Summer Vacation - Days 13 and 14

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Days 13 and 14 - Dugger, IN

The girls and I left for the farm in the early afternoon. The drive through Indiana is always so beautiful this time of the year. Sometimes when I look over at the fields of corn and soybeans and then at a red barn and farmhouse in the distance, it makes me think of a postcard or a scene from a movie. There is something special about coming home to the place where you were born and raised. I enjoy Florida, and it is my home now, but Indiana will always hold a place in my heart, and I will always return. It is still "home," too.

We got to my Aunt Lorene's about an hour before the reunion wiener roast. I hadn't called to let her know I was coming, but she was waiting. She is 93 years old this December, and she was resting because she had just baked three pies from scratch, cooked baked beans, and made a cucumber salad. She still goes out in the mornings and gets her eggs from the hen house, and she always keeps a garden full of vegetables.

The wiener roast is held down at our pond on the farm. The farm has been in our family for over one hundred years. My father was born there, and he died there--a heart attack while working on the pump near the house. He loved the yearly reunions, so we continue the tradition.

The reunion is held at the same time every year - the third weekend in July. This year the third week fell early and caused a few empty spots in the family tree. Those of us that did make it tucked into our meals prepared by the younger generation. Madison loves an open fire, and she always volunteers to cook up all the wieners she sees. Not even a burn, earned when trying to remove a hot dog from her metal stick, deterred her. She put ice on it and let my cousin, an RN, take a look at it.

Shad: "Three things: It's a burn, put ice on it, you'll live."

Cousin Myra: "Well, thank god, you don't have to pay for that medical advice!"

We ate wieners, brats, and sausages, several different salads, baked beans, homemade pickles, and vegetables from everyone's gardens. We washed it down with sweet iced tea and beer. We finished the meal with homemade cupcakes, cakes, pies, brownies, and cookies, and of course, smores.

The adults sat and caught up on one other's lives. The children played hide n' seek, tossed balls around, and played badminton. As dusk crept in, they caught lightning bugs and put them in empty containers for night lights. When it became completely dark, a few of the cousins put on a fireworks show, and then we retired for the night.

The next morning my Aunt Lorene was up at 5:00 AM frying chicken for the reunion, making homemade noodles and peeling potatoes. She showered and dressed and was off to church by 9:00 AM when the rest of us were just getting started.

The reunion is held on the lawn of the farm. Usually, it is miserably hot, and this year my cousin had found some industrial fans that he set up near the chairs and food tent. We never turned them on. The weather was beautiful; cool with a breeze and so very comfortable. We ate, talked, played horseshoes, and ate some more. The girls and I filled our bellies up with Indiana corn and melon. The pond wasn't used for swimming this year, but a few people did wander down to fish.

Several relatives were missing this year, so it wasn't quite the reunion of the past, but we did have a few new additions and my sister, Bonnie and her husband, made it this year as well. A nice weekend.

The calm before the storm, as it turned out...

Summer Vacation - Days 10-12

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Days 10, 11, and 12 - Leaving SC for Illinois

Our plan was to leave McClellanville by noon. That didn't happen. It is too nice here and we hated to leave. I have decided that I shall have a breakdown in a few months and have to recuperate right here in the guest house in the woods. It is without a doubt the nicest place.

I spent the evening and morning cleaning the guest house. That is what happens when you stay the longest. You are left cleaning up everyone else's mess! Madison and Darcy were very helpful vacuuming and folding laundry. Mandy helped me load up the car. We don't need the luggage carrier as Tom is home in Florida and so we put the third seat to make storage room.

We had lunch together at the dining table overlooking the bayou. We looked for the alligator that had been spotted the night before, but he was not to be seen, off sleeping under the cool water. James brought out his guitar and we sang and sang and sang. Mandy started each song, yelling, "Give me a G!" and we were off and singing. When we would finish a song, Macie would say, "More! More!" and off we would go. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful, wonderful, visit.

