Road Trips- #4

  Are road-trips a thing of the past? 

And how long must a road  trip be to be classified as a true Road Trip?

I've never been on more than a day long one myself. I don't think the idea of sitting in a car for days on end is something I would particularly enjoy. I do day long ones tho occasionally and four stand out in my memories more than others I might have taken.

Again, me and Paul- this time we invited Frank, my eldest son to go with us.

We took off towards the blue Ridge Parkway, grabbed some snacks and a drink and just had a grand time chatting about everything and nothing specific.  We stopped at some of the lookouts and took photos,  listened to songs and sang along, and just general had a great time together. Once it started getting  up in the elevations, it started getting a bit sketchy as some really weird clouds started rolling in. The sky kept getting darker and darker and the clouds more ominous. By this time we had bought - no PAUL had bought some sort of GPS type thing so he opened it  and was looking at the road. It had gotten horribly foggy all the sudden and there were sheer drop offs on both sides of the road. We literally couldn't see 10 feet in front of us and was having to drive by the device. Needless to say we were only going about 5 miles per hour - if that. We seemed to be the only one out there as well- until we saw flashing hazard lights of a park ranger on the road in front of us.We followed him about 5 miles down until we came out of it- but about two minutes after we found the ranger- it started snowing!!!!  It was middle of MAY yall!!!! That was terrifying.

When we came out of the fog the ranger was just GONE- we was going to thank him for the guidance, but he was nowhere to be found. Just out of the fog and vanished. And we was literally almost bumper to bumper. I was absolutely terrified to be driving, but I would have had a panic attack if I wasnt in control behind the wheel of my car.

there's more to this road trip- but I'll save it for later. Duty Calls- again.... 

Road Trips. #3

  Are road-trips a thing of the past? 

And how long must a road  trip be to be classified as a true Road Trip?

I've never been on more than a day long one myself. I don't think the idea of sitting in a car for days on end is something I would particularly enjoy. I do day long ones tho occasionally and four stand out in my memories more than others I might have taken.

Me and Paul on some random Saturday.

Paul and I were bored so we decided to just go on a drive. We(as usual) headed up towards the mountains, and we got talking so wasnt really watching where we were going. I drove because Paul hated driving at all-and after a few hours it started looking familiar. Hmmm....so we drove about 2 more hours trying to figure out where we was at.

Finally I saw a sign saying WELCOME TO BREVARD!!!

Now my dad is from that area- and we had been there many many times, but then DAD was driving and I tried to zone out when we went because my parents ALWAYS got into the worst arguments when we went to the mountains and I - all us kids- learned to bring something to distract us from the spat so I had an idea where we were- but didnt have a dang CLUE how to get back to home. Good thing I had gas money tho and gas prices weren't nearly as high as todays are.(Also it was just the very beginning of Garmins and GPS services so of course we didnt have either.) So rather than drive around and get worse lost or run out of gas money, I did the best thing I could have possibly done.

I called Dad.  

"Hey Dad... got a quick question for you. Hypothetical, of course..."

Of course he knew me and started chucking...."Of Course, Baby Girl... what's the hypothetical question?"

"Well, say a person was in Brevard- and had been there a hundred times, but really wasnt paying attention...If this person was, say, near the high school, how would they get back to-ohhh... let's say they were from Greenville?"

He actually started laughing and asked if I was joking. 

"Dad- I said hypothetically..."

He, still chuckling, cleared his throat and gave me "hypothetical" directions.

End ot the call he said- "Yall be careful- yall got gas money?" I said "Yes sir- we are fine and will be careful- Thank you Dad."

He said" I love you and if you need me to come get you or lead you home, just call. Hypothetically, of course". 

We made it without having to make that second call, thank goodness.

I never lived that one down tho.- I'd never not been able to find my way back before then.  

We all have our moments.

Road Trip. #2

 Are road-trips a thing of the past? 

And how long must a road  trip be to be classified as a true Road Trip?

I've never been on more than a day long one myself. I don't think the idea of sitting in a car for days on end is something I would particularly enjoy. I do day long ones tho occasionally and four stand out in my memories more than others I might have taken.

So on to #2...

Me and my Daughter Julie. I used to own a lil sports car... you may know what a MGB is. It was little, black and silver convertible. One owner before me and they did diddly squat in maintenance to it so when I bought it off the car lot, just as the warranty ran out on it- it started having issues. It was drive it three days,  something on it needed fixing and then it be down for six weeks because everything on it was special order. Anyway, during one of the drivable times, I picked up my daughter, again for lunch, only we couldn't decide where we wanted to eat. So I said we'd just drive around til we saw something that suited our fancy. We drove and drove and drove- top down, sunglasses on and wind in our hair until the sun went down. Then we stopped for dinner before heading back home.

We talked about anything and nothing- just enjoying the countryside and each other's company Just my precious Baby Girl and Me.

Road Trips. #1

 Are road-trips a thing of the past? 

And how long must a road  trip be to be classified as a true Road Trip?

I've never been on more than a day long one myself. I don't think the idea of sitting in a car for days on end is something I would particularly enjoy. I do day long ones tho occasionally and a handful stand out in my memories more than others I might have taken.

