Cut to the Chase...

A road trip is always a fun thing to look forward to and then take. It was time for another road trip for Claude and me.

We received a phone call several weeks ago from Katelyn. She was fairly flying high when I answered the phone. All she could say with breathless excitement was, "Can you get Grampa on speaker phone?" I assured her that was possible and I headed upstairs to Claude's office to get that done. Claude and I both then waited for her news.

Katelyn had been asked to speak in sacrament meeting (our Sunday Church service). In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the members speak at the pulpit during this meeting. This would be Katelyn's first time to speak in sacrament meeting. We were as thrilled as our Katelyn was with this opportunity. 

As soon as we got off the phone, I looked at Claude, he looked and me and we both said, "Maybe we could go to hear this."  Calendars were checked and some changes made, a call was placed to Nissa to be sure that weekend would work for her family for a visit, and Jake was called to see if he would like to travel with us. All things were workable and we made hotel reservations.

We left Friday morning in time to make a stop a Cabela's in Michigan on the way to pick up Jake. Cabela's is always a fun stop.  It was quite windy when we got there. We parked sort of close to the store and I really didn't want to put on my big winter coat. I carry a pashmina (shawl) with me. I pulled my pashmina out and wrapped it around me and headed into this store for 'hunter/gatherer' types. Now, if my pashmina were camoflauge in color, I would have fit right in. However, this particular pashmina is a light gold and gray blend. I just held my head high and marched right into Cabela's. I did get some grins from these guys.

We found the clothing and food items we wanted and browsed through the store for anything else that might tickle our fancy. Then we headed upstairs to get a sandwich for lunch. Claude enjoyed a smoked elk sandwich. I enjoyed the thinly sliced bison sandwich. It was excellent and more than I could eat. I wrapped up half my sandwich and tucked it in my purse to take to Jake for a snack between Chelsea and Muskegon.

We headed to Chelsea to Jake's apartment. He was packed and ready. We took a box full of medicines that our Michael is able to secure with his fantastic couponing skills. Claude opened the trunk and we all got a chuckle as Jake picked the drugs he wanted out of the box in our trunk. For very law-abiding people, this seemed a pretty strange action on our part. Totally legitimate but an interesting moment-in-time nonetheless.

We had a nice ride to Muskegon, checked in at the hotel and then headed to Nissa's home via Kentucky Fried Chicken to pick up dinner for all of us. We had time to visit for a bit and watch a Monk on TV before we left for our hotel and Jake stayed to sleep on Nissa's sofa.

Saturday, Nissa and Todd headed to work for the day, Katelyn headed to a college class, Claude and I went to Nissa's home to spend the morning with Paul, Aubrey Anne and Jake. Jake and Aubs were playing Battleship. Claude read the Wall Street Journal we got at the hotel. Paul allowed me to get a picture of his longer hair for Andie to see. (Paul usually wears a buzz cut and it is always fun to see him with longer hair.)

Paul and Aubrey Anne would share their musical talents with us. They are each getting better every time we visit with their guitar and piano playing.

Eventually it was about 11am. We were to pick Katelyn up after her college class and take the kids and Jake to lunch at The Pita Place. Claude and I really like going to this little restaurant. It is owned by a Greek fellow and they make really good food. I'm a falafel lover and don't find them very often. They make a great falafel at The Pita Place. We gathered up Katelyn, after a later than anticipated ending to her class, and we were off to the Pita Place.

Everyone order their food and Claude got some fried cheese sticks with something spicy in them, Greek fries and cinnamon and sugar pita bites to share. We all ordered well and totally enjoyed our meals. Paul stated he would order his sandwich again.

The most humorous part of the meal was Katelyn talking to Claude about her talk on Sunday. Katelyn was giving Claude instructions on 'hand signals' he was to use to keep her on track with her talk. She had a 10 minute time frame in which to speak. Katelyn told Claude to touch his watch if she was getting close to time to finish so she wouldn't go over her alloted time. If she needed to talk longer, she told Claude how to make a stretching out sign with his hands. There were several others she came up with and Claude dutifully listened to each instruction. Then...the funny one. The last signal Katelyn taught Claude was where you put your finger under your chin and draw it across like you are cutting you throat. This signal Claude was told to use to let Katelyn know to stop because she not teaching true doctrine. Oh my goodness...we all started to laugh. I thought Claude was going to turn purple he was laughing so hard. It was just a funny, sweet dialogue between Katelyn and her beloved Grampa.

We stay at the hotel so our grandmonsters can play in the big swimming pool. After lunch we headed to our hotel for an afternoon of swimming. Aubrey and Paul made friends with that pool FULL of kids. I've never seen that many people at that pool. But to kids that is not an issue. They made friends and enjoyed playing the afternoon away in the warm water on a very cold day.

Katelyn swam for a bit. Then she got herself a lemonade. While at Cabelo's, Claude and I purchased some red licorice and some blue raspberry licorice and a box of several kinds of fudge squares. Katelyn picked out a blue raspberry licorice and used it for a straw for her lemonade. I tell you, this young lady is always thinking.

