The Salina Panic of 2010 - 071810

Between Victoria and Manhattan, KS (my next scheduled stop) is the city of Salina (Suh-line-uh). On my original trip plans, I intended to stop there. When I lived in Manhattan, some friends and I traveled to Salina on Sunday mornings to help a church plant. My friend Jeremy was (is?) a musician, so he became their worship leader. The rest of us helped with set-up and filling the seats. I checked online while planning the trip and realized that I couldn't remember the name of the church, so had no way of knowing if the church was even around anymore. Which meant that the Salina stop soon lost it's place on my itinerary.

At this point of the trip, I was still on major highways, so had the pleasure of seeing the billboards as I approached Salina. One was for a yarn shop. So, I had the clever idea of stopping there to bring my mom back some unique yarn. Some billboards are more helpful than others with addresses and such. This was one of the more unhelpful ones. There wasn't an address or name listed that I could see, speeding by at 75 miles an hour.

When I landed in Salina, I tried to find the yarn shop on my GPS. I came up with one, so told the GPS to lead me there. I was following the turn by turns when it told me I had arrived. I didn't see the shop, so continued forward intending to turn around and keep looking.

Since I had set the yarn shop as a "via point," my GPS wanted to continue on the journey, thinking that I had stopped already. She kept repeating "when possible, make a u-turn." Over and over again, she repeated it without pausing in between. About drove me crazy, so I told her to "stop." (By pushing a button, not by just talking to her.) I figured she must have sunstroke or something, from having been on my dashboard for the better part of the last day and a half. Who knows, maybe machines really are more sensitive than we realized.

Since she wouldn't stop telling me to turn around, I decided to turn her off for a bit. Surely that would reset her circuits. Well, something I hadn't thought about is that I had also set my GPS with a code that has to be entered when she's turned back on. Ya know, a safety feature, in case she gets stolen out of my car. It seemed to make sense, with all the travel I had planned.

Now, I know that I'm not supposed to operate the GPS while operating my vehicle. But come on, you think I'm really going to pull over every time I need to change directions? Not so much. I must have been going over some bumpiness on the Salina roads, because I'm sure that my finger bounced when entering the code. How else could I have entered a wrong number? I mean, I know my codes.

At any rate, the wrong number locks the machine. However, you're welcome to return to your "safe" place, which will also unlock the machine. Uhm... my safe place is at least 8 hours away. There ain't no way I'm goin' back at this point. I thought turning it off might help reset it, so I did that. Admittedly, it was only for a few seconds and then back on. Which oddly didn't help much. At that point, she was useless to me, so I turned her off, intending to just put her away.

Well, I had no maps for my trip printed out. Why should I? I had a GPS. Of the maps I had with me, I didn't have one of Salina either. (And no, I wasn't going to stop and ask for directions. Oddly, the thought never even entered my mind.) Well, with nothing better to do, I wandered around Salina trying to figure out how to get back to the freeway. I had finally found the yarn shop, but at this point, I had no desire to stop.

Back and forth, up and down the streets, nothing was leading me anywhere. It's been about 5 minutes, but I was starting to panic. What was I going to do if I didn't have my compass? (I know, how did I travel before the GPS?) I decided that I had to try, so I turned the GPS back on again. Miraculously, she was back to her normal screens... and allowed me to enter my code again. Which worked this time. Thank God!

At that, I was back on my way. I knew I shouldn't have stopped in Salina.

A German Haus - Hays 071810

This picture about says it all... apparently. So, I decided to take some time to check out some of Hays, KS's "living history."







It seems that Hays has a great German history. Though why a bunch of Germans picked the middle of our country to settle in so long ago, I didn't find out.


I did find their first Presbyterian church though. I'm not sure if it's really the red brick side or the granite (?) side. (Now I can't really remember what kind of stone that is. But it's found in a good many of the buildings around town.)



Oh, and get this... I noticed that oddly enough many of the side streets in Kansas (the city didn't seem to matter so much) are paved in red brick. Isn't Kansas supposed to have yellow-bricked roads? Or is that just on the path to Oz?

