Sounds like a happy musical right? Not this day. Storms were raging across the Midwest and Air France pilots were on-strike causing gridlock in many of the international airports, and we were stuck in New York. Delays and cancellations on every airline. We were scheduled to land and then quickly hop on our next flight. But morning turned into afternoon which turned into evening which turned into… Oh wait, we can at least board a flight to Raleigh. Let’s get out of here while we can. The weather gave us a short break and we took a low-flying, storm-dodging, bumpy ride to Raleigh, NC and landed at 12:30 am. We should have been landing in Midland Texas about this time if the Midwest was not under tornado watches. But we chose a night at the boat instead of sleeping at the airport. We rented a car and made it to the boat by 2:30 am. The dock was quiet and we were the only ones foolish enough to be awake at this hour. As we walked up to Silhouette – well, it’s hard to explain the feeling.
We were home. She was sitting so peaceful in the water. Before stepping aboard I walked the whole length of the dock beside her just to take it all in. Just the way we left her, everything in order. So we tiredly pulled ourselves aboard and unlocked the companionway hatch. I have heard so many horror stories from friends who had left their boats to visit family and came back a few months later to find out they had a leak and the inside was covered with mold and swimming in slime from being closed up. We have friends who kept their boat in Central America and hired a caretaker so this wouldn’t happen. They were away several month and came back to find moldy walls, all the cushions ruined, and the flooring destroyed. So we were a bit anxious. But nothing, no disaster, and the air was even fresh.
Our sleep was oh so good, we slept in and were awakened by dock hands moving a boat next to us. Oops, I hope we didn’t leave the curtains open. We carefully checked things over and only needed to do one small boat project before we left again. Clean the sea water strainer for the air conditioners that are set on dehumidify to keep the air dry inside the boat. Everything topside was clean, all the lines snug, so off to the airport. We locked up Silhouette and stepped on to the dock. At this point neither of us wanted to leave yet…it was a bittersweet moment. We were excited to soon be visiting our daughter Robin and Sonny our son-in-law and our beautiful grandkids, but we were travel-weary from our month in the UK and also wanted to stay here, in our home.
Storms across the U.S. again from Dallas to Chicago and more delays, hours of sitting in the airport, every 20 minutes they would push the time back further for departure. It looked like we were going to miss our flight to Midland, TX. Robin kept texting, “Are you going to make it?…Keep me posted…Be safe…Finally we boarded our flight for Dallas, got to the runway, waited for an hour, and they brought us back to the terminal. Uuuuggg! This is crazy, but we did eventually make it to Dallas-late. We expected that our flight for Midland had already departed. It was in terminal A, and we were in B, so we boarded the train and headed to terminal A, just in case by some miracle we might still make it. Surprise, this flight was delayed too! Finally in Midland at 1:30 am and no taxies to be found. (We had told Robin not to wait up because with our luck we didn’t know when/if we would get there.) Uber to the rescue. The driver drove clear across town to pick us up and it was only about 2 miles to our hotel, $6.00 fare plus a $10.00 tip.
Robin and Sonny have five kids. Two sixteen-year-old girls that could not be more different. Audrie is the rockstar. She is a lovely girl with her own twisted-sister personality. Tattoos, scary t-shirts and lots of bracelets. Today’s t-shirt was Marilyn Monroe missing half of her face, it looked like something out of zombies. Audrie has a beautiful voice and once in a while we get to hear her recordings thru Facebook. She is quite talented. I think there is a little rebellion in all of us – Audrie just embraces hers. Elizabeth is next and she is the brainiac of the family. A straight-A student who is smart as a whip. Her style is… let’s just say different. Instead of scary, shocking t-shirts she is into goofy socks and such. We gave her chicken feet stockings for her birthday and Robin and Sonny gave her a T. Rex costume that she absolutely loves. She wanted to wear it shopping at the mall. Beth is on her way to being one very goofy neuroscientist. Yup, her goal is to get her degree in neurological studies. She may be the Ben Carson of her generation. Next is our grandson Alex. He is the spitting image of his father, sporting a fourteen-year-old mustache and a goatee. He is into BMX bikes and performing tricks at the skate park. This is his year – he is a young man. I was most surprised by his new roll of helping his Dad with everything. From unloading dune buggies at the track to washing up the vehicles when we got back, he is stepping into manhood. He also is pretty good at whooping his old man at video games. Then we have two precious younger girls Natalie and Madison. Natalie takes after Elizabeth. She is a super smart little girl with one goal in life – be smarter than her sister Elizabeth. Them are some big shoes or should I say chicken stockings to fill, but based on her love for learning she just might give the brain surgeon a run for her money. She is also an up-and-coming artist. Her computer drawings will actually baffle you. It’s the eyes. Everything she draws has the most beautiful eyes and she is only an eight year old. Last but not least is our five year old grand daughter Madison. She still loves to give full-body hugs, the kind that every mom and dad and most of all, grandparents love. She is Natalie’s shadow and best friend. Still in love with dolls and stuffed animals and doing anything her sister is doing.
So these are our grandkids we got to visit on this trip. We all hung out at the pool (one of the reasons we got a hotel), went to a movie, and spent a Sunday afternoon at an amusement park. The older kids even talked me into the riding the Drop of Death with them. OK, that might not be its actual name but that was what it felt like strapped into the seats. A steel u-shaped bar came down in front of us and we slowly started going strait up in the air, our feet dangling in outer-space. By the time we hit the top, we could see into the next two counties. Then just before we ran into airliners they dropped us without a parachute. For one whole second we thought our innerds were trying to become our outerds! I was thinking if I live through this, these guys are going to pay for this, and then it was over. We all survived, knees shaking. I think Alex wanted to throw up and no one wanted to ride it again. It takes a lot to be the cool grandpa, but next time I do that I am going to need a pair of depends!
One Saturday we went to an off-road park. They all love off-road sports, from motorcycles to 4-wheelers to dune buggies to CanAms. We raced across a mostly dry lakebed with Sonny. Natalie even took us for a ride in the dune buggy. Eight years old and driving something that goes really fast – but we had helmets and four-point harnesses and a roll cage. Liana went first and Natalie gave her the Grandma ride. Next it was my turn and she tore it up. OK, her dad does not let her go very fast but we certainly went as fast as she could and still stay out of trouble.
And in a flash our visit was over and we boarded a plane for San Diego but not before our sentimental daughter made us both cry. She sucks at good-byes. (We love you Robbie. Sonny you are still my favorite Son-In-law. Kids, we had a blast. Thanks for hanging with us).
