We returned last night from 8 days on the road. Ugh. Driving through the Southwest in the middle of July is not what I call a vacation. In fact, it's downright inhuman.

We had a good time, though. We spent only 2 nights in hotels, and then spent the rest of the time with various family members. Gordon and Mom seemed to like each other, which is good. Gordon seems to get along with most anyone, though, so I wasn't too surprised that they liked each other.

Food-wise, I did okay, considering that there's really nothing an O can eat alongside the highways between here and Texarkana, TX. A fair amount of fast food was consumed, and I had heartburn a few times, but civilization is creeping up on even truck stops. A few of them had STARBUCKS in them, so I had my beloved chai tea lattes almost daily during our trip. - It WAS a vacation, after all!

We saw most of my family, and went to a party at my dad's cousin's new house, which was fantastic. It was shaped like a horseshoe, with a pool inside the horseshoe, so you could see the pool from EVERY room. It also had about 5 bedrooms, and the laundry room was bigger than our bedroom! It's a GREAT house. They're going to build a BIG garage to house her husband's classic car collection and other assorted toys. We had a ball playing with kids and eating junk food at the party, and then headed west for home the next day.

So we spent 8 days on the road, averaged 6 hours per day driving, and never slept in the same place two nights in a row. I don't recommend it, but I did get my grandmother's china cabinet home, and my husband and mother finally got to meet, so it was worth it.