Family Vacation

We don't officially go on vacation because we don't officially have a family. Since we've been together, Shawn and I made 2 trips to Louisiana with the help of his Mom to guide us and play navigator. These weren't pleasure trips. A very good friend of Shawn's had passed away and Shawn paid for the headstone (it's a looong story).

A few years ago, Shawn and I went to a concert in Dallas and came home that night. Last year we went to Lubbock and the only reason we stayed the night was because my boss was paying for the hotel (I was taking a class for work).

That's about it. That's our "vacation" history.

Though I do miss the art of traveling to a place you have no idea where it is, eating sandwiches from a cooler at a rest stop and fighting for the next 300 miles.

My parents took us on regular summer family vacations. My mom grew up extremely poor so the minuet my parents started making any money, she declared it vacation money.

Mostly, we went to we refer to as "the coast". This can be any city anywhere in the United States that has water next to it and usually requires a ferry to get there. We went to Galveston many times and various amusement parks.

Going to Galveston meant Mom ached to laying out by the pool (I never saw the fun in that) and Dad was excited about cable TV (I didn't get much fun out of that). Most of the times we spent the time doing stuff we could do at home, minus the cable TV and the fact that someone else cleaned up after us.

We ate lots of sandwiches and McDonald's, so as a kid, that made me happy. However, we did make one trip that wasn't Six Flags or "the coast" soon after my grandmother passed away.

We never left the state and our trips were rarely more than a good six hours of driving. Mom always refused to get on an airplane, no matter how drunk we promised to get her, and Dad refused to spend his one week a year off driving for 2 days.

This was the trip of all trips! We were going to Arkansas! Of course, we could see all the same rednecks and bumpkins at home, but these were the Mountain Variety.

It rained pretty much the entire time we were there but coming from Texas I had never seen so much rain at one time. I was wondering if they ought to be charging admission just to be able to smell the rain. There was a lot to do in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and my sister begged to go to Silver Dollar City.

There wasn't time, but with a name like that, it sure sounded like a city I wanted to go to.

So this year, as Shawn I sat bored around the house, I reseached the prices of tickets into the amusement parks I so fondly remember as a child. I came up with the conclusion that it's just TOO DARN EXPENSIVE! I had no idea my parents had that kind of money while we were growing up! I bet they could've paid for me to go to college if someone could have dragged me there!

Well, maybe next year. If we eat sandwiches out of a cooler all year round, I bet we can go to Six Flags or something. Of course won't be able to get Happy Meals nearly every day but I think I can live with that.

Happy traveling!