BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

Monday, September 07, 2009 

Onie began the new week by rising at nine.  The writer started his at ten thirty.  It was sunny, clear and warm.

We got warmer with hot buckwheat cereal, coffee and tea.  The Sunday paper lay on the couch, unread, so we opened it and read it before going on to Monday’s.  There was no time for crosswords.

Onie started cleaning inside the coach while the writer headed outside.  We were winding down our summer and the spring in the clock seemed to be moving the hands faster than normal.

Outside the screens were taken down and stored.  A break was taken to visit with Sandy, Dennis and Kyle as they were leaving.  They had winterized their rig and wouldn’t be back until next spring.  We exchanged hugs and warm wishes.

As they drove away some of our camp chairs were being stored in our shed.  While the writer was there he brought in the rest of our onions, two bags.  Basement door handles were cleaned and then we stopped to say ta ta to Don, Julie and Alex.  The awning was rolled up and secured, with Onie’s help and then we took up the big patio rug, carried to the street, shook it, rolled it up and put it in the storage box.  The wheel covers went in on top of the rug before the box was placed in the basement of the coach.

Barbara came by to visit with Onie as the writer began packing the basement.  The tow bar was serviced to ensure it would lock once we began towing the Subaru.

Then it was time to start the grill for burgers.  While the charcoal was getting right for burgers the writer sat and looked at the skyline and trees.  He reminisced about short summers and short lives.  Then he cooked the burgers.  They were great.  Added to the burgers was Onie’s zucchini casserole she had made earlier today.

With a full day behind us we headed off to the shower.

When we returned we said goodbye to Sidney and Barbara.  They plan to leave at seven tomorrow morning.

Jay and Kay will be leaving tomorrow at noon.

Norman had made some clam chowder and had promised a couple of servings to Onie.  We picked it up.

Back in the coach a few notes were made before we turned on the TV at nine and watched Tru TV until we fell asleep.

KEEP YOUR BEARINGS

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Rain was falling through forty degree air at two and continued until nine when it stopped while we were eating our hot cereal and having our coffee and tea.

Breakfast was barely finished when Jay and Kay stopped by to say adios.  They will be in Texas, at their winter home, later this year and the first part of next year.  Jay invited us up to bass fish Lake Fork with him.  We will try to do that.

When they left Onie dressed and she and Dixie went to shop.

One more trip to the Russian was in order to try for that elusive silver.  Chelcie, Mike and the writer loaded Mike’s jeep and headed off to the Russian.  On the way they stopped off at Kurt’s and started his freezer.  Silvers stored in Onie’s freezer will be transferred to his freezer tomorrow.

An hour later we were at the Russian.  We walked down to the river bank to watch other folk fishing.  Just down from where we were standing a grizzly was busy, fishing.

After watching a while and seeing a fair number of silvers we walked back up to the jeep, got on our waders, grabbed our rods and other gear and headed back to the river.  Spotting some silvers we waded in and began fishing.  Just down the river from us a grizzly bear was doing the same.  When he began moving our way we left the river, giving him the right of way whether he wanted it or not.  We watched him fish by our spot, catching our fish and scaring off those he didn’t want.  We figured him for a real game hog.

We headed up river where we began fishing again.  This is the time of year when bears are trying to gain weight.  The writer should have such a problem.  Salmon, loaded with fat, are what the grizzlies want and that is what they get.  While we were trying, once again, to get a silver, another bear in search of weight came blundering into the river and toward our fish.  We got out of the river and gave him the fish.

Climbing in and out of the river was getting tiresome but we figured it required less energy than fighting a bear over a fish so we stayed on the walkway as we watched the bear fish his way up river.  No sooner had he passed than his big brother, about five hundred pounds or more, came lumbering down the trail not forty feet from where we were standing.  Now, with renewed energy, we waded back into the river as he headed downstream, on the pathway.  Since we were in the river again we began fishing again, being ever aware and keeping our bearings for where we were in relation to the real fishers.

In twenty minutes, undisturbed by hungry bears, the writer hooked and landed a silver.  He would like to report it was a trophy or even large silver but such was not the case.  It probably weighed no more than eight or nine pounds, not a big silver but a silver it was.  Tired, but still watchful, the writer cleaned his fish and watched as Chelcie and Mike fished on, without success. 

