DAY 42 Lexington

We feel like we’re waking up pretty late these days, but we’re still on Central Time, and we’re thinking about staying that way until it’s time to set the clocks back this weekend. After breakfast, we set out in Jo’s minivan with Nora, Michael, Tom and the three of us for an Amish store. Unfortunately Jo hadn’t been there before and we had dubious direction, so we drove around the country for a couple hours before actually getting there. We subsisted on snacks I found in the diaper bag and crackers and fudge bought at the Amish store until we got back around 2 p.m. Tom had fallen asleep, and Jo moved him into our camper and said he’d stay asleep and she’d go get the other boys from school. Of course as soon as she left, he popped right up and wanted to play. We all had a late lunch and then tried to take naps, but Tom didn’t want one. David took Tom and the ingredients for tonight’s chili and went in the house. Nora and Michael slept while I did dishes and made chocolate chip cookies. Then Jo got home and enlisted the boys to babysit (listen to the baby monitor) while I got to ride again. After that I came up to the camper and nursed Michael and then David and I got to go for a ride by ourselves: me on Gypsy and David on Jack, the bigger horse. It was really cool. It was a great way to spend the last evening of the trip, riding horses on this beautiful farm as the sun went down. And it was something we never could have except that we were at the home of relatives who could watch the kids. It was great. The horses hardly listened to us at all, but the walked around and trotted up the hills, and that was mostly what we wanted to do anyway. Again, they started and stopped when we said to, so they weren’t really bad. I think they just had us pegged as amateurs and knew they didn’t have to listen to us. I helped unsaddle the beasts, and then we all had chili for dinner and cookies for dessert. We stayed up and talked a little after Nora and Michael went to bed, but we were all feeling pretty tired. I availed myself of the nice shower Jo and Herb offered me, and then we all went to bed.