On the Road Again

After a long dry spell, we couldn’t wait to get on the road again. We like to travel and looked forward to seeing new sights along the way. It was our first big trip in over a year. The mileage on our 2019 car was still below 10,000 miles. Going to the grocery store, drug store, and church uses little gas and the car still smelled new. 

Our destination was Baton Rouge, Louisiana to see Charles’ sister and then Pensacola, Florida to see my sister.  Both of these dear ladies were recently widowed when their husbands died early in 2021.  We didn’t make either funeral but instead opted for a visit after vaccine shots were more widely distributed.

A stop in Laurel, Mississippi to see the town made famous by Ben & Erin Napier on their fixer upper show Home Town was on the agenda.  We checked in at the Holiday Inn Express ready to see the sights when Charles got sick to his stomach and started heaving. The next twelve hours were not pretty. We figured he picked up food poisoning when we stopped for lunch.  He managed to drive the next day to the Hampton Inn in Baton Rouge.

During the night, I got sick and spent the next twelve hours with decision sickness. Not food poisoning, but a throw up virus that attacked both of us. Charles pulled himself together enough to make the appointment the next day at the nursing home to visit with his sister, Marion.

After four nights of no sleep, we checked out of the hotel and headed for Alabama.  We spent one more night in a Hampton Inn in Fairhope to make sure we were over the bug. We were supposed to see Donnie & Erin and children in Daphne, AL but still felt sick so we took a rain check.

The next morning, we were on our way to Pensacola.

It had been five years since I’d seen my sister, Audrey.  We’d talked on the phone each week, but it wasn’t the same. Every time we tried to get together, life intervened. We thought we were going to take care of her, but instead we were the recipient of her hospitality. My niece and nephew opened up their comfortable downstairs suite to us and we were able to come and go at will. Some good sleep restored our bodies and minds so we could enjoy our visit. 

Once we were back home, groceries had to be bought and a ton of wash needed attention.  Life resumed full speed ahead. Call us crazy, but we are already anticipating another trip for our 25^th anniversary in June.