Rain (049)
The first night in Thelma was something else. I'm not sure how to explain it simply. The age of the dust build up and some slightly mildewed wood at the original window sills bothered my allergies enough to get me itching and lungs constricting. It kept getting worse after we came in for the night, up until lying in bed to play Donkey Kong Country on the SNES Classic. We got lucky finding the HDMI port on the 20" TV mounted above the bed. Luckily, I was able to relax enough to ignore my itchy skin and fall asleep.
Falling asleep was another interesting feat. Mike and I sleep on a queen size bed at home, each having our own space to spread out, Jorah between us comfortably. The mattress in Thelma is the length of a queen and a few inches less than the width of a full. We were squeezed in there, and even Jorah didn't want to push his way between us out of fear of the walls collapsing in on him. We needed each others' body warmth last night. The coldest point was this morning after waking up.
All of the windows had been closed by the time we woke up, and there was dew built up on the outside. We had a small heater, sent by Mike's mom in hopes that it would be enough to heat the whole interior. It helped, for sure, but it took a few hours to feel the warmth. By the time I woke up at 11 and it was warm enough to open the windows, I didn't know if the space heater did the job or if it was the sun.
The sun was out for several hours this morning, and we got to relax and soak it up before Mike's sister and her boyfriend came to visit for the day. They arrived about 1pm. They built a fire and heated some charcoals. His sister has a camping dutch oven, and now I must get one of my own after seeing how cool it is. She brought the makings of Devil's Food Cake for us all to enjoy. Once the charcoals were hot enough, her boyfriend poured some in the dirt, she set the dutch oven top with the ingredients ready to cook, and eight more charcoal briquettes were placed on top of the lid. After cooking for an hour, the cake proved to be worthy of temptation.
We stayed outside until it started raining around 5. Mike bought a cool scoring board for a game called Frustration Rummy, so we combined two decks and found out that it's aptly named. Sitting inside, listening to the rain come down all around us, and staying dry, while playing cards was the fun evening I truly needed. This entire trip has been nothing but relaxing.
