July 30, 2014

Yesterday was a lovely, relaxing day hanging out with my cousin in his new home. He left for work a little after noon (it helps to be the owner of the business) and I caught up on some of the inevitable chores associated with travel.  Dinner was even nicer than the night before and he introduced me to the new lady in his life. Great company, wonderful food.

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July 28, 2014

Tickets were bought last week for the movie Hercules in 3D and IMAX, so my hosts loaded grandchildren and me in the requisite Texas pickup for the 10:15 am showing on this Monday morning. The 3D effects were much better than the movie we saw last week. At that hour of the morning, we had the theater almost to ourselves and enjoyed the movie without the noise and interruptions that might have been.

I’d loaded the car before we left, so said my goodbyes and headed west about noon. Down the road past the neighborhood school to a left turn on Main Street, past the big tree where we watched a parade a couple of years ago, and onto I-10. If I remember right, I-10 eventually runs into the ocean at Santa Monica, but that’s far away. I just need to get through Houston first.

Houston seems to sprawl almost as much as Los Angeles and the traffic, even at noon, is way beyond what I’ve grown used to in the sleepy Shenandoah Valley. It was an hour at least before I was away from city and could see even a bit of open space. Eventually the lanes narrowed down to two on each side and traffic moved at 80 mph.

I managed to stop for gas before the need became acute, unlike the first time I made this trip a few years ago. A phone call to my cousin directed me to his office, a place I can find without difficulty. From there I followed him a few miles NW of San Antonio to his new home where we relaxed and cooled off then went to dinner. We returned to his most comfortable home and talked until midnight.

We have little family other than our own immediate families and neither of us sees the other cousins, so over the past few years we have grown closer. It is so nice to be able to share memories and insights that we cannot find anywhere else. At some point we decided that one night was not enough, so I will be here for another day before beginning the long, hot stretch to El Paso.

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March 8-11, 2013

We left San Antonio on Friday morning and made our way eastward along I-10 to Houston. We decided not to follow Ms. GPS who tried to direct us to a bypass because our friend lives right off I-10 on the eastern side of the city and it would be out of our way to take the bypass and besides, how bad could the traffic be in mid-afternoon and the Navigator knows what she’s doing. Maybe the Navigator and Ms. GPS are going to have to become better friends, or at least not sworn enemies.

We survived the mid-afternoon mess on I-10 and pulled into Elaine’s back yard a little after 4. We’ve been here before, know the drill, and were set up in record time. I LOVE Southern manners. Her 10-year-old grandson was around before we were set up to say “Hello, Miss Esther” and give me a big hug. Fortunately I still had some chocolate chip cookies to offer him.

Pizza and plenty of wine made a delicious dinner and we all crashed in the den, catching up on the trip and whatever else had happened since we were last here. Elaine is a self-employed tax-accountant with her office a few yards from her front door, so for three or four months she lives and breathes taxes. I’m glad there is someone who likes that stuff! It also means she doesn’t have a lot of time or energy to visit, so our stay here will be a short one, much as I enjoy hanging out with her.

An excellent cook, Elaine doesn’t do much baking and she quickly put in an order for a cake I baked last time I was down here, so Saturday meant a run to the store for ingredients in between umpteen loads of laundry. Then a nice LONG hot shower was pure heaven!

Again the questions arise…how can you stand to be away from home so long? How can you stand to be cooped up in the trailer with each other for so long? Don’t you miss home? Aren’t you looking forward to getting home? Don’t you know when you’ll get home? Don’t you miss your friends? Your activities?

Anybody who has spent a long time on the road knows those questions have complicated answers. The only ones we can answer now are yes, we are starting to look forward to getting home. I have some gardening I hope I can get done before everything breaks dormancy.  There’s a huge clump of Siberian irises that needs to have the dead tops burned off, then dug up and divided. If anybody at home needs or wants Siberian irises…they make huge clumps of narrow iris leaves and have dark blue flowers…let me know. As soon as we get settled in at home, I’ll be digging those up. We also know that by April first, we’ll need to start mowing again. Who knows how many little critters may have moved into the house while we were gone. They’ll have to be dealt with. Old houses always have their assortment of insects and sometimes bigger stuff.

But we will miss the freedom of the road. We will miss the many friends we have been able to see on this trip. We are still missing the desert, with its wide open spaces and luscious dark sky at night. But it will be great to have breakfast with the gang on Thursdays again, go to club meetings on Friday and off for ice cream after the meeting. I’ll be able to sub at the library again, have lunch with friends I see at least once a month, and finally get some cleaning out done. I have more pack-rat tendencies than clean-out-the-attic tendencies but maybe living in the trailer for four months has enhanced my eagerness to get rid of stuff.

We will be leaving here shortly to visit one more “old friend”. We’ve known him for over 30 years and he’s only 35. It will be good to see him and his wife and finally meet their three children. Then, we will definitely turn the truck toward home. How long it takes us is anybody’s guess. But it won’t be long.

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