Since touring around Hays really wasn't on my agenda, I moved on pretty quickly. I knew that I had a very full agenda planned already... and if I was going to make it to Iowa at a semi-decent hour, I best get going.


My next stop was Victoria, KS, which is only about 20 miles away. Victoria is home to "The Cathedral on the Plains." AKA, a very large, very pretty Catholic church, out in the middle of nowhere. But, we all need our claim to fame, so Victoria found it thanks to another group of Volga Germans who settled there a very long time ago.



They too have a monument in their honor, across the street from the church.

Just a Taste of the Images I've Been Collecting Along the Way..

One of these days I'll actually get checked in to a room early enough to be able to catch up on all the fun pictures and stories I've been collecting. For now, I hope these will tide you over. :)

This image made it to the favorites pile, because of the guy in it, pointing out that I was taking a picture. (I think they have an uncanny sense for cameras). What he didn't realize was that I was trying to capture him with the lighthouse. They're so cute when they dress up in uniform like that!

So Much To Do, So Little Time...

Day 2, Miles Traveled:
I'm not sure. I got here late and forgot to take the mileage off of my car. I'll have to update this tomorrow, thought I'm sure my figure is somewhere over 600. Any bets on if I'm right?

There was so much that happened today, that it will take several blogs to cover it. I know I don't want to be here that long. I'm sure you don't either.

Suffice to say, there was a bit of a rough start to this morning. I didn't realize when I went to bed last night that my phone hadn't figured out that we switched time-zones. So when I told it that I wanted to get up at 6:00am, it actually woke me up at 5:00am local time. On top of that, I didn't get to bed until almost 1:00am. Which meant that I got about 4 hours of sleep before being so rudely awakened.

Now, if you know me, you know I don't wake up so well in the mornings. For example, I have trouble getting to work (outside of tax season, mind you) by 8:00am. For whatever reason, my brain seems to doubly disconnect first thing in the morning. So I'm actually sometimes standing up (not sure why) staring at my alarm clock, trying to figure out what it is, let alone what I'm doing standing in front of it.

Fortunately, even with all of the drama of trying to figure out what time it was and when I really had to get up. (Once we got past the "just 5 more minutes" phase. I even turned on the TV at one point just to find a weather channel in hopes that it would tell me what time it really was!) I made it to breakfast just in time to get a couple of "old fashioned" style donuts (without the glaze) and an orange. (Tomorrow I've been promised biscuits and gravy. I can't wait, that's my total favorite!)

Wow. I've now tried three times to get this measly blog done, so I'm going to call it a night. They only promised me WiFi. They didn't promise that it would be fast! (Can I also say that it's odd to me that the time stamp on this is around 11:15pm, when the clock I'm looking at says 12:45am? How can they be an hour and a half different?)

Shawshank and Death Valley

Day One Miles Traveled:

From my fuel-up on the way home from work last night to parking at the motel in Hays, KS: 461. That makes for 461 of the most boring miles a girl could travel. At one point, I had to stop to take pictures just to show how desolate the country I was driving through was. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...

My first stop today was to see my brother in Las Animas.

Here is the lovely little place my dear brother has been calling home for the last year. I arrived at 11:01, which meant that I got to go through "check in" (think double barbed wire fences, metal detectors, pat-down searches and multiple thick, computerized, locked doors. Oh, and guards everywhere.) Anyway, I got through the check-in process, and had to wait for almost an hour to see him because of count. At least there weren't plexi-glass "windows" and "telephones" to contend with.

Our visit was going great... and then two hours after I got there the guards at the desk inside the visitation room made an announcement: "Does anyone have a gold Taurus?" My brother, ever the smart aleck, responds "I do." We both looked over at the guard desk to see if they heard him, and if they were going to get upset. I'm pretty sure he wasn't heard, but the guard chose that moment to look up, point to me and say, "Come here." I looked behind me, sure he was talking to someone else, since a girl behind me had just giggled. She didn't move so I looked back. He pointed to me again. And yes, I looked behind me again before pointing to myself, "me?" He nodded, I went.

