Road Trip

6:40

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We are on our way to Effingham, Illinois, once we have our coffee and breakfast and finish up the blog. We hope to arrive at our son Tom’s house in Lee’s Summit, a suburb of Kansas City, by mid-afternoon on Monday. By the way, Happy Winter Solstice. 

Saturday was a busy day spent preparing for our trip—finalizing what we wanted to take and making a trip to the Transfer Station. We both worked on packing in the morning, and I was finished by 10:00. After cleaning out the refrigerator and shoveling the parking area, I headed to the Transfer Station, where I was the only car there. I was back home by 10:30, parked the car in the garage for the next couple of weeks, and then took the Kia to Hogan’s to fill up with gas. Once home again, I charged the plug-in battery for a couple of hours, and the car was ready for the trip.

Evie made me an omelet with toast for lunch, after which I watched my show and took a brief nap. We had been invited to another gathering on Saturday afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00. Unfortunately, Evie still wasn’t feeling well, so we decided it was best for her to stay home. Our neighbors, Barb and Jim, kindly offered to drive, so we left at 1:40 and were the first to arrive at Tom and Julie’s beautiful house, set on 60 acres of snow-covered woods with a small frozen lake—a perfect winter setting. It’s their tradition to drink champagne at Christmas time, so that’s how the afternoon started, along with excellent appetizers. About a dozen of us gathered around the kitchen island or sat on the sun porch, overlooking the woods. Julie was my yoga teacher for several years, and Tom had invited both Jim and me to help make sauerkraut back in October. We stayed until 4:45 before heading back to Woodlawn.

Great  Friends, Julie And Tom

When I returned home, Evie was relaxing in the TV room and was fully packed for the trip. I’m sure having that done helped her feel better. We had an easy dinner—salad and hot dogs at 6:15, and I wasn’t very hungry after all the appetizers and cookies earlier in the afternoon. We watched our show, reviewed what we needed to do in the morning before leaving, and then Evie went upstairs to bed. I watched a little more TV but soon tired and headed upstairs, hoping for a good night’s sleep.