Wednesday, July 17, 2019

I guess I’ll continue with numbering the days from Monday when we left. So today is Wednesday, the 3rd day we’ve been gone.

Today we did a review of the trailer set up. Because each time we move the trailer, it has to be taken apart somewhat, then put back together. So Dave and I put it back together like we had just arrived at a venue and were setting up to give a tour.

We passed!

Dave also passed unhooking and hooking up the trailer from the pickup.

Then he took our trainers to the car rental agency. One of them is driving back to DC. The other is flying. One of them has a fear of flying. A while ago, Dave texted the one driving, intending to jibe him, saying How’s it going? Your partner’s home by now. Dave got a swift reply. Oh, no he’s not. His flight’s been delayed twice. He’s still in Indianapolis. I’m in Pennsylvania. 

Oops.

I spent the afternoon finishing the transcribing then printing out the nine page document. And of course, the printer in the business center at the hotel took one look at my document and thought, Oh, this will be fun. 

After spending a fruitless half hour with nothing but several pages of gibberish instructing me to print the document as a PDF (which I attempted to do–several times, from several different approaches), I gave up and asked the front desk for help. The very helpful clerk said I could email the document to him and he would print it out. Which I did. And he did.

Then Dave and I went to dinner.

This was our first meal on our own.

Oh, the pressure.

There is a restaurant that shares the parking lot with our hotel. It looks Greek …we like Greek food …

Dave asked the desk clerk about it. He said it’s good, but he also said another restaurant a couple blocks further away is even better. The shuttle driver Monday night mentioned it also. And when I plugged “Nearby Restaurants” into my Google Maps app yesterday, it was one of the first suggestions: Grindstone Charley’s. According to Chris, the shuttle driver, it’s “like Applebee’s, but better.” And since the desk clerk recommended it, we plugged it into the GPS and headed there.

It’s very like an Applebee’s or a Chili’s. We shared an appetizer platter. Fried green tomatoes, fried pickles, and Killer Kettle Chips. It was all great. The Killer Kettle Chips’s description said “house fried potato chips, queso, cheese, … ” and described other toppings. There was definitely melted white cheese. Dave asked the server what it was and she said it was the queso.

Ooookaaay. It was no queso either of us have ever had. Which is totally fine. We’re into new experiences. It was still good. But we’re unsure … if that was the queso … where was the cheese? Or if that was the cheese, where was the queso? Que paso?

I know … I’m a spoiled Californian.

I want the rest of the country to know what real queso is. I want no humidity. I want high-speed rail but only at my convenience (meaning not through my family’s living room).

Tomorrow we switch hotels to one closer to where we think we’ll be for the rest of our time in Indiana. We’re still unsure of where exactly we’ll be for what dates. But we’re feeling better about what to say and how to set up to say it.

So that’s good!