Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 8th

 

        So, this week was typical, not much going on except work. That’s the one constant in my life….work. I really do enjoy my job but I do have a handful of clients that are really demanding and not at all gracious or grateful for what I do for them, but anyway…

          Monday – I was physically out of sorts, not feeling well, but I’ve started eating better and I knew I just needed time for my tummy to sort itself out. I chopped up a bunch of Romaine lettuce and had thawed out some ground turkey for salad for dinner and lunch during the week. The minute the turkey started to cook it smelled horrible, I guess I didn’t freeze it in time. Turkey is very, very delicate and can go bad quite quickly! I was bummed as I had looked forward to a salad all day.

          Tuesday – Work as usual and I had an appointment at 4pm for a thyroid ultrasound/sonogram…not sure I get them mixed up. I had thyroid cancer in 2008, you can read about it HERE, so annually they do these exams to make sure it’s still all gone, it should be since they removed both my thyroid glands and it’s been 15 years but I guess you can’t be too cautious. I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some fresh ground turkey, called my sister on the way home and she was planning to make tacos, I told her to come have turkey taco salad with me and I would go the next day to have tacos with her, she agreed and we had a nice dinner with mom as well.

          Wednesday – Work was busy as usual and mom had an appointment with her primary care doctor and my sister Lisa took her so I didn’t get any tacos that night! But I had a turkey taco salad, so I was still a happy camper.

          Thursday – Was planning on taking mom to Walmart and The Dollar Store but had a long day at work and I was exhausted and mom was too. I had a turkey taco salad again …I’m telling you I can have this 24/7 and it never gets old! 

        Friday - Was a tough day of work because we have a 3-day weekend coming up as Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day and we won't have to work that day. I woke up out of sorts again, super grumpy for no reason at all. I emailed my sister and told her I needed a sister night was she available and she said yes and asked if I want to go out to dinner or stay in at her house with wine and yummies? Wine and Yummies please! Here's pictures of what my sister considers yummies, Kabobs with Steak, Chicken, Sausage, peppers, red onions and zucchini! They were delicious. 

Kabobs straight out of the Oven, she also made some in her Air Fryer, we preferred oven.

Kabob on fine china ...hahaha! 

Kabob off of the skewer and on a plate, Yumminess overload!

First a shot of our favorite tequila, Agavero. I needed this after the week I had!

        So that was our Friday, even though it was a tough day it ended with sister time, good food, good wine and a lot of conversation and jazz music.

        Saturday is usually mom's day. I do whatever she wants to do. Almost all the time what she wants to do is go shopping. So we did just that. First stop was Goodwill, mom loves a thrift store. They were remodeling our favorite store so there was not much of a selection, mom bought nothing which was out of the norm for her, I found and bought this bag.

        Pardon the bad lighting, but it's the only place in my bedroom that I had a hook available to hang this. Beautiful hand beaded bag in mom's favorite colors. It had a super long strap.

Close up of beadwork, it's just stunning!

You can see how many beads of varying sizes and styles were used.

View of the other side of the bag.

            Even though I loved the bag, I saw my mom's eyes light up when I showed it to her, so I bought it and as we stepped outside of the store I gave it to her as a gift, she could not believe it!

        Our next stop was a Ross Store. I bought a dress and I had always wanted a stackable mug set and this one was perfect! It's Valentine's Day theme, but I have the Corelle set of dishware with pink hearts that match perfectly so I can use them year round.

Aren't they adorable?

The cups match my plates perfectly.

        So after Ross we went to The Dollar Tree because I was hoping to find some Valentine's Day Decorations for my living room. I'll post pictures of the finished decor in another post. Somehow I've lost some of my decorations so my decor was pretty skimpy. I did find quite a few things, but my favorite was this little pink bear. To make her "valentiney" I crocheted a little red heart and sewed her hands to it so she looks like she's holding it. 

