THE LAST POST (FOR NOW)

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It’s been an exciting and trying two days. Yesterday our goal was to get to Shakamak State Park (where we stayed on the way down). We were sitting in the sun having a beer (me, not Malika) when the park ranger pulls into my site. He tells me that there is a severe weather/tornado warning for that area and where I should go if it should strike. He stressed that I would need to get out of the park away from the trees. The thunderstorms were expected to start in the night. So I slept with the window by my bed open so I would see or hear anything if the weather should change and I needed to get out quick. Nothing happened in the night but I got up early and was leaving at 7:30 a.m. when the rain started. Shakamak is waaaay out in the boonies on little back roads and it takes a while to get back to the freeway. It was pouring rain and there were enormous bolts of lightning splitting the sky.

Three hours of pouring rain later I made it through Indianapolis and stopped to give the cat a break from her small carrier. The weather wasn’t too bad from there until Toledo where the rain started again. And it poured all the way from there until about a half hour from home. The worst part was being stuck at the top of the Ambassador bridge in a traffic jam. The bridge was packed with trucks from one side to the other, it was pouring, the wind was blowing and there was lightning. Great place to be in weather like that. The bridge was vibrating and all I could think of was the whole thing tumbling down into the river. Not this time, baby!

I arrived home to find my driveway full of cars. What the heck? Was my house flooded and people were there to clean it up? No - it was the Gala Girls (you know who you are, ladies). They had just finished making a big surprise for me by decorating my yard with flowers and Easter eggs and Easter garlands. It looks great! And as I told them, they helped me keep my reputation as the wacky neighbour who decorates for every occasion. Aren’t friends the greatest?

Malika is home and is deliriously happy. She hasn’t stopped running and jumping since we arrived. Back and forth and up over the furniture and runs out from behind the chair to grab my leg as I walk by. She told me she doesn’t ever want to leave home again.

It’s really nice to travel and see all the wonders there are out there but it’s even nicer to be home.

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