I know it’s been a minute since I updated with anything of substance.  This could pretty much just be a travel blog at this point, and not a very good one as I never seem to finish my trip reports.

However, I think this is the appropriate place to track my progress on my Hormone Replacement Therapy journal.  I debated putting this on my weight loss blog, because I talk a lot about my menopause struggles on my Youtube channel, but it just didn’t seem to fit there so here we are.

Besides, I journaled about by withdrawal from anti-depressants here so this seems to follow in that theme.

So I’ve been struggling with Peri-menopause for quite some time.  Longer than I think I knew about because no one tells you this shit when you hit your mid 30’s into your 40’s and you  just think you are slowly losing your mind.

I shudder to think about how women got by 20 or even 10 years ago with no real knowledge of what was happening to their own bodies and minds.  At least now we have social media that, despite all of it’s shortcomings, has been a great help to me as far as identifying what is going on with me.

I fought hormone therapy for a very long time because my old boss (a holistic type doctor) had nothing but bad things to say about it, but now I feel the time has come to at least give it a shot.

A couple months ago I googled bioidentical hormones and I was brought to a website where they provide you with essentially a teledoc visit in the form of a questionnaire and then prescribe you some bioidentical hormones from there.

I got those hormones two months ago and have been too scared to try them until now.

Mostly because everything I have been reading says they will cause major bloating and I had two vacations I wanted to go on where I wanted to wear a bathing suit and I’m vain as fuck so there’s that.

I took my first dose on Friday night and it is now Sunday afternoon.

Too soon to tell I’m sure but I *did* notice that my workouts both yesterday and today went REALLY well.  Like, I felt fantastic during and after the exercise (I’m paying for it now as I’m sore as hell).

I was thinking that I felt slightly less moody yesterday.  Definitely more productive as I cleaned my house (had to, the nephews are coming) and got a lot of shit done that I’ve been putting off.  Moreover, I didn’t have that feeling of being overwhelmed by the thought of doing those said things when they would pop into my brain.

The better mood didn’t stick however as I’ve been cranky as fuck today, but I’m also due to start my period (meaning I SHOULD start my period in less than a week but I’ll actually start it anywhere from two weeks later while still have the raging PMS the whole time until it starts).  Like, I went to start this post only to see that I never finished my England Trip Report so I started to do that only to get so incredibly pissed off at my slow ass internet that I wanted to chuck my laptop out the window.  *Sigh*

One other thing to note is that I have a slightly upset stomach currently and I rarely get those…

Anyhoo, we will see how it goes, but I wanted to set this up as a place to chronicle my journey and see how it goes.  Wish me luck.

ETA 6:52 pm

Felt uncomfortable all afternoon. Both physically and mentally. Had mild stomach pains and anxiety for the first time in a while.

Total opposite of how I felt yesterday. Not productive and feeling pretty ick.

Dreading going into work tomorrow and all I can think of is my vacation that’s almost two months away.

Feel bloated but I can’t tell if that’s real, the food I ate, or psychosomatic.

Thursday we woke up in time to catch the tube to Kings Cross again as we had a Harry Potter themed walking tour to meet there at Platform 9 3/4.

When we booked this trip I had originally wanted to do the HP Warner Brothers thing but like an idiot I slept on getting the tickets.

I have this thing with travel plans where I get very gung ho at first and then anxiety sets in and I kind of shut down and don’t want to do any planning anymore until a certain point when the trip is almost upon us and then I get into high gear planning mode again. It’s stupid and I hate it, but I haven’t figured out how to fix my brain about it yet.

At any rate that’s what happened with the Warner Brothers thing. I figured it would kind of be like Disney and tickets would always be available but by the time I tried to get some, they were completely sold out for the entire time we were going to be there.

I was really bummed about it but only had myself to blame. The walking tour was a poor man’s substitute for that but it did save us a couple hundred bucks at least.

It was run by a very nice fellow named Richard who led us all around the city looking at filming locations and spots that were inspirations for places in the books.

It was all very enjoyable and I really liked the tour guide. He was super into it and made it all fun and interactive for the whole group.

The tour that I booked came with vouchers for a “magical afternoon tea” but we had to tube it across town to get there and because the tour ran a bit long we ended up being late.

