What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

During the holidays, Chuk and I drove over 3,100 miles through eight states. Almost half of those miles were driven hauling a nine foot trailer behind Chuk's minivan. Over the course of ten days, we slept in seven different beds. I was (and have continued to be) physically and emotionally exhausted from our "vacation".

Most of our trip was focused on spending Christmas with my extended family at my aunt's in Austin, TX and clearing the last of my late father's things from storage in southwest Louisiana. I'm going to skip the stories about having to call a tow truck from AAA and the family drama and focus on some of the highlights.

There's good eating to be had in Texas and Louisiana.

We did our part to "keep Austin weird."

We were able to go to Lance Armstrong's bike shop and see all seven of the yellow jerseys he won in the Tour de France.

The highlights of family time were decorating sugar cookies and playing board games.

There were so many gifts to be thankful for on Christmas day.

One of our favorite things about Louisiana is legal fireworks. You better believe we took advantage of our opportunity; they have all the good (dangerous) ones.

Another cherished Louisiana tradition is getting drive-thru daiquris. This is legal. Seriously. There's a menu of all different kinds of blended drinks (yes, with booze) and you order what you want and drive around to a little window where you are handed your cocktail like it was a burger at McDonalds.

The drink comes like this. The lid is taped on, so that it's not an open container, but they are always careful not to tape over the straw hole. Chuk ordered a "Ragin' Cajun". I didn't order a drink, but I'll admit, I did have some sips of his.

I think things are finally getting back to normal around here, so hopefully I'll be back to posting more regularly soon.