We're back again
After a longer than planned absence, we're back! Instead of flying back from Mississippi after 6 days as originally intended, there was a collective family decision to bring Jamie's parents back to Michigan with us. We had found a place for his dad that we thought might be better for him than the nursing home that he has been in, it's called a 'Memory Care Residence' and it is less than 10 min from their home/s in Lansing. So eventually off we set in convoy - Jamie's mom's van and his brother Jon's little Mercedes SLK. We swapped seating around a bit over the two days of travelling (1ooo miles/ 1600km) apart from Jamie's Dad who missed out on riding in the speorts car as his lack of mobility prevents him from getting into such a low vehicle. We drove through Mississippi to Alabama, through Tenessee to Kentucky where we stayed the night in Louisville (thankfully we timed it ok as a couple of days later was the Kentucky Derby so had we been later there may not have been rooms for us at the Hampton Inn) and the next day drove through Indiana to Michigan. So I have now done the US from South to North! After getting Jamie's Dad settled in, Jon, Jamie and I stayed with his Mom for a few days to help her get further on in the tasks that we had spent the previous few weeks helping with. Lets just say that besides an empty basement, she has a cleaned out barn/shed and a house that is 'debulked' as Jamie puts it. Most of the unusable items from three generations of households/four generations of family have gone away to the place wherever it is that unwanted items go in two huge 30 yard dumpters. On Wendesday night Jamie set up a slide projector and we had a slide show of some of their childhood pictures! It was quite amazing to see the similarities to family life in the '70s but amusing to see the differences between a family of 3 boys compared to our family of 3 girls! Also the mid-west US/NZ differences - beach holidays were on a sandy lakefront, rather than by the sea, trips to the park was an amusement park not a playground etc. In one of the pictures they were watching a slideshow and eating popcorn from a large round Tupperware container - so iff Jamie went and made some popcorn and put it in the exact same container that was still in the kitchen! It was also quite fascinating to see how our little house was 40 years ago - yes, that's where his parents lived when they first got married too! Now we have two days off to rest before getting ready to pack up for life in a hotel 5 days/week....
1 Comments:
Your first roadtrip Tor - cool! I would love to see the photos of your most recent extreme home makeover projects.
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