Christmas Vacation
After finishing up the semester, I hung around town for a few days, staying to run some errands that I had been putting off and also going to Courtney's birthday celebration. The celebration included kickball, Courtneyball (a variant of Calvinball), and 4-square (or boxball as Courtney called it), as well as grilled cheese and tomato soup on a cold, cold day. Beautiful.
Then I hit the road, making my annual trip home for the holidays. This time, I didn't want to spend the money on a big long audiobook, so I did some research online and found Librivox.org, which has free MP3 downloads of audio recordings of public domain classics. I listened to "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, which was pretty good.
I stopped in Little Rock, about an hour short of home, to visit my old high school and college buddy, Mike. The next day, I got to see my wonderful family. Well, Mom and Krissie anyway--Dad was still at work until Friday. Friday during the day, I saw Aaron and his new (and first) baby, Emma. She is a total sweetheart--she obviously takes after her mother more than her father! :-)
Saturday, we drove to Amarillo to see our relatives. That was quite a journey. It started snowing pretty hard just before Oklahoma City, and it got pretty dangerous for a while. I-40 slowed down to 20-30 mph for long stretches. My car was acting up--one of the cylinders was misfiring--so I was in the lead, with my parents behind me. (Krissie had to stay home and work.) At one point, as we're crossing a bridge, I looked back and saw my parents passing a big truck, going maybe 40-50 mph, and they start fishtailing. They went back and forth, pretty crazy, for about 5-6 times, but my dad finally got it under control. Scary stuff. Apparently, the same storm tore through Amarillo, caused a 60-70 car pileup, and stopped traffic on I-40 eastbound for several hours. Yikes.
I was a little worried about my car. It was misfiring pretty bad by the time we arrived. I really, really wanted to get to Kansas City on the 28th for a conference. I was worried because we arrived Saturday night, Monday was Christmas Eve, Tuesday was Christmas, and I had to leave for KC on Thursday, leaving only one day to get my car fixed. But, my dad and grandpa and uncles and cousins all pitched in, as did AutoZone's car computer code reader, and we got it fixed Sunday afternoon for only $55 or so. Very cool.
I did end up leaving Texas on Thursday, intending to sleep in Northwest Arkansas at my dad's work-week apartment and go on to KC on Friday. (The conference started Friday afternoon.) I met my other grandparents at a Braum's in Oklahoma City for lunch. They said a storm was coming through that was supposed to dump 6-8 inches in some places in Oklahoma. It felt like forces were conspiring to keep me from getting to KC (the car, then this), so I skipped out on Arkansas and drove directly to KC.
The conference was incredible, and it deserves its own post. It was over at midnight of the new year, so I headed back to Arkansas on the 1st. I managed to stop by and see the Hotzes as I drove back to Russellville. It is always good to catch up with them. Tobit and Brogan were their usual rambunctious selves, and Cassidy is about to pop with boy #3. She certainly has her hands full!
Let's see...I went back home, my family celebrated my birthday with a delicious meal of spaghetti and garlic bread and honey-bun cake. Yummy. :-)
I drove back to NC on the 3rd, a Thursday. I left kinda late from Mike's place in Little Rock, and I also stopped to lunch with a friend in Memphis, so I was not going to get home until pretty late. Not far from Memphis, digestion started in and I pulled over to a rest stop for a 2 hour nap. Much later, in NC, I pulled in to another rest stop and had another nap. It was so cold! I woke up, hit the road in the wee hours, and got home just after sunrise on my birthday. It was a really great, restful, wonderful vacation, but it's good be home and off the road. :-)
Then I hit the road, making my annual trip home for the holidays. This time, I didn't want to spend the money on a big long audiobook, so I did some research online and found Librivox.org, which has free MP3 downloads of audio recordings of public domain classics. I listened to "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, which was pretty good.
I stopped in Little Rock, about an hour short of home, to visit my old high school and college buddy, Mike. The next day, I got to see my wonderful family. Well, Mom and Krissie anyway--Dad was still at work until Friday. Friday during the day, I saw Aaron and his new (and first) baby, Emma. She is a total sweetheart--she obviously takes after her mother more than her father! :-)
Saturday, we drove to Amarillo to see our relatives. That was quite a journey. It started snowing pretty hard just before Oklahoma City, and it got pretty dangerous for a while. I-40 slowed down to 20-30 mph for long stretches. My car was acting up--one of the cylinders was misfiring--so I was in the lead, with my parents behind me. (Krissie had to stay home and work.) At one point, as we're crossing a bridge, I looked back and saw my parents passing a big truck, going maybe 40-50 mph, and they start fishtailing. They went back and forth, pretty crazy, for about 5-6 times, but my dad finally got it under control. Scary stuff. Apparently, the same storm tore through Amarillo, caused a 60-70 car pileup, and stopped traffic on I-40 eastbound for several hours. Yikes.
I was a little worried about my car. It was misfiring pretty bad by the time we arrived. I really, really wanted to get to Kansas City on the 28th for a conference. I was worried because we arrived Saturday night, Monday was Christmas Eve, Tuesday was Christmas, and I had to leave for KC on Thursday, leaving only one day to get my car fixed. But, my dad and grandpa and uncles and cousins all pitched in, as did AutoZone's car computer code reader, and we got it fixed Sunday afternoon for only $55 or so. Very cool.
I did end up leaving Texas on Thursday, intending to sleep in Northwest Arkansas at my dad's work-week apartment and go on to KC on Friday. (The conference started Friday afternoon.) I met my other grandparents at a Braum's in Oklahoma City for lunch. They said a storm was coming through that was supposed to dump 6-8 inches in some places in Oklahoma. It felt like forces were conspiring to keep me from getting to KC (the car, then this), so I skipped out on Arkansas and drove directly to KC.
The conference was incredible, and it deserves its own post. It was over at midnight of the new year, so I headed back to Arkansas on the 1st. I managed to stop by and see the Hotzes as I drove back to Russellville. It is always good to catch up with them. Tobit and Brogan were their usual rambunctious selves, and Cassidy is about to pop with boy #3. She certainly has her hands full!
Let's see...I went back home, my family celebrated my birthday with a delicious meal of spaghetti and garlic bread and honey-bun cake. Yummy. :-)
I drove back to NC on the 3rd, a Thursday. I left kinda late from Mike's place in Little Rock, and I also stopped to lunch with a friend in Memphis, so I was not going to get home until pretty late. Not far from Memphis, digestion started in and I pulled over to a rest stop for a 2 hour nap. Much later, in NC, I pulled in to another rest stop and had another nap. It was so cold! I woke up, hit the road in the wee hours, and got home just after sunrise on my birthday. It was a really great, restful, wonderful vacation, but it's good be home and off the road. :-)