I got to the desk and he throws this paper in my face, "Is this you?" The paper was the form I had to fill out before entering the facility. "Yes," I replied, confused. He is none too happy with me. I meanwhile have no idea what is going on. In no uncertain terms, he tells me that if this ever happens again, he'll cut my visit short. I don't want to seem impertinent by asking, if what ever happens again. He finally tells me that my car is unlocked. WHAT??? "Do I get to come back?" He tells me again, that "this time" he'll let me, but if I ever do this again (like I planned to leave my car open with all of my stuff inside) he'll make me leave. (Gulp)

You have to understand that there are several signs posted as you're entering the facility that tell you that you should not only not leave your valuables in your car, but that you should also lock it. You also have to understand something about me: I am fastedious about locking my car. Seriously, the joke is that even if I'm only going inside for five minutes, in an extremely safe area of town, I lock my car. Call it a weird OCD type of mental disconnect, if you like. The fact is, I lock my car.

Well, upset Mr. Guard Man escorts me out of the building. I can tell that he is peeved with me, because he proceeds to completely ignore me. He meets up with another guard and they have a short conversation about the paperwork not mentioning a gold Taurus, but it has to be a visitor, because the second guard doesn't recognize the car.

They then leave the building. I have no idea what to do, so I follow them out. They both start heading toward the Taurus, that is in the opposite direction of my car. I stammer out something about my car being over there. "Just stay there," is all I'm told. I just barely keep from saluting, "yes sir."

They do their thing at the Taurus, and then head to where my car is. I follow, but for whatever reason, don't go near my car. I really don't have any idea what that was about, I just knew that I was better off not touching it.

G1 is nice enough to not only lock the offending car door, but to also double check my other doors. I thank them both multiple times for checking on my car, I mean, all the stuff for my road-trip is in the car. Albeit 95% of my stuff is in the trunk, but all someone would need is access to the car to get to all of it. Yikes.

After that odd incident, G2 walked me back inside, allowing me to bypass a second round of check-in, since I only walked outside with them. Whew!

And then, my brother and I continued on with our visit. We even played Yatzee, where we didn't realize we were making up new scoring rules, until almost finishing our second round of the game. Doh!

From there, I drove through the most desolate portions of both Colorado and Kansas for 2 hours.

Here's the view in front of my car...

.... which looked oddly similar to the view out the rear of my car...

Fortunately, there was some farm equipment and some lovely clouds out the side-views of the car, otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

Oh... and then I finally got to Burlington, CO. (Of course, I'm thinking that I can't believe I'm still in Colorado after all that farmland...) Which is about the time I discovered that I had a guest riding with me.

I'm not sure if this was one bug or two. I only know that I've never experienced bugs with such strong desires to travel that they'll cling (post mortem) to my windshield wipers. I did check before leaving Burlington and found that several of this bug's friends had hitched a ride on my grill. I was so grossed out that I didn't want to take more pictures. Especially when I realized that I had to figure out a way to pry them off. EW.

Musings - "Vacation" as a Mind-set

I have decided that there is a mind-set that must be put on when "vacation" is in the air. It's one that I've found myself employing as vacation dates approach.

First there is the miserly mind-set. You save and save and save, just to be able to afford going to that destination hot-spot (for one miserable week out of the year).

Then, the dates start to approach; getting closer and closer. So you start the planning phase. This is the one that is different than figuring out where you're going. I mean, most people, when they're going to Disney, the know that a long time in advance. So the phase that I'm talking about is the one where you're picking out the particular route. You're coming up with the lists of things that you'll need. And as each day dawns, you're scratching off items and re-writing lists.

Then you're a week, or a couple of days away. Suddenly, all the planning and scrimping and saving is paying off. Suddenly you can see the very bright light at the end of the dark tunnel. You get to go on a trip. You get to take a break from reality (although, amazingly "reality" is always waiting right there for you to come back. But that's a depressing muse for another day.)