        After that we had burgers and fries at Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. That's not on my approved food eating list, but I'm not going to limit my life, when it's being out enjoying the day with mom I'll eat where she wants to eat and enjoy myself!

        Then we went home, happy, tired and full of burgers. Saturday night was when I crocheted the heart for my bear above and enjoyed my new mugs with some sugar-free hot chocolate and whipped cream. 

        Sunday started out great. My sister Lisa and her granddaughter Roselyn came over for coffee and then Lisa's son Isaac came to surprise his mom and ended up at my house with a big box of donuts...of which you will be happy to hear I did not partake.

        I did some chores and started learning how to crochet roses while I watched football. I am so devastated that my Dallas Cowboys lost against the Green Bay Packers. They fought their way back to a respectable score...but too little too late.

        As I write this it is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Day and I have the day off. Probably Dr. King's most popular quote is his "I have a dream..."

        But my favorite quote of his is "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

        Everyone have a good week. Mine will be a 4-day work week so although it will be hard, it will be short.

How Far I Have Not Come

 Was reading a blog post by Oddball Observations during my lunch hour and the post today was called Way-Back Wednesday and in it he goes back on his blog and reviews what he was doing in January ten years from today. He was doing a lot, you can see the blog post HERE. 

He also shared a cute story about a daughter writing back home to her parents and brothers regarding life in the Marine Corp and how it was so much easier than living and working on a farm.

But the reason for this blog post and the title "How Far I Have Not Come" is that I went back to January 2014 on my blog and found that I am still doing the same thing in 2024 that I was doing way back then...struggling with my weight and trying to eat healthier. 

My first post on Jan 1st 2014 was about making Jalapeno Poppers and I've made them twice already this year only because they are a low-carb food that I can eat at any time and they satisfy my cravings. 

My second post on Jan 2nd 2014 was about being a carb addict and included a recipe for Cajun Chicken Drumsticks, another low-carb good that is spicy and filling and satisfies my cravings. 

My third post on Jan 3rd was about voices and my dad...so at least I managed to stay away from food for a day! God only knows what I ate that day, probably left over chicken drumsticks with jalapeno poppers! 

My fourth post on Jan 6th was about going back to work after the holiday and no change there as work is just as stressful as it was then, if not more. I'm happy to think that soon I will be retiring. This post also talked about food and I had low-carb lettuce wrapped tacos and a boneless cajun chicken strip...starting to see a pattern here on where my head is most of the time, focused on food!

My last post on Jan 13th was again about food, this time low-carb pancakes with sugar free strawberry jam! 

It's a little disappointing, sad, discouraging, demoralizing and depressing...why do so many words for dismay start with the letter D? I never realized that.

It's not that I'm horribly overweight, it's just that I've never been satisfied with my weight. Here's  a picture of me at the beach in November 2023. 

But knowing that I've struggled with my weight my whole life makes me feel all those D words. Ten years ago, I struggled with how I looked carrying those extra pounds. Ten years later I struggle with how it is affecting my health. It's sad to think that I have not gotten very far with learning how to eat and sticking to it.

Maybe 2024 will be different. Anyone else struggling with eating healthy? Have any tips of how to control your food cravings? 

If I'm still around in 2034, I'll let you know how the next ten years went, for now I'm going to go make myself a quick turkey taco salad for lunch and wash it down with water as I'm off diet soda completely.

Wish me luck!

Weekly Wrap Up - Week of January 1st

 This was a short week as I had Monday off for New Years Day, but even with a short week I felt like I had worked a 10-day work week. Trying to get caught up after the holidays is almost impossible. So many people take vacation time starting at Thanksgiving and continuing through New Years day so that makes the rest of us have to pick up the slack while still getting our own work done. It's brutal and frustrating. Next year I think I am going to join in on the vacation taking and let someone else pick up the slack.

New Years Day I took down the Christmas tree as it was making me claustrophobic and the room seemed too full. I did leave up the rest of the decorations and will be taking them down today while I watch football and I will replace Christmas with Valentine's Day decorations so we will still have something pretty to look at. 

