Friday Five: Road Trip!

We found star fish in a place like this in Big Sur

RevGal Jan has just returned from a great road trip! She invites us to share five road trips of our own, including best and worst. Here goes:

EARLIEST: Fairly regular road trips from El Paso, TX to Cloudcroft, NM. Some of my earliest memories of vacations are of this trek from the desert to the mountains, from hot to cool, from dry sand dunes to lakes and streams and fragrant trees. We stayed in a little motel court, fished in a nearby lake, and learned my dad's rule of fishing: "You catch 'em, you clean 'em, you cook 'em, you eat 'em!"

LONGEST: My family of origin took several summer trips from El Paso to California. The longest of these lasted two weeks and we went to San Clemente, Pismo Beach, and Big Sur. Miscellaneous highlights: the first time I saw blue jays and redwinged blackbirds, eating a halibut my mom caught, the redwood trees, day trip to Monterey and eating shrimp, camping in the pop-up camper, my sister finding a $5 bill (in the early 60's!) in the parking lot of a fancy restaurant where we ate dressed in very casual vacation clothes because my dad said that it didn't matter if you could pay!

WORST: (Let's hide this one in the middle of the pack.)  A summer road trip from Dayton to Maine. I had always wanted to go to Maine, and it is still one of the favorite places I've ever been. The trip itself, a year before the marriage ended, was awful. Words have not yet been invented to describe the pain of that trip.

BEST: Always, kids in the car on trips near and far!  When the kids were 2, 8, and 9 we moved from Dallas to Philadelphia.  One leg of that move involved me driving with just the kids from Richmond VA to Philadelphia in our family van. One of the older kids was "riding shotgun" and trying to read a map while we all sang along to a cassette tape of "Camp Song Sing-A-Long" the songs they had learned at camp or VBS.  At one point, I needed to have a look at the map, so we exited the highway somewhere near Washington DC.  Immediately we found ourselves at a security gate outside of some kind of unmarked compound with armed guards coming out to ask us what we were doing there and making it very clear that we needed to be gone sooner rather than later.  These are the kinds of things that happened before GPS and cellphone support for road trips!  It was not as stressful as it was funny!  And it was typical of the fun I remember having with the kids in the car.

FANTASY: The stereotypical RV fantasy: take the house on the road!  There might be some fun people along (or not). There might be an agenda -- visit all the minor league ball parks or state parks or all the relatives or all 49 land states -- or not. It would be fun to just go and see and be out there, exploring.

Friday Five: Thankfulness

RevGalBlogPals Friday Five:

List at least five things (people, places, graces, miracles...) for which you are thankful. You may elaborate as you wish, or keep it simple.

What a great topic! I'll play ...

* My children who are all grown, scattered (NYC, Oregon, and L.A.) and, still today, a bottomless source of inspiration and joy:
* The church I am privileged to serve, for which no picture would be adequate.
* Nature -- all kinds, all places -- human and otherwise -- reminders of God's beautiful and redemptive presence in unlikely places. So, add travel to this one, too.
* My family of origin -- incredible people, all. They show up in my life at all the right times! I'm also thankful for the Edwin Friedman family systems theories that have turned out to be so helpful in ministry and so true.
* Friends -- including cyber-friends. You all know who you are. Still, you will never fully know how much I cherish you and all the reasons why.
* Vocation, because meaningful work is more gift and grace than $$$ and luck.
* Rest and Recreation, even though my response to this gift, far too often, is "no thank you." God help me!
* Mexican food, and other international food. Love to cook it; love to eat it at home or out. Wish I could find more of it here, and some adventuresome people who enjoy eating something different.
* BOOKS -- all kinds, all the time!
And this is not all ... oh, no, this is not all!

Hayride!

It's a perfect day for a hayride! The Bright Beginnings kids (preschoolers) are going to pile onto the Youngs' haywagon today and enjoy the great ride that Chris always gives us. Over the hills and through the changing autumn leaves we will travel on dirt roads and maybe even through some fields. I get to tag along with the both the morning and afternoon classes, and I love it! Add "hayride" to my list of pastoral perks. Life is good!

UPDATE: Martha was our tractor driver for the morning ride; Chris drove the afternoon run.