Last day at the Noble House

I wasn’t sure when my last day at the Noble House for this season would be, but my boss told me at the end of my shift today that the museum will be closed next weekend. I ended the season with a bang!

This morning, I left for work headed in the usual direction, but something was different. There seemed to be too much traffic coming from up north where Gills Rock is. Then I saw runners and remembered that today is the Fall 50 race. This is where runners start at the tip of the peninsula in Gills Rock and run 50 miles to Sturgeon Bay. Drivers dropped their teams off up there and then drove to meet them at their next rest point. When I could turn out onto the highway, I only made it as far as the top of the hill before traffic came to a standstill. We don’t usually get traffic jams in Ellison Bay. Fortunately, I know the back roads. I turned left and managed to avoid Sister Bay and Ephraim on the back roads. I only made it to work a few minutes late.

It’s been really windy the last few days, so when I finished opening the Noble House up, I took a broom out and started sweeping the front porch and steps on the house, then swept one side of the sidewalk out to the road. The ground was completely covered with those seeds that fall out of trees like a helicopter. I can’t remember what kind of tree that is.

Anyway, I never got to the other side of the sidewalk because a family came and wanted a tour of the house. That was shortly after 10:00. By 12:15, I had had fifteen visitors in one tour after another and I finally had a chance to sit down and eat my sandwich. That was as far as I got on my lunch because another round of visitors came in and lasted until 1:48. At that time, I was able to eat my chips and was just about to eat my apple when another round of visitors came in. For the last couple that came in, as soon as we finished touring the first floor, I locked the screen door before we went upstairs at 2:54. It was a good thing I did because we were in the first room upstairs and a group kept tugging at the screen door. I called down to them that we were closed. I finally finished with the last couple and let them out, then started closing up the house. When I counted my tally of all the visitors that came today, I had had thirty of them. My all-time record is thirty-one, so that should tell you how busy I was today!

As I said earlier, my boss texted me and told me that the museum will be closed starting next week, so I left my key on the table and locked the door on my way out. It felt kind of weird to be leaving for the last time this season. I stopped to visit the brick I had engraved with my older sister’s name on it. I told her this would be the last time I’d be there until next spring and said I hope she has a good winter in heaven!

I ended up having to take the back roads home as well. When I got home, Mark was here. He had hoped to finish his last winterization today, but the RV he was working on had some issues that couldn’t be resolved today, so he’ll have to go back again on Monday. I will still be working at the Door County North Welcome Center this week, but at least I’ll have a couple of days off where I would normally have been working at my other job.

Mark and I are also hoping to start moving into our RV so that I can clean the house and he can start winterizing it. Last year, we discovered that by moving into the RV well before we are ready to leave, if we realize we’ve forgotten something we are going to need, we only have to go back into the house and get it. Having the critters in the RV will also give me a chance to catch up with all the fur and hair and other things they’ve left behind.

My boss at the Welcome Center has managed to get a booth at the Christkindlmarkt in Sister Bay the last weekend of November and the first two weekends of December, and she told me I can leave some items with her to try to sell there on my behalf. Consequently, I’ve been sewing up a storm. I have come to realize that kits don’t sell very well at these events, so I’m trying to make finished products to sell. When I get it all put together, I’ll take a picture and show you.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m exhausted! It’s been a tiring day, so I think I’ll go to bed now. Good night!

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