Did not do much crocheting this past week. I did make a bookmarker for my journal and I did a bit of journaling, so that was good. I also managed to do a few blog posts...Yay me!

I was so happy to start this week with my brand new desk calendar! Every year I try to buy one that has inspirational quotes or motivations, but this year for some reason what caught my eye was one called The Daily Bitch.  I am really enjoying the quotes and the women on each page, so pretty and fashionable and opinionated, just like all the women in my life. It's nice to start the day off with a giggle!

Yesterday I took mom for one of our Saturday shopping days, even though it was rainy and dreary. It had been a while and she was more than ready. We went to Hobby Lobby and they had great clearance sales going on. 

I bought two of these pretty little framed prints for $3.49 each! They are only 9 x 14 but they look very pretty in the spot I needed them for in my living room.

I also could not resist this little guy. I always seem to find a little Valentine's Day llama at Hobby Lobby each year. He was 40% off so he was about $4.00 so he came home with me!

Mom and I also made a stop at her favorite thrift store, the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. She always finds a lot of things there and it's the place where I get most of my books. I bought this one by Fern Michaels. The back of the book says it cost $16.95 new and then you can see a sale tag was added somewhere along the line for $10.49 but I bought it for just $1.00. I very rarely buy a brand new book.

To end the day yesterday my sister invited me to her house for a glass of wine and nachos. She's recently done a lot of remodeling in her home with a brand new kitchen and she got new carpeting in her living room and just yesterday the workmen put her furniture back in, so we celebrated. It was a great end to the week. 

So now I'm going to leave you, I'm off to cook some bacon for breakfast, then I'm going to put away the rest of the Christmas decor and put up the Valentine's Day decorations while I watch the Minnesota Vikings play the Detroit Lions, neither are my team, but it should be a great game.  Hope to squeeze in a nap somewhere along the way as well.

Have a great week everyone!

Books I Read in 2023 and 2022

 I started keeping track of books that I read way back in 2012 using the website goodreads  

I also started doing a blog post every year with pictures of the books I read each year, but I believe in 2022 I was a slacker and didn't do it...so this is a twofer, you get two years combined in one post. Yay you!

Well you don't have to read this post much because mostly I just want to have a record of what I've read, although Goodreads keeps the record on their website as well. But hey, if you read any of the books I read, let me know. If you have books you want to recommend then recommend away.

2023

I'll start with 2023. I challenged myself to read 25 books and I exceeded that goal by 4! Below is the list:

2022

Now on to 2022 where I challenged myself to read 50 books but I only read 34. Luckily in 2023 I was more realistic.

Just for my own records and for posterity since I'm sure someday when I'm dead and gone my kids will probably come back to this blog to remember their mom and I want them to remember that I gave them a love of reading and I hope they always read; I want to keep track through the years, so here's the list from 2012 to the present. Isn't Good Reads great to do this for us?

I've already started 2024 with a bang, I'm reading Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. Jo Jo is my new favorite author and I have her book The Ship of Brides up next on my nightstand. I think I may only read JoJo Moyes books in 2024, she's definitely got enough of them!

Are you a reader? What are you reading? What's your favorite book?

Welcome 2024!

 In my last post I mentioned I am going to begin blogging more often, so here I am. I mean how can I start the new year out without working on my goals.

I hope you all had a fabulous New Year, mine was nice and quiet, just like I wanted it to be...well except for the fireworks, that was awful. I hate that part and don't know why people find such joy in it. I think the real reason I hate it is because it scares little Chorizo to death!

She's not scared in this picture, but she is modeling the new sweater that I crocheted for her. I started this sweater a bit after Thanksgiving and while it was a super easy pattern to make I had to keep "frogging" it. Frogging is a crocheters term which means you have to "rip it, rip it" out and start over from where you messed up. I didn't really mess it up, but it was hard getting the sizing correct and she did not cooperate, she's a bit of a Diva!

