Back on the Road

I woke up a little before 7:00 am Mountain Time this morning which was a little later than I wanted to. However; we are not on a time schedule and when we get to our destination (New Jersey) we get to our destination. After taking a shower I promptly woke up the rest of my family in order to get on the road (again) at a reasonable time. I loaded up the ruminants of our "stuff" into the mini-van. (Let me tell you we have a great deal of "stuff" in the mini-van!!) We said our "so-longs" to my sister and her family which wasn't sad it was actually invigorating.

As I stated yesterday my sister has become such a special person to me I know whatever time I miss with her and her family in the coming years I know she will remain a very special person to me. I also know that no matter what happens in the coming weeks no one can take away this very special time from and I am forever grateful for this opportunity to experience the many blessings in my life.

After saying our "so-longs" we were on the road at 8:20 am Mountain Time. My goal (I like to have goals which may or may not be a character defect?) was to get to Columbia, Missouri this evening. Unfortunately my goal and my wife's instructions were not the same. My wife wanted to be done driving by 7:00 pm so we could get a good dinner and have the children go swimming at the hotel. My calculations were a little off because I forgot about losing the hour when we went from the Mountain Time zone to the Central Time Zone in Kansas. Needless to say we arrived in Columbia, Missouri at 8:30 pm Central Time after stopping in construction traffic for 45 minutes.

My wife was not too happy with me when we sat down to dinner at 9:15 pm at the Cracker Barrel. My poor wife had a rough evening (as if completely upsetting her life over 16 months was not enough!!) after arriving in Columbia, Missouri late in the evening. We went to the Cracker Barrel Restaurant and if anyone has traveled across the United States knows that there seems to be a Cracker Barrel Restaurant at every exit!!

My wife had never been to this restaurant and there appeared to be a shortage of restaurants at this hour we decided to go. Now those of you who know my eating habits know the Cracker Barrel is not a great place for me to eat; however; I certainly owe my wife so much it was in everyone's best interest to try it. My wife was having a hard time ordering her dinner because every time she ordered something the waiter would come back and inform her they had run out of it. She finally settled on having breakfast for dinner and her pancakes and sausages were a bit overcooked. By the way my soup and salad was okay. We finally finished dinner a little past 10:00 pm and headed back to the hotel. The children took their showers and finally went to sleep around 11:00 pm; this was a very long day for everyone.

The hotel had two queen beds and my wife slept with my son and I slept with my daughter at their requests. It was a very simple thing and something I had not really thought about but the fact that my daughter wanted me to sleep with her and give her a feeling of security made me feel very good. Normally my daughter takes a while to fall asleep but not tonight she was asleep in seconds.

It was a very long day but a great day that was shared with my family. After departing my sister's house this morning we made a very long journey through the high plains of eastern Colorado and Kansas. There is so much undeveloped land in this part of the country I was amazed. We drove hundreds of miles without seeing any housing developments and any industries of any kinds. We drove through endless wheat and alfalfa fields but no commercial developments. This is a far cry from Southern California and New Jersey where there are endless residential and commercial developments. I saw a sign in Kansas along the freeway which was offering FREE land for an industrial development. There aren't any freebies to be had on either coast so I was simply amazed by how much raw land that is available in this part of the country.

The terrain throughout the 750 mile drive was of rolling hills. Not exactly an exciting drive and thank God we did this during the daylight because it would have been hypnotic at night. Kansas seemed to last forever but we finally reached our destination albeit a bit late but we got there without any problems. The children were great and we only made one stop for gas and lunch while driving for ten hours.

I have a great family and no matter how far apart we maybe in the coming months and years I know I have finally made the right decision by embracing my Recovery and as long I stay in recovery my life will be filled with so many blessings. I am so grateful to know there are so many blessings in my life starting with my family.