Our first stop was Olympia, Washington, to visit our friends Terry and Sue. Luckily for us, this is becoming a regular event! We had a quiet few days, walking and spending time in their pool, and catching up since our last visit.
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| Vegging in the pool |
From Olympia, we flew into Atlanta, where we spent the night in an airport hotel before flying out the next morning to Boston to visit two of our nieces and the great-nephews we hadn’t met yet. We had a great day and a half with Kelly, Stephen, Henry, and Teddy, playing with the boys, and, when they were in daycare, heading to Castle Island with Kelly and Stephen and pup Logan, where we indulged in lobster rolls and a walk around the park.
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| Lobster rolls! |
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| Henry and Teddy are daredevils! |
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| Stephen and Logan |
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| And Kelly and Logan |
Unfortunately, the next day Ted tested positive for Omicron. I was negative, so we masked in the hotel room, and I stayed gone as much as possible. I was able to drive to New Hampshire to visit with niece Ashley and her husband Peter, along with their daughter Despina and son Demetrius. The day was beautiful, so we sat outside admiring the view of the mountains from her home. It’s been so long, and we had so much to catch up on that we both forgot to take pictures. Ashley, an endodontist, sent me back to Boston with a load of N-95 masks to add to our collection.
While in Boston, Ted’s fever broke, and, although he chose not to visit family again, after three days fever-free, we flew back to Georgia, Ted masked to the nines, and constantly sanitizing his hands and everything he touched. We were able to see our own kids as we loaded up Raymond the Truck and took off for our month in Santa Fe, New Mexico—a three-day road trip from Athens. We had a brief stop to see friends Sally and Gary in Snellville, since I had a dental appointment, then we hit the road.
Outside Birmingham, Alabama, we stopped at a park in a little town called West Jefferson for a picnic lunch—what a l'agniappe! The park was across from the old high school, now the town hall. The mayor’s secretary took us on a tour of the building, where several rooms served as offices, the gym and auditorium were rented out for events, and other classrooms were turned into museums of the school days.
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| West Jefferson High |
In Memphis, where we spent the night, Ted opted to stay in the hotel again, while I had dinner with my brother Billy and nephew Marty. It’s always a gift to see my Memphis family, and I don’t get to enough.
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| Billy flashing me the "I love you" sign |
Memphis is struggling right now. Several mass shootings had recently taken place, and a teacher had been murdered while out jogging in the early morning. But Memphis is tough. That night—or rather, the next morning at 4 AM, thousands of people met to “finish Liza’s jog”. And Memphis wasn’t the only city. In demanding safely for female runners, cities all over the country did the same. The photos were powerful.
We drove through Arkansas, spent the night outside Oklahoma City, crossed the Texas Panhandle, and stopped for lunch in Tucumcari, NM. Sadly, it’s not the town in once was—many shops, motels, and restaurants were shut down. We grabbed a tasty barbecue in a funky restaurant/feed store/souvenir establishment, then drove on into Santa Fe to our condo, where we absolutely CRASHED!
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| Yummy barbecue in Tucumcari |
But WAIT—there’s more! The next morning we drove to Albuquerque (an hour away) to have lunch with dear friend Jeff, and to see my friend Lucinda perform her one-woman show O’Keeffe!, a timely introduction to staying in Georgia O’Keeffe country. It was a beautiful production, and we caught the last show before Lucinda and her husband Jon headed back to Virginia.
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| With my amazing friend Lucinda |
All of this was fun, but exhausting. So much travel in ten days seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think we’re getting too old to push it so hard. Sitting on our patio, walking to the farmer’s market, and grabbing a coffee are as much as we’re willing to do for a couple of days. We’ll get our energy back soon. Because, y’all—Santa Fe!
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| View from our patio |
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