I'm having a really great time crocheting though. I had promised myself that I would only do one project at a time and not start a new one until that one was done. I lied to myself big time! Right now I have at least 8 WIP's (works in progress). Even the sweater above is still not done because I have to make the sleeves for her little arm holes, but I'll finish that tonight.

Would you like to see some of the projects that's I've finished for 2023? Yes? Well thank you, cause I'd love to show you.

So I did this crocheted pumpkin pie for my table at Thanksgiving, everyone raved about it. I used a tutorial from Bag O Day Crochet, but she didn't have the whipped cream around the top, she only had the dollop. My son said I should put whip cream around the top so I had to figure out how to do that, I think it came out pretty good and now I have something I can display every year. I'm thinking of trying a strawberry pie next.

I also did several pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I gave two to my sister and one to my sister in law and I didn't take pictures of them, but here is my lovely mom modeling a shawl I made for my cousin Lydia who is battling Stage 4 Cancer and I was hoping this would keep her warm and cozy while she goes through Chemo. In the background, you can see some of the pumpkins I crocheted. 

This yard was so soft! I bought the same yarn in a different color to crochet a shawl for me but I haven't had time yet, but it's on my to-do list for 2024.

Back of the shawl. It's pretty big, more like a triangular blanket.

And here's my lovely model after she got into the swing of things. My mom is really a character. Can you believe she turned 87 last month???

Two more things, one is a beanie that I crocheted for my son. This one was a challenge because I worked with an all cotton yard, but he loved it and I think it looks great on him.

Last but not least, I crocheted these two sweet little birds as Christmas ornaments to go along with the gift cards I purchased for my two coworkers, I love these birds and plan to make many more.  Aren't they so flipping cute!!!

So I'm gonna go now, need to finish that armhole in Chorizo's sweater and I want to relax and watch TV since I've been on the run all day.

Again...Happy New Year, may we all have all our dreams and needs fulfilled in the coming year!

Happy New Year and my plans for 2024

 With a New Year visible off in the horizon, I am prompted to look back on the past year and look forward to the new year. I cannot change what happened in the past year but I can make changes that will affect my new year. One of those changes is that I want to get back to blogging. I love, love, love writing, so why am I not doing it anymore? I can name several minor reasons, but what is the underlying reason that made me stop? I come up with one thing, Covid.

Huh you say? Covid? Covid made you stop writing/blogging? Is it because you got Covid and now you have brain fog? Nope, that is not why, let me splain.

In March of 2020, Covid hit. My employer, like many others sent us all home immediately. We high-tailed it out of there carrying our computers and anything else we thought we might need for a few weeks/months of working from home. We left that place looking like a ghost town in an old Western movie, just pieces of paper floating along in the dust and wind.

So here it is 3 years and 9 months later and I am still working from home. Relegated to a little corner in my bedroom where I have just my desk, computer with double screens, and a chair. My only companion and coworker, my daughters dog Chorizo. While Chorizo is cute as heck, she is not much of a conversationalist, so mainly I speak with clients and occasionally chat with a co-worker, mostly on our intranet chat program.

CHORIZO BY MY SIDE AND DOING WHAT SHE DOES BEST

Before, when I was going to the office, I socialized, noticed things, ran across interesting stuff, and discussed it with coworkers, other employees in the building we worked in, clients and friends. Now I just see these 4 walls, 40 hours per week. At lunch instead of going with coworkers to grab a sandwich or hit our favorite Mexican food place, I walk 20 feet to my kitchen to grab whatever was left over from dinner and I watch YouTube.

Before, I knew where all the new restaurants were opening and I would visit them with coworkers or friends, now I don’t even remember what Chipotle and Rubio’s Fresh Grill even tasted like.

