Hemingway once said, “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”  Luckily, I love Mr. Smith.  Together, we are the Grand Poohbahs of road trips.

Our 2018 holiday journey was done in two parts. For Christmas, we drove 700 miles roundtrip to the Washington D.C. area to spend Christmas with our oldest son, his wife, and our three grandsons.  We frosted holiday cut-out cookies and played countless hands of Michigan Rummy. Christmas Eve morning we all clambered aboard the brilliant metro into The District to attend a Christmas Eve choral concert for kids at The Kennedy Center.  The cherry on the sundae was being there for the family gift opening on Christmas morning and witnessing our grandsons’ excitement (and a few tears!)  Sometimes it’s hard to be the youngest…

For New Year’s, we drove 1,000 miles round trip to ring in 2019 with my sister. I enjoyed some much-needed sister time and Mr. Smith prepared us a delicious New Year’s Eve feast.

And now we are on the road again, this time for Granddaughter Lollapalooza.  We are driving to Chicago to be there for our oldest granddaughter’s eighth birthday.  She has two younger sisters so it will prove to be a very glittery visit where sparkles and sequins abound.  From there, we will fly to Texas to spend a few days with our fourth and fabulous granddaughter, Eleanor, and her parents.  

As the mother of three boys, I did sometimes pine for a baby girl.  My husband was more than happy to be the father of three sons, saying he wouldn’t know what to do with girls.  Well, you should see him with his granddaughters!  He obviously figured out you do the same with girls as you do with boys – you love them!  And they love their Pops!  Who doesn’t love a man who is happy to play the cupcake game, build Legos, or read Mary Poppins???

While on our New Year’s road trip, Mr. Smith commented that “…these are our golden years…”  While I did take some exception with that – perhaps our “silver” years, but not quite our golden years yet – I understood what he meant.  We are living our dream.  Our sons are all married to women whom we love and who have become members of our family. We have seven amazing grandchildren who amuse and delight us on a regular basis, including when they want to crawl in bed with us at 4:30 a.m. to “snuggle.”

And I am grateful that my road trip partner is always willing to pack a bag and hit the road.  We have logged many miles together and I have no doubt these trips will continue while our silver years drift into our golden years. We will listen to Paul Simon, grab Starbucks, and search for palatable road food.  Sometimes we drive for miles in quiet, other times we chat up a storm.  And sometimes we waive at truckdrivers like the Grand Poohbahs we are. We are lucky people.

C’est la vie…