On the Road Again Again

After an eventful and many-miled 2 and half months, I’m figuring that our blog is in need of an update. Last we wrote, we were in sunny Taos. During our time there Rodney worked on journal articles and job-hunting, and I had a great opportunity to freelance for the Visitor’s Guide that is put out by the Taos News. It was really fun to have an excuse to drive all over the area and research the history.

The week of Thanksgiving, our time in Taos came to a close, and we headed to Colorado to meet up with my family for the holiday. We had a great time with them in Colorado Springs just hanging out, going to the zoo (which is an awesome zoo by the way), and of course, doing a lot of eating.

December 1st, we headed to Missouri to visit with Rodney’s family. We had an early Christmas there and just had a great time relaxing. Our activities ranged from dragging a dear out of the woods to me learning to embroider to riding around in the back of a pickup truck in the cow pasture so that I could get some up-close cow photos. Our time also included my first trip to Branson and an 2 and ½ mile drive through a light display.

After 2 weeks that just flew by, we hit the road again to head toward my family in Pennsylvania by way of a few other states. We stopped in Alabama to see my grandmother, and it was so nice to be able to spend time with her and my aunt, uncle and cousins there. I was excited to show Rodney my grandfather’s shop that I logged many hours in as a child, and we even had a chance to breeze through the Space Center.

We left Huntsville and headed North to South Carolina to visit Rodney’s sister in Greenville. Her little guy, however, had a fever, so we made a slight re-route and hit Charlotte first to see my grandparents while we gave his fever time to exit the scene. We got to see both of my new little second cousins and had a nice time catching up with family there. After a day, we headed back South to Greenville, where we had two days visiting with Rodney’s sister and family, and I got to touch base with my dear friend michele. We had a great time getting to see the new downtown in Greenville (which is lovely), and then chatting, playing, and eating amazing steak.

With our Southern Sweep completed, we again headed North to PA to see my family. While there, we celebrated Christmas. We also had a lot of time to just hang out, play, talk, and eat and visit with friends. Our time there included giving Rodney a tour through the town the I grew up in (that is about an hour away from where my family lives now), me taking yarn spinning classes with my mother, helping my little brother select songs for the album the he is now in Nashville recording, and a blitz-tour of New York City (Rodney’s first time in the city). It was a whirlwind tour of seeing friends and family, and we had a great time connecting and re-connecting with everyone.

About 2 and a half weeks after arriving in PA, we headed out for Missouri again. This holiday season was the ultimate in going back and forth between families, and ours are about 16 hours apart! We were blessed to be able to spend almost a month with each of our families.

Our second pass through Missouri was nice. We spent a little more time exploring the area, and Rodney took me out to his great-grandmother’s house, where I got to hear a lot of the history there. We also spent quite a bit of time cooking, and I was able to mess around long enough to figure out how to make caramel buttercream meringue icing (that we had had in NYC). What a victory when those egg whites do what they are supposed to do! I also had some time to re-discover my love of knitting and much of my week was spent knitting for a local craft show and then for friends. Rodney and his dad spent a lot time walking, and his mother and I spent a lot of time talking. Funny how that works. ☺

But with all this visiting behind us, the current questions seem to be “where are you now,” and “what are you doing”? Well, right now I am at my old haunt, the Brewing Market in Boulder. We just drove in this morning. Rodney has a temporary project to work on here, so we are getting to hang next to the Flatirons for a few weeks. I’m super excited to be living up at Chautauqua (right next to the mountains where I lived the year we dated), and we are looking forward to getting to see friends. We are still job hunting and hopefully interviewing, and we honestly do not know where we are going to end up. But the ride has been amazingly fun so far, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

We will update again, hopefully sooner than last time. Keep checking to see where we end up next month, but for now, the “on the road” thing seems to be where we are, and our road is driving past the lovely town of Boulder. I can’t complain. The sky is blue, the mountains are right there, and I have a place to sleep.