~Thursday, September 16, 2021~
Day 459
As I said yesterday, we have to factor in 1 or 2 chore days in the week’s time we stay anywhere. Today was no exception. It felt good to knock off a few things on the to do list. We made a dinner menu for the time we’re here, made a grocery list, then divided and conquered. After Jeff had found an amazing Eggplant Parmesan recipe on one of his cooking shows the night before, he headed to the grocery store while I completed laundry and cleaning tasks. It looks like we’ll be rewarded with a great dinner tonight!
Had a great chat with the manager’s daughter, as I went to get quarters for the laundry. She has college-aged kids and a few younger ones who all had a hand in transforming Cedar Haven. Very nice woman. Now onto laundry. I wanted to take advantage of the deep tub washing machines, so I decided to wash a few rugs, Sadie’s dog bed and my backpack in addition to all the other laundry. Initially, I ran into a few snags with a temperamental machine. Luckily, Rodney was in the building behind me, so I grabbed him for some assistance. I later found out, the machine just wasn’t meant to do my laundry since the spin cycle didn’t seem to work, leaving me to wring out our soaked clothes by hand. It took 2 drying cycles to get the job done. At least I had a few other machines to choose from after that mishap. Between loads, I also defrosted the freezer (seems to be a monthly task), and gave Sadie a much overdue bath. She just loves her blow-dry sessions.
When Jeff finally returned from the store, he realized he forgot a key ingredient to his Eggplant Parmesan...anchovies. So back to the store he went (about 6 miles away), while I put the groceries away. During that time, I had 2 mishaps. The first was quite hilarious. Jeff had opened a bottle of beer before he realized he had to go back to the store. So I helped myself to a little swig, where half the beer ended up on me and the floor. I don’t know why it decided to do that. But after I got all of that wiped up, I proceeded to unload groceries. I had cheese in one hand and a plastic tub of salsa in another. Losing my grip, which one do you think went crashing to the floor? The salsa of course, shattering the container and projecting salsa EVERYWHERE….the walls, the floor, the area rug. It even made its way to the couch which was about 4 feet from the epicenter, which happened to be the same spot as the beer. Oh my goodness. That one took a little longer to clean up. Good thing Sadie was outside too, or I would have had a regretful dog lapping up hot salsa.
As I kept making trips to the laundry room, I kept passing one couple in particular, where we’d exchange pleasantries. It was my final trip that we really struck up a longer conversation to what I think was an hour. Jeff had been in full-blown eggplant mode, so I knew I had time to socialize. Fred and his wife, who seem about our age, are from Illinois, about an hour outside Chicago. They spend 6 months at home base, and 6 months traveling, with 2 of those 6 months in Mexico. Fascinating. Would love to hear more about their adventures and plans. Hopefully we’ll have a campfire night together before they move on.
Jeff had decided to make the outdoors his kitchen for the evening, with a campfire and a little Reggae music. The other sites must have taken notice of those amazing smells. The dish turned out fabulous, but man, what a task. Very involved. I think we have enough leftovers to feed our small camp loop.