Metric century!  This weekend I set a personal record with a 60+ mile bike ride. The regular groups for the 2nd Mile Adventures rides on Saturday have been petering out a bit, as it does with the changing weather, so there was no posted ride for the B group and only a 'riders' choice' for the A group. At 7:30 there were only 5 riders altogether including me. The others were all from A group, and they were planning a metric century ride. Since there were no other B riders, I thought I might as well go with them and stick with them as long as I can. Then I thought I'd just turn around at some point like 15 or 20 miles out and head home by myself. They did sandbag a little bit, I'm sure, but I was still with them as we rolled through Sidney and on into North Manchester where we stopped at Casey's. Come on, they said, go for the metric century with us! So I thought then that I would call Beth to come pick me up at some point out there. Well, we rolled though Roann before 3 of the A group decided to pick up the pace, but one of them stayed with me all the way home. I got you into this mess, he said, the least I can do is stay with you. So we rode all the rest of the way (even the hard way up Bonestead Rd) up through Silver Lake and Claypool and back to the Trailhouse. It was so long that my watch battery died and I don't know exactly how far it was, but it was about 65 miles altogether. Quite the ride!

We have the Hyundai back, finally. They finished with it and I picked it up on Tuesday, so it wasn't there a full week. But yep, over $2700. It drives nice now though, at least. Hopefully nothing else will break soon.

Soup season is in full swing now. Stuff's been ordered, jars dug out of the closets and cleaned, and everything crammed into the closets downstairs is coming upstairs again. The kitchen and dining rooms are a cluttered mess and we can't eat at the table. She's adding a new show this year, the DePuy craft show at Lakeview Middle School, so she's a bit stressed that she needs to stock two shows in quick succession. Well, she's well on the way.

The most interesting thing this week was on Monday, I hauled the old leaky water heater to Lewis Salvage and scrapped it. It was worth $10.20, cash money! Saturday we drove out to Pilcher's because Alex needed a new pair of shoes again.

Not much else this week, except the car. Last Sunday it seemed to be making rubbing or pulsing noises or some sort, mostly when turning left, and it got worse rapidly. By Monday, it was sounding horrible and the noises elevated to what Beth called 'grinding,' so I called Boggs to get it in and see what's what. I was hoping it was something like worn blah blah blahs that are easy to replace, but no. It is the rear differential, had "let go" according to them, and needed to be replaced along with the drive shaft assembly. Not an easy job or a fast one. It is going to take about a week and cost about $2750. Sigh. Not what I need right now. So we're down a car. Good thing Alex has his back home. 

Soup season has started in earnest! Washing jars mostly so far, doing inventory and shopping. It's already apparent that we haven't set aside enough over the past year to pay for getting everything started up. Oh well, next year, I guess. 

To compensate for the eventful couple weeks before this, we had a very uneventful week. Only normal stuff: everyone going to their jobs as normal, Bible study groups as normal, bike rides as normal, and everything else as normal. We couldn't even think of anything to tell Missy when we called her on Sunday. She didn't have much to tell us, either.

I did start getting the pool drained and put away. Doesn't appear that there's going to be any more use of it, especially with Beth's ear thing only now mostly cleared up and better. I started draining it during the week and got it turned over and draped over all the outdoor chairs and tables in a day or two. Now it just has to dry and we'll put it away. It hardly got any use this year, mostly because of the ear infection. We'll put it away on top of the camper, which also got no use this year. 

I know it's been only a few days since the big road trip update, but there were some developments. While Alex and I were away, IKEA dropped off a replacement bed for Missy. The same one that they dropped off some weeks ago but only 3 of 4 boxes... this time, there were 4 count 'em 4 boxes! Which meant that on Saturday we had to go down to Muncie to drop it all off and get it assembled. I wish I had brought an electric screwdriver: there were a LOT of screws to put in during assembly, and my hand is sore. But we got it done and her room all put back together. We took the girls all out to lunch, carted away all the massive amounts of cardboard they still had cluttering up their apartment, and headed home by around dinnertime. 