At six, tired of dodging grizzlies and missing silvers, the party called it quits, walked to the jeep, loaded up and headed for the house.  We got there at seven.

The writer filleted the silver and took it up to Kurt’s where he placed it in the freezer along with the three other silvers. 

Onie had made fudge when she got home from shopping.  Now the writer took some to Chelcie as today is actually his birthday and he is a big chocoholic.

He sent the writer home with some cocktail tomatoes.

Items that had been stored in Kurt’s freezer in his shed were retrieved and taken home to Onie for storage in our freezer.

We ate the tomatoes along with an avocado and Norman’s clam chowder, for supper.  A piece of fudge was dessert.

Notes of the day were made before we watched Tru TV.

We turned out the lights at nine thirty.

LAST DAY

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

We didn’t get up until ten but Sidney, who had planned to leave at seven was still in camp.

The writer retrieved the paper and then prepared eggs benedict, mimosas and strawberries with honey and heavy cream.  We wanted to have our special breakfast one more time before we leave and this was our last opportunity.  Tomorrow there will be no time for an hour breakfast.

Sidney and Barbara pulled out at ten thirty.

We had finished our breakfast and were working on crosswords when Jay and Kay came by at eleven thirty, to say goodbye.  They have a flight out of Anchorage tomorrow night but were leaving today to visit Kay’s sister in Anchorage before heading to Washington, D.C. where they have their coach stored.  Then

they will tour a bit before coming to their home in Texas.

Fed, dressed and having said goodbye to friends we collected our laundry and headed off to wash it.  We want to start home with all of our clothes, clean.

After the laundry was started the writer took a long shower, at the lodge, and then headed back to the Marlin to do a little writing.

The navigator pointed out items in the shed that were to go in the Subaru and the driver packed them.  A last check of the shed was made to be sure everything we wanted to take home was in the toad or next to the Marlin, to be packed.  It was.

With the toad packed the box holding the patio rug and wheel covers was placed in the basement of the coach.  Next followed our folding love seat, the small charcoal grill was cleaned and stored along with the charcoal, two tool boxes, the electric drill, a set of socket wrenches, the two step, stepladder and the extendable step ladder also went into the basement.  Extra laundry detergent, some Vidalia onions, diet Cokes and a collapsible camp table followed.

The water line was disconnected, rolled up and stored.  Then the camp’s extension hose that reached the coach was rolled up and taken to the lodge.

A serving of beets was picked from the community garden along with a dozen carrots.  These were washed and given into Onie’s care.

Each basement door lock was cleaned and lubed to insure proper operation on the way to Texas.  At the same time the extension ladder was removed from the basement, lubed and put back into the basement.

The windshield and front side windows were cleaned and polished.

With that detail out of the way the living room slide was brought in and the slide cover tied down.  We will encounter strong winds on the way home and the slide cover will un-spool without being secured.

Supper was at seven.  We had tomatoes and avocado, a venison patty a piece and zucchini casserole.  With supper done for we stepped back outside to continue our work.

All of the pot plants were put into the shed.  Folding camp chairs and our folding plastic table also went into the shed. Onie did one final check of things that had been in the shed that should be going home.  They were all out and the driver had packed them.

By nine o’clock we were back inside.

Onie settled down to watch WE TV.

The writer sat and finished week fifteen and worked on sixteen.

He went to bed at twelve thirty.

SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Spring has sprung, summer was swell, fall has fell and winter is going to be cold as…….well, it is going to be cold.

This morning the wind continued to blow briskly out of the north making the fifty degrees feel much cooler.

The writer, soon to be driver, woke at six thirty but thought a little more sleep might be in order so he went back to bed, to no avail.  Sleep didn’t return and when Onie woke at seven thirty they both got up.

After a breakfast of cold cereal, banana and rice milk they dressed and started the last preparations to leave.  Inside Onie cleaned up after breakfast then began securing everything.  Outside the driver was disconnecting the power, getting the jack pads into the shed and the basement, large ones in the shed and small ones n the basement and securing the cable from the TV antenna.  The jacks had been raised before he went outside and the bedroom slide had been brought in.

