The Tour, 2002, Part 11

April 3, 2002

Back at the library, I do email.  Had so much that yahoo.com froze.  I had to throw out TONS of email and it took 1.5 hours.  Did about an hour then left it, hoping it would reset itself, came back later in the day, to find it did not reset.  BUT I finally managed to find the correct delete keys and get things working again.

Working on finding documents, more of them, and still looking for obituaries.  All of a sudden, after searching for 3.5 days of research, I am able to find the Norfolk papers for 1914, and wouldn’t you know it is after 2 o’clock, and I have only about 2.5 hours left to research.  I order the film, and much to my delight find the obituary for my great-great-grandmother, Sallie A. Darden Eley Pierce.  The best part is that it mentions 3 daughters, one of which I had lost track of!  She is listed on the obit with a different married name and in Nashville Tennessee.  Did you hear the YIPEE??  So, I now have lookups I need to do in Ft. Wayne!  YIPEE!!

While I have been working, Man has been walking around town.  He visits many museums (goes in one).  He also gets a hot dog from a street vendor (which will turn out to be a HUGE error!)

We stop for Italian food on the way home, found a great place, quite by accident, and had a nice meal and good service too!

I am worn out and go to bed very early.

Man wakes at 3 AM sick.  Tummy upset and the other end too.  He takes 6 Pepto Bismo over the next several hours, but manages to not “toss the cookies”.  Ohhhhhh, boy!!  This is not good, we are supposed to travel tomorrow AM.

April 4, 2002

Well, he is hurting, but good.  Muscles aches, generally ICKY!!  This is one of those times that I am really thankful that I know how to do most of the hooking up stuff (with him standing behind and watching).  I glad that I can pull the trailer.  We really need to get to Broadway and the toilet holding tank is in dire need of dumping.  YIKES!

I let him sleep as long as he wants, and slowly I pick up and start stowing gear, cleaning, etc.  Eventually he wakes up, and I get him to eat a English muffin, and get his britches on.  I get more gear stashed, feed the dogs, start packing away stuff that was outside like the grill and the ground mats, dog pens.  Man manages to get the electric and the water unhooked but cannot get the stabilizing legs cranked up because his back hurts so bad.  So, I do it.  I help him hook up the hitch, at the dump and we manage to pull out at 10:30 A.M.  Not bad for a sickie and the wife.

I drove all the way to Broadway, we stopped at every rest area along the way so Man could stretch.  He even took a one hour nap while I had lunch at one rest area.  We got to Nancy’s house at about 3ish and by then he was feeling good enough to back the trailer in.  Good thing, as that is the one thing I cannot do.  Nancy got home from work as we were backing in.

We had a nice visit, let the dogs out in the pens and let them bark for an hour.  They have been hushed so much that they probably thought they were in “bark heaven”.

Nancy cooked us dinner, YUM.  Man laid down before dinner, but to our surprise, managed to eat dinner, which of course, made him feel a lot better.

Cold tonight, real cold.  We can only run one heater here, due to the electric, and we cannot run the furnace in the trailer cause it smells like gas.  So, we put on some extra blankets.

At 3:00 A.M. we are taking a potty break when I discover a tick on Captain Hook.  So, Man does tick surgery at 3 AM and I check the other dogs.  I don’t find more, but will continue to check them over.  At least Cappy did not give me the tick, like the last time he got one.  He picks them up on his coat and they latch on to me when Cappy lays on my neck.  ICK  ICK  ICK!!

April 5, 2002

Man feels much better, so we figure the hot dog got him!  Food poisoning.

We start the day with breakfast, coffee, showers, email and laundry.  We move the dog pens OUT of the grass and on to the driveway.  One tick was enough for me.  ICK!

Tonight Nancy and I will go to Blue grass band pickin evening.  Tomorrow is Heritage Day.

More later, I want to do my nails.

T.D.’s friend, Jim, the millionaire comes from Maryland, so the boys end up going out to dinner, so Nancy and I go out to dinner and then to hear the pickers.  Home by 10:30 and we go to bed pretty soon, cause Saturday is always a long day.

April 6, 2002, Heritage Day, Fulk’s Run, Rockingham County, Virginia

So, can flies fly if they have 1/8th of an inch of snow on them???  NO???  Well, then the flies in the Shenandoah Valley are grounded.  YEP, there was that much snow on the ground.  I was headed out the door at 6 A.M. with three dogs and opened the door of the trailer to discover the ground covered with WHITE STUFF!  I had to be careful NOT to fall, the trailer steps are so slippery and they are narrow.  Brrrr.

What can I say, as usual, it is fun, loads of people (over 225 by 12:30 P.M. which was 1.5 hours after the doors open).  See a lot of people I know, chat, visit, look at the family posters, review the new family books.

By 2:30 we are exhausted, so head home.  Several of us take naps.  Whew, what a day!  

It is cold, and windy.  The sun is shining, thankfully, it is all that saves this day.

April 7, 2002

OK, I think I can safely say that I have never spent a night in the trailer that I was soooooooo cold.  It was 20 degrees outside and 53 degrees INSIDE!  I would have been OK, but I had to keep getting up, cause I had sick dogs.  First Gallagher, but I fixed him up pretty quick by hand feeding him.  Of course the girls got some food too.  But Captain Hook did not even request food, and I found out why a little later, as he got really sick, from both ends.  UGH.  The worst part was that I had to mix his meds in all that cold.  I had to take the meds and mush them, like you do for children, and then mix with cheeze-whiz.  The knife was so cold I thought my fingers would freeze to the knife.  I finally pulled my sweater down and held the knife with the fabric between my poor ole fingers and the knife.

It was a long night and I did not get a lot of sleep, sigh.

We took Nancy and T.D. to lunch, went up to West Virginia to the Lost River Café.  Then we drove up a few mountain roads and then to the Lost River State Park.  Stopped at my mother’s house at Bergton to note the condition of the house.  Needs some repairs, gutters cleaned out, painting.

It is a bit warmer, THANK GAWD!!  Slept pretty good, one can if it is NOT 53 in the trailer.  OUCH!