It was still very cute and enjoyable, but we didn’t get the whole experience. However it was honestly geared more towards children so I don’t think we missed too much. The tea treats were all quite yummy at any rate.

It had been a very busy day so we were glad to get back to the hotel.

Rob started to feel crummy again so I offered to go get some take out for us for dinner.

We had both been wanting to try the pub across the street, and with all the walking we had done that day we felt justified in some pub food so I headed over to see if I could get some take out. I checked in the pub but they didn’t do take out.

I searched up and down the block for pubs and found some but when I checked their google pages before going in, none seemed to offer takeaway so I texted Rob who sensed my frustration and said he wanted Chinese from that place down from our hotel again so I went back and picked it up.

That place had been super sweet to him the night we had picked up the food before and they were again to me when I got this round of take out. We ended up eating from there again the next morning when Rob wanted fried rice just because they are the type of really friendly small business we like to show our appreciation to and the food was really yummy. If you happen to be near Kilburn Street, I highly recommend them: Flaming Wok & Grill.

After eating my weight in noodles, rice and chicken it was time to call it a night.

Wednesday morning we had tickets to the London Zoo but Rob couldn’t shake a headache and was generally feeling a bit run down. We figured it was from all the activity yesterday and the fact that the weather couldn’t decide if it wanted to be rainy and humid or sunny and frigid since we had arrived.

We had already talked the previous night and had determined that since it had been such a full day the day before that we wouldn’t be heartbroken if we skipped the zoo in favor of sleeping in.

I decided to go solo because I didn’t want to waste both the tickets and I was feeling fine. Plus we had been together 24/7 for several days so a little time to ourselves might not be such a bad thing really. Rob was all for it because as I mentioned before, he is reasonable and frugal and me going without him appealed to both of those aspects of his personality.

I enjoyed it as it was cute but it was a lot of ground to cover. I didn’t get to see all of it but I got to see most of the things I had wanted to before I had to get back because that night was the second Europe concert of the trip.

Rob was feeling much better when I got back so we got ready and headed out. We were a little early for the soundcheck so we walked around a bit. The show that night was at the Palladium and that was right next to Carnaby Street which Rob said used to be really big in the punk rock scene in the 80’s. It had definitely changed a bit since then. It was like the low end of high end shops and just trying to hard to be trendy in my opinion, but it was a cool place to walk around to kill some time.

We spotted the Europe truck at the back of the venue and Rob was fascinated by it because he is big into RC Cars and apparently he and his dad had just built one very similar for his pops. He said now that he might make one of his own and design the outside like this truck (which was his way of saying that since it had a Europe theme, I couldn’t really argue with it right?).

We stopped at a Costa coffee shop for a couple of lattes and then it was off to the soundcheck.

This soundcheck had a different vibe. First of all it was a rowdier crowd. There was nothing wrong with that, except I felt that they were trying way too hard to get the bands attention and it came off as kind of obnoxious.

We were told to sit in our assigned seats instead of being allowed to crowd the stage like in Manchester.

I understand why because the front row seats were practically right next to the stage but it just created a different vibe. I felt like the band wasn’t trying as hard to talk to us and that might well be because a lot of the people were more outgoing than the last batch and were already engaging them.

Either way it was a different energy and no real singing with the band. It was still very enjoyable though and I had a good time watching them.

After we grabbed some really good curry udon and a little shop near the venue before coming back from the concert.

The show was amazing and I was so happy I chose that show as it was John Leven’s (bass player) 60th birthday that night (didn’t realize that when I booked the tickets) and they wheeled a cake and champagne out and we all sang happy birthday to him. It was really cool and I was thrilled to be a part of it even in the tiniest capacity.

I had so much fun and was really sad when it was over. It hit me that night as I was trying to get to sleep that the Europe portion of the trip was now over. I had been anticipating it for so long, I gotta admit I got a little teary eyed knowing it was all done and I no longer had it to look forward to.

Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% over the moon glad that I had the opportunity and the means to pull off this trip to see not just one but two shows. I had the moment of a lifetime in my opinion to get to sing with the band, however short lived it was, and I will be forever grateful for that. It’s just a little bit of a letdown when I put so much of myself into the expectation of this trip and the concerts, to have them be over and know that I may not ever see the band live again.

