Not Snowbirds; Just February Travelers

It is another January, and we are loading the car for a trip south. The snow has been blowing and swirling all day with little accumulation. It's just cold and dark. So this journey to Florida will be very timely. Red and I have never really been on this type of vacation before ... leisurely with no commitments of any kind. He has meetings in Ft. Meyers, and then we'll be at Pass-A-
Grille for two weeks. Then to Jason's. Then to Brad's in Oklahoma. I'll be posting some pictures so that Tali and Owen won't be forgetting us!

I have loaded the car with good intentions. Projects for the month. Bible study books and a journal. A whole cloth quilt. A personalized ABC book for the kiddos. Things for Jason. Grama made him a quilt for his 4oth birthday. It's soooooo pretty, from Hawaiian prints that Bonney sent. I think he'll like it.

Red always does ALL the driving. It is a control thing with him. However, this year I am making a plea that he shares the highway time. I am more than capable, just ask Patti and Joanne. I usually drive on road trips with them. I mean, so what if I ran over a lawn mower in the garage or backed into the mailbox!? That doesn't mean I can't function on the interstates.

I love winter in the Midwest, though. It is a quiet time with lots of snuggling under the blankets and quilts. Popcorn and pizza. Movies. Ballgames. Soup and homemade bread. I don't have to get out in the subzero temps, Red shovels all the walks and blows the driveway. Snowman making and snow angels. I used to love to cross country ski, but haven't done that for awhile.
So in a way, I hate to leave. But a change of pace is always good. A sort of widening of the horizons. I am looking forward to a bunch of good days. Keep us in your prayers. For those of you who read Girltalk, I am doing the fasting one meal a week. Are you?

Home in Eldon, Iowa

Red and I have been home all weekend, and are now ready to start February in Illinois. We dropped off G'pa and G'ma in Eldon, Red went off to visit friend Gaylord, and an hour later we were driving again. We were in Sandwich by 9:30 pm Friday evening, and so this break from winter is all over.

Who would have believed that I spent 25 days, 24/7 with my parents? That is how it went. And I enjoyed their company and appreciated God's grace throughout the time. We did more than I had expected, and yet less than I had planned. I thought that maybe I could take time, read and study the Word, plan for the coming year, set some goals for myself and that just didn't happen. Instead I did as much talking and interacting as an introvert can do, and it was a Trip.

I will continue to read all of your blogs and reply in the comment section. The internet is such a modern blessing for connectiveness within families. The pictures and video clips of the Benson Girls' BD party was cute. Boston is growing like a weed, and he is adorable. Drew sings "Jesus Loves Me" like an angel. Piper and that hair!! Gavin smiles from ear to ear. Katie's babies are having fun in the California Sunshine. Can somebody plan a time for everybody to get together?

Did you all know that Patti and Terry engineered a surprise for the folks when we returned home? They moved all the furniture out of the living room, and ripped up the carpet. It was long overdue, still in pretty good shape, but ready for a modern layer! Then they hired a man to treat the walls, and paint over the old wallpaper. The carpet is a plush tannish color, the walls are in a latte creamish chocolate color. Jeanetta helped Patti decide which paint to go with, and actually I think it is the same color as some of her newly painted rooms. It is beautiful. Then Patti dusted and washed aalllllll the nick-nacks and returned them to the shelves. She put all the pictures of family on the smaller bookcase by the tv. It looks pretty and clean.

When we entered the porch, two big tomato buckets were sitting beside the door. G'ma said, "Hmmmm, I wonder what those buckets are doing there?"
G'pa replied, "Well, maybe Terry had to use them to carry the dog food down to the basement or something?"

Then we went inside. She noticed right away and walked to the living room. She asked if I knew about this? Then she started crying. G'pa came into the room and started cussing. A man can't show any emotion, you know, or at least a man of a certain era. They were really surprised and appreciative. So thanks and more thanks to Patti and Terry for all the effort, and of course, for feeding and cleaning after the bird dogs.

