Sometimes only your own bed will do

We love this little lodge in the Chilean wine country, but as wonderful as it is, it's not home. Mike's cough that won't quit is hanging on, so we have changed our plans. We are flying home tonight instead of Friday night. Even though we don't really have our own bed for him to crawl into (given that it is rented along with the house until mid May) we have a bed waiting for us in Palm Springs. A mother-in-law's guest bed will just have to do. He misses being able to have chicken soup and hot tea when he wants- things you can't do as easily when you are staying in a remote country lodge. Last night when we explained to the manager here that we were leaving early to have more familiar surrounding for Mike to get well in, she went into the kitchen and asked the chef to whip up some homemade chicken noodle soup for him. He looked like an ecstatic little boy tucking into that wonderful soup. It is the first thing he has eaten in days. He forecasts that once he is home for a day or two nothing will satisfy him as much as a wonderful IN AND OUT burger.

Today is another gorgeous warm sunny day here and we are set to enjoy it as much as we can. We will set out mid-day to make the three hour trek to the Santiago airport. All of the flights from here to the US fly out in the late evening, so we don't take off until just before midnight. We fly all night and arrive in Dallas ten hours later, with the time change at 6:30 AM. Then, one more flight and we're back to Southern California. I know my mother is frantic with last minute house selling and six-week-trip-packing so I am hopeful she will accept our help with things and not be burdened with our early arrival.

I will continue writing in the blog for a bit when we get to Palm Springs and let you know how it is back in the USA. It may get boring reading about us worshipping the washer and dryer, the huge goregeous aisles of the grocery store, the marvelous stacks of books (in English!) at the library and the friendly chit chat in ENGLISH with strangers we meet. If you tune out to reading while we are in California we will understand. Log back in during April though so you can read about the transAtlantic cruise and Northern Spain, our destination after Palm Springs.

Deanne