Road Trip

I woke up to the alarm on Monday morning, because my daughters want to meet out at the cottage by 9:30 AM. It seemed a little early to me, but...

I left about 8:15 after loading the car with the cooler and assorted "stuff." That should have put me at the cottage in plenty of time, but I didn't know that Telegraph (a eight-lane road with a median) was down to two lanes on either side for construction from 8-Mile Road all the way to Long Lake Road (say 15 miles?)

I got there five minutes late, but they weren't there yet. I had just enough time to open the cottage before they showed up. I was surprised and delighted to see their husbands (it's been years). Everybody looked happy and healthy. How come young Carl and I are the only ones who seem to be getting older?

So, we exchanged greetings and went inside. The cottage looked amazing. All the clutter is GONE, even in the back porch closet (which you couldn't even get the door open all the way since I was a little kid).

We mostly sat on the porch and talked. Young Carl did do some fishing and duck feeding (popular Waconda activities).

I mentioned that Jeremy, Uncle Carl and Jake and Carla's Mom all were planning on coming out to see them. They asked what time and I said, "Oh, sometime after noon." They said they were planning on leaving around noon! Oh, oh...

I got out Jake's German cookies and everybody seemed to like them.

Both Amy and Melissa each had wicked-looking bruises. I asked Amy what happened to her and she said, "Oh, you know... I'm a Goerlich. We fall down!" We all like that so much, she's going to get it translated into German and it is now our official family motto!

We posed for some pictures, both inside and outside. Melissa grabbed my ass in one shot...

About 11:30 AM, I broke out the shrimp and the coleslaw and asked if anybody wanted some. They all said they would try it, but each husband and wife team decided to split one hoagie together (I am so going to end up with a lot of extra buns). I did get some compliments, but couldn't really tell if they were being polite, were still too full from breakfast or really meant it.

Finally, just before 1:00 PM, they started packing up. As they were just getting into their vehicles, Jeremy pulled in. So, they all chatted a bit more in the driveway and then left.

Jeremy and I went upstairs and sat on the porch. We talked and I remembered the German cookies so I got those out again. It was very pleasant, except when the wind would die. Without a breeze, you noticed how hot and muggy it was.

He told me Jake and Acenter were not coming. Carla had to work and he had some difficulty with the car rental reservation. I said that was probably a good thing, because he would have missed his sisters, anyway.

It was nice just relaxing and talking on that porch. No wonder Mom loved it.

It started to rain about 2:00 PM, so I started closing the porch windows and locking the cottage up. I told Jeremy it looked like Uncle Carl wasn't coming, either. He said he might just go back to work (his work is just 20 minutes away, it seems).

He carried my cooler down (thanks!), we said our goodbyes and each drove off in a different direction.

Sidebar: Carl wrote on my Facebook page: "Ok, drove out to Orion with Tariq to see you and your daughters.........not a soul there....hmmm
p.s. Hannah had my keys so....I drove back home! Hope the girls had a wonderful time"

I wrote back and asked him what time he got there and he responded: "Oh....approx 2:20 pm I had a 12 noon appointment at the doctors, and got out of his office about 1:35..... so, how are the girls, did you give them my love?
next time~"

I made the slow trip down Telegraph and got home about 3:45 PM. I unloaded the car, changed clothes and went in and took a nap.

I woke up after 5:00 PM. I watched the news and cleaned up the mess from making the shrimp salad. Lu called about 6:00 PM and we talked for a long time (its been a while since we talked).

When we hung up, I was too pooped to do any real work, so I started watching TV. About 9:00 PM, I made myself another shrimp salad sandwich and ate that, along with some coleslaw for my dinner.

I went to bed about 11:30 PM.