In my chronicles of this little vacation trip, I failed to mention one little detail. As we were leaving town on Day 1 and heading for Central Texas, my lovely bride received a telephone call that had some impact on our journey. It turned out she would be needed at home on Wednesday, for reasons that cannot be disclosed at the moment. So on Tuesday morning, we said our goodbyes to my sister and her tribe, and we hit the road westbound. Well, actually NORTHwestbound.
The trip back was fairly quick and uneventful, other than being under the watchful eye of many a hawk or falcon as we drove on our way. There were no close calls, no near meetings with policemen, and only one real "slow down," this being just east of Westbrook. If you frequent the west end of I-20 you will be familiar with Westbrook. If, however, you are not familiar with Westbrook, you have not missed that much. Anyway, just east of Westbrook we were diverted off the main highway onto the westbound frontage road. The only clue we had about WHY we were diverted were some of those folding orange warning signs that had been placed by TXDOT employees to tell us of an "Incident Ahead." We never learned what the incident was nor did we see any signs of traffic accidents or hazardous spills. After the leisurely drive through Westbrook we were able (after several miles!) to get back onto the main westbound lanes on the Interstate.
As soon as we arrived at our home, we unloaded our truck of our luggage and accumulated travel snacks, and reloaded the vehicle with Baby Baby's car seat and her various other paraphernalia. While I navigated us back onto I-20 for the trip to Odessa, my lovely bride called ahead and told...I mean asked...Child B if we could come and get Baby Baby. While we were still within about five miles of our home, and headed west in I-20, a large pickup in the left lane suddenly swerved into our lane. I knew that no one was to our right, since only the shoulder was to our right, so I swerved away. The driver of the pickup saw us then and swerved back into her lane. I remarked (rather loudly) to my wife how ironic it was that we had driven well over seven hundred miles across Texas and back on our vacation, only to nearly be killed in our home territory. But I could not get too upset because I have done a few of those near miss "almost" lane changes myself.
The remainder of the trip to Child B's house passed without incident. We collected Baby Baby and all the necessary paraphernalia, went through a round of hugs with Child B, then returned to Midland. We bought a few groceries on the way. Baby Baby kept us both entertained and busy, but she is such a joy to have around. She is growing so fast and will soon be three years old. Our little Baby Baby is not really a baby anymore. It is a bittersweet thing to watch her grow, and to WANT her to grow as she should, all the while knowing that as she blossoms into a little girl, she will not be a "baby" much longer. Nonetheless it was a great night, with all three of us being exhausted by the end of the evening.
This vacation has been one of literally (okay, FIGURATIVELY) doing nothing! I know there will be more times on future vacations where we actually do something "fun," but I find myself more and more enjoying the times that we really do nothing more than just enjoy ourselves as we enjoy our loved ones and friends. My lovely bride is constantly reminding me that we need to get our passports so that we can go to Hawaii. Oh wait, that is part of the United States - you just have to fly halfway around the planet to get there. The passport would actually be needed to drive across into Mexico or Canada. Go figure? But I agree that we should get passports soon.
I would like to visit the Caribbean some time, and I would like to follow an ever growing urge, a need - almost, to visit the Mul of Kintyre, as immortalized by Paul McCartney. The only problem (besides the money) in visiting either Hawaii, the Carribean, or Scotland, is the minor issue of having to ride an airplane for so many hours. No, I do not like small, enclosed spaces, including airplane "cabins." I am afraid that if I made such a flight, and then tried to blog about it, the only thing I could blog about with any reliability would be the bar tab for the "over the counter" (over the bar, really) tranquilizers that I would have to consume "pre-boarding."
Thank you all for reading about my rather mundane vacation. I appreciate the spike in reader numbers for these stories, which I can assure you, are very true. If I were making up this stuff, I would certainly have included some far more interesting "true" events.
May God bless you all...
The trip back was fairly quick and uneventful, other than being under the watchful eye of many a hawk or falcon as we drove on our way. There were no close calls, no near meetings with policemen, and only one real "slow down," this being just east of Westbrook. If you frequent the west end of I-20 you will be familiar with Westbrook. If, however, you are not familiar with Westbrook, you have not missed that much. Anyway, just east of Westbrook we were diverted off the main highway onto the westbound frontage road. The only clue we had about WHY we were diverted were some of those folding orange warning signs that had been placed by TXDOT employees to tell us of an "Incident Ahead." We never learned what the incident was nor did we see any signs of traffic accidents or hazardous spills. After the leisurely drive through Westbrook we were able (after several miles!) to get back onto the main westbound lanes on the Interstate.
As soon as we arrived at our home, we unloaded our truck of our luggage and accumulated travel snacks, and reloaded the vehicle with Baby Baby's car seat and her various other paraphernalia. While I navigated us back onto I-20 for the trip to Odessa, my lovely bride called ahead and told...I mean asked...Child B if we could come and get Baby Baby. While we were still within about five miles of our home, and headed west in I-20, a large pickup in the left lane suddenly swerved into our lane. I knew that no one was to our right, since only the shoulder was to our right, so I swerved away. The driver of the pickup saw us then and swerved back into her lane. I remarked (rather loudly) to my wife how ironic it was that we had driven well over seven hundred miles across Texas and back on our vacation, only to nearly be killed in our home territory. But I could not get too upset because I have done a few of those near miss "almost" lane changes myself.
The remainder of the trip to Child B's house passed without incident. We collected Baby Baby and all the necessary paraphernalia, went through a round of hugs with Child B, then returned to Midland. We bought a few groceries on the way. Baby Baby kept us both entertained and busy, but she is such a joy to have around. She is growing so fast and will soon be three years old. Our little Baby Baby is not really a baby anymore. It is a bittersweet thing to watch her grow, and to WANT her to grow as she should, all the while knowing that as she blossoms into a little girl, she will not be a "baby" much longer. Nonetheless it was a great night, with all three of us being exhausted by the end of the evening.
This vacation has been one of literally (okay, FIGURATIVELY) doing nothing! I know there will be more times on future vacations where we actually do something "fun," but I find myself more and more enjoying the times that we really do nothing more than just enjoy ourselves as we enjoy our loved ones and friends. My lovely bride is constantly reminding me that we need to get our passports so that we can go to Hawaii. Oh wait, that is part of the United States - you just have to fly halfway around the planet to get there. The passport would actually be needed to drive across into Mexico or Canada. Go figure? But I agree that we should get passports soon.
I would like to visit the Caribbean some time, and I would like to follow an ever growing urge, a need - almost, to visit the Mul of Kintyre, as immortalized by Paul McCartney. The only problem (besides the money) in visiting either Hawaii, the Carribean, or Scotland, is the minor issue of having to ride an airplane for so many hours. No, I do not like small, enclosed spaces, including airplane "cabins." I am afraid that if I made such a flight, and then tried to blog about it, the only thing I could blog about with any reliability would be the bar tab for the "over the counter" (over the bar, really) tranquilizers that I would have to consume "pre-boarding."
Thank you all for reading about my rather mundane vacation. I appreciate the spike in reader numbers for these stories, which I can assure you, are very true. If I were making up this stuff, I would certainly have included some far more interesting "true" events.
May God bless you all...
No comments:
Post a Comment