Picking up some supplies

Since we were in the Chicagoland area, we could pick up some soapmaking supplies for Regina...

A sign at the door

I had a list of what I was supposed to pick up and checked it off -- the fellow working there was so nice and helped me out!

Just a signature that I got the order, and...

the fellow from Soaper's Choice loaded the boxes into the Jee-rage!

It all fits! Some of it will be stored inside the RV to keep it in a temperature controlled environment (the inside of the Jeep can get pretty warm on sunny days).

As we were leaving, we saw this truck leave from the "input" area of the building -- we figured it supplies some of the raw ingredients used in Soaper's Choice's products.

We'll be able to deliver the products when we get to Virginia in a few weeks.

Oooohhh, Technology...

Technology -- sometimes it seems that you can't live with it, and you can't live without it!

For a while, Carl's phone has been locking up, particularly when he is taking pictures. Since he is the primary blog photographer, he takes a pictures frequently... I have been encouraging him to get a new phone, and he has been researching... but he really didn't want a new phone, just for his current phone to work better. 

You may remember that he had a problem with his phone back in August, 2023 (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/08/lancaster-central-market.html). At that time, it was diagnosed as a defective motherboard, and, even though it was out of warranty, Google had extended the warranty because they recognized that they had manufactured a number of phones with motherboards that were failing. Google replaced his phone with a refurbished Google Pixel 5A -- the same type that he originally had.

A few months later, my phone failed (also a Google Pixel 5A), and I also received a refurbished phone from Google under warranty that they had extended, but they sent me a Google Pixel 6A.

We were concerned that the lock-ups could signify that his "new" refurbished phone was now about to fail, and, sure enough, when we were with Steve, Shay, and Addi, Carl's phone locked up and nothing that we did could get it to restart (Steve said that it was due to cuteness overload with pictures of Addi, and we all agreed that was probably the cause!). 

We contacted Google and they asked us to take it in to UBreakIFix for diagnosis -- we did that and left it with them, and they determined that it was, again, not fixable (although no one said "motherboard", we're thinking that is the problem). We called Google back, and since UBreakIFix had the phone, we didn't have to send it back to Google, UBreakIFix would take care of returning it. At this point, Google has said that a new phone will be sent by 23August. We are pretty sure that it will be another refurbished Pixel 5A, but they haven't actually told us.

Just a couple of pictures to document our problems...

To identify the phone, you need to have its IMEI number -- the instructions on the problem reporting website tell you how to get this information from the phone... as long as the phone will turn on, the instructions will help! But, if the phone won't turn on, one option is to look at the box in which the phone came (yeah, right, we carry that with us in the rig - not!), or to look at the carrier of the sim card... we went by the Verizon store, and the fellow there pulled out the carrier of the sim card from the phone -- do you see that tiny little 15-digit number on the black plastic? Yeah, I couldn't see it either...

... but... since I took a picture of it, I could zoom in on my phone and write it down.

I could use my phone to contact Google through their website, putting in the IMEI of Carl's phone, and got a call back from Google within a few minutes.

When we got to UBreakIFix, we were happy to see that they are an Official Repair Provider for the Pixel Phone by Google. Though we didn't know it when we dropped the phone off, this provided a quicker, easier way for the phone to get sent back to Google and a new phone to be sent out.

Technology, you can't live with it, you can't live without it!

Meeting up with family

Since we are staying out in Belvidere, we are not as close to where family is located, but we can easily drive in to meet up...

Scott had invited us to join with them for ice cream...

...at the "Milk House"...

... for farm fresh ice cream made right there!

We enjoyed getting together with family and the delicious ice cream!

More fields on the way to Dekalb

We had the opportunity to drive to Dekalb, Illinois, again this past Saturday, and it seemed that, in just a over a week, the corn had significantly matured and gotten yellower...

There has been so much rain -- everything is growing like gangbusters!

The top of the corn in the distance looks more yellow than a week ago.

It is great to see all this cropland...

... especially as it seems we are so close to urban Chicago!

We were able to enjoy breakfast in Dekalb (as we had the week before) but unfortunately, we didn't get to meet up with Carl's brother and sister-in-law again, so we just shared breakfast with each other!

A chance visit...

Since we're staying out in Belvidere, our journey to places that we need to go in the greater Chicago area take us different ways than Carl is used to going. On Thursday, he had a return visit to a doctor in Naperville, and we ended up zig-zagging on roads through small towns and crop fields for quite a distance. One town we went through was Burlington, and Carl mentioned that the cemetery where Sue was buried was on Burlington Road (which was the road that we were on). Sure enough, in a few miles, he recognized the cemetery and drove in for a quick visit...

Remembering Sue... it is always a little somber to think of her being gone, but also to remember the blessing she was in Carl's and her family's lives!

Carl also says that he likes to check every once in a while to be sure that a death date for him has not been entered on the stone...

While he says that humorously, a few years ago when he did his pre-arrangements with the funeral home for his final expenses, he mentioned that to to the funeral home manager as a joke. The manager said that wasn't as funny as he might think... that the manager had contracted with a company to go inscribe the death date for a person who had recently died. The manager gave the company the name and the section of the cemetery where the gravestone was located. It wasn't a common name (not like "Williams"!), say something like Harold E Winchester. A few days later, the contracted company rep contacted the funeral home and said that the task was completed. The funeral home guy contacted the family of "Harold"; the family later called back and said that they had visited the cemetery and that the stone had not yet been engraved. The funeral home guy went back to the contracted company, and they sent a picture... it was a different "Harold E Winchester's" gravestone (but within the same section of the cemetery) on which they had inscribed a death date. It turned out that the funeral home knew the other family too, and contacted the son of that still-living "Harold", just to let him know and to ask that he not take his father to visit the cemetery for a few days -- promising that they would be correcting the stone within the next week. The son thanked them and wanted to make sure that it would be corrected soon as his father would want to visit his wife's grave on her birthday which was coming up! So, if you have a stone in a cemetery, you may want to check it to make sure that a death date hasn't been carved on it for you yet!

Red sun...

As we drove back to our campground in Belvidere from Lake Zurich on Wednesday, we were impressed by how red the sun was...

The smoke from Canadian wildfires are still affecting our weather in northern Illinois to some extent.

 

Visiting Carl's youngest grand...

An attraction to visiting in the Chicagoland area is the opportunity to spend time with Carl's youngest grandchild, Addi... and her parents, of course! 

We met up with them at their home near Lake Zurich and walked downtown to get gyros, and then to the park to enjoy entertainment by a singer at the park.

Portrait mode of picture

Addi loves the playground, and especially the slide at the playground in the park!

She could go down the slide for hours!

A portrait-mode picture of Addi that the top of the slide!

Cuteness overload!