Saturday, February 14, 2009
Good News All Around
The toughest tests of my annual physical are over now and all the results have been positive. When that CT scan comes back clear, I feel like it's the first day of the rest of my life. Usually I buy into all that stuff about a positive attitude boosting the immune system and setting off killer cells that can gobble up any stray cancer cells, but I certainly have dark times when I'm just not so sure. But not today! I just feel grateful for life.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
On the Road Again
On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again
So sings Willie Nelson and that's J's theme song for road trips. We've been playing it these past few days as we ramble around Texas. It's been a fun trip, starting with a visit to the George Walker Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Waco and the Texas Ranger Museum, the Texas Hill Country and the LBJ ranch, Fredericksburg where the Germans settled in the early 1800s and the home of a very interesting museum of World War II in the Pacific. We spent a few days with M & R at the "Red Neck Riviera" on the Port Aransas Island. Their RV is parked right next to the boardwalk that leads over the sand dunes to a 17 mile stretch of beautiful beach on the Gulf of Mexico. R stands in the surf each day and catches fish which M cooked for us and we could see why they love this place!
Making our way back to Houston, we went to Galveston to do our part to help their economy by being tourists. We drove for miles looking at the destruction and damage done by Hurricane Ike. Nearly every structure shows the storm's fury and most of the houses along the beach and in nearby neighborhoods are still not habitable. We wanted to stay on the island; it was a beautiful day and there is much history to absorb but the hotels are open only to evacuees.
Today we spent 6 hours at the Johnson Space Center. I have always been in awe of the space program and previously have enjoyed visits to Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. My biggest thrill today was being inside a life sized replica of a space shuttle! We took a tram tour of the training facility and actually got to see the Mission Control room.
Every day of the trip has taken us to "places we have never been" and that's the joy of this kind of vacation. We drive the back roads, avoid the interstates and page through the AAA guidebook to see what each small town has to brag about.
This kind of vacation lets you really be "in the moment." It's liberating to get by with the few things you bring along (did you know NWA charges $15 per checked bag?) and it's a vacation, not retirement that says to me "do nothing."
With trips to Alaska and Maine coming later this year, we can't wait to be on the road again!
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again
So sings Willie Nelson and that's J's theme song for road trips. We've been playing it these past few days as we ramble around Texas. It's been a fun trip, starting with a visit to the George Walker Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Waco and the Texas Ranger Museum, the Texas Hill Country and the LBJ ranch, Fredericksburg where the Germans settled in the early 1800s and the home of a very interesting museum of World War II in the Pacific. We spent a few days with M & R at the "Red Neck Riviera" on the Port Aransas Island. Their RV is parked right next to the boardwalk that leads over the sand dunes to a 17 mile stretch of beautiful beach on the Gulf of Mexico. R stands in the surf each day and catches fish which M cooked for us and we could see why they love this place!
Making our way back to Houston, we went to Galveston to do our part to help their economy by being tourists. We drove for miles looking at the destruction and damage done by Hurricane Ike. Nearly every structure shows the storm's fury and most of the houses along the beach and in nearby neighborhoods are still not habitable. We wanted to stay on the island; it was a beautiful day and there is much history to absorb but the hotels are open only to evacuees.
Today we spent 6 hours at the Johnson Space Center. I have always been in awe of the space program and previously have enjoyed visits to Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. My biggest thrill today was being inside a life sized replica of a space shuttle! We took a tram tour of the training facility and actually got to see the Mission Control room.
Every day of the trip has taken us to "places we have never been" and that's the joy of this kind of vacation. We drive the back roads, avoid the interstates and page through the AAA guidebook to see what each small town has to brag about.
This kind of vacation lets you really be "in the moment." It's liberating to get by with the few things you bring along (did you know NWA charges $15 per checked bag?) and it's a vacation, not retirement that says to me "do nothing."
With trips to Alaska and Maine coming later this year, we can't wait to be on the road again!
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