After a night's rest in Ohio and looking at the routes, I decided on one and also decided that I would be the one to drive in the morning so that when we came to her new place, Gabby would be the one driving. I also thought that since Saturday's morning drive was pretty easy, that this one would be too. WRONG! We were driving along and everything was fine. Then we got to the road that took us through mountains. What was I thinking!?! There were signs to alert us of "Falling Rock" which was not uncommon and I have driven under that condition before. We crossed into West Virginia and I encountered a sign that read "Watch for Low Flying Aircraft". REALLY?!? Then came the two lane roads with twists and turns, ups and downs, hills and hollers. It kind of reminded me of the roads on the island of St. John only without the donkeys. After driving for what seemed like forever we finally reached the interstate and stopped for lunch to see what a fabled Bob Evans was like. It wasn't too bad, kind of like a Perkins with southern, fried foods. It felt good to get away from the sitting and gripping the steering wheel. After lunch, Gabby got behind the wheel and drove the rest of the way to Milford. She did get Mom's catch phrases learned, for example, "Speed happens!" and "55...you've GOT to be kidding me!". We were uttering these phrases simultaneously by the end of the trip.
After making a trip into a Walgreens for some milk and laundry detergent and other miscellaneous items, we arrived at Gabby's new "home". They hadn't gotten the house completely ready but we were too tired to notice...luckily. After getting our air mattress set up and our jammies on, we got our second wind and headed into the bathroom to do some quick basic cleaning and setting up of how she wanted things organized so it was all ready for us in the morning.
After a restless night's sleep, I got up at about 7:00 Eastern time (which is my normal 6:00 Central time) and got in the shower. While I was in the shower it sounded like someone was pounding on the house. Gabby went to the door and Barbara, her boss, was at one door and some guy in bib overalls with a ponytail down to the middle of his back and a scruffy beard was at the other. He was there to paint the outside of the house and needed some of his tools from the inside of the house. Good thing I had put a towel over the bathroom window! While they painted the outside of the house, we started heavy duty cleaning in the kitchen. All I can say is, "Oh, my!" For those of you who know me well, mice are not my friends to say the least. I vacuumed up mouse tracks all morning long. I pulled out every appliance and vacuumed mouse droppings, spider webs and thick dust from the floor and the appliances themselves. Everything was scrubbed clean. Finally at about 11:30 we decided to go get some lunch since we didn't really have breakfast yet. We drove into Subway in Bowling Green and had lunch. Then we went to Family Dollar to get some more supplies that we deemed necessary. From there we went to the Food Lion (I kept referring to it as The Lion King!) which is their local grocery store. I've got to say, Gabby buys weird groceries! Upon returning home, we worked a little more on that kitchen and put away our purchases. I then suggested we go for a walk to get out of the house. Gabby's eyes lit up and we walked down to the big barn where the horses are. It is a long haul but a beautiful walk. All down the path along the fence line are martin houses. Stallions were grazing in the pastures and hawks were sitting on the fences. I wish I would have gotten some pictures of that. The barn is a really nice facility.
Upon returning, we had one of the longest evenings in my life. Gabby has no television and no internet. There really wasn't even any furniture to sit on even though the living room was full of furniture piled on each other. I did play the piano a little and then Gabby played solitaire on her computer and I listened to my iPod. Finally it was time to go to bed as we were told that the furniture movers and carpet layers would be there early the next morning.
Early the next morning came and scary hillbillies were back to move the furniture. They weren't happy about having to do that as they thought it should be the carpet layers job to do that. All the living room furniture and bedroom furniture was taken outside and placed on tarps on the lawn. Since we really couldn't do anything in the house until the carpet was laid and the furniture she wanted to keep put back in the house, we went to Fredricksberg to Walmart. Gabby got a television, some curtains and a new shower curtain (the one there was pink, Gabby doesn't DO pink!) She had gotten in contact with the local DirecTV guy and he was originally from Sioux City, IA. He is going to be hooking up the tv on Friday, Yeah! Upon our return from Walmart, we discovered the carpet layers still had not arrived but would be there at 1. This time they did arrive at said time but the mover guys were done for the day by the time they were done. (Actually the carpenters "pride" themselves on being at work so early but make no mention of the fact that they END their day at about 1:30, hmmmm.) The carpet guys moved the things we wanted in the living room back in AND all of the leftover stuff in the back bedroom. They were just about to drive off and I noticed that the front door wasn't put back on. Gabby ran after the van and they came in and put the door on, but the carpenters needed to adjust it to accommodate the carpet height when they came back next. By the end of Tuesday, everyone was spent. Barbara took Gabby and I out for supper to the local Italian restaurant and we did have a very good supper and visited there. I asked Barbara a little of the history of the farm. I noticed there were some headstones in the yard. She said that the farm belonged to a doctor during the civil war. He and his wife are buried there. There used to be a grand mansion there that burned down and they rebuilt a house on the foundation of the house that was built in the 1880s. There is a lot of history and maybe someday when I go out on a vacation there that is not a working vacation, I can go and see some of the things there.
Before we hit the road for the airport this morning, I took a few pics of Gabby's house. There is still much to be done before she is fully settled, but it's a good start. My trip home was quite the adventure initially, but once I was transferred to a flight that was actually departing everything went smoothly and I made it to Minneapolis by 1:30. The trickiest part was finding Mike but we managed and I am sitting all warm and cozy in my home sweet home!
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