April 29

Woke up at 7:30 to the plaesant sight of Justin Box brewing coffee. We had breakfast together and said our goodbyes. Stephanie got up a little later. I thanked the two of them, They're so lovely, then I was on my way.

The ride to Steph's parents was beautiful. Very woody and lots of hills, it was very pleasant. I got there super quick averaging 13mph. I'm so used to having to battle that wind, I don't need to push it nearly as much as I had been. It was only about 12:30 when I arrived. Stephanie's mom wasn't home but this was expected, she was in town. Steph gave me her mom's cellular telephone number and I was instructed to call her when I arrived. Due to the grueling pace and early arrival I thought about just truckin on by. The only thing that kept me there were the major T-Storms forcasted for this evening. I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the shelter regardless of the low daily mileage.

I called up Steph's mom, now were going to start calling her Margie, and she was there in a flash. She told me that I'm going to come to Sparta with her and I'm going to help out. I don't know what that means, I just agreed and she tossed me the keys to the pickup. She needed to take her Harley down there. I followed Margie to a little town called Sparta. We pulled up to an enourmous beautiful brick house with flowers covering the lawn. They weren't planted, there were hundreds of flats and pots of unplanted flowers and hanging baskets all over the lawn. We enter the house and I am welcomed by a slew of lovely ladies. I don't know these ladies, I don't know whos house this is, i don't know why there are flowers everywhere. Margie is a rough and tough kinda gal. She doesn'e play games or waste time explaining things, she is the real deal.

I am eventually introduced to Stephs Grandmother. and soon found out that this is her and Stephs Grandfather's house. We all sat down for a lovely lunch, homemade broccoli cheddar soup and chicken salad. For dessert home made coconut cream pie. It was all delicious. All of the ladies were very nice, They loved hearing about my trip. I admit I was a little tired but I made the mistake of yawning at the dinner table. Stephs grandmother insisted I take a nap. I was told I would be woken up when the next truckload comes, the next truckload. Margie escorted me to "the day bed" to get there we had to go through stephs grandparents room. Grandpa Steph was taking a little nap of his own and I got a nice shot of him in his underwear.

As I was told a truck came and I was woken up, by a fully clothed Grandpa Steph. we wen't out and started unloading this truck, mind you I still don't know what these flowers are for or who these ladies are. I couldn't take it anymore so I went and asked Stephs Grandmother. She explained to me that they are all part of a philanthropy sorority this is their big flower sale, they made over $4000 in flower sales and it all goes to charity. We had to finish unloading the flowers, sorting them by type, then we could seperate them out by orders. We had vincas, goldfish, geraniums, merrigolds, straw flowers, ferns, many many more. we worked from about 2:00 to 7:00.

After we got out of there Margie took me to a bar in town. We got beer and fried chicken. Her neighbor from across the street and his wife were there. Big guy with a thick grey beard, funny guy, he likes to bullshit. He gave me a hard time about goin on this trip, but made sure I knew it was all in good fun. he gave Margie a hard time for taking this young, he said people are gonna start rumors. Good chicken, very good company we had a lot of fun.

We got back to Maggie's around 9:00pm. They have a nice guest bedroom in the basement, with a bathroom and shower. I had a quick shower and then used the computer to update my blog. They have dial up and it was getting late so I only updated a couple. Called Dana and hit the hay.

Mileage: 47

Total: 418