Days

The days are dragging by.  Craig has been glued to the computer most afternoons watching the Olympic games.  I'm not big on sports, even if they are world-class.  I did watch the first few days, but after several days I am quite bored with curling, skiing, and even the figure skating programs.

I had hoped to be on a trip this week, but because we were waiting for a package delivery we ended up putting it off for a week.  I'm pretty sure we will be heading down to Pismo Beach next week. It is about 200 miles from here.  We have passed by Pismo several times on our way to San Diego, but this will be our first stop there.

I always remember Margie and Roger.

I exchanged emails with a relative in Wisconsin,  and mentioned we might be off to Pismo Beach next week.  She wrote back "Right now any beach would be nice to be at. We would do more winter get-a-ways, but we don't have anyone to guard our house. I worry about break-ins."

I guess that is one reason I am looking forward to the full time life.  We will be taking our house and every tangible thing we own with us. No storage! Nothing to come back to, take care of, fix, or clean. That which didn't fit in the Alfa is gone.

I have felt a bit uneasy about not having a hoard of possessions to surround myself with a few times in the last month, but mostly I look around and think we still have too much stuff in the RV. There are a few additional things I will be getting rid of!

I wrote the following couple of paragraphs in bed this morning. I usually read  the news, blogs, and the funnies in bed while drinking my first cup of coffee each day. I do so on the iPad, and sometimes start a rough draft of a blog post.

"I know I should be out walking and enjoying my home territory, but I just have not been in the mood to do so.

Unfortunately, our main pastime for the last several months has been eating.  I am very distressed to report that I have regained much of the weight I worked so hard to lose.  I keep using the delay in the close of escrow as an excuse.  Food can be an addictive substance.

Some days I resent Craig because he can eat and drink all he wants and never get fat.  We have just such different metabolisms. I'm good at making excuses, and have to once again kick myself in the butt and get back to eating right.  Fat is so depressing." 

When I did get up, I saw it was quite sunny and well over 60F.  So instead of eating breakfast, I put on my walking shoes (and some clothes) and drove to one of my favorite walking spots. 

Across from our local school there is a public park that includes a lovely redwood grove, 

with a very peaceful amphitheater.  Teachers will sometimes bring their classes over for an outdoor lesson.  It is so beautiful there, what lucky kids!

In among the trees there is also a play area.

I don't think this merry-go-round will turn anymore, but I imagine the little ones still love climbing on it.








The path through the redwoods only goes a little way before reaching a fenced-off gully.

I turned back and went across the highway to the Summit Tree Farm.

It is fenced and has a sturdy locked gate, but it is well known to the locals that anyone is welcome to walk there and off leash dogs are more than welcome if their people remember to pick up after them.  

There is a unfenced pass thru next to the gate.  I haven't walked there for a long time.  Years ago, when I had my dogs, I bought them to the tree farm several times a week for a good run.  Since it is fenced all around they were safe from running onto the adjacent highway, and were able to explore while I walked the dirt road thru the trees.  For every mile I walked, I think they ran two or three! I have had two yellow labs and a sweet black shepherd.   As much as I loved them, I have decided not to have dogs in the RV.

As I hiked along I passed and greeted several other walkers and a few joggers, I couldn't help remembering my doggie friends. 

At one point on the very dry trail I came to a  muddy puddle. I'm not sure where this water comes from, but I had encountered similar puddles in this same area in the past.

I remember one time when Picabo, one of my yellow labs, trotted up to a  muddy spot in the trail, laid down and did a doggie roll! 

What a mess she was.  Of course we were almost to the end of our walk that day and because of her soggy state we had to do another circuit so she would be dry enough to get into the van.  (I put her on a leash before we got to that place again.)

As I walked this morning, lost in my memories, this fellow seemed to just appear out of the shadows.

Wagging his tail he greeted me like an old friend.  For a moment I felt like I was seeing a ghost dog, but then his person came down the path as well.






Walking along the road, on my way back to where I had parked, I noticed a few other interesting things.

A road gator.

A totem pole dedicated to the many games played on this old field.  

And a flock of matching bikers.












I'm really going to try to get out and walk more.  It's good for me!

A Plug for my Son's Blog

Some of you have been checking in on my Son, Gil (AKA Joko) over the last year. He has been teaching English as a second language in Thailand.

