Thanksgiving Drama ... Part Two

Last time I ended the story with us getting in the car and driving to the factory to hopefully find someone to help us save the chickens.

We were hoping to pass the catch crew on the road - even though they'd be late, at least we would know where they were.  But we made it through the 30-minute drive into the nearest town without a glimpse of them.  By the time we pulled into the factory parking lot, it was nearing 10 PM Thanksgiving night.  we drove around trying to decide where to park and where would be the most likely place to find someone ... when we actually saw someone!

A man was sitting in his 18-wheeler truck working on paperwork, or something.  John and I stayed in the car, while MIL went to go talk to him.  It was amazing.  Downright miraculous, even.

The man in the truck was only supposed to be at the factory for a total of about 5 minutes (we had caught him in that time span!) and had the cell phone numbers of the people we needed to call!!  He made a few calls, and let my MIL talk to some people on his phone, before giving her the phone numbers for her reference.

Apparently, someone had changed the schedule, so the chicken catch was meant for 6AM instead of 8 PM - without telling anyone about the change.  With that change in place ... the birds were supposed to be coming off their feed Now ... even though they'd already been off their feed for hours.  My in-laws made some quick decisions - they decided to let hte birds eat and drink for 1-2 hours, and then take them off their feed.

By the time we got home, it was nearing 11 PM.  My MIL rushed down to the chickens to help my FIL.

About 11:45 she came back to the house, got cleaned up, and my MIL, John, and I all went Black Friday shopping; a developing holiday tradition.

Since we normally go about 10 PM - this was the latest we'd been out shopping, and as we got closer to the stores (Tanger Outlets) we saw cars parked out at least a mile from the stores.  We were seriously thinking about turning around and going home - who wants to walk a mile just to get to the stores?  But previous years had shown us that sometimes there are spots in the parking lot that people never seem to take (they give up and just park before they get to the middle of the parking lot!), so we decided to try and find a spot closer to the stores.  If we couldn't, then we'd go home.

We found a parking spot not 10 feet away from Bath and Body Works.  It was astonishing.  Even more astonishing than the line outside of Bath and Body Works (we did not go in that store!)

So, we checked to make sure we all had our cell phones, and then split up to get our shopping done quickly - we had to get back to farm to get the chickens ready for their 6AM catch.  We got their about midnight, and left about 1:30 AM - so we were quick about it.  John and I got all our Christmas shopping done, as well as a few things for ourselves.  (Here's a plug:  I got an amazing new wool peacoat at Wilson's Leather for $45.)

When we got home, my FIL was already in bed - he'd left a note with instructions about the chickens for my MIL.  She rushed down to the birds, and John went to bed.  I was still awake, so I read a while before turning the light out at approximately 3 AM.


And this is another long post, so I'm breaking it off here.  I PROMISE I'll get to the car chase and the police in the next part!