Tires were checked for correct pressure and it was determined a little inflating was in order.  Trash was taken out for the last time.  The foam rubber pad was put on the windshield of the toad and then the full front bra attached.  Basement doors were checked to be sure they were secure and the awning was also checked for the same reason.  The engine had been running a few minutes, to warm up, and at last the coach was eased out of space number seven at Castaway Riverside, driven a few feet and stopped.  The toad was brought up and the tow bars were connected along with the electrical.

Once again the coach eased forward but this time it stopped next to the garage of the lodge.  Chuck has a large compressor and it is with air from it that we make the tires ready for the long trip home.  Usually Chuck helps but he is currently under the weather so the driver had to find everything on his own.  The fifteen minute job stretched into almost an hour before all the tires were properly inflated and hoses was put back in place along with the air nozzle and air gauge.  The compressor was shut off and we were almost ready to leave.  Goodbyes were said to Chuck, he was on the balcony, LaVon, she came out for a hug and to give Onie a latte and to Norman who was just rising and spoke through his window to the driver.

At last it was time to be on the road again.  We circled the park, stopped to take a picture of our space, vacant and waiting for our return in two thousand ten, our deposit is paid, and then we eased on down the road.

The road out to the pavement was lined with yellow and brown leaves.  More were sprinkled in our path, by the north wind and trees, as we left our summering place behind.  It had been a good summer, warmer than last, and the fishing had been tolerably good.  Our freezer was almost full and friends and family had fish in their freezers at their homes.  In addition the Subaru held sixteen cases of sockeye that Onie had canned in addition to Margarite’s three cases.

At the pavement we headed north to the Sterling Highway, stopping just across the street from Sterling Baptist Church, before heading on toward Anchorage.  Soon a light mist began to fall and as we climbed into Turnagin Pass it became heavier.

Rounding Cook Inlet Onie saw two Beluga whales.  The driver missed them as he paid strict attention to the road, the most dangerous stretch of highway in Alaska.  This summer eight people died while traveling this piece of highway and the driver and his bride were not anxious to join the statistics.

The mist stopped before we reached Anchorage where we stopped at Fred Meyer for Onie to do a little last minute grocery shopping and the driver filled up the coach.

Then it was back into traffic and to the only freeway in Alaska which took us out to the Glenn Highway.  There we headed out toward the Matanuska River and Glacier where we were greatly surprised by a wonderfully improved road with a new surface.  We rode over it as though we were on silk.  When the new road played out the good surface remained but it was back to the winding hilly two lane road of old, beautiful but demanding of ones attention lest one fall into the river or some deep canyon.

The beautiful Matanuska valley.

Throughout it all the Cummins and Allison performed flawlessly as though a summer’s rest had been invigorating and they wanted to show us how they could perform.  We also heard performances by the Gaither Vocal Band and The Southern Strangers before we came to a rest, for the night, at Grand View RV Park.  We had traveled two hundred thirty nine miles our first day out.  It was four o’clock and forty five degrees.  The mist we had left at Cook Inlet had returned somewhere along the way and now it was rain.

The driver hooked up the land lines while Onie made him a cup of Chai tea.  With unlimited water and sewer there would be long showers tonight and in the morning.

Onie sat down to ready week fifteen for posting to the website while the driver, now the writer, worked on this story and previous ones.

At six, after posting week fifteen, Onie served a salad and bowtie pasta with the spaghetti sauce we made yesterday.  The hot pasta and sauce along with the electric heater we had running brought a nice glow of warmth to our rig.

Outside the rain continued to fall along with the temperature.  By the time supper was over the thermometer was registering forty three degrees.  We speculated as to whether or not we would have snow by morning.  It could happen.

With supper out of the way and the dishes cleaned Onie plucked red and green grapes from their stems and placed them in small bags.  They would be great snacks as we motor toward to the lower forty eight.  The writer finished week sixteen and Onie went to prepare and post it.

The writer returned to his laptop where he continued on this and other stories from week seventeen.  He and Onie want to keep up with the stories and postings as hot spots are hard to come by in the places they will be visiting in the next week or so.

By nine o’clock Onie had completed her work on week sixteen and sent it to the website.

The writer shut down his computer and they retired to watch DVDs of the old television show starring Jackie Gleason, “The Honeymooners”.

When several episodes had been viewed they slept.

Outside the rain had stopped but it was still cold, really cold.  Inside the electric heater ran.

