Our RV Adventure, Day 5: Lazy Sunday

(To start from the beginning, see Our RV Adventure: Introduction.)

The RV in front of my mother's house in the rain. 

Sunday, May 5, Washington, DC  

I sleep well until twilight, when Dusty using the litter box awakens me. I get up and remove the evidence, add to their water, and add some dry food as a snack. I don’t know the time because my phone is dead.

We are planning to leave DC tomorrow morning. Cathleen thinks we should cancel tomorrow's reservation in Sweetwater, Tennessee, and reserve a closer KOA in Wytheville, Virginia. That would divide the drive to Tennessee in half, which is more realistic. I'm not sure how that will work, because the second day we want to see my aunt, uncle and cousins in Sewanee, and then go to Lebanon (east of Nashville) to see her sister and brother-in-law. She says we can’t drive 16 hours tomorrow (based on doubling the Google Maps estimate). I don't think it will take that long. I had thought we could solve this by leaving DC early tomorrow morning.

Cathleen is not feeling well. The arboretum tour involved hills and took a lot out of her. I suggest that we could cancel the Tennessee leg of the trip and go home from DC if necessary. I make her tea and an egg frittata in the RV. After breakfast, she feels better.

It turns out that it is too late to cancel the Sweetwater KOA, so I propose a compromise. We could leave before 6 a.m. tomorrow, then go as far as we can, be it Wytheville, Sweetwater, or elsewhere. We agree and go into my mom's house. 

We take real showers in the house. I do my full set of exercises for the first time since leaving home. I hesitate to call it a workout. It’s mostly exercises I learned from various physical therapists for various injuries over the years. It is particularly helpful to stretch all these muscles when driving great distances. 

While Cathleen takes a shower, my mom and I watch TV and chat. First some of Space Patrol, a 1950s black and white science fiction TV show, then some of a western TV show called Hondo (like the John Wayne movie). Later we will have some Hallmark movies on in the background as we chat, and she knits. 

We are too late to go to my mother’s church, so we watch a online service from Parkside Church in Ohio. We think my mom, with her McPherson heritage, might enjoy Alistair Begg's Scottish accent. As it turns out, a substitute preacher, Terry McCutcheon, is preaching with an even more pronounced accent. We have to help each other understand a few phrases. My brother Nathan said to call him after church, which ends up being almost 3:00 pm.

Nathan, his wife Stacey, my sister Mardi, and their kids arrive, and Mardi's husband Alberto after them. Mardi’s daughter had a couple of soccer games, but one was rained out, and Alberto had several games to coach, one rained out. Mardi tries to order from a Georgetown restaurant called Harmony, but it won’t deliver. We end up ordering from Bambu, as usual, which is fine. My mom says not to order her anything, but she ends up eating some, which is good. We play several games of Sequence, Mardi’s favorite, partly in honor of her birthday three days prior. I realize later that I failed to take any pictures of this. Cathleen helps my mom organize her medications and supplements.

Mom is upset that the children went into the RV. I say that it is locked so they can’t get in. She opens the front door of the house and emphatically points at the RV and says, “They’re in there!” I say “OK, calm down,” and go into the other room to check on the two kids. Their screens are there without them. Maybe they were raptured, I thought. But mom is right. I call Cathleen and she says she is giving them a tour of the RV. Thank you for reducing their screen time, Cathleen!

We sing “Happy Birthday” to Mardi. Some give gifts, but we donate to the Alzheimer’s Foundation as Mardi had requested on Facebook. Mardi gives us gifts to deliver to Conor & Laura’s baby shower.  

We hug everyone good night and say goodbye. Our plan is to wake up at 5 to get through the restricted inbound-only rush hour lanes before 6. It will be Monday, after all. We plan not to shower or eat before leaving. We are in the RV and asleep before 10.

To be continued...