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The Adventures of the
Quarter Slot Sisters
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Lucy travels to St. Simon Island, Georgia
It was a rainy Monday morning in mid March when Dick and I packed up the big Ford Expedition and headed towards St. Simons Island on the coast of Georgia to spend a few days with Lucy and her mom and dad. Kerri was scheduled to perform at a fundraiser for a Christian school on Thursday night so planned to fly in a few days early so we could have family time together. As is usually the case, plans change at the last minute and instead of the three of them arriving together on Monday afternoon, Kerri was coming on Monday as planned and Ron and Lucy would be arriving Tuesday morning from Lexington, Kentucky where Ron was doing a show on Monday night. Now ordinarily Kerri would have brought Lucy, but she had been at a 3 day women's conference in Va. over the weekend so they decided it would be easier for Ron to keep Lucy at home and then fly with her to Kentucky. Did you get all of that ??? Of course that meant one less day we would be with Lucy but we would have Monday evening to spend some quality time with Kerri. She somehow has the idea that we would rather play with Lucy than talk with her and I don't know where she ever got that idea.
Since Kerri's plane was not scheduled to arrive until 4:00 P.M. the plan was that Dick and I would meet Becky, the lady in charge of the event at 2:00 and she would take us to the condo where we would be staying. Someone from the school would meet Kerri at the Brunswick airport and bring her to the condo later. Our appointed meeting place was Chick fil A which afforded me the chance to purchase a gallon of sweet tea for the week. We arrived around 2:00 and met our hostess who was delightful. I rode with her and Dick followed us to the condo which was located only a few blocks from the Village downtown area of the island. The condo was owned by one of the parents in the school and she was kind enough to make it available to us for our 4 day visit.
As we rode along Becky pointed out different landmarks and restaurants and suggested several places to shop and eat. I told her that after Lucy, shopping and eating were our priorities. The condo was in an older building and Becky explained that it had belonged to the owner's elderly mother who had recently died and was now just used by family members. It was very roomy with 3 bedrooms upstairs, a living room/dining area, large kitchen, small den, and screened in porch. They had stocked the refrigerator with essentials and there was a huge basket on the counter filled with snacks and fruit. Since Kerri mentioned that she loved M & M's, one of the ladies in the school had made a dozen chocolate covered pretzels with M & M's covering the entire pretzels. What a treat those were and Kerri even shared with us.
After Becky showed us around and left, Dick and I went upstairs to check out the bedrooms. The stairway had an electric chair, but unfortunately there was a note on the chair asking that we please not use it. Now that was a shame because I could have used it on the many trips that I made up and down each day. The bedrooms consisted of a master bedroom with adjoining bath and 2 smaller rooms with bath in the hallway. Since Kerri usually says that I take the larger bedroom I decided to call her and let her make that decision. She was in the Atlanta airport and said that the plane had been delayed from 3:00 until at least 4:30 so she wouldn't be arriving at 4:00 as planned. When I told her that none of the beds were king size, she said for us to take the master bedroom and Lucy could have her own room next to her and Ron. So Dick and I unpacked the car and rested for awhile before heading out to Winn Dixie for groceries. In the meantime I called Becky to tell her about the plane delay so she could call the lady who was to meet Kerri. She said that she and her husband Jim would probably meet Kerri since the other lady had plans for the evening. I volunteered for Dick and me to go but she said they had to go to Brunswick anyway. We were relieved as we were both tired from long drive.
While we were in Winn Dixie, Kerri called again to say her plane was delayed until at least 6:30. She told us not to wait for her to eat dinner but just get something from the store so we filled the cart with shrimp, chicken salad, and more snacks. As we drove back toward our condo we noticed a restaurant on the corner named “The 4th of May” and decided to stop and have dinner. Neither of us realized until the next day when Kerri pointed it out why the name sounded familiar. Our anniversary is May 4th. Our senior citizen minds are a little slow on the uptake. We did go back and take a picture underneath the sign.
Kerri arrived after 8:00 minus her luggage which the airline said might be delivered after 9:30 that evening. She was exhausted and of course frustrated with airline for the delays and loss of luggage, but she managed to partake of food that we had bought for her. First she sampled the pretzel M & M's as did I and they were delicious.
