Saturday, April 26, 2008

A Friday Adventure...

It was all to be so simple.
Our first trip, this season,
to the huge plant nursery
of our choice, Groff's!

This place is phenomenal!

Row after row of greenhouses, at least 12 massive
structures plus all of the outdoor perennials
divided into landscaped levels of sunny or shade loving.
Any plant your heart desires.
Truly!

The kids had their notebooks in hand
to continue their botany assignments.

We were ready.

We were traveling down the road and having
a good time. Both Moms were along for the
adventure. Suddenly the van became "possessed".
Not as in taken away, as in
gauges flickering, needles jumping, the radio
turned on spontaneously.
Strange!

I wondered out loud if it was the alternator or the
computer. I decided to pull over at a farm up ahead to
restart the engine and see if it cleared the problem.
My thinking was that if it was a computer problem
this could fix it...Warren always asks me if I have
"rebooted" the computer when I have an issue.

It did cross my mind that if it was the alternator it
would be very likely to not start again.

It didn't...start, that is.

There we were.

AAA cards were ripped from purses and Georgia was
the first to her cell phone. I walked the short
distance to the farm house to find out what road
we were on...oops. The tow truck said they would be there
in about an hour. So we sat and "enjoyed" the view.

After about 45 minutes I jumped up and said,
"What kind of Blogger am I?!?!?"

Then whipping out my camera I captured these for you...

aren't you glad I am dedicated to documenting every
story - LOL!




Soon after I snapped these pictures the farmer came over and asked if there was
anything he could do to help us...hmmm.
He was very nice, though.

Finally the tow truck arrived and thankfully
it was owned by my neighbor's parents.
He assessed the situation very quickly and put
a "magic" box under the hood, attached to the battery and the van started right up.
We drove home where the tow truck met us and reclaimed their "magic" box.

The van will be staying right where it is until my husband
returns home from his long, long trip.
I can't wait!

Not being the types to be easily put off,
we now headed back to the nursery in Georgia's car.
This time without kids.
Mikey had to go to work and the other two
had spent enough time with us...


It was crowded.

We parked. We began shopping.





My wagon full of plants.



It became apparent that the car
was going to be a "bit small" to
haul home the loot.

Georgia left and came back with the
TRUCK! Yep, this was what we needed!


We returned home and were unloading plants when the backhoe showed up to repair
the water problem at Georgia's. It is now fixed and other than some landscape repair we are thankful to have that mess fixed.

The kids and I were then off to a time of play with our church at a local school baseball diamond. They played, I watched and "encouraged" all the while chatting with my fellow "encouragers".

Finally, when it was too dark to see, we headed home. Several friends
came back to our place, where I served pizza and other snacks.

The kids made up a twist on the game of Pit by
playing keep away with the bell so that poor Mindy
couldn't officially win...since she couldn't ring the
bell. They wore themselves out!

Fun!

3 comments:

Deanna Rabe - Creekside Cottage Blog said...

What a day Becky! Where is Groff's? I probably have been by it a hundred times,(or not) and haven't paid any attention!

Like your flowers!

Alicia @ refinedisaiah648.blogspot.com said...

I second that what a day! Looks like you got a lot of great plants and flowers!! I love that you call yourself an "encourager" at the games! I often times go to my husbands softball games and now I can call myself that!!! haha Hope you have a good day today!! (car trouble is the worse, isnt it?)

Terri Steffes said...

I loved this post! I love plants and nurseries... this was a lot of fun!