little about our trip.

When we left at about 6:30 on Thursday evening, we were driving in a mixture of slushy snow and rain, but by Eau Claire it was just rain and by about the Dells the precip. had stopped. We arrived at Grandma Fritz’s after 10:30 and pretty much went right to bed. On Friday morning, we just puttered around and went shopping at Goodwill, where I bought a whole new spring wardrobe for under $40 – Capri’s, dressy tops and strappy tops, skirts, shorts. So fun!

We left Waukesha after enjoying lunch with Grandma Fritz and Dee. Our goal was Cleveland, since we’d made reservations there (for a very good price). It was late when we arrived, but we didn’t have any particular problems – just a long drive. But it was closer to Luke and Krista’s than we’d thought.

Saturday morning there was snow in the air in Ohio – did it catch a ride with us? There was even a little snow still melting in Meadville when we arrived around noon. Saturday afternoon and evening and all day Sunday were mostly work days, although we did go to church and out to eat afterwards on Sunday. The work we accomplished was the dishwasher and laundry hooked up. We were glad to leave their house rather neat this year rather than in a mess like last year! We thoroughly enjoyed all the time we had to get to know Mae better, too! She is so adorable and quite a character.

Monday after lunch we left heading south. We drove until quite late to get to our reserved motel in Charlotte, NC. We weren’t that far from Kylene and Justin’s so it felt like it should have been in South Carolina, but it wasn’t.  The drive down to Bluffton seemed really long, but it was only about 4 or 5 hours. But the scenery is so “same” all the way. We arrived a little after lunch time and spent the rest of Tuesday and a lot of Wednesday with Justin and Kylene. The weather couldn’t have been better. We spent several hours exploring the squares in Savannah the first day and the second day we went to the beach at Hilton Head. So we got to wade in the ocean and watch sea creatures on the sand. Very fun! Got a little sunburn to prove I’d been south, too!

We left for Toccoa in mid-afternoon and arrived at our hotel about 45 minutes south of Toccoa in good time. Considering I booked the hotels sight-unseen on line, they weren’t bad. The second and third we’ll probably use again. The first one was too far, so we’ll try a different one in Ohio next time.

So Thursday we visited our house in Toccoa. That is a whole other story, but it ended with us having a property manager to watch over it for us and collect rent and so forth. We decided to sell it, as well, if we can get what we owe. The manager will take care of that for us, too, and we sent her a lead of someone who may be interested. They want a place near town for horses. If they only have a couple, it would be perfect.

Thursday afternoon we were on the road again, headed for Franklin. We took a different route than last year and saved quite a lot of time and saw some beautiful scenery in North Carolina and southern Tennessee. The whole crew was waiting for us when we arrived at about bedtime. We were treated to piano playing and other excitement as everyone wanted our attention! We were there all day Friday, which was a bit too cool to go to the park, but not bad for watching bicycling and scootering and other outside activities as well as playing Barbies with Audrey. The day was capped off with a treat at Sweet Cici’s, one of our favorite spots. It was such a joy to see Audrey draw and hear Ethan read really “grown-up” books and laugh at Isaac’s antics. They wanted us to stay longer, but our week was drawing to a close.

When we left early Saturday morning, after a breakfast of Dunkin’ Donuts (yum!) it was raining and we drove in rain way up into Indiana. We saw a lot of flooding through the whole area, so there must have been a lot of rain before we went through there, too.  It didn’t affect our roads, fortunately. We used the time wisely, listening all the way through the new Dave Ramsey tapes we got from Nathan and Amy.  We arrived at Grandma Fritz’s more “on time” than ever before – 10 minutes before we’d told her to have supper. So we were treated to a delicious meal and a relaxing evening. On Sunday, we puttered around there until late morning, then grabbed some Subway sandwiches to have with my mom and puttered around her place a bit, too, before heading for Chetek at about 3:30. It started to rain just before we got to Chetek, so unloading was a bit soggy. We were glad to be home, nonetheless. And Sherlock was glad to see us!

All in all a great trip – no car trouble, not too much bickering in the car, and we stayed right on budget. We actually had some gas money left!