On the Road Again

I just got back from a quick trip . My sister and I spent that last two days driving to the Quad Cities for the funeral of our aunt Gina.



I really dislike the fact that the only time I have gotten to see my cousins is at this funeral, but that can't be helped. In fact my cousin Marc (the last time I had seen him was at his wedding over 3o years ago) said that us getting to see each other and reconnect was the blessing that came from his mom's death.

I am hoping that I can convince my cousin Chuck, who is the patriarch of our family clan now (hint hint) , to do what he can to try to keep us in contact with each other, but I am guessing that the next time I will see any of them will be at my mom's funeral or at her memorial when we transport her ashes back to the Quad Cities to be interred with my dad who is buried there.

Maybe we will get lucky and one of our generation's kids will get married and some of us can get together for the wedding, that would at least be a happier occasion to reconnect.

Oh well, so goes family dynamics in this society.

That is one of the things I like about Facebook. I have gotten connected to nearly every one of my cousin's in my dad's brother's family through Facebook. I can keep up a bit with what is going on in their lives and at least wish them holiday and birthday greetings.



Maybe after this trip I will be able to do that with mom's brother's family as well. That would be way cool.



The other nice thing about this trip is that I got to road test my Christmas present from mrangelmeg (by the way hon, I absolutely love it). He got me (well I went to the store and picked it out) a Garmin .



This one is a bit nicer than the one my friends had in Chicago a while back when I fell in love with it. On mine,-- I have dubbed her Beyotce (like the singer) because when she tries to send me on a road I don't intend to take I say "Beyotce what? not going that way!"-- actually tells you the name of the street you are supposed to turn onto as well as how soon you are supposed to turn. It also tells you how fast you are going and the speed limit of the road you are traveling on, as well as the estimated time of arrival at your destination; all good things to know.

We didn't get lost once the entire trip, and we even used it to find an IHop for breakfast and the closest one was across the river in Illinois.

Anyway, I am glad to be back home, and I hope I don't have to take any long trips for a while, but at least with Beyotce along I won't get lost.

Pax