Before, when I was going to the office, I would make plans with friends to grab the occasional Happy Hour drink, or I would stop by my favorite stores and just wander around before going home, now I don’t even apply make up or wear anything other than jeans and a t-shirt and slippers, I don’t even know if I can still walk in street shoes!

Before I would look out my office window on the second floor and watch people fighting in the parking lot, cadets marching in the parking lot across the street where they trained police officers. I would hear the occasional accident on the busy street our office was on and we would all rush to whatever window offered the best view and discuss whose fault we thought it was. I would stop and be amused by the little squirrels that lived in the trees and sometimes would sit by my window and look in at me.

Before I was living life and finding things to entertain me, educate me, enlighten me, anger me, thrill me, confuse me and it was all fodder for my blog and my mind, keeping me active and “in the know.”

That is what Covid did! It took all that away from me!

Do I want to go back to an office? Not really. I would go back if they could figure out a way to just teleport me there, I hated the commute which was 20 miles one way and I hated dealing with the idiots that didn’t know how to drive and always felt that they needed to be where ever they were going before me because they were more important than the rest of us on the street. I like not having to apply makeup everyday and I can see that my skin also likes it. I like not having to spend money on nice office clothing and shoes. I like having Chorizo close by me all day, she soothes my soul with her entitled attitude and grumpy face.

But I loved writing, I loved my little blog and I am ready to try blogging on the regular in 2024. Not sure what I will blog about, but maybe it will make me be more alert to things in my small town and outside my window and will my family and in my heart and head. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. So, keep an eye out for me in 2024 and if I start to fall behind and get lazy, you all have my permission to call me out, you all will be my conscience!

Happy New Year to you all and may 2024 bring us all closer to the things that make us happy. May 2024 bring Peace to our world and our hearts, may it bring the knowledge to cure Cancer and Diabetes and all sorts of other diseases, may it open our eyes to the good in the world, in our small world, in our homes. It is up to you 2024 and up to each one of us to be kind, gentle and present.

Still Alive - I Survived

 Just wanted to check in and let everyone (all two of you that still follow my blog) that I am ok.

I did have surgery on August 29th and while it was a tough surgery (female issues with my plumbing) I survived. 

I was in the hospital for one night and went home the next day, totally unprepared for the pain, the nausea, the dizziness, the discomfort.

It's been over a month and I can tell you that I still am struggling with a few minor symptoms. Nothing horrible, I can get around and I'm in to my second week of working full time, but I can tell I am not myself and I tire easily plus it's uncomfortable to sit for long periods.

I can tell you they did 4 incisions, small ones as the surgery was done robotically which still freaks me out and a 5th incision in my belly button; that one freaks me out the most.

I'm hoping this link works, it's a YouTube video that explains the procedure and it's pretty accurate.

I know, that thumbnail is pretty gross right? Ok, that is all for now because it's my lunch hour and I am starving. Thank you to my faithful followers and I hope I haven't grossed you out too much!

Thank you DUTA for worrying about me. I'm ok!

Hurricane Hilary, Road Trip and 60th Birthday Party Celebration - Part Four

     I know...I'm so wordy right? So this is part four of my tale, if you want to get caught up, here's part ONE, TWO and THREE.

   So when last we left the adventurous Alicia and her sister Lisa, they had just travailed the scary bridge that was to lead them to the Old Hwy 58 in what was the beginning of Hurricane Hilary, now downgraded to a Tropical Storm. (But we did not know it had been downgraded.)

    Here's a map of the trail that we followed. Mind you, it was bumper to bumper traffic because everyone had found out that you had to take the Old Hwy 58 to the New Hwy 58, but at least we were all together. 

    By now it was raining pretty steadily and we could see water starting to gather, but we weren't worried...yet...so we were enjoying the rain and the scenery and reminiscing about traveling on the Old Hwy 58 with mom and dad. Lisa took some pictures and you can see the water starting to gather. I'm sure it was not too long after we drove by that the roads started to flood, but by then they were in our rear-view mirror and we thought we were safe.

