As of today, we are officially on our first “road trip” in years! As you read this we should be about one-third of the way to the sunny south, where we will stay for a bit with Sister-in-Law Marlene. I’m hoping we will stay for at least six weeks, soaking up some sunshine and returning when the weather is nice in mid-Michigan again.
Everyone has asked us, “Why not fly?” Simply put, it is because we both love traveling, as long as we can take our time, and that is exactly what we plan on doing instead of “wedging” ourselves into tiny plane seats with no leg room.
We flew down a couple of times, but re-discovered what fun an old-fashioned road trip can be about seven years ago, when we “explored” all the old roads we could find on a road trip south (our last winter Vacation actually). We had a great time getting there and a great time being there and stayed about three weeks that time with Jack’s brother and his wife in Naples, plus some short stops to see family who had the same idea to get away from the cold for a bit, including our up-north camping buddy, Marlene. We will be staying with her in Ocala more of the time this year.
After about a month in the sunshine that last time, we headed home by a completely different route with a stop along the way to see long-time friends (since elementary school for me) Kay and Bob in North Carolina.
We had a wonderful time, missing almost all the freeways, seeing some beautiful country along the way, enjoying good conversation and listening to old time music on the tapes we never take time to enjoy when we are at home.
This time we will stay much longer, hopefully miss all freeways, and eventually head home through North Carolina again, with a brief stop to see Grandson Mikke, his wife Kayla and their two little ones (a great-granddaughter and great-grandson). We will also be delivering some (really late) Christmas gifts – a dinosaur quilt that I finished up in January for one youngster, and a personalized Unicorn blanket instead of the unfinished fuzzy pink and purple quilt in the works (but not finished) for his older sister.
They are both still in single digits and a real “hoot” to be around. With some luck (I’ve been working pretty slowly these days), she will get hers in time for her birthday this summer…
I used to wish we could live down there and sometimes (especially in February), I still do.
Not so much anymore, there’s just no place as nice as mid-Michigan in the summer months, but a nice long visit in mid-winter will be very welcome.
We have been planning and saving for this trip for a couple of years, and to put it mildly I’m excited!
Of course, as I write this we haven’t really left yet, and I still have loads of packing to do, bolstered by lists of all the things we are sure to need on an extended vacation, because, as we are “golden oldies” now, we need to take our pharmacy along and loads of “old folks” comfort stuff with us!
I will still be writing and plan to keep you, my readers up on what is happening, starting with our trip (and probably gloating just a bit – after all there won’t be any snow down there (I am hoping).
Please forgive me if I mention the sunshine when the weather up here is our usual nasty snowy spring, we are hoping to miss all that this year…
I’ve always loved Florida, and went with my retired parents down several times as a teenager. A month was about the longest my folks would stay, but when I was a junior in high school, I convinced them to let me stay from January thru the rest of the school year with brother Don and sister-in-law Marlene. It was a great time and place to be 17.
Of course, it’s quite a bit different these days, and we certainly are a lot different, but, if you know where to look, there are still oranges and fruit at the roadside stands and palm trees here and there, and of course that exotic and mysterious stuff – Spanish moss hanging from the trees.
Watch next week’s paper for more about our “adventure.”
