I’m glad we decided to stay put another day because yesterday was just miserable here in Tuscaloosa. The temperature dropped and it started raining hard during the middle of the night and the wind was unrelenting. About daylight the wind died down but it continued to pour until late afternoon. I was glad I had plenty of work to do on the computer, because I wasn’t eager to go outside.
We finally did leave about 4 p.m. and made a WalMart run to stock up on some things we needed, and to drop off a couple of orders at the post office.
Back at the motorhome, my son Travis and his wife Geli came over and Terry made dinner. In case you don’t know me, I’m strictly a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I eat fried dead meat. Or grilled dead meat. Or barbecued dead meat. But vegetables? No Way! I hate vegetables. I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables. So don’t ask me how it came about, but Travis and Geli are vegans. Not just vegetarians, which is bad enough, but vegans. Those are like the Navy Seals of the vegetarian world. My kid a vegan? I was about to call the DNA lab and demand a paternity test.
But Terry took it all in stride, making a delicious dinner of veggie burgers, sweet potato fries, a Mexican-style quinoa salad filled with vegetables, a farro salad filled with vegetables, and homemade vegan chia seed rolls. That was for the kids. I had a cheeseburger and French fries.
After dinner we sat around visiting for two or three hours, just enjoying being together.
Saying goodbye to the people we love is probably the worst part of the fulltime RV lifestyle. Saying goodbye when we hit the road for the first time, and saying goodbye at the end of every visit. The good news is that the road goes both ways and the one we drive away on will bring us back again.
We had a wonderful visit with Travis and Geli and I am so glad we got to meet her. She is a wonderful, loving, intelligent woman and the best thing that ever happened to my son. It has been a wonderful, tear-filled reunion that we both needed. For reasons that I won’t go into here, Travis and I have been estranged for ten years and this was something that we both very much needed. The only problem was that our visit was too short, and a lot of tears were shed when we said goodbye last night. But as I assured Travis, we’ll be back. We’re looking forward to it.
Today we have an easy 230 mile trip to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where we’ll stay a couple of days while we gather a couple of stories for an upcoming issue of the Gypsy Journal. Then we’ll push on west toward Arizona. If all goes well, we should arrive in Tucson Sunday or Monday.
Thought For The Day – Enjoy life now, it has an expiration date.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Glad you and Travis are speaking again. Am sure you both have more you want to share when the time is right. This always reminds me of the old Cat Stevens’ song …”The Cats In The Cradle” ….
“Cat’s in the Cradle” was by Harry Chapin. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 at #1 in December 1974.
Nick,
You often make me laugh quietly when I read your posts, which is a good thing, because I read them while I teach school, usually when the students are working on a project or taking a quiz. So, it was a bit disconcerting to my students today when, in the middle of their quiz, I started laughing out loud at the line, “I didn’t claw my way to the top of the food chain to eat vegetables.” LOL.
I do enjoy your posts,
Wayne
Nick, I’m so glad you spent some time with your son,,,,and you know why….Mike
At first my son seemed strange. Then I found out much later that it was I that was strange. Good luck in Vicksburg. I hope you win.
That’s a nice story Nick. Having 2 sons myself I know the trials and tribulations of keeping the father son relationship solid. Some just ain’t as easy as others.
Enjoy Vicksburg NP but stay away from Magnolia RV park… loud loud dogs next door.
Happy to hear you reunited with your son, family is so important. Have a safe trip to AZ looks like we won’t be seeing you this trip maybe on the return trip you will stop by. We love you guys
Mending fences is one of the most important life activities. Job well done, Nick And to Travis, too.
Wonderful news about you and your son, Nick!! Life is not easy these days and so many things can interfer in relationships!!
Good to hear of a reunion with your son. As a son of a failed attempt at a reunion with my father, I can relate to how cool it could have been and to the dissapointment in the fact that it did not work. I hope for both of you it works. There can be great times ahead. As you say the road does go both ways.
We are just down the road from Vicksburg, here at Lake Bruin SP. Vicksburg has some really neat stuff to take in.
I’ve been estranged from my father for about 5 years. Funny how I kept my chin up and delt with a lunatic step mother for him but he has no tolerance for my wife who is 100 times the woman he married. Oh well, if that is the price for not dealing with my step mother anymore that is well worth it. Good riddance. Glad you were able to mend fences.