Another Place

I began vacation on Thursday. F and I had plans to leave Jax between 8 - 10 a.m. The time came and went. This time it wasn't F. It was me. As I have been writing here and in my journal, I have been exhausted. All week F and I went to work, did work around the house and needed chores all in anticipation of hitting the road on Thursday morning. When it came, I couldn't do it.

Tuesday morning my father was admitted to the hospital again. This time in anticipation of sx to remove malignant tumors from his prostate. The sx was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. It took me the afternoon of Thursday to realize that the reason I was dragging my feet on leaving Jax was that I couldn't stand to add another mile to the distance between my father and me. I live 330 miles north of him and the thought of going another 450 miles away was just undoable. I needed to wait for the sx results and know that he was ok before I could leave home. F was patient and understanding throughout the day. The dogs were most grateful to have been given a reprieve. As was Lori.

With dad's sx successful and behind him F and I loaded up and pulled out of the driveway at 8:45 am this morning. We had a very uneventful and pleasant trip through Ga, SC and into NC. In the course of it my shoulders lowered, my neck untensed, and my mind slowed down. I am on vacation!

We arrived in Hickory NC at 5:15pm. Several weeks ago we had made arrangements to meet Ken & Jerry at Olive Garden in Hickory on Friday. Had we arrived on Thursday as planned it would have been a half hour drive from our hotel. It was a one hour+ drive for K & J from their home in Winston-Salem. We got to the restaurant 3 minutes before the scheduled time. We had travelled 433 miles and we were on time! Had we left on Thursday, and traveled to Hickory from Lenoir, we would probably have been late. I'm sure of it.

We had a wonderful, but too short 2 hours with K & J. They both look TERRIFIC. We laughed, reminisced, dished, and shared about our current lives. They seem very happy with their life in W-S, their cats, and their lives together. We parted promising to visit them in W-S next trip.

We made our way to Lenoir and checked into our one night stay motel. We were settled in for the evening before dark. And my father had a good day too!