Saturday morning, when I woke up, I decided to take it slow, before driving up to Dripping Springs. I didn't want to be in such a hurry that I would make myself a nervous wreck, before venturing up to Ronnie's without Tony. Even though I had overslept by an hour, I did my morning chores—feeding my furry kids and getting a load of laundry started.
When Tone returned from Medina, we drank our healthy smoothies, and then he went outside to feed the dogs and to clean their pens, while I began walking with Leslie. Over an hour and a half later, Tony came inside the trailer. "I just walked eight miles!" I bragged to T.
"I just picked up poop from over fifty dogs!" Tone stated with pride. "Don't you need to get on the road?"
"I'm fixin' to," I said. "I've got to get cleaned up and pack. "I will probably be leaving in about an hour or so..."
An hour or so later, I grabbed my guitar, and loaded it into Buttermilk's back seat. Then I packed my portable Bose iDock and eighty gig iPod into my flowery cloth duffle bag, along with some clothes. I carried it, and a new box of fine wine out to Buttermilk. When I returned to the trailer, I put on my favorite necklace, the turquoise one, that Karen Cares, custom made for me a few years ago. Then I put on my Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch blue jean jacket. I was ready to go, but I didn't want to leave Tony and our dogs and Lucky.
After saying goodbye to Toto, Little Girl, Hank, Sr., Thunder, Mama, Abbie and Lucky, I slung my purse over my shoulder and left the trailer. As I was programming Garmina, with Ronnie's address—Tony showed up in Kermit. "Hudson's just been adopted!"
"You're kidding me? Hudson?" I had mixed feelings. I really loved that dog, and I really wanted to adopt him, even though that was impossible, but I was also thrilled that he was getting adopted so quickly.
"No. These two really nice people, Kathleen and Joe, want to adopt him, for their son, Garrett. Do you have time to write up Hudson's paperwork?"
"Yes!" I turned around and went back inside the trailer, and Tone took off in Kermit. Five minutes later, I jumped into Buttermilk and drove down to the barn, where Tony was standing with the soon to be adoptive parents. After introductions, I told them about being in love with Hudson and congratulated them on picking him.
After Hudson's papers were signed, I told them that I was heading out of town, and thought it might be best that I leave without saying goodbye to Hudson, because I didn't want to cry, and then show up at my cousin's reunion all puffy and red-eyed, and having to explain that Tony and I were fine, and a dog had made me cry. Fortunately, they understood. So, they took off with T., and Buttermilk took off with me.
I was one of the last cousins to arrive at the Ronderosa. As soon as I had parked Buttermilk, I called Tony to let him know that I had made it to Ron and Nita's and the next thing you know, I was covered up with cousins! There were no handshakes, just hugs! Of course, everyone had really aged, but me, and all of us were gray headed, except for Suzy, who had always wanted to be a blond.
The fun day was spent catching up with each other's lives, and eating all kinds of snacks, before eating Ron's delicious smoked BBQ dinner hours later. I'm not sure which snack it was that gave me gas, but I had gas so bad, that I seriously thought about making a sign to wear around my neck, that would read: "No Smoking Please!" so, I wouldn't accidentally blow up my cousins who still smoked. I eighty-sixed that thought, because I wanted to show off my necklace.
A couple of hours later, I still had the walking pooh-poohs, so I asked Katelyn, Ron and Nita's beautiful daughter, to go for a long walk with me, so I could blow off a little steam. Two loud miles later, I was a gas free woman! Thank goodness!
When we returned from our windy journey, we walked inside the house, to find Ronnie, Ray, Brock and Tom playing music! Ronnie was playing guitar, Ray was playing dulcimer, Brock was playing banjo, and Tom was playing guitar and mandolin! They sounded great! Then my cousin Tony grabbed me by my jacket! "Get in there, Nance and play with them." I tried to blow him off, but I was out of gas, so to speak. Then Cindy and a few others begged me to pick up my guitar, and play with them. I was out numbered.
Before I grabbed a pickin' stool, I took off for the kitchen, and poured me a glass of fine boxed wine, for false courage. We picked and grinned for over an hour. It was a lot of fun, and I must admit that I played pretty good with them. In fact, I've never played better! When we finally quit playing, my fingers were killing me, and they are still sore.
By eleven o'clock, the reunion was over, and everyone had gone back from where they had come from. Ron, Nita and I sat up and visited for about an hour, then we went off to bed.
I left this morning, before Ronnie and Nita got up. When we reached Fredericksburg, I pulled Buttermilk into Walmart's parking lot, and called Tony to ask him if he wanted to meet me for breakfast at Randy & Lisa's Save Inn, because we were both twenty-two miles away from Kerrville.
Thirty minutes later, I walked into the Save Inn and sat down at a table. Because I am blind as a bat, I didn't see Lisa, sitting at a table with her adorable grandchildren and her daughter-in-law, Trisha, of Copies Plus! Five minutes later, Tone walked into the restaurant and sat down at our table. "Did you say hi to Lisa and Trish over there?" After telling him that I hadn't seen them, he turned around and we waved to them.
As we ate, I told Tony all about the fun cousin reunion, and he nearly choked on his biscuit, when I told him about my gas-capades. "I'm going to the next one," he said.
As always our waitress was great, and so was our breakfast. One of their other friendly waitresses, came over to our table and told us this joke. "Do you know how to fix a broken pumpkin?" We shook our heads no. "With a pumpkin patch!" After paying for our meal, T. and Trigger followed us home.
After unpacking, and starting a load of clothes in Queen Bee, I walked six miles. Then the phone rang—it was Georgia. "Nancy, can I adopt Tasha? I've fallen in love with her..." By the end of our conversation, Tasha had found her forever home! Tony and I were thrilled!
This afternoon, around two o'clock, Kinky called to invite us over to the Lodge, for a visit with Marcie, who had flown in from Hanoi, Vietnam. When we arrived, after hugs, Will, Kinky, Marcie, Tone and I sat down at the kitchen table and had a really fun visit! At one point, Kinky went to his office and came back with a package and handed it to me. "I think this is for you, but I really think it is for me. It's from Germany and I was just over there. Open it and let's find out." I opened it.
It was an old, small picture book, filled with beautiful black and white pictures of dogs and cats. Then I found a folded note tucked in the front of the book. "I think it's for me, Kink," I said, as I looked at the envelope. It says, "To Nancy Parker-Simons, care of K. Friedman..."
"I know, but I bet it is for me," Kinky said. I unfolded the handwritten note. "September fourth. Dear Mrs. Parker-Simons. Kinky it's for me!" Then I went on to read the letter aloud. This nice woman, Gabriele Wernette, wrote to tell me that she loves Kinky and has read everything that he has written and she loves our rescue ranch, and she thanked me for all that we do for the animals. The book was printed in Germany in 1922 and it is beautiful! Thank you Gabriele! I love it!
After telling Kinky the good news about Hudson and Tasha getting forever homes, he went back to his office, again and then returned. "Here's a copy of Kinky's Celebrity Pet Files, for you and Tony." I asked him to sign it for us and he did. He wrote: "For Nancy & Tony, I'm gettin' tired of doing all the work around here. Love, Kinky Friedman 10-11-09!"
Then Marcie got up and left the Lodge. A few minutes later she returned with a few gifts for Tony and me, from Vietnam! She gave us an embroidered shirt, and a mug from the U.S. Embassy! A little birdie tells me that T. and I will be fighting over the mug and shirt real soon!
I have now been writing for over two hours on this blog, I'm now tired, and I'm sure that you're tired of reading it, too.
Y'all have a great gas-free evening!
