Life is like a road trip. You can never be certain which road to take, who you will pick up along the way, when to stop for gas, or how best to get where you are trying to go. There are often hills and valleys, closed roads, flat tires, detours, traffic jams, and road construction. But sometimes... you can have smooth sailing down the highway. But just be careful, that's when it is easy to get a speeding ticket.
Saturday morning started a road trip down memory lane as Joe and I hit the road for Iowa and a day of partying while watching the Hawkeyes and then ending with listening and dancing to Tom and Joe Kennedy's band. 
Tracy, Teresa, Joe and I were the first to arrive at Brown Deer Golf Club for the Cornfest III / Kennedy Brother's Tailgate party. They tapped the keg of Coors Light for us and we were soon enjoying a tasty lunch.
Iowa played OSU in Ohio, so we watched it on TV. By the time the game had started, the party crowd had increased in size.
Touchdown Hawekyes! They were the first to score and gave the Buckeyes a run for their money. The Hawks were expected to get creamed, but only lost 24 to 34. 
To the right, Joe with Joe Kennedy. Joe Kennedy described Joe Villhauer as "a fixture" at their house and "the 9th Kennedy kid". Guess he hung out there a lot!
Great music had everyone dancing, just like at our wedding reception 33 years ago. Joe K. and another band member from Ziegfield Common (who played at our wedding reception) were here with Tom Kennedy and a 4th guy who had played in their band back in the day. Super musicians and fun.
It was 1:30am by the time we got back to the Volk's and collapsed into bed. I was up at 6:30am Sunday, actually feeling pretty good. Tracy cooked us a great brunch and we were soon back on the road for home.
The wind was whipping through the farm yard when we arrived late afternoon. I took some photos of Kabob to put on our sale ad, but apparently had the camera setting on video. Other than picking a basket of pears off the ground, I didn't amount to much the rest of the day.
Kabob got curious and came closer to get a better look. But neither steer got on the trailer, even after I left the dish and some alfalfa there all morning.
I stayed busy throughout the
day, packing up some more stuff in preparation for the road trip to Tennessee. Many items needed to be dusted and I had to clean behind and under where they had sat. I am basically removing everything from the house that Joe doesn't need, and taking a few necessities, like my desk, that I can't live without. But I am leaving all the furnishings and accoutrements needed to keep the house
well "staged." We hope we aren't
going to have to put this place back on the market in early spring... but one never knows. Joe and I moved Britney's dresser to the
garage and there was more cleaning in her room as I moved some
furniture around. The more we take to TN ourselves, the cheaper the
moving van is going to be, but we need to keep this place looking its
best. 
Tuesday was the day of Stew's "road trip," so my main focus was getting him used to the trailer and stepping up into it to eat.
We had gotten a hard frost overnight, and it was still cold out, so I left Stew to explore on his own and went in to work on my photos. I had frames I have planned to put photos in, and decided I should do that before I packed them. So Joe got me hooked up to the Walgreen's website before he left for work. I searched through old photo files on my computer, down loading to the store's shopping site the ones I wanted, and editing as I ordered prints.
I had let Brother in the house when he followed me back from the barn at 6am. He was quite happy to snooze on Daniel's bed most of the morning. 
I took a break from the computer mid- morning to check on Stew. He was looking for more food, and practically followed me into the trailer. (I was carrying his re-fills.) I shut the door and gave Joe a call at work.
It was three hours later before Joe was able to get away from work. In the mean time, I gave Stew more hay and some water. I had hoped to go riding, but it started raining so I gave up on that idea. I finished up my photo orders and started back in on the packing and cleaning task.
Stew's final road trip. This is the hard part of farming for me... seeing the steer go down the drive in the trailer and knowing what is in store. As the rain continued to fall, so did my spirits. I ended up cleaning the shower and tub in our bathroom because they had started to look a little yellow.
I went out to check on Kabob, and he seemed sad and lonely and wet and was mooing. He was sticking close to the horses but I decided to put them in the barn because they looked so wet and miserable.
Well, Kabob came over to Amiga's stall gate and stood there mooing. So, I got him some hay and took it over to the corn crib where he followed me.