As I was rinsing the dishes I noticed that there seemed to be no hot water but thought it just needed to run longer. After about 5 minutes when the water was still cold I went into the downstairs bathroom to see if it had hot water and got the same results. I called Dick and told him that we should look for the hot water heater. We searched in every closet but couldn't find it and decided it must be in the one closet that was locked. Since by then it was 10:00 it was too late to call the owner of the condo so we just decided to wait until morning. I heated enough water in the microwave to brush my teeth and wash my face and decided the shower would have to wait until the next day. I would have to be real dirty to opt for a cold shower. I did suggest that Dick check the fuse box but he said it wouldn't be a fuse causing the problem and since I'm not an electrician I didn't argue.
After a good night's sleep I woke up at my usual 7:00 A.M. and went downstairs to enjoy my coffee. I waited until 9 to call Becky and tell her about the hot water. She apologized and said she would call the owner and see if she needed to send a plumber over. The phone rang almost immediately and it was Wendy, the owner apologizing and saying that she forgot to turn the fuse on for the hot water. She said she always turns it off when no one is there. So I went into the pantry and found the fuse and switched it to on. I waited a few minutes before going upstairs to shower and just quietly mention to Dick who was still sleeping that we had hot water. I was too thankful that we had hot water to dwell on the fact that I had thought of the fuse box the night before.
The plan was that we would meet Ron and Lucy at the Brunswick airport at 11:30 so I woke Kerri up in plenty of time for her to get dressed and call about her luggage which had not arrived the previous evening. The Delta agent said they had her luggage in Los Angeles and of course Kerri was outraged and asked how that could have happened. It seemed that her suitcase had an old baggage tag on it that said LA so that's where they sent it. While Kerri was on the phone with Delta I called Becky to get directions to the airport. They seemed simple enough but I know from past experience that we tend to make wrong turns and miss signs so I suggested we allow a few minutes extra time in case of emergencies.
As we were driving back across the bridge to get to the mainland, Kerri while in the midst of telling the Delta agent that she is a Gold Medallion flyer and deserves some compensation for the inconvenience of not having luggage, shouts out that her picture is on a billboard. Sure enough Dick and I looked up and there was our daughter's face on a huge billboard advertising the fund raiser. Since it was a busy intersection we couldn't stop and besides we didn't have our camera with us to take a picture so decided we could do that later. In the mean time we came to a roundabout intersection and made the turn in the direction we thought would take us to the airport. After a few miles we realized that we didn't see any of the signs that Becky had told us to look for and we were going the wrong way. Now I have mentioned in several other travel accounts that Dick's Expedition is equipped with a very fancy navigation system which we have failed to learn how to use. I vowed once again that when we got home I was going to the dealership and have them show me how to use the system so we wouldn't keep getting lost. Well, I'm home and haven't done it, but plan to in the near future.
About that time Kerri got a call from Ron saying he and Lucy just landed and she told him we would be there shortly. It was time to stop and ask directions so Dick pulled into a gas station and asked a man getting into his car if we were on the right road to the airport and the man said yes. Hallelujah! It took us about 15 more minutes to reach the airport and by that time Ron had called to say that he had the luggage and was waiting for us at the door. That was a good plan since it was raining again. We pulled up to the door and Kerri and I got out as Kerri had to check in with the Delta people to try and get her luggage. Lucy and Ron were standing just inside the door and when Lucy saw me she started running and yelling, “Nana, Nana”. Now you can imagine that I was thrilled with that reaction as I hadn't seen her in over a month and you never know at that age if they will remember you. Of course I picked her up and gave her a few hugs and kisses and then she started saying “Rocco, Rocco” which is what she calls Dick. It actually comes out as Geico and we're thinking of trying to get her a part in the Geico commercial. She would look cute with the little green iguana. After giving her mommie a big hug she still wanted Nana to hold her so I took her out to the car to see Geico. They had a big reunion and then Ron got his luggage in the car and we were off to find a place to eat lunch.
We had planned to spend some quality time at the mall as no family trip is complete without a little shopping. Besides after Kerri's marathon conversation with Delta, they had written her a check for $50 to supposedly buy some essentials until her luggage arrived. They probably thought that was small change just to get rid of her. We spotted Spanky's Seafood restaurant and I recognized the name from reading about restaurants and knew that it was supposed to have good food. So we went inside and had a delicious seafood lunch. Everyone made a fuss over Lucy as usual and she was all smiles and waves to all the staff and patrons alike. She also managed to make quite a mess under her chair with the pasta she was consuming. Her mother managed to spill milk all over the front of her shirt. Nothing unusual in that as one of us usually has some kind of small or large mishap when we're dining. I was secretly happy that it wasn't my turn to leave spots on my new shirt.
