Sunday, July 11
Happy Anniversary to daughter Heather and Andy Dondis in Richardson, Texas!!!
With no visitors today, this turned out to be a very ordinary Sunday…got Mother up and around so she could get ready to go to church with TJ, and then we headed off to Yantis for the weekly fellowship breakfast, Sunday school, and the morning worship service.
We spent the afternoon hanging around Big V and then returned to Yantis for choir practice at 5:00 and the evening worship service at 6:00.
By 7:30 pm we were back at Mother’s house to check on her before driving across town to let the world-famous chefs at Sonic prepare the evening meal that we took back to the house and ate before watching some TV, reading a bit, and going to sleep.
Monday, July 12
With more company arriving today, it was necessary for us to hit the deck running when we woke up. After getting Mother fed, Barbara and I started on some light housecleaning and then about 9:45 I took Mother to her rehab session at the Olympic Center.
At 1:30 pm our guests arrived. Barbara’s sister, Carol, and two of Carol’s grandchildren, Tonya and Tyler, came to Mineola to pick up Barbara and go to Shreveport to visit Carol’s son, Gary, and his family. But first, they were going to spend the day with us and stay in Big V tonight.
Around 2:30 we led Carol and the kids out to Big V and got them settled in for the afternoon. Once Tyler and Tonya saw the swimming pool and the clubhouse game room, they were hooked on Holiday Village! While Carol was resting, the kids even borrowed my fishing pole and went across the street to the clubhouse pond to try their luck at fishing AND, even managed to hook a couple of the finny creatures. The kids, who come from southeastern New Mexico, were ecstatic about all the water and trees in this part of the country.
Around 5:30, when we had finished our afternoon nap, Carol brought the kids back to Mother’s house. We sat around and visited (Tyler and I took an opportunity to sit out on the front porch and watch the hummingbirds as they flitted around the place) and then we all had a light supper and spent the evening reminiscing and playing a marathon game of Rummi Cube. Tyler and Tonya may look bored in the accompanying pictures, but those expressions hid some devilish strategy that gave the rest of us fits.
Tuesday, July 13
Jim: Carol and Tonya came in to spend the morning with us and have some breakfast and lunch. Since they had no experience in closing up Big V, I drove out to Big V where they had left Tyler and showed him how to open windows and vents, shut off air conditioning and water heater, and check around the place to make sure we hadn’t missed anything.
When Tyler and I returned to Mother’s house, we all sat around, visited some more, and took some photos which showed our creativity and goofiness.
Eventually, I fired up the grill and cooked some beef filets that we found at the meat market in Walmart. Meanwhile, Barbara started on the rest of the meal and by noon, when TJ joined our bunch, we had a veritable feast waiting on the table.
After eating and cleaning the kitchen, we began packing Carol’s already loaded car (the Toyota version of the Pontiac Vibe). It took some doing (and a couple of re-doings), but by 1:45, we had everyone lined up for “going away” pictures. Then they shoehorned themselves into the car and took off for adventures in Shreveport and Bossier City.
Standing alone in first place on my honey-do list was to clean out the nasty oven in the kitchen. It has a self-cleaning feature, but as we found out the last time we tried it, it is more of a self-destructing feature. So, the only way to get it clean was the old-fashioned way…get down on hands and knees, spray oven cleaner, and then scrub away.
After two hours, I was able to clean away about half of the gunk, so before I went to bed tonight, I sprayed the oven liberally with oven cleaner, closed the door, and let it set up and work overnight.
Barbara: A disclaimer first…yes, I did ask that he attempt to clean the oven and yes, I did really, really appreciate his efforts, especially since the last time I cleaned the oven it required an appliance repairman to get the oven going again.
Our trip from Mineola to the Louisiana border, in my opinion, went by in a flash. I couldn’t tell anyone now what we talked about; but Carol and I kept the jaws a movin’! Once we got into LA, we stopped for a potty break and to change drivers. Carol decided that since I knew where Springhill Suites was, I could just drive there myself. Thankfully, Jim and I always used to take the loop around so I didn’t have to face the Shreveport/Bossier City five o’clock traffic.
Checking in was a piece of cake with Tonya and Tyler there to help us. They were actually going to go stay with Carol’s son Gary and his family; but we weren’t sure how to get there so we were going to wait for Gary to come get them.
