And she's that kind of kid - once it's in front of her, in black and white, she makes a mental adjustment, and happily goes with the flow. I think it's a good trait to have - she has the strength and will to fight against a situation she disagrees with, but then when she realizes that she's beating her head against a wall, she accepts it and makes the best of it. Good stuff!
So, on Weds 9/22/10, we left home about 9am, smiling and excited on a beautiful sunny day, Ava sitting between us in her booster seat in the F250.
We brought a lot of books, activity workbooks, toy animals, and movies for her portable DVD player to help pass the time on the long drive. We dropped Bear off at Nanny's house, and then were on our way.
We had planned a route that dipped down into central Pennsylvania and then west from there, rather than take the dreaded NY Thruway and I-80 across northern Ohio, and it turned out to be a good decision. We had light traffic and lovely early fall scenery in western Connecticut and through the Catskills area of New York. Entering Pennsylvania, we drove through the beautiful hills in the Poconos along a winding well-maintained road.
By this time, it was getting to be mid-afternoon and Miss Ava was starting to get a little sleepy. I saw her starting to snuggle in, and asked if she'd like to have Teddy to use as a pillow, and take a little nap. She nodded, and I reached around the cab of the truck for Teddy. Nothing. So I unbuckled my seatbelt and groped around in the back seat for Teddy. Nothing. I looked at Patrick over Ava's head, and he looked back at me, and we both remembered that she had taken him with her into the Charlton Plaza rest area on I-90 back in Massachusetts. Our eyes said the same thing to each other: "Oh no!"
He dug into his pocket for the lunch receipt from the plaza, and it had a phone number. I called and got someone who could barely speak English, and tried to ask quietly if anyone had found a teddy bear in the ladies room (I remembered exactly where we had left him - sitting on the toilet paper dispenser in the last stall on the right.) She put me on hold for a little while, then came back and said No. I left my phone number with her, but my heart sank. By this time, Ava was looking at me with big questioning eyes. "Where's Teddy?"
I had to tell her that we left him in Massachusetts. The wail she let out was like nothing I had ever heard from her before. My eyes filled with tears and I was sick to my stomach. Visions of Teddy filled my mind - Teddy camping, Teddy with Cinderella, Teddy on the boat, Teddy in the garden. It seemed as though every mental picture I had of Ava also included Teddy. As an "only child", she had relied on Teddy for companionship and he had been her trusted sidekick since before she could walk.
We assured her that the people at the plaza would keep an eye out for him, and that we'd swing back by on our way home to see if he had turned up. This calmed her down, and then her main concern was who she was going to hug and sleep with during the rest of the trip, so we made a plan to run out to the closest department store to look for a new teddy as soon as we got to the hotel.
We arrived at the Hampton Inn Carlisle PA about 6pm and, true to our word, as soon as we had checked in and got our stuff into the room, we headed back down the highway to Target. They had a disappointing selection of stuffed animals - only a handful of them - but she managed to find the only teddy bear on the shelf, and instantly told me that she loved it. So now Fuzzy Bear was riding shotgun to Iowa with us. At times during the rest of the trip (and to this day), Ava would talk about Teddy and sometimes cry for him, but she did a great job of moving on with life.
As we were leaving Target, the glorious full moon was being overtaken by great black clouds, and as we drove to the hotel thunder began rumbling, then we could see lightning flashes, and then just as we pulled into the hotel parking lot, the rain came pouring down. We made a mad dash for the door, and were soon back in our room, glad to be off the road for the night. Patrick and Ava headed right out to the pool, while I did Southworth work and ordered a pizza delivered.
We woke early to get a good start on the drive, planning to stop in Indianapolis that night. Patrick, as usual, was dressed and ready to go before I was, so he helped Ava get her things packed up while I showered. At about 6:30, as I was walking around the room in a towel, the hotel fire alarms started to go off - not in our room, but out in the hallway. Patrick opened the door to see what was going on, and we saw that in addition to the noisy "bwaat bwaat bwaat" of the alarms, white lights in the ceiling were also flashing. I didn't think too much of it, assuming it was just a false alarm, but he wanted us to get out of the room. Just then I picked up a faint scent of hot electrical, and jumped into my clothes. We gathered up Ava, but left everything else behind, even Fuzzy.
