Secondly, we have a bidet attached to the toilet. It's not something that can be unattached and taken with us. Being fat and also being arthritic makes it difficult for me to reach around to attend to the removal of sludge as easily as the rest of the world. The bidet is a lifesaver, or should I say, a buttsaver. So, I take my toilet sitz bath thingie to swish around in to make sure I feel clean. Even Bill uses the bidet all the time now. It was funny to hear him complain about not feeling as clean without it.

And, thirdly, there are the accommodations for my insulin and Byetta which must be kept cold. So, besides the usual necessary stuff of a suitcase full of clothes and toiletries, I have to have an air mattress (Bill likes one, too) and two floor pillows, a travel cooler with cold gel packs, the rest of my pills and syringes, my CPAP machine, and two filled water bottles--one for him and one for me--to drink on the way. Then we add the two big teddy bears that sleep with us; our bed pillows; a bag filled with the camera, the binoculars, the bird book, a book for me to read, a puzzle magazine, and a bunch of CD's to play in the car's CD player; my director's chair; a camp chair for Bill; my cane; and my purse. I took my embroidery with me this time but I never did get around to doing any of it. We had all that to pull together and get into the car before we could leave.

First thing I did, though, was call the a/c guy. They said they could come out that afternoon so I let Amy know. Kate called me at 9:30 and I let her know we weren't going to be able to leave for another two hours. I suggested that they all go ahead to Lizzy's and we'd show up two hours later. She thought that was what they would do. Then I called Melynda and told her the same thing and left it up to them to coordinate getting any breakfast together with the other two. Mel said they wanted to drive up with us so they would pass some time by seeing more of our little town and then come over. I was happy that they wanted to wait for us. Then I went into a frenzy of packing. An hour or so later, Mel and Serge came by to wait for us. I felt bad for them having to wait in our hot house but they were happy to do it. They sat out in the dining room with Amy and Addy and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I know Addy and Serge were having fun. I slipped out briefly to sit with them while I packed up all my diabetes supplies. I was in go-go mode which is kinda funny to see me in because usually I am slow as a slug.

Then Kate showed up which surprised us because we thought they were long gone to Lizzy's by then. She came in the house without Mark. Mark had decided to drop Kate off and then go out and find a place to get gas. They had driven back up to The Red Squirrel to have breakfast. I thought that was funny. There I had three visitors and couldn't stop to socialize. That felt strange. I went into an even higher gear getting everything together in a flash and putting it all out the bedroom door for Bill to load in the car, which he dutifully did. After a quick shower, I went back to the dining room and announced, "I'm leaving.." They looked at me in disbelief. I had my purse in hand, my bag full of amusements and the travel pack slung over my shoulder and announced again, " I'm leaving" and headed towards the door. Amy made a move and said it looked like I meant it.

Everyone followed me out to the lawn. And there we stood for another ten minutes while Bill finished up the car washing he was doing to his car. I was terribly hot and just wanted to sit in the car with the a/c on, so that's what I did. Kate and Mel were talking but that's because we were still waiting for Mark to get back. By the time I felt a bit rested and able-bodied enough to get out of our car to join the others, Mark was driving up the street. So, I stayed by the car and said, "Okay, this is it, gang. Let's get going." It was 1:00 by then and I felt awfully late. Kate called Lizzy and told her that we were finally on our way. Mark decided to go on ahead but Mel and us traveled together.

The drive to Lizzy's was uneventful except for getting behind a wide-load truck that blocked both lanes on the 675 around Dayton. Two police cars were in both lanes to escort the truck and nobody, absolutely nobody, could pass them. We crawled along at 45 mph. Just before we came to the I-70 interchange I had Bill pull off because I was starving for breakfast or lunch or whatever I could find. Serge followed us and we pulled into an Arby's. They confessed that they hadn't had breakfast either so were very happy that we had stopped to eat. None of us use cellphones so they had to guess at what we were doing. By the time we got on our way again, the wide load truck wasn't seen again, thankfully. We found out, though, that Mark and Janet had caught up to the same truck on I-70 and they had to follow it all the way to Columbus.

And then we were finally at Lizzy's! It felt so good to see her again. Shortly after we got there, Melynda was worried about what hotel we were staying at for the night so Lizzy gave us a phone and a Holiday Inn brochure and I started calling around. Before I started calling, Mark and Alan left to go find a hotel. I ended up calling the same one that Mark ended up going to so we all were secure for the night at the same hotel. It wasn't long before Mark and Alan came back. I got a couple of phone calls from Amy about the a/c. The man finally got to the house and fixed some little thing on it for $140 and the a/c was working again. That was good news. Bad news was that he said the compressor was on its way out and that would cost a good $1000. Then he also recommended putting in a new a/c because this one was undersized for the house (we already knew that) and while we were at it to do the furnace, too, since it wasn't energy efficient and also underpowered for the house. This would be to the tune of $6500. Oh, yeh, the news got better and better. Not.