Tara and the girls drove down on Saturday to visit them. I know that G'ma and G'pa had been homesick and missing all the near-by family. On the way home she said that she had a hankerin' to see Meghan. So maybe one of these weekends, Patti and I should drive her to Indiana. She was disappointed that we didn't swing over to Nashville so she could hold Boston. But Red's back was too stiff, and we opted to head home from Marc's. Red goes to the dr tomorrow. I have a bunch of dental work to be completed this spring and summer. Gonna try to make this the year of a healthy living attempt! ( and by the way, who ever says "hankerin'?")

Thank you for all of your prayers for traveling safety for us. God gifted us with easy driving, great roads and weather, little traffic, and plenty of sightseeing. Most days were overcast, with a little bit of sun. G'ma remarked that Grandma Miller use to say that anytime you could see enough blue in the sky to make a pair of overalls, it would clear up in the afternoon and be a bright day. (She would be your Great, Great Grandmother Augusta Miller.) I love you all. This is the last writing for Billye's ABreakFromWinter Blog. Fare Thee Well!

Homeward Bound

Snow. We are on the way home to Iowa. It was in Kentucky that we hit the white, and I sent a text to Jason telling him it was beautiful. He replied that he was glad it was us and not him. We drove through where the ice storm was and could not believe our eyes. It looked like a war zone. Power lines are still down, trees and tree branches everywhere, white tips of the trunks looking like spears. Schools are cancelled for the week.

We stopped at Marc and Jeanetta's. Dad started chipping the ice on the driveway, and he trekked out to the pointers' pen for a scoop shovel. That is three times as far as it was on Seneca Street. Jeanetta had potato soup for supper; we watched the Iowa vs Indiana bb game. This is beautiful home, even in the winter. Marc is working way too hard, and Jeanetta is trying to get the unpacking and homemaking done. The poodles were glad to see Mom. It is great to be where they are residing.

We spent Tuesday night in Clarksville, TN. Home of Wilma Rudolph. She was an Olympic runner way back when. I read about her in my school days! She was sick in her childhood, persevered, and succeeded. I was kinda thrilled to be in her town, isn't that strange!

Before that we spent time in the National Bird Dog Hall of Fame in Grand Junction, TN. It was an impressive collection of paintings and memorabilia of Bird Dog handlers, owners, breeders,etc. Many wealthy men and women, Dr's, lawyers, plantation land owners who pursued this hobby. (To Dad it was like walking around seeing famous people, like Jackie Robinson, Willie Maye's, Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe, Roger Marris, and their stuff.) He knows them all, their lines of breeding, who won what trial, the judges at the trial, whether birds were found. Amazing. You know, I am clueless about dogs, but Mom said that he really wanted to show me this place. Now sometimes her elaborations on situations can be off the mark, but I had never thought that going to this place was something he wanted to do with me. (And maybe it wasn't.) But anyhow, I am really glad we stopped.

It was dark in the building and at some of the picture columns it was hard to read the gold plated inscriptions. He got down on the floor, squinting at the words. He wished he had a flashlight. I tried to read them for him. I swear he named every bird dog picture before I read the words, way back to 1929!

Oh, also - there was a big glassed-in exhibit, about the size of Sammi's bedroom. The woods scene showed a black & white speckled setter pointing a covey of quail bunched up on the other side of a wooden fence. Ten quail were scattered. Some flying, some hidden under leaves, some stretching wings. Beautiful visual of "the hunt". And the dog was the REAL ONE, stuffed or taxidermied. Just like Roy Roger's "Trigger" horse. His name was Count Noble. So anyway, it was good to see the importance of hunting quail and bird dogs in his life. But that was kinda creepy to see a stuffed dog!

