Thursday night was our last night in Colorado Springs.
We had arranged to go out to dinner with Linda – we were to pick her up and she would guide us to the Mason Jar. Linda suggested the meet time of 16:45 which was a little earlier than we would eat normally (more late lunch really) but as my body clock is still a bit confused, we thought that would be just fine.
With Susie not feeling too grand, we decided I would go on my own. As I had not yet driven over here, this was a scary prospect! I had a practice drive to the Urgent Care Center (see previous post). I have only ever driven an automatic once before and that was at least 25 years ago and I have never driven a left hand drive car before. Once I had stopped trying to put the clutch in and could keep my left hand on the steering wheel, it wasn’t too bad. I concentrated really well on keeping in the middle of the lane otherwise there was a tendency to drive too close to the right hand lane edge.
I arrived at Linda’s 10 minutes early so decided to wait in the car. I had managed to park in a prime spot just outside the front door so Linda wouldn’t have too far to walk. A few minutes later I saw Chris arrive and he called over to say he was just going to help her downstairs.
Once Linda was installed in the car we set off with her providing the driving instructions. Luckily it was pretty straightforward.
On arrival at the Mason Jar, we were greeted by Linda’s eldest son, Mike, and his wife, Lynda and so we made a party of four. We had a good time, with lots of chat flowing and I learned a lot about American menus!
Along with Mike and Linda I had the steak and a “fully loaded” baked potato and managed to eat most of it. This was really my first proper meal since the preceding Friday so I didn’t want to push it too far. Linda ate hardly anything in spite of Mike’s coaxing (she’s supposed to eat 2,000 calories a day to regain some weight) but decided to have the leftovers boxed up to take home.
We had just about finished eating when Linda suddenly announced that she was nearly out of oxygen! Lynda fetched their car immediately and they took Linda off home to try and get there as soon as they could before she ran out. We all said a hurried but heartfelt goodbye and then I was left to find my own way back to the hotel…
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