As we walked into the lobby area, several other sleepy, confused-looking patrons were wandering around as well, everyone kind of glancing toward the front desk for some indication as to what was going on. But the guy alone at the front desk was on the phone, not making eye contact with any of the customers, so we and most of the others went outside. The alarms were still going as we stood on the sidewalk next to the hotel, and I had fun watching the people slowly trickle out of the building - a little boy, obviously plucked from his bed, draped over his dad's shoulder; a young guy without a shirt, in his running pants; several businessmen in their khakis, ready for sales calls but having had to leave their rooms before they could pack. The smell of electrical was really noticeable by this point, so I was glad we had left our room at the first alarms.
We heard the sirens of the local fire department coming nearer to the hotel, and a larger crowd gathered around the building as more and more people decided to take the fire alarms seriously. Patrick and I got a kick out of watching the fire trucks show up - three of them, including a ladder truck that sent a fireman to the roof - because it seemed as though the fire department had been waiting for a chance to try out all this new shiny stuff they had hanging around the station! As firemen were entering the building, I was absolutely amazed to see people coming out past them, fully dressed, hair-styled, and with all their suitcases and laptop bags in tow - seemingly blase about the emergency. I had to laugh to myself - as much as we hear on the news about how Americans are afraid of another terrorist attack - you wouldn't know it in Carlisle, PA.
By this time, Ava had noticed (and cried about) that we had left Fuzzy in the room. We explained to her that in an emergency, you don't stop for things. Nothing, not even Blue Cat. That people have died in fires because they looked for things instead of just getting out of the building. She listened seriously to this, and didn't mention Fuzzy again. I hope it's a lesson she remembers the rest of her life.
Eventually, a girl who was part of the morning kitchen staff started making the rounds, telling us that it was a short in their electrical room and that everything was fine, and letting us know that we could go back in the building. I went back to the room, while Patrick and Ava watched the firefighters putting away their shiny stuff. Over breakfast a little while later, Ava told me that all the firemen had talked to her, and they even turned on one of the "spinny" lights on the front of the engine so she could see it!
Ava and I were sitting at the table together, while Gaffer was loading our gear in the truck, after breakfast. Ava was holding Fuzzy. An older lady walked by, a grandmotherly-type with grey hair but with a firm look that made me think that maybe she was a former teacher (you can tell them a mile away! I love them!), and she stopped to tell Ava what a nice teddy bear she had. The poor thing didn't know it, but this was a very tender subject. Ava's eyes filled with tears and she said, "Well, this is my NEW teddy bear that I got last night because my real teddy bear is at a rest area..." The lady looked over at me, and I nodded and told her what had happened. Well, that lovely woman turned to Ava and looked directly into her eyes, and in a matter-of-fact but gentle voice said, "You may not see that teddy bear again. But, you know what, there may have been a sad girl at that rest area who didn't have a teddy bear. And she saw yours and it made her feel better, and now she's taking care of him."
Ava looked at her seriously, and nodded her head. You could see the wheels turning at this idea of Teddy's fate. Then she said, "Well, I love my new teddy bear also..." I thanked the old lady for being so nice and taking the time to talk with Ava. It seems that every day, you can find examples of good, decent humanity in places where you would never expect to find it! I'll remember that lady forever, even if Ava doesn't.
Once on the road, we had miles and miles through the Allegheny Mountains - literally, through! Many tunnels were bored through the mountains, and it was exciting for Ava each time we drove through one.
I had made an appointment in the Columbus area with a customer who had stopped into the Southworth booth at the Atlanta woodworking show, and we arrived there at about 3pm. Gaffer and Ava took a walk and stretched their legs while I went in and looked at the application, and then we hit the road again, arriving in Indianapolis at around 5:30. This hotel was the only disappointing Hampton Inn we stayed at. Not really clean, whirlpool broken down, leaves and dirt in the (indoor) pool, and only decaf coffee available! (This was ridiculous! No real coffee????)