I can't remember if I wrote about the hospitality of Jenny, did I? We just couldn't have enjoyed ourselves any more that we did. She has posted pictures of the day. We loved eating at the old fashioned drug store. Shopping was great, and we found countless bargains. (Like boots, jeans, pretty dress for Hawaii, t-shirts, and such.) We played Phase 10, ate delicious left-overs, and just hated to say Good-bye. Oh, also the next morning Jenny said, "Angie is calling, we're gonna skype at 9 o'clock." Mom and I eyed each other with no comprehension at all. She explained. That was SO FUN~ when Drew saw Mom, he smiled and said, "Hi, Grandma!!" She truly loved his little beaming face.

Mom seems tired today, and rightly so. She wouldn't take a nap at Jenny and Brents'. She isn't eating right, either. Today she wanted a donut, and we suggested she try a salad. Now what fun is that on vacation? Not much. She'll probably bounce right back for more action after a good night's sleep. Maybe pictures tomorrow.

Super Bowl at Jen's

OH, it is good to be at Jenny and Brent's. It seems as if we drove forever to get here. Actually the miles were short, but the day's journey was long. We stopped to see things. Over and Over. First as we were headed up some interstate, G'pa saw a sign that read: Union Springs. He remarked that he had always wanted to go there. So Red curved to the right, and we ended up in that little town. It had a big statue of a bird dog, right in the middle of the downtown. No square. It was like Eldon, and the dog was in the intersection like where Harmon Bros, the Legion, Whitey's, and Hughes would be. (Info for the siblings, not the grandchildren...you don't even know those names!) So G'pa got out and went into the bank for information. G'ma and I moseyed up and down the streets, looking in the store windows. We had parked beside a liquor store, and many folks were getting their supplies for the weekend. That was kinda unsettling. Then, I had to stand out in the traffic and take pictures of G'pa pointing to the name Maytag because that was the Iowa connection to the owner of a big plantation. That was what he wanted to do next, go find the place. I think it was called Sedgewick. Or something like that. We drove through the backwoods and located the gates. Turned out that we were on the back edge of the place and never did see the bird dog sites.

The next stop was in Selma, Alabama. That was like being in a history book for me. We crossed the bridge where the Freedom March started, the people walked from Selma to Montegomery. There was a big park, a National Black History Site. We walked around the wooden paths, down through big trees hung with that moss. It looked wintry and southern. There were plaques for all the deaths that had occurred then. Sad. Then we went to a museum, where the director was an old black man with long white hair and an accent that we could hardly understand. We stayed there until the place closed. And so it went.

On Sunday after G'pa did his field trial thing, we drove on up to Corinth. Stopped in Tupelo to see the birthplace of Elvis. That was just cool. The weather was 65 degrees, sunny, blue skies. This place is all outdoors with statues and reading boards with comments from all of the hometown friends that Elvis had maintained thru his lifetime. The people there are sooooo proud of him. The little house where he was born was two rooms. The church he attended had been moved to the property and was also small. There was a car (replica) that his family used to move from Tupelo to Memphis when he was 10. It held all their belongings.

Then we drove the little bit to Corinth and met Jen & Brent at the Welcome Center. We loved watching the Super Bowl with them. Beautiful and hospitable home, their Faith in God and love for one another evident. G'ma snuggled up on the couch with Jenny, in her fuzzy pink housecoat. Jenny's head on her shoulder. I hope that I can be like that with my grandchildren someday. Today we are going to the Civil War sites around here, and Brent took the day off to be our guide. We could not feel any more welcome. I jotted down some "historical notes" from the Maynard conversation in the car. Maybe I will post that tomorrow. I don't know how interested everyone is in this stuff, but the stories are interesting. G'pa's long term memory is like an encyclopedia. How he can remember every dog whelped and every handler and every judge at a trial is way unbelievable. Then his short term memory frustrates him because he can't pull up the right word. He is starting to cope with that better, tho. Okay - we are off to the races. More tomorrow.

Grandma is cheering for the Iowa boy!

