Finally made it. in A small but passable life.

We spent one last night in the far northern Texas Panhandle and then packed up the car, filled the gas tank and headed east to Oklahoma City.

We got there without incident, checked in and unloaded the car. My second oldest nephew soon arrived with his wife, son and new step-daughter. That was the first time I’d met his new family. We went next door to the Rib Crib for a nice dinner and then afterwards back to the motel room for a nice visit. They didn’t stay long as they’re early risers.

The next morning I packed up the car again, typed the next address into the GPS to help exiting the city and left at exactly 10am.

I didn’t find a place to stop for gasoline until we had left the city. It was the cheapest price so far- $2.63 per gallon.

There was a moment while driving to Missouri that the mpg indicator on the dash said 35.0 mpg. That’s more like it!

We arrived at Daughter’s new apartment and took her and her roommate to Olive Garden to eat. After a short visit after that we headed a half hour north to my brother and Sis-in-laws RV/motel.

And that first night there, after falling into a dead sleep, I was woken up by Mom upchucking her shrimp alfredo. Good times. So the morning found me doing two loads of laundry.

After another night there and after my newest grand-nieces 3rd birthday party I finally got the call from my Daughter to come on back to the city. An hour later, after throwing my stuff in the car, I arrived. And breathed a big sigh of relief just thinking about the days ahead to relax and hang out.

We went to our old hangout George’s Steakhouse to eat. I had a ham and cheese omelet with hash browns. Victoria was still working there and after I told the waitress to tell her to come out and say hi. She did. And after a big hug she sat and chatted a bit.

I had turned the driving over to Daughter. So nice! We went back to her place and just talked until she had to go to work.

In the middle of the night I started throwing up the omelet and hash browns. I felt like dying. I still felt like shit the next morning when Daughter got home. After visiting a bit she went to sleep and I laid back down on my new sleeping pad in the living room and slept most of the day.

In the afternoon I was still feeling a puny, but better and still alive. Daughter and I went to run some errands. We dropped off the recycling, dropped that huge bag of winter clothes I’d brought from Arizona at the Veteran’s Center, and Walmart where I finally bought that hard sided carry-on I’d been looking at for months, and lastly for a quick trip to the grocery store for coffee and chicken soup I was going to try to eat.

Back at her place I emptied out my day pack, which Daughter had just bought off me for $80 and which paid for the new $60 carry-on. I emptied that big black duffle and gave it to her. I’d already emptied the small green man-bag and put it in the bag of donated clothes. Everything fit into the new carry-on. I’d just consolidated three separate bags into one suitcase.

So that’s it. One carry-on and my shower/pool bag. Loose items are my new hiking boots, the new trekking poles, that Baja pullover, and my pillow.

I feel lighter already. Daughter went to work last night and is still sleeping this morning. She’ll have the next two nights off work, not needing to go back in until Monday night. We have no set-in-stone plans. We’re definitely going city walking and forest hiking though. That will happen.

Mom has already suggested she won’t want to stay more than a week so we may be heading back west on Tuesday. We’ll see.

I’m in no hurry. The weather has been perfect, mid-eighties and humid.

So yeah, I’ll sit here for a bit.

Last updated October 06, 2018