Back from South Dakota

We made it back from SD today at 3:45PM, and very grateful for a safe uneventful trip. Well, mostly that is! We had a tour of Moline, IL at 11 last night. We did not have a map along, big mistake, and since FEMA is still filling all the motels in eastern Iowa, we ended up calling 1-800HAMPTON and did get a reservation at the Hampton Inn at the Quad cities airport. Well, the directions left something to be desired, and hence the tour of Moline. We were pleasantly surprised when we saw our room as it was better than average. We slept well, and had a very nice complimentary breakfast. We were on the road by 9 AM this morning, and since we had made it to IL last night, we had a relaxing drive today.

The first thing I looked for were signs of little critters running through the house, but thankfully have not seen a trace so far, so that is a good sign.

I still have some unpacking to do, but can get at that tomorrow. We were able to make it to church this evening, and it was wonderful to be back again to worship.

It was difficult to leave Mom, and yet I know she is getting wonderful care. It is not easy to see her so different, from the quick and witty Mom we knew, but she seems as content as she can be in her condition. She does sleep a lot. At times she seems to lose interest in what is happening around her, and falls asleep. We are thankful that she can now take her liquids normally and not thickened. She also has been getting her food ground and not pureed. We hope all of that makes her life a little more comfortable. She has a nice room, and is close to the nurses station, so there is lots of activity going on, and her friends are very faithful in visiting her.

We had a good time seeing family and friends during our time in SD. Everett had a great time at his reunion, and so did I. It is fun to see all the kids we went to school with over the years.

We also spent some time with Dorothy, Marguerite, Margie and Ken and planned our trip to Door County, WI, September 10-15. We have a place to stay, so we can go from there each day to visit points of interest.

We were also grateful that the flu bug did not bite Everett quite as hard as it did his sister Margie. She felt miserable about 3 days, and thankfully Everett was fine after 24 hours. I was very happy to miss the bug.

As wonderful as it was to be in SD it is great to be home again. I have a repairman coming to look at my washer tomorrow somewhere between 8-10, and hope he can take care of the problem, since it is less than a year old. Very frustrating.