The only downside was that Connie had awakened with an orange hand. Her right hand was completely a yellowish orange on the palm and between her fingers. She was sure it was medically related as she is sucking down 14 different medications for her ailments, which are plenty. Her feet have bothered her off and on; she has good days and bad. James got on the computer and did some research, concluding that she had too much iron in her body.

Connie called her doctor (Stephanie, this you can relate to....remember last year?) and they said no, no, couldn't be the new iron medication she was on. They didn't seem to be too concerned.

We cried and waved goodbye to Joyce, James, Mandy, Evie, and Macie as they waved back from their porch. We had directions from James and we thought it would be funny to turn the wrong way out of their driveway, but we were too sad so we just honked and honked waving to the neighbor as well. We were off to Connie's friend Juanita's house in Mt. Carmel, Illinois, about 30 minutes from Evansville, IN.

Later that night in our hotel outside of Knoxville, TN Connie took off her shoes and both her feet were orange. I lay in bed while she showered wondering what I should do the next day; take her to a clinic, a hospital, call her doctor again, etc. When she came out of the shower and began putting on her lotion we discovered that the Vaseline lotion also included SELF TANNING in its ingredients.

Connie had been pouring the lotion into her right hand and rubbing her aching feet with it 24/7. Thus the mystery of the orange limbs was solved.

We spent the night where we picked up a huge black beetle that Connie found outside the Holiday Inn Express. We took it for my niece Gabby who is a bug lover. We thought it was dead, but it was still alive so we put it into a coffee cup with a lid and gave him some grass to munch. He rode up front in the cup holder until we stopped off in Evansville for 4 dozen Donut Bank donuts and some coffee and then the bug rode in the cup holder in Darcy's seat.

We arrived at Juanita's in time for some swimming and a dinner of Illinois sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers, and chicken. The weather was hot and everything a lush green. Mt. Carmel is a small town that reminds me of the past. If you blink you miss the town. Everyone walks everywhere and no one locks his/her doors.

The next morning I had my nails done in a hole in the wall beauty shop where I got all the Mt. Carmel gossip and quite a lot of scoop on Juanita. We went back to Juanita's friend's house where we swam all day in a beautiful pool surrounded by flowers. Juanita's great-granddaughter, Maya, joined us for the day and night. She is almost 5 and smart as a whip. She and the girls got along fine and played all day together. We toured Mt. Carmel by car and ate more corn and bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. We ended each evening with several hours of cards. So far I think that I am ahead in the money.

Later in the evening, Connie went out to her car to bring in the bug. Only there was no bug. He had climbed up the cup, pinched and pinched through the sippy hole until he made it bigger and slipped out. He was loose somewhere in the car. Madison and Darcy searched (Maya refused to help as she hates bugs) and found him crawling under the driver's seat. We captured him again, put him into a Ziploc container, fed him lettuce and researched his species on the computer.

Our discovery led us to the following facts: He is a scarab beetle. He eats dead animals and dung. He is probably thinking, "What the hell is this lettuce crap? Why have these people brought me from Tennessee to Illinois?"

We will have to pick him up some road kill tomorrow, I guess.

We've named him Arab the Scarab.

Summer Vacation - Days 8 & 9

Days Eight and Nine - Seabrooke Island, SC

Mandy: "Now when you get on the island you will pass big houses on the water. Don't get your hopes up. Our house is not like that, but we call it home. And our home is decorated in "Golden Girls" motif."
We picked up the key to Mandy and Chuck's second home, their beach house, on Seabrook Island, about 30 minutes from Charleston. Mandy and her children planned to join us later. 

The house is what we Floridians call a "condo" and it is built on stilts with a patio underneath. It is a couple of blocks from the beach. It is a three bedroom, two bath condo with a living room, family room, kitchen, dining area, and a small side porch. Mandy and Chuck bought the place with everything in it and they haven't changed a thing.

The color scheme is green, magenta, and tan. The furniture is mostly wicker with all of those colors. Hanging throughout the house are various framed printings of the same object (I thought it was supposed to be a flower) in those same colors. They were all done by the same artist and apparently the previous owner fell in love with this artist and/or this object. He told Mandy that the pictures could be whatever the viewer wanted them to be. He specified a sailboat. 

