Jason, Kaci and Jonesie watching the birds
From Friday, 5/20/11, still from New Bern, NC
I drove back down to “tornado alley” and looked around some more and took pictures. The cemetery where my parents and brother, Jimmy, are buried had some damage. Some trees had fallen, but there was some cleanup started. Their area was fine. Across the cemetery, a small tree was uprooted near a grave and it looked like the grave was opening. Of course, it was not, but my imagination is fertile. If this was October, maybe I’d have a story to tell.
I went to pick up Debbie. All four of her cats were there, Weebles, a handsome orange tabby; Nibbler, a solid white cat with one green eye and one blue eye; and Scooby and Scrappy, brothers solid gray and white—all boys. I think I finally got the names and faces together, after asking several times.
After running some errands, Debbie and I did some shopping. We are having a get together at the park on Sunday so we needed the usual paper plates, cutlery, napkins, etc.
When I returned to the RV, Charlie was sitting outside reading his Kobo. I gave that to him for Christmas and after seeing how much he enjoyed it, I wanted a Kindle. I kept putting it off and then finally decided I’d wait until we got back from this trip since it wouldn’t arrive in time. It was a surprise when I received it for Mother’s Day from the “kids”.
We got caught up on our day. While I was gone, Charlie had a “lady visitor”. She is our neighbor from a couple of rows over. She was complaining about her campsite and said that their neighbor always came over and started talking to them as soon as they opened the door or sat outside. She complained that the tree they were under started dropping stuff on their RV and she wanted to move. The reason she came over was because she saw our California plates and wondered where we were from. He said that with all the complaining about her neighbor, she had come over and done the same thing-- interrupted his reading for about 20 minutes! He didn’t mind though. She was nice.
We got ready and went over to get Richard and Alice for the school reunion night. Since his car was bigger and he knew where the place was, we rode with them.
This place was way out in the middle of nowhere and I’m not sure our TomTom would have gotten us there, much less back. We did find the place though.
When we went inside I looked around and really didn’t recognize anyone. We were glad that we all had name tags. When you walk up to someone, you look first at their tag and then their face. I recognized lots of names, but really didn’t know many people. Finally, I started seeing people I knew. We started talking and it was really fun to find out what everyone had been doing since school.
My friend Kimball and his wife, Linda came from Reno, Nevada; John Henry and wife Sandy, from Aspen, Colorado and Charlie and I from California. We were the farthest away I think.
Sandy (John's wife), John Henry, and me
After dinner we were sitting around the table talking. A classmate, David, came over and we all talked for awhile. Then his wife, Bettie, came over. David wandered off.
I asked Bettie if she graduated here and she said, “Yes, but I’m a lot younger than these people”, making a sweep around the room with her eyes. I said, “What year are you?” She told me and it was just two years after we graduated! I pointed at my Richard and Alice, and said, “They graduated that year too, do you know them?”
Bettie went over to Richard and tried to read his name tag, squinting, adjusting her glasses, and at the same time trying to tell him her name. He couldn’t hear her. He wears a hearing aid in both ears and with the loud music from the DJ, it made it impossible. So the scene is he is sitting, she’s bending over trying to read his tag, and yelling her name in his ear until she started turning red. It turns out that by the time we got the names straight, Bettie had lost interest in knowing whether they knew each other. She left and we didn’t see her again.
A few people got up to dance and that included us. We had a nice time. The music was pretty good although the young DJs threw in some heavy metal stuff, which Charlie likes, but I don’t appreciate.
We said our goodbyes at 9:30pm. Others we knew were also leaving.
On the way back “to town”, we saw two deer on the side of the road. Richard had to slow down to make sure they didn’t run in front of the car. While driving back, I know we’d never have been able to do this drive alone. Richard is good with directions, but he even almost missed the turn we needed to make to get back. Charlie and I would still be driving around the fields.
Saturday, May 21, 2011, 1:37pm
Jason Bell is still sneezing
We were able to sleep again this morning until 7:00am. I think we’re all settling in pretty well.
My sister, Jean, came by and visited. It was nice to see her after two years. We will see her again when we all get together at the park tomorrow.
Today is warmer than yesterday. I finally had to close the windows and turn on the A/C.
Charlie is sitting on the couch reading his Kobo;
The cats are all asleep; Sheila is asleep.
Kaci in the kennel asleep with Sheila
All is well in the Bell RV.
We’re resting up for another night out at the reunion. Richard and Alice are joining us again. I wonder if 'the much younger' Bettie will be there---
More later……..
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