But I knew that I couldn’t dwell on that because we had two more full days left and more fun was still to be had.

Concert pics in the next post.

The next day was our planned tourist day. Remember earlier in the report when I mentioned our friend that used to live in Manchester? Well her daughter still lived in the UK (Reading, I believe).

The last time either of us had seen Jodie she was a sassy 13 year old. She was now a sassy full grown adult. We’ve been friends on facebook for years though we hadn’t really kept in touch so it was nice that when we reached out about seeing her that she was all for it.

She and her wife Claire met us at the King’s Cross Station and we were off on the tube for adventures.

We hit Camden Market and had a Yorkshire Burrito which I had seen online and had to try.

Where Rob and I each picked up a pair of Docs.

Before heading out to find the aforementioned Yorkshire Burrito.

Then it was on to Borough Market, where we all regretted filling up on the burritos because there were so many yummy food options.

And then on to London Bridge.

And then even more walking until …

It was time to take an Uber boat up the Thames!

They also took us to Harrods which was impressive but depressing if you aren’t rich. 

At that point the Yorkshire Burrito had worn off with all our travels and we were feeling pretty hungry. Jodie remembered a little Italian place nearby that she had eaten at once that had carbonara that brought tears to her eyes it was so good. She could not undersell this point. She wanted that carbonara again, very badly. We were agreeable so we set off in search of this restaurant that she couldn’t remember the name of nor the coordinates.

We walked and talked and walked and walked some more. It was not unenjoyable because Jodie and Claire were really great people and I’m so glad that we were able to reconnect with Jodes and meet her lovely wife. If they lived closer we would definitely hang out on a regular basis and have already started making plans for their visit to the US (they want to visit San Fran and Vegas for sure). However, as we walked on, it became dark and when we hit a part of town that didn’t appear to have any kind of restaurants at all I started to get a bit cranky.

It was getting late and we had tickets for the London Zoo at ten the next morning that would no doubt involve a lot more walking. My watch told me that we had already walked almost nine miles that day so I was feeling like we were never going to find food or be able to go home.

After another half an hour or so we finally hit another patch of civilization and low and behold the Italian place was just there up ahead like a shining beacon of light. In case anyone is interested and doesn’t want to spend all night searching for a nameless restaurant like we did, it was called Foubert’s. You’re welcome.

Given her recommendation, I’m not sure why I didn’t get the carbonara, but I opted for tortellini instead, but I did try Jodes’ and it was pretty delicious. Rob got Lasagna and Claire got the carbonara as well. No pics because we were absolutely famished and inhaled everything (also my phone was at about 10% due to all the tourist pics I had taken over the course of the day so I was using it as little as possible in case we needed it on the way home).

Fat and happy, we paid the bill and headed back out to find that there was an underground entrance right around the corner. Huzzah!

We rode the tube as far as we could together and then bid them ado with promises to stay in touch and plan their US outing and then Rob and I hopped on our train back to the hotel.

It was a wonderful but absolutely exhausting day and we were so glad to get to the hotel to out our pjs on and get some sleep.

We intended to be up and running by ten the next morning but we ended up sleeping til eleven. Guess we needed it.

Once we both showered it was unbearably hot and humid in the room and we still couldn’t seem to get the air conditioning to work. It was all made worse by the fact that the temperature control on the shower was broken and seemed to be stuck on “fiery pits of hell”. It was the kind of hot and humid that even after you towel off you are immediately drenched again by your own sweat. Not fun.

We decided to buy a fan in our day’s explorations.

We had no real plans on this day by design. It was Saturday and we didn’t want to have to deal with a lot of tourists or crowds. Our thoughts were to just sort of walk up and down the street that we were staying on, grab some lunch and do a little shopping for stuff for the room.

We headed out and walked quite a distance up and down Kilburn St. finally stopping at an adorable pink themed cafe and had a late lunch before heading back in the direction of the hotel.

Since we had been unable to find a fan, I sent Rob back to the room and tried a couple more places to no avail.

Thankfully by the time I got back to the room Rob had gotten the window open and talked to the staff who said they would send a fan up.