So we were off to Belks and Target where Ron and Rocco strolled Lucy around and I followed Kerri as she looked and tried on a pile (that's a lot) of clothes. She only bought a pair of blue jeans and a shirt, but seemed to enjoy herself. As Lucy was getting tired we decided to head back to the condo and as soon as the car started moving she was fast asleep. We wanted to show Ron Kerri's billboard and take a picture but we couldn't find it. Kerri thought it was one place and I thought another so we called Becky (I hoped she wasn't getting tired of all the phone calls but she was always very gracious) and it turned out that Kerri was correct. We had to turn around and cross the causeway bridge again which added a few miles. We stopped at Walgreens to buy a throw away camera since Ron didn't have a camera with him. The billboard was actually right next to Walgreen's parking lot so Kerri, Ron, and Dick got out and took pictures while I stayed with Lucy.
We found the condo without any more wrong turns and Lucy woke up when Ron took her out of the car seat. She was rested and ready to go and I was ready for a nap. Kerri and Ron decided to go for a walk so Dick said he would watch Lucy. I had tried to move all the breakable items out of Lucy's reach but she managed to find every remote control, electrical outlet. cabinet door, and on and on. I left Dick chasing her and went upstairs to nap. When I came down an hour later Dick was collapsed on the couch and Lucy was still running. I took over for the next hour and let Dick sleep. When 6:00 arrived and Kerri and Ron had not returned I called Kerri and she said they would be home shortly. They had found a nice restaurant for us to celebrate Dick's birthday a few weeks late. She said the only problem was that the restaurant didn't have high chairs so we would have to take Lucy's car seat. Now to me, that meant that they didn't want children, but not so to her mother so I didn't argue since dinner was their treat.
We were ready to leave when Kerri and Ron returned so drove the few blocks to J Mac's which was a very nice restaurant/bar. Lucy was tired and decided to exercise her lung power which made me suggest that we leave and go someplace less fancy, but Kerri said the other patrons weren't paying any attention. We stuffed her mouth with crackers, bread, and anything else we could find and that worked temporarily but she was still not a happy camper. Well who would want to be strapped into a car seat while everyone else was free as bird?
After a few minutes a lady came in and started playing the piano. Now that was a sign for Rocco to take Lucy out of the car seat and start dancing with her towards the piano. The pianist started playing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and that got everyone's attention. Dick introduced Lucy to the pianist who put her on her lap and they played “Chop Sticks” together. The customers all clapped when they finished. Now I was watching this with a nervous eye as there was a large glass of red wine sitting on the edge of the piano and I could just envision Lucy knocking it over into the lady's lap. Fortunately God was good and that didn't happen.
About that time our food arrived so Dick and Lucy came back to the table. I had ordered the special pork medallions with a sauce that contained pepper so asked the waiter to put the sauce on the side as pepper makes me cough and choke. When my plate arrived the sauce was on the meat, but I decided not to say anything and see it was very hot. Well besides being very spicy it was practically raw and there was no way I was going to eat raw meat. Dick suggested exchanging his meatloaf for my pork, but when he took a bite he said it was also very spicy. Even the accompanying vegetables were too spicy for me to eat. Now I probably would have just eaten the bread but Kerri insisted on calling the waiter who was very apologetic and took my plate back to the kitchen. By the time he returned everyone else had finished eating so rather than take up more time I just asked the waiter to give me a “to go” box. Kerri had asked the hostess to bring a cupcake after dinner for Dick's birthday but they seemed to have forgotten to do it so we decided to just forget it and take Lucy home. On the way out the hostess took Lucy and she was all smiles and waved and blew kisses to everyone and of course they thought she was darling as did we. She knows when to perform.
By the time we got back to the condo Lucy had gotten a second wind so Kerri and Ron presented Dick with his birthday presents which Lucy helped him open. Then Dick gave everyone St. Patrick's gifts as it was St. Patrick's Day. So we all had a good time opening presents and Lucy loved the paper most of all. Kerri's luggage arrived at 10:30 and she was very relieved to have all of her clothes and makeup. I ate the rest of my dinner and we enjoyed another chocolate pretzel. Kerri even allowed Lucy to have a bite which was a treat for her since she doesn't get sugar in any form. Unbeknownst to her mother, I let her eat all the M & M's off my pretzel when mommie wasn't around.
