2011 - September, a set on Flickr.
As Labor Day approached and summer came to a close, we had come to the conclusion that for many reasons, it was time to take the family on a road trip. As you will see, this was not a Labor Day vacation, but was a true road trip. Jake’s adoption had just been finalized and we had not yet seen Shelli’s parents nor my family. My grandmother was about to celebrate her 80th birthday and was having a surprise party thrown for her. Then, finally, we had not been to Mississippi to see family in over a year; so many in my family had not yet met Jake. It was settled, we would drive from Texas, to Louisiana, to Mississippi and, then Alabama before returning home. All of this was to happen in a four day period.
I left work a little early on Thursday, picked up the truck from its oil change and tire rotation, and picked up the family, then we all left for Lake Charles. Shelli’s parents prepared dinner for us to all celebrate Jake’s adoption becoming final. After dinner and a short night’s sleep, we repacked the suburban and continued east to Jackson, MS. We stopped in to see my friend, John Miller. John and his wife, Jenny, are proud parents of five month old son, John Gordon. This was my first chance to meet John Gordon and their first chance to meet Jake.
On Friday night, we stayed at my grandparents. At dinner that night, most of my cousins, aunts, and uncles came over. For all of them, it was their first time to meet Jake. Of course, Kailey enjoyed being able to spend time with her GG (Great Grandmother) Martha and GG Paul.
Saturday was a big day for us. We had Tropical Storm Lee approaching from the south and a party starting at 2 pm in Gadsden, Al that we could not be late for. Shelli and I are becoming better at setting up and breaking down camp in each location we come to. We had everyone fed, dressed, the car packed, and were driving by 830 in the morning. We were able to stay ahead of the rain and made great time. We arrived at the party early. It was great to see all of Grandma’s friends and our family. While I know she knew something was “going on” the surprise on her face was genuine. I don’t think she expected to see Shelli, Kailey, Jake and I along with the other family members who came from out of town. We spent that night at my parents’ house. When I put the suburban in park in the driveway that night, we had covered 830 miles since leaving Katy, Tx, and our trip was half was completed.
This time, as we turned back around on Sunday morning, our track would take us directly through the worst of the Tropical Storm. Our original plans were to spend the night in New Orleans, but 100% chance of rain and the threat of tornadoes in south Louisiana cancelled that idea. We ended up staying to the north of the storm and driving from Gadsden, Alabama to Ruston, Louisiana on Sunday. I had hoped we could make it to Shreveport, but we were all tired and decided to save that leg of the trip for the next morning.
Finally, we got a late start leaving Ruston, but the drive home to Katy down Highway 59 was easy. We made it home early that evening, Labor Day.
In the end, we cad driven 1638 miles, consumed 99.2 gallons of fuel and saw about every relative we have east of the Mississippi River. We were gone 96 hours for the whole trip, so we averaged 17 MPH across the total time gone and total miles driven. Like I said earlier, that is why this was a road trip. In case you are wondering, we did look at flights. Sure, we spent about $350 on gasoline, but that and the wear on the suburban was much better than the $1500 four airline tickets would have cost. Plus, we would not have seen nearly as many people nor been able to have as good of a story about our 2011 Labor Day weekend roadtrip.
