You'd think on vacation that I would be able to squeeze a few spare minutes out of a day to type one of these things, but yesterday I wasn't.

Day 2- Friday

I was awakened yesterday by the sound of the phone ringing. And ringing and ringing. Eventually the plaintive bleeping of the cordless pierced the veil of my slumber and not knowing where Ruth was, but urgently desiring to glean what facts I could from the face of the caller ID unit before the answering machine took over, I dashed downstairs (Yeah, I know that's stupid. What's even stupider is that we actually do have a second caller Id unit upstairs right by the bed, but its battery is dead.) and when I saw my sister's name and number, snatched up the receiver just in time.

She told me that she and my dad were going to be leaving in a few minutes and would be at our door in about an hour. "OK, super, see you then", I said. THEN I realized all the cleaning-type stuff we had wanted to get done before my dad saw the place for the first time... Well, we got almost all of the phase-one stuff done and were just stopping to take a breath when Kroger jumped up and shot to the door, barking like mad.

I smiled at Isaiah who was sitting in the living room floor watching Dora the Explorer surrounded by toys and asked him who he thought was at the door. With a big grin, he said "Grandpa Roger!" and he was right. My sister and dad were on the front porch- Dad waiting to meet Isaiah for the first time. Isaiah took to Grandpa Roger instantly as if they'd been old friends forever. Astoundingly, so did Kroger! Kroger is kind of high strung and usually takes 45 minutes to an hour to take to anybody and much longer for big guys like my dad, but she was pestering him to scratch her ears almost as soon as he came in the door.

After the obligatory tour of the premises, we went outside for a patrol of the yard. Isaiah loves to play outside and he had fun showing Grandpa Roger his favorite spots in the yard. Then we (me, actually) insisted Grandpa showed us his "RV".

I put RV in quotation marks because he drove about 1500 miles in a modestly customized '65 Ford Econoline van. The customizations involved the conversion of the two-front-seats-and-one-bench-seat-in-the-back van to a two-front-seats-with-a-bed-and-kitchen-in-the-back van. The kitchen is really a propane stove in the back walled-off section, but the "apartment" between the back of the front seats and the rear wall is really neat. The bed is just long enough and provides storage area underneath it. With a small lamp, a fan, and a good book, traveling doesn't get much better. Isaiah thought it was really neat. He kept climbing up into it walking around, climbing out and then climbing back into it. He found Grandpa's cowboy hat and put it on. When we all laughed he actually kept smiling long enough for Grandpa to grab his camera and snap a shot.

After a while we decided to go to one of our favorite restaraunts- El Mezcal, surprisingly affordable mexican food. Isaiah impressed Grandpa not only with his behavior, but also with his eating abilities. After lunch Grandpa went back home with Robin. He'll be coming to stay with us on Monday.

That afternoon we had to go over to the Denby's (Ruth's folks) to do laundry, Our washing machine has been broken for about three weeks now. We have a line on one- a friend of a friend is moving and won't need theirs, but as the move date keeps getting postponed the appeal of saving a few bucks is rapidly dwindling... Anyway, Isaiah and Kroger both had fun playing at Nanie and Dimmies (Grandma and Grandpa Denby's) house. Isaiah was asleep when we got home and I put him in his bed for a nap.

When he woke up, he and I went over to Grandma Joanne's house (my mom's) to get the toybox I had used when I was Isaiah's age to use to help tidy up our living room for Robin's wedding shower that Ruth was having at our house the next day.

While we were gone Ruth had gone over to her aunt Ruth's house to borrow some stuff for the shower. By the time she got home and we'd had frozen waffles for dinner and given Isaiah a bath, we were both tired and since we knew we still had a good bit of cleaning and preparations for the shower, we decided to go to bed and get up early.

