Before I talk about what happened this weekend I want to show you what I have been doing.  I decided the floor in my shop needed to be repainted so with David’s help I took just about everything out of my shop.  I scrubbed the floor and painted it a dark green.  We then cleaned all the things we had taken out and returned them to the shop.  I love the look of the shop now.  So clean and crisp.

We had this old wash stand that was all rusted and bent and needed some tender loving care.  I sanded it and painted it and then polyurethaned it and now it sits in my shop to hold things.  I love the way it looks now.

While painting the floor I painted around this picture two of my grandchildren had painted  years ago.  I just could not cover it.

I also painted around these handprints of one of my grandsons.  This year my three youngest grandsons will be adding their artwork to my floor.

Now when I am in my shop I can look at my newly painted ceiling and my newly painted floor and sigh with relief all the work is done.  Now all I have to do is sew and quilt and that’s all right by me. Wait, I still have to paint the walls.  But that can wait a while.

Now for our weekend.    My youngest niece graduated this year from high school and Saturday was her open house.  I was looking forward to going and seeing her and my brother and sister-in-law and my other niece who is a veterinarian.  David and I packed up the car for the weekend and away we drove to Ohio.  We go to their house by way of Cincinnati and then it’s a straight shot to Chillicothe.  When we got out of Cincinnati we were driving along the Ohio River.  I said to David, “I don’t remember driving by the Ohio River to get to David’s house.” My brother’s name is also David so don’t get confused.  David reassured me he knew where he was going and we drove along enjoying the beautiful scenery.  We had planned to get there in mid afternoon, but when it got to be three o’clock I said again, “Are you sure we are on the right road?  Nothing looks familiar.”  We had been to Chillicothe several times in the past.  I knew my brother did not live by the Ohio River.  Finally, David stopped at a convenience store and asked this girl how far to Chillicothe and she told him about an hour up the road.  So we drove another hour and got to Portsmouth, Ohio and then I said, “I don’t think we are on the right road.”  “I’ll buy a map at the next service station,” David said.  And he did.

When David came out of the service station carrying the map he said something to me I do not hear very often.  “I was wrong.  You’re right. We are on the wrong road.”  By that time it was about five o’clock and we still had another hour’s drive north to Chillicothe.  The open house would be over before we would get there and I did not have my brother’s phone number with me.  Finally I remembered I had my sister’s phone number memorized and I called her to call my brother to tell him we were lost and that is why we were late.  Then we got to Chillicothe and the road David took to their house had a detour and we didn’t know where to go.  Then my brother called our cell phone and told us where we were and in a few minutes after driving for six hours, we got to my brother’s house.

By that time we were tired, hungry and out of sorts, but we got some food and spent the evening talking about growing up on the farm and all was well.

Then my niece opened the gift we had for her.  A quilt I had made.  She is named after my mother and there were a few pieces of fabric that my mother had had in her stash in the quilt.  I can’t believe she is grown. We didn’t get to see her very often as they live so far away and now she is grown and going off to college in the fall.

We spent the night in a motel and the next morning we got up and started for home.  Now we took the road we should have been on the day before and everything looked familiar.  We passed a place called the Secret Garden where they sold all kinds of garden sculptures and garden art.  They had little buildings all over with things for sell for the garden and a beautiful garden you could walk through.  About that time the batteries in my camera gave out so I only got this picture.

A cute birdhouse that David is going to try to replicate.  Wonder where I could find some of these tiny garden tools?

As we drove along we realized we were near a town that had lots of antique stores and little shops, Waynesville, Ohio, so we stopped in for lunch and walked around looking at all the wares that were for sale.  I found an old garden gate that would look good in my garden and we bought it.  Don’t have a picture though  Our last stop was in Shelbyville, Indiana where there is a Cow Palace where we always buy ice cream when we are passing through.  I got Blue Moon and Butter Pecan in a waffle cone and it was so good.

We finally got home late Sunday afternoon and I ran to check on the chickens.  This was the first time I had ever been away from them overnight and we had left their little door open so they could go in and out.  I was hoping I wouldn’t just find feathers laying around.  They were all just fine and didn’t even miss me.

It was fun to get away.  I love weekends like this and I hope we have a few more this summer.

Here’s to husbands who don’t like to ask for directions, nieces, and enjoying the scenery anyway. Bye