Ten Years After – Volume 3 – Home Sweet Home

Chapter 10 – Big Bear Mountain – Day 2 

Bette awakened and looked around and vaguely remembered that she was in a cabin in Big Bear Mountain. She had slept hard. The bed was warm and the air was cold. She got up and grabbed her robe and put on her slippers and headed for the bathroom. Tina rolled over into Bette’s warm spot and notice that Bette was no longer in bed. Then she heard the toilet flush and knew that it must be morning. She began to make her way out of the bed. She was somewhat surprised that she had pajamas on and was still somewhat cold. She too reached for her robe and put on her house shoes. She was making up the bed when Bette came and put her arms around her waist and nuzzled into the back of her neck.

Bette: Good morning, T… I see you are getting up?

Tina:  Yeah, it feels late to me. Did you sleep okay?

Bette:  I did. I’m going to make some coffee.

Tina:  I’ll be there in a few.  Check the dryer.

Bette went in and put the coffee on and then went to the dryer and folded the load from the prior night. She also put in a load of towels and got those started. She separated Daniel’s clothes from hers and Tina’s and took his to his room and set them in the chair. She gazed at Daniel as he was sound asleep still.

She then took her clothes and began to put them away. She left Tina’s at the foot of the bed. Tina was already in the kitchen beginning breakfast. There were eggs, bacon, potatoes, and toast and today, there would be peach cobbler. She heated up a portion and placed three servings in individual containers to take on their picnic. She then disposed of the container which held the cobbler. As she did that she thought about the raccoons and the rattling of the garbage cans.

While Tina was cooking breakfast, Bette was packing the lunch cooler which was 12 inched wide, by 18 inches long and 6 inches deep with meat loaf (already sliced), a pint of cucumber salad, a pint of carrot, raisin and nut salad, and a pint of potato salad. She got out the three containers of peach cobbler as well. She found the frozen artificial ice and placed on top of the food and zipped up the insulated bag. She then put it back in the refrigerator to remain until they were ready to put it into the back pack. She then found some paper plates and plastic-ware, a stack of napkins, some prepackaged clean-up wipes, a small jar of unopened mayonnaise, and a half-loaf of oat-nut bread and place that on the counter. She then found three large resealable bags of trail mix, three bananas, three apples and three large granola bars. Bette then put out the water – 12 bottles. She started looking at three back packs and trying to decide how to distribute the weight evenly between the three of them. She decided that they would omit the extra sweater from the bag. The gloves, hats, the sun glasses should be secured in the pockets of their coats. In the laundry room she found several bungy cords. She decided that three of those should be included in each back pack. They were light weight and had multiple uses.