I don't know about most of you, but when I get to the "days away" point in the vacationing process, it's like there's this switch that gets turned on (or off, depending on how you view things) in my head. For me, suddenly, it's "no holds barred." I'm on "vacation mode." Typically this means that I get to start eating out more often. Or I get to buy more stuff that I'll "need" for the trip. I mean, I'm in vacation mode. If I actually were on the road, or in another city, I would have to buy this, that or the other. I wouldn't have home base to come to at night. It's all vacation from here until I get back.

How stupid is that? So, instead of just spending the normal amount of money that I would while out of town, I end up spending much more, just because of this vacation mode short-circuit-ry in my head. Wow. I am so glad I'm not in that mode this time.

Here we are, 4 days before I leave, and I'm eating PB&J for lunch and cereal for dinner. Mostly because I just don't want to think about it and those items are easy. However, I was out running errands at lunch today, I could have easily picked up something fast-food. But I didn't. I didn't even spend any money while doing my errands (I mean, aside from the gas that was spent.) How cool is that? I went to the Library and borrowed some books on tape. I don't think I'll have to think a single thought while I'm gone. And I got an "Auto Emergency Kit." Which was a freebie out of a coupon book I bought several months back. Thank God it was free! I can't imagine spending the $60 that they say it's worth on this. Seriously, it's a cheap flashlight, a camera, without any film, a couple of batteries, and so far as I can tell, lots of words and phone numbers on how to reach them. I think I could have easily come up with a better kit on my own. But I digress...

The point is, there is this mystical and imagined mind-set that is so easy to adopt, just because I'm going on vacation. I can't very well say that I appreciate the views that society has placed upon me. (At least, I hope it's coming from "them." I'd hate to think that I were at fault for this poor thinking! ;)) Then again, the gods of consumerism say we must spend, spend, spend to be happy. I think I like that I'm learning that happiness can also be found in a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Advil Anyone?

"My head hurts." That was all I could think this evening as I looked up from the table, where I had spent most of my day. I had finally finished my itinerary.

I'm pretty sure I have spent no less (and most likely more) than 10 hours, poring over my atlas, searching websites and adding numbers. Holy cow! Is it because I'm taking such a long trip, or is normal trip planning like this? How have I never experienced this... this.... I can't even think of a word for it. No wonder my mom gets so annoyed when I tell her we can do "whatever" or "anything she wants to do will be fine with me." Then again, I'm not exactly sure how the two of us would have come away agreeing on an itinerary if we had tried sitting down together to plan one. Wow.

So, here it is. Well, almost. I have to share what it was, before I share what it became.

Here goes:
Begin in Colorado Springs. (Duh. Would have been a cool trick if I could have started somewhere else though, you have to admit.) First stop, I'm going to prison for a little visit. I went back and forth over if I should actually head to Las Animas first. But, in the end family prevailed. Let me just say, it makes for a very long day though.

Anyway, Colorado Springs to Las Animas for a bit of a visit.
From Las Animas, continue on Hwy 50 to Newton, KS, then head up Salina, KS, picking up I-70. From Salina, KS head to Manhattan, KS for a nostalgic stop-over. (I went to college there... well, a semester of college there, but I have fond memories.) From Manhattan, into Topeka, KS and Kansas City, MO. Next, jump on I-35 into Des Moines, IA, continuing up into Minneapolis & St. Paul, MN, landing in Stillwater, MN. (My favorite Uncle and Aunt live there.) Spend a couple of days in Stillwater, MN before heading to Duluth, MN for a brief stop-over and on to Hibbing, MN (where my grandparents are buried.) From there I toyed with making a brief stop into Canada, to get a stamp in my passport. It would be my first. Then I would head back across MN, stopping in Bemidji (I just love that name!) and Moorhead on into Fargo, ND. Next, I was planning on going straight across ND (literally) and all the way across MT (wanted to say I had been there. I don't know why.) Across the pan handle of ID and across WA, to Seattle. Another Canadian stop-over opportunity... From there, head diagonally back across WA and the thicker portion of ID. Continue, down, down, down I-84 into UT, picking up I-15 through Salt Lake City. Keep going down I-15 and picking up I-70, with a stop in Arches National Park (right, like I wouldn't be completely toast by then!) After that, continue on I-70 before picking up Hwy 50 again and for the finale back to Colorado Springs. (Oh, I just noticed I would have had to go back through Pueblo first. Huh. That means a short jaunt on I-25 that I wasn't planning on.)

