Joy in the Journey

I remember the days of packing up for a quick trip with one suitcase.  Those days are gone, at least for now, but we still do a little traveling, though it be with extra clothes for little people, pack an plays, and potty seats.  June is Justin's month 'off,' though they have him scheduled to work quite a bit for new student orientation this month, so we drove up to visit his parents.

Since we pass through Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati on our way there, we try to make the most of our travel. We spend the lion's share of our trip with them, of course, but as we are passing through, we'll often stop by for some Skyline chili.

This particular trip, we got Skyline at the restaurant just down the road from where we used to live.  We saw a waitress that used to serve us there.  Then we stopped by the University of Cincinnati for about an hour for Justin to drop off some crystals for his current research project (the crystallographer there is a able to provide her services to outside universities) and to let him chat with his former adviser.  We also got to show off our littles.

On the way home, we made a trip to see a dear friend.  It added some travel time to make it to her house, but it is so nice to see old friends, even if for just a few hours.  And the littles loved her dogs.

Then we stopped at a little place called The Dari Bar, since we used to go there when we lived near by.  

The kids did not object to greasy food followed by ice cream!

On our drive home, we came upon an accident.  We were less than 10 cars back from an overturned semi.  The driver was taken by ambulance, not life flight, which we took as a good sign.  And, while no one wants to be stopped on the interstate for well over an hour 5 hours from home, we had the most lovely weather for it.  We opened up the doors to let the breeze through.  The fussing was no more than should be expected by three little people, and perhaps less than one would expect.  We had stopped to let the littles use the restroom at the gas station one exit back while Justin filled up our gas tank.  We had plenty of food and water in the van.   Justin was able to chat with a few of the other people stopped.  And considering the state of the truck, one lane was cleared quickly.  To top it off, since everyone became friends as we waited to move, everyone was so courteous in merging, so it we moved very quickly when the lane was opened.

We made it home at 6 PM, much later than our 6 AM start time could have given us had we driven straight through, but there is joy to be had in the journey too--old friends, old memories made new, and kind strangers.