January 20, 2005 - Another day in Carrolton, Texas

The Toyota needed an oil change and 50,000 mile service (we were already 3,000 miles into Wanderung 8 at this point), so we took it in to the Lewisville dealer. Surprisingly, that took us less than ½ an hour and that allowed us to spend the rest of the morning with Lois. We planned our future joint trip to Ireland in more detail and then cajoled her into seeing a doctor about her sore knee. She called and was scheduled for a 1:45 appointment that afternoon, so we had a light lunch and drove her over to the sports medicine clinic for her doctor's appointment. Her knee problem turned out to be arthritis, which was a depressing sign of old age, but we were somewhat relieved that it was not something more serious.

We came back from the doctor in time to pick up Carson from his grade school and see the modular classroom out back where Beth taught English as a Second Language. Being a teacher, Beth had to stay for an extra math tutoring class, but I walked Carson home while Monika drove Lois back. Carson and I stopped off at a playground where he tried out the swings for a bit, and then we wandered the back alleyways to get to his house. Lest you worry about Carson's safety, I hasten to add that these are not back alleyways like the south side of Chicago or Washington D.C. where bad things could unexpectedly happen to you, but rather the tame, predictable back alleys with detached garages and garbage cans that you see in suburbia. No rats, feral dogs, or drug-crazed thugs with guns disturbed our relaxed stroll home, and Carson told me about the exciting field trip that day where he had swung from a rope and somersaulted into a pile of foam balls, jumped on a trampoline, and ran some kind of obstacle course. That kind of excitement plus swinging so high up on the playground swings that the chains went slack and then went "clank" seemed to be to be just right for children in general and Carson in particular. I was also glad he was getting excitement from real tasks rather than the fake environment of video games.

When Beth came home after her extra class, we all drove over to pick up Carrie and continued over to a Chinese buffet for dinner. I had a wonderful time sampling different entrees, getting to the buffet table early and often. After returning to the house, Carson, Carrie, Monika and I played table tennis in the garage, and then we all just chatted for a while. Lois read a chapter in "Maniac McGee" to Carson, which was supposed to calm him down to sleep. But that calm was short-lived because I taught him a Penguin hug (quick hearty backslaps accompanied by loud Penguin calls-"erk, erk, erk!") and then Carrie wrestled with him on the floor, hitting him in the nose. Undismayed by all this, he trotted off to bed at the appointed time, but when we left a bit later he was still awake to say good-bye to us as we were leaving the next day to continue west. We returned to the trailer for the night, where I tried to capture some of the events for the journal and Monika picked pictures for the previous day's activities.