The next morning everyone but Lucy and I slept late so I had the task of keeping Lucy out of trouble. One of the chairs in the den had a heated massager on it and Lucy found the controls and started pushing buttons. Well when she hit the “on” button the cushion made a loud noise and st arted vibrating and it scared her so that she seemed to jump a foot. She was about to start crying so I started laughing because it was funny and eventually she started laughing too. Well from then on her favorite thing to do was turn on the massager and watch it jump around. I sat her up in the chair but she didn't like that very much.
Dick was the next one up and dressed and he took Lucy down to the play ground while waiting for Kerri and Ron to wake up. I drove the car down to the playground since it was cool and windy and I didn't want Dick to have to walk back with Lucy. Or, for that matter for me to have to walk down there in the cold. It was easier for Kerri and Ron to walk down and meet us. Lucy was having a ball on all the equipment and wasn't afraid of the high slides or the twisted slides. She would come down either feet first or head first. There were two little boys also playing who were 5 and 8 and I think they were amazed that she was going down all the slides. She also loved the baby swing.
Kerri and Ron arrived after awhile and we drove into town to have a late breakfast at Dresner's which is a little diner famous for their good breakfast fare. The food was delicious and Kerri managed to spill egg down the front of her white shirt. She got most of the stain out with water but not completely. Once again I was thankful it wasn't my shirt. It's a standing joke in our family as to which one of us will have a mishap at the table. So far she was winning of this trip.
After lunch we drove out to Christ Church which is a historic landmark with lots of history and a very old cemetery. Lucy was sleeping so Dick and I went in first and listened to the lecture by the docent and then looked at some of the old gravestones. Then I went back in with Ron and Kerri while Dick sat with Lucy. It is a fascinating church building and John and Charles Wesley preached in that location but not that particular church building.
On the way home we stopped at one of the little villages to shop. I bought a pair of shoes (that always makes any trip successful) and the shop owner gave Lucy a helium balloon which she loved. Ron and Dick took her strolling and Kerri and I visited more shops. When we were ready to leave I called Dick and he said Lucy was cheering up a little girl who was afraid of a dog. Apparently they were outside a store and the dog scared the little girl so Lucy gave her a kiss and she stopped crying. Dick said her mother was grateful.
That evening we had dinner at one of the favorite local places, “Gnat's Landing”. It was the total opposite from the previous evening and we all enjoyed very good seafood. Lucy was happy in her highchair and charmed the couple at the table next to us. They kept talking to her and she talked back and blew kisses. Have you gathered by now that blowing kisses and waving is her favorite thing to do to win friends and influence people? It always works and she makes lots of friends everywhere we go. Ron had a surprise for us as he had gone to a local book store and bought each of us a special book. Mine was a Civil War Dictionary and I didn't tell him that I probably could have written that book. We thought it was a sweet gesture.
When we got back to the condo I decided to cut Lucy's bangs which were covering part of her eyes and probably bothered me more than it did her.
Since her mother wanted no part of the procedure Ron agreed to hold her head while I cut. To say I was nervous would be an understatement, but I proceeded to do the best I could with a moving target. The end results were a little less than Vidal Sassoon might have done, but at least the hair was out of her eyes and her mother could take her to a professional when they got home. Ron and I were actually very pleased with the job, but mommie thought they were somewhat jagged. I offered her the scissors but she declined. I rewarded Lucy with a few more M & M's from a pretzel. I'm sure she was thinking that Nana could cut her hair any time if she got M & M's afterwards.
After the haircut, Kerri and Ron left to go to the movies and Dick and I played with Lucy until we were all exhausted and went to bed. I didn't even hear them come in.
The next day was the day of Kerri's performance so we stayed close to home. Dick and Ron took Lucy to a playground near the beach and Kerri and I meandered through some of the shops in village. She bought a cute cloth diaper bag which she could use as a combination purse and Lucy bag.
Everyone rested in the afternoon to get ready for the big night.
The fundraiser was for a Christian School and was held at a beautiful new Methodist Church close to Christ Church. The evening started with a silent auction which probably included over 100 items. There were a lot of restaurant and shop gift certificates but since we were leaving the next day those would not benefit us. I bid on a very pretty yellow and black purse and a Laura Mercier bath set for Kerri.