We would return to Nissa's home for the evening. Pizza was ordered and picked up by Claude and Aubrey Anne. After dinner it was time for hair cuts. I found it amusing that prior to this trip I received a nice eMail from Jake asking if I would bring hair cutting instrument. Not long after that I got an nice eMail from Nissa asking for hair cuts at her home. I was also pleased I remembered to bring the scissors and clippers to get this accomplished. We cut Paul, Aubrey, Jake and Katelyn's hair. I was wearing a sweater and it was covered with hair when I finished. I should have brought a t-shirt for this process but that I did not even think of. I looked like a burgundy hairy beast when we finished.

Claude and I headed back to the hotel earlier than we normally would. The weather forecast were getting more foreboding and, since we were driving all the way home the next day, I wanted Claude to be able to get lots of good rest in case we were driving on bad roads. This turned out to be a good idea.

Sunday morning the weather forecast showed the snow and ice on their way to Michigan. The forecast stated it would be in Grand Rapids in 5 hours. After my shower that was changed to possibly 4 hours. We determined we would go to hear Katelyn speak in sacrament meeting, then change into travel clothes and head on home with hopes of getting ahead of this monster storm.

We all met at Nissa's home again and everyone, gussied up in their Sunday best, headed to the Church. Before we settled in our seats, I wanted to get a few pictures of my grandmonsters and Jake. I wanted them on my cell phone so that I have pictures of all my family.

Katelyn gave a beautiful talk. Claude did not have to use any of the signals she taught him. We restrained ourselves and did not do the 'wave' as a family. Katelyn had obviously read and studied the General Conference talk she was asked to speak on. She incorporated her own personal experiences with the words from the talk. She spoke from her heart and it was just beautiful.

After the meeting was over, we said our good-byes with Katelyn and Aubrey who would stake for the remainder of the meetings. The rest of us headed back to Nissa's home where Claude, Jake and I would get in comfortable clothes for the ride home. I was happy to get a nice picture of Nissa and Todd on my cell phone. 

Then we were off to try and beat the storm across Michigan.

Alas, that was not to happen. On the outside of Grand Rapids we ran into snow down and it picked up in intensity very quickly. It was clicking on the windows of the car so we were sure there was some ice in this snow. We were heading South to Kalamazoo before turning East toward Chelsea. By the time we finally got to Kalamazoo there was definitely ice and lots of snow. Claude was staying at 40 mph, cars were spinning off  I-94. It was a mess. I looked up I-94 weather from the Michigan State website. It just told us what we were in the middle of. However, it did state that as we got to the middle of the state and on to Chelsea we should have rain and a little snow. Hmmmm... that would prove WRONG!! Eventually I found 2 other websites that gave a better weather/road condition forecast for I-94 and I-75.

We had a few cute moments in conversation about the weather. We made it to Jackson which is not far west of Chelsea and they clearly had a lot more snow than was predicted when we left Muskegon. We determined that when we got to Chelsea we would stop at the Wendy's restaurant and have some lunch before taking Jake to his apartment. We needed to give Claude a bit of a break from the tension of driving under those conditions. We still had to get home that night and had several more hours at this slow speed to get out of the storm. There was easily 5-6 inches of snow in the Wendy's parking lot in Chelsea. Lunch was a welcome break. Jake was deposited at his apartment. Then Claude pointed the Buick to I-94 and the way home.

By the time we got to Hwy 23 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where we would turn South toward Toledo, Ohio, the windshield wipers were covered in ice. Claude could not see out his window. Since he was the driver, that was kind of important. We took the first exit off Hwy 23 and found a gas station to park in. We both got out and I cleaned off the wipers as Claude scraped the windshielf and cleaned out the hollow place the wipers fall into.

As we finished this process, I climbed back into the car and Claude opened the back door to put the scrapers away. I heard someone say, "May I interview you." Then I heard Claude say, "Sure!" I turned around to see a Fox Channel 2 van behind our car. The reporter was talking to Claude. I found my camera and my cell phone and set to taking pictures of them videoing the interview between Claude and this reporter.

I couldn't believe it. My hubby is frequently in the Georgetown newspaper. I determined after watching him with this reporter that my hubby is a media magnet.

I called Jake quickly on my cell phone since we were still in his reporting area. He was first concerned that the reporter was there because we had been in an accident. After I assured him we just stopped to get the ice off the wipers, he was fine.

I got a picture on my cell phone and posted it on Facebook. After we got back on Hwy. 23 I recieved a call from Katelyn concerned that we had been in an accident or something. They read the Facebook post and were concerned about our safety. I assured her we  were fine and explained how the reporter came after we cleaned ice off the wipers. Then I had to be sure she understood that, if we were in a wreck or some other bad situation, the last thing I would be doing was posting to Facebook. I would be calling for help first and foremost.

As we got closer to Toledo, there was definitely a layer of ice on the highway. They clearly got ice and only a little snow. But the rain had started to mix with the ice that was coming down and the rain was beginning to loosen up the ice. It was still slow going until we were out of that. Then we got to wet roads and rain for a while. Later the rain stopped and we had clear roads the rest of the way home.

We had a wonderful visit with the Michigan branch of our family. It was great to hear Katelyn give her first talk. The ride home was a true adventure. Now we are very happy to be nestled back in our home on our hill in Sadieville.