Road Trip! Chapter 3

Of our recent road trips, this was DEFINITELY the one I enjoyed the most. It was the longest of the three but it had all the necessary elements to make it the winner, specifically, loved ones at the end of the journey. I'm not sure that anyone can ask for more than that.

When we arrived at the home of our Li'l Lulu and Sgt. Dan, the military man had vacated the premises. Perhaps he didn't want to be there when his mother-in-law arrived. Or perhaps we were just so late arriving - like after midnight - that he had already reported for work. Which do you fear offending the most, Dan? The U.S. government or your mother-in-law?!

Aside from Lou, our four "granddogs" were also very happy to see us. Since they had four grandparents (Pastor Dad, my parents, and I), and an "uncle" (the Bear), in residence there was always a petting hand or lap awaiting them. Rumor has it that they suspect that when their Daddy Dan reports for his assignment next year they will be shipped off to willing family members while their Mommy Lou gets the house ready to sell. We're pretty sure that Zeus has been told that my parents have a fenced-in backyard because he was buttering my mom up practically from the moment she set foot in the door! His brother, George, wasn't about to be outdone. Besides, George has visited Grandma's house before and found it to his liking. He did his best to muscle his way into her heart - and lap - several times! Here is a picture of George with his great-grandma:

Lou spent a lot of time putting together many delicious dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. She let us stir a few vegetables or add some garnishes but she was the chef du jour. She did a fantastic job of putting together a meal for our large family and for any lonely military personnel that might drop by looking for a home-cooked meal. Thank you for all the hard work, Lou! The biggest problem was getting the roasting button to pop up on the turkey. I began to fear that joking about requiring my meat to be extremely tanned might mean that they had purchased a bird with a "done" setting well above the norm. Of course, having us opening the oven door every five minutes to check it probably didn't help matters either!

Since Lou has a birthday next week we decided to celebrate while we were there. We purchased an ice cream cake that managed to have its greeting smeared all over the plastic cover on the ride home. I'm not sure who was holding it.

She said it still tasted great. We wish she would've shared with us, though. (Just kidding, Lou!)

We were there long enough to see the holiday seasons change. I'm sure some people think it seems like we were there months.

I was glad that we went shopping on Black Friday. Funny thing. All of the Christmas gifts were for Dan! That's because he won't be home (meaning: with us) for Christmas. We also bought Lou's birthday present that day. We thought it best to purchase gifts there as opposed to buying them in advance and transporting them. When you consider there were 5 people in the car and 5 peoples' luggage in the trunk the wisdom of this decision becomes obvious.

So in spite of the fact that the week went by much too fast, and that I ate much too much food, and that I miss my daughter and her husband and dogs much too much, I think it was a wonderful road trip.

This picture of Zelda, one of the granddogs, sums it up for me. Since our car didn't pull into our garage until 3 o'clock this morning I'm still feeling a bit Zelda-y this evening. Guess it's time to find my favorite blanket and pillow.

Sweet dreams!