Remembering the best father a girl could ever have…
Remembering the best father a girl could ever have… Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid. For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.” Psalm 31
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I love this time of year for the beautiful trees and just the smell of the fall leaves. After we got our trailer where it belonged in Cleveland, we took some country roads we’d never been on and worked our way toward our next pickup in Detroit. The trees were at their peak with impressive colors. We had a chance to stop in Toledo for a quick visit with family over pizza before we went back to work in Detroit. We took ‘West Side Story’ on its first move – destination Omaha, Nebraska. Once it was over and done, we were supposed to wait with the show while it played there all week. Instead, we chose to drive the 380 miles over to see Dad in Winona, MN. We will head back on the weekend and take the same show out to San Francisco. Dad and Gerry made the tough decision last weekend, after he ended up in the hospital, to begin hospice care for Dad’s last days. Although he surely must have had this lung cancer for some time, we weren’t made aware of it until he was diagnosed in August. The doctor told us at that time he estimated Dad had six months to two years of life left. I thought at the time he said it that the doctor was being generous. Dad’s health is now failing quickly and so we’ve spent the week here in Winona first setting up their house with a hospital bed and oxygen in the living room, then doing anything or everything we could to make sure he’s comfortable now that he’s back home. Thankfully he isn’t having insufferable pain but not being able to breathe is just a different kind of pain… and painful for us to watch as well. My father's days are numbered and his heavenly mansion is getting the finishing touches put on. “And they that turn many to righteousness (shall shine) as the stars forever and ever.” Daniel 12:3 We’re in Tulsa for the moment but that’s not our destination – Cleveland is. Our time in Spokane last week wasn’t nearly as fun as I’d hoped it would be. I love Spokane and the surrounding area but unfortunately after the first day, it rained most of the time we were there. We ended up putting the truck in shop to get a simple pulley replaced on the generator. That meant a rental car and hotel for us. What we thought might be one day at the hotel ended up being three while the people sending the part from Florida kept sending the wrong one. We finally ran out of time and had to get back in the truck still needing the part we’d originally put it in the shop for. To say it was an exercise in frustration is putting it nicely. We left Spokane headed for southern California last Saturday night. It was a little bit longer but we drove down the I-15 so we could pass thru Las Vegas and pick up our mail. That’s where it’s all going these days. We had a little extra time and we’d caught up with our friends so we decided to hit a couple casinos in town as long as we were there. Gambling didn’t work out so well for any of us but we did enjoy the excellent sub sandwiches prepared by my nearly sister-in-law Francis at her sandwich shop. Then it was off to Costa Mesa to finish the trip. We’d had that generator pulley we’d been waiting on sent to California and we finally caught up with the right part. Jorge ended up putting it on himself and we’re good to go now. Our next show to pick up is ‘West Side Story’ and that’s in Detroit. We’ll be there on Sunday morning to take it to Omaha. Meanwhile to get us 2300 miles from California over to Michigan, our dispatchers found an empty trailer that needs to go back to Cleveland so we’re pulling that along with us. That’s how we ended up in Tulsa tonight. We’re about halfway there but taking our sweet time. What a job… I’m lying in bed messing around on my computer and watching the satellite TV while Jorge drives me down the road. Love it! Here are my pictures for the week. There is a new slideshow feature I'm trying out. Pretty fancy! I think I'll use this from now on if it works well. Wow – that last post seems like a long time ago. We’ve covered a whole bunch of miles in the past two weeks since I last updated this blog. We did that ‘Jersey Boy’s’ trip from San Antonio to Philly in record speed. Sometimes the shows need one or two of their trailers to get to the next destination as quickly as possible, if not sooner. So they will pay a little extra bonus money as an incentive to get the drivers to expedite that load. That means a lot of speeding and very little stopping. That’s exactly what we did on this trip. We basically drove nonstop except to fuel and let Rocky out for 1700+ miles. Boy, that seemed like a long ride! We’ve definitely done longer but we were just so exhausted by the time we arrived in Philadelphia. We took our time getting to the next stop which was Cincinnati. While parked in downtown Cincinnati, we had a little extra time on our hands and Jorge decided to do some work on the truck. I told him when we bought this truck we didn’t need any more lights on it and don’t even think about adding any to it. That was a waste of my breath as he busied himself putting strobe lights galore on the front and back. We’re going to look like a fire truck by the time he gets done. He justifies it by telling me it’s all for our safety as we’re backing into these loading docks in various downtowns and that we need to have all these lights to be seen. I left him alone to work on that while I walked to my daughter Mandy’s law office which happened to be about a half mile away from where we were parked. Unfortunately my camera battery died on me that day. I was only able to take a picture of Mandy in her nice office, which overlooks the Ohio River, using my cheap cellphone and it turned out to be subpar. The next day was Saturday and we drove out to Mandy and Orville’s beautiful country home to visit them there. Too bad the bonfire and weenie roast had to be cancelled due to rain. Instead we played inside with the three weenie dogs – Rocky and two of my grand-weenies, Hank and Elvis. Anyway… we had a nice visit with them before we left town for Spokane, Washington. We brought ‘South Pacific’ to Spokane from Cincinnati – another 2100 miles under our belts this week. Our trailer was unloaded this morning and we’re staying here in Spokane for a couple days while the show plays. It is absolutely gorgeous here right now and we are really enjoying the colorful trees and the smell of autumn leaves. Today we found an old park in town where we let Rocky chase the squirrels and tomorrow we’re planning to make a thirty mile daytrip over to a lake in Idaho that I believe is one of the prettiest parts of the country. This Saturday we pick up the same show here in Spokane and will be taking it down to Costa Mesa, California. The rest of these pictures I took myself while driving thru Montana near dusk. It’s a good thing our truck is an automatic so I can hold the steering wheel with one hand and my camera with the other. There’s so much to see in this state! |