The title says it all, he just left without a how do you do! Yep, our Grounds Keeper, I mean Grounds Manager, decided to take vacation, without notice, and he took the Fords Chevy and drove it to Missouri, putting almost 1500 miles on the truck.
Monday morning he got up at his usual time, got dressed, tossed some items in the Chevy and departed the Ford Homestead at about 7:00am. As we now understand it, he arrived in Cape Girardeau, Missouri about 6:30pm the same day. We have now questioned him about the drive to Missouri and his main comment was that most of the rest stops in Arkansas were closed for remodeling.
Let see now, the state of Arkansas is wasting money on remodeling toilets. One would think that career politicians must have been involved, as the decision makers were not “smart enough” to only remodel every other one, which would have provided rest stops for the weary travelers.
The above restoration of the out houses in Arkansas, caused our Grounds Manager to stop at fast food joints establishments in order to get out of the vehicle and walk around. He did later state, “The fast food establishments had cleaner toilets than most rest stops”, but he felt obligated to purchase something in order to partially compensate each establishment’s owner, for the use of the facilities.
Our grounds manager was able to secure a place to stay at his sister’s home in Missouri, which was good, as he is also on a fixed income, and it would have been embarrassing if he had to sleep in the back of the Fords Chevy.
We also learned that our Manager had communicated with his younger sister prior to the trip, and he was advised to bring a jacket or hoody, he did not know what a hoody was, so he took a sweat shirt. During our post trip interrogation of the manager, we learned that it was warmer in Missouri during his visit, than it was here in, The Lone Star State!
During one of his drives around the area he took a photo of his old home place, see photo below. When he lived in the house, there was a garage door where the bay window is now, and the home did not have a fire place.
The Manager noted that his old home was located close to his first wife’s parent’s home, photo to follow.
The grounds manager noted that he enjoyed his time in Missouri visiting with family. He was able to procurer some BBQ sandwiches to eat during his time in the State, and additional sliced meat to bring home to those of us who stayed at The Ford Homestead during his vacation. He knew he would need to have something to bribe us with upon his return.
He explained that there were many commercial trucks using the highways during his drive to and from Missouri, and they were all driving at or below the speed limit, which was somewhat annoying to those who desired to drive a little over the speed limit.
While the Grounds manager was away those of us who were at the Homestead had to take care of all the work including the grounds Managers work! The pecans began to ripen, meaning they were opening and dropping the “Cons” (as Alex and I refer to them) onto the ground, photo to follow, click on the photo to enlarge.
Before you ask, the Grounds Manager will have his pay docked for leaving us here to do all his work for the week. No, we will not be terminating his employment, this time, but a note will be put in his file!
It was kind of nice while he was gone! J
Don Ford
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