But we hadn't stopped in Indianapolis for the accommodations - we had stopped for Fogo de Chao. Ever since the first time I had gone to Fogo in Chicago, I've been a huge fan. When Patrick and I went to Washington DC, we had a great time at the Fogo there and he was hooked. I went to the one in Baltimore while I was working there earlier this summer, and he was thrilled for me - that's how much he loves it, he's happy even knowing I'm going without him! We went to the one in Philadelphia this August during our anniversary/Southworth road trip and it was fantastic, and now we wanted to check out the one in Indianapolis.
After the mandatory swimming time with Gaffer, Ava put on a beautiful outfit and we headed downtown to Fogo. We found a parking spot on the street adjacent to the court, the jail, and about 75 bail bonds agencies. We held Ava's hand tight during the walk to the restaurant, but all was well, and we relaxed especially once we were inside. As we expected, it was a dining experience like no other - unique to its own location, but otherwise distinctly Fogo. Ava enjoyed interacting with the gauchos who brought the meats around, and she was quite the big girl pulling her own cuts from the skewer with her little tongs. The Spanish-speaking gauchos all listened to her intently as she told them what she wanted, and the kid ate her weight in filet mignon, sirloin, lamb, chicken, and sausage, not to mention the vegetables from the magnificent salad bar, and mashed potatoes. Topped off with a bowl of chocolate ice cream. It made us proud - Gaffer was beaming: "That's my girl!"
On the way out of the city, we were captivated by the beauty of the full moon over the skyscrapers.
The next morning, Friday, was to be our last day of travel. We planned to be in Des Moines by about 2. We passed the Colts stadium on our way out of Indianapolis,
and then had a few hours of driving in typical Midwest scenery - farms and more farms. Ava and I passed the time playing with her animals, reading, and doing her workbooks. We had brought the perfect variety of things to do, so that Ava never got bored and neither did I. We were always in agreement that it was a good time to stop playing animals and do something else. Or just look out the window for a while, or take pictures, or talk to each other. Patrick and I were amazed at what a good little road-tripper she was.
We crossed the Mississippi into Burlington, Iowa, at about 11 in the morning,
were checking into the Stoney Creek Inn in Des Moines at 2:15, and Ava and Gaffer were in the pool by 3:30! And what a pool! I always stayed at the Stoney when I had the Midwest territory for Southworth and was working in the Des Moines area, and it's a wonderful hotel. Designed to be rustic, like a lodge, there's a comfort and homelike feeling to the place that is so enjoyable.
Ava made some good progress with her swimming while we were on this trip - she swam in five different pools across the country to Iowa and back, and with each pool she developed better skills. She swam with a float-coat on during our first night out in Carlisle, but by the time we left the Stoney four nights later she didn't want it and was absolutely fearless about jumping right in. It was fun to watch! And doesn't she love to swim!!! She and Gaffer came up with all kinds of new swimming games and ways to dive and jump into the pool. One of her favorites was "Hum De Dum". This meant she walked toward the pool like she was nonchalantly strolling a boulevard, "Hum De Dum, what a lovely day..." and walk right into the pool - so funny to see her walk over the edge and splash into the water. It was always the highlight of her day, so we tried to get her to the pool as often and for as long as we could - she never missed a day of swimming!! She enjoyed the whirlpools, also.
We had gotten settled in our room (even took the time to take our things out of the drybags and put them into drawers - nice to know we were going to stay a little while!) On the bed was a stuffed animal, a wolf with a red Stoney Creek bandana. Patrick and I had known an animal would be there, because there always is, and last year there had been a bison in our room that we brought back for Ava. So this time it was a wolf, with a little note on him to the effect of: "HaHa, we already knew your kid saw this, so we're tacking $20 onto your bill.." Yes, Ava fell in love with it, couldn't believe the hotel would give us a wolf, decided it was a girl, named it Piney (for pine tree), then changed it to Wolfie, and didn't put it down for two days.
