Monday April 6 - Thursday April 9

Monday
A quiet day after the weekend but I did go for my usual two mile walk. The house on the corner, half way to my turn around point, has a small horse and I always say hello to him and give him chin scratches.

On the way back, the people were outside and they came over for a chat. I discovered the horse's name is Alan so now I can refer to him by name instead of talking about "the horse" lol.

The weather was still cool but at least it did not rain.

Tuesday
Today was washing day so I can start the next phase with mostly clean clothes. It was very foggy today and the fog hung around most of the day.

This evening we went out for a meal at The Blue in Archbold. It is a family restaurant and has a very decent menu for a small country town. Karleen met us there and we had another good evening. I ordered wings as my main and also added a side dish of Brussel sprouts and bacon. 

Well, the wings arrived but not the side dish. I said something to the waitress and finally it arrived. It turns out there was a big party being served and one of their waiters grabbed the dish!! It all turned out well though as the chef sent me a dessert to take home, lol!! It was a slice of carrot cake, not good for my low carb diet, but it was delicious. The cream was not overdone and it was lovely and moist. I had it for breakfast the next day!

Wednesday
Again it was foggy but not as bad as Tuesday. We had a quiet start to the day and I did most of my packing. 

In the early afternoon Lisa asked me if I would go with her to take the dogs to the Doggy Car Wash, lol!! She has to give them half of a tablet to rela them and then off we went. What an adventure, tey were so funny and some of the expressions that they produced said it all! 

Bruno was up first!!!! I had a lot of fun taking photos of them being washed, blow dried and having their nails trimmed. They were very good while all this was being done to them! 

We then went and collected a few things from Walmart's and I also picked up a coffee. 

Back home and Bruno had his teeth cleaned but Enzo just did not want to know! Then the cats had their baths, I helped by holding them at the back of their neck and they were both very good. We were quickly forgiven by all four animals, lol!!

I then baked my cauliflower special for dinner to go with the chicken Lisa had bought, delicious!

Thursday
I was woken up at 4.15 am to see a flash of lightning, Bruno was on my bed but not shaking as much as the last time we had a storm. I actually fell asleep until my alarm woke me at 5.15 am. The train is scheduled to arrive in Bryan at 7.05 am, please note the use of the word scheduled as you read on.

I said my farewells to my four legged friends and we headed off at 6 am. It was neither raining nor foggy so all was good. We arrived at Shaffer's cafe in Bryan for breakfast. I was using the train tracker and it was to be about 10 minutes late or so, this is nothing.

After breakfast, we headed to the station where I again checked the tracker. This time it was to be 37 minutes late. I checked again a while later and it was saying nearly one and a half hours late so I rang the Amtrak number and finally managed to confuse Julie enough with my accent that she handed me on to a live person, lol! For those who do not know, Julie is the automatic answering robot for Amtrak!

It appears the train was held up due to a lightning strike on a bridge and they had to wait while it was checked. There was another car with people in it so I checked to see if they knew about the delay. As they were unaware they were pleased I told them and headed off themselves. So, we headed back into town and had a coffee at Seasons, a coffee/bistro place that serves breakfast and lunch. We kept an eye on the tracker and by this time it was over two hours late, lol!

When we went outside the fog had come back and it was quite dense, amazing the way it had changed in an hour. We headed back to the station and found quite a few people waiting for the same train, most of them had been ringing Amtrak or using the tracker. Finally, the train arrived about two hours fifteen minutes late. As we left the car the heavens opened and so we got a wee bit damp!

After a final farewell to Lisa, I boarded the train and was told my seat number. The weather was not good, being very wet right through Ohio and Indiana. It improved somewhat after at although very cloudy. During the trip I managed to catch some more sleep. By this time we were due to be nearly three hours late into Chicago, for me it means I have less time to kill before my train for Washington departs at 6.40 pm.

Once again, I have enjoyed wonderful hospitality and friendship with Lisa, Harry, Deena, Mike and a variety of four-legged friends. I am so grateful to them for including me in their lives from time to time! I also enjoyed catching up with some other friends I have made and hope to see them all again soon.