Margie and Amanda took us to Sacramento to catch our plane to Chicago. On the way down we missed the turnoff. She was talking and a truck obscured the sign, so we crossed the Sacramento River and Mel told her she missed it. We were entering West Sacramento. We went back to highway 5 that goes to The airport. She said she’d never done that before….hmmm…I hoped it wasn’t a bad beginning.

 

We pulled up to Southwest Airline’s unloading zone. We were early, but there was a line of people waiting to get their tickets and check their baggage. We had two boxes containing sleeping bags, towels, our favorite travel cups & thermos, and two good sized suitcases. I packed my computer and camera and only had my purse to carry on. One suitcase was too heavy, so we took the extra two pounds out and stuffed it into another one.  They took our baggage and gave us our tickets. (Margie had made arrangements earlier), but we had to confirm and show ID’s. We hugged Margie and Amanda goodbye and headed for our gate.

The Airport was a lot bigger since our last flight in 2003 to go on the cruise to Alaska. So is the security. We removed our shoes, and put stuff in a basket that went through a metal detector. Some old guy (like us) was being thoroughly searched. Then we moved on to our gate and waited for our 11:30 am flight. Lots of people. We had open seating, and hoped we’d get to sit together. Mel was being gentlemanly to another elderly lady and her husband, but I urged him to stay with me….Luckily we got the last two seats together in the tail. A young woman sat next to me by the window. She was returning to Baltimore from a business trip to California. Her company supplied pizza to public schools. Mel sat on the other side of me next to the isle. The elderly lady sat in front of him, and her husband was seated on the other side. We lucked out. I’d brought a couple of sandwiches and Snicker candy bars since they only served snacks. Next to the elderly lady was a man with a baby. There was a younger one across the isle with another man. The two were connected somehow. Both children took turns crying. It was pretty hard on them….they were so tired. Finally, the older one fell asleep. The younger one struggled until not long before we landed. Naturally, we had to walk to the other end of the airport to pick up our luggage and rent a car. Margie had made arrangements for that too. Thank goodness they have those moving walks. My knee isn’t that great.

 

We loaded boxes and suitcases into the Hertz rental car and headed out of the airport. Our ordeal was about to begin. Chicago highways are in the process of upgrading. Their signs are few and far apart, and the streets don’t exactly match the signs, and most aren’t noted on the map. Anyway, we drove around in circles for awhile (even after asking directions), and wound up to far into Michigan, and had to turn around. After driving about four hours, we finally at Holiday Hotel where we had reservations. It was after midnight. Tim was on the cell phone giving us directions just before that, and our batteries gave out. I’d packed the auto charger, but couldn’t find it in the suitcase. (It turned out to be practically on top.)

Just before we left, Virginia emailed this joke warning us to not be like Moses, who wandered in the wilderness for thirty-nine years until Mrs. Moses finally asked for directions. We really laughed about that. Well, now I realize that it doesn’t matter if old codger’s ask directions. We can’t remember them anyway….

 

Tim’s Indiana RV store was just down the road from the hotel…at Wakarusa (Elkhart), Indiana... not far from the factory.

It's amazing that Tim had his plans okayed, built this beautiful place and had it operating in a couple of years, while our local Planner's are still dickering on the property he bought before this one in California, where he wants to build a similar building to handle his expanding business. He would have a wonderful shop for his workers to maintain the RVs. California is not friendly to those who employ people and pay big taxes to keep our economy (and government) running.

 When we got to DeMartini’s RV,  Rod Martin and CJ greeted us.

CJ showed us the where and what’s about our new RV.

 Later CJ told us that he was looking forward to the weekend, because he was going scuba diving with a group to explore an old sunken three mast schooner in Lake Michigan. It sounded interesting to me. Then we returned the rental car, and looked for a place to eat. The one we decided to eat at was the nearest to the shop. Easy to see why there weren’t many customers, but we were too hungry to discriminate. We spent the night plugged into the shop along side some people in a really big motor home. We were so tired we went to bed early. It was still light outside. I was sleeping, heard the phone ringing but decided not to answer. Both of us woke up around 11:pm, read and watched Jay Leno on our new RV's television before going back to sleep.

Saturday, Sept. 23

We got up around 9am. We got things ready to go, and said goodbye to Rod. Stopped at the Cock-A-Doodle café for breakfast. It was full of people so we figured it was good like we’d been told.

Breakfast? Mel looked at his watch. It was almost noon. The breakfast was good. After breakfast we were on our way. This is Amish country, and it was nice to see a horse and buggy occasionally.

This is an interesting building. I'll have to find out what it is.