I'd like to recommend his latest post about a place called Muang Buran. I think he did a remarkable job on the video. If you go to see it, please tell him Mom sent you!

For those of you who do not generally have the ability to view videos, but are interested in a summary of the experiences of a first year TESL teacher, check out the post just before that one: Reflections on One Year of Teaching. Some of you who are retired  teachers will remember those thoughts from your early years! He stuck it out, learned, and wants to continue.

On the Camp Driveway home-front, nothing much is happening. I started looking into planning an RV trip for early this week. We usually go down to dump the tanks on Tuesdays and I thought it would be a good time to just keep going! But then I realized it was President's Day week, and the Olympics are still on. We have been watching them on the computer during the day.  Craig got a VPN  thru which we can watch the BBC coverage in the UK. It's interesting to watch the coverage from the English point of view instead of the American. We get to hear about athletes who are not from the USA! We are also enjoying listening to the accents and the slang.  "Huge! Brilliant! Monstrous! Massive!" Each sport has a different set of superlatives, and all of then are different from ours.

A quick note: Thanks for all the interest and comments on the house sale situation. One commenter reminded us that if we got the payment from the buyer as "rent" it would be taxable as ordinary income. Another mentioned how difficult it can be to collect deposit money if the deal doesn't close. We hope neither of these bit of advice will be needed. The payment mentioned has been contracted as rent to put it outside of the deposit already in escrow.  This would be so that if the transaction doesn't close by March 25, this payment could be collected without the hassle of going through escrow.  We would still be able to extend his escrow time, or go after the other deposit money if his house closes and he does not complete our deal.  

We hope, and are confident, that neither of these situations will occur. We would much rather see our house sale close by March 25 so we can be on our way.  If it doesn't and we have to pay taxes on the money, so be it.

All will be well in the long run. We have both settled down into a less stressed waiting mode. 

So, visit Gil's blog and leave a comment.  He would love to hear from you. (And to members of my family, you do not have to be a blogger to leave a comment, just use the anonymous feature.)

I named the tree lady, Trying to get a spot in the Florida Keys, and house sale news

Although fern is a good name for a forest person,  it was not quite right for our moss head lady.  When I woke up yesterday, I knew her name. Her name is Treesha.  When Craig sees or hears some of the creative names the sports figures have, he often says: "Another example of a mother that could not spell when she filled out the birth certificate".

Tuesday was "dump the tanks" day again. We always breathe a sign of relief when we are back home safely.  This time, Craig almost forgot to unhook the electric cord.  Fortunately we caught the omission before pulling out. 

When I read about the bad weather in the East, I am so glad we are here in California.  I hope we won't regret leaving.  Naah! We will deal with the weather as we come to it.  

I have been trying to make reservations at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida keys for over a month now.  Reservations are thru Reserve America, and can be made up to eleven months in advance.  They open the reservation window at 8:00 AM EST. every day, for eleven months in the future.  That is 5:00 AM here.  I have my clock set to go off at 4:55 AM.  I get up, go to the Reserve America site and select the appropriate information.  If you click on a reservation before 5:00 AM PST, it will tell you to come back at 8:00 am EST.   At 4:59 AM there will be several sites open.  I sit with my finger over the "book these dates" and hit it as the computer clock hits 5:00 AM.  All of the open sites disappear  and the message "inventory not available" comes up. 

We do have a reservation at Long Key State Park for November 29 - Dec 13, and at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park for Dec 14 - Dec 28, but I really want to get a few weeks at Bahia Honda.

Right now I'm not worried about where we will be between Dec. 28 and whenever we get into Bahia Honda.  I'll work that out!

Perhaps tomorrow morning at 4:55 AM I'll try calling.  Can't be any less successful than I have been so far!

I've been thinking about trying to get a reservation at the Everglades National Park, but their reservation window doesn't open until June.  I wonder if I will be any more successful trying to get a spot there!

The process of selling our house has taken an interesting turn. First off, the buyer's buyer has a signed offer from his back-up buyer for the commercial property at the other end of the chain.  This is good.  But it also means a big delay in the entire closing schedule since it is like starting all over.

It appears that the buyer's buyer's first buyer that pulled out of the deal paid a substantial penalty fee. 

