I managed to find an envelope and a stamp. Actually a pretty big effort required, and filled out a check for $80 and addressed a letter to Wilson Memorials on Greenville Highway 14 outside of Laurens SC. The $80 is to get Joan’s departure date (April 10 2007) chiseled in after her entry date on the WB and Joan Tingle Stone in the graveyard of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church in Ora, South Carolina.
Now I had better get the envelope in the mail. I would like the dates to be chiseled in when we hold our little graveside ceremony for Joan. Not having a departure date there would not contribute to a sense of closure.
The day we have set for the occasion, June 16th, a Saturday, the day before father’s day, is still a month off. But modern travel requires advanced arrangements, especially if one does not wish to get totally screwed with plane fare. So emails have been flying hither and thither as the California Tingle Boys (more properly California Tingle Old Men) tried to make travel arrangements.
It appears a veritable horde of Tingles—Brother Dave with sister-in-law Teresa; Nephew Brian, son of Brother Steve; Brother Steve; Brother Dan; along with me and Carol—will be descending around June 15 at the Days Inn in famous Clinton, SC. I don’t think Clinton is famous; but as a kid in Ora, I remember hearing about a place called Clinton, and so it was sort of famous to me, though as I recollect we never went there even though it was maybe 15 minutes away by car.
At first I was confused by references to this Day’s Inn. I didn’t know what they were talking about when they mentioned Days Inn in their emails because I thought it was called Dave’s Inn since the last time we went back there, last June for WB’s burial, Brother Dave stayed in the Day’s Inn. So while we were back there, I got to calling it, as a joke I guess, Dave’s Inn and I forgot that Dave’s Inn was really Day’s Inn. I kept googling Dave’s Inn and getting this place in Maine. Once I got that straightened out, things cleared up a bit.
At one point, I got the idea, from a too cursory reading of an email I guess, that Brother Steve was going to take the bus back to SC. That sounded insane to me. I was preparing an email to strongly discourage him from the land route when I saw another email detailing his attempts—failed at that moment as I recollect—to get a seat on American Airlines.
The Days Inn says it has high speed internet access along with all sorts of other amenities. But at about 50 bucks a night, one has to wonder. But I base my idea of motel prices on Santa Barbara, which is the 10th most popular travel or vacation spot in the World. Ahead of Rome, if you can believe.
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That’s a picture of a bathroom in the Day’s Inn in Clinton, SC. At least that’s what the web site says; it could be a picture of a bathroom in a Days Inn located anywhere. I don’t see anything in the picture that indicates its a bathroom in Clinton SC. It does have one of those little coffee makers. I wonder where those little packages of coffee I took from the last placed we stayed are.
