Sentimental Journeys

Well, the excitement is building - Frank is on his way home for 3 weeks of R&R!! It will take 4 days to get to the States from Iraq. Leaving Rawah he goes to Al Asaad and on to Baghdad, then to Dubai for an overnight stay before catching a flight to Atlanta, and finally to Little Rock. He'll stay in that area for about 3 days visiting his parents, 2 brothers and a sister-in-law, and also our son, Matthew, who is there right now. Of course the guys want to catch the final few days of duck hunting season (!) and on the 25th, Frank and Matthew will head home to Louisiana - yea!!! Of course, if our first grandbaby, Liam, arrives during that time I'll just head to Arkansas so Frank and Matthew and I can drive north to Fayetteville. My stepson, Chris, and his sweet wife are putting the finishing touches on the nursery now that the furniture has finally arrived. Lynne is making drapes and other accessories and everyone is in "anxiously waiting" mode for Liam's arrival! When the blessed event occurs there will be a lot of traveling from a lot of different locations by a lot of extended family - LOL

Frank's long journey home, and the "pilgrimages" that will be made toward Fayetteville soon all got me thinking about my Grandpa. He died before I ever got a chance to meet him, but the stories my Daddy told and the pictures I've seen helped me to form an image of just what a sweet, warm and friendly man Grandpa was. One of my favorite stories is how Grandpa, who was an East Texas farmer, would sit in his rocking chair on the front porch with a tablet and pencil in one hand and one of his many maps in the other. He'd rock and rock and find two spots on the map that looked interesting, then he'd "do some figurin'" as he added up in long columns the mileage numbers between point A and point B. Daddy said that Grandpa never got off the farm, but he traveled a million miles on those maps!

My parents and my brother have all made trips to other countries (my brother's were courtesy of the U.S. Navy), but my own travels have been limited to within the boundaries of the United States. When I was growing up our family always took 2 week vacations by car, going all the way to the West Coast, or all the way to the East Coast (we had relatives in both locations) and making stops to visit with or stay with other relatives all along the way. We also managed to see just about every National Park, theme park, and tourist attraction - we had some great times and I have lots of wonderful memories of those vacations. I think we made it to about 30-something of the 50 states. Each stop was documented with photographs, souveniers, and rocks! Yes, I was a "rock hound" at an early age, and it's a wonder Daddy's car didn't weight about a ton more when we got home than it did when we left because I found what I deemed to be THE most beautiful rock in every place we went. I still have those rocks today - old Collectors never die; they just keep adding new stuff! And when I look at those rocks I can remember just where they came from...

So, North Louisiana city girl that I am, I've always enjoyed traveling to the mountains or the beaches or other scenic places. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in the farmlands of Arkansas. Summer for him didn't mean vacation travel, it meant working the fields. You'd think since his mom is from Scotland and his dad was a 20 year Air Force veteran he'd have lots of chances to travel, but by the time he was growing up his dad was no longer in the service and his mom wanted nothing more than to stay on the farm, help her husband, and raise her boys. Then, when Frank joined the Air Force, he found out what real traveling was - though he wasn't thrilled with either the Far East or the Middle East (where, as fate would have it, he has ended up again!) he did enjoy England - probably because it was the most like the States. Through all those remote stations he has always just counted the days until he was Home Sweet Home again - no Happy Wanderer!




As for future journeys, once Frank finishes his overseas work in another couple of years, he and I would love to do some more traveling around the United States, particularly in the West. We laugh because when I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be an Indian and he always wanted to be a Mountain Man - so the Wild West would be the perfect setting for us! As for other countries, we do want to travel to Glasgow some day to visit his mom's family and to see all the beauty and interesting things that area holds. Jaunts to England and Wales would be lovely too. For right now, though, guess I'll just have to get out the maps and be content to do some "Front Porch traveling" like Grandpa did...