Since Lucy was the only baby or child present she as usual attracted much attention as we strolled through the auction area. There was a very lovely dinner and we were seated with Becky and Jim, our hosts who introduced us to several other attendees including the owner of our condo who apologized again for not turning the hot water on. We also met the lady who made the pretzels and Kerri asked for the recipe but I doubt she'll ever make chocolate covered pretzels. For me the highlight of the dinner was the delicious homemade carrot cake.
After dinner Ron was introduced and he did a few minutes of comedy and then introduced Kerri. She had on high heeled boots and promptly stepped into one of the cracks between carpet squares on the stage floor. She continued doing that for most of her act and incorporated a few jokes about suing the school if she got hurt. Dick was holding Lucy in his lap awaiting her turn on the stage and as if on cue she started yelling “mama, mama, mama” and tried to get down and run. Kerri had told Dick to wait for her to say something about a baby in the audience so he had his hands full keeping her in his lap. Finally after what seemed like a long time to me she motioned for Dick to bring her up to the stage and Lucy took off running. Ron gave her his mike and she said “hi” and some other unintelligible sentences which only she could understand. Of course the audience thought she was the star and she did her blowing kisses routine and then waved goodbye to everyone as Ron took her off the stage and out the back door. We then settled down to enjoy Kerri making fun of her mother for the next hour. She received a standing ovation at the end of her show and afterwards I received condolences from many mothers in the audience. I just replied that I was used to Kerri's comedy and “most” of it was an exaggeration.
After the show Kerri and Ron spent time at their product table while Dick and I chased Lucy around the auditorium. We me and chatted with quite a few of the attendees who were all complimentary of Kerri and Ron and of course Lucy. I went to the auction area to pay for the items that I had won and discovered much to my disappointment that I had mistakenly bid on a gift certificate from a boutique rather than the purse that I thought I was bidding. I tried to explain to the lady that I was sure I had bid on the purse so she went and got the slips and showed me that I was mistaken. I still don't know how that happened except that the slips were so close together that I probably just signed the wrong one. At any rate I then had a $50 certificate that I had paid $35 for. We had planned to leave early the next morning but now I realized that we would have to wait until after 10:00 when the store opened so I could use the certificate. What a bummer? I guess next time if there is one I'll pay more attention to what I'm signing and buying.
We said our goodbyes and headed back to the condo. It had been a fun evening and I think Kerri felt good about her performance as did we. Since it was almost 11:00 and they had to leave at 5:00 for a 6:00 flight to Indiana the next morning we put Lucy to bed and said our goodbyes just in case I didn't wake up at 4:30 the next morning. I left them still packing and went to bed. As it turned out Dick set the alarm to go off at 4:30 and we both got up to say goodbye. Lucy was awake and alert just like it was the usual time for her to get. I guess she's somewhat used to the unconventional schedule as they fly somewhere almost every weekend and usually leave before the crack of dawn. She's a very adaptable little girl.
Saying goodbye is always hard, but at least I knew we would be seeing them in another 5 weeks in Atlanta so that helped. Becky picked them up to drive them to the airport and we were very appreciative that we didn't have to take them at that hour. We went back to bed and then got up again about 8 so we could strip the bed linens and clean the condo as best we could. Wendy said don't bother since a cleaning lady would be coming over, so we didn't do any heavy cleaning. I tried to replace all the items that I had moved out of Lucy's reach.
Then it was off to find the boutique and spend my $50 gift certificate. You would think that would be a fun thing to do, but I was tired and not in the shopping mood so nothing really jumped out at me. For one thing there were very few things in the shop that were $50 or under. I wound up buying 2 necklaces which I will probably share with Kerri.
As I had made a hair appointment for 3:30 that afternoon we had to put the pedal to medal in order to get back home in time for my appointment. After five days in the rain and wind it was vital that I get my hair done. We stopped at a fast food restaurant and I ate in the car while Dick drove since he didn't want to eat. We made it to the beauty shop at exactly 3:30 only to find that my stylist was running behind. Such is life.
When we arrived home we were both exhausted, but were thankful to have had those few days with Lucy and her parents. God has blessed us with more time with them than we could ever have imagined considering that they live in California. We have more precious memories and I have more material for my Lucy blogs and scrapbooks. Until the next time - - - - -