Eventually, we loaded everyone back in the car and with me as the chauffer, we headed out with internet directions to find Gary’s home. And…by golly, with all of us paying attention to signs, we made it!
Gary and his wife Trish were outside when we arrived and their youngest daughter Sierra made a beeline to the car when she saw her Grandma pull up! The kids had been at the lake and Kyle and Cheyenne were just a little sunburned. I also got to meet Trish’s daughter Jennifer and her baby Lexie as well as some really cool friends of Gary’s who came by while we were there. However, with all the unpacking, hugging, etc. I didn’t get nearly as many photos as I would have liked.
We whiled away the rest of the evening inside the casino there at the Downs before calling this day over.
Wednesday, July 14
Jim: I was up early and scrubbing away on the oven before Mother even woke up. It took a couple of hours of scrubbing and wiping, but by the time Mother was up and around, the oven looked brand new. Unfortunately, the rest of the kitchen looked like a tornado had come through, so I spent the next couple of hours scrubbing cabinet doors, cleaning out the microwave (couldn’t have it looking filthy when the oven looked so nice), and sweeping and mopping the kitchen and dining room floors.
While I took Mother to rehab, Maria came in to clean Mother’s room, so by noon the house was looking and smelling clean and fresh.
The rest of the day was spent in doing laundry and other odd chores inside and outside…there’s never a shortage of things to be done around here, and today was as good a day as any to whittle down the list.
Barbara: Well, Jim may have had an early morning, but I certainly seemed to be making the best of my time away, because I awoke much later than normal, almost 9:00, to find that Carol had already gone down to the breakfast bar and brought me a whole selection of breakfast items to choose from. As we chatted and ate breakfast, we planned our day of sorts. Neither one of us wanted to be hemmed in by plans, but we knew that our first order of business was to go to Wal-Mart to get Carol’s medicine re-filled. Luckily, she knew that the Wal-Mart was close to Gary’s so that wasn’t going to be a problem. However, we had promised Jim that we would go to Sam’s since Carol has a card and by him some medicine Co Q 10 that he was supposed to get started on. Without knowing where Sam’s was, we spent time on the computer getting directions…it was way over on the Shreveport side. Anyway, armed with that information, we headed out to begin our day with once again the keys to the car in my hand.
As we predicted, finding Wal-Mart was a snap and while Carol went in to leave her prescriptions, I filled the tank with joy juice. Once those chores were taken care of, we headed back to the interstate with our sights on Sam’s. Well…I guess that’s not quite true because Sam’s was nowhere in sight!
Once we turned off the interstate onto some road, don’t remember now, we got tickled because we weren’t sure we should have turned left; so we began to “roast” little sister Nancy for not being with us. Let me tell you, Nancy has never lost her way and can make traffic scoot over for her…she just has that gift of “mess with me and I’ll mow you down.” It was quite obvious that we could have used her this day and been quite content to turn the driving over to her!
Finally after what seemed like hours of traveling (I left the exact address in the motel room, duh! Told you we needed Nancy!), Carol said, “There it is! Turn! Turn now!” So, after plowing over 40 vehicles, I managed to turn where she said only to find that we couldn’t get there! That certainly brought on the giggles and by now giggling wasn’t something these 60+ women should be doing if they wanted to continue having dry pants. So…after fighting my way back onto the main traffic road again, we whipped into the next parking lot, parked the car, and dashed (almost literally) into Sam’s where our first stop was the restroom! With that accomplished, we decided that by now almost 2 or 3, who remembers, we needed to get some food down Carol before she had a diabetic attack. Now that would squash all our fun! Those were undoubtedly the best hot dogs we had ever eaten!
Once we had Jim’s meds and had wandered around, we chose to end our Sam’s experience and return to Wal-Mart to pick up Carol’s meds. However, we made sure we texted Nancy to let her know that next time we decided to do a Louisiana trip, she was going to HAVE to take off work and come to so she could drive us around!
With all the medical runs taken care of, Carol and I returned to the motel where I curled up with my book while she put some clothes in the washer. Both of us eventually took a nap with me waking sooner than her (probably because I went to sleep before her). After putting the clothes in the dryer for her, I wandered over to the casino to test the waters. When Carol finished both her nap and her clothes, she came over and we had supper in the buffet.
Even with a nap under our belt, we called it an early evening and returned to the room where we promptly fell asleep! Too much action in this day for us old folks, I guess.