The fan never came but Rob “figured out” the air conditioning (I’m not so certain they didn’t just flip a switch downstairs after he complained) and all was well with the world.

I got my clothing more organized and got my bag partially packed for the next day as we were taking the train up to Manchester for the first Europe concert.

Once we felt more squared away and a bit more rested, we headed out to the opposite direction of Kiburn St, looking for dinner options.

We didn’t see a whole lot on that end of the road but there was a cute little Asian place just a few steps from our hotel where we got some Chinese for dinner that night and then I ate waaaaay too many Cadbury chocolates before bed and my heart rate skyrocketed for like two hours (I’m not used to eating sugar like I used to, but damn they were good!).

The next day (Sunday) we were out of the hotel and on the underground a bit earlier than we anticipated thus making us super early for our train to Manchester and I was okay with that. I would rather be early than late.

It was the only full day of sunshine forecasted for our trip and ironically it was the coldest due to the humidity dropping off.

We waited for about an hour and then finally boarded the train where we dozed off and on for about three hours with very little actual sleep.

Milton Keynes, for those in the know is where Europe played in 1989 with some other bands and shocked everyone by having a much heavier sound than they had in the past and also by Joey having straight hair (lol). This was also the first and only (as far as I know) time that Joey and Jon Bon Jovi sang together.

Upon arriving in Manchester it took us a few moments to figure out the Uber situation but once we got it sorted it was a quick ten minute ride to our hotel for the night.

We checked in and I slapped some make up on my face and straightened my hair before we headed out to the venue area to see if we could grab food before the soundcheck. We found a little pizza place and got some very thin crust Burnt Ends pizza. It worked out to be the perfect amount of food. Not too stuffed, but satisfied, we made our way to The Lowry and settled in to wait for the soundcheck.

There was a total of about 25 or so people at the soundcheck so it was very intimate.

The band came out and played four songs. Very low key as they were saving their voices and energy for the concert. They had some light banter with us all and Joey (the lead singer) warned us that he might make us sing.

Sure enough during “More Than Meets The Eye” he made the rounds and would drop down to someone during the chorus and have that person sing two lines.

I started videoing on my phone when I saw him first do this. He stopped in front of this shy girl and she quietly sang her part. I thought it was great fun and he went back to sing another verse. When it came time for the second chorus I saw Joey coming my direction but he has only briefly made eye contact with me so I thought for sure he was going to pass me. In fact he did a sort of fake out move to pass me and then dropped down to one knee directly in front of me and pointed the mic in my face.

I’m not sure how I was able to breathe, let alone sing but I kinda went on auto pilot (thank you community theater training!) and belted my two lines.

He pounded me on the shoulder, smiling, and then he was up and off singing another verse.

I was in shock and trying to act very nonchalant but the reality of it was that a 35 year old dream of mine had just come true. However short of a duration, I had just sung with my favorite band in the world of the last 35+ years!

Joey had looked at me, smiling and encouraging the whole time (all five seconds if it) and I sang to him (at least I think, I pretty much blacked out and don’t remember a thing)!
I realized that I had been videoing the whole time but had dropped my hand when he approached me so all the footage was of his crotch.

Rob managed to grab a pic at the very end so there is blurry photographic evidence of Joey smiling at me with the mic in my face.

You guys, I cannot express enough how much this meant to me. This may have been the best moment of my life (Just don’t tell my husband, because he thinks that was the day I married him). Like, my inner 14 year old was dying and could never have fathomed that this would ever take place in all her wildest dreams, though she hoped desperately for it. This moment alone made the trip all worthwhile. If we had left right after soundcheck and never even seen the concert or anything else on the trip, I still would have been amazingly happy.

At any rate, Joey did the singing thing for two more people before the song was done and they did one or two more songs after that but I was lost in adrenaline land. I also grabbed a pic that John Norum (guitarist) tossed in my direction when they were all done.

When they were done we were ushered out and told to come back in a a couple hours for the show.

In the lobby one of the other people that sang with the band approached us and he was just as jacked on adrenaline as I was. He caught me dabbing at my eyes with a napkin (which I saved, because shut up!) as I had dissolved into a teary shaking mess as soon as we got out of there.