Day 3 - Saturday

We got up at eight after listening to the alarm for about an hour and went into action cleaning-mode. Well, to be frankly honest, Ruth's cleaning mode involved more action than mine, but I did cross a few items off the list all by myself. Of course, keeping Isaiah out of Ruth's way and dissuading him from getting out too many of the just put away toys was a help to Ruth

At some point, early-ish on in the morning, we discovered that Racoon-Tail had brought us a present. Under the chair he was sleeping in on the back porch was a dead bird. Fortunately, he had made a clean job of the execution and when I removed the corpse with a shovel, no gore stains were left on the carpet.

The shower was set to start at 2 and at about noon my mother called to help me load the food she had made into her car since her back had been troubling her. On the way over, I took a shortcut through the local hospital (odd as that sounds) and in a forested outer area, I saw a wild turkey. I looked to my left and saw a something strange- a long snakey, black neck with a beak on the end. I looked back in a double-take and realized as it ran away from the road that it was a turkey. It was about four feet tall! It was tall but skinny and didn't look like it'd be very tasty, either.

While the ladies were having the shower, Isaiah, Grandpa Roger, and I were going to go for a ride. We (once again, actually, I) had decided that we'd go to a radio control car racetrack I'd heard of that wasn't too far away just to check it out. When we left at about 1:40 we decided to stop at Happy D's (Isaiah's name for McDonald's) for some lunch since none of us had eaten. None, that is except Isaiah who'd had two hot dogs while I was turkey-spotting and who mostly played with the cheeseburger I finished for him.

When we were finishing up, we heard raised voices from the counter area. I wasn't sure what was going on, but when I heard laughter, I figured somebody was just fooling around. A moment later, though, the voices were louder and I heard someone shouting "I worked my *** off for you and I don't have to take this ****!". Very soon after that, I noted a large, uniformed woman vehemently talking on the payphone and at the door on the other side of the building the manager talking on a celphone.

As we were about to leave, Grandpa visited the restroom. When he was gone Isaiah wanted out of his highchair "to watch the cars go by on your lap, Daddo". When he was on my lap, he started squirming and fussing.

"What is it?", I asked.
"I want Grandpa Roger!"
"There he is, coming back to us."
"Yay for Grandpa Roger!" he said clapping.

On the road to our next destination, I realized I had neglected to check the web for directions to the hobby shop. That was a mistake. We were criss-crossing the sprawling metropolis of Belleville Illinois, stopping for useless directions three times, for about an hour when we finally saw a sign just ahead- The Corner Hobby Shop 308 N. Virginia Ave. which I remembered to be the address I had read about. Strangely, though, this small hobby shop was smack-dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood and we saw no track.

Inside, the man at the counter told me that the track was about ten minutes away outside of town- but it had been closed for over a year. After the adventure of finding the place, this discovery was more amusing than frustrating. Isaiah got a kick out of seeing the cars in the hobby shop, though. On the way back home we spotted an army surplus store and stopped in to check it out- those things are getting hard to find these days. I found a hat I would have spent the $21 for if it had been tan instead of green.

By the time we got back home it was 6 o'clock and I was hoping Ruth wouldn't be upset with us for getting back two hours after the shower was supposed to end. She came out the front door smiling, though and was in a good mood because the shower had gone well.

About 45 minutes after Grandpa had left, Isaiah suggested we all go for a "walk around the neighborhood". When we got home we were getting hungry but didn't know what we wanted. Then I remembered that I had a library book that was due the day before yesterday, so I proposed that we go by the library and then to the grocery store to get something for dinner and also something quick to make for lunch tomorrow.

We want to have a quick and easy lunch tomorrow because right after church tomorrow, Grandma Joanne and the three of us are driving to Dexter, MO (a 2.5 - 3 hour trip) for the graduation of a cousin of mine whom I haven't seen in probably 7 years. I have decided I didn't want to go, then that I did, then that I didn't again- and now finally, that I do. It'll be a long ride and a longer afternoon and evening, but it will be good to see a bunch of relatives I haven't seen in ages and it will give them a chance to have the privilege of meeting Isaiah!

This vacation stuff, is pretty cool!

Cooney's Gift

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