Joe finally got home. It had taken him and four other guys an hour to get Stew out of the trailer. Stew would not budge no matter what they tried.
I was so glad that was over with. It then took me 40 minutes to get all the crap completely washed out of the trailer. In the process, the faulty hose nozzle got me completely drenched. All our wet and soiled clothes went into the laundry together. I won't miss this kind of "dirt" one bit. 
I got up Wednesday knowing it was going to be a very busy day. I packed up another box of stuff that I had sitting out on the dinner table while my tea was steeping. I needed to finish neatening up the place before the 10am house shoppers were to come. Guess who jumped into this box? ->
I had to move the paper aside to be able to see her. Abbey is bound and determined to make it to TN. The house seemed rather cold, come to discover, the furnace wasn't working. When I went out before sun up to do chores, Kabob was sleeping on the ground outside of Amiga's stall, instead of in the corn crib where it was dry. I know he missed Stew.
I took a break from my computer time and went to Water Lilies. The house shoppers came and went once I was home. And then I went on a road trip with the Water Lilies to Hudson IL. We had a yummy lunch at Green Gables, a little restaurant near Lake Bloomington.
I wanted to ride Roni before Lexi came to pick him up, but she ended up postponing due to broken trailer lights. So I held off on my ride since it was so windy and cold. The furnace man finally came, and after 2 hours had us (well our furnace) hooked up with a new control panel. It had taken him awhile to figure out the problem because the panel was giving him wrong information. Abbey woke me up at 4:30am
Thursday, chasing a mouse. Kaysha soon joined in on the chase. Finally after 90 minutes Kaysha caught it. I put her outside and she just stood at the door holding her prize. All you see is the little mouse tail hanging out of her mouth. If she drops it on the deck, I imagine the little varmint will escape. But at least it will be outside.All morning I sat at my desk drinking hot tea with the space heater blasting warm air on my feet. Wanting to get Christmas cards out by early December, so all could have our new address, I addressed almost 75 envelopes. I also re-organized my
address book, removing some folks I
haven't communicated with in nearly 20 years and adding several of my Water Lily friends. Next I started a rough draft of our Christmas letter. There were reports on Facebook that Bloomington was getting some snow showers. The wind and cold air was enough to convince me to stay put, indoors, for most of the day. 
I finally ventured outside after lunch and spent almost two hours sorting, organizing, cleaning, and taking photos of all our sale items. Kabob wandered from door to door of the barn, mooing and looking in at me. I finally gave him an extra mid-day feeding. Back at my computer, I looked up the original price, named our price and included the photo of each item (19 total)... e-mailing this information to a few horse friends.
Joe got home just before Megan came to pick up the manure spreader. Then, needing water and groceries from town, we decided to meet the kids for dinner after shopping. Courtney, Daniel and Valencia came... Mike couldn't make it because he was in class.
As the sun finally rose Friday (at almost 7am) it burnt off the frost and clouds and soon became a pretty day. I was still freezing while putting on my swim suit and going to Water Lilies.
One of the Lilies came by mid-morning and fixed my sewing machine! She owns four machines and does a ton of sewing, so knows what she is doing. Now that it is working again, I'll put it back on the list of things going to TN.
Three nights in a row of below freezing temperatures has most of the annuals reduced to piles of wilted greens. The winds have also knocked a ton of pears off the tree.
Joe stayed home from work with a sore throat and headache, but worked from home. By mid afternoon he felt better and was able to get away from his computer and helped me with outside jobs. I removed all the tomato plants from the garden, leaving behind tons of produce. I have harvested so many, I had no desire to pick another tomato.
Joe cleaned the yard of pears and we brought in all the temporary fencing from the field and paddock that is no longer needed. Then we went to the Replex together. I walked two miles while he worked out.
After roast beef for dinner, we finished watching Survivor on Joe's computer because the TV tape job had failed halfway through on Wednesday night.
Roni's road trip to Lexi's has been rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. I know that Amiga is really going to miss him. Hopefully she and Kabob can console each other and keep each other company until Amiga's big road trip to TN on Nov. 16th.
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