Nancy a few months ago: "Walmart is the devil. They drive all the local stores out of business. They pay their employees so little that they give them pamphlets telling them how to go on Medicaid. They are evil and I hope I never step foot in one of their stores."
Nancy now: "Ah ... these prices! One of my favorite meals lately is the beef filets in those cute little packages. Their produce is nice, too, and the stores are clean. Oh, look. They have a hair salon in this one. If I hadn't made an appointment in town, I'd go here. And they're so nice to allow us to park overnight for free. Once we get back to the motorhome, I'll search the GPS to see where there's one close to where we're stopping tonight."
Nancy's parents live in an apartment in West Chester, Pennsylvania. They are scheduled to move on October 22 back to Ashbridge Manor, a senior living facility down the road in Downingtown. We had planned the timing of our trip so that we could assist in the transfer to their new quarters. We arrived in the area about two weeks before the moving date and wanted to help them get organized, with plans to then head north to see the New England fall color changes and return a few days before the final move to be of whatever assistance we could.
On the internet Nancy located a Walmart just a few minutes from where her parents live. It wasn't a Walmart Supercenter (meaning, for you non-Walmart-aficionados out there, that it wasn't as gargantuan as their biggest and didn't have a full grocery department), and it wasn't open all night - but it did have a huge parking lot and they graciously allowed us to park the motorhome there for several days.
Nancy's dad Ren is 92 and her mother Dotty is 89 years old. Both have a few physical problems but they haven't lost anything mentally so I'm hopeful that with those good genes, when I go gaga Nancy will still be capable of taking care of me.
Ren is a very smart former engineer who loves jazz and keeps up with all the political and scientific news. Dottie doesn't get around too well but still manages to run a pretty tight ship. We had a lot of quality time with Nancy's folks but with all the talking I can't say that Nancy and I accomplished a lot in helping them prepare for the move.
Nancy's brothers are Rennie, an electrician who had a liver transplant some years ago, and David, an accountant who lost his wife to cancer last year, and both have great senses of humor. Nancy and I got together with them on football Sunday at a sports bar to watch the 49ers game against Tampa Bay, which turned out to be one of the best performance by the 49ers in years. Unfortunately for Rennie, who is a diehard Eagles fan, the Eagles and Michael Vick lost their game that day - a week after the 49ers defeated them - but he maintained his composure and good spirits, which goes to show that he's a far better man than I. Good brew, good fattening bar food, and lots of laughs.
So after helping her parents not all that much, Nancy and I prepared to leave our Walmart parking lot - to which we would probably return in about a week - and head north, through upstate New York, and across to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
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