Vacation Time

Me and my wife at the tri-state marker in the northeast corner of New Mexico on February 22. I was standing in Colorado, she was in New Mexico and behind us was Oklahoma.

By Allan Olson

The biggest question I have after taking a vacation with my wife of nearly 19 years is, “Why did it take so long for us to do this?”

We have both always had a hard time of putting the responsibility of caring for our children on someone else. We’ve always felt that they are our responsibility, and never felt that we could just leave them to someone else. We have always found a reason of some sort to put off taking a vacation.

Spending more than 10 days outside of this state found us crossing the Mississippi River countless times and traveling to its end at the Gulf of Mexico. We then headed west toward Texas and enjoyed the best dining experience of our lives in Alexandria, LA, and then one almost as good in Texas. 

The number one thing we learned in that time is that we can tolerate each other in the close confines in a vehicle for hours at a time – enjoying each other’s company with the sound of the road, music or an audio book in the background.

Another lesson we learned on the trip was that getting into the Grassy Knoll in downtown Dallas is not worth it. We missed the exit twice and started to get short with each other. I finally said it’s not worth it, forget it, let’s get out of here, and we put Dallas in our rearview mirror and headed back to our hotel, located about 30 minutes north. 

Our last day in Texas found us dodging rain showers. I grabbed one old geocache in a park just before the rain started coming down relentlessly. Instead of sleeping in on Wednesday morning, we loaded the vehicle and took off for parts unknown to the west. Unfortunately we traded rain for ice, and had slow going through much of mid-western Texas. The roads finally cleared off about 90 miles east of Amarillo, and after quick stop for food, I had just gotten going again on the highway when I missed a slowdown sign and it cost me.

I was looking across the highway at the State Trooper who had his lights flashing in the parking lot and I pointed it out to my wife:, “Look, he’s got his lights on!” Then the realization hit me that I was his target, as I was the only one in his radar area. “You might want to pull over,” my brilliant wife said just as the light bulb clicked on in my head. I pulled over and went through the routine; then the trooper went back to his car and went through his routine and came back with an envelope for me. He said, “You’ll need to call the judge by March 7.” When I finally opened the envelope it had everything explained including the fee schedule. How exciting. During that brief moment when I was stuffing my face with food, I missed a reduced speed sign and it cost me more than I would’ve spent taking the entire family out to eat at a nice restaurant. Needless to say, I called the judge and paid the fine immediately, because it would have cost me a lot more to go all the way back to Texas and explain, “I didn’t mean to.”

The rest of Wednesday went much smoother, although by the time we got to our hotel in Clayton, NM it was 9 p.m. (Central time). It was about four hours later than I had intended, but with the early weather issues and stops for laundry, the ticket and food, it all added up.

The hotel was originally built in the 1800s and had been redone with modern amenities; it was a great place to stay. Our only regret was we that had such a short time there. We were on the road by 8 a.m. Thursday, after a delicious breakfast of homemade quiche and cinnamon rolls.

After criss-crossing areas of Texas and New Mexico, touching Colorado and driving across Kansas to pick up the oldest active geocache there, that evening we finally arrived at the only other town my wife had request for our journey – Lawrence, Kansas. For TV fans of the supernatural, you will understand the significance of this town – even if the residents don’t buy it. My wife was just excited to be there. 

The next morning we headed downtown in search of a few trinkets to bring home for kids. We finally pulled the pin on Kansas at about 11 a.m. and headed for somewhere in Iowa. We ended up in Okoboji (o-ko-bo-gee), leaving us about an eight hour drive from home. We did some more souvenir shopping on Saturday morning and found ourselves rolling into St. Cloud at 3 p.m. – right at the time the weather man said the snowstorm would hit. And wouldn’t you know it, for once he was right. 

We briefly contemplated staying in St. Cloud, but decided to push it, hoping to get ahead of the storm and make it home. We made it to Little Falls and decided that since we couldn’t go five miles without the wipers freezing up, it was time to get off the road. It was about 4:30 p.m. when we checked into the hotel; that was the earliest time on the whole trip that we checked into any hotel. We were sad we weren’t going to make it home, but decided to err on the side of caution. One good thing about this hotel was that there was a restaurant nearby. We ordered food over the phone, and I drove less than a mile (round trip) to get it.

Our next trip is already being discussed – probably in the summer of 2020, or ’21 at the latest. Tentatively, it will take us west to Washington, down the coast of Oregon, into California, then east to Nevada and Utah. Since it’s still a ways off, we still have plenty of time to change our minds.

For this week it’s catch-up time, and then robotics for the weekend in Grand Forks. That will be followed by basketball playoffs and, hopefully, some decent weather will be upon us.

For anyone wondering, on this trip we traveled 4,507 miles in 10 days. Oh, and the smartest thing we did was to secure a rental car. Especially considering the fact that on our very first full day back at home, the brakes once again went out on our own vehicle that we likely would have used.

As for the kids, they were in good hands; Grandma did just as good, if not better, of a job at taking care of them as we would have. I guess we should have hit the road sooner!

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.