Photo by Lisa, you can see the water gathering.

    

Photo by Lisa - The water gathers fast, that's what creates the flash floods, they happen in a flash!

    We were pretty happy with ourselves for getting out of there and we were even happier that it seemed like there were no trucks on the highway with us. We figured we had left them all behind us in Barstow just milling around like little worker ants. We figured we would be home soon as it was only 127 miles away and would take us about 1 hour and 55 minutes. Oh how wrong we were!

    What we did not know was that up on the Tehachapi Pass where we were headed, this was going on.

You can see the water and mud starting to break through and it's all over the highway.

Looks like Caltrans was already on scene trying to clear things up, but you can see traffic was still going through.

Check our the Landstar truck in the mud there.

    We got close though but right around the Mojave exit the California Highway Patrol had blocked off traffic and they were directing us to get off the highway. The problem is that Lisa and I had never had this happened, we didn't know that we could look up the Caltrans app and start getting info, we were just lost and scared.

    We stopped at a Subway Sandwich shop in Mojave and there were several other people just as lost and scared as we were. We were tired and wet and we finally decided to just get a hotel room there at the Best Western while it was still an early closure of the highway and we could still get a room. It was a lovely hotel and the person who checked us in was so nice and accommodating, we felt very safe. 

    Once we got into our room it started pouring rain, it's like the skies were waiting until Lisa and I were somewhere safe before letting loose!

    As the sun started to come down and Lisa and I were safe and sound in our hotel room, eating our Subway sandwiches, this was the Tehachapi Pass. I hope that driver made it out.

    We both notified our families by phone and then posted a message in our family group chat about what had happened and we had an army of family and friends praying for us. We both called our jobs and notified them we were stuck and hoped to be able to get home the next day. They told us to not worry about it,  just be safe.

    Luckily our brothers Fred and Jaime and their families all made it home safe and sound. The scary thing is my mom had all her babies on the road, in a hurricane all at the same time. I don't know how she made it through the day!

My mom's babies!

    We had a good nights sleep, we felt very safe. The next morning we had breakfast there at the hotel as they had a free breakfast. I had a lovely Waffle with Scrambled eggs and coffee, because even in the midst of chaos, one must eat!

Make your own Waffle with the Best Western Logo.

    Lisa and I had already plotted our way home, but we were really lucky that our cousin Steve who owns a trucking company and was already checking roads so he could dispatch his drivers first checked on how to get his cousins home! Bless you Steve! He checked with CHP & Caltrans to make sure the roads were cleared for the route we had already chosen. It made us feel that much safer knowing there would be no road closures along the way. Here's the route we took. 

    The roads were passable and it was a very beautiful and enjoyable drive home. The skies were cloudy and you could see for miles since the rain and wind had wiped out all the normal crud in the skies. 

    Never were Lisa and I happier to see this sign!

    We stopped to pick up Fancy at the groomers and she was so happy to see her mom. Then we drove home and I was logged in and working by 1pm!

    What an adventure. Never a dull moment when Lisa and I take a trip. I hope to never get stuck in a Hurricane or Tropical Storm again, but it's good to know that we can handle it. I shudder to think what would have happened if we had not had all that delay in Barstow and had arrived on the Tehachapi pass the same time as that Landstar truck! The spirits of our ancestors and God were definitely with us.

The end...

Hurricane Hilary, Road Trip and 60th Birthday Party Celebration - Part Three

     This is part three of the adventures of Alicia and Lisa heading to Arizona for a birthday celebration for their cousin Copa, you can read part one HERE and part two HERE.

    When we got back to Copa's house after the party we started watching the news to see if we could get information on the Hurricane. There was not a lot of information but what we knew for sure is that it was expected to hit the Mojave desert area around 3pm on Sunday, the day we were heading home. 

Hurricane Hilary on NOAA satellite Thursday afternoon. Hilary is expected to make landfall over or near the Baja California Peninsula on Sunday, then move over California as a tropical storm or depression on Sunday night and Monday. 

