We're Outta Here

Around noon we're zooming off to Racine to meet AddCinHub for a couple days of random goofing off and lots of visiting.  Oh, and we're going to the Jelly Belly factory too.  I don't really care what we're doing, I'm just glad that we're going to be able to get together for a bit with our old travel friends.  No dressy clothes needed either, only jeans.  Ahh.  Maybe I'll throw my pair of bright shiny red Danskos in just in case I need a boost.  Yeah, I think I will.  We met AddCinHub in the Miami airport in about 1985 (good god!), both couples headed to the Holiday Inn in Aruba for a Priority Club Points award trip.  We offered to give them a ride because we had a car reserved.  When we got to the car rental desk we discovered that the reservations service (Sears) we used didn't transfer to international rentals, they only worked on stateside ones so, no car.  NO CAR!  Here were 4 people in Aruba airport in the dark with a mountain of luggage (not ours) and no car.  So we shared a cab.  Remember the beginning frames of The Beverly Hillbillies when they've got all their belonging in and hanging out of a vehicle?  That's what we looked like, people covered with luggage, cases hanging out of the trunk, but no Granny on the roof.  You should have seen the cabbie's eyes when we marched up but, by god, we'd promised them a ride and they were going to get a ride.  We shared a drink in the hotel bar and parted for the night.  The next morning Durwood and AH met for coffee quite accidentally and hatched a plan that we'd share a car rental for the week.  I wasn't sold, turns out CH wasn't either, but we did and had a great time with them, so much that we agreed to vacation together again the next year in Jamaica.  We did that a couple years, then did a Windjammer Barefoot cruise.  By then we'd gone down to visit them in Indiana and they'd come to see us.  For a few years then we just kept in touch by phone but one winter we met in the middle for a weekend and did that for a few years, then phoned when life intervened, and they came up for DS & DIL1's wedding. A couple years ago we had cabin fever and just called them and went down to their place for the weekend, then they came to Lexington for DD & DIL2's wedding, we went to Goshen for BH1's wedding... you get the picture.  We're all retired-ish so we have more time to get together, not more money (less actually, I think) but time, and we're making it a priority to figure out how to get together.  It's a good thing.  

Today's Photo a Day theme is "made you smile today" so I took a picture of our TomTom gps thingy and the pad where the reservations for our motel rooms are written (we're old school, it's paper and pencil for us).  The idea of driving off for a few days really makes me smile.

Did I tell you I got a flu shot on Tuesday?  Well, I did and man, does it hurt.  I always have a big reaction to them, my arm gets swollen, red, sore, and achy, then the aches spread out and the rest of me is marginally achy for a day or two.  I tolerate it because ol' Durwood'd kick the bucket if he ever got the flu or pneumonia and we don't want that.  He's promised to take me to North & South Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains next fall and he's not getting out if it that easy.  It worked for getting to Yellowstone so I figure if I keep making him promise to take me places he'll have to stick around to keep those promises.  Genius, don't you think?

October 18--Spain, Enthroned Virgin and Child.  "Oh for the love of God, not another church," Ellie said as the tour bus stopped.  The ancient Roman Catholic cathedral darkened the square in front of it with its imposing shadow.  The cobblestones were damp and slick as she followed the tour leader and the rest of the group.  "If I twist an ankle on these damned stones I'm going to be pissed."  She heard that priggish Marian Pigorski who sat behind her on the bus click her tongue and she straightened her shoulders.  "Yes, Marian, I said pissed in a church.  Now I'm for sure going to Hell."  A couple of Marian's gal pals tugged their husbands away from her and Ellie was glad.  She was tired of the shuffling pace and dreary stops on this trip.   Where were the bustling market towns and seaside villages promised in the brochure?  What did a girl have to do to get a drink around here?  Didn't priests have wine?

And that's it for me today.  I have to go pack now.  Toodle-oo.  Oh, I'm taking my laptop so I should be able to blog while we're gone, never fear.  Bye.
--Barbara Sue