After three weeks of clear traveling weather, it was raining the morning we left Georgia. An excerpt from the “checking in” email I sent out that night:
We’re at the hotel in Vicksburg. We got rained on pretty much all day, from Georgia to Mississippi, in light sprinkles and steady showers and blinding downpours. It’s raining cats and dogs here tonight.
The hotel website said it had a heated indoor pool. It does indeed have an indoor pool, but “heated” is a gross exaggeration. I mean, there aren’t chunks of ice floating in it, but the word “heat” really doesn’t apply.
The kids were not deterred. There’s a pool, it has water in it, it must be swum.
So we swam. For about an hour. It was…invigorating.
And now we’re headed back to our room for hot showers and a good night’s sleep. There’s a complimentary breakfast in the morning here and then we’ll be off to DFW.
We set out the next morning for Aaron’s house. The weather cleared up somewhere in Texas, and we had perfect weather for the rest of the road trip.
I smiled as I passed this sign:
Casey’s heard really good things about that place. ;^)
General Observation: Texas has the best rest areas! Seriously. We stopped at a lot of rest areas between California and Georgia, and the TX ones never failed to impress me with their shiny well-groomed niceness. I like the tile mosaics most of them have on their restroom walls too, although this particular image puzzled me:
I can’t tell what it’s supposed to be. A giant oil rig inserted into the Dallas skyline? That’s my best guess.
Anyway.
We got to Aaron’s house the afternoon of Tuesday the 23rd, and settled in for a planned three-day stay. Wednesday afternoon Jera arrived, and that evening Aaron, his daughter Mandi, Jera, me, Luke and Elizabeth met up with Aron at an Italian restaurant called Carrabba’s for supper.
I can’t *believe* I forgot to get any pics of Jera or Aron. This is a sad, sad omission in my road trip scrapbook. But the supper couldn’t have been more fun; truly one of the highlights of the trip. I was astonished to realize later that we spent over two-and-a-half hours there at Carrabba’s–the time just flew by in lively chitchat and laughter. This was the first time I’d met Aron and Jera in person, I’m so glad we were finally able to do that! Very fun people.
And the kids were good and the food was wonderful. A perfect evening. :^)
An Invincible Summer 
I’ve been kicking myself about the neglect of picture taking. Of course, getting a photograph of Jera is tricky. She dodges the camera on the same level as that outer space alien that keeps visiting my backyard!
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LOL! Surely we could have finagled her into one nice group shot, though — I mean, we had her way outnumbered!
Wish I’d thought of it. Sigh.
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Number may have worked. I just know that for two years now on Free Comic Book Day she manages to be elsewhere when I am taking pics. I’m beginning to wonder if she isn’t in the witness protection program.
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Shh! You’ll blow my cover and I’ll have to be relocated!
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Hmmm. I see the difficulty now.
No worries, Jera — next time we all get together we’ll just provide you with one of those Groucho Marx glasses-nose-and-moustache disguises so we can still get a group shot without revealing your true identity to the Mafia.
Or maybe just a pair of those magical glasses that Clark Kent wears so no one can recognize him as Superman. Those work like a charm!
See? Every problem has a solution. ;^)
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Aron would look better in the disguise than I do – his ears stick out more!
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Sure, but if you look up “camera shy” in the dictionary, and then skip down below the definition to where the antonyms are listed, I’m pretty sure there’ll be a photo of Aron in there. A regularly updated photo.
Although…come to think of it, he might be wearing his Masked Offender disguise.
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Y’know… on the subject of masks, one of the dealers at Wizard World had Mexican wrestler masks. I *so* wanted one…
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LOL! In this corner, El Bastardo Del Mal!
You know, Steve actually has one of those masks. It must be a guy thing.
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Don’t get me wrong… I *hate* wrestling, but I love those masks!
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