We only her about this as "scuttlebutt" and not in any official format. We do know that our buyer's buyer paid our buyer and his soon-to-be ex-wife a penalty fee of $26,000.

Our buyer first offered to "release" $10,000 from his escrowed deposit to us if we extended his closing deadline to March 25. 

We read this as giving us our own money early, and the title company said it was not legal to do it that way because his deposit was tied to a damages clause and we would have to prove damages to get the money. Possibly in court.

I'm thinking he needs the $13,000 (his half) to cover his current mortgage  expenses, and an extension fee for the lock on his loan.

Craig and I decided we did not need access to the $10,000 at this point, but if we lost the closure of our property we would want to claim it, plus a bit more to cover putting the house back on the market. We might need to rent furniture to stage it!

Our realtor and our realtor's legal department came up with a very clever, legal solution. We extended the escrow, but if it does not close on or before March 25, our buyer has agreed to pay us $13,000 as RENT for the storage space in the garage and house. 
He cannot move in himself, this is just for his stuff.

This gives us a big leverage to encourage closure by that date, which is what we want more than the money. 

So either the deal on the house will be closed, or we will have $13,000. 

The ball is in his court now. Or possibly in his buyer's. But at least we are not stressing out about it. 

Another couple was here this afternoon looking at the outside of the house.  They had seen the sign.  

Spring is almost here and I'm sure if this all goes away, we will still be OK.

Life at Camp Driveway

It has been raining for the last few days here at Camp Driveway.  For some around the country, rain is not a desirable thing.  Here in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, it's a reason to celebrate.  We have been in a very serious drought cycle.  The few inches of rain we will get out of this storm system won't fix that, but it will green up a few brown hillsides and perhaps water a few trees.

In the past I have always been aware of the rain when it happens, but not quite as much as I do now that I am living in a big fiberglass box.  The back of our coach is parked beneath a large pine tree, and it continues to drip water for hours after rain has stopped. 

 Sometimes it drips when it's not raining, because the pine "harvests" blowing fog.  In the back bedroom section of the coach it seems much louder than in the front living area.  Last night I tried ear plugs. They came out in my sleep, but I slept well anyway.

I have spent a lot of time doing canvas needlepoint. My chair is quite comfortable and the window light is good.  I use a small spot light in the evenings to supplement the overhead. 

I love to wear happy socks!

Yesterday I defrosted the freezer.   I needed a step stool to reach the back. These are my "Good Sam" socks that I got at Camping World. They are quite thick and have a non-skid bottom.  Almost like slippers.

This is only the second time I have defrosted, and it probably didn't need to be done in the side without the icemaker.  But defrosting gave me the opportunity to restack things and remind myself of what's in there.

When I look out my kitchen window I see this tree.

When I look out the bathroom window I get a slightly different view of the same tree.

We don't close the mini blinds on one side of the bedroom at night.  Only the squirrels can see in, and we enjoy the morning light. 

 I see the same tree from yet another angle thru the bedroom windows.  

Can you see the face?

It's funny, because I swear her expression changes with the light. 

Sometimes she is smiling, sometimes not.

The rain has made her hair grow longer every day.

She doesn't have a name, but if we stay here much longer I may give her one, and perhaps start to talk to her!

Progress is being made on the house sale.  I will write more about it in a few days when I'm sure about what is happening. But for now things do seem to be moving forward.


Is it a bad sign to think about talking to trees?

A better day

Yes, the Monterey Aquarium was a good idea. Watching the fishies was very relaxing. More about that later.

Posting about the house was also a stress reliever. I no longer feel like I have to keep it all to myself.

SallyB's comment about how her buyer had a heart attack at the closing, and died a few days later, sure tops anything we have gone through.

Thanks for the advice. We have suggested our buyer get a bridge loan, and he is looking into doing that.

The long delay caused by the buyer's buyer, came as a surprise to him as much as to us. Before accepting his contingent offer we drove by his present house, which is very nice and in great condition. We checked him out on LinkedIn. His credentials are all good. Our agent knows his agent very well and they have been in close communication throughout.

We let him move some of his stuff into the back garage four days before his closing was scheduled. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time: one weekend. Then we told him he could use the front garage and one bedroom as well. It seemed quite reasonable at the time. He was emptying his house so it could get cleaned for his buyers to move into following their closing. It was no imposition on us, and otherwise he would have had to get storage for just a week and move everything twice, and his stuff is not in the way of our showing the house if it comes to that.