Now, the good news is that I actually have 2 weeks off to complete this (which somehow works out to 15 days). The bad news, of course, is that by the time I got back, my butt would have been glued to my car seat. Forget making any actual stops along the way, or sleeping for the night. On an upside, not sleeping in hotels/motels while I'm gone would really cut costs considerably. Maybe I should re-think this... Okay, I'm done.

And now for the itinerary I actually ended up with. (There is a part of me that is amazed that it took so long to come up with this. I mean seriously.)
Day 1:
First stop is still Las Animas. Again, I did go back and forth... but I figured I could take a couple of hours and see my brother. From Las Animas, CO, I'll take Hwy 50 to Granada, CO. Then I'll take Hwy 385 North to Burlington, CO. I'll pick up I-70 in Burlington, CO and head East on into Hays, KS, where I'll stop for the night. It does make for a LONG day, with the prison stop. Baring any unforeseen road construction, I'll pull into Hays at about 10:00pm, with the time change. Darn time zones. :)
Day 2:
From Hays, KS, I'll take a side trip into Victoria, KS to see the Cathedral of the Plains. It's beautiful. If you ever get the chance, you should stop. I'll then hop back on I-70 to Manhattan, KS. Still planning on the nostalgic stop. From Manhattan, I'll take some back hwys to avoid the toll-road and end up in Des Moines, IA for the evening.
Day 3 & 4:
Just a hop, skip and a jump through the Twin Cities and into Stillwater, MN. Fingers crossed, I'll spend 2ish days with my relatives. Fortunately for me, this is the one week in July when they're not travelling themselves, nor do they have other company coming. Score!
Day 5:
I'll jump back on I-35 heading north into Duluth, MN. Some great memories there. It's where we took a "last trip" with my grandma before she died. Again with the nostalgia, I'll continue on to Hibbing, MN. I'm hoping for a bit of a shorter driving day, so I can re-visit some of the sights. Hibbing is where my grandma literally spent her whole life. (With the exception of a couple of side trips; obviously she went to Duluth at least once.) Did you know that back in the day, Hibbing actually moved. No kidding. They figured out that some pretty good iron ore was located under the town, so they moved it. Also, Greyhound (the bus company) began in Hibbing. Such a great little town. I'll spend the night there too.
Day 6:
Lots of driving. Yeah, basically just driving. I'll be heading South and West back across MN, ending up in Pipestone, MN. Never heard of Pipestone before today. But, it's near Sioux City, SD (where I originally planned to end up.) Pipestone had cheaper rates on their motels, and it's an hour closer to Hibbing. Works for me.
Day 7:
Again with the driving. This time heading most of the way across SD, stopping in Wall, which just happens to be near SD's Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore. Cool.
Day 8 & 9:
Staying in Wall, to do some more leisurely sight-seeing.
Day 10:
Moving on to Douglas, WY, which is another little town I've never heard of, but had better rates than both Casper and Cheyenne. (Yeah, I'm really hoping that it's not a bad decision to go to these little towns...) At this point, I could probably just go all the way home, since Douglas is within 5 hours of Colorado Springs. But, again, I have two whole weeks. I'm already getting back early... why make it too early?
Day 11:
Finish up the trip and head home. Then I have 4 whole days before I have to go back to work. Weird.

