We arrived back on the homestead on Wed afternoon, Apr 22nd. We had been gone a little over 3 weeks. Randy was there to greet us along with the cats and the chickens. Tracy had a drs appointment and was not expected home until dinner time. Randy, the excellent neighbor that he is, had dinner waiting on us. He picked up Chinese on the way home from work.
Hope and busied ourselves with unpacking and decompressing from the drive. It was not bad but 7 hours on the road makes for a long day.
Most of the unpacking done … Hope and I enjoyed a short dip on the hot tub and then it was time for dinner. Lots of hugs and catching up with Tracy and Randy and plenty of good food to share. We shared about the trip and Tracy and Randy shared about her family’s visit. Her mom, their son (Kevin) and his wife (Kristy – I think) and some of Kristy’s family. Hope and I really hated we missed meeting them. Oh well … next time.
Then we all went over to Jack and Ann’s, our neighbors on the next cove, for a bon-fire. Ann showed us her new she-shed and we all enjoyed walking around their property. They had a huge stone circle as a fire pit. Adirondack chairs were carefully placed around it and we all quickly settle in for a long visit. The fire was warm, Jack kept the wood coming, and everyone relaxed and told stories old and new. After the sun set and the temperature dropped, we headed home. The day could not have ended on a more pleasant note.
But a left out a few details of our last days in Pensacola and our trip to Biloxi, Ms.
The last few days in PB were rainy and windy … although thankfully there was enough clear weather we could get out and walk the puppies. We spent time with Bruce and Caroline. Had meals at casual and upscale restaurants and continued to build our relationship with two wonderful relatives. I can’t say enough about how much we have enjoyed getting to know B&C better over the last few years. Now that our lives are slowing down a little we seem to be able to make time for just visiting with people that we have gotten to see way too infrequently over the years. I hope our visits continue and our relationship continues to grow.
On Sunday morning we headed out to our next destination, Biloxi, Ms. A dear friend and sister in the faith, Bebe Taylor, lives not far from there. We stayed at the Elks Lodge in Biloxi. It is directly across the hwy 90 from the beach. What a beautiful location. Unfortunately they were closed Sun and Mon so we did not get a chance to visit with any of the members. We will be back!
On Mon we met Bebe at her house in Gulfport and had a fine visit. We went to lunch at Cracker Barrel, our second choice of restaurants, the first was not open. We enjoyed lunch immensely and the company and conversation even more. After lunch we headed back to the house. Once there we let the puppies out of the truck so they could meet Bebe. She loved them. More visiting, more sharing, more hugs and revisiting wonderful memories and it was time to go. We headed back to the bus and Elks Lodge for our last evening on the Gulf.
At this point we were a little over 600 miles from home so I had booked a night in at a Harvest Host farm to break up the trip. Late that night I got a text message from the place informing us that would not be able to host us the next night … we were bummed. I tried 3-4 other places and struck out on each one. The next morning we called Hodges Vineyard, the place we stayed on the way down to PB, but even they were booked. Sooooo … we decided that we should just drive straight through without stopping. It is a long trip but with two drivers it is not bad. About 3 hours into the trip we got a pleasant call from Hodges. They had had a cancellation and we could stay if we liked. We liked. So … we changed out GPS destination and in a couple of hours were we sitting on the porch of the winery with a freshly opened bottle of semi-dry Norton wine and enjoying the evening. It was one of the best and most enjoyable evenings of the trip. Thank God for small blessings.
Early the next morning we were on the road and before 4 PM we were pulling onto Dovewood … almost home!