We are quite confident we will close with this buyer. It is just a mater of getting the other property closed, and that is beyond our control and out of our buyer's control too.  He is as stressed as we are.

Last night we got an email from our realtor saying the extension paperwork was in progress, and a very nice note from our buyer thanking us for our patience and willingness to work through this. A few nice words go a long way to reassure me.

Now on to my "fish tale."

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best in the country. We have visited it many times over the years, and it's one of our favorite places to take out of town visitors. Monterey is about 45 miles south of here.

This week to celebrate their 50th anniversary, residents of the counties surrounding Monterey Bay were invited to visit the aquarium for free.  Free is always a good excuse for me!

Although we did have a light breakfast befor leaving home, Craig was hungry when we got there.  There are many restaraunts near by, and we choose Bubba Gump's, a seafood restaraunt based on the Forrest Gump movie.  We have walked past it many times, but it was always so busy we didn't stop in.

This time, being early for lunch on a non-holiday Tuesday, there was no wait.

The decor was fun and the food was great.

I tried my very first Shrimp Po'Boy.  It was wonderful, but I would have like a bit more lettuce.  I'm not sure where they would have put it!  Craig had a yummy shrimp taco plate.


On past visits to the Aquarium we have had to wait in long lines and jostle with crowds of people to look at the exhibits. That is the price one pays for going during a holiday week.  But this time we were able to walk right in and enjoy the tanks without the crowds.  

I always find the large kelp forest tank peaceful as the fish seem to float weightlessly and cruise by in their own time. 
No rush!

This is a three story tank that is located at the center of the Aquarium so you can walk all the way around it and see different views of the vast space.

The occupants of this tank are all from the Monterey Bay.

Big and small.


Pretty and not so pretty.

This guy was huge! He came up to the glass and seemed to be looking at us, while we looked at him.

His relative was not as curious.

There are many interesting exhibits: sea birds, penguins, octopus, and invertebrates. My personal favorite was the cuttlefish.

This still image can't show the graceful movements of this creature.  He looked like he was from another world, and I guess he is: from the world of the deep.

And then there are the Jellies: the most spectacular of the exhibits.

Once again, much is lost in these still images.

Whenever I go to a zoo or a wild animal park, I feel torn between being able to see the animals, and wondering if they wouldn't be better off in the wild.

Whenever I go to this aquarium, these questions don't arise. The animals are healthier and in no danger of being eaten by others. They live longer than they might in the open ocean.




So ... This was a better day.  Thanks for stopping by.

The House, or Why Merikay is stressed

Warning:  This is a long wordy post that covers the events of more than two months. I had planned on not writing about the house sale, but things have really been stressing me to the max and I have now decided to share this journey with my blog world friends.

We had a real roller-coaster December and January. Lots of good times with our daughter and grandsons, but also some exciting then disappointing days, during which we dealt with the realtors about the sale of our house.  We received an offer on the day before Thanksgiving.  It was a low offer, but the potential buyers were very well qualified, and did not have to sell another property to close on ours.  It took several days of counter offers to reach an acceptable price. Some people like to haggle.  I don't.

I was very worried about getting everything out by their requested closing date of Jan. 10, since we planned on staying in San Diego through Christmas. That tension spoiled much of my holiday spirit.

I know no real estate sale is final until the money is in the bank, but we trusted it would go through.  Unfortunately, more than three weeks into the escrow time, the sale fell apart.  I'm not at liberty to say why exactly, but their inspectors and engineers had made some ridiculous recommendations, and they wanted an additional $110,000 price reduction to cover earthquake retrofitting and landscape terracing. We hired an engineer and he said very little of it was necessary, but perhaps $11,000 might be a reasonable retrofit proposal, and even that might be a bit high. 

On December 23 we released them from the contract, and the house went back on the market. 

It was messy and painful. 

Needless to say, we were upset.

The day after Christmas, we said our good-byes and headed back to Los Gatos.  We were home by midday on December 27.

Our realtors were also away for the holidays. When we talked to them the morning of the 28th, they told us there had been some new interest in the house.  By the end of the day they called and told us they had a new offer in hand and expected another the next day.

