Summer Vacation-The Beginning

It’s officially summer, my favorite time of the year. I am on vacation and the days are lazy, filled with sleeping late mornings, book readings on the beach, boogie boarding in the ocean and mid day movies. It’s also a time for traveling, seeing and discovering new places as well as visiting old friends. For the last four years I have traveled with my gorgeous boyfriend Herb all over the US.

This summer the first plan was to leave in June and drive all the way to California to visit my school chum that just purchased a vineyard and has recently produced his first two bottles of wine. It also included a 5th of July family cookout with musician friends in Marin County. The perfect adventure for me, right? However my school pal and his family are spending the summer with a family in Costa Rica in a Spanish language immersion program, so the west coast is out.

Plan B is now to travel up the east coast, hopefully all the way to Maine and Canada. Our departure time grew later and later as Herb had to deal with rental house woes. One needed a new roof and one needed new tenants and a complete overhaul. That took several weeks, but finally all the work was completed and we could start preparing for our trip.

Departure date is now set for Friday, July 16. First we are heading to Mike’s lake house outside of Knoxville, Tennessee for some jet skiing, boating and fishing. The next stop is a weekend of live music at Floydfest, a beautiful place right off the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia. That is followed by a visit with Herb’s uncle in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

That is all of the planning we have done so far.

Now traveling with Herb is a delight except for one small teeny tiny thing...he is not always cognizant of the time. He starts out saying we will leave around 7:00 or 8:00am, yet we are still asleep at that time. Then the van needs to be washed, he needs to pack, as well as take care of business and payroll as it is a Friday. We are leaving Petey, his rat terrier, with friends and they need to come get doggie directions. And to be perfectly honest, I forgot something as well.

The hours fly by, yet we manage to finish all the chores, pack the van,deliver payroll, eat lunch and finally hit the road. It is 3:00pm.