Greg’s Truckload vol. 15

Hello Truckers, and Happy New Year. I’m hoping yours is off to a good start. Ours has been an interesting one. A few weeks ago, we were enjoying the last day visiting my parents in Fort Myers. The boys and I were scheduled to head out the next day in the Honda, and Sara was also to catch a flight home. The weather was spectacular. We woke up and went to my favorite mountain bike park in the area so that Sara could get a chance to check it out. They reversed the flow, so the uphills became downhills, and the downs went up. We had a blast and, afterward, wanted to get a bite to eat by the water; the boathouse was only 10 minutes away. As we enjoyed some grouper bites, our phones began beeping and making a racket. We knew some bad weather was coming into Kentucky for some time and had been monitoring it. Forecasts started to look worse, and our minds started racing about the what-ifs.

On one side, we thought it would be what it would be: stick to the plan. The other side said to get in the car and drive home now to stay ahead of the worst part of the storm, but we hadn’t started to pack, and it was already afternoon. We finished lunch and said out loud, this is nuts. Then we decided to go back and pack and roll out. Sara should skip the flight and drive with us. And that was the new plan. We went back to the house and talked to Dad and Patsy. From there, we didn’t even pack. We literally threw our stuff in the car and rolled out. Dad packed our cooler with things to eat. His life’s mission may be that no one goes hungry, ever. No wonder I became a foodie and went into food service. I watch the weather closely due to working outside, but we were attached to that report at the hip while on this drive, prepared to change routes at any point. Once we got into North Georgia and Tennessee, we started listening to Mark Wienburg live on Facebook. That was a considerable help, really; thank you, Mark.

When we rolled into the driveway Sunday evening, there was probably over a hundred pounds of ice on the car, but we had made it. Over 3 weeks later, as I write, I’m finally seeing my lawn again. 5 days after that storm, our furnace broke. We are scheduled to get a new one this weekend. Thank goodness we had built the fireplace as it saved our house from freezing up and made NTI (homeschooling) feasible as kids didn’t go back to school. We should have stayed in Florida, but Sara’s flight was canceled, and the next flight would have been at the end of the week. Working in high-risk OB. She needed to be back, so it’s good we did what we did. How’s that for rambling on? Hahaha.

The weather has me in full hibernation mode; I know that’s gotta end soon as there is plenty to do in the yard and shop. For now, I am enjoying some time researching travel. I’m looking at lots of long weekend trips and pondering some ideas that might be stretching the boundaries of available time and the logistics of how to make them happen. Our family dynamics make weeklong or more trips extremely difficult to pull off. Summer is my busy time, especially spring, when it’s mowing and bed maintenance combo. I would love spring break with kids, but that’s not happening. We don’t want the kids missing school, so most long weekends will occur in summer. If a long trip happens, I’m eyeballing the last week of summer break, fall break, or both. Winter break seems ideal, but it is unfair and selfish to Sara’s coworkers to hog such desired time off work. When planning trips, it is essential that at least one of them is somewhere new to us, so time and distance are becoming harder logistically.

Additionally, for budgeting purposes, we will incorporate a mix of sleeping in tents, sleeping on couches, and occasional hotels. A great tool that I’ve been utilizing to find camping is an app called The Dyrt. It’s an interactive map showing campgrounds’ locations throughout the US. They all have descriptions of amenities, reviews, and links to booking pages. Sometimes, we stay at campgrounds while moving from point A to point B; other times, they are the final destination. When using the Dyrt, I will switch back and forth to Google Maps to see what the local area offers regarding restaurants, groceries, and things to do. These tools are great for getting to know an area before you go. Another great one is Utube. Once we pin a place we want to go, we watch videos about it. I know discovering it on your own while driving the countryside is one of the best parts of travel, but I am not in my 20s anymore, able to travel for months at a time, zigzagging across the country. Time is not on my side. Soon, I will have made my 50th lap around the sun, so I’m utilizing all the available tools to make the most of my time and dollars. If you have a tool that you love, please tell me about it.

Banana update: They were ready the second week of January. Yep, we’re all snowed in and harvesting bananas. They were small but delicious. Of course, we made lots of banana splits. That’s all for now. I’m going to sit by the fire and warm up. Thanks, truckers. See you again soon.