Sunday was the church end-of-summer bash. Beth is still dealing with the ear thing (manifesting today as a migraine), and Alex was working, so I went stag. It was nice enough, there was a huge buffet style dinner (carry-in plus catering) so there was tons of food, and mostly fellowship with a short song service and message. I didn't stay long afterwards.

Road trip!

 Alex and I are back home. It was quite an adventure! On Friday we had a noonish flight from O'Hare to SeaTac. Beth was planning to take us to the airport, but she is still fighting that ear infection and was feeling awful on Friday morning. She was not feeling in any shape to drive us, so we took the truck instead and just left it in long term parking (actually daily parking because the long term garages were full and they were handing out vouchers). The flight was uneventful and we got there easily enough; Scott suggested we take the trail/subway from the airport to his place in the city which we did. Scott has an apartment very close to his work at the stadiums. He met us and we got unloaded there, then went to pick up the Honda (it was parked at the stadium, about a 10 minute walk away) and dropped off Alex downtown so he could get to PaxWest, which is partly the reason we flew out there this weekend when we did. He got a ticket for Saturday assuming that we could get him there in time to see everything that afternoon, but we were mistaken about when the exhibition hall closes (6:00, not 10:00) so things were pretty short for him. Meanwhile, Scott and I were going to the storage unit just to get the dresser; we were donating it to Scott but it turns out he doesn't have room for the desk (his apartment is TINY). On the way there, Scott had to make one stop here and one stop there and get a drink and pick up Laurie so we were not making good time. By the time Alex texted that he was done there, we hadn't even made it to the storage place yet. We got there, it took a while to wangle the dresser and night stand out of the unit and into the backseat of the Honda, but we did eventually get it. Then we dropped off the night stand at the dumpster of one of Alex's old apartment complexes (too big, don't need) with a 'free' sign, and then on to Laurie's so we could drop it off there. She and Scott both thought it would be better for us to leave the Honda at her place than near Scott's, so we did, and she drove us in her car back to get Alex. It was close to 2 hours after Alex texted that he was done before we got there. Anyway, we headed back to Scott's, got pizza down by the stadiums, ice cream near Pike Place (all easy walking distance) and turned in early. 

Sunday was a working day. We took the train/subway up to near where Laurie lives, then went out to breakfast together, then to her house to get the Honda and Alex and I got to work. First we took out and dropped off the desk at another of Alex's old apartment complexes with another 'free' sign. That took care of the big items that we didn't have room for, and we got to work unloading the unit and packing the car. We didn't have enough space for everything, so we took a couple totes of fairly light items (lots of plushies) to Laurie's to pack them up and ship them home, then started getting creative with packing the car. In the end, there were a couple more totes that wouldn't fit so we packed the stuff up in boxes and shipped them too, but I was kind of amazed by how much stuff fit into the trunk and back seats of the Honda. It was a LOT. Nearly everything Alex owns. By around 4:30 we were done, everything was either packed for shipping, already shipped, or in the car. And we even had room for our backpacks for the trip home. Scott and Laurie took us out to dinner at Dick's Drive-in and dropped us off at Scott's (again, better to leave the packed Honda at Laurie's in Redmond instead of in the city by Scott's) we just crashed for the evening after that.

Monday morning, Laurie picked us up at Scott's and we went out for breakfast at Blazing Bagels (last time there for Alex) and went to pick up the car and hit the road. Laurie gave us a goody bag for the road packed with snacks, and we departed Redmond at around 11:00. About 90 minutes down the road from Seattle is a small town called Roslyn, which I've wanted to visit for a while because it is where the exterior scenes for the tv show "Northern Exposure" were filmed in the 90s, which Beth and I loved. Now it looks basically the same as it did then, but less shabby, and tons more people walking around taking selfies... and built up quite a bit as a place for outdoor activities. Hiking, MTB, snowmobiling and such. We walked around taking selfies in front of the Roslyn Cafe mural and KBHR studio and so on, visited the gift shops, found some lunch from a food truck, took pictures of the Brick and Dr. Fleishmann's office, then hit the road again. We got as far as Missoula MT on Monday before stopping for dinner and just getting a room at one of the motels that was at the same exit. 1697 miles to home.

