Mom's House

Yesterday’s good run leaves me with a pretty easy drive to Dallas—less than six hours. So I take some time in the morning to catch up on some computer stuff I’ve been neglecting. I enjoy a leisurely breakfast and buy a few things for the pantry.

The drive across ⅔ of Louisiana and east Texas is pretty unremarkable, except I note the freeway through Shreveport takes on a wavy character that warrants a slow-down. It’s smooth—no thumps—but the ups and downs are short and not paced right for DD’s wheelbase. It causes her to pitch and bounce uncomfortably…just a hoppin’ like a toad again.

By mid afternoon the GPS unexpectedly takes me off of I-20, but I quickly realize that I’m on the outskirts of Dallas, where I-20 swings around the south side and I need to start edging toward the north side past Grapevine, where Mom lives. The afternoon traffic thickens up as I pass north of DFW airport. I un-strap my seatbelt, lift my armrest out of the way, and while the traffic stops for a moment, I dash back to the couch to grab a magazine and back to my seat in time to pull forward before the horns start honking behind. In fact, I’ll bet no one knows DD was driverless for five seconds. You know how this insurance works, if you are prepared for stopped traffic, it never stops. Things move along faster than I expect in rush hour, and soon I’m parked in front of Mom’s house.

She has checked on parking with the local police and they say to just park in front of the house on the street. It’s okay. So I look over my position as I go in to say hi to Mom. She comes out to look and I tell her I’m going to go around a few blocks and come in the other way to park with the left side next to her curb. This will keep my automatic entry steps from hitting the curb, put my living room slideout over her lawn, and put my slimmer bedroom slideout into the center of the street. I also opt for a couple of blocks under left side wheels to offset the crown of the street. Mom watches with amusement while all this goes on and in a few minutes I am guarding her backside as she climbs the six steps from the centerline of the street up into the kitchen and living room. I give her the nickel tour, and then she returns to the house to get ready to go out to dinner. I call her neighbors and our friends from down the street, Judy and Reilly, to let them know I’m here. They come down and I show them around, too. There’s a certain glint in their eyes and I can tell they could do this RV thing themselves. I egg them on. They head off and I retract the bedroom slide so I won’t end up with an open-air bedroom if a truck comes down what remains of this quiet residential street. Back inside, Mom is ready, and we head to Christina’s for Mexican food. Yum.

Returning home, we watch TV and chat until I start fading about 9:15. By 9:30 I’m just about out, so I excuse myself for the evening and retire to DD. I keep the bedroom slide in! Rick (Diane’s brother, who lives with Mom), is working the late shift today, so won’t be home until about 10:30. I figure I’ll see him in the morning.