I realized after typing this out that I probably gave my die-hard readers (aka, my one follower- Thanks Larry!) a headache. Isn't it great to bear each other's burdens? Thanks for hanging in there! :)

It Only Takes A New Hard Drive to Make Me Happy...

Right Now, Dell is high on my "I appreciate you" list. Seriously.

Tuesday was just one of those days for me. I had basically been away from work for 4 almost consecutive days. (The exception was the few hours I had to go in on Friday, while I acted as our office tech support. Ha!) So basically, Tuesday morning was a bit busy.

I spent 45 minutes of my hour lunch break on the phone with Dell support, while they tried to tell me what was wrong with my computer. I'm impressed that the gal figured it out so quickly. At least, I think that's what she said. Her accent was a little thick. Then again, if I had been as cool of an IT geek as I sometimes like to pretend, I might have been able to figure out that my hard drive was my problem. After all, the error that I got (that told me it would help Dell support to figure out what was wrong with my computer) said: "Hard drive self test unsuccessful." Oh, is that what it meant?

Thank God I had actually gone ahead and extended the warranty on my computer a month before. Thank God I had gone ahead and bought the external hard drive, and had actually been performing regular back-ups of my C drive. Can we say providencial? (Can I say again how much I recommend laptop owners utilizing this wonderful invention? Namely the external hard drive.)

Before I was off the phone with my new favorite tech supporter, she told me they were going to send me a new hard drive. Apparently this is a "customer replaceable part." So I was more than capable to not need to call tech support for the removal and replacement of a couple of screws. (I really did appreciate the vote of confidence she gave me.) She also told me that it would be Thursday or Friday before I saw my new parts. Bummer. I mean, it could have been much worse, but my computer was down since Sunday night. I really do a lot more with it than even I was aware. I mean, my Netflix subscription alone was going through withdrawals.

Amazingly, I got the email that the new hard drive was on it's way before the end of the day on Tuesday. Really? I was told that it wouldn't be shipped today. Cool. Or is it just a mis-print? I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

Wednesday, I checked the tracking and discovered that FedEx said my package was on a truck and ready for delivery. No stinkin' way! Before I even went to lunch, my package had arrived. Woo-hoo! I literally wanted to call or email my new Dell friend to thank her for being so helpful and putting a "rush" on my delivery.

So... of course, I went home Wednesday night and worked on installing my new hardware. Except for the time it took, I don't think I've had so much fun in a while. Now, we are up and running, and ready for all the blogging I plan to do on my trip. Woo-hoo again!

Nothing Says M-A-P Quite Like Wal-Mart

I went to Wal-Mart the other night to buy my trusty map, as planned. Of course, half-way home, I realized that I was on auto-pilot and just missed my exit. Doh. So, getting there took a little longer than I planned, but eventually I made my way into the big blue. I decide to stop and get some groceries while I was there, since I walked in on that side of the store.

Now, I have to break here and explain that my friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart is currently in the middle of a huge remodel project. They have these wonderful workers who embarrassingly walk around in these bright yellow vests, trying to be helpful. Every time I've been there, except for Tuesday night, I've been asked a couple of times if I needed assistance. On Tuesday, the only time a saw a trusty yellow-vest clad worker, was during the only 5 minutes that I wasn't lost. Argh. The rest of the time, I literally wandered up and down the food aisles, from the front of the store to the back, three times before I found the items that were normally very easy to find. I even ended up leaving the store still not locating one item that I wanted to purchase. Talk about frustration.

When I finally gave up on my food-item quest, I went in search of the maps. Normally, I've found the directional devices in the section near the cards, books, stationary goods and packing supplies. Not this time. Now the section has been reduced to cards and books and not much else.

Next, I tried looking in the state specific tourist-y section of the store. You know the one up near the registers where all of the Colorado paraphernalia is normally found. This time, all I found was Air Force specific goods. Now, I don't have a problem with our trusty AF, but I didn't want anything in the beautiful blue and white this time around.