Hmmm. I looked at them quite a bit and decided they were what a flower would look like under a microscope. Connie decided by the second day that she thought they all looked liked vaginae. We never saw another thing after that announcement. I am also sad to report that Mandy gave me one of the vagina paintings and I mistakenly left it by the front door when I left.

The condo was very hot and stuffy when we arrived and the temperature inside reported it at 87 degrees. We turned on the complicated Honeywell thermostat and attempted to program it to a cooler temperature. There were all sorts of buttons and programs and instructions, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get a "filter" sign to quit blinking. Mandy also attempted it when she arrived as did Chuck via phone. We finally gave up and Mandy left a message for an air conditioning company to come out in the morning.

We opened all of the windows and turned on all of the fans. By the time we went to bed, the temperature had dropped 2 degrees so we all took cold showers and went to sleep under the fans.

The next morning the temperature was down to 80 degrees. I changed the filter in the return on the wall, but the "filter" sign was still flashing. The repair company would not be able to get out to the condo until the following morning so I decided to call the 800 number on the instruction panel. My call was placed to somewhere in India.

Jane: "Hello, I am Jane and I will be of service to you today. May I have your telephone number?"

Me: "Uh, uh (frantically searching for the phone number to the condo) Uh, hold on. Joyce, what is the phone number to this place? (Joyce now frantically begins to search) Well, I don't know the phone number. I'm staying in this house and the owner is at work." (Mandy had gone into work to put in her resignation letter)

Jane: "Just a phone number will do."

Me: "What? Any phone number?"

Jane: "Yes, please."

Me: "Uh, okay." (I give her my number in Florida)

Jane: "And your name?"

Me: (I give her Mandy's name thinking that they are looking up her thermostat or something)

Jane: "And could I please have your zip code?"

Me: "My zip code? Joyce, what is the zip code here?" (Joyce frantically begins to search for a zip code) "Never mind, just give me your zip code." (I give Jane Joyce's McClellanville zip code)

At this point, I realized that there wasn't some secret spying device that needed Mandy's information to peek into her thermostat, but that Jane just needed to fill out some form. Won't that be an interesting form, with a Florida phone number, a different name and a South Carolina zip code? Sigh.

Jane proceeded to ask me my problem and I laid it out in detail. She told me that I would have to punch 3 different buttons "very quickly" to get rid of the "filter" sign and restart the system. Joyce fingered one button while I fingered the other two and when I yelled "go" we punched away and BAM the filter sign quit flashing. We were in business...for what I don't know, but I felt smug.

Jane: "You will need to change your filter in the furnace, but that will restart your system for now. Can I be of any more service today?"

Change the filter in the furnace? What furnace? We wanted cold air! I thanked Jane and hung up and we headed out for the day. Joyce and I took Macie, Darcy, and Madison to the club to swim. We left Connie behind with Eva and the babysitter, a nice nanny named Ty, who sits for Mandy 3 days a week.

The condo was in a gated community with a golf club and tons of other activities. We went to the 3 pools and cooled off in them for about 2 hours. When we returned the air was down to 78 degrees and quite bearable. The girls settled down for naps and rest and Joyce and I drove into the village to buy some groceries.

The village is something out of a movie set. It is definitely a tourist trap, but it is so quaint with a pharmacy and soda fountain shop, a lollipop shop, a bookstore, a sporting goods store, artist shops, coffee houses, and a nice open grocery store. On Mondays, there is a farmer's market, but we got there just when they were closing and boxing everything up. We spent some time planning menus and just walking around the grocery, returning an hour later to find the temperature had upped to 80 degrees.

Mandy returned from resigning her position and returning all of her electronics. She had been gone all day and I was sure that she was rethinking her quitting, but she claimed it was because she had paperwork to fill out and she had to stop off at the phone store to buy a cell phone. She returned to find her older daughter with fever and her younger one asleep. Macie seemed fine but was running a fever so Mandy got on the phone and called her doctor as well as the air conditioning company. Neither one was helpful. The doctor said the stomach flu was going around (Macie had thrown up at 4:00 AM) and the air conditioning company repeated they would be out in the morning.

