Dear Kids,
      Dad and I are having a good time in Michigan, playing with Matthew and Charlie and Sharon and Seth. Yesterday we went to the Ford Rouge plant, where they assemble Ford F150 trucks. There’s a walkway up high where you can look down at the assembly line, and watch the trucks being put together. But it seems like the workers are on break most of the time. When they finally started things moving, we got to watch giant robotic arms put in windshields, and guys with armloads of wires stuffing them into the dashboards, and another robotic arm putting in sunroofs. It was all very noisy and fun. When the truck shell first comes into the plant, it’s already painted, but they take it apart and send the doors in one direction, the bed in another direction, and the cab off somewhere else. They work on all of them in different places, and they all meet up at the other end of the assembly line. It would be really funny if they were off by one or two, matching a mustard colored cab with a blue bed and red doors. But we didn’t’ see any mismatches. The tour was free because Sharon got us free passes. Yay, Michigan Thackers! Today we’re going to a farm where you can pick your own apples.
      Monday and Tuesday Dad did a brake job on the Thackermobile. He seemed to enjoy himself completely, making lots of trips to Autozone. I spent several hours putting together a Minnie Mouse dress for Sharon. We’ve also had some good walks through the autumn leaves, and we’ve been to the library and Walmart. This afternoon, Sharon and I are going to start putting new vinyl tile on her kitchen floor. Most of this is the same stuff we do at home, but it’s more fun doing it somewhere else.
      Oh, one thing’s different. Food. Seth fixes us wonderful breakfasts of pancakes or waffles or muffins or biscuits. Sharon fixes wonderful dinners of chicken or tacos or tater tots. We’ve really enjoyed the cuisine here.
      Saturday we have to head home, to the cats and the bird and our church responsibilities, and Dad’s bus driving and my piano students. Here or there, it’s all good.      Love, Mom