What is the last thing you did before going on a road trip? I found myself dusting! Dusting the bathtub!
The day before we left, we were in the car six hours, taking grandson Nathaniel back to Charlotte. These are the before photos – the mirror ritual before Nathaniel left, and before we drove him back to campus.
I was in zombie mode while packing that night, so I got up earlier than necessary to check that I had everything. With the extra time, I got the dust out of the big tub. After hiking, both son John $pencer and Rose like soaking in hot water. I told Rose she was welcome to use my tub, one of those garden tub monstrosities. Daughter Lise is the only one who likes it so far, and that’s why it was last cleaned six months ago. The dusting was overdue.
Our first stop on the trip was in Nashville to have lunch with John’s cousin Harold and wife Susan. We were celebrating the first weekday of Harold’s retirement. Susan retired two years ago and has had her taste of first freedom. Harold does not feel free yet. He had come from his office where he was working on papers. He was an orthodontist and has many things to file and will take all the records to his home. We had a delightful time chatting with them.
Mehrling Muse 
Hi Anne,
Are you planning to stay some place during the trip? I wish I could see a picture of your garden tub ? I like bathing in a tub too. A retiree’s life must be good unless one is a workaholic. I think we are meeting Harold and Susan for the first time on this blog. Where is Nashville?
Susie
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We will stay several days in Colorado. Being retired is marvelous. I may have written about Susan and Harold the last time we had lunch at the same restaurant. We don’t see them often, but maybe we will now that they are both retired. Nashville is in Tennessee, in the middle of the state. It is west of our town.
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We have a tub that has served as a giant clothes hamper since we moved in 9 years ago. LOL
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At least you use your tub! Ours just collects dust.
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I’m with Lise. Don’t think I would appreciate living in a rubles world. Safe travels!
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I always clean and dust before a trip 🙂
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You are one of the super people of the world.
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Have a nice break Anne 🙂
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So funny! I have a tub that gets dusted. It’s been over a decade since anyone took a real bath and I’m sure it was after some surgery where you couldn’t get parts wet. I faithfully (?) dust it.
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I’m relieved I’m not the only one who dusts the bathtub. And to think the house where I grew up didn’t have a shower until I was a teenager!
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We had a shower but it leaked so we couldn’t use it. I started showering after I moved out.
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Oh my goodness! Dusting those big garden tubs is not an easy or small task–it involves long arms and a little bit of acrobatics. I remember ours when we lived in the house and what a job it was to keep the dust out (I actually used it maybe once or twice a year, and that was when we had small children visit and they used it as a pretend ‘pool’). I didn’t do it before a road trip, though! LOL!
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I was relieved to dust the tub and not fall in it or slip off the edge. The only child who was offered the use of the tub was neighbor Logan. He preferred a shower.
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You are funny – when my mom and I would go to my grandmother’s house for a four-day visit (usually three or four times a year), my mom would not leave a dirty dish in the kitchen sink before we left on our trip. It took years of my prodding her that it was absolutely acceptable to leave a plate and coffee cup, rinsed off/out, in the sink overnight. She would not leave a dish in the sink and she insisted on us leaving at 6:00 a.m. She said if something happened to us, she did not want people to think we were messy. 🙂
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I can understand your mother’s reasoning. I write about being messy often enough that people don’t have high expectations of me.
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Same here were someone to visit me.
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We always clean the house before we leave on a trip….you know, just in case…:)
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I know, just in case… My thought? If I died, I wouldn’t know the awful things people would say about my lack of cleaning.
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🙂
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