We had Spring Break at school. I worked it this year but Gary took a trip to see our Arizona family. He had a good time. Since I worked Spring Break I got to take equivalent time later. I opted to take my time in April and I planned a 'brother trip'.
My brothers and I are scattered. I live in Oklahoma. My oldest brother lives in Michigan. My next oldest brother lives in Pennsylvania and our little brother lives in South Carolina. We have not all been together since my dad died, like 35 years ago. Now I have seen each of them and sometimes 3 of us have been together. I saw two of my brothers last year but it has been probably 20 years since any of us had seen my little brother. So I just planned a brother trip.
My best bud, Remington wanted to go with me to meet my brothers. He's heard lots of stories about our growing up years. From how I got a black eye playing football just because Bub socked me in the eye to keep me from going out for the pass and probable touchdown to the time I got punched in the stomach right after coming home from the hospital having my appendix removed. He knows a lot about my childhood. Plus, he also knew that Uncle Wayne had lots of tattoos and he wanted to see an 'old person with tattoos'. LOL
So, we started our trip on a Friday about 12:30. Our plan was to drive to Pennsylvania first and pick up Wayne. We got there Saturday evening. Lucky for Remington, Uncle Wayne knows kids and had gotten some groceries for him, two containers of ice cream for starters. Remington ate half of one container straight out of the container that night and finished it off the next morning for breakfast.
I should tell you that we drove in rain all day Saturday on the way to Wayne's. Now we get there and our plan is to leave the next day to drive to Michigan to Stephen's. It's about a 5 hour drive. Steve tells us we should wait a day or two as it is storming. He sent us a picture Sunday morning showing us the ice.
I checked weather and road reports. Wayne and I talked it over and I said I think we'll be fine. It's only a 5 hour drive. We'll get there before it gets dark. So we took off. It wasn't bad until we got to Flint. The farther north we drove the more weather we saw but we made it in just fine. Remington and I kinda enjoyed the snow although I know that Wayne and Steve were both tired of it by this time. They had been having snow since at least November.
Tuesday late morning we headed out. We had plans to meet my daughter's mother-in-law for lunch about 30 minutes away. I never realized how close she lived to Steve. We had a great lunch and visit but did not linger long as we still had quite a ways to go and it was storming again - snow, rain, wind.
The restaurant we ate at had some awesome food and some HUGE portions. Remington got a 'small' burrito that was humongous! But he ate it all.
Wednesday evening we finally pull into Bub's in South Carolina. It took us all day Tuesday to drive through Ohio. We had to drive through a couple of mountains as we entered into West Virginia. Remington and I both thought that was cool but we also agreed that Grampa would not like it.
We spent all day Thursday with Bub. He has a beautiful place out in the country that he is clearing off. He has already cleared a lot of it and it looks so pretty. Spent some time trying to capture a lizard, which was semi-successful. That means that at one time it was in a container but quickly jumped out. lol
Friday about noon we headed out for the long drive home. Made it to Tupelo Friday night without any problems other than all the construction. Saturday morning up and back on the road. Did I mention that we had Wayne's dog Bug with us? He was a pretty good traveler until that last day. Don't know what happened but we had just stopped and gotten gas and coffee. Pulled back on the interstate and for some reason Bug decided to jump into the front seat. In doing so he put his claw into my coffee cup and it started leaking. Wayne is trying to get Bug in the back, fortunately he still had his leash on him. Bug is not having any of that. I'm trying to get pulled off the road and Remington is trying to catch the leaking coffee into a fry container. I get pulled off the road and then hold the coffee cup sideways to keep the last 4th of the cup from leaking out and Remington and I are trying to figure out how to get this soggy mess out of the car. I roll down the window and Bug jumps through it! I was able to grab the leash and keep him from taking off. We finally get the coffee disposed of. Take every napkin we have in the car and soak up all the coffee and then head back out.
We did not hit any weather until we pulled into Oklahoma and then the rain started. We dropped Remington off at his house and then finished our trip to Tulsa. We drove a total of 3.340 miles and it was worth it to see all my brothers. :)
