“Now, on this road trip, my mind seemed to uncrinkle, to breathe, to present to itself a cure for a disease it had not, until now, known it had.” ― Elizabeth Berg, Author

Hello fellow travelers. It's the day after, Friday, December 26, 2014. My wife retired from working in an upscale women's clothing store for years. She can tell you that while black Friday is something to behold, hang on, because immediately following Christmas Day, it is return it, exchange it, or get-your-money back day! Well, we will not be doing any of that. We are actually taking a little road trip for the next week. Maybe it could be called a getaway or even a change of pace. We are headed out to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I know. It's cold out there. But, my thought was to try and find a place where the air is clean and crisp and the views are really great. (I'm big on clean and crisp air since it is quite the novelty around these parts.) It's a road trip to commemorate our 50th year together. It will not be like the ones we made with the boys in the Karmann Ghia so many years ago. Folks used to worry about the kids ending up with slanted backs from sitting in the back of that tiny little car.

It looked like this one. 1966, bought it brand new. We put a lot of miles on that little car.

We are driving so that we can make a few stops along the way. The first will be for a short visit with my sister up in the Dallas area. She continues her battle with leukemia and we are thankful for her faith and her tenacity. It took a long time but sure enough it happened. That fellow who sicked his dogs on me in 1965, well, I saw where he had passed on to his reward. It was that time that I drove my car off into a stream expecting to be able to cross it but there had been huge rains upstream and next thing I knew I was knee deep in ice cold water inside my car. I got out and made it to the embankment and then proceeded to walk down a dark road. It was about as deserted and lonely as it gets in the Sabine River bottom. When I came to a house I hollered out for help and at first they sicked the dogs on me, but, the fellow did eventually take me down to where the wife was in Church. (A quartet singing on Friday night.) He went in and fetched her and that was one of the first of many exciting surprises we have faced over the years. I just happened to pick up his name from an obituary in the list of those who had preceded this 92 year old lady in death. That lady was his mom. I looked him up and found out that he passed on in 2006. I'm not sure whatever became of those dogs who wanted to eat me up.

I'll be checking in from time to time since we do have our little handy laptop with us. No. That's not a threat, just a factoid and a promise, if you will. Enjoy your day and may God bless each and every one. Amen.   ....More later.