BRONCOS

Friday, September 11, 2009

Today is the anniversary of the terrible injury and death inflicted on us by radical Muslim idealists who want to see us dead or subservient to them and their political/religious beliefs.  We should never forget their agenda and the fact that this is a battle for them that began as long ago as perhaps the Crusades.  Time to these people isn’t the same as it is to modern Americans but we need to view this attack and the people behind it as just one action in a war.  We as a nation and as individuals should do everything in our power to show this element that we will not give up nor will we be conquered.  To this end we need leadership, locally, on the state level, and on the national level who believe in and put America First!

The rain of last evening depleted the cloud cover and with the disappearance of the clouds came colder air.  It was thirty seven this morning as the sun shone brightly on the damp ground around us and the new fallen snow on the nearby mountain peaks.

The writer rose at six thirty and turned on the heater before seeking the warmth of the bed, again.

Later when the coach was somewhat warmer both occupants got up, Onie to check her email and the market and the writer to start the story for today.

Hot cereal cooked on the stove while the tea steeped.

After breakfast long showers followed as we wanted to be extra clean to start the next few days.  Most likely we will be boon docking a lot and that means short quick showers, to conserve water.  Our holding tanks are both empty and the fresh water tank is full.  By careful usage of the water we can boon dock for a week.

With breakfast over and the kitchen clean the driver disconnected the land lines, got the jacks up and eased the Marlin toward the road.  Stopped at the highway Onie noticed some Dall sheep high on the mountains across the road.  We paused to look at them and then headed on down the road.  A little further on we saw a few more.

Changing of leaves along our drive out of Alaska.

The good road surface held all the way to Gakona and the Tok Cutoff.  The Tok Cutoff should be cutoff as far as being called a highway.  We know it is a challenge to keep road surfaces in good repair, especially in Alaska, but this road carries a tremendous amount of traffic to and from the lower forty eight and as such should be in good repair at all times.  Our speed was reduced to thirty five, then thirty, then twenty five and at times we just crept along, the coach rocking and rolling all the while.  For about eighty-five miles we patiently toiled along and then we reached the final stretch of the Tok Cutoff.  This last thirty miles is proof positive that good road surfaces are possible in Alaska.  With the cruise set on sixty one we slipped along on a seamless asphalt surface, a tribute to the road builders of Alaska.

Headed out of Tok, toward the border, we experienced more of the seamless asphalt for the first fifty miles and then it was back to the bucking and pitching.  By the time we reached Border City, where we topped off our diesel tank, we felt we had been riding bucking broncos at the local rodeo.  The fact that we had managed nine point two miles per gallon over such harsh roads made us feel somewhat better.

The U.S./Canada border is just a mile or so from Border City but Canadian Customs is twenty miles further on.  Like the trees and air the road didn’t change except perhaps for the worse.  At Beaver Creek we got a little respite from our rocky ride but then it returned.

It was five thirty in Alaska but six thirty at the border.  We had lost an hour at the border.  Hopefully before we die we can find all these lost hours and use them with our last dimes.    

We journeyed on until we had put forty five miles between us and our Alaska and then turned into a pull out.  It was seven fifteen, in Alaska.  We had traveled three hundred thirty seven miles in eight plus hours.  If one is short on patience or time or either we don’t recommend you make this drive in a motor coach.

Outside it was threatening rain or perhaps snow.  It was cold and getting colder by the hour.

Onie served up a great spinach salad followed by bow tie pasta and spaghetti sauce.

Before bedtime the driver served up a game of dominoes.  We may play again but probably not anytime soon.

THUMP!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

The heater was turned on at eight to warm the coach for us before we rose.  Outside it was thirty seven and the driver could see new fallen snow on the distant mountains.

When it was sixty eight in the coach, at nine, we got up.

Onie made coffee and tea and the driver fixed skillet toast out of Bays English Muffins, his favorites.  Aunt Pattie’s Mayhaw jelly and preserved figs graced the muffin halves.  When the last muffin half was gone and the last drop of coffee drained the driver did his morning check and got the Cummins warming up.

Ten minutes later, at ten, it was still operating at one hundred fifty degrees, not the normal one eighty to one eighty five, but the Allison was engaged and we headed down the highway.  With the load on the engine it soon came up to normal temp.

The lack of good surfaces held our speed down and at the end of the first three hours we had averaged forty two miles and hour.

