(written on the 7th from notes taken previously)
I definitely didn’t get much sleep last night. 🙃
Probably somewhere around 5 hours ish. I listened to some uplifting music, used the bathroom in the Flying J, bought a danish since I’d used both their parking lot and their bathroom (thanks, y’all 🙏¹), and got back on the road.
Since his shop was pretty much on my way, I decided to stop off and visit Mi to.
guel first. We hung out and talked for a little while, and then we went over to the little Mexican restaurant next door where I bought him lunch, and we just chatted for a while. He’s been crazy busy and super successful in his business efforts, which is pretty cool. He’s busted his butt.
I also spent a good little while helping Miguel finally make some headway on getting rid of some of the vehicles that have been abandoned by customers who either didn’t want to pay for work already done, or decided they didn’t want to pay for needed repairs.
One of the vehicles has been there for something like 4 or 5 years, I think. Another for maybe 2 years, and now a recent one that’s been there for 2 months.
I dragged him over to the local police department, and they had us call the regular dispatch, and we talked to them, and they told us to just call a tow company.
He could file documentation to keep the cars and sell them, but it’s just such a hassle. Immediate space is worth more than the hassle.
I also helped him get everything going, cars moved out of the way, so the cars that need to be hauled off could be moved.
Lots of work, but progress. 🎉
🙏²
I arranged to meet somebody in Bentonville to buy a brand new toilet seat, which I will now sit on while driving to see if it alleviates my symptoms like it does when I need to use the can. 🤞
😁
I’m very grateful for her patience. 🙏³ I was supposed to have been there somewhere between 4:30 and 5ish, I think, but I didn’t end up showing up until a little after 6:00?
😅
Helping Miguel with the vehicles took a lot longer than expected.
Once in Pea Ridge, I swung by the Walmart neighborhood market and picked up some flowers for my mama. Their prices have gone up pretty significantly, so the decent ones that I used to buy are a lot more expensive. Or maybe it’s just they don’t offer the same variety and smaller bunches that they used to?
I don’t know. Seemed like a much smaller bunch with a lot less variety than I used to buy her, but at least I was able to find something that looked halfway decent. 🙏⁴
I met my mom at Wendy’s (A relatively recent tradition each time we get together. I think it started with our first Great Western Road Trip).
We hung out and talked for a good long time, until we were the only ones (for a good while) in the sit-down area.
Speaking of those “Great” road trips, we’re tentatively planning a Great Eastern road trip this year. 😁
Among other efforts, we’ve got some ancestors we know who are but who simply vanished and would like to see if we can figure out what happened to them.
(Here’s lookin’ at you, Susan. 🙃)
Gonna be an adventure. 😊
Before we went inside, we noticed a whole cluster of delivery drones. You probably remember, but just in case you don’t, the Walmart neighborhood market in Pea Ridge was the very first Walmart in the United States to have drone delivery, and it was a variable traffic jam in the sky. It looked like an airport with planes circling waiting for their turn. There were six large drones up in the air all at the same time.
By the time I thought about taking a picture, only three were left (two of them in the frame) hovering there.
After dinner, I bid my mother farewell and headed over to Haven Hill to visit my Hill peeps, chatting with my friend Corey a good little while along the way and then before going in. It was already late, so I wasn’t able to visit everyone, just Liz and Mike, as their lights were still on.
It was great to catch up with Liz and Mike. Liz’s enormous efforts to establish a French bulldog breeding business are finally paying off after I run years? of challenges. 🥳
After a good rundown of what’s going on with Liz’s family, I headed over to my mom’s place and crashed for the night.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 