the rhythm of the road

My oldest son, David, called two days before he flew home for Christmas. "It's definite. I'll be renting out the spare room on January 19. So if you want to visit, you'd better come soon!"

David lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and bought a house a year ago. We hadn't yet made it down but a trip was on the radar. We also had some deliveries to make. More on that later.

So, in the hubbub of Christmas and kids coming and going, we sat down to plan a trip south: Ohio to Florida and points in between. Hooo boy!

Line up a house/dog sitter. Contact friends and family we want to see along the way. Dig out warm-weather clothes. Get the car serviced. Target departure date: January 3.

I like the seeing-new-places-and-visiting part of travel. But the getting-everything-ready part I detest. Usually I don't sleep well the night before. I become so emotionally frayed that I want to scrap the whole thing. Then we get on the road, Bill drives, and it's all good.

So on Thursday, January 3, we set out in the mini-van. Katie followed us in her car to Charlotte, our first stop. And for two weeks we traveled, seeing some new sights, friends and family. It was really lovely. And not terribly tiring.

In accepting that we couldn't always find our stuff, learning to use the map app (haha!) on my iPhone, and that cheese and crackers for lunch work just fine ... I think we found a rhythm of the road.

More to come!