Our "Quick" Trip

Four girls and their mother.  A carfull of bad Catholic manic pixie dream girls hurling along I94 to the north woods; from the northern suburbs of Chicago all the way to that barely visible red dot in the upper left of the state (diocese of Superior for those who are interested.)

Passed this creepy cat ASAP.  That truck had a 

sort of Stephen King feel.

Lots of talking, lots of laughing.  Maybe a bit tooo much togetherness.

Last chance to stretch!

Library Envy.

Especially when the tedium set in when traffic was at a crawl for many miles around the halfway point.  It's a good thing some people had a nice stretch at the rest-stop.

The 'electronic age' is a blessing.  I remember when any long distance phone call was a harbinger of death and disaster.  Now I speak with my sister several times a week, as well as Facebook, email etc.  It's like we're always together.  But not really.   I hadn't really seen my sister (and her family) in about two years.  Incarnate beings need to occupy the same space - once in a while.  So this trip was a gift.

And we managed to fill it with as much togetherness and typical Smith family craziness as possible.  Saturday was another typical wretched, overcast Spring 2011 day - spent playing games, watching movies and just plain goofing around.  We went to the Dairy Queen to observe my niece at work.  Left a nice tip in the tip jar to compensate for the humiliation of a crowd of relatives descending on the establishment - and then asking to take pictures.   

I sleep sooo well when I am up there.  Closing the door to block out the prattling and laughing of the night-owls,  I opened the window and enjoyed the crickets and frogs.  Fought off Guy Noir, the growling black cat who always tries to suffocate me.  Awoke to the sound of grunts and snorts from the pig pen.  Oh, and on Saturday morning some of the night owls - who made it an all-nighter - gathered around my bed to sing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" at 6:00am.  Then there was a hearty breakfast and everyone went (back) to bed.  Sunday was much lovelier.  Before heading back, we hung around outside and most of us ( we know who you are - "Miss lounging in the house")  took a turn with my brother-in-law's something .45.  It's been about thirty years since I have shot anything, so I did it just to prove I still had it in me.  This was not an efficient way to dispose of empty bottles.  After the third miss I was ready to take the pistol and just start pistol-whipping them into shards.  Luckily, I hit one or two and saved my dignity.   Departure time came too soon, but Karen promised that they would try to make it down here in the near future.  (sans pigs, of course.  They did travel well when they only weighed fifteen pounds!)  After our bags were examined to make sure no one was smuggling home Chet, the three legged wonder cat, we hit the road.  (There were no restrictions on the number of ticks we were smuggling.  Yech) Like a lot of things, it all went too fast.

Dress up the wiener dog and have a Teddy Bear Picnic.

My how we've grown.

Why? Just to prove I can still do it.

A familial flash mob appeared at the DQ to watch my niece at her "first job."