Steve and Tammy met us at the hotel around 7 that evening, and took us out to a little restaurant in Grimes that the locals love. We had a great home-cooked meal, which was wonderful after all the road food we had been choking down, and we made plans to be ready to leave the hotel by 7:15 the next morning to go to the University of Iowa game in Iowa City.
I've been friends with Steve since I've worked for Southworth, over 21 years now. At first it was a business relationship, starting when he was a salesman for Barron Equipment in Iowa, and I was his inside sales coordinator at Southworth. When I became the Midwest territory manager in 2001, I became closer not only with Steve but with the entire Barron Equipment organization. This company was the first to ever sell over a million dollars of Southworth equipment, so obviously they were a big part of my life (and my paycheck.) I spent huge amounts of time with them, working on projects at John Deere and Maytag and Jeld-Wen and dozens of other large accounts, and we always had a good time. The guys at Barron worked hard, but they enjoyed what they did. Often Steve and I would make a detour through some prime duck hunting areas and get out of the truck and walk around - Steve would always say, "I can't believe we get paid for doing this!"
Several years ago, Steve and two of the other salesmen, Tom and Pete, bought Barron Equipment so the owners (Barb and Ron - "BarRon") could retire.
This friendship between Steve, Tom, Pete, and me expanded to include Patrick when the Barron boys (as we call them) came out to Maine with their wives for a week-long visit in 2004, and then grew even stronger when Steve and his entire family came out to visit the following year, renting a house in Harpswell. Then Steve, his son Matt, and Tom came out for a moose hunt last year. Patrick and I drove their moose meat back to Iowa for them, so Patrick had had a chance to meet Tom's kids and we spent some time with Steve and his family during the brief time we were there.
During this trip we knew we'd see Pete at the Iowa game, but we weren't sure how we'd see Tom, who lives a couple hours drive north. But it worked out that Tom was coming down to Des Moines to a gun show on Saturday, and was bringing his family down the night before and staying at the Stoney. So he came down with his boys (all of them bleary-eyed and freshly rolled from bed) to have breakfast with us before we headed out with Steve to the game. Ava was shy with the boys (they're about 7 and 9 years old, or thereabouts), as she is with all kids she meets. But when Steve and Tammy showed up, and told her Matt was waiting in the Suburban, she became the biggest flirt you've ever seen! She LOVES Matt - fell in love with him during the moose hunt - and he loves her, too. Tammy took her out to see Matt - and this picture says it all:
Matt had his friend Brandon with him, and we had a fun two hour ride to Iowa City. Ava sat in the third row with Tammy and me, but spent a lot of time poking and tickling the boys in the second row!
The sky was overcast and the weather report had warned of heavy rain during the day, but during the drive it held off. We got a spot in a parking garage at the university and then walked to where Pete parks his RV each Saturday the Hawkeyes have a home game. Patrick and I were amazed by the number of people and the overwhelming spirit of the fans. Everyone was wearing yellow and black. Steve told us that this was "nothing" - they were playing a nobody team (Ball State) and it was going to be a rainy day - typically the crowds were even bigger. This was hard for us to imagine. The 70,000 person capacity of the stadium seemed already bursting, and the tailgaters filled acres and acres around the venue. We stopped at one of the dozens of kiosks selling everything Hawkeyes, and picked out a sweatshirt for Ava. She was in her glory with Matt and Brandon.
We got to Pete's big motorhome (a diesel pusher RV that he and his father-in-law had bought for one reason only - to go to Hawkeye games!) to find the party already well underway, with food and beverages and a big screen TV set up outside so everyone could keep an eye on the pre-game show. A lot of my old friends from Barron were there, so it was great to be able to introduce them to Patrick and Ava.
Pete has two girls, a little older than Ava, and a friend of his was there with two more little girls, and Tammy brought Ava inside the RV to meet them. Tammy works in the office of their town's elementary school, and is the recess lady for the first graders - has been for years - and she really has a way with kids. Ava took to her instantly when they first met and, during the two and a half days we were there, she was Ava's second "mom", loving and attentive.
