Another Travel Day

We had a pleasant evening with my family Monday night. My nephew was hanging out at my folks' place, and one of my older sisters came over with her husband and daughter for dinner, so there were nine people... which is about the number we used to have every Sunday for dinner when I was growing up. We had BLTs and chocolate milk and an incredible lemon cake with chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. I gotta say, it's one of the best meals I've had in a long time, especially when four of us started talking to Siri on four different devices to get silly answers.

I didn't sleep terribly well Monday night due to the lack of AC in my parents' house (people in the Seattle area don't have AC because it's a waste of money for the one week or so it's needed). I actually woke up about 4 in the morning to get online. We had a very slow start, loading up the car after getting showers and such. My sister Lisa was able to capture Inkwell, who was hiding, and we got him into the carrier fairly quickly. Then we were on the road again, this time down to Lacey, where Eric's parents now reside in Panorama City.

Eric's folks have a lovely place in what is essentially a giant retirement community. Eric's mom gave us a tour of the place, which was nice. Inkwell was allowed out of his carrier, but he was stunned to not be home and hid behind the litter box that we'd brought in for him. Eventually, he actually hid in the carrier, which he hates, because he was so upset and stressed.

We had a lovely lunch with Eric's parents, then took off for home. As we got on the road, we predicted getting home about 5 p.m. I expected we'd get home faster, but five-ish sounded right. We went over Highway 12, White Pass, which was a bit scary at times. I prefer I-90 because there are passing lanes. But with the construction, it was probably six of one and half a dozen of the other. Still, there was a semi-truck driver who was tailgating us on the pass and should have his license revoked. I was behind a camper and couldn't pass, and being tailgated was extremely nerve-wracking. Highway 12 is narrow, twisty and has dramatic drop-offs that were, frankly, terrifying for me. Add in the crappy drivers on a Tuesday afternoon, and I did not enjoy the drive.

I finally had Eric take over the wheel somewhere between the pass and Naches. He got us home. About 20 miles from home, he turned on the radio and the second song that came on was "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John. A stunningly appropriate song for our return from the annual Wizard of Oz convention.

Once home, Inkwell was the first to wander the house and investigate. He was happy to be home and made various happy meow sounds while I set out his water dish. We hauled in the rest of the stuff from the car and sat down... and that was that. We did as little as possible for the remainder of the day, figuring we have all day today (Wednesday) to get everything cleaned up, put away and ready for me to go to work tomorrow.

It's almost 10 a.m., and I'm finally up and moving around. I have the rest of the day to get unpacked, get clothing washed and prep for tomorrow's return to work. Yay. I'm very glad I took one more day off, because I'm barely moving yet and I'd hate to be at work and miserable. Instead, I hope to get back and be ready and raring to go.

Some last-minute thoughts...

With Eric and Karyl running next year's convention, I'm going to be able to lean on the con chair for submissions to the newsletter a little easier. Mwah-ha-ha-ha! *ahem* I plan on doing a bunch of stuff in the next year's worth of newsletters that I got suggestions on from people during the convention, including explaining long-standing convention traditions. Let's see if it all works.

I took over the research table for the International Wizard of Oz Club. I plan on pushing hard for it in Oz circles. The research table is an Oz-themed creative contest with three categories: Non-Fiction, Fiction and Artwork. I will be posting the rules and such soon for next year's contest. The awards will be announced at Oz Con International 2016 (Winkie Con 52) in Portland Oregon, but the prizes won't be awarded until the National Wizard of Oz Convention, which I think will be held in August in Philadelphia (but don't quote me on that, I'm going by memory from a quick conversation). The research table has cash prizes for all the categories, which makes it something that should be encouraged, in my opinion. In addition, we will print some/all of the fiction and non-fiction entries in the Winkie Con Program Book.