There is quite a bit of symmetry in this life, and I love symmetry.  When it occurs it doesn’t really surprise me because I have found that when you are doing good things life gives you nice surprises.  So we are in our hometown of Columbus just in time for my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday and my 100th blog post.  I would love to say we planned all of this, but I can’t take credit for it.  Sometimes things just work out beautifully.

We decided to drive the trip to Columbus in one 9 hour day because Lee hadn’t seen his mom and stepdad in a year and was really looking forward to seeing them.  We thought because I had been in driving school, I could drive half of it and we planned on switching drivers every two hours when we stopped for our break. (I need a potty break every two hours plus it’s a good idea to get out for a few minutes and stretch your legs). Unfortunately, the drive along 77 while beautiful was through the mountains and that coupled with the thunderstorms with lightning made me very nervous to take a turn.  Lee was great about it though and kept driving for the first 6 hours until we finally outpaced the storm and hit a relatively flat area.  We made it to DeDe and Denny’s house by 6:30 pm which was great, and parked our RV outside on the street in front of their house.  Because our campground reservations weren’t until Tuesday we stayed Sunday and Monday night and had a really great time catching up.

DeDe and Denny have been so supportive about our new life since the beginning.  They read our blog and are truly interested in our travels.  DeDe loves talking to her family and friends about our lives as “gypsies” which I think is really cool.  It never occurred to me that we were giving her something neat to talk about. Makes sense.  I talk about the cool things my kids do all the time.  I guess I am not used to my life being worth lots of conversation. The reaction she has been getting is largely interest and curiosity, but she did share that she had one friend who asked her “How could you let that happen?”.  That cracked me up because DeDe has never been a mother who tells us what to do (I love her for that), plus she is totally excited for us and glad we are having this adventure, and seriously, I am 48 years old and she is not the boss of me!  To add to the fun, our oldest daughter Kyrston decided to take a trip back to Columbus to visit friends and family and coordinated her week-long vacation with when we would be here.  Kyrston came straight from the airport and we had an awesome time catching up with her as well.  On a completely side note I also used a garbage disposal for the first time in 6 months and actually had to take a minute to remember how one works.  Funny how quickly you forget things!!

The other thing I wanted to share with you all was how beautiful DeDe’s gardens are.  She was on the front page of the Columbus Dispatch many years ago and the gardens have just grown from there.  One of my favorite things about her garden is not only does it look great on a macro level, but she has all these tiny pockets that are just beautiful.  It is really  a special garden.

 

 

 

 

They also had a small box full of presents for us which was so fun.  Denny has been picking up things over the last several months that he thought we could use.  The coolest part was everything was totally useful and most of it did two things!!  Among other things we got some camper recipe books,  cheese and vegetable scissors (which Cori says are fancy), a cool multiple purpose LED light, and an awesome cast iron sandwich maker we can use for the campfire.  Plus just for fun Denny bought Lee a small Sky Walker drone, which Lee will have a blast with. Update:  Lee never played with the drone but it did make him really want a real one that takes video.  That was obviously waaay more expensive, but since he can use it for his business and he earned the money for it with jobs on the road we are now owners of a real drone.  He really needs to give this one away.

 

Tuesday I went into the Columbus office (one of my favorites) and worked.  It was really fun seeing everyone and I got a ton of work done then afterwards I took my Dad to an early Father’s Day dinner at Carabba’s Italian Grill.  It was nice spending time just the two of us and I was glad I was in Columbus close to Father’s Day so I could see him in person.  I also was able to give him two passes to the Memorial Golf Tournament on Sunday which he really liked.  He bought a four-day two pass ticket already, but this way he can invite additional friends to the last day.  Wednesday Lee hung out with Denny and they ran errands.  Lee was good, only picking up a few things we needed and I really appreciate how budget conscious he has become.  Then DeDe and Denny took us to dinner at Cracker Barrel Wednesday night.  They have taken us to dinner three nights since we got here, Bob Evans on Sunday and Pizza Hut on Monday.  It’s nice to go to dinner without worrying about the budget impact, although I have noticed that despite the fact we are not paying we are still pretty budget conscious.  We’ve become pretty cheap dates. 

We are staying at Alum Creek State Park which has nice big sites with lots of separation but is a bit outside of town.  The sites are also electric only so for the first time we will be trying out water conservation.  They had three full hookup sites but they were booked plus more expensive.  Our site was $21 which is much cheaper than most of the campgrounds in the surrounding area.

 

Thursday,  Kyrston came to visit with Marissa.  Marissa is the daughter of our dear friend Mike who passed away two years ago and was a major motivator in our going on the road.  She and Kyrston have been friends since they were three years old and it was so nice to see them together.  My brother Eddie also came over to see the rig for the first time and Lee got to meet his nephew for the first time.  Lex was six weeks premature, but at 7 months is doing great and he reminds me so much of my brother when he was little.  I was 11 when Eddie was born and 12 when Wendy came along, so for many years I was more like a third parent.  It’s great to spend time with them as adults really get to know them as a sister and a friend.  Plus …baby!!  Lex is super cute and very mellow.  Really loved spending time with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday was DeDe’s birthday and when we asked her what she wanted to do she said she wanted to come out to our place and she how we lived for the day.  Very very sweet.  So I made baked beans and potato salad and we had hot dogs cooked over the fire.  We also surprised her with a cake which Kyrston went and got for her.  It was a really nice night, made better by the fact that Ted (a friend of Lee’s from high school) and his family camped near us over the weekend and came over for dinner and cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So busy week and I am looking forward to seeing more family over the weekend.

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