Red has had it (bad back)

Driving North

When I am home in Illinois, your blogs fill me with warmth. Sometimes getting on the computer after supper, the next time I look up, the clock reads midnight. Lipstick Diaries makes me laugh right out loud and I feel that youthfulness, remembering what it was like to see the lights of home. The pictures of all the babies keep me in-the-loop, and the comments are instant conversation. Like your comments on my blog. It's good to know your thoughts, and maybe I should start commenting after reading your blogs? I never usually do that.
This has been a rare gift. To spend 24/7 with parents as an adult. For the first few days I felt about 9 years old. Then the light dawned, and I preached my chronological age to myself. 60. Sixty. Six decades. I am not 9. From that point on my self-made walls come down. I hugged Dad. One time I even kissed Mom. God is good, Amen, as my friend Jessy always says.
We left Jason's and headed north toward Brent and Jenny's on Friday. Driving across Florida, we spent the night in Dotham, Alabama, at an Econo-lodge. The rooms were 56$ a night. Need I say more? Bottom line was - they were clean.
To begin with, the rooms were kinda shabby. The beds sagged and the chairs were worn, like you could see the stuffing. So we didn't want to complain, and Red had to stop. Basically we just needed a place to sleep; we unloaded luggage and went to eat.
Getting in and out of the car is an ordeal. Dad has to unfold his legs and straighten up his back like a robot in the movies. Mom gingerly feels the pavement. Red groans. We were looking for a light supper - maybe scrambled eggs or soup? Somehow we pulled into Po Folks. I should have known better. Yep, an Alabama Po Folks has fried chicken, chicken fried steak, fried dill pickles, fried pork chops, fried okra - we had salads and went back to the motel to sleep.
In the morning I went into Mom's room and asked about her night. She started laughing. Dad shook his head and said, "Oh, I couldn't get my mask on last night and it just tickled her to death! I guess she hasn't had a good laugh for awhile." Then she explained. It seems the bottom sheet on the bed was not fitted. It slipped around with any movement. The mattress was a little weak, and they rolled together to the ditch in the middle of the bed. When Dad tried to turn off the tv, it wouldn't shut off with the remote. So he hauled himself up and tried to hit the button manually. Every time he clicked it, the tv went black and then the program would pop back on. Finally, and you can imagine how blue the air was about now, he just unplugged the set! He crawled back into bed and tried to put his breathing machine apparatus on. It had become all twisted up like a tangled rubber band. The more he swore, the more Mom laughed. She turned on the light and untangled it for him. They calmed down and were almost asleep when the neighboring room slammed the door and turned the shower on full blast. She said it sounded as if they were coming right into bed with 'em and she was off on another laughing jag. Maybe it was a case of Traveler's Hysteria!
Tonight we are in Columbus, Mississippi. It is a nicer motel room, and should be a calmer night. Plus a bonus happened. Dad met some bird dog men who are going to a trial in the morning. The Cajun Classic. They invited him to come on out with them, even offered him a horse to ride. Well, he can't do that! But Red and he are going to the field trial at six am. Serendipitous, wouldn't you say!! I am so excited....we get to see Jenny tomorrow.

Look, Tali, A Birdie!!

"Look, Tali, Grandma has a bird!!" is my first thought for this entry. We are all feeling a little homesick today. I've been missing the kiddies, and Grandpa has been missing Eldon. I think the furniture around here is low, hard to sit on for the elders, and their backs hurt. So they are pining for comfy worn-out chairs back home! Ditto for Red, and he is the main driver! But, back to Tali ... she always is saying, "Look, Drama, Look!!!" So now it is her turn.

