Wednesday, June 03, 2009

There's No Place Like Home

After being on a family trip/vacation since this past Sunday I am once again back home in my music room. If I was Superman, this room would be my Fortress of Solitude! My wife, youngest son, and I left before dawn this past Sunday to meet my other son and his wife in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I love early morning drives. No such drive is complete without a cup of coffee. After obtaining my morning java I settled into the drive. About half way there we stopped for breakfast. With my belly full and completely jacked up on coffee and rock and roll, I continued the journey. Gatlinburg is approximately 285 miles from where I live. We arrived there without incident and soon hooked up with my son and his wife. Apparently there was a misunderstanding with our room reservation and we ended up with accommodations that included a free lesson in family togetherness. Let me just say that for a solitary introvert like me, I had to make some personal adjustments and occasionally had to work a little harder on chilling out. In spite of the accommodations and lack of personal space no major conflict erupted and we still were able to have an enjoyable time. We walked the streets and shopped in the stores. We went to the water park and had some great, if overpriced, meals. One of the meals was at Bubba Gump Shrimp. I liked the place a lot because, as you would expect, it was completely based on the movie "Forrest Gump", a movie that I never tire of watching. The weather was great. It was much like summer with hot days and, thankfully, cool nights. There was no humidity except for a brief shower when the rain poured through the shining sunlight. Each night we were able to sit in our favorite hangout, a place called "The Village", where we drank coffee and ate tasty donuts from a wonderful place called "The Donut Friar". This morning started off as a great day and I was looking forward to the drive home. About a hundred miles into the drive the skies opened up and rain poured for the next hundred miles. Driving in the pouring rain, on an interstate highway filled with semi-trucks, is not my idea of a relaxing drive. If the pouring rain is not enough to deal with you have the intense spray from the big trucks. Eventually the rain stopped and the last 75 miles or so were dry and pleasant. It's always a little sad when a getaway from your normal life is over, whether it be a family vacation or a trip to the monastery, but Dorothy was right when she told the Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home"! So, now I am home from Oz with four more days of vacation ahead of me. One of the things I will do is read the new book I bought. It's a biography of the Cream, the first rock and roll supergroup. It is also a virtual biography of the British blues scene of the 60's. I love reading books about the history of music. It's early evening as I write this. I hope to stay awake for a few more hours. After the busyness of the last few days and the nearly 300 mile drive home...mostly in the rain....I will sleep well in my own bed tonight.

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