On the Road

There are so many songs that describe the feeling of the open road…..that sense of pulling away from all that is routine …the freedom of the road…the stuff that movies are made of…. Like Thelma and Louise, and – and – well all the other movies about road trips.
Some crazy lady who doesn’t like to drive came up with this idea to take a 4-generation road trip – going 2000 miles roundtrip. Okay – the crazy lady was me. Okay I like to drive sometimes, but I am just not very good at it- if my accident record were a rap sheet I’d be serving consecutive life sentences.

So, with girl books on CD in tow, at least one suitcase per girl, and everyone’s car comfort bag, we took off. By the fifth hour, just passing Gainesville, a 150 mile trip from our Lakeland home, and after ditching the first CD book on chapter 3 we needed a pick-me- up. Steak dinner.

Things got worse. Arriving at the wrong hotel at 1:30 in the morning I was not about to take any lip from the Hampton Inn clerk. The front door was locked and not a soul around. I rang the night bell three times, politely waiting 10 seconds between each buzz. Finally I called the guy on the phone. He had the nerve to tell me he was standing at the front desk and didn’t see me by the door. I promptly and assertively told him, “You are NOT at the front desk and therefore you CAN’T see me at your front door.” With ever grit of customer service he could impersonate, “I’m walking outside right now, can you see me?” Exasperated, “Listen, buddy, you are NOT walking outside and I DO NOT see you.”

“Ma’am, what was the exit number you took?”
“77 – just like mapquest told me to take.”
“We are exit 57.”
“57?”
“57.”
“I just came from 57.”
Yes Ma’am.”

The next morning, with threat of thunderstorms and tornados on 5 hours of sleep, we cheerfully headed across Alabama to visit my longest standing friend in life – Kathy. Her home and smile were respite enough and with bellies full of home-cooked brunchie we drove through the years and cobwebs of my mind – right into my high school hometown – Hot Springs, Arkansas.

As we rolled around the corner to Knollwood Lodge, the faint rhythms of “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” greeted my memory and all my senses floated back to July 1969 and a bikini summer sun and the slap of Lake Hamilton across the slats of the old wooden dock floating amid the waves as the speed boats passed by. We walked into the cabin and cozied under warm quilts and I fancied dreams of yesterday. (Yes it reminds me of the song!)

We rose to a chilly Sunday morning and seized the day! Off to the races. Took my daughter and granddaughter to Oaklawn race track – where I hot-walked the horses every racing season. Rising in the dew-drenched twilight of the morning to enjoy the smells of hay and damp dirt and the touch of velvet nestling nostrils was one of my greatest joys. A thoroughbred is like a royal - an aristocrat. They are powerful muscular creatures of virtue and rare beauty. – one that turns heads and mists the eyes. Being in their inner circle – knowing each by name, by personality, by forte is a privilege peculiar and extraordinary. One I loved above all else in my youth.

We walked the promenade behind bathhouse row, the historic claim to Hot Springs for nearly 2 centuries. (Of much grander stature than the claim of Bill Clinton’s hometown!) We drank from the hot springs bubbling and steaming up from deep within the mountain rock. Fresh – clean and perfect in beauty. Always reminded me of how God spoke the waters to be - a remnant of Eden. Memories and delights yet await me tomorrow.

….oops. forgot to beat up my body for boot camp!!! Must exercise ----but not today.

Better Body Beat Me Up Camp

So I signed up at work with 25 other middle-aged women and 5 brave men. We want to get healthy, you see. We all took this Blue Cross Blue Shield health survey for Wellness Week and found out that the bunch of us are overweight, sick and very unhealthy. Our answer? Better Body Boot Camp. A very ambitious staffer got Lifestyles to send two muscle monkeys to work us out. They are awesome - unless you are doing sit ups, or scrimmages, or curls...to a whistle. SHRILL up...SHRILL down...SHRILL up....SHRILL...down...SHRILL - pretend you lost count so you can rest two seconds...oops - missed the up....Shrill down.

Then you just want the burn to end and not be the first one to give up. I guess that is why we are doing it in a group. They call it motivation. We call it group humiliation.

So I made this big boast before we actually exercised...now I have to make myself work out daily and lose all this weight...because I have to win! I don't even care if there is a contest - I still have to win.... I have to prove I am the jocka from Maraca baby!

If this works – I will be glad. If it doesn’t I will be disappointed. If I could sleep through it and wake up and have all this abuse in the past…then I will be very glad….but the key is, if I don’t try I will be MORE than disappointed in myself.

The saga will continue…….

Why Kids Take Photos

It is not so much that they want a photo to maintain a memory of an event or era of life, or a photo to show how pretty they are today, or how macho they are, or even a photo to show how creative they are with a project …no it is for other reasons that kids take photos.

It seemed one of those mysteries of life that needed investigating. So I put on my imaginative investigator cap– the black one that says CSI across the top in bold white letters. I gave my camera to the grandkids and said, “Go play!”. Okay – I will be honest here. I only began to wonder about this mystery after the camera sat on my desk a day or two. I did not purposefully create a kids’ photo shooting hypothetical testing environment. So – back to the story – I put on my investigator cap.

I downloaded the photos to my computer and studied them. First I deleted all the photos which were indistinguishable. There went 75% of them. BUT! They were shot with the same pure motive as the distinguishable ones. Let’s take a look at my laboratory results!

Miss me! Miss me! Now you gotta...eeewie gross!

I got you Andrew and you are in jail!

You're gonna be in trouble! I caught you with another cookie!

.......And these are my shoes....and these are...my...

Smile Momma!

Gramma! Be funny with your Dr. Pepper

So there you have it! Photography for the pure entertainment of point and click! If there is a flash – all the better. It has to be a real point and click though. A toy won’t do, unless life is still all about pretending which lasts until some magic moment between 3 and 4. There has to be the promise of reality – even if they never see the photos again. The promise is important.

Castle Art

Elephant made from oil drums.

My hubby and I had a great activity with our grandkids. We try to make a monthly habit of doing “date” with the grandkids but we have done a poor job of it lately. I saw this odd place where an artist displayed his creativity in the middle of Florida - Ona to be exact – it was featured on a local news story. Some guy, Mr. Solomon, created a castle out of old newspaper set-up tins and build art out of parts from appliances, motors, cars, dishes, and other interesting junk. It is called Solomon’s castle . Much of the art was named with "tongue-in-cheek" humor. Emma and Grampy were the most enthralled with the art. Andrew liked the jokes and Grandma liked everybody liking something.

We have a few other blogs about our activities – the truck pull (the loudest and strangest activity), the steam engine ride(historical and great one for pretending to be someone in the late 1800’s), the Lipizzaner stallions (most awe inspiring and remarkable). This one will go down right along side as the oddest but pleasant.

We ate at the Boat- in-a-Moat – which is built at ¾ the size of the Santa Maria. Cannot imagine being in such a small vessel on the dangerous ocean that swallowed behemoths like the Titanic. Food was very good and very home-made but I could not help but think of the Pilgrims who so naively headed to the New Land and had nothing.
Then we went to the gift shop. A nice artisty kind of lady was so encouraging to Emma. We made sure Emma’s artistic tendencies were announced. She told her not to give up and continue to pursue what she loved. Emma told her Mr. Solomon’s art was unique and clever.

All in all it has been one more day for which I thank the Lord that I have lived.

In Solomon style, a "Foot Bridge"

Emma fencing the fence thats fencing