8/12/2012 Best Laid Plans and Lots of Fish

Plans are made to go out with Steve and Kerri tonight. Dinner and who knows what afterwards.

Bob spent the afternoon fishing at the rail. He got into a school of blues and brought a few in. He threw them back except for two which he gave to our neighbor to cut up for bait for his crab traps.

I spent the afternoon packing for the next few days. We’re going to Wilmington to see my parents, get work done on the truck and get some shopping done to stock up on some things we can’t get elsewhere. Case in point…. we like hot cherry peppers on our sandwiches. We can’t find quart jars of hot cherry peppers out west. We can find the peppers but they aren’t hot. So we’ll stock up.

Steve stopped in the late afternoon to let us know that they couldn’t make it tonight after all. His brother and sister-in-law have come to the beach unexpectedly. It happens. Bob and I were disappointed because we don’t know when we’ll see this couple again. There has been talk that sometime in the next two years we’ll meet up somewhere. We hope so because we have come to really care about these two.

We watched bits and pieces of the Olympic’s closing ceremony during the evening.

5/10/2012 Six Hundred Twenty One

Six hundred twenty one days since I’ve seen my mom and dad. That count comes to an end today.

Bob and I got up this morning and set to getting tasks that we had to do…done. We didn’t rush by any means but we worked pretty steady. We also took our normal computer time in the morning and we took time for showers. I packed a bag with enough for four days and with some things I was taking up to Wilmington.

A little after eleven we got on our way. Our way home. Home being Wilmington.

I saw the first mileage sign about ten miles out.

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We took note along the way of things that changed in the nearly two years since we last passed this way.

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Bob has decided that he’s heading back to the beach tomorrow morning. There’s a fishing tournament Saturday and he has a great need to drown some worms.

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This is fine with me, I need some one on one time with my parents.

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We talk about what we’re having for dinner our first night in Wilmington. There is no doubt we are having Casapulla’s cheesesteaks.

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Its at this mile marker that I realize I didn’t bring anything to wear to church on Sunday. Too far away to turn around now.

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I call mom to let her know we’re just a half hour away.

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I’m going to be spending Saturday afternoon with one of my BFF’s, Cindy. We’re going shopping. I make mental notes of what I need to look for.

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Fifteen minutes to go and we’ll be there. A lump is forming in my throat already. I can’t wait to see them.

We’re inside the town limits. We look to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

Bob turns the truck onto the street I grew up on. I can see their car in the driveway. Hurry up already, put the pedal to the metal these last hundred yards.

I wait patiently for the engine to cool so that he can shut it off. I tell him I can’t wait and he says, “Go, you don’t have to wait.” Like a flash I’m out of the truck and running up the sidewalk and up the five steps to the front door.

Mom opened the door as soon as I reached the top step. I took a few steps into the enclosed front porch and walked right into her arms. Oh, that hug. Nothing has ever felt sweeter. She clung to me and in return I squeezed her tighter.

Bob walked in and I moved aside so he could get his hug and I turned to Dad. He held me tight and whispered in my ear, “Welcome home babe.” The lump in my throat was so big and tears just slid down my cheeks. We were home. I was home.

All talking at once we settled around the kitchen table. Eventually, Bob and Dad found their chairs on the porch talking about men things and mom and I sat at the kitchen table bouncing from subject to subject.

Tummies started rumbling and talk to turned to dinner. I placed our orders on the telephone and then drove through the streets I played on as a kid to go pick up our cheesesteaks.

As soon as I walked into Casapulla’s, Vicky greeted me with, “I’ve been waiting for you, I knew you were going to be in soon.” Vicky follows the blog and knew we were back in town.

Back at home we sat around the kitchen table again and unwrapped our sandwiches. Oh, that first bite. Heaven. Pure heaven. We haven’t had cheesesteaks since we were home in 2010. Now those of you who have sub and steak sandwich shops where you live, trust me, it isn’t the same. Unless you’ve had a cheesesteak from the mid Atlantic states, my friend, you haven’t had a cheesesteak. We’ve tried subs and cheesesteaks around the country but we don’t do that anymore because we’re disappointed every time.

The men watched TV and I taught mom how to play a card game called Hand and Foot. The guys went to bed around 11:30. We were up till one playing cards.

We’re home. It feels so good. I needed this so badly. It’s going to be a great summer!

5/9/2012 We Finish Setting Up

As anxious as I am to get to the northern part of Delaware we have to spend another day here at the beach getting our home set up for the summer. Besides, Bob really needs a day away from the steering wheel of the truck.

Laundry is caught up, the rig is set up, knick-knacks are set out, the matting between dinner plates has been removed and we’re ready for summer.

Bob found some paperwork that I filled out for our workamping job in the marina this summer and it had the date May 10th on it. He thought that was our start date. I was thinking it was the 15th because that's the date we started last time. I was certainly hoping it was the 15th because we just had to make it up to Wilmington before we start workamping.

I called the volunteer coordinator, Kim, to verify our start date. Imagine our surprise when she said Memorial Day Weekend. Great, we’re off for the next two weeks!

She did ask us to come over to the Marina to meet the Marina manager and assistant manager. We did that in the afternoon and we’ll go back to the Marina on the 16th to get shown around and be given our uniform shirts and an outline of our duties. The fellow we’re going to work closely with, Mike, seems very nice and friendly.

Back home, I started to get things together for the next few days in Wilmington.