After a week of getting settled in, doing some odd repairs here and there on the trailer and the car and the truck, we finally had to honor our agreement to return to Nashville for Hubby’s monthly dialysis clinic at Vanderbilt. We rented a car because I didn’t want to put a lot more mileage on the truck, and because we wanted something that got good gas mileage and would be reliable, and picked up our Chevy Malibu near the airport last night. We got up before the sun did, and were on the road an hour before sunrise. We managed to make it to the house in Tennessee about an hour before dark, picked up some things we had forgotten (I had made a list every since we left), and headed down to Manchester to stay in a hotel. We didn’t want to go through the trouble of putting the water back on, or the heater or uncover the furniture and all that nonsense, so we had made a reservation at the Red Roof, because we had Lola with us and they took dogs. NEVER AGAIN! The room was musty, there were bugs in the bathroom, lots of other problems, enough said! Grabbed some dinner at the Waffle House across the street and went to bed early.

Got up bright and early for our departure today, getting everything all packed up and ready to go before winding our way through the fences to pick up the horses and head on out of town! It was a VERY hot day, with temps increasing to over 90 degrees. I had checked the air in our tires on the trailer and found all but one in the 90 psi range, though technically with the weight of our trailer, we really needed to be at the max of 123 or so. These are 16-ply, load range H tires, all in very good condition, but one was down to about 85 pounds. I had tried to fill it up with air with our little compressor, but it quit before it got to that tire, so that one was still down when we left, unfortunately. Naturally, that tire exploded just north of Okeechobee, about an hour from brother Jeff’s house, along the narrow, two-lane section of 441. Fortunately, there was some construction that was holding traffic down to one lane, so there were long time periods of no traffic coming our way, which simplified the job. Unfortunately, the 4-prong tire wrench I had didn’t have the right size wrench, and while I was looking for the torque wrench and a socket that would fit, a nice man from the ranch across the road stopped to help. He had the right wheel wrench size, and he had the tires changed in just a few minutes. Of course, I offered to pay him, but he refused, only saying he hoped if his wife was in trouble, someone would help her. PASS IT FORWARD! Love country folks, honored to call myself one! Anyway, once everything was put away and thanks were exchanged, we headed back down the road, hoping the rest of the tires hold up till we got to Jeff’s, and fortunately they did. We arrived later than we hoped, of course, so we parked in front of the house until we could finish work on the area he had cleared for us back by the barn over the next few days. He made us some dinner, which I really appreciated because we were so tired, and went to bed, looking forward to a cold front that was supposed to be arrived the next day, it was just too dang hot here for this time of year!

Slept LATE!!! Yay!! Best night sleep in the trailer since we left home! Can’t understand why I hadn’t figured this out sooner, I guess I’ve just had too much going on to stop and think it through. Anyway, I slept past 9:30, which felt wonderful, then got up and grained the horses (Rich had already given them their hay for the day) and spent the day cleaning the trailer, reorganizing a few things, putting up some more hooks for hanging stuff, storing the suitcases back in the “attic,” changing out Lola’s dog bed (this one is just too big, so it’s going in the back seat of the truck.) I’ll get her another one with sides that’s the right size, so as not to take up the entire laundry room in the trailer. Dialyzed Hubby, then had a lovely dinner up at the big house with our hosts, chatted until well after nine before heading back to the trailer. Hubby was a bit more tired tonight, his blood pressure was quite low for much of his session, so we were in bed right afterward. Hoping for another good night sleep tonight! Could use a few more like last night!

Despite being so tired, I didn’t have the best night sleep, so I woke up still in a bit of a fog today. Unpacked, did laundry, dialyzed Hubby and picked up the truck from the mechanic, who confirmed the only problem was the power steering unit hadn’t been quite put on properly, but it needed another new belt since the “new” one was already getting chewed up. He charged a LOT less than the last place, confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt what a ripoff they were! Our hosts have been tempting Hubby with a liver and onions dinner at a local restaurant, so we decided tonight was the night to go, as Hubby was feeling pretty good even after his dialysis, so we headed out to what turned out to be a cafeteria style hole-in-the-wall in Dade City, where Hubby had his liver and I had chicken. Too much food, but it was true Southern style, and Hubby liked it, so it was a good evening. Got back, relaxed for a bit before going to bed. I had figured out (finally) that part of my sleeping problem was that Hubby was hogging too much of my side of the bed because he was sleeping on this right side, so I asked if we could switch (which would put us back to the way we were in the old trailer anyway) and he agreed. Hoping that makes a difference tonight!

Had a FABULOUS night sleep at the Hampton Inn last night, slept like a log, thank goodness! Had a leisurely free breakfast in the lobby before finally packing up and heading out. Our flight wasn’t until around noon, so we were in no real hurry, didn’t leave the hotel till nearly 9:30. The airport was less than two miles away, and even though there was a lot of construction, the road to the temporary car rental return was easy enough to find, and there was a shuttle waiting when we finished turning in our little Nissan Sentra. Nice car, good pickup, not that lagging acceleration so many smaller cars seem to have. A quick trip to the tiny terminal, some trouble at TSA, with a young man making Hubby get out of his wheelchair, take his belt off, and a bunch of other unnecessary procedures “because the computer told him to,” we finally reached the gate area where we relaxed and waited for our flight. A small plane again, but a pleasant and timely flight this time, with our connection in Charlotte right on schedule as well. Our hosts Cherryl and Rich were kind enough to pick us up at the airport since my truck was still in the shop, and offered to take us out to dinner, but we had eaten a nice lunch on the first plane (same menu as last time), so we headed straight home instead. Very tiring, so we said good night and were in bed pretty quick!

Up bright and early (well, not bright, it was pre-dawn), had breakfast at the lodge with the group, and proceeded with a very good day of seminar and workshop with a new client and 17 or so of his sales people and administrators. We finished up about 4:20, and learned that everyone else was either flying out or otherwise leaving the lodge that afternoon, so rather than stay a night on our own (and me sleeping on a cold couch again), we decided to check into an airport hotel for a comfortable night, with plans to sleep late since we would be close to the airport. I found a great Hampton Inn less than two miles away, clean, convenient, a great Hampton, with a king bed and a bathtub. It wasn’t long before I was soaking in a hot tub, ordering Chinese food for delivery, settling down to a movie and a good, long nice sleep on a comfortable mattress!

After a breakfast at the lodge with the group (it was 7 degrees this morning), and watching a couple of hours of their meetings and presentations, Hubby and I headed north for a dialysis session in Sioux City. After getting him settled in, I ran a bunch of errands, got workbooks for the group made at Staples, got my hair cut at a little salon downtown called Bliss (thanks, Joan! Great job!), picked up a protein drink and gas at a local grocery store, and sat in the parking lot of the dialysis center putting together the workbooks, finishing just in time to get Hubby and head out of town. We decided to stop for something to eat and found a place off the highway called, appropriately “The Place”, part restaurant and bar, part laundromat, part campground, part old motel, a real blast from the past from the old pre-interstate days. Had a meal of cheap comfort food, which is all we needed, and headed back to the retreat, passing a convoy of vehicles on the back road, assuming that was our group heading out. That’s fine, we prefer not to socialize with our students until after our Workshops, which is why we had dinner before returning. We’ll see plenty of them tomorrow! Settled back in the cabin, and other than some quick assistance from Matt the caretaker to fix the TV and wifi, which had no power, and relaxed the rest of the evening. Busy day tomorrow!