As always, vacations fly by way too fast, at a rate that seems to accelerate with every year. Hopefully one of these days the passage of time will reach a final terminal velocity – I mean, will time seem to pass by even faster, the older I get? However, I digress; this year’s Christmas vacation was essentially one big road trip with some very enjoyable stops in-between. Given that gas prices have fallen significantly from their recent highs, Tina and I elected to drive this year, as opposed to flying as usual when visiting family.
The first lag of our drive was from Austin to Huntsville, Alabama. Instead of taking I35, which is a rather uninteresting highway full of trucks and police officers, we chose to take route 79 through Texas. This proved to be an enjoyable drive which lead us through many small towns before jumping onto I20 shortly before Shreveport, Louisiana. The rest of the drive was rather uneventful, which is typical of I20 with it being so straight of a highway that we got excited every time a slight curve came up – with two exceptions: First, Tina tends to have a heavy foot at times, and so it was just a matter of time before we had an encounter with the man in blue soon after crossing the Mississippi border. Thankfully, with all her charm and a nice smile, the officer was nice enough to let Tina off easy with just a verbal warning although she was probably at least fifteen miles over the speed limit – why do I never seem to have such luck? Second, as the night grew old and we finally arrived in Birmingham, we were greeted by a very heavy rain storm and severe wind gusts. Having taken Tina’s small but mighty Toyota Scion, no matter how much luggage we had stacked in the cargo, we were no match for the weather conditions, and just as we were getting tired after a full day of driving, we had to slow our pace significantly. This of course was very frustrating, but eventually we made it to Huntsville around 1:30am, were we were greeted by Tina’s parents and other family members, and treated to a nice welcome.
The next day, after eating breakfast which was delicious as always - you can never go wrong with some home cooked eggs and bacon; I left Tina behind with her family and continued on my way to Atlanta. Once again, I opted for the local roads rather than the highway through Chattanooga, which I did not regret one bit since I got to see some amazing scenery as I crossed high bridges, lakes, and rolling mountain sides. All this time my parents did not expect me to arrive in Atlanta until two days later, and when I surprised them by showing up behind them at a store in which I pinned them down by asking random questions about products I had little interest in, they were very much blown away. You should have seen their faces! It was as if they had just won the lottery :)
I spent the next couple of days helping my parents prepare the house for the annual Bajkowski Christmas party. We were hosting some early arriving guests that would stay at our house. I also spent some time hanging out with Martin and Sofie. The Christmas party was great and crazy as ever, and while the economy might be in the doldrums, the party atmosphere would have none of it. Plenty of guests, some new faces, many old and familiar faces, plenty of drinking, chatting, socializing, and so many little side stories that it would take years to recount them all. Tina and many of her family members even came through to celebrate for another year. Suffice it to say, the party was a huge success as always, and I’m already looking forward to the party next year. We shall neither talk here about the parts of the night that I might have troubles remembering nor the epic hangover the next day, but in the end there are absolutely no regrets. As a matter of fact, I have no right to complain about anything at all, as Tina had to leave at 8am sharp the next day with her family and get back to Alabama to celebrate Christmas. If her hangover was anything like mine, I’m sure the trip back to Alabama wasn’t an easy one! At least I got to sleep in and wake up at home, versus in a car.
Recovery over the next few days consisted of hanging out with my parents, watching a lot of movies, and of course ridiculous amounts of food. There is nothing like home cooked meals prepared by your parents. There is no denying that because of all the good home meals I digested, Tina’s little Scion had to work significantly harder when climbing mountains after leaving Atlanta than before coming in. And climbing mountains was exactly what was on the agenda after leaving Atlanta. First, I had the drive back to Huntsville to pick up Tina, and then continue on to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee where Tina, Amit, Nidhi, and I had a cabin reserved just outside of Pigeon Forge. There, in total isolation from the rest of the world, other than cell phone reception, we spent a few very relaxing days and celebrated New Years. We grilled, even though it was freaking cold outside and it took us forever to get the coals hot enough, we cooked and ate to our hearts content, even though we probably should have been on a diet by then, and we played many games of Monopoly until late into the night. Unlike Scrabble, I actually have a chance to beat Tina in this game!
And so, the two weeks of vacation passed in a flash and it was time to get started on our long drive back to Austin. Once again, the drive was relaxing but entertaining nevertheless. For one, Tina’s parents paid us a cleverly calculated surprise visit during our drive through Birmingham. They tagged along in their car for a thirty mile stretch through Alabama before we had to stop for gas and then said our goodbyes and parted ways. Then Tina and I stopped for dinner in Shreveport and were pleasantly surprised at how nice the Boardwalk was developed along the river. Eventually, 3000 miles after leaving Austin and a little more than 2 weeks after our initial departure, we arrived back home, exhausted for sure, but nevertheless quite content with our road trip. Seeing as we spent significantly less than the cost of one plane ticket for a round trip visit to our families’ places, a vacation in Tennessee and experienced great scenery and food, we’ll definitely consider driving again!
