big sky country trip part 2

god, why do i do this to myself. i set up this mini-series of blogs to detail my trip. it becomes futile. the same thing happened when i tried to break down the beatles albums. futile.

so here's the plan... i'm not going to break down the entire trip, just detail a few things.

as expected, my friends and coworkers at the office were surprised by my new, short hair. i've gotten everything from "you could be dan's younger brother" to "i didn't know your head was so small" to "you're slipped into an army base for a haircut." but that's ok. yes, it's short.

on tuesday, the hair went. i told the woman a "3" would be cool. i didn't know how much that would cut off. then i saw the long strands flying onto the sheet and had a minor freak out. oh well, it's done. and so i was ready and not looking like a hoodlum or homeless man for the family picture the following day. i guess i surprised everyone.

we met up with my friend lillian, who i hadn't seen since before we moved to mich., my uncle who had a stroke a year and a half ago, aunts, cousins, second cousins and other uncles. oh, any my grandparents. we stopped in to see my grandmother, who was at this place she goes to during the day to chill with other elder people. she was playing bingo.

it was funny with her. she wanted to talk to me but was concerned about missing out on bingo numbers and kept looked worriedly at the boards. so i gave her a kiss and left. it was funny.

we left friday afternoon with the temperature at 102. i'm a wuss. can't take the heat. it was coming in fiercely through the wind shield. it was the only hot day, though. it was on that last day that i was able to smell the orange blossoms on a tree that's outside the yard. i miss that scent.

we ended up in cypress (near houston) friday night and stayed with friends jessica and todd. we got to see their now two-year-old son aiden. cute kid. we hadn't seen jess since 2002 and tod for even longer. great to just sit and chat with them.

then we were off again. we went up highway 59 toward texarkana. christ, that was bad. the road is stop and go since it cuts through towns and the speed limit varies from 60 down to 30. we were going nuts. that stretch of highway, wich lasts about five or so hours, is tough to get through. we finally decided to cut through louisianaon an nterstate and go into jackson, miss. there we caught 555 north to memphis and headed up our usual way. dawn drove 13 1/2 hours that day. but we did get all the way into missouri. we went through six states that day. not bad.

we pulled into holland around mid-afternoon sunday. it felt so good to get back to our house, see the cats and just chill out. we caught up on our recorded tv shows, courtesy of krista v. and saw the last three episodes of homicide: life on the streets.

then it was back to work on monday.