He told me that I had done a great job and we told him the same. We chatted for a minute and Rob snapped a pic of us together before we headed back to the hotel.

Once there I just kind of sat around in a daze, smiling and laughing randomly as I thought of what had just taken place until it was time to head back to the arena.

The concert was amazing but I knew it would be. I had the best time and our seats were amazing.

Two and a half hours of pure joy and then it was back to the hotel room where I had a very hard time getting to sleep.

I’m going to put the concert pics in the next post as this is getting too long.

A bit of background on this trip:
In January of this year my favorite band of the last 35+ years (Europe) put tickets on sale for their latest tour. They were calling it the Time Capsule tour and it was celebrating the 40 year anniversary of the release of their first album. It was promised to be a deep dive into all of their hits but also some of the fan favorites that were never released as singles. Billed as an intimate night with the band it was for smaller venues with a much more up close and personal style.

The unfortunate part of all of this was that, as usual, they would not be touring the US. I was really bummed because this was the tour I really wanted to see.

I had seen them twice in 2005 in Anaheim and San Diego when they reunited and again in 2016 when they came to San Jose but that was the extent of the US tours since they got back together (I was just shy of being old enough to be allowed to go to rock concerts when they first toured the US in 1986 and 87).

In 2020 they were going to tour in the states as an opening act for Kansas and Foreigner. We had tickets and even passes for the meet and greet (It was a part of our 4 part 20 year anniversary present to ourselves–Harry Potter at Universal Studios, Europe Concert, 20 year vow renewal in Vegas and Harry Potter Play in San Francisco) and while I was excited about that, it wasn’t the tour I wanted. I didn’t want to see them as an opening act. They have 11 albums worth of songs and to see that smushed into a 30-45 minute set, while worth it, would just leave me wanting more.

At any rate, it never happened because COVID did. The shows were cancelled and Europe never rescheduled any dates in the US.

Feeling super sorry for myself for not being able to see the Time Capsule tour, the date that the tickets went on sale for the UK shows I was popping on the website and seeing how quickly the tickets were going. I put in VIP tickets for two and was able to get really good seats. I played around with all the different venues (they played a lot of UK shows) and then I decided fuck it, I’m doing this.

I was willing to waste money that I shouldn’t just to have an off chance that all the stars in the universe might align and I would be able to see this show.

My husband and I have a friend that lived near Manchester. We had visited her right after 9/11 (we were scheduled to fly out the day after but it was delayed by two weeks understandably, but that is a story for a different time) and hadn’t seen her since. I figured it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with her again and give me more of an excuse to sell this to the husband when I told him I bought the tickets. Oh, did I mention I spent this money on the tickets without discussing it with my long suffering husband first? Yeah, that happened.

So I picked the Manchester show and bought the tickets. Second row, dead center with the VIP package that included access to the soundcheck before the show, signed posters and a VIP lanyard.

I got the insurance on the tickets but it said that you could only basically get your money back if you got COVID or had some sort of natural disaster prevent you from getting there. No matter, I’d figure it out.

Two weeks later I found the right time to mention it to the husband who was, understandably, less than thrilled.

He enjoys the band and knew straight away when he first met me 24 years ago that I was (unhealthily?) obsessed with them. Over the years he has bought me all kinds of memorabilia that hang on our walls to this day, but while he “gets it” I’m not sure he fully understands my infatuation and that’s okay.

When I was a kid I didn’t have the best childhood (I know, who did right? Boo hoo). But when I discovered this band at age 13 or 14, it gave me an escape. Listening to their music was the one thing I could do that would transport me to another place, if only in my head, for a few hours and get me out of the hell I was living in. I’ve never forgotten that and I never will.

Over the years I feel that the music has just gotten better. I’m so grateful to still have that escape, even though my life has improved vastly, and I will always be thankful to them and never be able to repay them for the good they have provided in my life.

Having said all that, my husband is a reasonable man, but also very frugal and did not see the benefit of buying tickets to a concert in a foreign country that we would now have to plan a trip to.

But he loves me and asked that I let him digest the information.

When we reconvened on it some weeks later, he had warmed to the idea a bit but was disappointed to find out that our friend that lived in Manchester had moved. To Spain.
So now we had tickets to a show in a place we had no real interest in going.