The first lag of our drive was from Austin to Huntsville, Alabama. Instead of taking I35, which is a rather uninteresting highway full of trucks and police officers, we chose to take route 79 through Texas. This proved to be an enjoyable drive which lead us through many small towns before jumping onto I20 shortly before Shreveport, Louisiana. The rest of the drive was rather uneventful, which is typical of I20 with it being so straight of a highway that we got excited every time a slight curve came up – with two exceptions: First, Tina tends to have a heavy foot at times, and so it was just a matter of time before we had an encounter with the man in blue soon after crossing the Mississippi border. Thankfully, with all her charm and a nice smile, the officer was nice enough to let Tina off easy with just a verbal warning although she was probably at least fifteen miles over the speed limit – why do I never seem to have such luck? Second, as the night grew old and we finally arrived in Birmingham, we were greeted by a very heavy rain storm and severe wind gusts. Having taken Tina’s small but mighty Toyota Scion, no matter how much luggage we had stacked in the cargo, we were no match for the weather conditions, and just as we were getting tired after a full day of driving, we had to slow our pace significantly. This of course was very frustrating, but eventually we made it to Huntsville around 1:30am, were we were greeted by Tina’s parents and other family members, and treated to a nice welcome.
The next day, after eating breakfast which was delicious as always - you can never go wrong with some home cooked eggs and bacon; I left Tina behind with her family and continued on my way to Atlanta. Once again, I opted for the local roads rather than the highway through Chattanooga, which I did not regret one bit since I got to see some amazing scenery as I crossed high bridges, lakes, and rolling mountain sides. All this time my parents did not expect me to arrive in Atlanta until two days later, and when I surprised them by showing up behind them at a store in which I pinned them down by asking random questions about products I had little interest in, they were very much blown away. You should have seen their faces! It was as if they had just won the lottery :)
I spent the next couple of days helping my parents prepare the house for the annual Bajkowski Christmas party. We were hosting some early arriving guests that would stay at our house. I also spent some time hanging out with Martin and Sofie. The Christmas party was great and crazy as ever, and while the economy might be in the doldrums, the party atmosphere would have none of it. Plenty of guests, some new faces, many old and familiar faces, plenty of drinking, chatting, socializing, and so many little side stories that it would take years to recount them all. Tina and many of her family members even came through to celebrate for another year. Suffice it to say, the party was a huge success as always, and I’m already looking forward to the party next year. We shall neither talk here about the parts of the night that I might have troubles remembering nor the epic hangover the next day, but in the end there are absolutely no regrets. As a matter of fact, I have no right to complain about anything at all, as Tina had to leave at 8am sharp the next day with her family and get back to Alabama to celebrate Christmas. If her hangover was anything like mine, I’m sure the trip back to Alabama wasn’t an easy one! At least I got to sleep in and wake up at home, versus in a car.
Recovery over the next few days consisted of hanging out with my parents, watching a lot of movies, and of course ridiculous amounts of food. There is nothing like home cooked meals prepared by your parents. There is no denying that because of all the good home meals I digested, Tina’s little Scion had to work significantly harder when climbing mountains after leaving Atlanta than before coming in. And climbing mountains was exactly what was on the agenda after leaving Atlanta. First, I had the drive back to Huntsville to pick up Tina, and then continue on to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee where Tina, Amit, Nidhi, and I had a cabin reserved just outside of Pigeon Forge. There, in total isolation from the rest of the world, other than cell phone reception, we spent a few very relaxing days and celebrated New Years. We grilled, even though it was freaking cold outside and it took us forever to get the coals hot enough, we cooked and ate to our hearts content, even though we probably should have been on a diet by then, and we played many games of Monopoly until late into the night. Unlike Scrabble, I actually have a chance to beat Tina in this game!
And so, the two weeks of vacation passed in a flash and it was time to get started on our long drive back to Austin. Once again, the drive was relaxing but entertaining nevertheless. For one, Tina’s parents paid us a cleverly calculated surprise visit during our drive through Birmingham. They tagged along in their car for a thirty mile stretch through Alabama before we had to stop for gas and then said our goodbyes and parted ways. Then Tina and I stopped for dinner in Shreveport and were pleasantly surprised at how nice the Boardwalk was developed along the river. Eventually, 3000 miles after leaving Austin and a little more than 2 weeks after our initial departure, we arrived back home, exhausted for sure, but nevertheless quite content with our road trip. Seeing as we spent significantly less than the cost of one plane ticket for a round trip visit to our families’ places, a vacation in Tennessee and experienced great scenery and food, we’ll definitely consider driving again!
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