Tuesday was a big day. We got going relatively early in the morning but departed the interstate after a couple hours to head to Yellowstone. I know all the travel guides say you need a week to see it all, but I had ChatGPT plan a quick drive-through visit and catch the highlights. It did a really nice job, too. We did pretty much what it said except we cut one thing and added another. We drove in through the west entrance, went down to lower geyser basin, walked all around (We both got splashed by a boiling pool. It was shower warm when I got splashed, but much hotter for Alex), drove down the road to the next basin (too much traffic there, went on to the next) and on to the upper geyser basin (where Old Faithful is). The next eruption was only about 10 minutes after we got there, so we got to check out the whole eruption. We had lunch at the lodge after that, then went back to the middle geyser basin (still a lot of traffic) where the grand prismatic pool is. We walked all around there, then headed out and drove all along the road by Yellowstone Lake, through the entire park and out the east entrance. So you need a week, but we gave it about 4 hours. And had an amazing adventure. We did skip the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which ChatGPT had recommended, because of the extra driving it would have added. We were in by around 11:30, and headed out by around 3:30. We then had to cut across the entire middle of Wyoming to get back to the interstate. Long and straight drive until we got to a mountain range that didn't look like it had a good place to cross. Then a multi-hour drive up a bunch of deserted switchbacks and passes and back down even steeper switchbacks in the dark. Finally arrived in Sheridan, Wyoming to spend the night. 1280 miles to home.

We got going in the morning thinking of stopping at Devil's Tower and Mount Rushmore. In the end, we decided to skip Mt. Rushmore and get down the road. But we did hit Devil's Tower, briefly. Canadian wildfires are burning still and the smoke plume was covering Wyoming and the Dakotas, so for a chunk of the morning I wasn't sure we were going to see much, but we did head to the tower. It's about an hour or so off the interstate. We got there, stopped at a convenience store/restaurant at the park entrance, and took some pictures there because the views were pretty good. I re-enacted Close Encounters with a paper UFO on a stick, which Alex didn't think was all that amusing but anyway I had to. We got some pictures and headed back to the interstate. Stopped to look at it for maybe 10 minutes. It was at that point Alex said he didn't mind if we skipped Mt Rushmore. So we just hit the road again. About 3 hours later we arrived in Wall, SD, home of the famous Wall Drugs (been there before). Alex isn't interested in browsing, but he wanted to get lunch there at the cafe. However, the line was crazy long so we punted and grabbed lunch at the DQ and headed out again. We stopped for dinner somewhere in MN and kept going to get some more miles behind us so we could for sure make it home the next day, and stopped for the night in Albert Lea, MN. Same hotel as 3 years ago. 530 miles to home. 

We got on the road again early Thursday, ready to be done with the driving. We made good time, got lunch at the Wisconsin Dells, and got to Chicago just as traffic was getting really bad. I was hoping we could get to O'Hare before traffic got bad, but it took too long to get to the truck and get moving again, and there was a massive amount of construction going on nearby. I was so scared for Alex to have his first time driving in Chicago traffic be through rush hour, but he did just fine. We tried to stay together, but there was too much traffic and we got separated pretty quickly. We had phones in the holders so we could communicate hands-free if needed, and we did a few times, to make sure we were both still on the same road and doing ok. Traffic was crazy heavy and slow all the way from O'Hare to the Indiana state line, and that's a long way. I told him we should re-group at the travel plaza on the toll road, but he thought I meant the welcome center just over in Indiana so he stopped there and called me. I was only around 5 miles ahead but doubling back got me into even worse traffic and it took at least half an hour to get back to him. But there was a Wendy's right there so we got dinner and waited for traffic to lighten up a bit, which it did, and by the time we got back on the road it was moving just fine. We finally got home around 9:20 pm after a very long day. What an adventure!