Finally, finally I found a map, in the form of an oversized atlas, near some randomly tossed gadgets near one of the registers. In my absolute frustration, at this point, I quickly flipped through the book to see if it indeed contained a full map of the good ole U. S. of A. As I flipped through the pages, I noticed a list, by state, with columns of diamonds and stars, listed next to the name of the city. I thought it was similar to the AAA books that I've seen that list cities with hotels and all that they offer. I decided that I would have to figure out what it really was later. I was in a bit of a rush at this point.

I got home and started dinner... of course with my new atlas open on the counter. It was nearly time to start planning my trip! A while later, I flipped back to the pages in front with the lists of diamonds and stars. It was then that I realized that the list was telling, by city which cities in a particular state had either a Wal-Mart or Sams Club, and what that particular store's offerings were. Seriously. I laughed out loud. I admit, it was the next day when Michelle noticed that the inside cover does say "created especially for Wal-Mart and Rand McNally." Oy.

A Little Drama Adds Some Flair...

No sooner have I committed to the decision to take a trip on my own that my computer's hard drive crashes. It would also figure that it was the day after I had finally followed through with the decision to unplug my dinosaur desktop computer. Why not? So, for the last few days, and for a few more to come, I will be without my home computer. I have contacted Dell. I have received the confirmation that a new hard drive is on it's way. What lay's ahead is to replace my hard drive and reinstall all of the programs and data that was on my previous one. (Apparently this is a customer replaceable part. I guess I'm more of an I.T. wiz than I thought. Who knew?) Fortunately for me, a couple of months back I took the leap and purchased an external hard drive. Laptop users, I cannot emphasize enough how much this is going to save my hide. I would completely recommend investing in an external hard drive. You never know when you'll accidentally drop your computer, while trying to download some video of fireworks to Facebook. I'm just sayin'....

The other day, I broke the news to my mom about this trip that I'm going to take. The first thing she said was: "You're going to sleep in hotels by yourself?" Nah, I thought I'd find a stranger to keep me company. (No, I didn't actually say that to her.) She didn't seem very happy about this plan of mine. Which could explain why she quickly changed the subject on me. It did come up later though, when she asked where I would be going. I mentioned going to see some relatives in MN. (A little background to this discussion: My mom has apparently been planning to take a trip to visit her sister in MN. I found out about it a couple of days before I decided to take my trip. I asked when my mom was planning on going, thinking I could join her. When I got more full dates than empty ones in response, I figured if I wanted to do something, it best be on my own.) Just how far are you going? is another question I've gotten. Oh, and she kindly "reminded" me that I don't like long car trips. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Now I'm beginning to think that my mom is just jealous that she can't up and take the time off to join me. I would be jealous too, if she were the one going. In fact, I was the jealous one the last time she went to MN, the time she went to Seattle and the one where she went to Branson. Huh, I guess I'm due.

The other thing that I'm totally causing drama with is my sister. I actually had the gall to ask if she'd reschedule a jewelry party that has been on the calendar for a month! Can you believe it? In my defense, I really would like to go to her party... and I would like to go visit my brother on my way out of town. And I really want to take a full two weeks on the road. (I'm selfish, but we'll get over that.) The only way to do both, the party and the visit, is to move one. Since my brother's visits are strictly enforced, I figured I had to ask about my sister's party. She's a gem. She's already trying to figure out other dates that will work.

Begin at the beginning...

I decided a few days ago that I would use some time off that was already scheduled to take a solo-trip. Now, I've done the back and forth to college trips. I've done a couple of group mission trips. I've even done the family vacation trips. I have not, however ever taken a true solo-trip.

A friend suggested that I drive, see the countryside. I must admit, that idea has taken root... so now I'm going to drive.

Of course, I'm not exactly giving myself a lot of time to figure out exactly where I'm going. I've thought of a couple of places I want to visit. I'll even stop by and see some family (if they're available, of course). But my next step: go out and buy a map of the U.S. to figure out exactly where I'm going.

I have two weeks to play with. This is going to be fun. I hope you'll come with me on this journey. A place for me, where the destination is the journey... and vice versa.