Monthly Archives: June 2009

It’s pretty darn certain at this point that I’ll be employed through September. If it’s up to my boss, I’ll be employed thereafter as well, but since the work drops off dramatically for our department in Q4, I’m betting they can’t justify the expense. Whether I’m employed in Q4 or not, I’m planning to take a 3-week drive trip in October. (No risk of snow this time! At least there better not be.)

Originally I had thought I would go east to Wisconsin to visit my friend Ashley, and then drop south to visit Jay’s parents in OKC and my birth mom in Texas. From there, I wanted to go to New Orleans and have my mom and husband fly in for a 3-4 day vacation.

In fact, I thought it would be cool if Jay’s parents could join us. And maybe our siblings! But my plans were dashed. Jay’s brother is graduating in September in Las Vegas, and he and his parents will have just gotten back from a big vacation there. His parents couldn’t take another vacation so close to that one. But they thought it sounded like a great plan and wanted to do it — just not now.

I mulled about it a while, and decided it really would make an excellent family trip, so I decided to put New Orleans on hold until next April or October. But what about this year? I didn’t want to waste an excellent travel opportunity, and I didn’t want to wait another year to see my mom. So I changed my whole plan.

Now I’m thinking I’m going to do a trip across the north side of the country. I’m going to visit Ashley in Wisconsin, and then continue east to visit Christie in Pittsburgh, stopping to see my friend LaShawn in Cleveland along the way. Mom can fly into Pittsburgh, and then she and I can do a several-day road trip in Pennsylvania to see Gettysburg, etc.

Jay is totally invited to fly into Pittsburgh to join my mom and me for Gettysburg, but he’s concerned that the cost to have someone take care of the animals for 4-5 days would be prohibitive. (And he doesn’t love flying.) But we’ll see. I’d hate for him to miss the trip — he hasn’t seen Gettysburg, and he loves historical stuff. I wonder if my brother and Stephanie would be interested? Oh well, I’m probably getting ahead of myself.

On the way back, I’ll take a new route. I’ll drive through Indianapolis and then through Iowa and Nebraska on I-80, and then a familiar route from Cheyenne back to Seattle. There are a couple of people I could potentially see on that trip, or I could just head for home.

All told, the trip will be roughly 6000 miles — about the same as the one I took in November 2007. I won’t see my birth mom or Jay’s family, but I’ll see both next year. And I will get to see both Ashley and Christie, two of my best friends on the planet (whom I don’t see often enough).

I’m terribly excited. I’ll need to buy a camera finally. I’ll plan to blog, just like last time. I’ll have to rent a car — fortunately, the summer gas prices should be dropping by then (I hope!). Man, I’m ready to hop in the car now! Hopefully, I’ll get some overtime during Q3 to help fund all this!