Then I realized that I had forgotten my birth certificate to get back through the border. They say you really only need your driver's license but I had always read on the U.S. Custom's website that you needed to take your birth certificate. Lizzy saved the day by telling me they had a fax machine. Which worked out great because we have a fax machine, too. I called Todd and he was able to fax me a copy of my birth certificate. Then the four of us women settled in the kitchen at the dining table and the men settled in the living room. Occassionally, one of the men would come out to get another beer and then we wouldn't see them again for awhile but we barely noticed because we were so focused on the our foursome. The talking was nonstop. It was hilarious fun. Each one of us had a ripe wit and a sense of fun but we already knew that. What came out more, though, was how funny Lizzy actually was. Well, the wine that was being consumed probably helped, too, but I don't think Lizzy had actually been drinking that much. Kate stuck to the Labatt's. I had a little bit of wine but mostly water. But it was Melynda that really enjoyed that wine she was drinking. I guess that was the French in her.

When it was time for dinner, Alan came out in the kitchen and whipped out some hamburger and made a lot of patties. Then he grilled them along with some Italian sausages. Lizzy pulled out potato salad and macaroni salad, watermelon, more potato chips, pickles and tomatoes and soon we were all feasting. And, of course, we continued with the talking and the laughing. We all felt so comfortable with each other. It made us all wish we lived closer so we could visit more often. The four of us got along just great like we had known each other for years and, well, technically we had only just not face-to-face. After dinner, Melynda surprised us with a present, one for each of us. It was delicately carved pictures inside clear lucite. It sits on a stand and rotates colors to highlight the carvings. That is what is in those bluish boxes on the table in front of us in the picture there. Mine was about dolphins, Kate got..uhm, I forget what it was...horses? hummingbird?...sorry, Kate, and Lizzy got butterflies which she kept declaring was the prettiest of all them.

Time kept passing and we didn't even notice it. The only break we took was for picture taking or using the restroom. The men drifted in and out. Melynda took a couple of cigarette breaks with Serge outside. When it got dark outside, we became more mindful that our time was coming to a close. We didn't want it to end. We knew that when we finally admitted it was getting late that this moment wouldn't happen again for a long, long time. Especially since Lizzy was moving to Florida within the month. Bill came in the kitchen one last time and said that I could stay if I liked and someone could probably bring me over to the hotel. He looked very tired. Lizzy suggested that he go lie on the couch and nap since the men had gone outside to talk. He seemed to like the idea so in he went. That was the first wave from the men to unlodge us from our seats. That wave didn't work so well since all it did was crash. Five minutes later, the second wave came in, Serge, and he gave us a look like he would REALLY like to go but he was too polite to say it so all he did was hang around the table and hope we'd get the message. We looked at each other and got silent because we knew we had to break it up for the sake of our husbands who had been very, very patient with us all day. We stood up and then huddled together for a group hug. We didn't want it to end but it had to. We gathered up our stuff and made our way out to our cars and after saying a long goodbye to Lizzy and Alan we trekked off to the hotel. With little formality, we all checked in and headed straight for our rooms saying we'd see each other in the morning at breakfast.

And here we are at one last breakfast. Mark took this picture. I have a hotel towel draped around my shoulders because I had been in the pool. The pool and the cafe were in the lobby, or rather atrium as they called it. It was a humungous space and completely filled with trees and bushes. The Atrium Cafe was on one side and the pool was on the other. I had a little trouble sleeping through the night so at 7:30 I went down to do my arthritis exercises in the pool. And I have to say it was the most wonderful pool I have ever been in. It was so warm. Usually hotel pools are cold. I could have lounged in that pool all day. It took me about an hour to do my exercises and then Kate came out. She was dressed in her clothes. She sat down with her feet in the pool and we talked and then I suggested she go get her swimming suit on. I floated on my back with my eyes closed while waiting for her to come back. Then I heard a voice calling my name and looked up and there was Melynda and Serge looking down at me. They were in their street clothes, too. I told them that I was just down there swimming until everyone got up for breakfast. So, I got out of the pool. Kate came back and had her swimsuit on. They told her we were going to eat breakfast now so she went back to her room to change again and get Mark and call my husband to tell him to meet us downstairs for breakfast. I wrapped my large bathing towel around me and went with Melynda and Serge to a table. When Bill got down there, I had him get me a hotel towel for my shoulders since I was sitting right under the air conditioning.

We were a bit more subdued that morning. Melynda joked about not remembering being in the elevator last night. It was an anticlimatic moment. Our time together was ending. We were too tired to think to call Lizzy and see if they wanted to come for breakfast. I thought of it afterwards. All of us were rather in 'go' mode as in "Let's get going on with the rest of our separate vacations" but only because all of us were facing long drives. Actually Kate and Mark weren't going as far for the day. They were off to Indiananpolis to see his cousin. Bill and I were off to Waterloo, Ontario and Melynda and Serge were going to Niagara Falls. We ate breakfast and lingered just a little and then without any fuss or muss we hugged and parted to our separate rooms to put our stuff back in our suitcases and check out to be on our ways. We didn't see any of them again when we checked out. I eyed the pool longingly as I went by but I had to be strong and get in the car. So, off we were to Canada!