RockinRRanch: November 2008

Greetings. 2008 Thanksgiving in Georgia was fantastic. We woke early 12:00am and were on the road by 12:30 or so. The trip down was fine, traffic was busy and to be expected. We stopped at McDonalds on the way down and apparently we always have an issue with McDonalds on the way down and this was not exception. We pull off the highway and the McDonalds was farther off the highway than expected but no big deal. So Kimmy runs in to use the restroom and I pull through the Drivethru. I ordered some grilled cheese sandwiches as well as a meal, fairly straight forward. I pull up and catch Kimmy coming out and wait behind a vehicle... and wait... and wait... and wait... it's starting to become strange and finally we're able to pull up. Apparently someone jumped the line somewhere and screwed everyone up. So I joke with them a little and pay. I pull up to the pick up window and the lady says something about your's is the vanilla milk shake... and I say no the grilled cheese sandwiches etc. She says oh yes and hands me a bag. As we leave the lot and head down the road Kimmy notices they forgot some fries. So we do a major Uturn...somthign that was quite common on this trip. And head back and we get the fries. As we leave Kimmy notices that a couple grilled cheese sandwiches have pickles on them and the others have pickles on the outside of the bun. We say just forget it as it's already been a 40 minute stop that was suppose to take 5 -10.... Kimmy runs in to get a coffee at the gas station and I start to eat my sandwich which I notice is plain which isnt' what was ordered... oh the wonders of McDonalds. I mention this to Kimmy and we agree to just get out of town as fast as we can before somthing rash is done... so anyway it's always an adventure of sorts. We hit the loop going around Atlanta and were on our way to the turn off when I noticed a bit of grid lock on 20. I glanced at my maps and made a last minute decision with the thought that I could beat the "system" aka gridlock with my own series of short cuts. We headed west on 20 instead of east and upon arriving at our turn off I realized I was now out of the frying pan and into the fire as bumper to bumper stop and go traffic must just be what Atlanta is all about. We managed to find our way through the traffic to the Monestary with a 4:30pm arrival time. Uncle Dee aka Brother Cassian greated us at the house and helped us get settled in. Upon arrival at the family house Kimmy and I happened to notice a beautiful Polish crested rooster sitting near the back door. We quickly started the master plan on how to get this rooster back to MI. All we needed to do was confirm with Brother ET that the rooster was an unwelcomed guest. We sat and chatted with Uncle Dee we discussed who would be the next to arrive and figured the Indianapolis clan would arrive next. We were surprised to see the TX Star arrive before the Indy crew. Uncle Rick brought his new toy with him... the GPS and was showing off his top speed of 92mph. Let's hope the Nashville smokey's don't see him cruising into town today. Around 8pm, not long after Uncle Rick arrived, the Indy crew arrived. We chatted with Uncle Dee more about the rooster and he was going to chat with ET the next day to see if the rooster was welcomed or unwelcomed. Thursday arrived with two apple pies already baked by the time we rolled out of bed and the first two apple pie carcusses were found not long after. I believe by the time the weekend was over there were a total of 5 apple pies and 1 pumpkin pie carcusses laying around the family house. I looked out the back window of the family house and saw that ET's truck was out back and I figured I'd go chat with him about the rooster. I walked out and shook hands with ET and introduced myself and the first words out of his mouth were "you can't have my chicken" .... Bummer! We had a good laugh about it and talked about chickens and found out more about this rooster who arrived with a hen from out of no where. The hen died shortly after it arrived and the rooster just stuck around. The rooster is being well taken care of and has just about all the scratch grain a bird could want. Quite a little rooster paradise. So we continuted to tease ET about the rooster disappearing and he kept teasing about having the MI National Guard show up on my door step...this banter continued the rest of the weekend. ET was even wispering to Uncle Dee during services with phrases such as "no chicken" It was quite entertaining. Turkey day continued with quite the spread! Just about all one could eat and then some. It was great seeing Andrew and Adam entertain themselves and laughing about who know's what...but the two of them seemed to get the joke. We went for some walks, the TX Star bought the Abbey store out of fudge and fruit cakes. Uncle Dee took us on a tour of the glass shop and then for a walk where we went by some discarded pieces of stain glass. We took several pieces of glass as well as many others. Uncle Rick and a few of us went back to fill a large box for Uncle Rick to take back to a friend in TX. Of course the box was so heavy Uncle Rick kicked poor Adam out of his stroler so he could haul back the large box of glass to his pick up truck. Poor poor Adam... I won't mention it was Adam's parents idea to use the stroller... I just like to pick on Uncle Rick every once in a while. The weather was perfect, warm weather sun shine and even though the last day was rainy it was still warm and quite fun. Sure beat the winter weather we got when we arrived back home. 9" of snow predicted to fall over Sunday night... ya gotta love it. So operation rooster was a bust, but the weekend was still great. Very relaxing and a great time to visit and catch up. We were going to leave at around 1am or so after a few hours of sleep and this plan has typically worked great in the past. So why mess with a good thing right... we'll it was about 10pm or so and we were talking about leaving right now so that the boys would sleep even longer on the trip I mean as long as the boys get sleep that's all that is really important right?!? Well, we packed everything up and hit the road at 10:30pm... all was going great... until I started to get a little sleepy. Kimmy took over just north of Chatanoga TN and drove for about 45min of which I slept about 30 min before the hills, rain and traffic etc were too much. I took back over, no big deal...I prefer to drive. I grabbed a pop and drove for quite some time... Some where in KY I got a little too sleepy again and Kimmy was able to drive for about 30 mintue when I was abruptly awaken to the lights of emergency vehicles...some one else had been in a major accident and understandably it made Kimmy a little uneasy so I wrestled the steering wheel away from her and took the controls once again. It was getting light out so I figured I'd be good to go. We'll I managed to drive till about the MI OH boarder when I gave control away as I was having difficulty staying in my lane and due to a semi truck begin a little too close to me (of course I was not close to him) and the screams of terror from the passenger seat waking me up.... AGAIN.... it was time to take a nap...and this time in the passenger seat. 45min to a hour of sleep just wasn't cutting it. We stopped at Tim Hortons for a strech and a capuccino... There was no changing table in the bathroom so Adam got his diaper changed twice, once when we first arrived for a wet diaper and then as we were leaving we got a bit of a whiff of something most unpleasant...so he had a poopie diaper changed and both were changed on the nice carpet of Tim Hortons. Kimmy took off from here... I slept for about 87 miles then took the controls again as I was now feeling like a million bucks and wanted to motor the rest of the way home... yes speed. We made it home at about 1:30pm. The major snow storm expected to dump upto 9 inches started at about 2:30 or so... it's coming down like crazy. So it's 7pm and it feels like 11pm and I'm whooped. The boys are cranky and Kimmy just made chocolate chip cookies... I have no idea where she finds the energy but hey if you think I'm going to turn down an offer for chocolate chip cookies you're crazy. I attempted to lend a hand here and there but quite honestly I think I just slowed her down. I'm about to fall asleep as I type this. And when we arrived home the house was 3 degrees warmer than last year after the trip home... it was a balmy 50 in the house. I think it's up to 65 now after about 6 hours. That tile floor just sucks the heat out of your feet like you wouldn't believe. Kimmy will fill in any blanks I left out... I need to drift off to sleep and this time in a comfy bed without the screams of terror.