I asked him if he wanted to see if I could sell the Manchester tickets and get some for one of the two London shows they were doing. He was agreeable to that, if they seats would be comparable to the ones that we already had.

I looked it up and I could still get second row, but off to the left side, which I was fine with so we agreed that was better and I bought them.

Once the location was in a more touristy area with more things to do, I could see him get much more excited about the trip. He also told me that he had thought about it and he realized that the Europe concert from 2020 was the one thing from our 20 year anniversary that we had not been able to complete and this would bring it around full circle. Also, he said that I rarely asked to go anywhere vacation wise unless it was Vegas or Maine and that once he put that in perspective, he was much more amenable to the idea.

He then asked me if I would like to keep the tickets to the Manchester show and see both shows (Instant regret showed on his face as soon as he asked this ).

Ummmm…who are you asking? OF COURSE I WOULD!!!  I’d see every single show on this tour if I could!

And so it was to be. We planned a trip to England, staying in London with a one night side visit to Manchester.

With 9 months to plan it, I think it worked out pretty well with a good amount of touristy stuff and rest all wrapped up together.

Day One:

Woke up on Thursday morning around 4:30 or so to get an hour long workout in. I’ve recently lost 135 pounds and exercise has been a major part of that. An hour is less than I do on a normal day but on this day it was more about calming my anxiety and less about burning calories, though I knew I was going to be eating plenty of those as the day wore on. I’m not a good flier. I am afraid of heights and have pretty bad anxiety on a good day. The last two years of working out have done wonders for my fears and phobias, but when it comes to a biggie like flying, I still get really anxious.

We had packed the night before other than the essential last minute morning things so there was little else to do but shower, load up the van and get the dogs off to the vet to be boarded. We knew we would be in a hurry so we pre filled out all the paperwork the day before so drop off only took a minute or two.

Then it was off to Rob’s dads house where he was waiting and ready to take us to the Marina drop off for the airplane shuttle bus.

We had to go early because my father in law was expecting workers to come replace some windows at his house. We didn’t mind, because he was doing us a favor and it worked out well as we had time while waiting for the shuttle to call AT&T and get our international plan activated on our phones.

We also had a lovely chat with an older woman named Candy who was going to the San Jose airport to head off to Vegas for the PBR event. When Vegas is a common bond, there is always plenty to talk about.

The shuttle was thankfully uneventful (did I mention I have a fear of freeways as well?) and we got to the San Francisco airport about four hours early for our flight.

On the shuttle

We just basically hung out near our gate and chatted until it was time to board.

Last month I had a sedation dentistry appointment (another fear) to get my two front teeth replaced (crowns). I mention this because they had given me two Valium pills to take the night before in case I had trouble sleeping. I had been able to get to sleep just fine that night so with no use for the prescribed use of those pills, I had a little friend in my pocket.

I took half of one and holy crap that was a Godsend. Didn’t make me loopy but really made the take off (the worst part for me) painless and almost enjoyable. Rob was like: “Who are you???” because I was laughing and joking the whole time when I’d normally be cutting off the circulation in his hand for the first half hour of the flight.

The flight was nine and a half hours but it really passed quickly for me. We got lucky and there was no other person in our three seat row so we were able to spread out and relax. There was also no turbulence to speak of and lots of movies available to watch. I finally got to see Are You There God? It’s me Margaret.” (a book I read multiple times as a child) and also a couple stand up comedy specials.

All Aboard!

Dinner before lights out!

Flying away from the sunset

Are you there God? It’s me Margaret.

Breakfast before landing

Unfortunately, sleep eluded me.

As we got close to landing they rushed everyone into clean up mode and the flight staff took their seats stating we were heading into bad weather and it was going to get really bumpy.
I braced myself for an anxiety filled hour but other than a couple of bumps right after the announcement it was smooth sailing. Thank goodness!

Once we landed we had to clear this automated passport check thingie. That took quite a while simply because there were soooo many people in line, but after that we got our bags and away we went.

I thought customs would take forever but I guess the passport thing was all we needed to do as we breezed right through the exit with no questions asked of us.

