What a week it’s been.
It all started July 15th when Tim set out for his first trip to the states. I’ll leave the road trip part of this blog for Tim to tell. When he finally arrived in Bloomington, two days later, he called me from the pay phone near the pool. Excited and ecstatic that he was finally here for me to physically meet in person, I took off with Rhys in tow to meet him and guide him up to the parking spot that would be his for the time he was here.
First thing first, once he was in the door, I heated him up so food and made some coffee. It was a very smooth transition for everyone. Zach came home about the same time Tim arrived so they got to meet for a few minutes before he had to jet back to work for a few hours.
We sat around and chatted, got his stuff put away in my “guest” closet, exchanged past xmas gifts, and talked about our stories. Soon we settled down and watched some TV, played our computer games, and chatted back forth while taking turns chasing my son out of the fridge.
Rhys instantly took to Tim, as did everyone else in the house. Including to some extent, the little girl I baby sit. Now we had a whole week to do whatever.
The weekend passed uneventful, but still fun nonetheless, we watched movies, brainstormed and told ourselves we should edit and write story ideas down. Brainstorming occurred every night, but promises to edit were a bit lacking. We usually ended up too stressed after a day of dealing with Rhys or too busy doing other things.
Monday we went to the Indianapolis Zoo and walked the whole zoo. We seen a dolphin show, and the Komodo Dragons. Not only was it Tim, myself, and my son, it was BF, brother, babysitting charge and one of her friends, and one of my brother’s friends. It was a great day which will also be another blog and a ton of pictures.
Pretty much Tim got to see what a typical week was like for me. He seen my ups and downs, watched my stress-level reach breaking point and even seen me reach rock bottom when my bills and fear of losing everything overcame my sense of levelheadedness. He was supportive and offer a shoulder to cry on.
I asked him on Friday, when he was supposed to leave, to stay one more night and call out on Monday. He agreed and helped me to go around to all the places I needed to and pay everything off in full once I got the money issues sorted out. After that was said and done with, we went down to the pool. Both Tim and I jumped rather than ease ourselves into water. Swimming was a short lived, the water was just too cold.
The weather was amazing, with only a few days where the temperatures were chilly and the weather crappy. But we had mostly warm and not overly hot sunny days. I had a blast while Tim was down here and I am totally looking forward to him coming to visit me next year. In fact, we are already making plans for him to fly down here, rather than drive. Tim is more than welcome at my place any time. Even though we didn’t do much, we still had a blast.
Tim’s Hijack
It was a great week, to be certain. But trust me when I say that I will not drive down again. While the trip wasn’t too bad, it was incredibly long. I was also driving in unfamiliar territory, so my navigation skills were sorely lacking. Plus, driving alone doesn’t help either.
Upon my return, I discovered if I’d gone a little further west I’d have had no issues going through the border crossing. Portal, North Dakota and North Portal, Saskatchewan are open 24/7 and is a major crossing point. No wonder I was delayed by an hour with a large number of questions. I did learn however, American border guards A) have no sense of humour and B) suspect you of everything from terrorism to pedophilia. Good thing I’m neither of those. Also good that I listened to the little voice in the back of my head that screamed “Just shut up and answer questions when you’re asked.” They seemed to disbelieve that I worked for a weekly newspaper, even when I gave the web address to them. Maybe next time I’ll take a copy of the paper and turn to page to. Then I can point to my photo and say “See? There’s my proof.” However, they seemed to take my business card as validation, even though anyone with a minimum amount of expertise in Word can make a passable business card.
On the highway, I was pleasantly surprised to see the large number of rest stops. Oh, we’ve got ’em in Saskatchewan, but they consist of a picnic table and shoddy bathroom, kinda like an outhouse. No vending machines, no paved road into the rest area, no covered picnic tables. So that was nice. It was also kind of nice driving through Fargo/Moorehead and St. Paul. Granted, I kept quoting the movie Fargo in my head, especially when Margie asks the question “So you had sex with the little guy?” “Ya!” There was also an insane curiosity to see if there was anyone from Outlook in St. Paul. Minnesota, of course, is known to have a large population of people with Finnish ancestry. Outlook has a large population of people with Finnish ancestry. And it just so happens a good number of people move from Outlook to Minnesota, find a husband or wife, and move back just in time to have a baby, then move back to Minnesota. Those wacky Finns.
I also had a chance to cruise through Gary, Indiana where my grandmother was born. However, I was concentrating on finding A) a bathroom and B) a hotel, which would have solved problem A as well.
Finally, after the third day on the road, I ended up in Bloomington, and drove around Zodi’s apartment complex hoping she’d see a blue Hyundia Accent driving around aimlessly until I found a payphone at the swimming pool. With the comment “I’m at the pool” I finally made my last stop in a long, long drive.
Next, the trip to Indy Zoo, along with photos.
Until next time…
…keep ’em flyin’!
Turn the Page 