So anyway, Ava went with Tammy into the RV, while Patrick and I stayed outside and mingled and talked. But after a short time, Ava appeared at my side, whispering that those girls in there were too "rough". She really wanted to play with them, but was scared of them. I took her back in, and could see her point. Four little girls, ages about 3 to 7, were in the bedroom of the RV, literally bouncing off the walls! They were jumping on the bed, shrieking and laughing and pushing each other off and crawling back on... It was quite a scene, especially because they were all black and yellow with black and yellow ribbons in their hair - looked like a nest of buzzing bees! They stopped jumping for a moment when Ava and I came in, and I said, "Hey guys - she's kind of shy - can you settle down for a minute till she gets to know you?" And Pete had followed me in, so he also told them to quit jumping on the bed. But as soon as we left, they (of course!) started right in again, so Ava ended up tailgating outside with the grown-ups.
Then it was time for the game, so we all started moving up toward the stadium. Barron Equipment has four seats in the skybox, as well as seats throughout the stands so, once inside, everyone split up. Pete and his family had the skybox, but Steve told us that we'd swap with them at halftime - cool!! Our seats were at the "HAWKEYES" end of the field (as opposed to the "IOWA" end), and we had a great view of the action. The rain had held off all day, in spite of the heavy cloud cover, but once we sat down Steve looked to the west and said, "Uh-oh..." Great black clouds were coming our way.
The game was a blast, in spite of being one-sided (Iowa 47, Ball State 0). We were in the "A" section when the cheer when around the stadium - starting on one side "I", then over to "O", then "W", then "A" - little Ava was screaming out her favorite letter at the top of her lungs! What fun!
As halftime approached she got tired, so we spread out some raingear on two seats and covered her up with more of it because by then the rain was coming down steadily. She quickly konked right out.
At halftime, it was a monsoon - we were getting soaked! So we gathered Ava up, trying to keep her asleep, and tried to find our way to meet with Pete and switch to the skybox. We were in a crushing crowd of Hawkeye fans - I kept hoping that nobody would yell "fire" or anything that could cause a stampede. I could completely understand how mass tramplings happen. Ava was awoken by all the jostling and looking over Gaffer's shoulder at the sea of people she began to cry.
What I said earlier, about good and decent people being in our midst every day, and appearing where you least expect them? Well, as luck would have it, squeezed in beside me and behind Gaffer, were two pretty 20-ish girls. And guess what they were going to school for? To be teachers, and both of them currently worked in child care. So they talked with Miss Ava, and told her how pretty she was, and cheered her up. Because of the Bobby-Joe-Kerry-Emily connection, Ava is at her best and brightest when in the company of this age group.
So we managed to get through the horrific crowd, but by then we were just like, "Let's go back to the RV where it's warm and comfortable, and where the food and drinks were." Pete had really wanted to keep his family in the skybox, and who could blame him? Back at the RV, we had a great time as one by one our friends started wandering back from the game and the tailgating started back up again.
We headed back to our car late in the day, and as we walked Steve and Brandon both yelled "McNutt!" Sure enough, coming out of the back of the building was Iowa's star wide receiver, Marvin McNutt. He stopped and signed their hats, and then Matt picked up Ava so Marvin could sign her sweatshirt. By then the sharpie wasn't working very well, though, and all you can see on her shirt now is a couple of black lines. But we got his picture with her, and McNutt has three new fans from Maine.
Ava took a little snoozy-snooze on the two-hour ride back to Des Moines, and they dropped us off at the hotel around 7. We ordered pizza and got down to the pool, while they went home to get their swimming things and came back. We had a fun evening of swimming, whirlpooling, and eating and drinking poolside - Matt and Brandon were there, so once again Ava was the happiest of 4-year-olds!
