Day 8 – Fate Finds Dad

Monday, June 15th

Dallas, TX

We didn’t do much today.  Slept in until 8:30 and would have slept in longer, but I figured I’d get up “early” to work on the blog.  Instead I went into the kitchen and found Charlotte cooking and cleaning.  We started chatting and I happened to ask her about some filled canning jars she had lined up on the counter.

“What’s in those?”

“Well,” she began, and then she told me about how those had collected lately from a few different situations.  Some were her mother’s work, some were her mother-in-law’s work, and some were from a family member or friend who didn’t want them.  They were all old, and all unlabeled.  Her son-in-law wanted the jars, but not the contents so she and I started going through them.  We found old apples, old tomatoes, old jams, and some unidentifiable things.  We ended up throwing all the contents away, but the process of solving the what’s-in-this-jar mystery over and over turned out to be more fun that either of us had expected.

When Dad woke and came into the kitchen, we were still working on the jars, but Charlotte had fixed a great breakfast, so we took a break to eat.  She had made tea, eggs, breakfast sausage, and some other amazing food I can’t remember – all gluten-free, all delicious.  I had planned to get back to the blog after breakfast, but we ended up sitting around the table, chatting about our trip and catching up on each other’s lives.  The time flew as it always does when you’re having as much fun as we were, but I did get to work a bit on the blog before we sat down at the table again for lunch, after which we sat and discussed other interesting, important topics.  I worked a bit on the blog after that while Dad worked on the route for tomorrow and Charlotte played the piano.

She’s a phenomenal player on top of being a person who really loves to play, so it was treat for us to get to listen to her beautiful, cheerful tunes.

After that, it was time for dinner – we wanted to take her out, so Charlotte suggested a Thai restaurant.  We had a wonderful meal and great conversation, then we got the check, which comes with fortune cookies.  Mine was uplifting (though the camera had trouble accepting it):

And Dad’s was … well for those of you who know Dad, his could not have been more fitting:

I guess we know what to expect for the rest of the trip.