Once we were out we bought an Oyster card for the underground and traveled the hour by Subway to get to our hotel. I have to go on record as saying that I really, REALLY appreciate the transit system in England, just as I did the one in Korea when we went a few years ago. It simplifies things so very much and really keeps the spending down on having to take Ubers or cabs.

Arriving at our station on the tube.

Once off the tube it was a short walk to the hotel. We were early but they said our room should be ready in a few minutes. They also waived to early check in fee, so that was nice.

We went into a corner of the lobby and about ten minutes later we were told our room was ready and up we went.

The room was small but not horribly cramped. It was stuffy though and the window didn’t appear to open, nor did the air conditioning appear to work. I was pretty sure it was going to be one of those situations like we had had at the Four Queens one winter in Vegas where they just shut off the air conditioning to a whole tower and when we complained we were told to basically suck it up. It wasn’t horribly warm, but I could tell it would get bad when we used the shower given how small the room was, but that was a problem for later.

(Full disclosure, these pics were taken a couple days after we arrived because I forgot to take any when we first got there, too tired.)

We settled in and unpacked the best we could with no drawer space and then Rob caught a nap.

I decided to go explore the neighborhood while he slept, so I went on a walkabout to check out the shopping and restaurants nearby.

Just like TJ Maxx but spelled slightly different.

I did not travel all this way to eat at Popeye’s, no matter how good the chicken is…

Same goes for Mickey D’s

Ummmmm…..

Ummmm….. Oh, it’s a dollar store! 😀 😀

To be fair to those mannequins, it WAS really cold out.

Got coffee here a couple times during the trip (not this location, but this chain) and they are really good. Amazing chocolate biscuits too!!

I also picked up dinner from the place downstairs and by the time I got back it was time to eat and hit the sack, having been up for over 24 hours.

DAY FOUR:

Wednesday, the only thing we had on our agenda was to drive up to Bangor to visit my best friend in the hospital.  She had finally been moved out of ICU and we were excited to go see her.

While eating breakfast and getting ready we discussed the logistics of getting my mothers ashes home.  We knew that we didn’t have the proper documentation to get her on the JetBlue flight with us so we had looked into mailing her back when we were still in Cali and it seemed the only viable option.  We looked up the info again and it appeared to be a bit more complicated than I remembered.  We decided that since only one person could visit Kimmy at a time that I would go first and he would run to the post office and talk to a real person to find out just what we needed to do.

We packed up mom on the off chance that they would be able to ship her out that day or us and headed up to Bangor.

We got there a little early for visiting hours so we decided to just go to the post office then since it was nearby.  As fate would have it, they could in fact, ship mom out right then and there so we had her put into a box and shipped off to Rob’s dad’s house back in California.  We had originally planned to spread some of her ashes over her grandparents grave here in Maine, but the convenience of getting her on the move as easily as possible won out.

I couldn’t believe the comfort that I felt once she was packaged up and ready to head home.  I didn’t realize how much anxiety I was carrying with me over it until it was taken care of and then it was like a giant sigh of relief.

With her safely on her way to Salinas (she was delivered 10/8/21 so she made it!), we headed out to the car and got a message from Kim that she was going in for a procedure so wouldn’t be available for visiting yet.

With nothing else to do, we mapped the Hollywood casino and found it was just up the street so we tooled on over and killed about an hour. They ID you at the door and there was an elderly gentleman in front of us.  The guy manning the door was joking with him, telling him he was supposed to ID anyone that looked younger than 30 so he needed to see his drivers license.  We all had a laugh and then when it was my turn, I gave him my ID.  He looked at it and said: “I didn’t expect that!” before running it through a machine to make sure it was real (probably because it was an out of state ID).  He then told me that he had ID’d me for real because he didn’t think I looked over 30.  Now, granted I had a face mask on, but I’ll take a compliment where I can get it.  When he told me to have a nice day, I said: “I will now!”  🤣🤣

 

 

We decided to head to the car after losing $40 dollars.  We still hadn’t heard from Kimmy but we knew we would lose more money if we stayed so we sat in the car and watched an episode of Bob’s Burgers on Rob’s Ipad.  Just as it ended we got the word that Kimmy was back in her room so we mosied on over.

We had brought Red Barn with us for lunch and while it was cold, it was still pretty yummy.  I brought it up and Kimmy and I ate while Rob serenaded us on the guitar via Facetime.

