The packing is done. It gets a little easier every year as I add more equipment to the Illinois Soap Factory, but, it is still a lot of stuff to fit in the minivan. And have room for Bonnie Dog and me!
This year we took the van in to our favorite mechanic and found out he had died in January! His family is still running the shop though--which made for a teary check-in when Rod asked where the big guy was. His Mom was checking us in and she started bawling. I could barely make out what she was saying but Rod didn't know what had happened. Oh, awful--the emotion was still so raw. Once we got through it I decided to write them a little note telling them how important Orlando Ortiz was to us--an honest mechanic is nearly impossible to find. To have done business with him over the last decade was our honor.
Anyway, they found and fixed a little problem we were having with the radiator fan. When sitting in traffic or in a drive-thru, the temperature gauge would start inching up because the fan wouldn't start. It never reached HOT but only because I would cut the heat on and open the windows. Anyway, on the north side of Atlanta the three left lanes of I-75 were closed due to an accident. We had a good 15 mintues of slowdown about 11a.m. just as it was really starting to get hot. The fan worked perfectly although Bonnie and I were really missing the air conditioning by the time traffic flowed again!!
The only problem was at check-in at the hotel. My Corporate Lodging card was declined...it is tied to my debit card so that wasn't right. When I called their customer service line they had no one working on the weekend to help with credit card issues! WHAT!! How can you not have someone working on the weekend in the HOTEL industry??? LOL The deals I get with the card are great, but, if you ever have trouble hope that it happens Monday through Friday during business hours. Oh, but talk about great customer service...the girl at check in (Days Inn, Clarksville, TN) asked if I would take a rate of $42 plus tax...and yes, since that is less than I would have paid with the card...and it is going on my debit card anyway...great!! :) Funny but on Monday when I checked with Corporate Lodging, they showed no declines...so they think the girl might have put it in wrong.
The Sunday drive was uneventful until I reached a stretch of I-39 going through Illinois corn country. My sister had called to warn me about bad weather through that area. I am constantly scanning the sky for funnel clouds when the weather gets bad and it was just dark out when I stopped for gas. But as I got back on the highway some serious hailstones came down. Within a mile my little caravan that included a minivan in front of me and a semi behind me were doing about 40 mph--and several dozen people had pulled off to the side. I seriously wouldn't do that when you have a chance to outrun it--which is what happened. We were back up to speed within a couple miles.
The folks treated me to dinner out and I unpacked just the necessities for the first night at their house. The real fun came over the next two days as I tried to set up the soap kitchen in my brother's old bedroom in the basement and set up the curing racks. My first show is a one day event up in Baraboo, Wi this Saturday. Hope to see some of you up there at the Fair on the Square in downtown.
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