Day 22: Sept 24, 2026. Lunch with the big kids

Kasey drew the short straw this morning and took Tad out for his bathroom break while I stayed tucked comfortably in bed. At least it wasn’t as cold as yesterday. Before long, it was time to head into the city for brunch with Kasey’s kids, Nick and Ash, and Ash’s fiancé, Orion. We’d eaten at this same restaurant last year, so it felt familiar in that cozy, cyclical way.

Conversation flowed easily, bouncing from raising children to wedding plans to work and whatever else surfaced. Midway through, I got a call from Jody back home in Roseburg so I stepped away from the dining table. An out of town visitor was having trouble with a motorhome slider. Something jammed near the gears, leaving it stuck open. I tried to picture the cramped space where the obstruction must be lodged, but there wasn’t much I could do from Minnesota. I passed along the name of the repair shop we used for our slide issue and hoped it would help.

When I returned to the table, I discovered that Nick had swiped my utensils while I was gone. I’m fairly certain he’s pulled this stunt before, which is why I had tucked them near my coffee cup. He’s a sneaky one, that Nick. After a bit of playful scolding, we shifted our attention to the enormous pancakes being delivered around the table. I swear they must use a forklift to flip them. I ordered the Senior pancake, which still covered the entire plate—and even then, I couldn’t finish it. Eventually Nick had to head back to work, and Kasey and I made our way to the mall to get her phone screen repaired. A kind young man named Saif replaced it for over $200, which made me grateful I’d lived with my cracked screen for three years before switching to a foldable phone. At one point I guessed his accent was Indian, an error he corrected with a firm but friendly “No! I am from Bangladesh.” "Ah, okay" I said. He said "You know where Bangladesh is?" I said "Yes, generally." Then gesturing with my hands, the left one representing India and the right one representing Bangladesh, I said "It is on the east side of India."

Bangladesh is the most populated country in the world. It is a country surrounded by India on 3 sides. The borders of modern Bangladesh were established with the partition of Bengal between India and Pakistan during the Partition of India in August 1947, when the region became East Pakistan as part of the newly formed State of Pakistan following the end of the British rule in the region. The Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence in March 1971 led to the nine-month-long Bangladesh Liberation War, which culminated in the emergence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Independence was declared in 1971.

We thanked him for his work and Kasey managed to slip in that we value immigrants and appreciate the contribution that different cultures bring to the US.

The mall is very sparse. Very few businesses are open and several of the shops are vacant. I suppose the popularity of indoor malls is fading at least until winter. They did have a couple of cool murals with butterfly wings for our amusement.

Back at the motorhome, we waited for the rain to pass before lighting a fire in the raised pit out back. The evening settled in gently as we sat outside, talking while the flames crackled around us. The rain never arrived to spoil anything, and we finally turned in as the fire dwindled to embers. I lay in bed wide awake for hours, turning over a few stubborn conundrums in my mind, hoping they’d loosen their grip before morning.