And finally home

 Yeah, this trip was successful.

 The train was on time getting in, although it did lose two hours overnight because of freight traffic. But it was fine; the car attendant (Carsey) was good, there weren't many people in the sleeper (though they did announce for coach as we went down the line that it was a full train so people needed to move their stuff if they had it on the seat next to them)

I had a pretty good view; got to see the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield

 And of course, the Gateway to the West

 The visit itself was good, I did a few things for my mom (took a couple days and cut back a lot of the brush that had come in between the old osage-orange hedgerow and the edge of what used to be a retaining wall (but that has broken down; the old railroad ties didn't last)

I had come up for her 90th birthday, and that was good; she liked the gifts I got her and I fixed dinner that night. A couple days later some of the women in the neighborhood had a little get together with cake and iced tea and they all brought small gifts. So my goal - that she have a nice birthday- was pretty well met.

I also drove her car out for her to have the mirror replaced; now I can post the photo of the damaged mirror (I don't know why I can't post photos to blogger from my phone any more)

 That was, I think, Friday before her birthday that we got that replaced (I drove, it was all the way on the other side of town and she said she'd not been out that way in a couple years and was less comfortable driving it. I looked up the route ahead of time and it wasn't so bad so I figured it out and got the car out there. Then, when we got back home, I helped her arrange for a driving test appointment online (Nothing is as simple as it once was). The first I could get was a couple days after her birthday (which may have been the "official" expiration date, but that was the first they had). She did pass (Illinois makes everyone over a certain age take an annual road test, which is a good idea, but is kind of an annoyance). 

So having a couple extra days was kind of nice after I knew she would have a license for at least one more year (she does not drive much other than to church and the nearby grocery store and maybe the hardware store;  she knows the limits of her comfort driving so I think she'll be pretty safe). 

But when I got back, I almost had a car oopsie of a different kind. I had run to a small restaurant in Mineola (it was about noon by the time I got in) and angle-parked on the street.

 This is what I came back to:

 One of those extra-large farm trucks, and while the spots are wider than some, they're not wide enough for those trucks (there was almost no more space on the other side). That's about six inches there, no way I can get the door open and squeeze in, though my first worry was "how to back out without either hitting the truck or getting hit by someone coming up the road"

There is more "generous sized" parking down the street, I think, so I was slightly annoyed at how they basically blocked two cars (the passenger side of the other one, which probably isn't as bad).

I finally crawled in from the passenger side of my car, which was uncomfortable (I still get pain in my knee if I have to do any kind of extreme contortion) and was definitely undignified but I did manage to get in, and just had to wait until the street behind me was clear and then slowly ease out.

At any rate, I am glad to be home.