At noon we met Louisville readers Dianne & Jerry (DJ Wannabees on the Forum) at a nearby Mexican restaurant. We had hoped to meet them while we are in town, and today was the day.
They have their house up for sale and are planning to start the full-timing lifestyle in the fall of 2008. Actually, they are planning on starting as soon as their house sells and they can buy a motorhome, but they won't hit the road until Jerry can retire next year.
Their plan is to eventually settle down again, but they want to full-time for awhile first.
After treating us to lunch and an ice cream, they followed us to the horse farm. They loved our little sanctuary and are hoping it may be a place they can live after their house sells. We'll put in a good word for them. :)
We walked down to feed the horses a few peppermint treats. After chatting for awhile, Dianne bought a couple of bird feeders and a bracelet (Thanks Dianne!), and we eventually parted with the usual hugs and handshakes.
More nice folks. Ah, the perks of maintaining this website. :)
Later on, we headed to Linda's mom's house for dinner. It was sort of a family-gathering, Mom's-birthday (this Tuesday), football-watchin' evenin'. Linda's brother Jon and sister-in-law Denise joined us from Lexington.
During the yard sale last weekend at my parents' house, I did the laundry. This week, Linda tried to do it and got most of it done, but her back is still not up to that chore yet.
We don't want to take any chances, so we cancelled her participation in a golf scramble we have for Monday. And it looks like we are going to have to cancel a shore excursion adventure we had booked during the cruise. It was a pretty physical tour. As much as Linda wanted to do it, it's probably best that we don't.
Before Jon & Denise arrived, we watched the end of a pitiful Louisville football performance. Oh boy, that was ugly.
Before the Kentucky - Arkansas game came on, we had our sloppy joes dinner and broke out a low-fat strawberry-chocolate cake Linda made.
We had an enjoyable evening watching the game. Kentucky has been an SEC underachiever in football for many years, so it was impressive to see them win on the road as a ranked team. They haven't been a ranked team since 1985.
Jon & Denise, being from Lexington, were especially enthusiastic. :) And very cautious. It's been tough being a Kentucky football fan for many, many years, but their loyalty was rewarded on this evening. :)
After all the goodbyes, we headed home. We pulled into the farm around 10:30.
We noticed all the lights on at the main house and we were shocked to see a fire engine with lights flashing pulling in behind us. We turned off the driveway toward our rig. And the fire engine followed us!
What's going on?! Is our fifth wheel on fire?! Seeing no problems, we spoke to the driver. We hadn't made the call, so we sent them to the house.
Soon an ambulance came in and we were worried about our hosts. With lumps in our throats, Linda & I walked up to main house to see if there was anything we could do.
We didn't know if Tom & Karen were home and we were concerned about Karen's elderly parents. We were relieved to see Karen, but her father had to be taken to the hospital.
He had shoulder surgery a few days ago and he had fallen earlier in the day. With some uncharacteristic symptoms, they called paramedics as a precaution. We were so glad it was not worse, but felt for Vern.
Whew! We were scared on several different levels. We hope Vern gets well and can return home soon.
We let Karen know we were available if her mother or son needed anything while she went to the hospital. Then we walked back to the rig.
We calmed down and eventually went to bed.
I think we may just hang around tomorrow just in case this nice family needs anything. Fortunately, we don't have anywhere to be.
We'll be thinking about you Vern. :)
Thanks Howard and Linda for a great afternoon. We had such a wonderful time and it was as if we had known you for years. Jerry is more excited than I had seen him be and he is more than ready for the house to sell and stay at the farm and then hit the road. Thanks for your enthusiasm and kindness to give us your time!
Jerry and Dianne
Posted by: Dianne and Jerry Conn | Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Howard, sorry Louisville isn't doing so well but I must say "GO USC".
Ray
Posted by: Ray Scrafield | Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 04:04 PM