    There was a lot of speculation, so Lisa and I studied all the weather apps and watched the news and we decided that the best thing for us to do is to head out as early as possible the next morning, watch the news first to see which route was the safest for us to take.

    We had not been happy with the route we took to get to Phoenix as it was congested and there was a lot of traffic. We've always been used to taking the I-10 out of Phoenix to the 72 heading into Parker, Arizona. From Parker we always like to take the 95 to Lake Havasu City. Then we take the 95 to the 40 to Needles and continue on the 40 to Barstow. 

    Heading into Parker was iffy because they have flash floods constantly, but our cousin Michael who lives in Parker told us to take an alternate route and we made it to Parker. We actually did really well until we got into Barstow. Then all Hell broke loose. 

    We always get off at the first exit heading into Barstow to gas up and use the bathroom and buy some snacks, then we get right back on the freeway. But not this time! This time the trucks were backed up for several miles before we could get off and once off it was wall to wall of trucks in the tiny City of Barstow. We figured there had probably been an accident ahead of us on the freeway and they were re-routing traffic.

    We tried using GPS to lead us back to the highway but as it turns out the area we were in was experiencing a power outage. We drove for almost 45 minutes and we probably only traveled at most 5 miles. Finally I told Lisa that we should just find the Marshalls Store that we sometimes stop at and just wander around the store for an hour for the traffic to die down. So we did that and Lisa spoke with a man who told her that a transformer had come down on the highway and they had shut down all lanes of the highway and it had caused the power outage.

    Now that we knew, we called our brother Fred who is a truck driver and he told us how to get to the Old Hwy 58 to the New Hwy 58. We were sure it would clear up soon and we had only been in the store for 30 minutes. But then we heard it start raining outside and we received warnings on our phones over and over again, every one in the store was receiving the same warnings.

Actual Alert from my Phone

    We started panicking! We headed to pay for the items we had found in the store and our brother called to see if we had found the old Hwy 58 and when he found out we were shopping he blew a fuse! We tried to explain to him that we weren't shopping, we were trying to wait until the traffic died down, he was not having it, he told us to get out of there because the flooding was going to start soon and we were going to be stuck! I'm sure he was terrified for us.

    But yet again, the Spirits of our ancestors were with us or God or Karma, whatever higher power you believe in because Lisa was asking the clerk at the store how we could get to Old Hwy 58 and this sweet lady that was waiting in line in front of me to pay said, "Who wants to go to the Old 58? I'm heading that way, follow me!" So we did.

    We got outside and she was parked right next to us, which we took as a sign that it was meant to be. She told us to follow her and she would take us to Main Street and that she was going to turn right there but we were to turn left and keep heading from Main to First Street and then turn right. Well, I guess she had second thoughts as to my and Lisa's ability to navigate, or maybe she saw the wall to wall of trucks and knew that we would get lost and she pointed to us to turn with her, but we thought she was waving good-bye so we waved good-bye and blew her kisses and asked God to take care of her and make sure she got home safely and then we turned the wrong way!! 

    Well it was actually the right way, the way she had told us, but she knew we were going to get trapped by all the trucks and she had been trying to point to let us know to follow her. By the time we realized that, it was too late. Well this angel of a lady, turned around and found us and got out of her car yelling at us to follow her, so we navigated our way to where she was and she told us she was going to take us all the way to the bridge and at that point she would let us go on our way. WHO DOES THAT??? Who goes out of their way to help complete strangers? In this day and age? In a storm, on a Sunday afternoon?

    We followed our Angel to the bridge she had mentioned and she waved good-bye and this time we new it was good-bye and we missed her the moment she left, especially when we saw the scary bridge we had to cross over, in the rain with wall to wall traffic! Yikes!

    But we did it, we go over the bridge...but that was not the end of our adventure. Stay tuned for part four!