Traveling to Ann Arbor

I’d had my trip to Ann Arbor scheduled for a long time in anticipation of my mom’s 80th birthday on Mother’s Day. It seemed like an auspicious time to visit. My oldest niece also turned sweet 16 the day before Mother’s Day. Time to visit family!

I had reserved a nice Airbnb because, many months ago when I planned the trip, I thought John was going to be able to go with me. Unfortunately, it turned out to be his first week on his new job. The trip was scheduled two days after his start date! So I had to go without him.

Ugh, airports are overwhelming!

I’m glad my brother, Steven, was able to pick me up. Flying is stressful for me and my brain gets fried. I was happy not to have to worry about navigating on strange freeways in an unfamiliar rental car after several hours of traveling.

On the way to my airbnb Steven took me to a grocery store. I rarely eat before flying and I was getting hungry! I had planned to buy food at the airport, but I followed everyone onto a tram, and it turns out the tram goes overhead, past all the food courts. I hadn’t even realized what happened; all I knew is that I never saw any food until I was past security and too far to turn back.

When Steven dropped me off, with my luggage and groceries, he helped me carry everything up the stairs from the street for me (the airbnb is on a hillside). While there, he met my airbnb host as she was giving me the key. He recognized her accent as being from a certain part of northern Germany. Steven was an exchange student in Germany when he was in high school – apparently he lived very near to where my airbnb host is from. It wasn’t just her accent – Steven also recognized a particular figure of speech. Instead of “uh” she would say something that sounded a little bit like “no” as a punctuation or pause noise, and apparently it’s a speech pattern common in only that specific part of Germany. It’s funny that both my brother and my husband speak German.

It was a big relief to get to my airbnb with my luggage and my groceries. Whew. The next morning I walked through a park to a local rental car location where I had reserved a car. They were short staffed and also running out of cars. I waited patiently. I could tell they were struggling to find cars for everyone, so I wondered if I would have to Uber to Mom’s house and back, and try again the next day! 

I had only paid for an economy car because I wanted a small one, but they didn’t have any economy cars left. They had given the previous woman a pickup truck, so I was wondering, what would be left after that? What could be even worse than a pick-up truck? I didn’t want some big monster car. 

At first the clerk was about to give me some sort of Volkswagen, I don’t know what because I didn’t recognize (and therefore didn’t remember) the model. He went outside to get it ready, because they were scraping the bottom of the barrel and the cars weren’t even washed and cleaned up yet. He came back in after a bit – there was some issue with that car and he wasn’t going to be able to give it to me after all. So now what was I going to get? More waiting.

Finally the manager grabbed a set of keys from a back board and gave it to the clerk helping me and said, “Just give her this, she’s been waiting too long.” That is how I managed to snag some sort of mid-sized Lexus hatchback or small SUV. Brand new and very fancy. One of those cars where you don’t actually have to stick the anything in the ignition. 

I pulled out of the parking lot onto a busy road and the new car immediately started beeping at me frenetically. It was a divided highway so I had to make a u-turn, pass the place and u-turn again, all the while the car was acting like it was going to self-destruct momentarily. I got it back to the rental place and realized, as I was turning it off, that the red hood icon maybe meant the hood wasn’t fully latched. Initially I had assumed the problem was under the hood i.e., the engine.

By the time a guy came out to check on me, I had figured out that it was just the hood latch. So I could have just pulled over and fixed it myself, but that car is intimidating. For example, later that day I unfolded the side mirrors manually, not realizing they fold in and out automatically when it’s turned on and off. The second time I saw them folded in, I figured ah-ha! It did it by itself!

The car also vibrated the steering wheel at me once, which was very startling and distracting. I was trying to give an oncoming car some extra space because he was heading toward the middle of the road to give a bicyclist next to him some space, and apparently my car didn’t like me going to the right of the white line, or maybe it didn’t like the oncoming car angled my way or something, but the last thing I needed while concentrating on the situation was the car vibrating the steering wheel and startling me. 

Also the dang car just seemed so big compared to my Mini Cooper at home. However, it was a very nice car and I was glad to have it.

Unfortunately the Airbnb was on the other side of town as my family. I originally had picked it out for John and I, and I knew he’d love the beautiful neighborhood and the wooded nature area with walking trails a block away.

I also knew John wouldn’t mind driving us across town every day to visit everyone. John likes to drive. But as it turned out, with just me, it would have been easier to have stayed somewhere closer. But it really was a beautiful place and I did enjoy it.

