Day 1484. Unfortunately it was another night, where Sammy woke up a few times crying, but it was not as often as the previous night. He was still coughing pretty bad, and Emmy coughed quite a bit as well during the night. My alarm woke me up at 7 am, and I got up right away to pack up. Randy got some breakfast for himself and the kids, and I dressed them and got ready for my 8 am student, which came around pretty quickly. While I was teaching, Randy started loading the car up, while the kids were on their tablets. My 9 am student canceled, which was a blessing. That way we were able to leave just after 10 am.
We got into the car and started driving west. This being our last day in the US, we had a few errands to take care of. We got to Jackson, TN, just after noon and first got gas, then went to Chick-Fil-A one last time. And it did not disappoint. It had the highest slide we'd seen, and it was the first one that had their playground outside. Thankfully it's not that hot anymore, so it was not an issue. The kids were excited. Tammy hesitated at one spot and thought she couldn't go on, but I reminded her of the story we had read, where a scared girl asked Jesus to give her courage, and then she couldn't do it. Tammy did the same and continued on. She then went up and down many, many times.
Emmy was a different story. His journey already ended at the second step. He's scared of heights and was too scared to move on. The story did not inspire him. When I helped him up the step, it didn't help either, because he couldn't take the next one. He made it one more up, but was stuck there. In the end I had to crawl up there to get him back down. However, when he was allowed to go up inside the slide, it was not a problem at all. Suddenly he was all the way on the top! They were really enjoying the playground.
Sammy wanted to play as well, but Randy could not climb with him because of his hurting arm. He stayed with him on the bottom, but not as long as Sammy wanted him to. They all had some food at some point, and then ate the rest later in the car and at the hotel.
After 90 minutes, at 1:45 pm, we got back into the car to continue on our way to the hotel by the Memphis airport. Our neighbors in Vienna had watched over our apartment and they'd requested something specific I still needed to get. We stopped at Walmart and all went inside, but they didn't have it. We got a few other things and continued on our way. Next we stopped at the bank, then I checked at a Target, but they didn't have it either. We went to the post office, then we happened to go by another grocery store I had never heard of, and we decided to give it another try. I went inside by myself again, and surprise, surprise, they actually had it! Praise God! And then I bought a second item - Cheesecake. Can you believe it, that in nearly 3 months in the US I never had my second-favorite dessert? Well, I had some on my last night in the country, in the midst of lots of stress. We drove the remaining 15 minutes to the hotel.
We were glad to arrive. Only Emmy had taken a nap, not his siblings. Unfortunately we had to wait in line at check-in for quite some time, and the lady was in a bad mood. The kids were having fun and playing in the lobby. Finally it was our turn, and she was unfriendly. I asked about the pool, and she said that it had already been closed for good, as it was an outside pool. The kids were disappointed.
We went to our room together. We had arrived at 5:30 pm. The kids were watching TV, while Sammy kept standing up to touch the beeping buttons of the microwave. He was doing a really good job. He'd go down, but get back up, over and over again. Randy was getting ALL our luggage out of the car, which took a few trips. Once we had the food in, I made the kids some sandwiches, they had some leftover fries, and later some cheesecake. Randy and I started packing our suitcases for the airport. Four out of five were too heavy. It was quite a job to bring them all down to the right weight, and now our carry-ons are quite heavy, and we're leaving quite a few things here. Randy just didn't want to pay for an extra suitcase.
At 9 pm or so I told the kids it was time to go to bed and get a few hours of sleep. I put their travel clothes on and put them into bed next to each other. That we just have to put their socks and shoes on, when we wake them up at 3:15 am. It's gonna be tough enough as it is.
Well, even though I'm very tired, I got to write my report. Now it's nearly 10:30 pm, and Randy and I are both about to go to bed.