We got back to the hotel around eight or so and didn’t do much else.  We ate some more cold leftover Red Barn and went to bed.

 

DAY FIVE:

On Thursday Rob let me sleep in a bit while he went down and got some breakfast from the lobby.  The rest of the trip was mostly about visiting with Kim so we didn’t much else on the agenda.  We picked up Big G’s sandwiches in Winslow and then it was up to Clinton to get Kim’s daughter Emily and then back on the road to Bangor.

It’s hard to tell but this sandwich is bigger than my head.

 

We got there just as they were trying to put in her picc line (unsuccessfully) so there was a bit of a wait but then Emily and I were able to visit with her.  Rob had been able to at least peek in and say hi right before they started the picc line.

We dropped Em off and were back to the hotel by seven I think.  We ate leftover Big G’s for dinner and hit the hay.

 

DAY SIX:

I think Friday morning was the first morning we left the hotel before nine the whole trip.

My cousin Tammy typically runs in to visit us right before we leave on the last day of our trip.  However, this time we had plans for the last full day so we had to make other arrangements.  She knew of this place in Vassalboro that makes fresh donuts so she got us some apple cider sugared ones from there and we all met at her house for coffee and donuts.

It was a really good visit.  I hadn’t seen her husband in at least 20 years I think, so it was good to sit down and have a nice chat with them both.  So much so that we ended up staying later than intended.  Thankfully though, she saved us a trip to a store by letting us have an old box she had down in the basement so we could pack up the artwork and pictures that my brother had given us of Mom’s and get them shipped back to California.

 

 

So then it was back to the hotel to get the pictures and stuff packed up and Rob getting it squared away with a UPS label and pick up.  By that time it was getting pretty late and though Kim had been told she was going home that day, she was still in the hospital awaiting another try at the picc line before she could be released.  We decided that the long drive to Bangor was a bit too much for us, especially not knowing if we would have to turn around and come back in case she got discharged while we were on our way.  We messaged Kimmy about it and decided we would scrap our plans for the next day and go visit her then instead.

We were a little bummed about having to nix our plans for Saturday because they were literally the very first thing we had planned for the trip.  We were going to go get a one weekend only special at my mom’s favorite ice cream place (we were still going to be able to do that part) and then we were going to go to a “Bean Suppah” and follow that up with a trip to LL Bean.

So a little background on the bean supper.  They are a long standing Maine tradition.  It is usually put on in church basements or some sort of American Legion hall.  It consists of a bunch of different meals and sides put together (obviously beans are the focus) and the money they charge usually goes to the church or a charity/non profit.  You get a bunch of food, usually desert and you sit around and all eat cafeteria style like around a bunch of long tables.

When Rob and I first came back to Maine to visit after getting married, he said he wanted to do the most authentic Maine thing I could think of.  I immediately thought of a bean supper but there weren’t any going on nearby at the time of that visit.  Every single visit after that he asked about a bean supper and we were never able to find one going on during our visit that wasn’t at least a two hour drive.

He began to tell me he thought I was lying and there was no such thing as a bean supper.  He thought it was Maine folklore or that I was just making it up.  So I was very excited when I found one about 40 minutes south of our hotel happening in Durham that Saturday.  And since it was only about 15 minutes away from Freeport and he had never been to LL Bean, we decided to take a side trip over there and get our picture taken with the big boot.

However, this trip was much more prioritized to seeing Kimmy than it was about touristy things so we both agreed that scrapping it going back up to the hospital and see Kim was a better idea than to not see her one more time that trip so that we could eat beans and see a giant boot.  That didn’t mean we weren’t sad about missing it though.

That night we made a quick trip to the grocery store and were tucked into bed early.  Kimmy sent us a message that evening that she had gotten her line in and they were going to send her home the next morning.

This was great news, because not only would Kim be out of that horrible hospital, but because she would be closer than Bangor and because we didn’t have to work around the late visiting hours, we could go spend time with her at her house and possibly still keep our other plans for that evening.

Of course, we knew how this hospital liked to dick around with her schedule and wait til the last possible moment to do anything, we weren’t holding our breath that she would get out at a decent hour.

TO BE CONTINUED.