The next morning, we went over to the Joslin house and were served a big pancake/french toast breakfast with bacon and sausage and homefries. Steve and Tammy's daughter, Allie, home for just the day (with her boyfriend Taylor) from college at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Rapids, was cooking when we got there, and she and Ava hit it off right away. There were also two cats - an old, skinny, rickety one named Emily, and a big fat one named Snickers. Ava was in heaven! She's definitely a "cat person" and, luckily, the cats were friendly and seemed to enjoy all her attention. After breakfast, Allie took Ava upstairs with her to get ready for the day, and Ava came back downstairs with a new stuffed animal - a dog she named "Allie". So far, one stuffed animal lost, three gained...
Matt had a baseball game, a "fall-ball" league, so we watched that for an hour or two, enjoying the beautiful blue sky and brisk fall air, and met Steve's parents there, and a little while later Allie and Taylor arrived with Tammy's mom. Such a nice family, and close. Allie was sitting with us, texting to Matt in the dugout "I'm going to ask dad if you hit a homerun, will he buy us BlackBerries" - she was laughing, especially when Matt texted back that he just got in trouble by coach for texting in the dugout! Apparently, they both have been after Steve for some time for upgrades to their cell phones, and Allie had teasingly come up with another "plan"!
Then it was time for the actual highlight of the trip, at least for Patrick and Ava - Steve owns 70 acres of woods and meadows about an hour's ride from Des Moines, and he often finds arrowheads and fossils along the small river running through the property. Ava was dying to find an arrowhead!
The dirt road into the property was a quagmire due the heavy rain the day before, so Steve put his truck into 4-wheel-drive, and Ava loved the adventure of "muddin'"! After checking out the cabin he's building, everyone hopped onto Tammy's 4-wheeler to head down to the creek. We spent a few hours walking along the rocky creek bed, finding all kinds of beautiful and unusual rocks.
Tammy also gave Ava and me a ride on the quad around some of the property - it was so beautiful! I told Tammy that it reminded me of "Little House on the Prairie" scenery. People who haven't been there have no idea how truly beautiful Iowa is - rolling hills, tall grasses, groves of trees. We flushed a covey of quail, watched a soaring hawk, and breathed in the sweet air. When we got on a straight-away, Ava told Tammy to "go faster - I like to feel the wind in my hair!"
Ava assumed that every triangle-shaped rock she found was an arrowhead, and we didn't do a lot to discourage her from thinking that - she was having a great time! She had looked at Steve's arrowheads, and we showed her the marks where the Indians had chipped away to make a sharp edge, so later that afternoon while we were just hanging out at the property, she was picking up random rocks, sitting down, and chipping away at them to make her own arrowheads!
We couldn't believe it was already 6:30 when we got into the truck. It was our last day in Iowa - we'd be leaving early the next morning. Once we got back into Des Moines we stopped at a Barnes & Noble so that I could pick up some more activity books for Ava for the ride home, and who would have thought that there would be a display of cute little stuffed Peter Rabbits at eye-level with Ava in the children's section? So, a fourth traveling companion was added to Ava's entourage.
Right next door to the bookstore was a decent-looking BBQ restaurant, so we decided to have dinner there. It was after 8pm by this time, on a Sunday night, and we were the only customers in the place. It turned out to be a great decision - the food was terrific, the ambiance was relaxed, and we had some local brews that were wonderful. It was a perfect place to end the weekend, having laughs over beers and ribs.
After saying good-bye with lots of planning on how we'll all get together again soon, we hit the hay for the last night at the Stoney, planning for an early start in the morning. Patrick was hoping for two 12-hour driving days, to try to get home on Tuesday. However, I had made an appointment with a customer in central PA for Tuesday, so we knew it would be pushing it to try for only one over-night. And we actually never even attempted to get home in this timeframe - it was after 8:30 before we even checked out of the Stoney Creek Inn, and we still had to shop at the grocery store around the corner for juice and travel snacks for Ava. And, who should we meet at the grocery store? Steve's dad, sneaking some doughnuts without his wife knowing about it, who told us a funny story in the parking lot of an incident that happened when he was vacationing in England. It was late morning as we drove away from Des Moines on another pretty, blue-skied day, with 1600 miles ahead of us.
