Sorry to be so long but between a bad hip and my Gabby, LoLo and Miranda in London, I haven't been up to blogging.
So I told you about about laying in the tent listening to Three Dog Night while CaDiva and I shared one queen sized air mattress in the back room. HRH had another in the "porch" area of the tent. None of us were sleeping so much. CaDiva said she appreciated how hot and uncomfortable the musicians had to be but she hoped they would play long enough for her to fall asleep. The band ended up playing for at least three hours. For future reference, that is not enough time to fall asleep on an air mattress out in the July heat. But, we were pretty much out by the time Not-Hank and TWC settled in.
TWC was sleeping in his truck but Not-Hank joined HRH in the porch. She brought a sleeping bag but was sleeping on the ground cover. In fact, neither of them slept as much as CaDiva and I and we didn't sleep at all. Several times during the night, HRH wondered if she should invite Not-Hank (whom she had met only briefly when they arrived that evening) up onto the air mattress. Not-Hank spent the same time wondering how weird it would be to ask HRH to haul it over so she could join her on the air mattress. I'm thinking of trying to work this scenario into a lesson on communication skills I intend to deliver next month. The names, of course, will be changed to humiliate...ah I mean protect the innocent.
It wasn't long after Not-Hank settled in that both CaDiva and I discovered the temperature had dropped sufficiently to reduce the need to sweat enough that we both had to visit the little chase team room, aka Kybo...in the dark...waaaaaaaaay over there. Do you remember that scene from "Two Weeks Notice" when Hugh Grant got the Winnebago owner to let Sandra Bullock use their facilities? Yeah, so did we. And since the nice lady with the pie was in a Winnebago next to the tent, I tried pointing out to CaDiva that, since she was from San Francisco which is right next to Oakland, maybe she could make a call.. But she insisted she didn't know anyone named Estella and had no way of contacting Mr. Grant. Besides she had a flashlight and intended to walk down to the Kybos.
I opted for the nearby weeds and waited for her to return. She insisted the walk, while interesting and hurried, was not nearly as bad as during the heat of the day. This was fortunate since there were no good-looking young cops on utility vehicle around. Or even an overweight deputy sheriff in a Buick.
Still and all we got it done, more than once. We drowsed and actually slept off and on. In fact, between 4:30 AM and 5:15 AM we were pretty deeply asleep. I know this because about the third time HRH said, "Hey, time to get up." I actually understood the words but was not able to form the response that told her to go back to bed, I was freaking asleep.
So we rolled off of the air mattress, crawled across the floor and pulled ourselves upright while staring into the heat vapors rising from the sauna that was Webster City at dawn. Or my vision might just have been blurry. I don't know, I'm not certain I was able to actually form thoughts in English at that point.
Somehow I managed to get dressed and communicate with TWC. It was mostly something about what the hell he was doing using an electric toothbrush in the great outdoors. He seemed to think it was reasonable but then he slept in a Frigidaire on an upholstered reclining car seat. He and Not-Hank were anxious to get on the road but HRH had to help CaDiva and I break camp.
Ok so CaDiva and I helped her. Ok, we didn't actually help her so much as we didn't get in her way too much. Well we might have been in her way but she didn't complain because she wanted to get on the road too. After the tent, air mattresses, chairs, ice chests, and assorted luggage needed by three women was loaded into the Highlander,we sent them on their way across Iowa. CaDiva and I started out in the 18-wheeler (aka TWC's SUV and trailer) after parking the Highlander nearer the entrance.
That is another story entirely, which involves me abandoning the 18-wheeler along side the exit so I could walk back to where CaDiva sat in our car to explain what I meant by my manic arm movement was "park the Highlander over there". You would be surprised how flexible a semi is if it is trying to pull around an abandoned 18-wheeler.
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