M.I.A.
Yeah, I know. I've been out of action for a couple weeks. Actually, it's been longer than that-- my last two posts were scheduled at the end of September. This year for fall break we made a long--make that LONG-- awaited trip to see Terence's family back in Mississippi. (The last time we made it out there K was 9 months old. Yeah, it was overdue.)
It's been a challenge for me to get back into the swing of things. When you spend a couple of weeks inhabiting what feels like another world, it gets tricky to slide back into normal life. At least without feeling like you're going to stumble every other step.
But it's been a week since we've been home, and I kind of feel like I am anchored into my real life again. So I thought I'd give a really quick report on the trip.
The plan was to spend a full day with my sister Amy in Dallas both on the way out and on the way home and still have a full week with Terence's extended family in Mississippi. That meant that we had to make the marathon drive from our home to Dallas in one day. We'd planned on 16 hours-ish. (Of course, we are not novices in the road trip department, so we accepted off the bat that something would go wrong. We just hoped that it would be something minor.) I've driven all the way through Texas before, and I knew, theoretically, what we were getting into. I just didn't realize how much LONGER it is when you don't stop and spend the night halfway through.
Just in case you missed that, Texas is a huge, mammoth, brontosaurus-size state. And when you drive from the farthest western edge all the way to the northeastern area, it takes a very, very long time. Especially when there's road construction with lane closures. Especially when there are seven passengers who will need bathroom breaks. Even the 80mph speed limit for long stretches are not enough. It was a TWENTY hour trip.
And Terence drove the whole way.
Lest you think I got off easy, when Terence is driving, I provide the entertainment that keeps him awake. I read out loud to him almost the entire drive. My voice was hoarse by the next day. Good thing I got a break so I was ready to be the audiobook narrator for the ten hour stretch to his mom's house in Mississippi.
Did we do anything fun and exciting on our trip, besides drive? Well, we did a great deal of visiting, which was the whole purpose of the trip. And Terence and I went on a lot of bike rides, which was pretty much our only form of exercise (and believe me, when you are eating southern food, you need some serious exercise). We had kicked around the idea of going down to the gulf coast again, but scratched that idea when Hurricane Nate decided to arrive the same day we would have gone down there. (We didn't have any major weather where we were. Some rain and the worst humidity I have ever felt in my life, but that was it.)
One of my favorite things was enjoying the scenery. When you live in the desert, the color brown pretty much defines your life. Now Mississippi has been having a dry couple of years from what I heard so it wasn't as green as some of the other visits but it was still relaxing just to see actual trees.
The trip home was slightly shorter, fortunately. It helped that we were getting two extra hours from the time change on the way home. There's something about driving in the daylight hours longer that made the trip seem shorter. (That makes little sense, I know, unless you've driven east in the dark for hours and thought "Surely we must have reached Abilene by now. Surely!!!" only to find out that the glow ahead is for another small Texas town and assuredly not Abilene. Which means you have even longer than you thought to go still....)
The hardest part was saying goodbye to our family members. Especially Amy. I've grown so close to my sister during all the years we lived only 15 minutes apart and now I have to drive 20 freaking hours to see her. Curse you, NFPA! Move your headquarters to Phoenix, will you?
On the other hand we've made solemn promises that it will not be another 8 years before we make it back. We will do our very best to keep those promises!
It's been a challenge for me to get back into the swing of things. When you spend a couple of weeks inhabiting what feels like another world, it gets tricky to slide back into normal life. At least without feeling like you're going to stumble every other step.
But it's been a week since we've been home, and I kind of feel like I am anchored into my real life again. So I thought I'd give a really quick report on the trip.
The plan was to spend a full day with my sister Amy in Dallas both on the way out and on the way home and still have a full week with Terence's extended family in Mississippi. That meant that we had to make the marathon drive from our home to Dallas in one day. We'd planned on 16 hours-ish. (Of course, we are not novices in the road trip department, so we accepted off the bat that something would go wrong. We just hoped that it would be something minor.) I've driven all the way through Texas before, and I knew, theoretically, what we were getting into. I just didn't realize how much LONGER it is when you don't stop and spend the night halfway through.
Just in case you missed that, Texas is a huge, mammoth, brontosaurus-size state. And when you drive from the farthest western edge all the way to the northeastern area, it takes a very, very long time. Especially when there's road construction with lane closures. Especially when there are seven passengers who will need bathroom breaks. Even the 80mph speed limit for long stretches are not enough. It was a TWENTY hour trip.
And Terence drove the whole way.
Lest you think I got off easy, when Terence is driving, I provide the entertainment that keeps him awake. I read out loud to him almost the entire drive. My voice was hoarse by the next day. Good thing I got a break so I was ready to be the audiobook narrator for the ten hour stretch to his mom's house in Mississippi.
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| Terence and J on our regular bike ride |
One of my favorite things was enjoying the scenery. When you live in the desert, the color brown pretty much defines your life. Now Mississippi has been having a dry couple of years from what I heard so it wasn't as green as some of the other visits but it was still relaxing just to see actual trees.
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| Terence's Mom's backyard view |
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| A Texas rest area |
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| Another Texas rest area |
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| And yet another Texas rest area! |
The hardest part was saying goodbye to our family members. Especially Amy. I've grown so close to my sister during all the years we lived only 15 minutes apart and now I have to drive 20 freaking hours to see her. Curse you, NFPA! Move your headquarters to Phoenix, will you?
On the other hand we've made solemn promises that it will not be another 8 years before we make it back. We will do our very best to keep those promises!
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