My unit is the lower one in this double decker house. It was a 2-bedroom unit and I didn’t use the second bedroom for anything. Mostly I used the kitchen and the front patio.

My only complaint was that the blinds on the bedroom window were very lightweight and let the morning sun shine straight through. I wouldn’t have minded too much if it was in the middle of winter and the sun was getting up late, or if I was on Eastern time instead of Pacific time. But in May that far north the sun gets up very early. Subtract another 3 hours for the time difference, and my brain felt like the sun was shining in the middle of the night. OMG COFFEE PLEASE!

I loved my patio underneath the owner’s balcony. That’s where I ate my meals and spent my free time.

The weather was downright hot. When I had checked a few days before I left, the highs were in in the 50’s, but there was an abrupt change right when I arrived. It was 79 degrees! I only brought sweaters! That’s what I get for trying to pack light. I end up not prepared.

I had brought too much luggage when I went to California in April, because I anticipated changeable weather and I had a variety of activities planned. I tried to pack lighter this time, but had expected colder weather and did not bring anything for hot weather.

I quickly went to TJ Maxx (a nearby discount store) after I got the rental car, and picked up a pair of shorts, flip flops, couple of blouses and a sundress, all for very cheap. I figure I can never have too many pairs of cheap shorts and flip flops, now that I live in Arizona!

The clerk at TJ Maxx was so deliriously happy that the weather was finally warm after a long winter, that she was singing! She serenaded me the entire time I was at the counter with a song that she was making up on the spot. It was all about how wonderful Ann Arbor was and how wonderful spring was. I was thinking, wow, how often are people willing to sing in public like that? Maybe she was on something, but I like to imagine she was just friendly and happy. Everyone I met in Ann Arbor did seem to be friendly and happy.

Here is my mom and dad in their backyard.

This is their house. I didn’t grow up there – they’ve moved several times in the nearly 40 years since I left home.

I also had fun visiting with Steven and his family. Here they are at the botanical gardens.

I have a tendency to forget to take pictures of people because it has to be arranged – people don’t usually just sit around, passively posing for a photo like a flower or a landscape scene, waiting for me to come across them and recognize the perfect shot. And most people don’t appreciate being snuck up on for a candid shot. If people would just stay still and not change their expression the instant they saw a camera pointing in their direction, I would take a lot of pictures of people! I like the thoughtful looks on people’s faces when they’re caught unawares.

Anyway, I was glad I remembered to get photos of my parents and Steven’s family, even though they were posed. The only unposed photos I ever seem to manage are the backs of people.

Here is Steven with his two daughters.

After visiting each day, I would come back to my airbnb to rest and work with my clients over the phone.

On Sunday morning we met at their church. I don’t usually like attending church services, but I figured that it was part of the day’s agenda, and I had gone out there to be part of whatever was happening, so off to church I went. Well, did I ever get lucky. It happened to be the Sunday that they held their service outside. It’s a little something special they do once a year in the spring, when the weather is at its very best. They held the service outside for Mother’s Day, which I really enjoyed.

Their church is very small. Here is the choir singing with an electronic keyboard as accompaniment. Mom is on the left in the white dress and hat, and Steven is on the right.

Steven was leading the service that day as well as being a quarter of the choir. Their pastor recently retired and they have not found a new one yet. Because of the lack of preaching, they did extra congregational singing instead, which suited me. I was hoarse by the end of the service because I’m very out of practice. I don’t usually go anywhere or do anything where I would regularly sing.

That afternoon we had a very nice meal to celebrate mom’s 80th. The savory sweet potatoes were a big hit, thanks to Laura for the recipe 🙂

The next day, we spotted these baby birds in Mom and Dad’s backyard. Both parents were flying around, screeching. We couldn’t figure out how the little birds had gotten there. We looked up and there was no nest in the huge tree above.

We were worried about them. Dad said he had seen them closer to the patio and they had somehow made it out a little further. You can see them here in the foreground, about 6 or 8 feet from the patio.

We retreated into the house to see what would happen. Over the period of an hour or so, they hopped all the way across the lawn to the bushes in the back corner, their parents tweeting at them the whole way. Sometimes the parents would bring them food. They would hop a foot or two and then rest for awhile. We believe they must have been nesting in a nook somewhere near the house where it was warmer and sheltered, and it was time for them to relocate. What a vulnerable time for the little baby birds!

I also went on a very nice bike ride with Steven on my last day there. Ann Arbor was a pretty town and the weather was perfect and my visit went very well.

Now all I had to do was make it back home again!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism