Getting Ready for Another Trip

Just a nice picture of serenity to lead off the post.

I want to write, really I do. But I guess I am just too anxious about a trip we have upcoming and just can't concentrate. This Friday, July 10th, we are loading up the van and taking off. Mrs. Spadoman and myself will take the three oldest Grandkids with us and road trip to California via Colorado, the Rocky Mountains, Grand Canyon and a couple of the beautiful National Parks of Southern Utah. Our destination is Los Angeles where we will stay at our friend's home in Redondo Beach.


Bubbling tar.

While we visit for about six days, we'll certainly get to ride in the boat and see some sites. Eleven year old Anna wants to see the LaBrea Tar Pits. I know where they are and will take her. Both my daughters will fly out to meet us there for a long weekend. Son-in-law and two year old Gracie will fly too. Gracie is just too young to do the road trip portion. Besides, she'd drive me nuts. Maybe it's because I'm too old for her to be with us on the road trip portion. LOL


At The Wall, July 2008.

Last summer, we traveled to Washington DC and the kids were at my side when I carried the POW/MIA Flag into the Nation's Capitol at the end of The Longest Walk II. We went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and I pointed out the name of a brother who's name is there. We swam in the Atlantic Ocean and I promised a trip to the Pacific this year. I'm following through with my end of the bargain.


Kids in the Atlantic.

Youngest daughter Jayne will fly home from LA, and Alyssa, her husband and Gracie will join us as we travel up the West coast to Eureka and the Redwoods. We'll visit more friends there and then the additional passengers will fly home from San Francisco before the original car group heads for home. It will be a total of three full weeks away from home. I am blessed and fortunate to be able to do this with my children and Grand children. We never know when we will have chances like this ever again. Now is the time.

I will have the laptop with me, but I don't plan on e-mailing friends and running the usual routine while away. I intend on setting up a new blog before I go and post pictures and stories right from the mouths of the kids while on this special journey.
In fact, the blog is set up and you can find it either on my sidebar, at the top, entitled Bonin/Spado road Trip, or right HERE
I hope you'll join us now and again on our trip.

In Other News:

Yesterday morning, I wrote a post and after reading my own words, I deleted it. If you read it, so be it, if not, you didn't miss anything spectacular. The idea I wanted to get across was that I know of so many fine writers out there blogging and doing art work, creating stories, travelogues and poetry that there is no way I can get to them all on a regular basis. I feel bad as every one of you deserve the attention as your work is fabulous. I have a hard time trying to keep up and just admitted that I can't. I guess I'm asking that you understand that I want to read and comment every day but there just aren't enough hours to accomplish the task. Forgive me for this.

Check out the blogs on my side bar. So much talent and creativity. You won't be sorry.

I got home late Monday night from the sixth time I attended the Sundance ceremony. I saw friends that have been coming for years. I sat at the big drum and sang, helping there, as the same helpers that stayed up all night to keep the fire also beat out the dance rhythms and sang many hours each of the four days that the dancers were in the arbor. My voice was welcomed not because it sounded good, but because it was another fresh, not worn and scratchy voice, that could call out the first lines of the song and carry more needed vocables as the dancers could hardly hear, what by this time, had become whispers. I woke up whispering yesterday, but have regained my voice today. (Yes, I talked to myself, that's how I know my voice is back, HA!)


The sky at 5:19 a.m. from the Spadoville deck, July 8, 2009, today.

And Lastly:

I'll leave this post with an excerpt from an e-mail I received from an old elementary/High school chum that I had as a friend back in the late 50's. early 60's. His name is Marc and we hung around together. He reminded me of some shenanigans at school and a conversation we had one day when he was over and we were sitting in the kitchen. Here's the excerpt:

I always remembered you as fun to be with, and quite mischievous. Do you recall our sitting in the very back of class, you on one side of the room, I on the other? We rolled marbles across the floor between us, flipped pencils across the room, and bounced spring-loaded bobby pins.

One day I was over at your home in the kitchen with you. You were trying to convince me that anything was possible. So, I bet you to (I think) jump through the ceiling (something like that). You were about to cut a hole in the ceiling with a saw, but I chickened out of the bet.

I wanted my blog family to get a glimpse of my past. Most of you have known me only over the past few years, and in some cases, only a few weeks. Marc knew me as a child and teen. I guess I was impressed to read his remark about the conversation in the kitchen as I believe I never gave up the idea that I could do anything and most of my life I did. I also wanted you to see what kind of a kid I was. I hope I still show the marble rolling, pencil flipping and bobbie pin springing side of me as I tease, flirt and generally try to have fun in life. Thanks for letting me share this with you. Thanks for coming to the Round Circle.

Peace

The sky at 5:20 a.m. from the Spadoville deck, July 8, 2009, today.