The Ties That Bind

When I left you last, we were leaving Indianapolis for my home state of Michigan. Well we're back in Indiapolis and it feels like the Twilight Zone! We've been trying to get an appointment scheduled to get the truck worked on for, like, forever and yesterday was finally the scheduled appointment. We got here around 2:00 in the afternoon. We went for a long walk and to get something to eat while they worked on the truck. Then we did laundry and watched some TV while they worked on the truck. Then we watched some more useless TV while they worked on the truck. Then Mr. Trucker went off on the mechanics when they told him they didn't have the necessary part to fix the air conditioning that he has been complaining about for TWO MONTHS, and which they have known for weeks was one of our main complaints about the truck. Then we watched some more useless TV while they worked on the truck. At 1:00 a.m. they finally finished up and Mr. Trucker backed the truck out of the garage into a spot for the night. Needless to say, we were exhausted, having been up since 5:30, so it was not a thrill to discover that not only had they not fixed our number one problem, after having worked on it for nearly 12 hours, but the mechanic had gotten grease all over everything: the floor, our rugs, the seats, ON OUR BED, on Mr. Trucker's pillow.

I think the only thing that postponed my meltdown was the fact that I was completely and utterly exhausted last night. So I had my meltdown this morning. I had a good cry and a little bit of a hissy fit to the (senior and much more competent) mechanic whom we spoke with this morning, showing him the grease all over everything and pointing out to him that WE LIVE IN THE TRUCK!!!!!!!  This guy seemed on the ball and he apologized for the mess and said he would talk to the mechanics. We are hopeful that we'll be out of here before much longer and also hopeful that we're never coming back!

Now on to our day on Thursday:  We spent Wednesday night on the street in Grand Rapids, MI, under some trees and right outside the gate to Butterball Farms, where we delivered at 6:00 a.m. Thursday. Then we headed to Reed City, MI (motto: If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now) to this place

in Reed City, MI

Betcha can't guess what we were picking up? This is a cute little town, about 15 minutes away from where I went to college.

Downtown Reed City

After loading up with yogurt, we drove south to Big Rapids, home of my alma mater, Fairly Straight University Ferris State University. 

Purty, no?

We met my brother, Steve, and his lovely wife, Nancy here for lunch. We parked at the WalMart where we saw this:

Amish Buggy

We had a nice visit with Steve and Nancy. 

My Big Brudder and His Wife

On the way back south through Grand Rapids, we stopped at another WalMart where my brother, Paul came to visit us at our truck. We spent the night at a rest area in Holland, MI, and when we woke up Thursday morning, it was only 34 degrees! 

By the way, when I talked about my haircut the other day, I neglected to mention that I got it cut really short!

Took this myself with my cellphone,
in a restroom mirror

Today's Silly Sounding Place Name: Kinderhook, MI