The Hodgepodge Traveler

Hodgepodge Fun!

1. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your sense of direction? 1=can't find my way out of a paper bag and 10=if I've been somewhere once I can find it blindfolded ten years later.

If I was the driver and was paying attention, I might be able to find it blindfolded ten years later, but probably I would need to refresh my memory. I am fairly good with my sense of direction. So I give myself a 6!

When was the last time you looked at/used a map you could hold in your hand? (phones don't count!)

When we were in Branson earlier this year I remember looking at the city map to see what attractions there were and their location on the map.

back east, down south, out west, up north

Choose one of these directional expressions and tell us why you chose it. 

Down south comes up in conversation on Monday nights because two couples are from the north and two from the south. We often compare notes on how things were growing up, traditional foods, and pronunciations of certain words ... like pēənē and pēˌkan! Down south we say pee-on-ee and pəˈkän! (Translation: peony and pecan, ya'll.)

2. Did you do more talking or listening yesterday? Listening.  

Is that typical? No.

Describe your yesterday in one word. Enlightening.

3. Time, money, water-power-resources, opportunity...which one on the list are you most guilty of wasting? What might you do to change that? 

Probably time. I know it's all right to take a rest, but sometimes I feel I'm not as productive as I could or should be. There are many tasks, but I would much rather do a Bible study, read, or blog than do things such as weed out closets, etc. Right now I'm thinking seriously I need to bear down and look at the status of whether we are prepared enough for whatever comes, i.e., finances, long term care and so on. And so, as I write this, I am in the process of taking those necessary steps. 

4. Did  your family take regular vacations when you were a kid? 

Kind of. Our road trips were usually always to visit family in NW Arkansas. We would stay with and visit them and all of us take little trips to Branson or Eureka Springs, the nearby tourist places. 

Tell us something you remember about a family road trip from your own childhood. 

Our first and only "real" road trip as a family was the opposite direction of Arkansas: Six Flags Over Texas! What fun we had! I was 14, my sister 12 and my brother was 5. We stayed at a motel called the Jolly Roger and I remember how bad the water tasted! Lol! I know we enjoyed the trip, but four to five hours or so in the car was a little too much for a family of five in our 1959 Impala with no AC! 

I remember another road trip with our family and my aunt and uncle and my cousin, Lonnie. Four adults and four children traveled together one summer in a 1957 Chevrolet from Arkansas to Illinois to visit an aunt and her family. We drove all through the night because we would have died from heatstroke if we had driven in the day. Dinah Shore used to sing, "See the USA in your Chevrolet!" I don't think that's what she had in mind. 

Our little family after one of those short trips!

5. If you could grow anything you wanted, what would you grow? 

A vegetable garden. 

Why? I think these days it would be wise to grow your own food and put it up for future use. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Our daughter and her family took a road trip this weekend to visit us and all the family went together to the Great Wolf Lodge. That's an experience the kids love and it made my heart happy to see them all so excited and having such a great time! I joined in the fun and rode the big tubes with them. We had a blast screaming our heads off! Everybody wants to go again ... soon!

Waiting patiently for time to go.

Excited little wolf cubs!

This place is huge!