Wednesday Medley: Road Tripping

It is Wednesday so time to join other "Medleyers" to answer Terri's questions revolving around a National Day.  Today's topic happens to be one of favorites.

Click HERE to join the discussion about road tripping.

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NATIONAL ROAD TRIP DAY – Friday Before Memorial Day

1.  Have you ever done a spur-of-the-moment road trip?  Where did it take you?

Interesting you should ask because my Monday blog post was about a spontaneous road trip to the historic town of Jefferson, Texas.

Read all about it HERE!

2.  If time and money wasn't an issue, what roads would you choose to travel and how long would you be gone?

Our first choice right now would be up the Blue Ridge Parkway into the northeastern states. 

Another trip on our bucket list is out west into Arizona and surrounding states. 

We would also love to go back to California and travel Hwy 1 along the coast and go up north from there.  Several weeks should take care of each of my dream road trips.

3.  When you go on a long road trip, what snacks and beverages do you take?

Our favorite snack for road trips is cheese and grapes.  We also take lots of nuts.  The only beverage we take is water, but Dick loves to stop for coffee along the way.

  Do you pack a picnic?

If we plan to travel straight thru to a destination then yes, we do pack a picnic to eat in the car.

 Does the back seat turn into a nest? 

You have evidently seen our back seat.

If it is just a short road trip, then no, the back seat stays neat and tidy other than the necessities.

However, if it is an extended trip like when we go to our son's home in Indiana for a couple weeks, we will have an overflowing back seat.  Neat but overflowing.  We have an Avalon so the trunk, though large is always full of luggage and stuff; the back seat holds our hanging clothes, chill bag and/or ice chest, camera, laptop, etc.  We truly look like the Clampetts!

4.  Please tell us about something interesting or strange you have seen on the side of the road.

Other than the occasional piece of furniture or someone's garbage I can't think of anything specific.

5.  Who does the driving when you head out in the car?  Do you stop in the rest areas along our Interstate highways when you have to use the facilities, or do you choose a fast-food restaurant or gas station instead?  Not TMI... inquiring minds want to know!

When we first strike out, Dick always drives.  When we do stop either at a truck stop or Interstate Rest Stop, I usually take over.  I do the majority of the driving on long trips.  We kid and say only one of us has to drive at a time that way.

6.  Please share something with us about your week so far.

My weekend in Dallas was so much fun.  I was able to see Granddaughter Ava Grace do an amazing job on an acting audition Saturday morning, and then ride out the terrible afternoon storms at home before going to the dance competition that afternoon and evening.  She and friend Chandler did so well.

Sunday, we celebrated Granddaughter Cassidy's upcoming 23rd birthday with lunch together before I started my 3-hour road trip home.

This week will consist of morning trips to the gym and then days spent on whatever projects I can find.

Friday night we plan to go to the Little Theater to see "Legally Blonde."

I am also reading a book I bought Sunday entitled "2 Chairs" by Bob Beaudine.  Bob spoke in church at Prestonwood Baptist Church about the book and I bought a copy for all three of the men in my family.  I decided to read it before Dick could get to it.

Bob stresses the importance of making one-on-one time with God every day.  Not study or meditation time, but a real sit-down, let's visit kind of meeting time.  I look forward to implementing this.

May you have a great rest of your week.

Grandparent Road Trips

Joyce gave us a heads up that there will be no Hodgepodge next week.  We all need a fall break at some point.  So, I will see you back here on the 25th.  In the meantime, join the rest of the Hodgepodgers on Joyce's Blog to see their answers.

1. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your sense of direction? 1=can't find my way out of a paper bag and 10=if I've been somewhere once I can find it blindfolded ten years later.

I'm a pretty good 7 or 8.

When was the last time you looked at/used a map you could hold in your hand? (phones don't count!) 

In the summer when we went to Mackinaw Island.  I usually do MapQuest on the computer before we leave for a lengthy, first-time trip, then print out certain enlarged screenshots of the map.  We also use our Garmin and iPhone.

back east, down south, out west, up north

Choose one of these directional expressions and tell us why you chose it.

Up North!  Because we have decided it's time to go see our "up north" family.  Of course only six weeks later we'll turn around and go back up north for Christmas.  It's nice to be able to do just-because things sometimes.  By the way, our up north collegiate soccer player got a pretty bad concussion when a very hard kicked soccer ball hit her in the face a couple weeks ago.  She is still having some problems, but is improving.  Scary!

2. Did you do more talking or listening yesterday? Is that typical? Describe your yesterday in one word.

Most of my days involve very little talking.  My listening is mostly to music rather than conversation and no day-time TV.  As this will post on Wednesday and I'm writing on Tuesday, I will project and say that my day will again be spent mostly listening.  I had Pilates at 5:30 AM where I listened and will later have handbell choir, which requires very little talking and a lot of listening.  One word?  So far, its been"Peaceful!"

3. Time, money, water-power-resources, opportunity...which one on the list are you most guilty of wasting? What might you do to change that?

It would probably be time because I have the liberty of choosing what I want to do with it.  Some days are more productive than others.  I don't know that I want to change it.  I feel sure I also waste opportunities to do things that would benefit others as well as myself.

4. Did  your family take regular vacations when you were a kid? Tell us something you remember about a family road trip from your own childhood.

No, we did not.  The only road trips we took were to see family who lived on extreme opposite ends of our home state.  Mother would always pack food for eating and if we needed a bathroom stop, it was along the highway in the bushes and trees.  I remember as a small child riding on a pillow in the middle of the front seat between mother and daddy and thinking what a big girl I was.  There were no car seat restraints or laws in those days.

5. If you could grow anything you wanted, what would you grow? Why?

Watermelons in the middle of an herb garden.  We can never get enough watermelons in the summer and I love growing and picking my own herbs.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This weekend we will be going to our youngest grandchild's Grandparent's Day.  Needless to say, she is the only grandchild young enough to still be having this.  Actually, her school, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Tx, makes a really big deal of Grandparent's Day.  We always start the morning with a joint worship service where there will be at least a couple thousand in attendance.  Then we visit the classroom.  She is now in the 5th grade which they consider Middle School.  I would rather not think about that.

We have gone every year, but for some reason I could only find pictures of the last three.  We enjoy sharing this day with our Ava Grace and her other grandparents, Charles and Sandra.

It will be a fun weekend and I'll tell you about it another time.