What a long strange trip

OK this is going to be a really long post. I have three weeks of "The Big Trip" that I have to tell about so here goes.

On July 10th I drove to Birmingham to pick up my BF, David, who flew in from BWI. It was so good seeing him again. He spent 1 day in Mississippi and then we left for Wisconsin for the family reunion. We got a late start because Daddy had to go to the hospital in the morning. Mom needed a way to get home so we went back to the house and fetched her car to take it down to Tom's Automotive to get the overheating problem fixed. It turned out to be a bad water pump so it was a good thing it got fixed when it did or else Mom could have cracked the head in her car. David paid for the work so I was grateful to him for that.

Once we got Mom squared away and made sure Daddy was going to be OK, we hit the road around 3 in the afternoon. I drove through the worst thunderstorm of my life just south of Memphis. There was CRAZY rain for about 15 miles. I bet they got at least 6 inches in about a half hour. And the ROAD! Fortunately it quit raining just as I was coming into Memphis because Lamar Ave. is a MESS! I am making a new list of the worst roads to drive on and it's going to be at the top of my list. They don't have pot holes, they have craters. Deep craters in the road that even though I was only going about 25 mpg, they would make the RV just shudder. It jarred the TV loose from it's mount and bounced it back into the cabinet so that was kind of upsetting.

We spent the night at a rest stop just outside of St. Louis and pressed on the next day arriving in Monroe just after lunch. We stayed at the fairgrounds between to big fifth wheel campers. The one man didn't care much for the dogs (since they technically weren't allowed) and he made sure that we knew that HE knew that they weren't supposed to be there. But they behaved themselves marvelously and I think even he couldn't complain.

The family reunion was kind of anti-climactic in that meeting the Danes was way more fun. I worked on the family file during the reunion lunch so the time I spent with the Danes during our dinners each evening was a thing I'll always cherish. Mona, Helle, Anni, Torben and Rasmus and their families are all so friendly and I loved talking to them about everything. It's so amazing to compare our different cultures. Gloria and I are determined to make the trip to Denmark in 2 years.

David really enjoyed himself. We went to see House on the Rock and we went down to Baumgartners for a few beers. The tavern has hundreds of dollar bills stuck to the ceiling with tacks. This doesn't sound too impressive until you know that the ceilings in the room are at least 20 feet high. So how do they get the money up there? It cost me a dollar to find out. They put a tack right through George's face and then place three quarters (that have been taped together) on top of the tack. Fold the dollar just right and with just the right amount of heave, the bartender tosses the dollar straight up. The quarters push the tack into the ceiling, the dollar stays, the quarters fall back to the earth and if the bartender is REALLY good, he catches the quarters. Cool! Every two years during Cheese Days, they take all the dollars down and give the money to charity.

After Wisconsin, it was on to Kansas to see Shane, Catherine, and Lucas. Shane debuted his new ride, a Cadillac Escalade. Very nice. Lucas is a very sweet baby and so funny. When you hold him, he jumps up and down like he's in his jumper. If he's not jumping, he's doing 360's in your arms. I think the only time I saw him be still was when he was eating. We stayed at a little campground right next to I-70 which was closer to Ft. Riley than staying out at Milford Lake. Shane let us wash the truck at his house. It was filthy from the rain we ran into right as we were leaving Monroe. The RV was also a mess so David washed it at a truck wash right next to the campground. So we left Kansas with sparkling vehicles.

But again it rained on us as we were making our way back to St. Louis and by the time we got to Tunica, Mississippi, both vehicles were a mess again. Every time we had to travel, it rained.

In Tunica, we stayed at The Grand campground. The first night we went up to Memphis to check out Beale St. That was a lot of fun and we heard some really good blues music. The next day we drove down to Clarksdale to see the Delta Blues Museum. They had a replica of Muddy Waters and his house there. David learned a lot about that genre of music. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Ground Zero Blues Bar which is partly owned by Morgan Freeman.

Sunday we drove back to Mom's house and stayed with them till Friday when it was time to go back to Florida. We decided to spend Friday and Saturday night in Bainbridge, GA so I could see my father's grave and try to find my sister Joyce. On the way to Bainbridge, the funniest thing happened at a gas station while we were getting fuel. These two guys accidently left a delivery truck out of park and it rolled into a huge board fence behind the station. I was getting something out of the Mariner when I heard a big boom and saw the fence boards shaking like crazy. When I climbed back into the RV, David described the scene to me as he was in the driver's seat and saw the whole thing. The truck had rolled right through the fence. We decided to get the hell out of there before we got blocked in my cops or whatever.

So we get to Bainbridge that afternoon and get all set up in a campground right by the bypass. I met the funeral home man, Mr. Wade, who showed me where my father was buried. His grave was very simple and the cemetary wasn't kept up very well. I found out my father had remarried in 1996 and Mr. Ware told me where Mary Burrington lived. So we drove out to Fowlstown to see here but she wasn't home. So I left a message for her to call me and she did a little later that afternoon. I had talked to Jerry Burrington (my father's second wife) earlier and she'd given me Joyce's number. We had a dinner scheduled with Joyce and her BF, Bucky, but I had a couple hours open before then so I drove out to visit with Mary. She is a very sweet woman who loved my father very much. He's been dead since 2004 and she still gets emotional talking about his death. He died of complications from diabetes from what I can tell. His lower legs had almost rotted away and I think his heart just gave out.

Dinner with Joyce and Bucky was great fun. I got all caught up on the family. Sadly, our sister, Mary, was killed in a tornado a couple years ago and Joyce told how it happened. It was great seeing her again and we intend to stay in touch from now on.

So now I'm back in Florida in Jacksonville at a tent sale. David helped me set up and he did great work hiding all the extension cords under the sales desk. But the heat got to him later in the day and he had to take a break. It was getting to me too but I had to get the work done. My knees are in bad shape. I'm not sure what's going on but the joints are really hurting and I can barely get up from a sitting position. I don't think I could run if my life depended on it. David cracked me up when he compared the set-up to forced labor in Auschwitz.

Tomorrow night, David flies back to Delaware. I have grown accustomed to having him here and will really miss him.