It was quite a long day but we are now tucked up snug as bugs in a rug at my folks' place in Illinois! It's always nice to come back for a visit to the place where I grew up, especially since the bed in my childhood room has been replaced by one that is bigger and far more comfortable. We are sharing a room with the kiddo because my sister and her fiance still need separate rooms til the wedding, but at least we got the biggest non-master bedroom. (I was the oldest so I got the biggest bedroom growing up, until approximately 20 minutes after I left for college when my middle sister tossed all my belongings into boxes and enacted a surprise room swap.) Luckily the kiddo has been sleeping on the floor lately for reasons that are his own, so instead of needing an air mattress we just brought along his big wedge pillow and he was happy. He's sleeping now, and not even a podcast going!
We got going pretty early out of Dayton and picked up an hour switching time zones in Indiana (WE SWITCHED TIME ZONES?!?) so we arrived in Champaign-Urbana just after 11. I slept through a lot of the morning portion of the trip and that was awesome because something about the cold, dry hotel air messed with my CPAP and I woke up about four times in the night to shake condensed water out of my mask. Using a CPAP with water in the tube is like breathing through a snorkel with a little water at the bend. You still get air, but it makes that thup-thup noise that says an incautious breath could give you a surprise lungful of water. It's not conducive to good sleep. Anyway, Champaign was our stomping grounds during the early years of our marriage, so stopping over there is always nostalgic. I was super sad to see that one of our favorite restaurants has closed, but such is the march of time. The pandemic didn't get it because it's obviously been gone for awhile. But between seeing Meijer and Skyline Chili in Dayton to remind us of Cincinnati and stopping in Champaign, it was like retracing our own steps.
Champaign is a good place to stop and get gas along our route, but we also stopped because my sister said there was a place there that did drive-up COVID testing and you didn't need a referral or symptoms or anything. It was all set up behind the mall, and on Sunday morning it wasn't even busy! We got paperwork to fill out at one tent, then drove up to another tent to fill it out and hand it in, then each briefly removed our masks long enough for the q-tip up the nose. The kiddo was worried that it would hurt, but despite some sputtering, he did okay. It was my husband that had the real problem, and it was hilarious. He is extremely ticklish over most of his body, but I never considered whether that sensitivity might extend to the nostrils. It definitely does. Every time she touched the q-tip to his nose he would jerk back, laughing and flailing, and have to try and lean forward again, only for the whole thing to repeat itself. Finally on the fourth or fifth try he was able to hold still long enough, with my hand firmly on his back to helpfully keep him from jerking backwards. I thought the q-tip felt kind of weird, but it was not too bad. It didn't hurt. The whole thing took less than half an hour, then we were back on the road!
We arrived at our destination midafternoon, very good time, all things considered! We carried our stuff into the house, got the cat set up, and immediately got the wedding stuff tour. They've been working to spruce up the house, especially the backyard, for weeks now, ever since the big wedding plan was officially scrapped. It was looking amazing before last week when a huge branch fell off one of the oak trees and ripped the fascia and gutter off the screened porch, but it could have been worse. The tree stopped less than a foot from my folks' bedroom, which definitely would have caused more problems than some missing woodwork. Wedding work was in full swing so we got swept up as well, making decorations and table cards and carrying things around.
It was great to see my folks and my sister again, I haven't seen any of them since March when we left the island. My mom and dad were supposed to visit us this summer in Virginia, but obviously that did not happen. Hopefully next year! We will be social distancing from nearly all the people at the wedding, but hugging my parents is just one of those things that I will risk so long as none of us have any symptom and we have all been careful. We had steaks on the grill and fresh-picked sweet corn for supper and it was amazing. If you've never had sweet corn from a little stand at the end of a farmer's driveway, cooked the same day as it was picked, you don't really understand what sweet corn is supposed to taste like. I miss it so much since I moved away! After supper I helped clean up the kitchen, then helped my dad hang blinds and spray a nest of hornets, so now it is time for bed. Lots more to do tomorrow!