As on all adventures, the trip home is never as memorable as the trip out. You've turned the page in a way, you've moved on. You're ready to be home. We got as far as the Toledo area the first day, spent the night uneventfully there, and woke to a rainy day for our Tuesday morning drive. I had an appointment with a customer to look at a paper-roll handling application in the Altoona PA area, so we stopped there for that. Patrick and Ava walked around town while the salesman and I drove over to the plant.
We were soon on the road again, but with the rain, the stop in Altoona, and our energy (lack of!) levels, we decided to get off the road and spend the night in Connecticut rather than try to make it home. This turned out to be a brilliant decision. We had a nice dinner out (where Ava asked me the profound question of "How did the first person get in the world?"), and spent the evening in a beautiful pool and whirlpool. We enjoyed being in the warm whirlpool and watching the rain and wind outside through the full-length windows - cozy!!!!
We actually slept in the next morning and didn't get down to the breakfast area until after 9. This was the homestretch, but we took a detour on I-90 to get around to the westbound side and take a look through the Charlton Plaza for Teddy. We didn't tell Ava what we were doing, just that we needed to use the rest area. As we walked around inside, and used the ladies room (where I looked in all the closets and storage areas), you could see the dawning light in her face and she said, "This kind of looks like where we lost Teddy?" And then I said, "Yes, this is the same place, and Gaffer and I are looking for him..." We asked a few employees, and they checked around, but nothing. Teddy was gone. As we walked back to the truck, she was very quiet, and we didn't say too much, either.
Then we were on the road again, playing Ava's favorite road games. She plays these with us every time we're in the car - "The Thinking Game" and "Yummy/Yukky". The thinking game is 20 Questions, although we don't keep track of the number of questions - just play until either somebody guesses it or gives up. "Yummy/Yukky" is one that only she and I play together. I pretend to be a customer going into a restaurant, and she's the waiter. We decide in advance whether it's going to be a Yummy or a Yukky restaurant. Usually, of course (because it's way more fun), it's a Yukky restaurant, and she gets to choose where it is - New Jersey, West Virginia, etc. - and what meal it is (most often breakfast). So I describe what I see as I go into the restaurant - usually broken steps, spiderwebs on the sign, cracked windows. And then the waiter puts me at a table, usually with a broken chair so I fall on the floor, and with sticky stuff on the table top. Then I order my food, and each item tastes peculiar. "WAITER - what the heck is this coffee made from??" And she giggles and tells me that the coffee is made from tree bark and worms. And so on throughout the meal, ending with me telling the waiter that I'm not paying, and I'm telling all my friends NEVER to come to this restaurant. This game kills miles of road time!!
So before we knew it, we were stopping by Gram and Gramp's so they could meet Ava's new animals and give the traveling girl a hug, and then on to Nanny's house to pick up Bear, and then home to Blue Cat. (Heidi was at the kennel - Patrick picked her up later.) Ava fell asleep in the truck before we got home, which worked out great because when I walked into the house, the first thing I saw was blood everywhere - gobs and drops on the floor and sprayed on the walls - even up on the door frames! Just as my eyes were taking this in, Blue Cat approached with a mangled ear. I was glad he appeared that quickly, otherwise I would have had a real scary moment! But I saw immediately that he had had a cyst burst, and remembered that he had a bite-mark on the same ear before we left. It was disgusting, though, and I spent the first few hours at home scrubbing floors and walls from the kitchen through the dining room, living room, bedrooms (I had to strip bed quilts covered with blood droplets!), bathroom and hallway - it was everywhere!
So it was a typical homecoming for us - it's always something!! I woke Ava up so she could see Blue Cat before I smeared his ear with bag balm and banished him outside. This is a girl who told "Blue Cat stories" to everyone she met east of the Mississippi and beyond, who loves this cat more than anything, who could not wait to get home to get her hands on him - and when she saw that goopy, bloody ear, she didn't even want to say hello to him. "GET HIM OUTSIDE, QUICK!!" So much for a warm welcome, Blue!