Chuck arrived and we all went to the beach for awhile. Connie, Joyce, and Eva sat a bench and watched the rest of us frolic in the warm Atlantic water. The property owners have formed an organization to save the beach so there aren't houses close to the beach like we have in Florida. The tide was high with very few waves, but the three kids had fun running through the water splashing and throwing seaweed and chasing seagulls.

We ended the night with dinner, said goodbye to Chuck who was heading home to get ready to fly to Atlanta the next day, and sat up until 1:00 AM reliving stories from the past about my Aunt Helen and Uncle Ray, my grandparents, and things Mandy and I remembered from our youth. We probably could have done that all night long, but Mandy is a nursing mother so we all went to bed.

The next morning we awoke to a freeze! The air conditioning was at 74 and we were now complaining.

We waited and waited for the air conditioning man who finally showed up and immediately tried to sell Mandy a maintenance contract. He was no match against all of us women! He checked out the unit and told us that it was a 1988 unit that was falling apart (we had finally located the system ourselves the night before and figured that one out on our own). The bottom was rusted, the coils were ancient, and gee, no maintenance contract was going to fix that. He cleaned some coils inside, declined the offered vagina painting, took his money and ran. We left Mandy and Eva and went into the village where we spent several hours playing tourist and eating lunch at the soda fountain counter.

We left Seabrook about 4:00 PM and headed back to Joyce's. James looked well rested when we arrived. We looked like we had been put through the wringer. Joyce and Mandy the worst as the kids had cried and screamed the whole drive back. It was good to be back in our cottage in the woods.

Summer Vacation - Day 7

Day 7 - They can't get rid of some of us.....

Our plan today was to take the boat to an island for some shelling. Because the morning was so hot and muggy, we decided to go out in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, nature had another idea. The rain started at about 3:30 P.M. It was a gentle rain accompanied by some rumbling thunder and dangerous-looking black clouds. We spent the day talking and reading. Tom and James disappeared into the barn, which James has turned into a recording studio. We assumed they were up there making music together.....

It was another relaxing day, and we ended it by going into downtown McClellanville for dinner. Downtown is quite different from the historic district that we had traveled through on our way to Joyce's. It is a town of roughly less than 350 people, and it is surrounded by the Francis Marion National Forest. It is a commercial fishing village with shrimping being the primary source of income.


We drove past the library, a small house sitting behind trees, homes located along the coast, and the shrimping docks. We ate dinner at T.W. Graham's and Co. It is a small restaurant with a bar area, a kitchen, 6 tables inside, and 6 tables outside on the small side porch. We slurped down grilled shrimp, fried shrimp, buffalo shrimp, fish, hush puppies, and coleslaw. We finished the meal off with some homemade coconut pie and headed back to the house in the woods.

Tom leaves tomorrow for home. We, women, are heading to Seabrook Island to Cousin Mandy's beach house.

Summer Vacation - Day 6

Day Six - McClellanville, SC

Today was a day of rest. Maya awoke this morning vomiting, so we avoided her to let her try to get some sleep. The girls spent the day playing outdoors on the swing, swatting at the mosquitoes that arrived with the hot, humid weather. Joyce and James are having their back porch enclosed. The brothers doing the work grew up on this property, living first in the guest house and then in the big house. I spent the day watching them put up the roof to the porch, wondering how they must feel to be working on the home they once lived in. The others believed that I watched the brothers because they were shirtless and sweaty, muscles bulging as they lift plywood up over their jean-clad torsos. I let them think what they wanted.....

We spent the better part of the morning rocking on the porch, talking and swatting mosquitoes and deer flies. Joyce's legs are covered in bites that are covered with dried pink Calamine lotion. She and Jay were attacked by fire ants on the Fourth of July, and now Joyce is a tad hysterical when it comes to anything fly-like landing on a human. We are learning to dodge out of her way when she jumps up with the flyswatter shouting.