Thursday, July 15
Jim: Today was more of the same. After weeks of having company in the house, there was a lot of dusting, sweeping, and scrubbing to be done. Plus, the yard also needed attention. At least it kept me out of the pool hall, and by the end of the day, it was ready for us to live in again when Barbara returned home.
Barbara: I think the thing I enjoyed the most about this time away was the no schedule and the fact that I again actually slept what I consider late, 8:00 AM. I finally dug out the camera and took a couple of shots of Carol preparing to “shoot” up…
Eventually, right before 9:00 we made it to the breakfast area where Carol waited in line for waffles while I went outside to call Jim. He had been very considerate not to call me, knowing that if I got a chance to sleep in, I would.
With the breakfast nook full to the brim, I finally nabbed us a spot on one of the couches and even found trays we could put our food on. And, there we whiled away another hour people watching and enjoying our breakfast. One rather large overweight woman (bigger than the two of us together) if you get my drift, even came to breakfast with her short nightgown and a robe that wouldn’t even meet to button up! Now, that sight started us on the giggling trail once again.
Back in the room, which overlooked the race track, we were able to watch the horses warm up in preparation for the races which were to begin at 1:00.
Finally we were able to get ourselves ready for today’s adventure which was supposed to include a trip to the Riverwalk. However, once we left that room, we found that the humidity and heat were off the charts and walking in the heat didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. Instead we elected to call this our “casino hopping day” and that’s exactly what we did!
We certainly weren’t big winners in the $ portion of the day (though Carol did much better than I) but, I think we were winners in the time we shared together!
Friday, July 16
Jim: I woke up early this morning with the right side of my face puffing out…my sinuses were so packed that I couldn’t breathe out of my right nostril and my eyeball felt like it was being squeezed. After I took a couple of Tylenol for the pain and started moving around, I began alternating having a completely stuffed nose and one that ran like a fire hydrant…hardly a good feeling for someone who was planning a 135-mile trip to Shreveport during the morning.
After getting Mother up and around, I drove out to the lot at Holiday Village to close the windows and vents and turn on the air conditioner for our next round of guests. Leah and Ryan would arrive from Liberal this evening and we wanted Big V to be as cool and comfy as possible for them.
Once I got back to Mineola, I gassed up the Vibe, checked in again to make sure Mother was okay, and then took off for Shreveport to get Barbara and bring her back home. Carol was going to stay with Gary for a couple more days and Barbara didn’t feel like hitch-hiking or riding the bus back to Mineola…imagine that!
I got to the girls’ hotel just as they were checking out and helped get Barbara’s stuff in the Vibe and Carol’s things in her car. Then, we went to Harrah’s for a little while, had lunch at the buffet (I don’t know whether my seafood tasted good because my sinuses were so crazy that I couldn’t taste anything. Still, I managed to put away a good-sized portion of boiled shrimp while I was there.
Barbara: I think if I had one wish for friends and family, it would be that they take time to go “play” with their siblings or other special someone. The only thing that could have made this trip any more fun was if we had had Nancy Jean along with us. Time is so short on this earth…make plans now to “run away” with a sibling(s), a friend(s), etc. Take time to reconnect! I know that I appreciate the time I shared with Carol and hope and pray that one day soon the 3 daughters of WT and Virginia Perry will reunite and while away some hours down memory lane as we forge some memories of our own. Thanks for the memories, Carol! I love you. And, I love you, Nancy Jean. And, I thank and love Jim for his willingness to let this time occur.
Jim: When we left, we drove downtown for a while and then Barbara and I told Carol goodbye and started back toward Mineola. My head was so crazy that I couldn’t see straight, so Barbara began the drive and I immediately dropped off to sleep in the passenger seat.
I woke up about the time we got to Longview, so we pulled over to a restaurant/souvenir place to take a potty break and then I drove the rest of the way back to Mineola.
When I got to Shreveport this morning, Barbara said that David Bagwell had called and invited us to join them for dinner at their house tonight. Barbara told him that I was under the weather and we probably wouldn’t make it, but he left the door open for us to come if I felt better. I was feeling so good as we left Longview that we went ahead and called David back and said we’d be there.
We got back to Mineola around 5:00, just in time to unpack the car, put things away, and get ready for our next set of visitors, Leah and Ryan, who would arrive around 5:30.
“Sisters never quite forgive each other for what happened when they were five.” - Pam Brown
From our tourist headquarters in Mineola, Texas,
