To Busy Traveling to Write

I love to write about our adventures on the road. However, sometimes we are to busy traveling and living life to take the time to put it all on paper or launch it into cyberspace, as the case may be. To create, I need to be fresh (not exhausted from traveling) and I need a quiet environment.


That said, we have been having a wonderful, awe-inspiring summer, traversing the country with our grandchildren. When we settle down for a few weeks the end of August I'll get into the details. For now, if you have been wondering what we have been doing, it goes something like this:


Upon returning from our trip to Seattle and an Alaskan Inside Passage cruise aboard the Golden Princess, we spent a week resting in Las Vegas, yeah right. Then we flew to Lafayette, LA via Houston for our youngest grandson's birthday party.


Then, it was back to Houston to house-sit while our daughter and granddaughter cruised to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. While settled for the week, I wrote and published the summer convention issue of our newsletter.


Finally, it was time for our summer adventures to commence. We decided to spend some one-on-one time with each grandchild. It may seem crazy to some but the plan couldn't have worked out better. Here's how we did it.


We took a rental car to Lafayette, LA to pick up our nine year old grandson, then returned to Houston where we turned in the car. Our daughter graciously dropped us off at the Houston Amtrak station to catch a train to Los Angeles. (His first train ride, first trip out west, wow!)


We rented a car at the station for a month. We drove to Anaheim where we stayed long enough to visit Disneyland, Hollywood and Huntington Beach. Then we headed to Las Vegas for two days, drove over Hoover Dam and stopped in Williams, AZ.


The next day we drove out to the Grand Canyon. Then it was on to Meteor Crater for a quick stop before heading to Albuquerque where we visited Old Town. Next came the White Sands, voted best stop by the grandchildren, Fort Stockton, San Antonio, Houston and back to Lafayette. The trip lasted about 16 days. Time spent with grandchild -priceless.


OK, we are in Lafayette with a rental car that needs to go back to Los Angeles. No problem.


We travel to Houston pick up our eleven year old granddaughter and head back to California. (Her first trip out west, first train ride, double wow!) Our first stop, San Antonio (visiting our other daughter and enjoying her hot tub), then it's on to Sonora, TX to visit the caverns. (Our granddaughter was named after them and the movie, "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken").


Next is an overnight stop at Fort Stockton, swimming pool, entertainment center (Hulk movie, and bowling) then on to Carlsbad Caverns to see the bats. Next, White Sands then on to the Albuquerque Petroglyphs and Sandia Tram, more miles traveled to Williams for the shoot out in the street and a day at the Grand Canyon.


Yup, then it was back over the Hoover Dam to Las Vegas (our favorite stop) to see the Blue Man Group. Then it was on to our final destination, Disneyland and Huntington Beach via Twentynine Palms with a stop to write her name in rocks in the desert, climb rocks and star gaze in Joshua Tree. (Side note: She was born in Twentynine Palms).

Eventual we turned in the rental car at the Los Angeles Amtrak station where while waiting we discovered a historic district that looks like old Mexico across the street. To bad we didn't have more time to explore before boarding the train.


The trip was not effected by Hurricane Dolly and our daughter picked us up at the station in San Antonio at the expected arrival time. The following day we picked up a one-way rental car, dropped our granddaughter in Houston (20 days of quality time on the road) and traveled on to Lafayette to dog-sit.

We turned in the rental car at the airport and are patiently waiting for our youngest grandchild to return from a convention/vacation in Destin, Fla. It's his turn next and time is running out, as school begins on Aug. 8th in Louisiana.


Hmm, you see why I don't have time to expound on the details. All I can say is we are having a wonderful time getting to know our grand kids. If you have an opportunity to spend one-on-one time with your grandchildren don't let the opportunity pass you by. It's a wonderful experience.


PS Did you know the latest craze for pre-teens is the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyers?

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/eclipse.html