Shaved, showered and on the road by 9 a.m. Sky is overcast and there’s a good wind but
the temperature sits in the mid-50’s.
Still wearing shorts and sandals, no socks though.
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Told Rapunzel to avoid toll
roads so she got creative in routing us around the Chicago area traffic. We
were driving in the outer lane through a business area of some little town when
a nice red car passes and then pulls right in front of us and, no kidding,
immediately hit the brakes to turn into a business on the right which may or
may not have prompted me to say “What the hell?!” rather loudly. We are 40+ feet long and stopping quickly is not easy. The person couldn’t have
gotten in behind us? Was it really that
important to put all of us and others behind us at risk? Thankfully the brakes held and we were able
to stop inches from the rear of the car as it seemed to take it's time turning and no one rear ended us because it was
so sudden. I had a strong urge to open
the window to flip them off and yell crazy things but my good angel won the
battle on the one.
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We’re
adding a little bit of time and mileage to our day...decided to go to the north
side of Holland to stop and see Aunt
Butch, Kim’s 97 year old aunt or at least see if she’s home. Aunt Butch is the clearinghouse for all
happenings in the family and the local neighborhood (the area where both Kim
and I grew up), has a big laugh and is prone to profanity in a non-offensive
way. It’s always been her mission in
life to be of service to people especially her immediate family. Back when I first joined the Bakker clan I
used to hear it said that her kids/grandkids were always taking advantage of Aunt
Butch; however as I got to know her, I could see that she doesn’t feel that way
at all. She sees it as her duty to help
out in any way she can...and she enjoys being able to do that. She was the chauffeur for the weekly lunch
outing with the ladies. However, a year or two ago she confessed that her get
up and go is just gone. She also stopped driving about the same time. Every time we’re in the
Holland area we try to stop and visit for a few minutes.
Aunt Butch was home so we
were able to visit for a half hour or
so. A few months back she had some a-fib
going on and is now on Eliquis which she says has made a huge difference for
her. She ran it down for us...clean the
back of the house on Tuesday, the kitchen/living room area on Wednesday, and
the breeze way area on Thursday. Monday
and Friday are her goof off days...in her words ‘I don’t do a damn thing if I don’t
want to on my goof off days’. And she’s pleased that she was able to get her
COVID vaccine. I believe that she’s
already planning a family gathering.
However she has a great grandson who’s afraid of needles and, if
necessary, she’s willing to drag him in and sit on him so he can get his
vaccine and join in family gatherings. I
love her spunk!
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We’re on what feels like the
final leg of the trip...Grand Rapids to Charlevoix. Still almost 3 hours and 185 miles from home
but we are definitely on familiar ground.
Kim could drive this route with his eyes closed but I’ll make sure he
doesn’t.
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Ran into rain just north of
Grand Rapids and then ran out of it before Big Rapids. This was a bigger rain than yesterday...big
enough for the wipers to be on high instead of intermittent.
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It was 58o when we
arrived home at 6:45 p.m. The truck
wasn’t even in park before there were WonderKids running out of the house to
welcome us home. 😎