Wow! Multiple offers!

It turned out that the first offer was poorly written with an inadequate deposit and a low offered price.  But the information on the second offer was very encouraging. We did work out a counter for the first, but held high hopes for the second.

I had been a bit sick for several days with a bad cold, and that night I think I overdosed with cough medicine, because I had some really bizarre dreams about meeting the new buyer, liking him a lot and feeling very good about the deal. Instead of being on edge all of the next day, I was quite relaxed about it.

The new buyer really wanted our house. Needed our house. He has kids in the Los Gatos school district and his current home was in escrow and scheduled to close at the end of the month. He previously lost a bidding war on another mountain home, and although the other offer price is not disclosed, a buyer is told when there is a multiple offer situation.

He made an offer $1000 over our asking price.  We had reduced our price considerably from our original asking price by that point.

We were delighted and accepted.  

This all gave us further motivation to get things cleaned out, which we did.  In a way, I was glad the first offer had fallen apart, because there would have been no way we could have done all that was needed before their requested closing date of January 10.

Craig dismantled and sold his beloved high end audio system. I packed and donated my beloved china to a charity. We made a deal with the estate liquidator, A.K.A. the junk man, and he took almost everything else away. Our buyer did buy several things and gave us a certified check right away. I sold my van for a pittance after our last dump run.

But, as I said in the beginning of this post, no real estate deal is done until the money is in the bank and the deed is recorded. We were pretty sure that if this new deal fell apart, another buyer would come along by spring.  So it was a good idea to clear out our stuff. We knew we were not going to move back in, but I do think it's harder to sell an empty house than one with furniture.

I have been posting about that process!  I'm sure glad that "getting rid of stuff" is done.

The new buyer had until the  January 17 to remove all contingencies except for the one about his closing the sale on his home.  We breathed a big sigh of relief when they were removed. We were also pleased he didn't ask for a single dollar for fixes. 

His closing was another matter. Although it was in contract, the sale of his house was contingent on a sale of a third property. The realtors all told us not to worry, but it did weigh heavily on our minds, particularly when we heard it was a commercial property.  We didn't know that until well into the escrow process, but I'm pretty sure knowing it would not have made any difference in our accepting his offer.

On Jan. 20 we allowed him to bring quite a bit of his stuff to the house and put it in our garages. He couldn't move in, but this helped him out. What a day that was!  Our junk man finished in the morning, and just as he pulled out, two large trucks and our buyer and his father pulled in.  We watched them unload, and I took him and his youngest son for a walk in our forest. 

They left, but were going to come back with a second load.

While they were gone, Craig and I took the last van load of trash to the dump, came back and got the Alfa down to the front drive to fill the freshwater tank, and were ready for a trip to town to dump the black and grey tanks. We tried to get out before the buyer came back,  but didn't quite make it. It was a bit of a circus juggling two large trucks, the Alfa, the buyer's SUV, and the Accent all on a very narrow windy road, but we did it and all went well.  We hoped it would be our last time to the RV dump and back.  

But it was not.

On the offer paperwork, the closing for both his and our properties were scheduled for January 24.  A week before that, we were told ours could not be until the 28th because of the way banks worked and because of the weekend.  We were fine with that. 

But his property did not close on the 24th. It seemed there was some sort of problem with the commercial property sale.  Instead our buyer's agent presented a request for him to move in as a renter. 

Forty years ago that may have been a good idea, but with the litigious society we live in now, we knew it was not a good plan. So we said no, citing the fact that our homeowners insurance was for an owner-occupied residence, not a rental.  

On the 26th we received another request stating that he would pay our homeowners insurance, and create a liability release.  He is a lawyer.  We were not hostile, but did not feel this was to our benefit either, so we again said no, citing the fact that we were still using the house for personal reasons, showers, telephone etc. and did not want a renter.

Of course this was all disturbing.  We kept thinking that perhaps we would lose the buyer and have to start over again.  I wouldn't mind having an empty house, but the garages and one room were full of his things.  No to mention the hot tub in our front driveway!

January 28 came.  No closing.  Another in and out with the Alfa for tank dumping. Every time we do this we breathe a sigh of relief when she is safely parked at Camp Driveway once again.  Every time we hope it will be the last!

On January 28, our Realtor sent us an email saying there was still one issue holding up the closings, but they all hoped to "see some movement" on it by the end of the week!  

