You know those scenes on Star Trek where somebody (the doctor, the captain) orders somebody else (the captain, another officer) to take his vacation?
Well, something like that happened to me not so long ago.
As a (regrettably) single guy, I don’t have a family to motivate me to take vacation, and it’s easy for me at present to throw myself into my work. As a result, I’ve accumulated a whopping huge number of vacation hours, and Karl recently ordered me to get out of the office and start taking my vacation.
So I did.
The last couple of weeks I’ve been gadding about the country in my pickup:
1) First I went to Roswell, New Mexico, where I did the outer-space tourist thing.
2) Then I went to Oklahoma City, where I visited a friend (who I recently gave away in marriage) and her new husband.
3) Next I went to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where I visited my dad and my brother and his family (including my brand new nephew).
4) Afterwards, I went to my family’s cattle ranch in Deep East Texas (though my 85-year old grandmother recently sold the cattle, she still gets out with the brush hog and mows down the tough stuff that grows wild on the ranch).
5) Subsequently, I went to Houston (South East Texas) to visit the multiple aunts and uncles who live there.
6) Then I shot back to San Diego, crossing Texas (more than half the journey!), New Mexico, Arizona, and California in a two-day period.
It was a great trip.
Six states. Twelve days. Four thousand miles in a pickup.
I got a lot of family business and fun stuff accomplished, including taking some great photos and getting some great stories.
More on those soon.