The first one was a road trip with my Bezzie, Rhonnie. I was going out to lunch with her but my car wasnt in the best of shape- and so my youngest son, Clay, offered to let me have his car for the day since he didnt have anything planned but staying in and catching up on sleep. He told me- yall go have lunch and then go do something FUN together!!  So I hopped in his little CRX, picked up Rhonnie who only lived a few blocks away and off we went. I can't for the life of me remember what restaurant we ate at- but it was on Pleasantburg Drive and the food was really good. As we came out of the restaurant, I asked her what we wanted to do since Clay insisted we do something more than lunch. She said she didnt know, so I suggested going to buy a lottery ticket. South Carolina didnt do lottery at the time so we had to drive just over the Georgia State line  in Toccoa to buy them. That was about 45 miles away- so off we toddled!!!We got down there and it was right by the Lake so we dilly-dallied for a few minutes before continuing on. After hopping back in the car, we just drove randomly,  each of us taking  turns choosing which direction to go at each intersection or turn off. We ended up in Brevard, North Carolina somehow.  Beautiful Mountain Area. So we grabbed a snack and sat by the mountain river then we continued on- same as before.... Before we knew it it was 8pm and we was in Pickens City- just a few miles from our homes in Easley. Three States in one day!! 

We still to this day reminisce about that trip and how much fun it was. I hope we can do it again before we get too feeble to do so.

One More Thing...

 I know I already posted once today but I just thought of something....

Have you ever held a belief of something and someone discussed it with you and changed your thoughts on whatever it was? 

I'm just wondering. 

Evan has actually changed my mind on a couple of things I believed to be truth- but then he offered a point of view I hadn't  considered- hadn't even entered my mind- and then I changed my mind after carefully mulling it over a while and doing some research on the matter. His aspect on it was spot on.

That RARELY happens as I try to consider all possibilities before stating my mind.

Well Done Evan. Well Done Indeed.

Worth it... and other things.

 It's been a rough month and I haven't been very consistent with my blogging, but I will try to do better in future.

Went to the lake this weekend. Stayed in the water just long enough to take a quick dip and cool off...then sat in the shade watching my two kids and my youngest granddaughter splash around until they decided to get out. Was there a grand total of about two and a half hours, and I still got crispy fried because my meds I'm on make me super sun-sensitive. Even in the shade as I found out. Even tho I'm in misery right now- it was more than worth it to just be able to create more memories with my loved ones. I'd give anything to have the same opportunity to do the same with all my grandkids before my time comes.  Plus- my daughter now wants to find a place with a pool- or us get a pool when we move to our own property. I'm 100% in agreement.

Silver Lining of the sunburn..... It looks super impressive against my brilliant white uniform shirts!!! Hahahahahaha.....

So, our  house hunt/job hunt continues. So far nothing just right has come along. It will tho. God has a plan- we just have to have patience. In the meantime, my granddaughter will start as a high school Freshman at  the high school in the county we live in now instead of the one we want her to graduate from. (Easley- it's a Family Tradition).... she's excited to be a highschooler no matter where it is. Her ADHD meds are working miracles for her. Thank God for the Blessings.

One of my Blogger friends, Spo , asked in his post today- or maybe yesterday- at what moment did you realise your adulthood? I gave him my response, but thinking on it- do we ever really actually believe we are adults- or are we perpetually children waiting for that moment to go on like a light bulb in our heads and then we have all the adult answers to all our adult problems? I know I'm adult- with adult problems that I have to solve, but in my heart of hearts I probably still be that child faking it until that light bulb goes on....Oh how I would love to go back to being a child- if only there wasnt all my little loved ones that I wouldn't be able to bring back with me.....

And speaking of aging.... 

...I just don't know about this..... So when I first moved back home I lost a load of weight and got a makeover and was told by quite a few ppl that I really looked good for my age. I've always looked younger than my actual age- up until about 10 years ago I still got carded when I would order a drink when I was out to dinner or at the ABC store to buy a bottle of wine or vodka. But in the last year I seem to have aged about 10 years. I'm not even joking. How is that even possible? Is it stress of having all the responsibility on my shoulders? That's the only thing I can think of that has changed for me.... Granted I did move 3x in the past two years, I left the man I thought I would be spending the rest of my life with because ..Reasons..... But you wouldn't think that would cause that kind of radical aging... or would it? It is what it is. I don't suppose it is logical to think staying younger looking would last forever- or until I turned 80 or 90... but I do wish I hadn't gotten looking better to have it ebb away so quickly either. That's a big ole danggggg wtheck in my book. I mean I'm defo not looking for another relationship- I don't think EVER again- but I would like to look decent just for photographs sake. LOL... Vain? Maybe- but I do have a little pride left even tho my ex-partners have tried to grind that confidence of mine down to nothing. Nice Try Guys- I'm stronger than you realise.

I'm still trying to get my schedule worked out so I can finish my books. I want to work on three of them for sure. One of them-Hunter's Revenge- I have to be in a certain state of mind to write, and I seem to have lost the biggest part of my rage for that one. I haven't worked on it for about 5 years. I've mainly been working on the story loosely based on my Daddy and on my Memoirs at this point- and hoping I get that one finished before I leave this world. If it's left unfinished, my family is gonna have a LOT of questions unanswered. LOL And that's why I started it to begin with. I wanted them to see I wasn't just Mama or Sis, I want them to know I have lived a full life, full of happiness and sadness and lots of cherished memories of them all.

I just want a simple life.... and I'm getting there. Slowly but surely.

Podcasts Are the New Novelists?

 So do you think  some of the new podcasters are the new novelists?

Everyone seems to have a podcast these days, are they replacing books in a steady creep? They all tell stories just in a different format.