Such blinding speed is exhausting and builds a good hunger, too.  We pulled over in a turn out at Kluane Lake.  Onie fixed green bell pepper halves stuffed with salmon salad and dill pickle spears for the driver along with a fresh pot of hot tea.  She had a salmon salad sandwich with her dill pickle spears.

When lunch was over the driver did his walk around again just to be sure everything was in order then it was back on the road.

The road was still challenging but ever so often we would hit a stretch that would let us get up to cruising speed, fifty nine, before we had to throttle back and break for the next patch of loose gravel or more rocking and rolling caused by frost heaves.

Now everyone knows that Texas drivers are among the best in the world and that they will do anything in the world that is necessary to keep an unsafe driver from passing them.  This would include going a hundred in a school zone if the road surface permitted.  The driver of the coach was born in Houston, Texas and learned to drive there some fifty six years ago so he probably qualifies as a true Texas driver even if the only speeding ticket he ever got for a school zone was when he was fifteen.

We were cruising along, listening to a barber shop quartet, minding our frost heaves and loose gravel patches when the driver heard and felt a thump.  He looked in the rear view mirror and saw the toad trying to pass him.  He sped up and looked again.  It had disappeared but was now in the rear view camera and headed for the shoulder as if it was going to try passing there.  A little nudge on the coach throttle brought the toad back in line so it was no longer trying to pass.  Then it occurred to the driver, there was no one driving the toad.  How ignominious it would be to be passed by a driverless vehicle.  One would never be able to live that down.  We had been on a slight declivity but now a small incline lay in front of us.  By slowing down just a bit at a time the driver was able to convince the toad to stop passing and get back in line.  When we finally rolled to a stop the driver and navigator got out to see what had possessed the toad to try to pass.  It was really quite simple.  It was trying to get our attention and tell us the receiver hitch had broken and it was being strung along by the safety cables.  We were quick to put the emergency flashers on so both vehicles were easily seen then we started inspecting the damage.  The front of the toad had been banged around a bit. 

If it had been a real toad it would have had a nose bleed.  The coach had taken a couple of hits in the tail, one had crushed the bottom part of the ladder and the other had cracked the right rear lower trim.

Satisfied that nothing mechanical had been damaged, thank God, we began removing the bib from the toad.  Onie would have to drive it until we could get the hitch repaired.  Next the damaged hitch was removed from the toad and ground and stored inside the basement of the coach.

Broken hitch stored in dusty basement.

We managed the last thirty miles of frost heaves and loose gravel patches to get into Whitehorse, The Yukon, Canada.  There we pulled into Pioneer RV Park.  We had passed it a dozen times before without stopping.  It was always full.  Now it was almost empty.  We checked in and asked the lady if she knew where we could find a welder.  She picked up a mike, keyed it and asked a guy in the garage the same question.  He wanted to know what needed to be welded.  By speaking up the driver let him know.  He said to go get set up in our site and he would come have a look.  We did and he did.  He left to make a phone call and then he came back.  He had a structural welder, what we needed, who would be in at ten o’clock in the morning to fix our hitch.  We were to be at the garage at that time.  We thanked him and thanked God for our safety and good fortune.

Then Onie got on line.  The driver got his laptop and segued into his writing mode.  Outside a light rain was falling.

It had been fifty eight degrees when we pulled in and set up, just about five.

Around seven we sat down to eat.  Check last night’s menu to see what we had.  It was the same.  The temp had dropped to forty five, eight degrees in about two hours.  We wondered how low it would go.

The writer checked his email and wrote after supper.  Onie watched some more of The Honeymooners.

At nine Pawpaw joined Onie to watch more episodes before going to sleep.

The rain and temp were still falling.

BETTER THAN NEW

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Once again the rain that was falling when we went to sleep had vanished by the time we woke at seven fifteen.  The cold had not.  It was forty one.

The driver started the heater and went back to bed until eight then rose to start on today’s story while Onie made coffee and tea.

We will have to eat, Onie will have cold cereal while the driver gets to enjoy hot cereal, shower, and be ready to move at a quarter of ten so we can get the hitch welded and be on our way.

Today is Sunday and we would normally be in church but being unfamiliar with Whitehorse we don’t know where to find a church so we will just have our own church.

