Day
4 Heading Home
Sunday June 13, 2005
I wanted to
leave early using the excuse that I was concerned about getting worse sunburn.
This was true, but I had an ulterior motive. See while we were planning this
trip, I realized that Karen’s birthday was going to happen on the day of our
intended return. Riding all day on your birthday would likely be a great
present for me, but I suspect it was not what she really wanted. So I got
together with our kids and we hatched a plot. I have been adding a new master
bedroom for several months and was getting close. I spent a lot of time during
the last week pointing out how much still had to be done and then on the 3rd
before our trip, I covered the entrance with a tarp and spread plaster dust all
around the entrance. This was to make sure she did not want to go there. On the
last 3 days we worked feverishly to complete as much as possible. While we were
on our trip, my kids finished the room. My job was to distract and keep occupied.
I even bought cards and some cheep seat covers for her car so that she would
think I was trying to get off easy because we could not carry much on the
bikes. They called me several times during the day to get me to stall the
return, but still get her home on her birthday.
Karen was
suspicious that something was going on because I kept getting calls from the
kids all day and nothing for her. Also some of what she heard, although it made
no sense to her, made her aware something was going on. As we got close to
home, we did the entire ride because the kids kept saying stall, stall. Then I
even "got lost" a couple of times, "oops we should have turned
back there 20 or so miles back." kind of thing. But as we got close to
.................................
............................
I called
back and said, get away from the windows.................
Too
late…………………….
It has
already passed us and gone.
I breathed,
and then looked again at what I could see from where I was and realized that
there was a break in the clouds, and then another storm right behind it. I told
Karen get ready. We literally followed the tail of the first storm, The roads
were all wet and trees down everywhere, but we kept dry as we went 1st east,
then north, then east, then north, etc. till we got home. The lightning show
was better than any fireworks show I've seen and it was a little scary. I
had my camera, but never thought to get pictures till today. We made it
home with wet pant legs, but we and our packs were dry.
When we got
in the house the kids were waiting upstairs, with the lights out. I sent Karen
up, but she wanted the stairway light on, and that started the "Oh My God!"'s, The carped, the
paint, the light/fan, the new bed, the furniture already there, the closet
setup and our stuff in, etc. She was ecstatic. Carpeting, paint,
fixtures, etc. and then to my surprise, they even got us a new bed. It was a
great surprise and a birthday present I think she really wanted.
As you can
see this cut our trip short. This year things just didn’t happen well for our
usual long trip, but we will find a way to get out there again as soon as
things calm down. In the mean time remember, it is all about the adventure, and
I’ll see you on the byways….