We were so ready to be out of here! But we went to a movie instead, and I reauthorized the February house payment and Alfa insurance on my bill-pay-plan from my bank. We paid our home owners and earthquake insurance due on Feb 7. 

Several people have suggested we should just take off and leave it to the realtor.  But we didn't want to do that. We didn't want to have to come back.

I kept hearing that we might get a better price in a few months.  But I just wanted to be free of it all.

The stress of these months has done some interesting things to our marriage. We have had more fights in two months than we had in many years. But the stress was also like putting a heavy quilt over someone with a high fever. One wonders if the patient will die or the fever will break.

For us, the "crisis" came one night when we both had a lot of wine. We sat eye to eye and opened some old and some newer marital wounds. We looked at ways we had both been destructive to the relationship, and promised each other we would each try to put things in the past and try to be better toward each other in the future.  Instead of just putting up with our differences, we are starting to be more understanding of each other.  

We are not enemies. We continue to be stressed, but we are ever so much more together. The fever has broken. The marriage will survive, and on the 31st of January we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. 

The sale of the house?

Not going well.  Our buyer's buyer's buyer has failed to perform and dropped out of the deal.  Our buyer's buyer claims to have a backup offer, but as of February 1, we hear that the back-up offer people are in Japan for the New Year and won't be back to sign papers until this week.  

Limbo!

We are told that "if all goes well" the new closing "could" be March 18.  More than a month away!

So, now you all know why Merikay has not been happy camper these last few months.  This is our fifth house, and we have never been through anything as difficult as this before.  

I keep telling myself it could be worse.  We could have no buyers at all. Our buyer does want the house, and is qualified to buy it.  

I am determined to let the house sit empty for as long as it takes. 

Tomorrow we are going on a day trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Watching fish is very soothing.  I hope we can go on at least one day trip a week in the upcoming month. Maybe a couple of short RV trips too. 

I'm sure the whole country will hear the corks pop when this is over and we close.

Land of Medicine Buddha

Our hike on Friday was thru a beautiful place called the Land of Medicine Buddha Retreat Center.

I looked up information on the web for hiking trails in the Forest of Nisene Marks, a state park near us, when I came upon some descriptions of hikes in the Medicine Buddha Retreat Center. It borders on the state park, and there was a nice six mile loop trail described, that started in the Center and wound through part of the Nisene Marks park.

The day was cool but the sun was shining, and by the time I made our lunch and we drove there, it was about eleven in the morning.  

By following some directions we got from the Web, we found a parking area near the trail head, and found the trail with no problems.

The well-groomed path crossed a little creek and climbed steadly up into the forest.

It felt so good to be hiking, but we both agreed we were terribly out of shape from sitting around for so long!  I have gained some of my weight back and feel terrible about it.  But perhaps a renewed hiking regime will help with that.

This forest was logged, possibly clear cut, many years ago.  One of the fascinating things to me is the way the redwoods grow back.  Where each large tree was cut, a circle of new trees grows around it.  They call the cut tree the "mother" and the ring around it the "sisters".

In time, the stump of the mother totally decays, and the sisters grow thicker and taller.  In the picture above you can see several groups growing.  

Some people are distressed by the logging of old-growth trees.  Seeing how the new growth develops gives me a peaceful feeling that although we may not see the giants in our lifetime, they can and will regrow in their own time if left to do so. 

So very tall!

We hiked for a little over three miles, and when we came to what we decided was near the halfway point of the loop trail, we stopped for a little lunch.

Sandwiches, cheese sticks, cut asian pears, and water on a fallen log taste better than any fancy gourmet dinner.

Not all of the hike was through redwood forest.  This section was dominated by live oak and tan oak trees.  We were glad to see so many small tan oaks, because there has been an epidemic of disease that has killed many of them just a few miles away.  We are hopeful that these new-growth trees will survive.

Part of our hike took us past several meditation points that had Buddhist quotations and explanations of them.  I (Merikay) was quite taken by what some of them said.  Perhaps it is because I am in such a stressed state, but I found a new comfort and a curiosity about Buddhism.  It may be what I need right now.

The hike felt so good.  We did get to go out for an early dinner, and 

were happily tucked back in at Camp Driveway by nine.