The weather was so summery this morning. We sat on the porch drinking coffee and reading the St. Petersburg Times. It was hot and humid. Rains came in the afternoon. We talked about all the snow in the midwest, and how it is just so weird not to be there. After Jason went to work, we walked for awhile. The neighbor has a big mango tree, and it totally did not look as I expected. It is huge, like a giant old oak, and has lots of flower blossoms. Jason said that the mangoes in this area aren't very good, that there are hundreds of varieties. We circled the block and walked down the busy 17th Street thoroughfare. The Kiwanis have paid for an elaborate crossing light. The pedestrians just push a red button, and a voice comes out of the air telling walkers to watch for the cars, when they stop, cross carefully. It is amazing. The cars stop, I take Mom's arm and across we go. Cars are lined up 17 long by the time we get to the other side. On the return trip she was wearing her little white bucket hat, and that was special. I am not a fan of that hat, but, oh, well.....does anyone know us? I think not. We walked on past the park, down another block, and ended up at a little circular pond with ducks and long, pointy billed birds of some kind. Muscovy ducks were bobbing around, and a couple of mallards, and the ubiquitous sea gulls. We sat on a wooden bench, all three of us, and watched the birds until I almost fell asleep. Dad and I thought we should walk farther, but Mom's toe was hurting from an injury in the night. She had stubbed her little toe on the bed post, twice! So we just moseyed on home.

In the evening we returned to the Thai restaurant called 'The King and I' for a meal, and to bid good-by to the guy who owns the condo where we stayed. G'pa and Red stayed home to watch the Iowa State vs Michigan State game. (Plus they do not like rice) It was a great meal. Grandma ordered a pot of soup - Tom Yum Goong. It was served in a pot sized bowl with a flame in the middle to keep it warm. So cool. Plus the soup was delicious. It was a clear broth with shrimps, lemon grass, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, kafir leaves, and cilantro. I ordered a curry dish, called chicken panang. It was made with coconut milk, bell peppers, zucchini, curry paste, and kafir leaves. Again, good! We talked and laughed a lot. It was an enjoyable last evening together. Jason's birthday is on Saturday, so we called it his party.

Tomorrow morning we are heading north. Since we haven't been able to get in contact with Eddie, we are deciding what to see next. Maybe a trip to the old banyan tree that was from Thomas Edison. Maybe a tour through Okefenokee? The country's problems plague us even here, and we are praying that our leaders make the right decisions. Thinking of you all and wish you all were here with us on this warm vacation!

(We fixed sauerkraut and kielbasa for lunch. How does that sound? Not very Florida-ish)

Is This A Pet Store?!

We're spending the week at Jason's and have returned to a life of normalcy. No more white beach and pounding surf. No more leisurely walks along the shore, kicking the powdered sand. It was a quick excursion on the wealthy side. It is good to be at Jason's, though. He has 2 dogs, 1 cat, a parrot and a lovebird, and 2 aquariums full of fish. Since he has this house with a mother-in-law's quarters, the animals are out there. There is room for us in the other section!

G'ma was getting antsy with no regular chore activities. So we went to Walmart (Is there anyplace left in America without a Walmart!) and bought skeins of fuzzy yarn. She found a crochet hook in her purse so that gave her the idea to start on a project. Little scarves for the little girls. We're also cooking and freezing lunchtime meals for the bachelor. No more wasting money on eating out, he's gonna tighten his belt.

G'pa has been reading a big fat coffee table book about Florida. This afternoon I was watching a movie, '27 Dresses', on one of Jason's 500 channels. (You didn't think I was serious about him saving money!) Everytime a big scene would be on, G'pa started reading aloud from that book. I had to divert my attention and reply to him. Geez! He is a much more active learner than I ever knew. He's interested in anything historical! And knows so much. Another thing, he goes around calling G'ma "Love". And he does that pretty often. When did that start or have I just not been around to notice?

Tomorrow we plan on doing a little yard work. Jason has dozens of palm trees and an old umbrella-plant tree, like the smaller ones we buy at stores in the midwest. Leaves have dropped everywhere and branches need chopped. Lizards and geckos crawl up and down the house siding, sunning themselves on the bird feeder. Dad and I are going to face the native creatures, destroying their habitats- all those dried leaves. If a gecko drops on my head you can probably hear me scream clear north to Spirit Lake.

Red has been in Ft. Meyer. He is in pain with back problems. G'ma has diagnosed it as "sciatica". I'm asking for prayer that his pain subsides. He's really uncomfortable. And I miss him, so you can pray for me, too. Thanks.