Back Home, Minnesota

It’s been a whirlwind return home to Minnesota!

Our friend Scott was a very gracious host and took a good amount of time out of his very busy life and gave us an abundance of attention and opened up his home in Chesterfield, VA to us. Kim and I are thankful for the time we spent with him.

On Tuesday morning we were up at 6am at Scott’s, our layover place where we relaxed for a couple days before returning back to Minnesota. Kim and I built in an extra day in Virginia, just in case something went wrong in the last few days of the ride. We packed our suitcases, washed the bed sheets, remade the bed, cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed the bedroom. We were thankful for the hospitality and wanted to let Scott know that we respected and appreciated everything he’s done for us. Scott made us breakfast one last time. His toasted sesame seed bagel, egg, cheese and bacon sandwiches are awesome.

We had planned on leaving the house by 8:30am for the 30-minute ride to the Richmond Airport and after loading our 4 suitcases of luggage into the back of Scott’s pickup truck we left with minutes to spare.

I usually prefer to get to the airport earlier rather than later to keep the stress level down. With technology, I can always get some work done while waiting to board. Richmond Airport is smaller and we were check-in and through security by 9am. Kim was able to use a couple of our Covid related plane tickets for our return home and worked it out so we could fly first class. The connection flight into Charlette, NC was smooth and we had an hour to walk across the airport to board our plane to Minneapolis. We landed on-time at 3pm, in Minneapolis and we only had to wait a few minutes for our luggage to arrive in the baggage claim area. A few doors down Kim’s parents, Tom and Judy, were waiting for us. It was great to be home!

We returned to Tom and Judy’s home in Chanhassen and they threw a welcome home celebration for us with our daughter’s, our son in-law’s and five grandchildren, Kim’s sister and super bonus guests, Tom and Linda, my son-in-law’s parents who are in town from Florida. We had balloons, pizza, snacks and a great time catching up. My daughters brought over both of our vehicles. It’s great to have Old Red, my 2001 GMC Yukon, back. The hand-me-down truck has 330,000 miles and is on the backside of its better days, but it takes me down the street in style. We had a great time seeing everyone!

On Wednesday we headed up to Forest Lake to visit with my dad and mom. We stopped, at what will be, our temporary hangout in Blaine, to pick up our mail. My dad is currently at a nursing home in Forest Lake and was great to see him after 3-months of being away. He’s having some difficulty breathing and it seems to be progressive, but we were able to have a nice time catching up.

Dad wanted to sit outside so we wheeled him out the front door. There’s a spot in the shade where he likes to sit because it has a nice breeze.  We chatted for about an hour and it was time for dad to take a break so we went back inside to his small single room. He said the staff is taking good care of him. I told him I’d be by in a couple days and that we were going over to the house to see mom. This circle of life deal sure is hard. It was great to be able to hear him say he was proud of us. It’s those short moments in time are easy to take for granted.

We drove the 10-minutes over to my parent’s house where they have lived in since 1966 and where I grew up. My mom, brother and siters threw Kim and I welcome home potluck celebration. My brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends were there to welcome us home and celebrate our 4,200-mile adventure. It was beautiful evening while we sat outside on their large deck overlooking the backyard.

Kim and I are so blessed for everyone’s support during this adventure, including those we met, even briefly, along the trail. The generosity was overwhelming. Thank you.

While at my parent’s house a few of us snuck away to the basement bar, called the Rack Room because of all the deer antler mounts on the walls, and had a Recipe toast to my dad. Recipe is my dad’s concoction and it’s a mixture of Kahlua, Brady and Vodka. A little bit goes a long way, if you know what I mean. It was a really nice evening talking about our ride and catching up on everybody else’s lives. The potluck dinner was chicken, tater tot hotdish, pizza, side dishes and cupcakes.

We had a family meeting at the end of the evening to discuss the options for my dad’s next steps. His 20-days of “rehab” at the nursing home will be up next week and it doesn’t look like he’s in any shape to come home and that’s difficult for my mom. My brothers and sisters have been by her side helping her navigate this difficult terrain. Kim and I were the last ones to leave the house and we got to spend a little time with my mom. A few tears were shed as she’s working on making the right decisions for my dad. But lest we forget the effect of the decisions on her. I relate to my mom the older I get. She’s the rock in the background holding everything together for those around her.

Kim and I made the 1-hour drive back to her parents’ place and walked through the garage at 10pm.

This morning, Thursday, I woke up at 6am. Things were pretty quiet in the house so I grabbed my cellphone and reviewed some e-mails. I’ve been tracking the shipping status of our bikes from Virginia.  And this morning I received an e-mail that the train carrying our bicycles derailed. I haven’t had time to investigate what happened but the latest on the tracking website says our bikes should arrive tomorrow, hopefully in one piece.

Kim spent the day walking with her parents, napping, going through the mail and getting our calendar of events for September written down. I love mowing the grass and something about it leaves me with a good feeling as I like to admire the look of straight lines and the smell of a freshly mowed yard, so I went to my sister-in-law’s house and mowed her yard. After that I picked up some new windshield-wipers for Old Red. My truck has needed them for three-years, but I figured I stretch it. I was trying to make an appointment for my annual physical, but after being on-hold for 30-minutes earlier this morning, I decided I would just drop by the clinic to make the appointment. That worked great as I was in and out of there in 10-minutes. Last stop for the day was the Cub Foods grocery store for bacon, lettuce, butter and popcorn. My father-in-law made BLT’s and corn-on-the-cobb for dinner. The plan was to have popcorn for an evening snack, but I had no other takers. I’ll be on that tomorrow for sure!

I think we’re adjusting well to being home, although it’s a little chaotic as we try to get back into the swing of things without actually having our own place yet. Our belongings are strewn across a variety of homes and we’re still living out of our bicycle saddlebags and wear bicycling clothing.

Tomorrow I have a job phone interview and then I’ll head to Forest Lake to see my dad and mom.

We have some fun Motch Across America follow-up presentations scheduled for September so we’ll be preparing for those in the coming days. The idea that we just rode 4,200-miles across the United States has not set in. I think, for me, I need a trip to the Ranch and just sit in the porch with a glass of wine and quietly watch the deer feed in the meadow out-back. I really hope to get there in a couple of weeks, but with everything going on it may be a while.    

Once we get the final Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance fundraiser tally in a couple weeks we’ll report back.

I’ll put out some blog updates as we continue to adjust back into Minnesota Life, but my intention is not to adjust back into life as usual. We’ve got things to do, people to meet, places to see and adventures to embrace!

The picture is from Wednesdays visit with my dad.