Home Sweet Home

At 9:00 am our next door neighbor Wes Roberts called to say the lights were on in our house. Sandy worked that morning while I packed the minivan. After lunch we headed north for home. We were so fortunate to find the house no worse off than when we left except for the food that had spoiled in the refrigerator. Trey Davey and Benji were delighted to be home and squealed with glee when they saw their play room and toys. And even better, Grandma and Grandpa Edds came over after dinner to spend the night since their house still didn’t yet have power restored.

Tennessee Cousins

Waiting in a distant hotel room for the utility company to repair your home’s power after a natural disaster can be really boring, if you let it. Instead, the boys and I adopted the motto “Carpe Diem” (seize the day). Since we were near the boy’s great grandmother Edds’ birthplace, we decided to continue the search for her father’s grave. We called Granddaddy’s cousin, Bessie Marie Horrell in Murfreesboro. She is almost 90 years old but still of good mind and body. She directed us to Milton, Tennessee where her parents were buried. The boys and I drove to the far edge of Rutherford County and found the tiny community and its cemetery. We found Great, Great Aunt Vera and Uncle Jim Allen along with a few other distant cousins. It’s possible that Great Grandmother may have lived near Milton, and her father may be buried near by. We’ll keep looking.

UK Game on Groundhog Day

With high-speed internet service, Sandy has the ability to work from anywhere, so she returned to work on Monday. Daddy and the boys had breakfast in the hotel lobby and watched Punxsutawney Phil predict six more weeks of winter. We hoped we could go home before then. While Mommy worked, Daddy took the boys for a minivan ride. We returned to the Murphysboro Evergreen Cemetery that we had visited a month earlier with a list of Tennessee ancestors. The office attendant confirmed that, unfortunately, no one from my list rested there. That evening we went to the Bell’s house to watch the University of Kentucky basketball game. Lisa and Al laid out lots of fun toys on a soft sleeping bag for the boys. Davey particularly enjoyed a rocking horse that had been Al’s and quickly figured out how to make it rock by shifting his weight.

Our Little Super Bowl Party

Our boys are very charming and make friends easily. Several of the Hampton Inn staff members adopted us and went out of their way to make our stay better. By our third day they had observed that the boys were restless from their confinement. Our friend Valorie offered us use of their conference room to play and watch the Super Bowl. This was a great idea. She moved all the chairs and tables aside to create a big wide open floor. We brought down all the boys’ toys, and they attempted to spread them over every square foot of the conference room. There were very few guests in the hotel that night, and we moved our party to the lobby for the second half and enjoyed the exciting finish with the hotel’s evening crew.

Cold Home Visit

Our friends Al and Lisa Bell graciously helped and entertained us during our stay in Smyrna. We made plans for Daddy Dave and Al to make an Owensboro trip on Saturday while Sandy and the boys stayed in Smyrna with Lisa. Unfortunately, the Bells came down with our stomach virus and were unavailable, so we traveled home to check damages and get supplies. Driving along the highway we observed tree damage much greater than that done by Hurricane Ike’s 80 mph September winds. That storm broke 200 utility poles compared to the 2,000 damaged by this ice storm. Our home sustained light damage compared to others but was still without power. At 3:00 pm the nursery thermometer measured 40 degrees outside and 35 degrees inside. Low temperatures for that evening were forecasted to be near zero. We switched the car seats to the minivan, loaded supplies and headed back to Smyrna.

Big Tub Time

Mommy and Daddy have a big sink at home perfect for bathing babies. On previous travel stays we would wash them in the hotel room sinks, but our boys are way too big for that now. This situation allowed for Benji and Davey to graduate to the big tub. Fish couldn’t have met this water tank with more excitement. Their first big tub bath was in the Bowling Green Hilton Gardens, and Daddy joined them in the tub for comfort and security, but he needn’t have bothered. Both boys were neither scared nor unsteady in the big tub. The next night at the Smyrna Hampton Inn they squealed and squirmed with excitement when we started running the bath water. In the big tub they could bath together and splash all they wanted without rebuke. It was easily the high point of their adventure.

Refugees on the move

Owensboro was devastated by the ice storm. More than eighty percent of Daviess County had no utilities; even cell phones were down. The hotels closed due to the power outage. What few gas stations that had power for the pumps had long lines waiting. Daddy Dave filled the 4-wheel drive Jeep, transferred the baby seats and evacuated the family south. Bowling Green’s hotels were full of people from other parts of Kentucky who had lost power and southern utility employees traveling north to help restore power. We stayed Wednesday night at the Hilton Gardens near the Bowling Green Convention Center, where we did several loads of laundry and enjoyed a warm, comfortable night’s sleep. The next day we moved south to the more modestly priced Hampton Inn in Smryna, Tennessee, close to our friends Al and Lisa Bell.