St. Louis to St. Louis and Beyond in Late October, Part 1

"Denied," said the clerk at St. Louis Bread Company.

"What? That can't be," was Heather's response, "Swipe it again." And, the clerk did.

"Nope, it still refuses your card."

Heather and I were about to take off for Michigan to visit my Dad, his wife, my sister and her husband. What a beginning to our trip! We had been planning this trip ever since our last visit in July. During that visit I had tried to check out snowmobile helmets at Spicer's, but I was out of luck. It was July and they had no inventory. It twas the season for boats and ATVs. Come back in October they told me. Also, Heather had wanted to check out All-Terrain skis at the Cross Country Ski Headquarters in Rosscommon, but they were closed for the Fourth of July weekend. Come back in the Fall they suggested. And, so the cast was set, but....

Heather had a project that was supposed to be out the door the week before we left. Things didn't manage to come together, and it still wasn't out the door. This meant our October excursion suddenly was brought into question. It was in doubt right up until 3:00pm the day before we were scheduled to leave.

So, first there was the stress of whether we could leave, and now the credit card thing. I hoped the card thing was merely a glitch in the system. As we ate breakfast, I reminded Heather of the story of my Son's wedding rehearsal dinner. When I went to pay for it, my credit card was denied. My daughter ended up paying for it and I paid her back. It was rather embarrassing.  Later, when I was able to call the bank I found out their processing center had gone down. But...

When Heather called the credit card company, she found out there had been a hold placed on her card. It seems someone had been making charges on it, ironically in Michigan. In the great scheme of things this wasn't a very big deal since I had cards and we both had cash, but....

It wasn't the way either Heather or I wanted our trip to begin. Oh well, away we went hoping there wasn't a black cloud following us.

Happily a few hours later, having zoomed through both Illinois and Indiana, Michigan beckoned. And...

Then after driving halfway up the Mitten we arrived safely at my Dad's place outside St. Louis, Michigan. Things on the road went so smoothly that we got there sooner than expected. Dad had told me he had a meeting over in Greenville, but Marilouise would be there to welcome us. Apparently, after I called Dad that morning to let him know we were just leaving "the other" St. Louis, he did some math. Since he figured there was no way we would arrive until after he was back from his meeting, Marilouise went along with him. So, we arrived to a dark and locked house. But...

I had my sister's phone number and I gave her a call She came down the road and let us in. It wasn't long before my Dad and Marilouise arrived home. He walked in and with "that" grin on his face said, "Man, I guess it doesn't do any good to lock a house anymore."