It may be a couple of days late, but we celebrated Mom's 92nd birthday Saturday evening.

June 29, 2019 - Saturday evening

86 degrees/clear/calm winds

Terre Haute, Indiana

Whew, the past two days have been busy, but good, ones. As you may surmise, we arrived at Mom's late this afternoon, but more about that in a bit.

Friday was spent getting ready to leave for a few days. Sargie's car was first on the agenda. It was scrubbed from the inside out, the mats removed and scrubbed with a brush and soapy water, and even the seats were cleaned in the same way.

The four doors and hatch back were left open and sitting in the hot sun, the interior didn't take long to dry. I drove the car to town after for a wash and wax. The Kia was ready to head south.

The immediate yard around the house needed mowing. 

Between Sargie and me, the entire place has been groomed over the past two days. Unless we get some rain fairly soon, we can put away the mower for awhile. It's dry.

Hard to believe that between this picture and the one before, there's a huge hole in the ground.

The peonies are out in full bloom. It's too bad the flowers don't last longer. They are truly beautiful.

Yooper Brother Mark's son, Jerad, gave me several plants when I first retired. They remind me of the heirloom single petal variety that Grandma Reinhardt grew over sixty five years ago when I was a little boy.

The strawberries are just beginning to ripen. These are the first of the season and were picked Friday evening. If we'd happen to get a good shower in the next week, there should be a bumper crop. Until then, I'm irrigating two to three times a week.

Sargie arrived home early last night and began doing her pre-visit-Mom chores. The first was to thoroughly water all her flowers and plants.

 We left Pentoga Road at 6 Saturday morning and immediately entered into some pretty impressive fog banks.

The ride went well until I made a wrong turn while pulling out of a toll plaza west of Chicago. There was construction everywhere, cones blocking traffic, crazy drivers, and before I knew it, we were heading towards downtown Chicago.



I don't care to drive all that much anymore, even in the UP. Driving in six lanes of stop and go traffic thrills me even less.



It took almost an hour and a half before Sargie and I were finally spit out on the south side. Honestly, I don't care if I ever see the Windy City again in this lifetime, especially if I'm the one behind the wheel.

 I'll admit that I felt much more at ease driving through the rural corn and hay fields of Indiana than between towering sky scrapers and dodging psychotic drivers.

Mom was a sight for sore eyes tonight. We've had a wonderful evening, a great meal, and a fun birthday celebration. Somehow or the other, a birthday cake appeared in our car between home and here.

We're heading to bed fairly quickly. Mom, Sargie, and I, will be driving two hundred and fifty miles to Galesburg, Illinois, fairly early in the morning to visit Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa's graves. I hope to be back to Terre Haute later in the afternoon when we'll meet my niece, Christy and family for dinner.

Monday will be spend shopping, running a few errands, fixing Mom's recliner, and doing whatever else Mom wants to do.

We'll be heading back to the far north on Tuesday.

Time for bed. The old professor's tired tonight and tomorrow's going to be another long day.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...