VACATION REPORT

In order to write this report, I am taking a break from going through the mountains of paperwork I found when we returned last Thursday evening from our 23-day road trip.  If I waited until I was “caught up,” it would never get done – I rarely see the bottom of any Inbox, either on my desk or on my computer!

We were gone for 22 nights, but had to pay for a motel for only five of them.  Casinos provided six comped nights.  We used Choice frequent-stayer points for five.  And various relatives were nice enough to provide a cozy spare bedroom and comfortable bed for the other six nights.

We put 5309 miles on the convertible, just a few of them with the top down.  Too hot in the daytime and too noisy on busy freeways, but nice in the cool of the evening!   Most of the time on the road Brad is the driver and I am the navigator.  However, on long driving days, I would take the wheel for an hour or two while he grabbed his much needed and much beloved afternoon nap.  I had driven extensively down through the years ever since I was 16, but when Brad retired 22 years ago, he became my chauffeur and I rarely drive anymore – and on this trip I found I was really “out of practice.”  And brother did I get a well-rounded and sometimes nerve-wracking review.  It got to be a joke.  Brad could drive for hours in sunny weather on straight uncrowded 4-lane freeways.  I would take the wheel and suddenly there were orange-cone obstacle courses with one-lane restrictions and other construction delays.  Or, a severe thunderstorm would pop up with driving rain and 10% visibility.  Or, long conveys of trucks would test my passing skills.  But I – and the convertible – survived.

We were amazed at the poor condition of the Interstate roads.  There was a lot of construction going on in all the states we traveled and, although it slowed us down, we were happy to see people who had jobs.  However, we saw a lot of opportunity – yea need – for more road workers.  Looks like that would be a good way to stimulate the economy!

Some the highlights of our trip:

•  A refreshing swim in the motel pool at the end of a long driving day.
• The beautiful red-rock panorama in Sedona, Arizona
• The off-the-freeways drive through Colorado, although on some of those secondary mountain roads I wished for a few more guardrails.   The gondola ride up a mountain and then down into Telluride was a great experience I would have gladly paid for, but to my surprise it was free!
• Visiting relatives of both Brad’s and mine, from new babies to those elders we hadn’t seen for many many years. 
• Driving around the areas where we had spent our childhood and youth.  For Brad that was Connersville, Indiana, where we walked around the county fair and drove around the neighborhood where he used to pass papers.  For me it was the countryside around Mercer and Stoneboro, Pennsylvania.  We passed the Oak Grove church where my father pastored and the parsonage beside it where we lived when I was 11-14 years old.
• Attending the Stoneboro Kids Reunion in Grove City, PA, meeting some of the “kids” I hadn’t seen for 60 years, not since we were children and teenagers who looked forward to the Stoneboro church camp every summer.  Both my sisters also were there, a rare time for us all three to get together at the same time.  (I graduated from Grove City High School 55 years ago, but I missed that reunion which had been just a week earlier.  However, I did attend the 45^th reunion ten years ago.)
• Needing a gas fill-up, a bathroom break, and a snack and finding a Dairy Queen that would provide all three, including our favorite treat, a Dilly bar.

 And although it wasn’t the main purpose of our trip, we did stop at some casinos.  So I will report on that in my next blog posting here.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention:  It’s SO good to be home!