Becky’s visit, Seth

Becky, Bridgette and Mike made it over to the farm Saturday morning. They stayed at a hotel in Bridgeport Friday night after getting very late. We had planned a big breakfast together and I think Becky was looking forward to that. We discovered right away that Bridgette likes “outside” as much as Savanna, so, once out the door, we let her stay outside for a grand tour of the farm. She walked all around the pig and chicken area, all around the goats, all through the garden and over to the barn to see the cows. From there Mama took the tour out onto the road so Bridgette could have some solid footing for the walk back to the house. I managed to get a few little things done while Mama, Becky and Mike visited and after Bridgette’s nap we headed to Decatur for lunch. I had planned on going out for bar-b-que but everyone elected to go for Thai food so we went to Moua’s Asia Cooking. That was when the fun began.

Mike insisted on taking the little PT Cruiser that they had driven over and before we got to town it started overheating. A quick stop at O’Reiley’s for a thermostat and we were off for lunch. He babied the car on the way back to the farm and pulled the thermostat as soon as the engine had cooled off enough to work on. The thermostat we put on turned out to be a bad one and he had to pull it back out. When he did, he broke the fuel return line. No big deal, we had to go to the parts store anyway. Well, it turned out to be a big deal. It is a dealer only part and a special order one at that and all the dealership parts departments were closed. On the advice of one auto parts employees, we headed to a junk yard to locate a replacement. The nearest one was in Bowie. Fortunately, they were still open. Unfortunately, they did not have the part we needed – and we looked over the entire yard. So, I took him to a parts store in Bowie that has always been very helpful to me every time I needed help. There we bought the parts to temporarily fix the fuel return line and headed home thinking all was well. Not so fast.

With the fuel line repaired and the new thermostat in the car, it still overheated quickly. Mike determined that it was the water pump. That is a five to seven hour job for a mechanic shop. The best accommodation we could give him was working on the car under the carport. So, he dug in thinking the Google videos he had watched had provided all the information he needed. He worked on the car until dark that night and came back Sunday morning to continue. By 5 pm Sunday night he had to give up. The engine was disassembled and the front was up on jacks, but he could not go further. Becky called a friend in Hot Springs who was willing to drive over to pick them up. He got to the farm about 1:30 am, loaded them up and headed back to Hot Springs. That’s a good friend. We used to be able to count on Grandpa to be there for us like that but he and Norman were not interested in helping Mike – and they made that clear pretty quickly. Mike and Becky will have to come back over in a couple weeks to finish repairs to the car, but he will bring help with him.

Overall it was a good visit. Mike and I had time to visit as we drove around in search of parts and I did get a chance to witness – so it was not all bad. Mama and Becky had a good visit with Grandma on Saturday and Bridgette warmed up to us a little over the time spent with us.

On another note, Seth and Gabriella came to church Sunday morning. It was pleasant surprise to see them there. I was under the impression that he, like Norman, Grandma, and Grandpa had not been going to church, but that is not the case. Since Gabriella watches a young lady named Zoe on the weekend and since they have to take her to Mineral Wells each Sunday, they have been sneaking to church in Bowie on Sunday mornings. And the church they are going to is a really good one.

It is a shame they have to sneak off to church – especially considering Grandma’s heritage.