~Wednesday~ We were up at about 7:00, and Bob made coffee for us. We made our beds and straightened out our room, before leaving at a little before 10:00 for another house showing.
Since there was no outdoor seating at the McDonald’s we stopped at, we sat in the car with Frances and Vincent and Bob and I each enjoyed a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, and shared a coffee and some apple juice. Frances and Vincent may have each had a taste of a sausage patty, too.
We headed out to Bob’s sister Mary’s place to pick her up to go with us to visit their brother Billy. We visited for a few minutes, getting a tour of her house (which I loved), and met BooBoo and Binky, who apparently found me harmless.
Since their mom’s death about 5 years ago, Mary has been slowly going through her stuff and decided that she was ready to let go of some things. One of the things she had for Bob was that purse you can see on his lap in the above picture.
And one of the things in the purse was a little jewelry box that contained her wedding band and a charm bracelet:
The bracelet, which Ruth wore all the time, has a charm for each of the 15 McVeigh children. There are two extra charms on it, too—an Eagle Scout charm and a #1 Mom charm.
The five of us (me, Mary, Bob, Frances, and Vincent) drove out to brother Billy’s in Vicksburg, MI for a nice afternoon visit, and it was great to meet yet another McVeigh sibling.
I enjoyed the many family stories shared among the three McVeighs while we were there. When it was all said and done, I was left with an impression of Billy as a swashbuckler—off on a new entrepreneurial adventure, rescuing damsels (or squires) in distress, and combining courage, resourcefulness, and a distinctive sense of honor and justice getting along in the world.
Joining us on his scooter, we took a walk around Billy’s neighborhood before we left.
We dropped off Mary at her house at about 3:00, and then headed back to Barbara and Charley’s, where we had a late lunch of our leftover Chinese from our visit to Joe and Robin on Monday. We ate out on the porch, and Bobby went through Ruth’s purse. Most of Bob’s family calls him “Bobby,” and I started to, too, at one point.
We spent a little time after dinner on the porch talking with Barbara when she got home from work, and then, “Aunt Barbara” generously took Frances and Vincent for a walk to the lake with Chucky after Bob and I headed out to meet his sister Mary for line-dancing.
Mary dances at Backroads Saloon in Marshall, MI, just a stone’s throw from Battle Creek. I’ve seen several of her Facebook posts from this place, so it was neat to actually be there dancing in the same place.
Mary’s husband, Barry, and Mary Lou and her boyfriend Micheal, were also there. Here’s some of our smooth moves that I know you wouldn’t want to miss witnessing:
Mary Lou working it out
John in the spotlight
Mary boot scootin’
It’s always a challenge line-dancing “on the road,” as there are so many line dances out there, and even if you do know one, there’s always a chance that once you’ve excitedly run out to the dance floor to do one you know, the “locals” do one little step differently, which can be a disaster—at least for me. It’s so hard to “unlearn” something like that, and I find myself trying to nonchalantly slink off the floor, which usually fools absolutely no one.
As it turned out, the only dance they did that I knew was one that we call “Bumpers.” I did learn a couple of other—rather difficult—dances, but I didn’t do them the second time they played them later in the evening, since I didn’t think I’d remember the steps from an hour earlier, never mind when I got back to Raleigh. 🙂
It was a good time, though. It’s always interesting to see and hear what dances and songs are played when you dance while traveling.
It was also biker night, and Barry and Mary road together on his bike, and he spent some time outside with the other bikders, as well as some time inside talking with Bob.
Bob and I stopped at Burger King on the way home, since we hadn’t had dinner. We each had an original chicken sandwich, and we shared an order of fries.
When we got home, we chatted for a little while on the porch with Barbara, and that’s when she told us she had taken Frances and Vincent (and Chucky) for a walk down to “the beach” at Goguac Lake, by their house.
Barbara also had some questions about pictures she had seen going through Bob’s purse, which cracked us up.