April 22 – May 4, 2021 Vacation Part 2

Thursday, April 22, 2021

After a big breakfast (and Non-Keto!)

Jan, Annalou, and I spent the day touring the Biltmore estate and grounds. Built in the late 1800’s, it is still the largest house in America with 250 rooms. We took a walking tour through the house,

had lunch in the Cafe, which occupies the totally remodeled stables, and toured the grounds.

The grounds are beautiful, with flowers in bloom, and a huge green house.

And even a water fall!

After a wonderful but exhausting day, we drove back to Lara’s to pick up Button.

Friday, April 23, 2021
We said goodbye, and Jan left after breakfast to go spend the rest of the mud season visiting friends in Florida for a few weeks before heading back home to Maine. Annalou had a great visit with Jan before she left for Florida, and I enjoyed this few days with her once we came back.  We are blessed with some pretty wonderful friends!

Annalou and I enjoyed some time together,, and cooked supper before she went to work that evening. I did some RV maintenance after she left.

Saturday we stayed at the campground, and I did some more maintenance on the RV. We met the new neighbors next to the campground who are fixing up an old mobile home for their son. It’s a total renovation, and the inside looks more like a condo with hardwood floors and new appliances!

Sunday we spent the day with Lara and Jeremy at their house.

We had a great visit. At one point  Annalou and Lara spent some quality time together as Jeremy and I talked drones for a while. He has one just like mine, but hasn’t been able to use it as much. However, he knows much more about lens’ and lighting stuff. So I learned a lot!

Over the next few days Annalou continued her overnight jobs, and we spent our days together. We also spent a day at Ikea where we walked through their 3 tiny house displays. One is about 600 square ft, another is about 400, and the smallest is about 175. We particularly liked the largest one, with all the storage built into it. I like the idea of just building the interior walls, and purchasing the Ikea storage and furniture to fit. That may be my quickest way to build it myself.

Wednesday – Thursday April 28 – 29, 2021

Since I had the extra time off, we decided that Annalou should take a few days off so we could drive up to MA for a visit. It’s only a 14 hour drive, so why not? When she got back from work on Wednesday morning, we packed up and left before noon. Because of the late start, we thought we’d relax and make the 14 hour trip in two days instead of the usual single day.

We got over half way before stopping, so just had a few hours left on Thursday. We rolled in to Cara’s house just after noon on our 43rd anniversary! What a wonderful life we have had together! We know this season is just temporary, and we will soon be back together again, and plan to live happily ever after, once we do!!  I’ve always said that anything I do in life is always more enjoyable when Annalou is with me!

I had arranged to play drums on Sunday, so went to music team rehearsal that evening. I’m glad I did, because since I have been there last, they put plexiglass in front of the drums. That changes everything for me. Everything! Now when I play, I seem louder than I really am. To compensate, they have a mic on every drum and cymbal so the sound guy can mix it back into the room at the volume he wants. It is very hard for me to play, not knowing if I am at the correct volume, or offensively loud. I have no control any more. It will be OK for this once, but I wouldn’t like it on a regular basis. I also was able to practice the duet I had planned with my good friend Bob McNeill.

Friday, April 30, 2021

Seth and I drove across the state to Marlborough to our favorite go-kart racing facility, and had a blast there. Everyone has a user name, and every race time we’ve ever run is recorded to our profile. He is AllMighty Pancake and I am DJ Winner. Our first race was with 4 others, and one of the employees walked over to me just before we started and said “I just just looked up your race times, and I’m so sorry they put you in this race with all these beginners! To compensate, I’ll make your next two races be just the two of you.” And that’s just the way we like it! I was ahead until our last race of the day. . . .

But on our last race, they put a third person in behind us. An employee. Those guys get to race all the time, so are really good, and don’t count in the statistics. He passed Seth with just 2 laps left, so Seth watched the way he took the corners, and did his last lap the same way, shaving off almost a full second! When the guy passed me, I did the same, but only had half a lap left to make adjustments. These races are all about who has the fastest single lap, not about who crosses first. So Seth beat me, and placed as the fastest for the day! And, we both crossed into the 33 second range, which was our goal.

We were home for supper and steaks on the grill. Scott is very good with those! Saturday, while Annalou visited with Cara, Scott and I went with Abby to get supplies. His project was to put up posts along the back deck, and add solar lights around the top. My project was to build the front porch structure for Abby’s doll house.

We will order the pillars and rails so that we can put them up the next time I come.

Sunday was a wonderful day! We went to the New Testament Church of Cedarville, where we attended for about 30 years, and where my brother Paul is the pastor.

I played the drums and harmonized with the worship team,

before my brother gave an excellent message on the character of David. Then Bob and I got up and closed out the service with our duet Worthy The Lamb by the Gaither Vocal Band.

After service, we were able to visit briefly with lots of our friends, but had to leave by 12:30. We drove less than 5 miles down the road to meet up with the first annual motorcycle ride for Angel Babies in time so I could film their departure with my drone. My grandson, Seth, used his drone for the pre-ride pictures and video, as well as during the ride, and at the end, and did an outstanding job! You can watch the video here. https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR2ARGU8nvKcDv7xm2nBe7MWWN44OC3rMsf2P5XowSfN9-wHbqeleBIlKkA&v=rRTzj-JRG20&feature=youtu.be

Angel Babies exists to help grieving families cope with the loss of a pregnancy or baby gone too soon. So many of the riders were riding for someone in particular, and had that name on their bike somewhere. The non-profit uses donations raised to cover the costs of getting burial gown kits to hospitals, host holiday remembrance events, and run their keepsake shop. Cara and her partner, the founder, Alisha run the organization, collecting donated wedding and formal dresses which volunteers make the baby burial gowns from, crochet hats and blankets, trinkets etc. Cara’s whole family (Cara, Scott, Seth and Abby) regularly help in small and big ways. Such a worthy cause and celebration of life!

Monday was catchup and packing day, and Tuesday morning, May 4, Annalou drove me to the airport in Providence, where I flew out and back to the trucking company near Minneapolis. I rented a car and drove back to my van.

Tomorrow Annalou drives back to NC so she can work Thursday night, while I buy groceries, unpack, do laundry, and hopefully get a long night of sleep before steering a truck from here to Madison Wisconsin on Thursday to load Friday for Omaha.