At five to ten Onie was directing the driver and the coach near the open work bay of the garage.  Two workmen were waiting for us.

When the coach was in place the driver got out the tow bar with the broken hitch and showed the workers where the other part was still in the receiver.  They got an impact wrench and removed it.

The driver inquired as to whether or not Onie would have time to go into Whitehorse proper and support the local economy.  The answer was yes and it needed supporting as things were off a bit.  She got in the Subaru and left.

The driver went into the garage and helped the workers understand how the hitch fit back together and how it worked when it was installed on the coach.   The structural welder, Bill, said it was a poor design but he would fix it better and stronger than new.  He left to get some tools and material.

The driver was hanging around the garage waiting for his return but the cold, forty three, finally got the better of him and he went into the coach where he got more hot tea.

The last three papers from camp were read, the crosswords removed and then it was into the trash for the Anchorage Daily News.  Seated at the table the driver had a couple of pieces of fudge and worked a crossword before going back to the garage.  Bill had returned with the tools and material.  He was busy grinding the two separate pieces and measuring so he could cut metal straps to weld to all four sides of the hitch, making it much stronger than it was originally.  When the pieces were welded in place he ground off the rough edges and tried putting the hitch back in place.  The heat from the welding had expanded the hitch so he heated it again, placed it in a press and brought about a thousand pounds of pressure to bear on it.  When it was cool he removed it and tried it again.  It was a perfect fit.  He put it on the coach, upside down.

Everything happens for a purpose and the purpose in him putting the hitch on upside down was so that we could see that the supports that holds the tow bars off the pavement when they are not hooked to the toad had been ground off in the little mishap.  The hitch was removed and a bar of metal was welded onto the hitch to replace the missing supports.  Then the hitch was put back on, right side up.  The driver hooked the safety cables to the coach along with the electrical and then got ready to leave the garage.  We would pay at the RV park office.  The job which the driver had thought would take and hour or so had taken two and a half hours.

Before going to the office to square up, the coach was fueled up.  The park grants a three cent per liter discount on gas and diesel for those staying overnight in the park.  That coupled with the ninety three percent exchange rate meant we were paying less here than we had paid at Border City, for diesel, or about three fifty four a U.S. gallon.

Squared up on the fuel and repairs the driver and navigator fitted the bra and windshield protection back on the toad and hooked up.  We were ready to travel again.  It was one thirty and forty seven.  One could say it was partly cloudy or partly sunny.

We thought it was partly sunny as we pulled out into the traffic, headed south.  We were soon up to our cruising speed with the throttle set on automatic and the Cummins and Allison purring in unison.  It was a good day to be alive and on the road again.

With good pavement the miles melted away as we traversed hill and dale.  Sharp eyes were unable to find any animals hiding in the chest high brush along side the road.  By the time we return, next year, the brush will probably be cut back to ankle height and the animals will be seen once again.

A hundred miles down the road at the Teslin River turnout we pulled over to check the hitch and for Onie to get a picture of the mighty Teslin.

Bridge crossing is longest on the AlCan highway. 

Driver makes a quick check of repaired hitch.

Everything seemed to be in good order so we boarded the Marlin and headed further south.  More sun raised the temp to fifty seven before lengthening shadows let it begin to dip once again.

Seventy seven miles further along we pulled into the gravel turnout at Swift River.  It was just before five.  We had come about a hundred eighty miles in four hours.

Resting firmly on the damp gravel bed, it had just quit raining, we leveled up, put out the closet slide and settled down to enjoy the beauty of our parking place.  We enjoyed it from inside as the temp had dropped back to forty seven.

At five thirty we had our supper, broccoli and humus along with bow tie pasta and spaghetti sauce.  Yes we had that last night and the night before and we will probably have it tomorrow night.  We like warm-ups and by having them it keeps Onie’s cooking labors to a minimum.  We threw our paper bowls into the trash and started on lunch for tomorrow and the next few days as well as supper for several days to come.

The last of the salmon salad had been eaten for lunch so more was made.  A big pot of chili, using venison and feral hog, was made.  Meals will be easy for a few more days and we can both enjoy the leisure.

With good country music playing in the background the driver/writer got out his laptop and tapped out this rendition of the day’s events.  Onie played Bookworm.

When it was dark, eight thirty, the pair went to bed.

It had been a good day.