I got up before 7:30 AM, took some Ibuprofen, and sat on the sofa with the heater pad on my back. Linda got up at 7:45, took a shower, and made tea for us. She checked the weather forecasts and it looked like it would start to rain around 9 AM, and become steady by 10, so she decided to load the food bags and other things onto the bus that she had ready. The Ibuprofen and heat were doing their job so I put on some work clothes and helped load things.
We had a lot of stuff on board by 9:30 so we took a break. Linda cut my hair and beard after which I shaved and took a shower. I got dressed for Thanksgiving and then gathered up the towels and last few laundry items and loaded them into the washer. I then selected all of the clothes I wanted and Linda picked out a couple more items. We moved them to the bus and got them put away in closets and drawers. We then stored magazines and camera gear under the bed. Finally we decided what coats to take. Except for shoes, manuals, music CDs, computing equipment, and a few miscellaneous things we were done loading the bus. It felt good to be at this point but we vowed to plan better and allow a little more time next time.
The laundry took longer than the initial 42 minutes on the display so we used the time to load the Thanksgiving stuff into the car and check e-mail. I finally transferred the laundry to the dryer at 11:20 AM and we were on our way to our daughter and son-in-law’s house at 11:28. We had planned to be there at noon but generally allow an hour to get there. We pulled up to the house at 12:10 PM, so apparently it’s a 45 minute trip.
Like mother, like daughter; Shawna takes care of some work tasks on her laptop while Madeline shows equal attention to detail on the iPad.
Our son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter showed up around 1 PM and our step-granddaughter showed up around 2 PM. Our daughter’s house has a wonderful open floor plan with a large central island in the kitchen that allows many people to stand or sit and be part of a conversation while food is being prepared.
We ate at 4:30 PM and it was quite a meal. Everything was vegan except for a real turkey with gravy (we had Tofurkey) and the dinner rolls, which had an egg wash. Everything was made from scratch and all of it was good. We had a nice long visit and everyone left at 7 PM. We stopped to top of the tank in Linda’s car and got home around 8:15.
Thanksgiving dinner at Chris and Meghan’s house. L-to-R: Katie, Meghan, Brendan, Chris, Linda, and Madeline in Shawna’s arms.
When we got home I made sure some of the (important?) files on my laptop were backed up to the old NAS unit. Rather than take the time to transfer those files to the newer NAS unit I decided to bring the newer one with us. I then shut down all of the computers in my office and brought the NAS device and my computer upstairs. We put them onboard along with Linda’s computer, our iPads, and the cameras. I selected the bus manuals I wanted to take, moved them to the bus, and put them under the bed. We decided what music CDs we wanted to take and put those on board as well.
Our final preparation tasks were to shut off the well, close the main water valve, unplug the water softener and sanitizer, and remove the batteries. We added potable antifreeze to all of the waste traps and opened all of the cabinets that had plumbing in them, including the sump pump closet. I shut off the natural gas to all of the appliances except the furnace and Linda drew all of the vertical blinds and checked the light timers.
When we were finally done loading things on board and buttoning up the house we put the cats in their carriers, put them on the bus, and locked up the house. It was 10 PM. I tried to tune in a couple of TV stations, one from Detroit and one from Lansing, but could not hold the digital signals. Our Wi-Fi Ranger was connected to our AT&T gateway so we used our iPads for a while and I put the finishing touches on this post. I had to make a few quick trips back inside for last minute things we forgot.
The forecast for overnight is for a low of 51 degrees F with steady rain moving into the area by early tomorrow. The probability of rain in Berea, Kentucky, however, is only 10%. We hope to be on the road sometime between first light and sunrise, which is 7:39 AM, and get ahead of the rain. We also do not expect to see freezing temperatures again this winter.