Later in the day, we all took part in a cook-a-long. Tom and Darcy got the groceries. Jay and James cooked the brats, burgers, and hot dogs (Jay doing most of the cooking while James talked). Joyce made potato salad, baked beans topped with crispy bacon, upside-down pineapple cakes, one with dark rum poured over the top, and her famous sweet tea with mint from her garden, picked by Anya. Connie sliced the pineapples for the cake, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers. Cara kept everyone working with mojitos, and Madison was in charge of the varieties of chips. Jay and James took turns playing the guitar, and we sang a few songs while we worked. We ate until we couldn't squeeze in anymore, and then Maya and Jay and family said goodbye and headed back to Charleston for the night as their flight the next day leaves before sunrise.

Later that evening, James hitched up his boat to the truck, piled the girls and Tom into the bed of the truck, and we all went boating in the Atlantic. We cast off, James and Connie at the helm, to watch the sunset. It was very peaceful on the water, and we had a gentle breeze to keep us cool. We were treated to several sightings of gams of dolphins, jumping trout, seagulls, skimmers, and shrimp boats. The beginning of the sunset was beautiful, but then the sun got behind a cloud that refused to budge. We didn't even mind as we shut off the engine to sit in silence, watching three dolphins frolic in the ocean. A sweet ending to another day in paradise.

Summer Vacation - Day 5

Day Five - South Carolina

It is easy to get lost in these woods. So easy to snuggle on the porch or into the sofa pillows at the cottage, sipping coffee and reading. Joyce has a library in her house. It is upstairs to the right of the stairs next to her computer room and the bathroom. It reminds me of an attic room with sloping ceilings and a small window. The door to the room is a glass door that lets you see in at all the beautiful books. They are everywhere--on the bookshelves lining the walls. There are books on the table in front of the small couch, on the windowsill, and on the floor. There are new books and old books. It is almost too much for our family of readers. When we miss Madison, we know to check the library. She has been found there curled in a chair, nose in a book Joyce has recommended.

I am reading Inkheart. It is a title that I have come across researching books for my children. It is one that Joyce has recommended to me, and I am lost in its pages, enjoying the tale of Meggie and Mo. I have already read Briar Rose. I am not sure that I can go back to the library for there are so many books that I have not read. But it calls to me, and the world outside disappears when in there. Plus, we are alone in these woods with solitude and plenty of time to enjoy the written word or each other.

We went into Charleston, South Carolina today to visit Joyce's children. There is Jason, who is two years younger than Rusty. He has a wife, Lori, and three children, a son, Joel 14, and two daughters, Ellie 8 and Margie 2. Jason still reminds me of Andre Agassi, and it is unsettling, yet exciting until I remember that he is just Jason and not my tennis idol. Joyce's daughter, Mandy, and her husband Chuck have two daughters, Macie, who is almost two and the spitting image of her father, and new to this world Evie, who was born April 30th. We went to Mandy's house for our reunion because Jason's is under construction as he works this summer on expanding his abode.

Mandy's home is a child's paradise. There are toys in the girls' rooms, toys in the play area off of the garage, toys in the living room in an overstuffed toy box, and there is a huge play structure in the fenced-in backyard. The children looked at one another, some meeting for the first time, others getting reacquainted, and then they were off. Children being children in all their innocence.

The adults settled into the living room and kitchen to catch up and for husbands to met husbands and/or wives. Groups were formed, and the talk was of jobs, children, and the past. I grew up with Jason and Mandy. I was older, but not so old that playing with each other was a problem. I can remember Mandy and me against our two brothers. We would push their buttons, knock on the bedroom door and then run, follow them when they wanted to be left alone. We would come together and play board games or cards, and as we got older, we would talk. Our parents were just that, older people who didn't understand us or the way of childhood. How different it all seems as we mature. Now I can sit and talk to Joyce and James for hours.

We feasted on ham and pole beans and took turns holding the baby. It was nice to be with family in a new generation and sweet that the new generation loved each other as we loved each other. It is the right time to come together, and I am so glad that we have done so.